Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday 10/14/05

[Mnemosyne]

Good Morning DU! I am helping with this daily thread because it of such major importance to our country. I have voted since 1976 and have helped register many new voters since. I want my vote to count. I want the faith of all that I helped to register to be restored from the apathy that has developed. :hi:

I also have another strong motive to help make sure our elections are fair, Scumtorum, I mean, Santorum is our Senator from PA. Enough said.:grr:

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=203x396881



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).

[Mnemosyne]

1. .

:kick:

[Mnemosyne]

2. Anybody home?

:evilgrin: :kick:

[Mnemosyne]

3. Just keeping it

:kick:

[Mnemosyne]

4. Still here!

:kick:

[Mnemosyne]

5. Another

:kick:

[Mnemosyne]

6. Hello, still here!

We need 2 more nominations to make Greatest, anyone that can help?!

:kick:

[Melissa G]

7. Paper trail could safeguard Wis. electronic voting system

Paper trail could safeguard Wis. electronic voting system
By Brittany Jones
Published: Friday, October 14, 2005


State legislators presented a bill that would amend Wisconsin's electronic voting system to the Committee on Campaigns and Elections Thursday.

The bill requires new electronic voting machines throughout Wisconsin to generate a complete paper ballot and provide any coding used in the machines' software to the public.

In the public hearing, State Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and State Sen. Jeffrey Plale, D-South Milwaukee, voiced their support of Assemby Bill 627. With new electronic voting machines being implemented, the legislators stressed the need for a paper trail.

"People know their vote is going to count," Pocan said. He added the requirements for paper records will preserve the public's confidence in the government.

http://www.dailycardinal.com/media/paper439/news/2005/10/14/News/Paper.Trail.Could.Safeguard.Wis.Electronic.Voting.System-1021217.shtml

[Mnemosyne]

14. Thanks for the help Melissa,

I'll get better at this, I promise. :hug:

[Melissa G]

8. Voters getting touch-screen machines

Voters getting touch-screen machines
Warren freeholders plan to spend $1.6M, 75% of which will be reimbursed by state.
Friday, October 14, 2005
By SARA LEITCH
The Express-Times
Warren County freeholders voted unanimously Wednesday to buy 200 electronic touch-screen voting machines by the end of the year from a Princeton-based company.

The freeholders voted to spend $1.637 million on Avante's Vote-Trakker machines. The state will reimburse 75 percent of the cost of the new machines. Voters could be using them as soon as April's school board election.


snip

The county was required to buy the new machines under the federal Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002. The act requires machines to notify voters if they've forgotten to vote for an office or tried to vote for more than one candidate, be accessible to disabled voters and contain ballots in more than one language.

Freeholder John DiMaio said he wasn't happy the county was being forced to buy new machines, when the current ones work just fine.

http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/nj/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1129280962215750.xml&coll=2

[Melissa G]

9. Bethel election machines face strapping situation

Politics
2005-10-14
Bethel election machines face strapping situation
By Marietta Homayonpour
THE NEWS-TIMES


The News-Times/Wendy Carlson
Bob Ritch, certified voting machine mechanic, points out the shafts in the back of one of Bethel‘s voting machines.
BETHEL – They're called straps but they're not made of leather or cloth. They are narrow, flat metal strips ranging from 3 to 6 inches long, and they are crucial to an accurate vote count.
The straps connect to the levers that voters pull down on voting machines. Their job is to insure that no one casts more than one ballot for the same candidate.

In the upcoming municipal election, there will be more than 70 straps in the back of each of Bethel's 15 voting machines – many more than have ever been used in the past.

The added straps speak to the number of candidates whose names appear several times on the ballot and to the extra care officials are taking with this year's election.

Still, town officials are nervous about a repeat of 2003, when several machines were taken out of service because they were set up incorrectly. In some cases, residents could not split their vote among political parties in races where they were supposed to cast ballots for multiple candidates.


http://news.newstimeslive.com/story.php?id=75559&category=Politics

[skids]

10. NH Phone jamming connected to...get this... DeLay.

Pointed out on a dKos diary

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/14/9517/5819

Today's Boston Globe reports that the money for the illegal phone jamming apparently came from Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff. The consulting firm was paid $15,600 by the state party within weeks of the party receiving $15,000 in contributions from the two.

[Melissa G]

13. DU discussion Here!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x396988

[skids]

18. Actually here also...

Sorry I got distracted and didn't come back to add the DU link after I posted to GDP.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2157312&mesg_id=2157312

[Mnemosyne]

17. Thanks for the help skids! n/t

[Melissa G]

11. Sporadic attacks mark eve of Iraqi vote

Sporadic attacks mark eve of Iraqi vote
Security bolstered as ballots are delivered to polls

Friday, October 14, 2005; Posted: 10:39 a.m. EDT (14:39 GMT)

Hospital patients, including this woman in Najaf who had just given birth, began early voting Friday.



