Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 01/14/08

[tbyg52]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 01/14/08

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[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

6. N.H. Secretary of State gives candidates estimate of re-count cost

New Hampshire’s Secretary of State’s office has given Republican Albert Howard and Democrat Dennis Kucinich estimated costs to re-count their partys’ presidential primaries last week.

It would cost Howard, $57,600; Kucinich would pay $69,600.

The costs were calculated at 24 cents per ballot. There were about 290,000 Democratic ballots cast and 240,000 GOP ballots.

Each candidate has put down refundable $2,000 deposits. There was no word from either campaign Monday on whether they will pay the balance before the deadline of 3 p.m. Tuesday, but "there is every indication that they plan to," Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said.

More:
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1066488

[sonias]

46. Ouch

But I'll say this for the cost. It's a hell of whole lot cheaper than Texas. In Texas a single county can cost you $50K.

Sonia

[tbyg52]

14. Ohio GOP to privately meet on Democrat's voting proposal

The Ohio Republican Party has invited Republican elections board members from around the state to gather at a private meeting Tuesday to discuss ''the party's response to the Secretary of State's voting proposals,'' according to an e-mail from a party official obtained today by The Associated Press.

The e-mail, which said, ''your efforts to keep the information above confidential are appreciated,'' comes at a time when Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has directed and recommended widespread changes to touch-screen voting systems across the state.

Elections officials in at least three counties have balked at Brunner's directive that counties with touch-screen machines make a certain number of paper ballots available during the March primary for voters who don't want to use the machines.

More:
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/13776727.html

[tbyg52]

17. MN: Citizens Launch Free and Fair Elections Amendment Caucus Push

A group of ad hoc citizens for the Free and Fair Elections Amendment launched a campaign today to get a resolution supporting the Constitutional Amendment on the agenda in caucus states. The states of Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Washington all have precinct caucuses at which citizens can introduce resolutions to affect the party platforms.

“Every generation of Americans is asked to address the critical question: How can we improve the Constitution,” said Anthony Signorelli, one of the group’s spokespeople. “In our time, the continuity of genuine self-government is challenged by an eroding public consensus regarding election results. What good are elections when no one believes the results? We don’t want to be Ukraine, Mexico, or Kenya. We can do our best, and add to the work of the founding generation.”

The group is asking all Americans in the caucus states to submit a resolution in support of the Free and Fair Elections Amendment at their caucuses. Directions and support materials are available at the bottom of the group’s homepage: www.freeandfairelections.org.

More:
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=19602

[tbyg52]

19. Ohio secretary of state looks anew at e-voting (Q&A)

snip

On planning the testing process

Brunner: We conducted parallel independent testing; we used not only academic researchers, but corporate scientists. They did the same type of security testing, in what we would call a parallel independent method.

I looked at the spectrum of people who were interested in these issues, starting from the voting activists, moving onward to the voters who've been more concerned about what their election experiences and the integrity of the system, and then onward to Board of Elections officials and voting-machine manufacturers.

I saw that perhaps the academic scientists would have greater credibility with the activists, while the corporate scientists might have greater credibility with the election officials and the manufacturers, and that if we compared the results of the two and they're similar and identical, that actually we will gain the confidence of the public in what our results were.

More:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9056799&intsrc=hm_list

[tbyg52]

20. TN: County example in tracking voters

Hamilton County could serve as an example for other counties if recommendations of a study calling for a verified voting paper trail are implemented, one of the study's chief researchers said.

Hamilton and Pickett counties are the only counties in Tennessee that use verified paper trails for voting, according to preliminary study results from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. The state's 93 other counties use so-called direct recording electronic machines, which produce no paper record.

The study recommends that all counties switch to a paper-trail system.

"Hamilton and Pickett both very much like their systems," said Rose Naccarato, senior research associate with TACIR. "Hamilton County has definitely provided an example."

More:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/local.aspx?articleid=28300&zoneid=77

[tbyg52]

21. OH: Voting change: Have your say Jan. 22

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will host a public hearing Jan. 22 for citizens and scientists to react to her recommendation to scrap touch-screen voting machines in Ohio before the Nov. 4 election.

More:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080114/NEWS01/301140058

[tbyg52]

25. CA: Voters report defective Riverside County mail ballots

snip

The registrar says the company that prints the ballots reported new equipment may have perforated ballots too deeply before they were folded, causing separation.

