Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday 5/22/05

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday 5/22/05

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

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

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

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.



If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x379481
All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm



Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[Melissa G]

1. DNC RELEASES STUDY OF 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN OHIO

Thanks to MaineDem for the post and DU discussuion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=379633&mesg_id=379633

DNC RELEASES STUDY OF 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN OHIO

Washington - The Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute will present DNC Chairman Howard Dean their report on the conduct of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. Copies of the report will be available at the press conference tomorrow and at www.democrats.org .

Who: DNC Chairman Howard Dean
DNC Voting Rights Institute Chair Donna Brazile
Julie Andreef, Ohio regional field director and practicing attorney focusing on election law
Cornell Belcher, president of Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies
Walter Mebane, Jr., Professor of Government at Cornell University
Dan Wallach, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rice University.

When: Wednesday, June 22, 2005; 11:00 a.m.

Where: DNC Headquarters, 430 South Capitol St., SE, Washington, DC
Wasserman Family Conference Room

###

**********

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org . This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

[FogerRox]

2. Forsyth County, N. C. votes to keep options open on Voting machines

DU thread--
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=379922&mesg_id=379922


Board delays voting system
Proposed bill requires electronic machines to produce paper records
By Michael Hewlett
JOURNAL REPORTER
Wednesday, June 22, 2005


The Forsyth County Board of Elections voted yesterday to keep its options open as it faces a looming deadline to buy new electronic-voting machines.

The board voted to extend its request for proposals until Dec. 31. It had been set to expire June 30.

Forsyth County could lose about $322,000 in federal money if it does not have a new voting system in place by Dec. 31. And the county faces a state-imposed deadline of 2006 to get rid of its punch-card voting machines.

>edit<

Kathie Chastain Cooper, the county's director of elections, recommended extending Forsyth's request for proposals, but said that officials still have to wait for the state's decision. The county does not want to buy a machine that officials later find out is not state-certified, she said.

full article:

&oasDN=journalnow.com&oasPN=%21localnews

[MelissaB]

3. New voting machines as NY becomes last state to comply with federal act

New voting machines as NY becomes last state to comply with federal act

ALBANY -- After months of delay, state lawmakers said Wednesday they finally agreed on a legislative package that will allow local governments to begin buying new voting machines to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, the last state to do so.

The high-tech machinery is meant to replace lever-action equipment that has been in use in most parts of New York state for much of the last century. The mechanical technology was first demonstrated in Lockport, near Buffalo, in 1892 and lever-action machines quickly became the national standard.

...snip

The battle over new voting machine technology has been a gold mine for lobbyists in New York. A Common Cause report said that in just the final six months of last year, voting machine companies spent more than $355,000 seeking to influence lawmakers in Albany.


The decision to leave the decision on what sort of voting machines to buy to individual counties means lobbyists can continue to collect big retainers as the attention shifts to the local government level.

"It is likely to lead to a lobbyist feeding frenzy at the local level," said frequent government critic Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.


More: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/politics/nyc-voting0622,0,3954421.story?coll=nyc-homepage-breaking2

[MelissaB]

4. US e-voting proponents say no to paper trails

US e-voting proponents say no to paper trails

17:02 22 June 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Celeste Biever

A debate raged on Tuesday in the US Senate over whether electronic ballots should be backed by paper copies, as new evidence emerges supporting the performance of electronic voting machines.

Currently paper trails are mandatory in just 22 of the 50 US states, but a bill now being reviewed by the Senate would force the entire nation to adopt them.

The argument centres upon which voting technology is best at simultaneously preventing inaccuracies, fraud, technical glitches and confusion and making voting accessible to the disabled, all without incurring excessive expense.

Optical scanners provide a paper trail, while touch-screen voting machines - known as DREs, for Direct Record Electronic voting machines - do not. But the latter can be fitted with a printer, for $500 per machine.