The vote is regarded as a key milestone in the effort to establish a democracy in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

It enables Iraqis to approve or reject the controversial document drafted by lawmakers on the transitional National Assembly. (Watch video: Sunni group strikes deal in constitution compromise -- 2:11)

Iraq declared a national holiday that began Thursday and ends Sunday. Security has been bolstered at polling places across the country in anticipation of sustained insurgent attacks.

Polling sites attacked
Friday was marked by sporadic violence. Two offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party were attacked as well as four polling sites in Diyala province, north of Baghdad.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/14/iraq.main/

[Mnemosyne]

12. duped, oops!

[Mnemosyne]

15. E-voting report could push audit trails

snip>
An election commission headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James A. Baker III drew attention last month by proposing that voters be outfitted with national identification cards.

But a less-noticed recommendation could accelerate reform efforts in state legislatures: Improving the security of electronic voting machines by outfitting them with a voter-verifiable paper audit trail.

snip>
Politicians in New York, New Jersey and Oregon recently have enacted laws mandating various forms of paper records that can be viewed by voters but not removed from the polling place--bringing the total number of states with similar rules to at least 18, according to figures compiled by Electionline.org. (Ohio enacted such a law last year but it does not take effect until January 2006.)

more:
http://news.com.com/E-voting+report+could+push+audit+trails/2100-1028_3-5888926.html

[Wilms]

16. Election Updates: EAC RFP updates

Election Updates

New research, analysis and commentary on election reform, voting technology, and election administration.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

EAC RFP updates

by Michael Alvarez

This was just put out by Doug Chapin in his October 13, 2005 "electionline Weekly" report:


EAC Announces Intent to Award Millions for HAVA-Related Research
By Doug Chapin
electionline.org

Late last month, the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) announced its intent to award a series of research contracts totaling nearly $4 million. The research program - and the federal funds it commits - is designed to begin addressing the EAC's research responsibilities under the Help America Vote Act.

At press time, contracts were still being finalized and thus the information has not yet been posted on the EAC website. However, electionline.org has learned that the proposed awards include the following:

snip/more

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/10/eac-rfp-updates.html

[Mnemosyne]

19. Iraq Insurgents Attack Sunni Party Office

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni insurgents launched five attacks against the largest Sunni Arab political party on the eve of
Iraq's crucial referendum Friday, bombing and burning offices and the home of one of its leaders in retaliation after the group dropped its opposition to the draft constitution.
ADVERTISEMENT

The reprisals came as Sunni and Shiite clerics gave their last advice to their followers in sermons during weekly Friday prayers — a key political platform. Shiite imams transmitted the word of the majority community's most powerful cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani: Go to the polls and vote "yes."

The message among the Sunni Arab minority was more muddled after the Iraqi Islamic Party threw its support to the constitution after last minutes amendments were made to the draft in an attempt to assuage Sunni objections ahead of Saturday's referendum.

In Tikrit,
Saddam Hussein's hometown north of Baghdad, the preacher at the main mosque denounced the Islamic Party, saying it "broke the nationalist ranks in return for nothing."

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=Aupda9148fpg7SstdeTO8qes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

[Mnemosyne]

20. Storms Alter Louisiana Politics

Population Loss Likely to Reduce Influence of Black Voters

snip>

The massive population shift caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita holds seismic political implications for Louisiana, which faces a near-certain reduction of its congressional delegation and a likely loss in black-voter clout that could severely affect the state's elected Democrats.

Less than two months after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, leaving much of New Orleans and surrounding areas unlivable, Louisiana officials are beginning to grapple with the bewildering new political landscape. The storms and resultant flooding caused more than 1 million residents to flee their homes, many for far-flung destinations from which they may never return.

snip>

The election will be one of the most important in the city's history, with the winners set to play a pivotal role in deciding how the city will be rebuilt. But with only a smattering of the city's 484,000 residents back home, it will also be an election in which voters will be difficult to find and residency hard to prove, leaving candidates unsure of how to campaign.

snip>
Also, Louisiana is likely to lose one of its seven congressional seats -- a prospect that had loomed before the storms and has now been solidified because of the state's population loss.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301729.html

[Mnemosyne]

21. New link for

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



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

http://electionline.org/ElectionlineToday/tabid/84/Default.aspx

[Mnemosyne]

22. This link has a

such a pertinent toon, I had to share it.
I found this on Atman's homepage. Thanks Atman!
Link here:
http://www.rmcgcreative.com/comics/nby/notbanned.php

[Mnemosyne]

23. Bush Political Hacks Buried & Doctored Outsourcing Report B-4 2004 Electio

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1851009