She wouldn't identify the firm that prints the ballot.

Dunmore says those with defective ballots should contact the registrar's office for a replacement.

More:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7968383

[tbyg52]

26. FL: State warned of signatures glitch

Florida election officials knew seven months ago that the state's electronic voter system was miscounting petition signatures, yet did not go public until days ago, when they ran out of time to fix it.

That emergency action leaves people pushing for two ballot initiatives -- one proposing to ban gay marriages and another that would require local votes on major land-use changes -- unsure of how many signatures they need to collect before a Feb. 1 deadline to get on the November ballot.

"We've been attacking this problem for the better part of six months," said Sterling Ivey, spokesman for Secretary of State Kurt Browning.

Each initiative must have 611,009 signatures of geographically distributed, verified voters by Feb. 1. However, those backing initiatives won't know until today how far off Florida's petition counts are, and after that, they won't be able to tell where they stand until the deadline has passed.

More:
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080114/NEWS01/801140327/1006

[tbyg52]

27. R.I. Elections Director Proposes Photo Ban at Polling Places

The executive director of the Rhode Island Board of Elections proposes a ban on cameras and video recorders at polling places.

The proposed ban would take effect during voting hours and would also apply to cell phones. Robert Kando, the board's executive director, says the proposal is intended to prevent voter fraud and to keep ballots secret.

The board will consider the proposal on February 7. Various media organizations are objecting to the idea. They say the ban would be unnecessary and would prevent photographers from documenting elections, a critical aspect of democracy.

More:
http://www.wpri.com/Global/story.asp?S=7620432

[tbyg52]

28. NV teachers criticize lawsuit over caucus locations

As Sen. Barack Obama prepares to speak at a rally here, there is increasing tension regarding a lawsuit filed late last week over the legitimacy of nine voting locations on Las Vegas' fabled Strip.

A day after race took center stage in the Democratic primary battle, the debate over meeting locations for Saturday's Nevada caucuses – also marked with its own set of racial undertones – has escalated with the release of a letter from 15 members of the Nevada State Education Association that criticizes a lawsuit filed by their union's leadership.

The letter suggests the lawsuit, which seeks to close the nine locations, could disenfranchise low-income and minority voters. It was released today by the Illinois Democrat's campaign.

"We are deeply dismayed that our union is trying to stop our students’ parents from caucusing on Saturday," the letter states. "We urge them in the strongest terms to drop this lawsuit immediately."

More:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/nevada_teachers_criticize_laws.html

[tbyg52]

29. NC: Worrisome realities mar instant runoff

The State Board of Elections will soon be reporting to lawmakers on the success of recent experiments with instant runoff voting in two North Carolina municipal elections. With the instant runoff voting system, voters casting a ballot in races with more than two candidates mark a first and (if desired) second and third choice for each office. If no candidate receives a majority during the first round, the second choices of losing candidates are reallocated to the top two contenders.

A news release citing exit polls proclaimed the experiment a success, but failed to consider some complexities and unintended consequences.

"Instant runoff voting" is actually a misleading name, because it implies that the method achieves the same result as a real runoff. The system used in Cary is really a tally and elimination scheme, retallying without revoting (reallocating), and repeating until a majority of votes are reshuffled into one pile.

Instant runoff voting can provide a different outcome than traditional runoffs, and, compared to a system with a different-day runoff in close races, deprives voters of the time and opportunity to learn more about the top two contenders.

More
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/878423.html

[tbyg52]

30. NH: BradBlog - New Hampshire Primary Concerns '08

Collection of links.

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5538

[tbyg52]

31. OH: Officials back optical scan

Geauga County elections officials credit their history of smooth elections, in part, to their 1993 choice of an optical-scan system.

"The optical-scan system is the only way to run an election," long-time Elections Board member Joe Weiss said Friday, amid the controversy surrounding recent findings by an independent study that Ohio's election process is flawed and counties need to switch to optical-scan voting machines.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner recently commissioned an independent report on Ohio's electronic voting systems, which concluded that the use of touch-screen voting machines have "critical security failures" because of a lack of reliable backup paper records.
The federally funded $1.9 million study, "The Evaluation and Validation of Election-Related Equipment, Standards and Testing," also concluded that touch-screen machines pose a serious security risk because their results can be manipulated easily.

