Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 03/27/2006 - Ian Sancho-WashPost

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Washington Post (AP Story): “MIAMI – Among those who worry that hackers might sabotage election tallies, Ion Sancho is something of a hero.

The maverick elections supervisor in Leon County, Fla., last year helped show that electronic voting machines from one of the major manufacturers are vulnerable, according to experts, and would allow election workers to alter vote counts without detection.


Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho: "I'm being singled out for punishment."
(By Phil Coale -- Associated Press)

If John Bonifaz were Secretary of State
in Florida, Sancho would be getting a
commendation.

Please help the
campaign if you can>

PLUS: Tony bLIAR’s PREMEDITATED PEERAGE Scandal

Very Best to TruthIsAll.. The motto below that appears on every ERD news post I
do was inspired by TIA

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News March 27, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
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.

Please

"Recommend"

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

Election Whistle-Blower Stymied by Vendors

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1. Wash Post – AP Story: Sancho of FL – Stands up to Vendors & Jeb, FIGHTS B

I apologize for at least 24 hours for for all the bad things I’ve said about the WaPost (unless this is in the online edition only, in which case they all stand). This is a great article and so true. Sancho actually tested a Diebold machine, AccuVote Tabulator, and showed it could be hacked under real-world conditions. For that, his alternate vendor, ESS, decided it could not sell him any machines themselves, as they were too busy. It was a SET UP, collusion. Sancho is not giving up. He’s suing back. He missed one of the idiot deadlines for HAVA and Jefville (aka FL) so the state his giving him grief. He won’t back down. Here’s to an honest man!


Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho:
Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho: "I'm being singled out for punishment."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032500805.html
(By Phil Coale – Associated Press)

Now, however, Sancho may be paying an unexpected price for his whistle-blowing: None of the state-approved companies here will sell him the voting machines the county needs.

"I've essentially embarrassed the current companies for the way they do business, and now I believe I'm being singled out for punishment by the vendors," he said.

<snip>

"I'm very troubled by this, to be honest -- I can't believe the way he's being treated," said David Wagner, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley who sits on a California board that reviews voting machine security. "What kind of message is this sending to elections supervisors?"

The dispute highlights what many elections experts say is a failure in federal oversight. In Maryland, North Carolina, Texas and elsewhere, elections officials have called into question the security and accuracy of new voting machines. The experts said that a more rigorous federal oversight process, in which machine testers have no financial connections to the voting machine companies, is needed to ensure election security in the United States.

[Votergater]

22. Where is the next 'Ion Sancho' now?

Is there another election supervisor in America with the courage of Mr. Sancho? If more heroes like him are out there they need to be found and encouraged to step forward.

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2. M:A: 21st Century Dems endorse Bonifaz

21st Century Dems endorse Bonifaz
http://www.johnbonifaz.com/blog

Submitted by Ethan Kiczek on Thu, 03/23/2006 - 8:22am.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - 21st Century Democrats, the leading national organization working to elect visionary progressive leaders, today announced its endorsement of voting rights leader John Bonifaz for Massachusetts Secretary of State. It is one of only 15 endorsements being made across the country by the group.

"John Bonifaz has been a visionary national leader in protecting voter rights and reducing the influence of money in politics," said 21st Century Democrats Executive Director Kelly Young. "John's extraordinary leadership resulted in his being awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and we are excited to have chosen John as one of only 15 candidates in the country we will be endorsing and working to elect this year. As Massachusetts Secretary of State, John will inspire elected leaders across the country to make it easier for voters to participate in our democracy, count every vote cast in all elections and reduce the influence of special interest money in government."

21st Century Democrats is a political organization committed to electing extraordinary, visionary leaders who will be courageous risk takers in creating innovative solutions to our country's problems. The group seeks out, trains, and supports candidates who will stand up for what they believe and put forward new visionary ideas. 21st Century Democrats' passion for inspiring people and reaching beyond ideology has produced results. 21st Century Democrats has grown to be the 13th largest political committee in the United States and has elected over 140 candidates to office in the last 7 years.

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3. Bonifaz: Voters Bill of Rights

Bonifaz discussed the first three points of the bill at his DC meeting Monday night. He’s as bright in person as he is on the net or on paper. This is a classic. Send it around and visit his site.

