Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Sunday 02/17/08

[EFerrari]

Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Sunday 02/17/08

Raging Grannies, Palo Alto, CA. :yourock:


All members are welcome to participate. Please:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Please recommend for the Greatest Page. It's the link below. Thanks!

[EFerrari]

1. CA: California still counting heavy Feb. 5 vote

California still counting heavy Feb. 5 vote
By Jesse Mckinley
Published: February 17, 2008


SAN FRANCISCO: It has been nearly two weeks since primary day in California, and Stephen Weir is still ironing ballots.

Like many of his counterparts across the state, Weir, the registrar in Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco, is still counting votes from the Feb. 5 election; and, because of the weight and fold of some of the absentee ballots, Weir says he and his staff often have to steam them to allow them to be fed into vote-counting machines.

"Last election, the clerk ironed about 13,000 ballots," Weir said. "There's a setting just below 'cotton' and just above 'wool' that works pretty well. 'Silk' is also a really good setting."

Election officials say a combination of high turnout, technology flaws and millions of mailed-in and dropped-off ballots have led to painstakingly slow returns in some counties, with nearly 800,000 ballots remaining to be processed.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/17/america/17vote.php

[EFerrari]

2. GA: State closes Smith case: Complaint against elections official returns to Forsyth

State closes Smith case: Complaint against elections official returns to Forsyth

By Julie Arrington
Staff Writer

ATLANTA -- A ruling by the State Election Board has returned to local authorities a complaint against Forsyth County's top elections official.

The complaint, filed by County Commissioner Linda Ledbetter in 2007, listed four allegations against Chief Voter Registrar Gary J. Smith.

The board voted 5-0 on Thursday to close the case based on Inspector General Shawn LaGrua's recommendation.

Three of the allegations in Ledbetter's complaint, LaGrua said, were potential ethics violations and were not appropriate issues for her office to consider.

http://www.forsythnews.com/news/stories/20080217/localnews/213632.shtml

[EFerrari]

3. LAT: Fear surrounds Pakistani elections

Fear surrounds Pakistani elections
By Laura King
Los Angeles Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The only thing messier than the prelude to this troubled country's general election could be its aftermath.

Regardless of who wins Monday's parliamentary vote, the first genuinely contested election in years, many observers believe turmoil probably will follow — in the form of long-lasting political upheaval or a swift outbreak of rioting, or some combination of the two.

The campaign season has been punctuated by bloody and chaotic events, chief among them the assassination in December of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the country's most popular politician. Add to that long-held hatreds, predictions of vote-rigging and a crackdown on opposition groups and the electronic media, and few look to Monday's polling without trepidation.

If the party aligned with President Pervez Musharraf triumphs despite polls forecasting its defeat, the result could be popular anger.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004186673_pakistan17.html?syndication=rss

[EFerrari]

4. PA: Voting machines OK’d

Voting machines OK’d

Lackawanna County will return to touch-screen voting for the April 22 primary.

The commissioners agreed Wednesday to purchase 600 electronic touch-screen machines from Premier Election Solutions Inc., ending a months-long search for a permanent voting system to replace the county’s decertified Advanced Voting Solutions devices.

In going with the Premier machines, county officials said they were satisfied with both the reliability and longetivity of touch-screen voting.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19304433&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

[EFerrari]

5. PA: E-vote system doubts linger

E-vote system doubts linger
BY DAVID SINGLETON, STAFF WRITER
02/17/2008

County’s new machines are barred in California
Lackawanna County’s decision to invest in Premier Election Solutions touch-screen voting machines for the April 22 primary and beyond stands as a rare vote of confidence in an increasingly embattled technology.

Lackawanna County’s decision to invest in Premier Election Solutions touch-screen voting machines for the April 22 primary and beyond stands as a rare vote of confidence in an increasingly embattled technology.

Many states that embraced electronic voting as a panacea to the ballot discrepancies that threw the 2000 presidential election into turmoil are suddenly sprinting in the opposite direction, citing potential accuracy and security concerns.