More:
http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19194945&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6

[tbyg52]

33. CA: Curiouser and curiouser

More than a hundred computer chips containing voting machine software were lost or stolen during transit in California this week.

Two cardboard shipping tubes containing 174 EPROMs loaded with voting machine software were sent via Federal Express on December 13th from the secretary of state's office in Sacramento to election officials in San Diego County for use in optical-scan machines made by Diebold Election Systems. But on Monday, the two shipping tubes arrived empty.

One of the empty tubes arrived with no lid on the end of it to close the tube; the second tube had a lid, but it was loosely taped shut.

Nicole Winger, spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, says that the California highway patrol and the Sacramento County sheriff's department are investigating whether the chips fell out of the tubes or were stolen.

The chips contained firmware to run the optical-scan equipment that San Diego uses in its central counting office.

More:
http://steveaudio.blogspot.com/2008/01/curiouser-and-curiouser.html

[tbyg52]

36. FL: Early Voters In Hollywood Get Wrong Ballot

Has poll worker error led to the first election mix-up of the Florida primary in Broward County?

Several early voters turning out to vote at the Hollywood City Hall location claim they were not able to vote for the Hollywood mayor or commission races because the screen for those races never came up.

More:
http://www.local10.com/news/15045060/detail.html

[tbyg52]

40. WA: Washington starts up online voter registration

Would-be voters in the state now can seek to enter their names on the voter rolls over the Internet, with Washington last week joining Arizona as the only states to offer online voter registration.

"This is a dramatic step forward," Secretary of State Sam Reed said.

Reed, the state's chief elections officer, pushed the Legislature to approve a bill allowing online registration, and the measure was approved in the 2007 session.

"People do so much business now online that this is kind of a normal way many people want to transact their business, including with government and voter registration -- and this is particularly true with young people," Reed said.

"And that is our big challenge: to get this younger generation registered.

More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/347217_voterregistration14.html?source=mypi

[flashl]

49. NJ: N.J. backs popular vote, joins Md.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey on Sunday became the second state to enter a compact that would eliminate the Electoral College's power to choose a president if enough states endorse the idea.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed legislation that approves delivering the state's 15 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The Assembly approved the bill last month and the Senate followed suit earlier this month.

Maryland — with 10 electoral votes — had been the only state to pass the compact into law.

The measure could result in the electoral votes going to a candidate opposed by voters in New Jersey, which has backed Democratic presidential candidates since 1988.

USA Today

[tbyg52]

2. National nt

[tbyg52]

15. Confidence in Voting Act.

Something exciting is happening! Last week my colleague Brad Friedman of TheBradBlog (www.bradblog.com, this is the blog I've done some guest blogging for) blogged about his idea that Congress pass emergency paper ballot legislation in time for this November's elections. Yesterday, that idea was introduced into the Senate as the Boxer-Dodd bill, AKA The Confidence in Voting Act. This bill would provide funding to states to produce and make available paper ballots for those voters who want to use them and in case of electronic voting machine failures, such as seen around the country in the primary elections.

More:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977228745&grpId=3659174697244816&nav=Groupspace

[tbyg52]

16. Voters respond favorably to touch screen voting equipment

My comment: Oh dear....

Voters have more confidence in paperless, touch screen systems to record their votes accurately than they do any other systems, including ones that use paper ballots, a new study says.
Voters tend to focus more on what affects their voting experience than the potential for fraud, which is the opposite of what is valued by many computer scientists and voting activists and a growing number of election administration officials, according to new research by the University of Michigan, University of Maryland and University of Rochester.

The research is the first known study to examine how voters respond to the new voting equipment since the 2000 presidential election that incorporates the principles of usability from studies of human-computer interaction research.

"Casting a ballot may seem simple, but the interactions between voters and voting system interfaces are complex," said Michael Traugott, a professor of communication studies and senior research scientist at U-M's Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research (ISR). "The more effort involved in voting, the less satisfied voters are with the experience."