(Permission to publish entire document)

Voters' Bill of Rights

Format for printing
http://www.johnbonifaz.com/votersbillofrights

1. Count every vote

The right to vote includes the right to have our votes properly counted.

We must ensure that every citizen's vote will be counted. This includes a guarantee of open and transparent elections with verified voting, paper trails, and access to the source codes for, and random audits of, electronic voting machines. It also includes a guarantee that we the people, through our government, will control our voting machines — not private companies.

2. Make voting easier


We should enact election day registration here in Massachusetts, removing the barrier of registration prior to Election Day. Six states have election day registration. They have a higher voter turnout in their elections and have no evidence of voter fraud. We should be encouraging greater participation in the political process, starting with election day registration.

We should also ensure absentee voting for all, allow for early voting, and remove other barriers that make it difficult for people to vote.

3. End the big money dominance of our electoral process


In a democracy, public elections should be publicly financed. In Maine and Arizona, publicly financed elections has enabled people to run for office who would never have dreamed of running under a system dominated by big money interests. We, as voters, need to own our elections, rather than allow the process to be controlled by the wealthy few.

We also need to enact mandatory limits on campaign spending. In 1976, the Supreme Court wrongly struck down mandatory campaign spending limits for congressional elections. A federal appeals court in New York has recently revisited that decision and ruled that campaign spending limits in Vermont can be constitutional. That case is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Massachusetts should help lead the way with campaign spending limits for our elections.

4. Expand voter choice


Instant run-off voting: Voters should be able to rank their choices of candidates, ensuring majority support for those elected and allowing greater voter choice and wider voter participation.

Cross Endorsement Voting (Fusion voting): Voters should be able to cast their ballots for major party candidates on a minor party's ballot line, placing power in the hands of the people and broadening public debate on the issues of the day.

Proportional Representation: Voters should be allowed their fair share of representation, ensuring that majority rule does not prevent minority voices from being heard.

5. Ensure access for new citizens and language minorities


The right to vote does not speak one specific language. It is universal. No one should be denied the right to vote because of a language barrier.

6. Level the playing field for challengers

Redistricting reform — Incumbent legislators should not have the power to draw their own district lines. We must transfer this power to independent non-partisan commissions and create fair standards for redistricting, thereby promoting competition in our electoral process and improving representation for the people.

7. Ensure non-partisan election administration


The Secretary of the Commonwealth must be a Secretary for all of us, regardless of party affiliation. The Secretary should not be allowed to serve as a co-chair of campaigns of candidates. To ensuring the people's trust in the integrity of our elections, the Secretary must conduct the administration of elections in a non-partisan manner.

8. Make government more accessible to all of us


Democracy is not just about our participation on Election Day. We need to participate every day and our government needs to be accessible to us every day. This means a government that is open and transparent, that encourages people to make their voices heard, and that enlists citizen participation in addressing the major issues of our time.

9. Re-authorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965

We must continue the fight to protect the right to vote and to end voting disenfranchisement schemes. The Secretary of the Commonwealth must fight for congressional re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

10. Amend the US Constitution to ensure an affirmative right to vote

One hundred and eight democratic nations in the world have explicit language guaranteeing the right to vote in their constitutions, and the United States — along with only ten other such nations — does not. As a result, the way we administer elections in this country changes from state to state, from county to county, from locality to locality. The Secretary of the Commonwealth must fight for a constitutional amendment that affirmatively guarantees the right to vote in the US Constitution.

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4. Great Britain: bLIAR Raises Campaign Money by Giving out Titles (Lord, La

Great Britain: bLIAR Raises Campaign Money by Giving out Titles (Lord, Lady, etc.)
Good old fashioned ELECTION FRAUD. Seems Tony is just an old fashioned crook. This might actually spoil his rise to the position of chief whore on the Carlyle Group board. Labour took loans for their campaign because they were very short on money. Loans have less reporting requirements. In return for the loans, it’seems certain people got titles like Lord This’n That or Lady Bracknell. BUT bLIARs scheme has come undone. He’s now laid bair as a common political hack and crook.