Proponents argue that a paper trail is the most effective way to detect that a computer hacker has changed votes. They also provide redundancy, allowing a re-count if necessary and enabling voters to check their vote. “Paperless voting is hostile,” says David Dill, a computer scientist at Stanford University, California, US, who supports the bill.


More: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7562

[MelissaB]

5. Also...

Worse still, he says, is that mandating a paper trail complicates the voting process, making it more likely that election officials will slip up.

In Nevada, the only state where a printer was attached to touch-screen machines for the 2004 Presidential election, Selker reports that printers were stowed in insecure places, opened without supervision, and that election workers even cut out portions of the paper-trail while reloading paper in a jammed printer.

...snip

Spoiling hack attacks
One way to make DREs harder to hack is to remove the mandatory clocks from voting machines, says Selker. This makes it harder for a hacker to sneak time-activated code onto a machine. This type of malicious code is harder to detect as it only springs into action during election time and does not affect the machine’s behaviour at other times.

He also advocates a process called “parallel monitoring” where a random selection of voting machines is taken out of service on election day and test voted at the same time as the actual polling machines. This makes it impossible for a hacker to be sure which specific machines to target in advance and so any tampering should quickly become apparent.

[MelissaB]

6. N.C. Senators Take Up Voting Machine Reform Bill

N.C. Senators Take Up Voting Machine Reform Bill

POSTED: 9:47 am EDT June 22, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Senators are complaining about the costs of a proposal that would require all voting machines in North Carolina to generate some kind of paper record of each ballot.

Senators are saying that counties may have to pay millions of dollars themselves for equipment upgrades.

The electronic recording machines would have to generate a paper record that allows voters to confirm their choices and provides a backup for counting totals.

The bill follows many recommendations from a legislative commission that met after a Carteret County voting machine lost 4,438 votes for last November's election due to a computer programming error. The lost votes led to delays in determining a winner for two statewide races.


More: http://www.nbc17.com/news/4638208/detail.html

[MelissaB]

7. Democrats' report targets Ohio election

Democrats' report targets Ohio election

JOHN McCARTHY

Associated Press


COLUMBUS, Ohio - Black voters reported twice as many problems at the polls than whites in the 2004 presidential election in Ohio, according to a new report by the Democratic National Committee.

The state's chief elections official countered that Census figures showed blacks in Ohio voted at a higher rate than nationally and that the DNC report was nothing more than a political attack.


...snip

The Census figures cast doubt on the Democrats' data, said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican.

"It's a bald-faced fabrication. The facts just don't match with what the report's conclusions are. Ohio had record turnout in 2004 and it was across the board," LoParo said.

More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/11959244.htm


Discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x379973

[MelissaB]

8. Ohio parties still sniping over 2004 vote

Ohio parties still sniping over 2004 vote

WILL LESTER

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The 2004 presidential election in Ohio was settled when President Bush won the decisive state. But the state's vote still is a sore point for many, including the two political parties.

Democrats released a report Wednesday that said Ohio voters had to deal with long lines, poorly trained election officials, illegal identification requirements and evidence that voting was discouraged.

Republicans rejected those claims.

Donna Brazile, chair of the Democrats' Voting Rights Institute, said, "The data clearly indicates that the system failed far too many Ohio voters."


More: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/11959052.htm

[MelissaB]

9. Dem-sponsored survey claims problems for 1 in 4 Ohio voters in '04

Dem-sponsored survey claims problems for 1 in 4 Ohio voters in '04

By Jessica Wehrman

[email protected]

WASHINGTON | A survey sponsored by the Democratic National Committee concluded that Ohio's 2004 presidential election was riddled with problems — including long lines, unreliable touchscreen voting machines or illegal requests for identification — that resulted in massive voter suppression.

The survey found that 28 percent of Ohio voters reported some problem with their 2004 voting experience.

Under federal law, the only voters who can be asked for identification are those voting in their first federal election who have registered by mail but did not provide identification in their registration application.