More:
http://www.physorg.com/news119546670.html

[tbyg52]

3. International nt

[tbyg52]

11. Kenyan Opposition Says Planned Demonstrations Will Ease Tensions

Countering Kenyan government's warnings that political protests will lead to more violence, Kenya's opposition party says its plans to hold three days of demonstrations this week are intended to diffuse growing political and ethnic tensions in the east African country. The opposition renewed its call for mass action after nearly two weeks of international mediation failed to resolve a bitter post-election dispute that sparked unprecedented violence throughout the country. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has more from the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

A spokesman for the opposition Orange Democratic Movement party, Salim Lone, tells VOA that the protests, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday across the country, are intended to give Kenyans a chance to vent their frustrations over the government's refusal to negotiate a deal that can end weeks of deadlock between two bitter political rivals, opposition leader Raila Odinga and incumbent President Mwai Kibaki.

Displaced Kenyans who found refuge outside a Kenyan Air Force barracks in Nairobi, Kenya, wait for aid distribution, 14 Jan 2008
Displaced Kenyans who found refuge outside a Kenyan Air Force barracks in Nairobi, Kenya, wait for aid distribution, 14 Jan 2008
Lone says as long as the police and other security forces do not try to enforce the government's ban on political rallies, he believes the protests could help calm opposition supporters and other Kenyans who believe the presidential election on December 27 fell far short of democratic standards.

More:
http://voanews.com/english/2008-01-14-voa37.cfm

[tbyg52]

22. Kenya: The real reason for Kenya's violence

Hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the three weeks since Kenya's hotly disputed presidential elections. Once considered an island of stability in Africa, the country is suffering what the media has called a "shocking outbreak of violence" and "tribal clashes."

The key questions we should be asking are: Who is responsible for this violence? How is it happening? But we will not ask these questions if we continue to see the current violence as simply a spontaneous outburst of anger at the election rigging or "tribal warfare."

The international community must realize that Kenya's violence today is fueled by strongmen on both sides of the political divide. They are exploiting ethnic identity, pitting one community against another, as a means to gain power. It is a practice with a long history in Kenyan politics.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20080114/cm_csm/yklopp

[tbyg52]

35. Kenyan president lost election, U.S. exit poll indicates

An exit poll carried out on behalf of a U.S. government-backed foundation indicated that Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki suffered a resounding defeat in last month's disputed election, according to officials with knowledge of the document.

The poll by the Washington -based International Republican Institute — not yet publicly released— further undermines Kibaki's claims of a narrow re-election victory. The outcome has sparked protests and ethnically driven clashes nationwide, killing hundreds.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/2815176

[tbyg52]

34. Georgia: 100,000 march in Georgia to call for new election

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched in the Georgian capital yesterday against what they denounced as massive vote fraud that helped United States-allied Mikhail Saakashvili to win a second presidential term.

Organisers said 100,000 demonstrators marched for several hours across downtown Tbilisi in freezing weather to demand a recount of the 5 January election. Official results confirmed yesterday that Mr Saakashvili had won enough votes to avoid a second round run-off against second-placed Levan Gachechiladze, who received a quarter of the votes.

Mr Gachechiladze and his supporters denounced the official count as a sham, saying it reflected a massive government effort to rig it. They said election officials responsible for ballot tinkering must be prosecuted, and demanded a run-off between Mr Saakashvili and Mr Gachechiladze.

More:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3336108.ece

[tbyg52]

41. Pakistan: EC to employ 570,000 personnel to assist voters, says Dilshad

Election Commission of Pakistan would employ more than 570,000 individuals to assist the voters in the polling stations during the upcoming elections, said Secretary Election Commission, Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad on Monday.

The Election Commission would open almost 65,000 polling stations containing more than 170,000 polling booths to serve the 81 million electorate, he told the participants of IFES Monitoring Review Conference held in connection with the Training of Election Officials for 2008 polls.

He said that staffing these polling stations to assist the ECP in aggregating the election results, the Election Commission is relying on the dedication of Pakistani civil servants from various ministries, such as the Ministry of Education and the Judiciary.

More:
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/jan-2008/15/index14.php

[tbyg52]

4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

[tbyg52]

7. Mail voting will work

Voting by mail will get a serious test in the 2008 general election when 20 counties — mostly smaller ones — utilize the new legislation authorizing county-wide mail balloting. The presence of the cities of Grafton, Devils Lake and Beulah in the mix will add some urban testing to the process. Money will be saved but there are still other important issues involved in the change.