Deputy PM's £500m deal for Labour's secret lenders
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/26/nloans26.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/26/ixnewstop.html
By Andrew Alderson, Patrick Hennessy and Jasper Copping
(Filed: 26/03/2006)

John Prescott gave the go-ahead for a firm of developers to build an enormous shopping centre months after the owners of the company secretly gave Labour a £3.3 million loan.
Sir David Garrard and Andrew Rosenfeld, the "Minerva Two", won the backing of the Deputy Prime Minister, to build a £500 million retail centre in Croydon, south London, which will become one of the country's 10 biggest shopping malls.
Mr Prescott, who claims that he did not know about the series of loans that have plunged Labour into a crisis about sleaze, ruled last October that a rival retail development should not go ahead.

The revelations will fuel the "loans for peerages" row engulfing Tony Blair and his party and increase questions over possible conflicts of interest. Labour has admitted receiving loans worth £13.95 million to pay for last year's election campaign, bringing calls for Mr Blair to step down and the opening of a police investigation.

<snip>

He said: "There may be an innocent explanation for this but the whole problem is the inference that people can draw from this case. These loans look so desperately seedy. There is the perception that there is a link here and people are very, very suspicious. That is damaging to the Government, the Labour Party and politics in general.

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5. Great Britain: “Premeditated Peerage” - Blair knew of loans before handin

Say it’s not so Tony! Please! You have such a great accent, it sure fooled a lot of Americans into trusting you when you came here to sell Iraq. You are so earnest and important, busy all the time. Seems you’re just another political crook who returns favors for money. The real term here should have been “Premeditated Peerage.”;)


Blair knew of loans before picking peers

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2104207,00.html
Robert Winnett March 26, 2006

TONY BLAIR knew that four businessmen had secretly loaned millions of pounds to Labour when he put them forward for peerages, a Downing Street insider has disclosed.

<snip>

The disclosure shows for the first time Blair’s hands-on role in the loans for honours scandal. He is thought to be the only person involved in choosing nominees who was aware of the identities of the financial supporters.

He had previously accepted responsibility only for a loans scheme without admitting he was fully informed of who the lenders were. However, the insider said: “When Blair selected his shortlist of peers he was aware of which ones had given loans. He was given a long list of names to choose from and personally selected which ones to put forward. The prime minister knew exactly what was going on with the loans from the very beginning.”

It has also emerged that the Appointments Commission, the watchdog that vets peerages, warned Blair informally after the general election it would no longer tolerate unsuitable candidates who had financially supported parties being elevated to the Lords. The warning is understood to have been prompted by a number of Labour and Tory nominees in 2004.

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6. Nation: Pelosi Answers Questions on Election Fraud - RawStory

Nancy Pelosi answers Raw Story reader questions
Published: Saturday March 25, 2006
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Nancy_Pelosi_answers_Raw_Story_reader_0325.html
RAW STORY comes through again. In an Question and Answer session with Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D, CA, Raw included a question on Democrat Party action on election fraud. There are only a few major internet locales where election fraud can be mentioned; DU, Raw Story, and a couple of others.RAW STORY is JUST TERRIFIC on this issue. Thank you RAW!!!

Question: What are democrats doing to prevent the election fraud we have had in the past?

Jane
Palm Harbor, Fl.

Answer: Pelosi: “During the last the two Presidential elections, we know that there were not enough voting machines in poor and minority areas. This led to appallingly long wait times of up to 10 hours in certain places. There were credible reports of voter suppression on Election Day through intimidation and misinformation. And the patchwork use of provisional ballots led to unequal treatment under the law.

The American people must have every confidence that every vote legally cast will be legally and accurately counted. But malfunctioning electronic voting machines in some areas led to an additional loss of confidence by the public.

As elected officials, we have a solemn responsibility to improve our election systems and its administration. Democrats have led that effort-through proposals to provide the Election Assistance Commission with resources to further reform the election process, and to improve the Help America Vote Act, including universal standards for provisional ballots and audit trails.

This Republican Congress, however, has been delinquent. Republicans have underfunded the requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) by $800 million from authorized levels that are needed for provisional ballots, voting machines, and registration lists. Democrats stand united to provide these resources.

[BeFree]

10. She's a problem, alright

Not one mention of the GAO report, nothing about the long list of known computer 'glitches', nothing about how badly the 'count' has been shown to be unverifiable or auditable.

What's wrong with her? Is she in collusion with the criminals? Why won't she learn the facts about and get behind HR550? She best mention 550 she next time she opens up on election reform.

And what's this crap about HAVA? HAVA is the tripwire for our election woes! HAVA needs to be scrapped, and if the pukes are in favor of defunding it, she ought to step aside.