The survey, released Wednesday, indicated problems were more acute for young voters and black voters. Twice as many black voters reported problems, while voters between the ages of 18 and 54 were more likely to be forced to vote provisionally than voters older than 55.

The report did not suggest any widespread fraud that misallocated votes from U.S. Sen. John Kerry to President George W. Bush.

One survey finding found 2 percent of voters who went to the polls on Election Day left their polling locations because of the long lines — approximately 129,543 lost votes. The survey found those voters would have likely divided evenly between Bush and Kerry.

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman referred to the report in a statement as "pure political fiction."

Link: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0622surveyweb.html

[MelissaB]

10. PressRelease: Report: Ohio Voters Plagued by Systemic Problems

Report: Ohio Voters Plagued by Systemic Problems on Election Day 2004; DNC to Review Proposed Election Administration Reforms

6/22/2005 12:42:00 PM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: National Desk, Political Reporter

Contact: Karen Finney of the Democratic National Committee, 202-863-8148

WASHINGTON, June 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- An exhaustive five- month investigative study of the troubled presidential election of 2004 in Ohio has concluded that the state's voters encountered widespread system failure, with more than a quarter of voters -- and 52 percent of African Americans -- reporting significant problems at the polls.

According to the report, which was presented to DNC Chairman Howard Dean at a news conference today, the systemic problems plaguing Ohio's voting process included: significant evidence of voter suppression, negligent and poorly trained election officials, long lines, problems with registration status, polling locations, absentee ballots and provisional ballots and unlawful identification requirements at the polls.

Rather than challenge or question the results of the election, the report establishes a factual basis for developing a comprehensive agenda of reforms needed to ensure that every eligible voter has the opportunity to vote and to have that vote counted.

"Democracy only works when citizens believe election outcomes actually reflect their choices," said Donna Brazile, chair of the Voting Rights Institute and the project's leader. "Our goal was not to question the election result, but to determine whether or not every eligible voter in Ohio who sought to vote was able to cast a ballot and have it properly counted. The data clearly indicates that the system failed far too many Ohio voters."


More: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=49246

[MelissaB]

11. Mother Jones: Voting for Reform

Voting for Reform

News: For progressive Democrats, fixing the electoral system is job number one.
By Jeff Fleischer

June 21, 2005

Rep. Jesse Jackson says he’s sick of seeing Republicans use proposed constitutional amendments to divide the country over social issues like gay marriage and flag burning. Instead, the Illinois congressman wants to unite Americans around a constitutional amendment ensuring the right to vote at the federal level.

“The Bush v. Gore decision of 2000 indicated very clearly ... that the individual citizen enjoys no federal constitutional right to vote in the United States; that the right to vote is a state right,” Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, said at the June 11 kickoff of the Rainbow/PUSH coalition’s 34th annual convention in Chicago. “Therefore, we end up with 50 different state systems.”

Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 experienced widespread voting problems that effectively voided the votes of large -- and possibly decisive -- numbers of US citizens. In 2000, then-Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris notoriously cast a “wide net” in removing former felons from the voter rolls, and the majority of the roughly 12,000 voters purged (many of them African-American) were wrongfully removed. In Ohio last November, voters in minority districts complained of long lines, misallocated voting machines, and reports of intimidation at the polls.

Speeches and panel discussions on voting reform featured prominently in the Rainbow/PUSH’s five-day convention last week. The coalition's founder (and two-time presidential candidate) Rev. Jesse Jackson structured the first two days around three specific voting-rights goals: his congressman son’s amendment creating a constitutional right to vote, expansion of the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) reforms and the renewal of those parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that expire in 2007.


More: http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/06/voting_reform.html

[MelissaB]

12. Democrats pepper TV with attack ad

Democrats pepper TV with attack ad

By JAMES DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF


COLUMBUS - The Ohio Democratic Party yesterday began to air a 30-second television ad that links Republican officeholders with the state's failed rare-coin investment with Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe.


