Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 6/25/05

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 6/25/05

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=203x380277

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. Supervisors mull voting act, combining precincts

Supervisors mull voting act, combining precincts

By cindy Iutzi/Gate City Staff Writer




Assistance from the Secretary of State's Office to help Iowa counties implement the Help America Vote Act, a federal mandate that requires uniform election equipment, handicap accessibility and more, came to Lee County in the person of consultant Scott Ourth.

snip
The county must submit its application for Help America Vote funds by Aug. 1 with a letter of intent regarding voting equipment purchases.

Lee County could get up to $228,000 to help defray costs of the voting mandate, but, Ourth stressed, the county would have to meet its deadlines to get the money.


Two vendors are being considered for new voting machines, but choosing which vendor and how many voting machines is ultimately up to the supervisors, Pedersen said.


http://www.dailygate.com/articles/2005/06/24/news/03.txt

[Melissa G]

2. County approves voting machine purchase - TX

County approves voting machine purchase

By Grace Dudley/Reporter County/City Editor
After months of research about electronic voting machines, the Nolan County Commissioners have decided to purchase AutoMARK electronic voting machines for the county.

snip
The legislation provided $3.9 million in federal funds to be given to states over three years to replace outdated voting machines, improve voter education and to train poll workers.

The ES&S AutoMARK is an electronic voting machine designed to give the voter privacy and to make marking ballots easier. Nolan County will purchase 13 voting machines and 10 scanners for a price of $113,670.

snip
County Clerk Pat McGowan prefers these machines because there is a paper trail.

http://www.sweetwaterreporter.net/articles/2005/06/24/news/news.txt

[Melissa G]

3. TAB shows 42 corporate donations of $100 to $250,000

Business group releases details on voter mail
Texas Association of Business shows 42 corporate donations of $100 to $250,000.

By Laylan Copelin

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Forty-two corporate donations ranging from $100 to $250,000 helped the Texas Association of Business elect a Republican majority in the Texas Legislature in 2002, according to the group.

The state's largest business organization gave the public a peek Friday into its $1.7 million mail campaign that is at the center of a grand jury investigation and three lawsuits brought by Democratic candidates who lost in 2002.

Two weeks ago, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the business group to provide evidence and answers to questions in a lawsuit brought by Austin lawyer Buck Wood on behalf of James Sylvester, an Austin Democratic candidate who lost his House race to Republican Jack Stick. The association released its answers to reporters when it gave them to Wood.

snip


Wood noted that the total spent on mailers exceeded the association's $1.5 million budget. He argued that it shows the association was operating as a de facto political committee.
"It confirms our theory of the case," Wood said. "These answers clearly show large amounts of money were solicited from a small number of for-profit corporations."

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/06/25tab.html

[Melissa G]

6. contribution list from Delay's Pac

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/metro/elxpacs/062405_tab_response.pdf

[Melissa G]

4. A Brief History of Computerized Election Fraud in America

A Brief History of Computerized Election Fraud in America
By Victoria Collier
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Saturday 25 October 2003

?Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty? --Thomas Jefferson

In the 2000 election, George W. Bush stole the presidency by combining various forms of vote fraud, not all of which could be concealed from the American public. The month-long battle in Dade County ended with open slaughter of the democratic process, and the occupation of the country by a regime of what may be accurately described as corporate fascists.

That?s the bad news.

The good news is, the 2000 election also marked a turning point in American consciousness. Or, I might venture to say, an awakening.

Before W?s coup, most Americans were, for lack of a better metaphor, asleep at the wheel. This metaphor works just fine, because our electoral process is the wheel that guides our nation, the mechanism that allows us to control the engines of power, and to turn our country in a new direction if, for instance, we?re nearing the edge of a cliff.

Nothing is more important to an American citizen than the right to cast a ballot.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/102503C.shtml

[Melissa G]

5. Carteret voters plan to send a reminder to General Assembly

Carteret voters plan to send a reminder to General Assembly
June 24,2005
JANNETTE PIPPIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF
BEAUFORT - It's been eight months since more than 4,000 Carteret County voters learned the ballots they cast for the November 2004 election were never counted.

A mishap over the number of ballots that an electronic voting unit could hold resulted in 4,438 votes cast during the early period never being recorded. And with no paper trail, the votes were forever lost.

It's an election "debacle" that Dave Taylor of Beaufort said hasn't been forgotten, and he and other people will gather at 8 a.m. Saturday morning at the Carteret County courthouse to make their point.

Taylor said the purpose of the gathering is to send a message to state legislators that there are concerned voters who never want to see the same thing happen again.

http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=32940&Section=News

[Melissa G]

7. Voting soon to go high-tech

Voting soon to go high-tech

BY JOSEPH MALLIA
STAFF WRITER

June 24, 2005


The voting machine's computer-generated voice is pleasant and encouraging: "Touch the screen to print a paper record of your selections," coos the AVC Edge Touch Screen. "After you cast your ballot, the word 'accepted' will be printed."

One of several high-tech voting systems studied by Nassau and Suffolk election officials, the touch screen - or a rival optical scanner - is set to become the face of Election Day for New York voters next year.

snip
New York is the last state to enact the Help America Vote Act legislation, which passed four years ago. The state laws, which Gov. George Pataki said he would sign this week, are meant to reduce fraud and prevent mistakes.

snip
The national and state League of Women Voters favor optical scanners.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/ny-lielec244317126jun24,0,668150.story?coll=ny-lipolitics-headlines

[Melissa G]

8. County updates election system

Friday, June 24, 2005


County updates election system

Detroit may reject new scanning equipment that promises speedier results and fewer spoiled ballots.

By Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News


Wayne County is upgrading its election equipment to reduce the number of spoiled ballots and provide fast results for its 1.5 million registered voters.

The new system, Election Systems & Software Model 100, is an optical scan system: Voters use markers to register their choices, and the ballots are then fed immediately through a counter. Results are available from each machine as soon as the polls close.

It's a big step for elections in Wayne County, which has long been criticized for reporting results hours later than neighboring counties.

"I'm excited about it because we now have the ability to deal in real-time elections. We're finally catching up with the 21st Century," said Wayne County Clerk Cathy M. Garrett.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/wayne/0506/24/B03-226195.htm

[Melissa G]

9. The Right to VOTE- Jesse Jackson Jr.

The Right to VOTE

DU Discussion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

Most Americans believe that the "legal right to vote" in our democracy is explicit (not just implicit) in our Constitution and laws. However, our Constitution only provides explicitly for non-discrimination in voting on the basis of race, sex, and age in the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments respectively.

Even though the "vote of the people" is perceived as supreme in our democracy - because voting rights are protective of all other rights - Justice Scalia in Bush v. Gore constantly reminded Al Gore's lawyers that there is no explicit or fundamental right to suffrage in the Constitution. The Supreme Court majority concluded: "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." (Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 104 (2000))

Voting in the United States is based on the constitutional principle of states' rights. The 10th Amendment to the Constitution states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the State, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Since the word "vote" appears in the Constitution only with respect to non-discrimination, the so-called right to vote is a "state right." Only a constitutional amendment would give every American an individual affirmative citizenship right to vote.

snip
According to a joint study by Cal-Tech and MIT, somewhere between four and six million votes were not counted in 2000 because many states had similar problems to what occurred in Florida.

http://www.house.gov/jackson/VotingAmendment.htm

[Melissa G]

10. EAC Releases Voluntary Voting System Guidelines for Public Comment

EAC Releases Voluntary Voting System Guidelines for Public Comment

Election Assistance Commission
June 24th, 2005

U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION
1225 New York Ave. NW – Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005

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

ADVISORY
June 24, 2005

Contact: Bryan Whitener
[phone]


EAC Releases Voluntary Voting System Guidelines for Public Comment


The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) today released the proposed Voluntary
Voting System Guidelines for public comment, and the document is available on the
EAC website at www.eac.gov.


These proposed Guidelines update and augment the 2002 Voting System Standards, as
required by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), to address advancements in
information and computer technologies. They were designed to meet the contemporary
needs of the elections community. EAC proposes that the Guidelines become effective 24
months after final adoption, which is anticipated to take place in October 2005.

EAC will accept comments on the Guidelines for 90 days. Comments may be posted on
the website, submitted via email to [email protected] or mailed to:
Voting System Guidelines Comments, U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 1225 New
York Avenue, N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20005. The Guidelines are also
available in hard copy and CD-ROM formats. To request a copy call EAC at 1-866-747-
1471.

At the conclusion of the public comment period and after the consideration of comments
received, EAC commissioners will vote to adopt the Voluntary Voting System
Guidelines

http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6064

[Melissa G]

11. MSM: Right to Vote in America Less Important Than Political Catfights

BRADBLOG


MSM: Right to Vote in America Less Important Than Political Catfights
The Mainstream Media Continues to Fail America...
Another notable item from HuffingtonPost this week (where they've recently removed BRAD BLOG from their blogroll for reasons unknown to us, but probably known to [email protected]), this time from Alex Keyssar, a Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Keyssar was in Chicago a week or so ago for a Rainbow/PUSH conference where Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) spoke about his Right to Vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as H.R. 28 and currently co-sponsored by 55 other House Members. That's right, you have no constitutional right to vote in this country...just in case you didn't realize it.

In covering the event where Jackson and Howard Dean spoke on the proposed constitutional amendment, Keyssar had the following observation pinpointing precisely where it is that the Mainstream Corporate Media in this country is failing America...

http://www.bradblog.com/

[Melissa G]

12. Molly Ivans- Follow the Money

June 23, 2005

SAN DIEGO -- As that great American, Deep Throat, never said, "Follow the money." (The line is by William Goldman, who wrote the movie, "All the President's Men"). Keeping your eye on the shell with the pea under it is not easy when the right-wing echo chamber continually takes up new chapters in the culture wars -- the dread case of the senator who didn't, in fact, say the United States is as bad as the late Soviet Union and the equally grave perennial constitutional amendment to prevent the menace of flag desecration.

Meanwhile, largely unnoticed and unreported, the drumbeat of giveaways to big corporations continues: unnecessary tax breaks for the undeserving, more green lights for the rampant exploitation of the environment, and all manner of theft and skullduggery.

Seriously, this administration is starting to look like that old television show in which contestants lined up their shopping carts in a grocery store and, on the signal, began running around throwing every valuable item they could find in their carts. Whoever grabbed the most high-priced items won. The contestants here and now are corporations and lobbyists.

The amusing case of the congressman whose house was bought by the founder of a defense firm for $700,000 more than it was worth is being exceptionally well-reported by the congressman's hometown paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. You will not be amazed to learn the congressman in question (Randy Cunningham) oversees the committee that grants contracts to that very defense firm.
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1/2005/1151