[Peace Patriot]

14. Look, HAVA was pushed through by the two biggest crooks in Congress,

Tom Delay and Bob Ney--a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle that permitted two rightwing Bushite corporations--Diebold and ES&S--to gain control of the nation's vote tabulation with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls. Any Democratic leader who doesn't know that, and doesn't object to it strenuously, and doesn't mention it AT ALL--let alone as the number one priority--in discussing election reform is in collusion with the enemy and cannot be trusted.

Diebold was headed until recently by Wally O'Dell, a Bush/Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser, who promised in writing to "deliver" Ohio to Bush/Cheney in 2004. ES&S is a spinoff of Diebold, initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation, which promotes the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things. Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship--they are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich.

These are the people who 'counted' all our votes behind a veil of secrecy--and were permitted to do so by both the Republican and Democratic Parties.

I will not mince words about this any more. What Pelosi says above is crap. It could have been written by Karl Rove. A disgusting, evasive, deceitful, hypocritical statement.

People may do whatever they need to--and I think that it is perfectly understandable in the midst of a fascist coup--to deal with someone like Pelosi in whatever manner they must, to get whatever scraps from the table that they can get from this contemptible and ILLEGITIMATE Congress. Myself--I intend to support Hillary Clinton, after she is shoved down our throats as "our" Democratic candidate for president by her fascist friends at Diebold and ES&S, in '08, in the hope that she will not be able to oppose transparent elections once they put her in the White House (for their own purposes), and that we will be able to get a quick easy nationwide solution to "trade secret" programming and other election crime. Maybe I'm dreaming, but it's worth a shot--since the alternative is a long, difficult struggle through every state/local jurisdiction in the country. I will trade my support for a candidate whose positions I loathe, in exchange for that long-shot chance at quick restoration of our democracy. There is nothing else of importance, in my opinion. If we can't restore our right to vote, our democracy is over.

There are MANY PERILS in a national election reform bill overseen by Clinton, or written/amended by other illegitimate office-holders. I have no illusions about that. But I think it's worth the chance, because of the enormous long term benefit to be gained from a bill like Russ Holt's HR 550.

This is not to say that I won't be protesting the war, and fighting for a true populist, antiwar candidate in the primaries. I certainly will be. I am talking about after the primaries, when all the peoples' candidates have been "defeated"--by Diebold and ES&S or by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. Hillary will need SOME support in order to get into position to be Diebolded in office. They can't just manufacture an election out of whole cloth (although I'm sure they're working on it). She will need grass roots leftist support--just as Kerry did. We have to get smart, and very strategic, about what is being done to our country by these people. We are, in my opinion, being set up for the installation of a real Hitler in 2012, after they've blamed all of Bush's financial and foreign policy disasters on "the Democrats" and the "liberals," and when the country is in chaos and on its knees. Much as I dislike what Hillary is doing--going for the main chance in this way--I hope SHE realizes that SHE is being set up, and that nothing she does to please her new masters--not even invading Iran (which she is showing every sign of intending to do)--will prevent them from destroying her, and installing someone far worse than Bush.

I strongly believe that we WILL restore our democracy--just as they are doing in South America. And we have never known grief such as THEY have known at the hands of US-supported dictators. Ask Michele Batchelet, who was herself tortured by the US-supported dictator Pinochet--and was just elected the first woman president of Chile, and the first socialist since the US assassinated Salvador Allende, in 1973. A peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution is sweeping South America, and has moved north into Mexico as well. Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia. Next Peru. And then Mexico. All with leftist governments, all of whom have had it with US death squads and dictators and filthy unjust wars, and domination by the IMF/World Bank and US-based global corporate predators. The South Americans have worked long and hard for this--one of keys being difficult grass roots work to achieve TRANSPARENT elections. And if the South Americans can do it, so can we!

WE have the potential power to DO something about these corporate predators and warmongers--to pull their corporate charters, and seize their assets, and DISMANTLE them. That is our right as a sovereign people, in theory anyway. And that is WHY they have taken away our right to vote--we, the people of the United States, pose the greatest of dangers to the thieving, warmongering corporate rulers who are destroying the planet and oppressing people everywhere.