At the center of the stampede is Premier, formerly known as Diebold Election Systems, whose AccuVote-TSX machines — like those the county plans to purchase — have become a poster child for the real and imagined shortcomings of the industry.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19304351&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6

[EFerrari]

6. WV: SOS says Electronic voting machines trustworthy

Electronic voting machines trustworthy

Published:
Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:33 AM CST
In recent months, several news reports have raised questions about the trustworthiness of touch-screen voting devices manufactured by Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The scrutiny arises from reports issued by a handful of states barring the further use of ES&S devices in their elections.

Since ES&S voting machines are used in 34 West Virginia counties, I feel compelled to address this issue and clarify several points in regard to their accuracy and reliability. As Secretary of State, I am personally devoted to the premise of fair, accurate and trustworthy elections in our state. After carefully and thoroughly reviewing the reports issued by these other states, I remain confident that our current voting technology will provide voters in West Virginia with dependable and accurate voting results.

The fact is, so-called "problems" that have been widely reported about ES&S voting machines, including optical scan and precinct counting machines, have never been evidenced in actual balloting by voters participating in any elections. Put another way, to my knowledge these machines have never been hacked on Election Day, and no votes have been tampered with at anytime in any election. Rather, all of the issues reported in the press have come as a result of "tests" conducted in a few states, tests which varied widely in their method and controls.

http://www.williamsondailynews.com/articles/2008/02/17/opinion/editorials/doc47b75c2665060689042404.txt

[EFerrari]

7. Please go leave a comment to the above mendacity

if you get a minute! :hi:

[EFerrari]

8. NY: Election Board Approves Sequoia Voting Machine

Election Board Approves Sequoia Voting Machine

By Dennis Phillips [email protected]

2/17/2008 - MAYVILLE — The Sequoia Voting Systems ImageCast optical scan ballot counting machine will be used this fall for handicapped voters and for all voters in 2009.

Despite some recent shuffling of approved voting machines at the state level, Sequoia was never removed from the state’s approval list and was selected by the county’s Board of Elections last week to handle handicapped accessible voting this fall and to handle all voting in 2009.

Years behind on multiple deadlines to ensure the accuracy of voting, the board told local election officials earlier this month they could choose between three machines to ensure voting access for the disabled, a requirement of the federal Help America Vote Act.

But board officials soon after cut the choice to a single machine — the Sequoia machine, which led to one of two lawsuits from other voting machine makers. But after a court order on Feb. 7, county election officials throughout the state will now be able to choose among four machines to be available for disabled voters in the fall presidential election.

http://www.post-journal.com/Sports/articles.asp?articleID=24935

[EFerrari]

9. Zimbabwe: ZESN barred from voter education

ZESN barred from voter education

BY OUR STAFF

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) last week barred, with immediate effect, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) from conducting voter education, The Standard confirmed yesterday.

It is feared that because of the complicated electoral process, the ZEC directive is likely to result in the highest number of spoilt ballot papers since 1980.

Voters will be required to vote for several candidates at once in the elections for president, parliament (House of Assembly and Senate) and local authorities.

ZESN responded with shock to the directive. The national director, Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, said they would cease immediately their voter education campaign, but would now focus on civic education, as this did not require ZEC approval.

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=8365

[rumpel]

20. Look who's talking: Bush calls for fair Zimbabwe poll

BBC

US President George W Bush has called for "free and fair" elections to be held in Zimbabwe.

Speaking on a visit to Tanzania, Mr Bush said the people of Zimbabwe deserved a government that recognised their "basic human rights".

Earlier, Mr Bush signed a $698m deal with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikweteto to reduce poverty.

Mr Bush is in the east African nation on the second leg of a six-day five-nation tour of the continent.

The deal will help improve roads, power and water supplies and comes as part of the Millennium Challenge compact, which makes grants to countries which stick to democratic principles and sound economic policies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7249048.stm

[EFerrari]

10. NY: NYC voting snafu may work in Obama's favor

NYC voting snafu may work in Obama's favor

The New York Times this morning reports a doozy of an election-error story: In 80 voting districts around the city, unofficial results that were put out on Super Tuesday showed Barack Obama winning, unbelievably, no votes at all.