The ad says Gov. Bob Taft and the three GOP candidates for governor in 2006 - Auditor Betty Montgomery, Attorney General Jim Petro, and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell - "accepted thousands in contributions from rare coin fund manager Tom Noe'' and are "telling us they had no idea about mismanagement of funds at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.''

The ad features black-and-white photos of Mr. Taft, the GOP gubernatorial candidates, and then an image of coins being thrown down a sink.

"It's been 16 years of pay-to-play, or is it pay-to-steal?" the narrator says.
"With Republican one-party rule, Ohio's money is down the drain.''

The ad will run for a week around the state on cable TV stations, said Democratic Party Chairman Denny White.


More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050622/NEWS09/506220490

[MelissaB]

13. Ohio: Bureau says director gave much authority to assistants

Bureau says director gave much authority to assistants

Associated Press


TOLEDO, Ohio - A former official at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation had authority to make investments without any oversight, allowing him to enter into a contract with a firm that lost $215 million in a failed hedge fund, the bureau said.

Former director James Conrad allowed his chief financial and chief investment officers to sign investment deals without oversight or legal review, interim bureau administrator Tina Kielmeyer told The Blade on Tuesday.

Kielmeyer previously said former chief financial officer Terry Gasper moved $100 million of an investment with Pittsburgh-based MDL Capital Management Inc. into a new fund proposed by MDL in September 2003 without Conrad's knowledge. Gasper stepped down in October.

Conrad resigned last month after learning that $10 million to $12 million was missing from a separate fund invested in rare coins that was managed by Toledo coin dealer Tom Noe.

Bureau memos indicate he rescinded the authority to make investments without additional checks for the officials last December, The Blade reported.


More: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/11957129.htm

[MelissaB]

14. NEWSMAKER: HOWARD DEAN

NEWSMAKER: HOWARD DEAN



Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean speaks about a report the DNC released about voting irregularities that occurred in last year's presidential election in Ohio, the future of the Democratic Party and his controversial statements about the Republican Party.

...snip

Re-opening old wounds from last year's elections
GWEN IFILL: Your report today found that one-quarter of Ohio voters, more than half of African-Americans, said there were irregularities in their voting process in last year's election. What have you discovered about that and what do you plan to do about it?

HOWARD DEAN: We did not find widespread fraud. What we did find was widespread voter suppression. That means essentially reducing or tactics aimed at reducing the number of voters. African-Americans were the biggest victims of this, but it also was young voters.

Young voters and African-Americans were disproportionately asked for IDs, which is illegal in Ohio. The waiting lines for African-Americans were three times as long as they were for white voters. So we don't know that this would change the outcome of the election, but we do know there was a concentrated effort or at least that was the outcome to reduce African-American votes and to a lesser extent young votes -- the two groups which voted in the highest percentage for John Kerry.

More:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june05/dean_6-22.html

Discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380035

[MelissaB]

15. Statement by RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman In Response to Democrats' Ohio Elect

Statement by RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman In Response to Democrats' Ohio Election Report

6/22/2005 11:33:00 AM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: National Desk and Political Reporter

Contact: Republican National Committee Press Office, 202-863-8614

WASHINGTON, June 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman issued the following statement in response to the Democrats' Ohio Election Report:

"The report is pure political fiction. The undisputed facts in Ohio are: Democrat officials had to be stopped by the courts from misleading voters about the day of the election; a Democrat affiliated group paid a worker in crack cocaine to submit fraudulent voter forms; and Democrat allies attempted to disenfranchise Ohio voters by submitting registration cards for Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Michael Jordan. Republicans will continue to register and inspire new voters, make it easier for everyone to vote at the polls and protect everyone's franchise from being cancelled out by illegal or fraudulent registration."

Asshole's link: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=49234

[MelissaB]

16. kick