We need to strategize on the basis of truth and reality. We need to OPEN OUR EYES. We need to be heartened and have courage, no matter how difficult it gets. And we need to deal with the Nancy Pelosi's and Hillary Clinton's of this broken democracy with candor among ourselves about who they really are. What we above all want to prevent is more delusion. That is the master work of the corporate news monopolies: delusion. We need to help our fellow citizens, and ourselves, awaken from the many delusions they have been spun around us--almost like "The Matrix"--including the delusion that we, the members of the great progressive majority in this country, are in the minority. It is not true.

This great progressive American majority that we are part of has almost no representation in Washington DC. Half the Democrats in Congress routinely vote with the Bushites--out of corruption or fear--and not one of them--NOT ONE!--has raised the issue of BUSHITE corporations counting our votes with "TRADE SECRET" formulas. We are virtually without representation. That is what we must change. Restoring election transparency is the essential first step one toward that goal.

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7. Belarus: Taking it to Democracy, Russian Rigged Election Stinks

Here we go again. The Russians and their stooge in charge of Belarus just can't get elected legally, they have to pad, pad, pad. Who knows what the real results are. The European observers were immediatly available after the election and called it a fraud and the re-sElected President can't travel to Europe until it's cleared up. Wonderful, Putin and Bush, soulmates.


Special riot police forces scuffle with Belarus
opposition supporters during their march…. The
Belarus opposition is protesting against election
results that gave President Alexander Lukashenko
a third term. EPA/ANDREI LIANKEVICH

rom Monsters and Critics.com
Belarus police attack crowd, opposition leader arrested
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/article_1150038.php/Belarus_police_attack_crowd_opposition_leader_arrested

By DPA
Mar 25, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Minsk - Belarusian police using non-lethal grenades and clubs broke up a crowd of anti-government protestors on Saturday and arrested opposition leaders, witnesses said.

<snip>

Police charged the crowd shortly after 1500 GMT and were arresting all demonstration participants they could catch. Witnesses reported 'dozens' of demonstrators lying on the ground, some with injuries.

<snip>

The violence came after six days of peaceful anti-government demonstrations, which began last Sunday after authoritarian Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko was re-elected to office in a fraud-ridden election.

Law enforcers, according to early reports, arrested the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Aleksander Milinkevich on the central Kubyshev street shortly after the attack began, pulling Milinkevich from his automobile.

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8. Nation: Stories not covered, including election fraud, featured in Americ

This is a feisty publication. They’re touting the alternative media as leading the charge on important issues, including election fraud. Nice artivcle.

AMERICAN CHRONICLE

A Few Political Tidbits Not Covered by Corporate Media
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=7227

Scoop News in New Zealand published a story from the Atlanta Progressive News organization that informed readers that 30 members of Congress now support impeachment hearing for Bush. You can read the full story at Scoop http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00158.htm The Corporate Media extensively covered the failure of Senate democrats to endorse the Feingold measure censoring Bush but completely ignored this equally big story. A truly balanced news coverage would have given each story equal time.

Greg Palast wrote an amazing column for The Guardian in London called Bush Didn't Bungle Iraq, You Fools: THE MISSION WAS INDEED ACCCOMPLISHED. Palast argues that the Iraq War was launched to prevent Iraqi oil from flooding the international market and keeping oil prices low. The column points to the dominate role Big Oil has in the Bush political machine. Palast discusses how the oil industry has been able to profit excessively from the huge increases in oil prices during Bush from tight supplies. This shocking column has been ignored in the Corporate Media. You can read the full story at Greg Palast.com http://www.gregpalast.com
.
The growing scandal over electronic voting machine failures exploded in state after state. Voting machine failures created news from Texas to Maryland to Utah to Florida. The best place to start reading the many breaking stories is at Brad Blog. This column is simply not long enough to even begin to list the many daily breaking stories concerning the growing election voting scandal.

Maryland politicians from both major Parties are looking to scuttle the Diebold machines. A Texas primary recount was halted by court order when the voting machines were not counting properly for the recounts. Errors were reported up to 20 percent. Voting machine tests should serious errors and security weaknesses in tests in Utah and Florida. The Bush Administration and allies in Congress are pushing to make these failed voting machines the standard by the Fall elections. Growing numbers of voting rights activists are seeking emergency action to guarantee verified paper trails to prevent election fraud and other snafus this year. The Corporate Media has not given the issue significant coverage. Many citizens are unaware their votes may not get counted this election. Information on the subject is readily available on the Internet.

Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ). Mail: P.O. Box 283, Earleville, Maryland 21919. Email: [email protected] . Phone: [phone].

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9. IL: Great Editorial on Chicago Electronic Election Screw Ups

Chicago is such a great city, central Illinois must feel like the malnourished step child. So when they get a chance to take the big city down a peg or two, they can’t resist. This is an excellent editorial.



Saturday, March 25, 2006 12:36 AM CST

Chicago had voting problems; what a surprise
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/03/25/opinion/110106.txt
Pantagraph Editorial Saturday, March 25, 2006 12:36 AM CST

M ore than $4 billion in taxpayer money was spent nationwide to rectify a voting nightmare in the 2000 presidential election.

And here it is 2006 and what do we have - one of the major U.S. cities with problems six years ago still counting ballots on millions of dollars worth of new electronic equipment two days after the primary election ended.

<snip>

"I never saw a problem with punch-card ballots in McLean County," said Peggy Ann Milton, McLean County clerk and the person responsible for elections throughout the county except for the city of Bloomington. "It was usually user error. The problem had nothing to do with equipment."

Chicago is a beautiful example of why Congress shouldn't make such hasty, $4 billion decisions in the future. Lawmakers need to zero in on causes instead of results.

[FogerRox]

11. BRAD BLOG "Daily Voting News' "

Daily Voting News' - Top 5 Stories from the Past Week!
Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA . The March 20 edition can be...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 20 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

Heres Johns list:

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002608.htm

[paineinthearse]

12. "If John Bonifaz were Secretary of State in Florida...."

No way, Jose! We're keeping John in this Commonwealth, thank you.

www.johnbonifaz.com

Keep on!

[JimDandy]

13. FL: Activist, Tom Grayman III , slams new voting machines

Monday, March 27, 2006

Activist slams new voting machines
By Thomas R. Collins


BOYNTON BEACH — Your vote is not safe.

So warned author and political activist Tom Grayman III on Sunday night, armed with tales of disenfranchisement past and present as he spoke to a crowd of about 80 at St. John Missionary Baptist Church.

The answer to Florida's election chaos in 2000 — the electronic voting machine — does not reassure the author of 'Ghosts of Florida: Making Elections Fair for Blacks', an account of how he believes some groups are repeatedly stymied in their attempts to vote.

The electronic machines, he said, are the next vehicle for the "very creative, very devious and very serious" members of the establishment who want to keep certain groups, particularly blacks, from having their votes count.

"The way they record our vote, the method that they use, the process, is completely hidden," Grayman said of the machines. "It is completely unobservable by human beings.... That in and of itself makes them completely unacceptable for this role." >snip< If electronic machines must be used in Florida, he said, they should produce something we can see. "The ballots should come out, and then they should be counted by human beings, human hands, with human eyes and multiple observers," even if that takes days.

>snip<

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/27/m1b_grayman_0327.html

[Peace Patriot]

15. Oh, I love this man's message: "Counted by human hands, with human

eyes and multiple observers, even if that takes days."

Thank you, Tom Grayman III! :applause: :applause: :applause:

(Note: In Canada, they use paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level, and do it in one day. And who cares about speed anyway? What's important are ACCURACY and VERIFIABILTY and TRANSPARENCY.)

[Heywood J]

21. Seconded

(Note: In Canada, they use paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level, and do it in one day. And who cares about speed anyway? What's important are ACCURACY and VERIFIABILTY and TRANSPARENCY.)

Yep, we have paper ballets that are similar in principle to optical scan (place your mark in the target). The final counts aren't always complete by press time, but by noon the next day, the winner is known. We also have automatic recounts determined by vote thresholds. All our paper ballots are hand-counted and transmitted to the central federal agency. The longest I have ever personally waited to vote is ten minutes, and that was at lunchtime.

The point of this is that it's very possible to run a system like that in America. Count the votes in parallel and have enough precincts to keep the counts small, you can have hand-counting results in time.
Sure, it costs $200M to run the election, but part of that is public financing for parties, and using the 10-to-1 rule, what's $2B for a fair and accurate election that produces reliable results when you're spending $2.7T in a budget.

ETA to fix tags.

[Wilms]

23. Discussion: Activist slams new voting machines

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419007

[Peace Patriot]

16. Thanks for the photo of Ion Sancho, autorank! A great American hero!

John Bonafaz is cute, too. But Ion is more my type (Captain Picard!).