1. Will the new system be more vulnerable to voter fraud?

This is a legitimate concern, especially after eight years of unnerving election practices, electronic equipment failures and broken voting systems in other states. Mail balloting in North Dakota will shift election administration from precinct polling sites to county auditors where the applications will be received and ballots processed. If fraud had been anyone’s goal, it could have occurred in the wide open absentee ballot system that processed 50,000 ballots in the 2004 presidential election – more ballots than the 46,000 cast in the 20 counties now planning to pioneer mail voting. North Dakota conducted elections without voter registration for 56 years without fraud. Voting fraud is not in our blood.

More:
http://www.jamestownsun.com/articles/index.cfm?id=59668§ion=Opinion

[tbyg52]

8. VOTER ID LAW IS NOTHING BUT A SCAM

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Indiana's harsh voter ID law, as its justices seem poised to do, hundreds of thousands of black Americans should march in protest. So should hundreds of thousands of Latino Americans. Native Americans, too. Political activists from across the ethnic spectrum should convene the biggest political demonstration since the historic March on Washington in 1963.

Where is Al Sharpton when a genuinely critical issue comes along? Where's Jesse Jackson?

The GOP-led campaign to pass stringent voter ID laws is a greater injustice than the prosecutions of the Jena Six, more significant than the incarceration of Michael Vick, more damaging than the insulting rants of Don Imus. This is a frankly brazen effort to block the votes of thousands of people of color who might have the temerity to vote for Democrats. And it's un-American.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20080113/cm_ucas/voteridlawisnothingbutascam

[tbyg52]

10. Strike down Indiana's voter ID requirement

For American citizens, the right to vote on Election Day is perhaps the most precious right.

By this exercise of free choice, we select representatives who make the laws governing our civilized democracy. We also select executives whose responsibilities include carrying out those laws and sometimes the appointment of judges who interpret them.

Indiana's voter ID law, which requires that all voters at the polls present government-issued photo identification, is being legally challenged in the United States Supreme Court. The court heard oral arguments on Wednesday; a decision is expected in June. Because of its potential effect on states considering similar legislation, the Indiana case has national significance.

We believe Indiana's photo ID requirement represents a serious derogation of the fundamental right of all Americans to vote, regardless of economic circumstances, physical condition or age.

More:
http://www.reporter-times.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=95224&format=html

[tbyg52]

23. Indulgence for the 'fraud' squad

THE AMERICAN voting system has had all manner of problems lately, but an epidemic of voter fraud is not one of them. Even so, during oral arguments before the US Supreme Court last week, a majority of justices appeared poised to uphold a 2005 Indiana law imposing stringent requirements for photo IDs at the polls. Never mind that, in the course of combating a nonexistent problem, these laws impose a disproportionate burden on poor, minority, elderly, and disabled voters. And never mind that the laws have been pushed most aggressively by partisan Republicans who tend to benefit politically when such voters stay away from the polls.
related story Judges dissect challenge to voter ID law

Getting a government ID is rarely free or simple. Yet several justices, including frequent swing vote Anthony Kennedy, seemed blithely unconcerned about the potential effects of the ID laws, which Kennedy described as "a minor inconvenience to a small percentage of voters." Equally disturbing was some justices' willingness to narrow the circumstances in which plaintiffs could challenge unfair election laws. The suits charging that Indiana's law is unconstitutional on its face were filed before the law took effect. Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that a challenge should wait until actual victims of an election law could be found. But at that point, the damage - in the form of disenfranchisement and partisan mischief - would be done.

More:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/01/14/indulgence_for_the_fraud_squad/

[sonias]

47. Spot on

These guys get it loud and clear

Better yet, the nation's high court could put an end to the voter-fraud charade by striking down the Indiana law - thereby making sure that no American loses the chance to vote because of heavy-handed laws passed for one party's political gain.

:applause:

Sonia

[tbyg52]

24. Picture this: Real voters, fake fraud

Stolen elections are part of our political tradition. But people who boldly stroll into a precinct and vote after claiming to be someone else are seen as rarely as the ivory-billed woodpecker.

Those are the malefactors the state of Indiana sees fit to head off at the ballot box. As with many legislative initiatives undertaken with more passion than thought, the Indiana illegal voter trap ended up in the Supreme Court. Much theorizing was heard in its marble halls last week.

But there was no Exhibit A - no known voter to frog-march out as a horrible example. Indiana's lawyer said that is because the malefactors are so hard to catch. The same might be said to explain the dearth of unicorns.

More:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/01/14/a16a_blackburncol_0114.html

[tbyg52]

37. OUR OPINION: THE SUPREME COURT SHOULDN'T SNEAK OUT OF VOTER CASE

snip

A cynical ploy?

Deciding who has the standing to bring suit is an important issue, but it also can serve as a cynical ploy to decide a case without in fact deciding it. In this case, finding other plaintiffs -- qualified voters rejected for the lack of Indiana-sanctioned ID -- would be difficult. Worse, they could file suit only after losing the precious right to vote.

The very fact that a political party brought the suit and that the law was approved in GOP-dominated Indiana by a party-line vote should tell the justices that something other than vague anecdotes of voter fraud was afoot in the Hoosier State. Lower courts indeed had ruled that the case could be decided on its merits and upheld the law.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/378562.html

[tbyg52]

39. Editorial: Voter ID and common sense

Supreme Court watchers who profess to divine from the tenor of the questioning how the justices will rule say that come June the high court will likely uphold the constitutionality of fairly strict voter-ID laws.

"You want us to invalidate a statute on the ground that it's a minor inconvenience to a small percentage of voters?" Justice Anthony Kennedy asked in oral arguments over a challenge to a 2005 Indiana voter-ID law.

It's a fair question and also a fair framing of the issue.

That issue has been muddied by the Bush administration and Republican conservatives for whom it is an article of faith, despite repeated investigations and studies that have found otherwise, that there is widespread voter fraud in favor of the Democrats in heavily minority urban precincts.

More:
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/x1382463836

[tbyg52]

9. Vote Fraud Cost Obama N.H.

If the fix is in, it doesn’t matter whether Barack Obama really deserves to be the Democratic nominee, he’ll never get a fair chance to compete for the presidency.

Debates about whether the Junior Senator from Illinois is Black enough or whether whites will be willing to vote for an African-American are moot so long as the sanctity of the ballot box can’t be guaranteed.

The problem is that the Diebold Corporation is at it again, and the voting machine company appears to be already in the process of quietly perpetrating the mother of all vote frauds. In case you forgot, Diebold is the manufacturer of the electronic tabulator which counted the majority of the votes in the last two U.S. presidential elections.

More:
http://blackstarnews.com/?c=119&a=4109

[tbyg52]

12. No One Will Trust Elections So Long As Questionable Voting Machines Are Used

Following last week's New Hampshire primary, I've been besieged by people pushing stories suggesting massive problems with Diebold/Premiere's optical scan machines. It's well-documented that the machines have poor security and can be hacked, but it's a big leap to go from "can" to "were." And while some point to discrepancies in the vote tallies in places that used the Diebold counters and places that hand counted, a more thorough look at the numbers doesn't suggest anything nefarious. However, the really key point is that, thanks to years of doubletalk from e-voting vendors, as well as story after story after story about e-voting insecurities -- which none of the major vendors took seriously -- we've now reached a point where many people's natural conclusion is that these insecure machines were at fault.

More:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080113/233219.shtml

[tbyg52]

13. AN EASY AND VISIBLE EXIT POLL TO ASSURE A TRUE VOTE!

This plan was developed by an activist friend of mine. It’s easy and brilliant!

A) When voting for a President, the precincts should have color-coded chips for each voter to drop into a jar. Color A is for Candidate A and Color B is for Candidate B.

B) Voters drop the color-coded chips into a jar on the way out the door.

C) Color chips are counted at the end of the voting day.

BINGO! You have a visible exit poll.

To avoid voter discouragement, the jar should be submerged from view, perhaps inside a box. But when the jar is taken out of the box, it is caught on camera by members of the public (using cell phones or video cameras), and the chips counting also is done on camera. The results are posted to the internet (Very important) and bingo! You’ve got it.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kathryn__080113_an_easy_and_visible_.htm

[tbyg52]

18. BradBlog: Eternal Vigilance: Not Just for Founding Fathers Anymore

Counting ballots is not done to find out what went wrong, but rather, to assure the results are right.