New York, which uses ancient lever-style mechanical voting machines that produce no paper record of each vote cast, has a complex process of reviewing Election Night results for errors. That review, says the Times, is turning up hundreds of Obama votes that had previously gone unrecorded.

The upshot is this: Results in the city may turn out to be closer -- maybe much closer -- than we'd previously suspected, possibly helping Obama gain additional delegates on Hillary Clinton's home turf.

"The history of New York elections has been punctuated by episodes of confusion, incompetence and even occasional corruption," says the Times, but many who commented for the article, including reps from both the Obama and Clinton campaigns, say there probably wasn't corruption this time.

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/02/16/new_york_results/index.html?source=rss

[EFerrari]

11. NM: Democrats can't say how many scrap paper ballots were cast

NM Democrats can't say how many scrap paper ballots were cast
By TIM KORTE Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 02/15/2008 03:10:34 PM MST

ALBUQUERQUE—You've waited patiently in line to vote, only to be told your name can't be found on registration rolls. Worse, they've run out of ballots at your polling station.

What to do?

Just scribble your name on a scrap of paper, list your preferred candidate and sign an affidavit declaring you're a registered Democrat in New Mexico.

They're called handwritten ballots, and they were used—apparently in limited numbers—for the Democratic Party's presidential caucus.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_8273847?source=most_emailed

:crazy:

[EFerrari]

12. NH: State wants uniform application of voter registration la

State wants uniform application of voter registration law
By Gordon Fraser
Staff writer

The notices show up a few weeks before every election, warning residents of "the last day to register for the town election" and telling voters they must have a "picture identification and proof of residency."

But, in reality, voters in New Hampshire don't need that picture identification — and they can register on the day of the election.

Voter registration laws are, somewhat intentionally, vague in New Hampshire, according to many election officials. The hope is that less restrictive laws allow more people, and a more diverse cross-section of people, to vote, election officials say.

But unclear laws leave enforcement open to variation — a problem state officials say they're addressing.

http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_046062441.html?keyword=secondarystory

[EFerrari]

13. Pakistan tense on election eve

Pakistan tense on election eve
Feb 18, 2008 6:31 AM

Pakistani opposition politicians said on Sunday the government planned to rig the vote in general elections that could bring in a parliament keen to force President Pervez Musharraf from power.

Fears of militant violence have overshadowed the campaign and are expected to result in a low turnout.

A suicide bomber killed 47 people in an attack on supporters of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday. The election was postponed after Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack on December 27 as she left a rally in Rawalpindi.

Her death heightened concern about nuclear-armed Pakistan's future at a time when al Qaeda is accused of trying to destabilise the Muslim nation of 160 million people.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1586611

[EFerrari]

14. Cyprus President heads for defeat

NICOSIA (AFP) - Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos was headed for defeat behind challengers Demetris Christofias and Ioannis Kasoulides in Sunday's presidential vote, with almost 90 percent of votes counted.

Christofias, the communist party chief, and former foreign minister Kasoulides were headed for a runoff on February 24, after state television showed results from 87 percent of the votes.

Christofias led with 33.42 percent, followed closely by Kasoulides with 33.37, while the incumbent seeking re-election trailed with 31.8 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080217/wl_afp/cyprusvoteresult_080217173231

[EFerrari]

15. Opinion: Obama Votes Stolen in NY; The Good News and Bad News

February 17, 2008

Obama Votes Stolen in NY; The Good News and Bad News
By Rob Kall

Obama Robbed In NY?

There's good news and bad news.

The NY Post reports,

Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly under recorded in several congressional districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said today

Unofficial primary results gave Obama no votes in nearly 80 districts, including Harlem's 94th and other historically black areas - but many of those initial tallies proved to be wildly off the mark, the Board of Elections confirmed.

Truth is, in some districts getting a recount, the senator from Illinois is even close to defeating Hillary Clinton.