:bounce:

[JimDandy]

17. UT: Bruce Funk is in good company - MD Reps vote 137-0 to dump Diebold

Rolly: Politicians change - some more than others
by Paul Rolly
03/27/2006

>snip<

Rest of the story: Friday I chronicled the efforts of Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk to investigate the $27 million election system Utah bought from Diebold and added Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert's implication that Funk was a rogue clerk operating outside legal bounds and that the state has full confidence in Diebold.

Interesting. Maryland's House of Delegates voted 137-0 recently to drop Diebold's machines and switch to paper ballots. Representatives determined the machines cannot be trusted.

>snip<

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3642984

[JimDandy]

18. LA: Candidates encountering hurdles trying to reach New Orleans voters

Election hopefuls race in the dark

By Michelle Krupa
Monday, March 27, 2006

In post-Katrina city, the old rules are out

>snip<

As candidates across town have realized, electioneering in the new New Orleans, like most any pursuit in this crippled city, has become an adventure, a headlong leap into the unknown that is more an exercise in trial and error than a practice of well honed, high-yield, market-tested strategy.

>snip<

"This is unlike any election any of us have ever seen," said Wayne Parent, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Louisiana State University and former chairman of its political science department. "It's fascinating to an observer, but it must be just the most confusing, frustrating, complicated thing in the world to a participant."

Access to voters
To begin, state and federal officials have cited privacy rights in refusing to give candidates the temporary addresses evacuees have provided for federal aid. Displaced residents also have abandoned en masse their home telephone numbers, which has muddled candidates' ability to gauge their popularity through public opinion polls and target campaign messages to particular voters, pollster Ed Renwick said.

>much more

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1143442622126270.xml

[autorank]

19. NewOrleans, LA: The Disenfranchisement Of Katrina's Survivors

The Disenfranchisement Of Katrina's Survivors

Article: Michael Collins
Adding Insult to Injury for Katrina Survivors
- Barriers to Voting Due to Inadequate State & Local Efforts
- Two Law Suits Fail to Remedy the Situation.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0603/S00016.htm#
Special for "Scoop" Independent Media
Michael Collins
Wednesday, 1 March 2006, 3:02 pm

Wash. DC. - Two court decisions this weekend create barriers to voting for hurricane Katrina survivors spread around the United States. The U.S. District Court of Louisiana (Eastern) denied a lawsuit that sought to delay elections and allow special measures to enable voting by several hundred thousand displaced New Orleans evacuees. Advancement Project, a civil rights organization, filed the suit with ACORN (a national community rights organization) and individual voters.

<snip>

A second loss in state court.

In the second case, Louisiana State District Court Judge William Morvant, Baton Rouge, ruled out candidate access to potential voters by denying New Orleans candidates access to a FEMA list of addresses for evacuees. This is the most comprehensive list of evacuees and their current locations. The Louisiana Attorney General and Secretary of State have the list. It is unclear whether FEMA would release the list even if the court had allowed it. State Representatives Charmaine Marchand and Cedric Richmond are seeking the list to contact voters and encourage voting. They represent the sections of New Orleans hardest hit by hurricane damage which were predominantly black. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the release on the basis of privacy rights.

Judge Morvant noted that the plaintiffs failed to prove that this was a "voting list" or public document. He left the door open for an expected appeal (Morvant previously ruled that the states anti-gay laws were unconstitutional, a ruling reversed by the Louisiana Supreme Court). This prompted State Senator Cleo Fields, D, Baton Rouge, to term the upcoming primaries "secret elections" since voters have no way to gain information about the candidates or their positions. Fields went on to say: "How are these people going to run for office if they can't get in touch with their constituents? Ninety-seven percent of the people in their districts have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina." (From Baton Rouge Channel 2)

Demographics and disaster.

Before Katrina, New Orleans had a population of 462,000 people in 2004. Today that population is just over 130,000. Before Katrina, the population was predominantly black. Today, there is parity between blacks and whites, or a slight advantage for whites, a first for New Orleans in decades. This is the backdrop for the legal actions. The Federal filing noted Katrina's disproportionate impact in minority and poor voters and sought relief under civil rights laws.

[Kurovski]

20. Kick(nt)

[Kurovski]

24. Kick in remembrance of the GAO report on election crappiness.