ATMs are fairly reliable. But I have a feeling if you get $300 from one of them, you'll likely count, by hand, all three hundred dollar bills to make sure they are there. Right? You'd be an irresponsible fool to do otherwise.

But with election results? Um, not so much.

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5542

[tbyg52]

5. The Youth Vote nt

[tbyg52]

32. UAFS Groups Urge Students To Vote

Interest in political issues and the candidates is growing on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith as the primary season progresses.

The College Republicans and College Democrats hope to tap that growing interest Wednesday by co-hosting a voter registration drive in the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center Reynolds Room from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., during the UA Fort Smith Picnic and Block Party. Both students and non-students from Arkansas and Oklahoma can register to vote at the events.

The campaigns battle students’ other responsibilities.

“I think a lot of students are interested, but they are just too busy,” said Glenda Bolinger, vice president of Campus Democrats.

More:
http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2008/01/14/news/news02.txt

[tbyg52]

38. Teens eager to cast ballot

Jordan Romeo and Jacqueline Nora sat at the front of Patrick Henry High School's cafeteria on Friday surrounded by small American flags and voter registration forms.

It was the third day that the two teenagers had urged their fellow students to register for the presidential primary on Feb. 12. The registration deadline is Monday, and eligible voters include those who will turn 18 by the next general presidential election Nov. 4.

This year, students at Patrick Henry High School revived two student clubs that had been dormant for years, the Teen Republicans and Young Democrats. Members of both clubs banded together to help their fellow students register.

More:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/146901

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42. Election offers teachable moments for mom and dad

Cheri Fluhr says she’s more aware of political issues and candidates’ platforms this election year than maybe ever before. She has her 13-year-old daughter Kendal to thank for that.

“When she got up this morning, the first thing she wanted to know was who won the New Hampshire primary,” Fluhr said of the Highland Hills eighth-grader. “Her interest has made me pay more attention because I know she has questions. I turn on the six o’clock news more now so we can both keep up on issues.

“Over the past few months we’ve talked about a lot of things — why we have primaries, low voter turnouts, the importance of knowing about each of the candidates and what they believe,” said Fluhr, who lives in Georgetown, Ind. The fact that Kendal could very likely see the first woman or African-American president elected has piqued the girl’s interest in the ‘08 election as well, and led to a mom-daughter discussion about women's fight for voting rights.

More:
http://www.news-tribune.net/features/cnhinsfamily_story_013230726.html

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43. BusinessWeek Goes Inside the Youth Vote

Whatever you call today's twentysomethings--Generation Y, Millennials, the Echo Boom--the demographic group appears to be wielding more political influence than young adults have in decades. In BusinessWeek's January 21st cover story, "The Economics Driving the Youth Vote," reporter Michelle Conlin explores the reasons behind the trend, what young people are demanding of presidential candidates and how those candidates are reaching out to them.

Like their baby-boomer parents, Gen Y has the sheer numbers to get the attention of politicians. According to article sources, there are nearly 43 million people aged 18 to 29, or 20% of registered voters. After Obama's unexpected victory in the Iowa caucuses and a close second place in the New Hampshire primary--which have been largely attributed to strong young voter turnout--"the candidates seem to understand that the Millennials could have a disproportionately loud voice in November and are starting to target them more assiduously," Conlin writes. "Note the near-comic zigzagging of campaigns after Iowa, when politicians refined their talking points to appeal to Gen Y."

More:
http://www.businessjournalism.org/pages/biz/2008/01/businessweek_goes_inside_the_y/

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44. Young voters have clout

Colorado is considered by some public-interest research groups as a key state in this year's presidential election, and they say a high number of eligible college-aged voters here could help break national records for turnout among 18- and 19-year-olds.

Student branches of Colorado's Public Interest Research Group, or CoPIRG, are planning caucus training sessions in hopes of getting young people out on Feb. 5 -- when the state holds its caucuses.

Although details of the sessions haven't been finalized, Cory Nadler, CoPIRG's campus organizer at the University of Colorado, said CU's training will probably be held the week before the caucus.

More:
http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/jan/14/young-voters-have-clout/

[tbyg52]

45. That's all folks! nt

[sonias]

48. Great job tbyg52

thanks.

Sonia