Initial results in the 94th District, for example, showed a 141-0 sweep for the New York senator, but Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said today that the ongoing recount had changed the tally to 261-136.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_080217_obama_votes_stolen_i.htm

[Wilms]

18. The article got it wrong.

But that's something one should expect from OpEd News quoting the NY Post...a train wreck.

There isn't a recount in NY. Just the usual re-checking by the BoE after the elections to clear up the clerical errors that often accompany preliminary results.

This may be among reasons many activists think the rush to put out results is not in the interest of fair elections.

[EFerrari]

19. I should have noticed that. Here's a NYTs article from yesterday:

Sorry.



Unofficial Tallies in City Understated Obama Vote

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.

City election officials this week said that their formal review of the results, which will not be completed for weeks, had confirmed some major discrepancies between the vote totals reported publicly — and unofficially — on primary night and the actual tally on hundreds of voting machines across the city.

In the Harlem district, for instance, where the primary night returns suggested a 141 to 0 sweep by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the vote now stands at 261 to 136. In an even more heavily black district in Brooklyn — where the vote on primary night was recorded as 118 to 0 for Mrs. Clinton — she now barely leads, 118 to 116.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/nyregion/16vote.html?_r=1&ex=1360818000%20&en=cba4d3b30464e951&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

[EFerrari]

16. Opinion: Help Keep the Election Reform Movement and the Peace Movement Alive

February 17, 2008

Help Keep the Election Reform Movement and the Peace Movement Alive
By Mark Adams

As you know, Ohio and Texas are two very important states with a lot of delegates at stake in the Presidential primaries. The primary elections in both of these states are on March 4, 2008. Curiously, even though there is overwhelming public support for election reform and for restoring peace, Congressional leaders in the peace movement and the election reform movement are facing challengers in these primaries. If they lose, who in Congress would dare speak out against the war or the dangers of secret vote counting after that?

Both of these states use computers to count the votes in secret, and amazingly, no one bothers to check to make sure that the computers have counted accurately. We are just supposed to have faith in the machines. Have faith that the machines counted accurately. Have faith that the secret vote counts have not been altered by a hacker or that the results have not been pre-programmed. Have faith that the elections are not fixed.

This is why many now say that America has gone over to faith based voting. We are just expected to have faith in whatever the machines say even when no one in government is checking unless someone demands a recount, and then of course, our governors want to try to make sure that the recount either does not happen or that it is rigged to match the magical official results spit out by the secret vote counting computers.

A couple of officials from Ohio were caught rigging the 2004 Presidential election recount and were convicted, but a bureaucrat in a black robe let them go free. Those bureaucrats have to look out for each other. We just need to have faith that those machines that they are using to count our votes in secret aren’t rigged to keep us from throwing them out of office. Just trust them, they wouldn’t cheat again, would they?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_ada_080215_help_keep_the_electi.htm

[EFerrari]

17. NH: GOP candidate Albert Howard files recount appeal with NH Ballot Law Commission

February 16, 2008

GOP candidate Albert Howard files recount appeal with NH Ballot Law Commission - "We are thankful to Mr. Gardner..."

By Nancy Tobi

Petition of Appeal, noted violations and weaknesses in NH recount cited below

Petition of Appeal to the Ballot Law Commission
c/o Office of the Secretary of State, William Gardner
State House
Concord, New Hampshire 03301

by Albert Howard, Republican candidate for President of the United States
New Hampshire Primary Election of January 8th, 2008
Date: February 15, 2008
Petitioner: Albert Howard, Pro Se 710 Apple St. Ann Arbor, MI 48105-1750

Subject of Petition: Appeal of results of the Presidential Primary recount completed February 11, 2008; examination of contested ballots in that recount.

Relief Requested: That the Ballot Law Commission and the Secretary of State's office disclaim any opinion on the accuracy of the Presidential primary election AND the statewide Republican recount because checks and balances to maintain the integrity of the ballots and the total counts were either not followed, or not in place.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_nancy_to_080216_gop_candidate_albert.htm

[Kurovski]

21. Kick to the top.

Thank you, sfexpat2000! :hug: