Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 12/03/06 - HELP REVOTE FL-13

[freedomfries]

Election Reform, Fraud, & News Monday Sunday 12/03/06


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.

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page.
:patriot:

[freedomfries]

1. FL: Bloggers step up for Jennings

Bloggers step up for Jennings
Liberals flex muscles to raise money, awareness of 13th District fight.

Jeremy Wallace
Herald Tribune
December 3, 2006
Re-post Thanks livvy!
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/NEWS/612020393

SARASOTA -- This time, they were ready to pounce.

Liberal bloggers -- who could do little more than vent during the contested presidential election in 2000 -- are just as angry about this year's District 13 congressional controversy.

Now they are a much more formidable group: more heeded and more numerous, and eager to flex their political muscle on behalf of Democrat Christine Jennings.

Every day, the coordinators of Internet discussion forums like MyDD.com and dailykos.com post information from the ongoing audit of the District 13 election results, and the forum fills up with jokes about Florida politics and Sarasota County elections chief Kathy Dent.

But more than directing the discussion, the bloggers are also helping Jennings raise money.

Since the recount and audit of touch-screen voting systems started, Jennings has collected about $48,000 in small donations from more than 1,200 Internet-based donors through the sites, according to ActBlue.com, an online clearinghouse for Democratic fundraising.

That's more money than Jennings has been able to raise with her own online fundraising pleas. She has raised about $43,000 on the Internet during the same period.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061202/NEWS/612020393

[freedomfries]

2. FL: Touch-screen voting machines not safe, federal agency says

Touch-screen voting machines not safe, federal agency says
With voting machines in Sarasota still under the microscope, a federal agency criticized machines that provide no backup paper trail.

Lesley Clark
Miami Herald
December 2, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/16145880.htm

WASHINGTON - Touch-screen voting machines that lack an independent trail -- like the ones under review in a contested congressional seat in Sarasota -- can't be ''made secure'' and should be modified to include a paper record, a report from an influential federal agency says.

The draft report -- compiled by staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- is likely to give a major boost to efforts to mandate paper trails in states like Florida, where they are not required.

Citing the report and the investigation in Sarasota, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the incoming chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said Friday that the report underscores a need for legislation to require independent paper records.

''As we've seen in Sarasota, where officials have been unable to account for about 18,000 undervotes in the congressional election, it is crucial that there be an independent record that can be reviewed by election officials,'' Feinstein said.

She noted that the report ``reaffirms my belief that there are serious questions about the security and reliability of paperless electronic voting machines.''

A spokesman for Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood said the agency was reviewing the report but was not opposed to paper trails. Spokesman Sterling Ivey noted that the state's elections supervisors are also reviewing the issue.

''It may be a new piece of technology, but we first want to be sure we don't rush to judgment,'' Ivey said.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/16145880.htm

[philb]

23. Computer Scientist: Touch screen switching not due to calibration problems

Computer Scientist: Touch screen switching not due to calibration problems

Douglas Jones, a computer scientist at the University of Iowa, says he's heard similar stories from voters in several states, including one computer scientist in South Carolina who said that his attempts to vote for one candidate on the iVotronic were repeatedly changed to an opposing candidate by the time he got to the voter verification screen."

Officials normally explain the vote-flipping as calibration errors — touches on the screen are simply registering incorrectly They point to the 15-step process that poll workers can do to re-calibrate the screen. But vote-flipping on the eSlate can't be explained as a calibration error, since the eSlate doesn't have a touch screen. Voters use physical dials and buttons to move the highlight on the screen and make their selections.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1967&Itemid=26

Its clear that this applies to other types of touch screen equipment as well.
Switching on a machine that is systematically switching votes of a given candidate to another candidate or blank
could not be random calibration problems.
Based on the large amount of similar cases, its clear that the widespread switching is due to programming, defaults, or deliberate miscalibration to result in desired results.

2006 cases throughout the country
www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html

[freedomfries]

4. FL: Jennings Campaign Sues Voting-Machine Manufacturer ES&S

Jennings Campaign Sues Voting-Machine Manufacturer ES&S

VoteTrustUSA
December 02, 2006
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2093&Itemid=113

Jennings: “There is a real crisis in confidence among voters…This is a test case for the entire nation.”

With strong indications “that the staggeringly large number of undervotes in Sarasota County is due to the malfunctioning of the iVotronic electronic voting machines,” the Christine Jennings campaign today joined iVotronic manufacturer Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S) to its election contest in an effort to obtain a thorough independent examination of the entire voting system including the “source code.”

“There is a real crisis in confidence among voters, not just in Florida but throughout the country,” said Christine Jennings. “The voters of District 13 deserve answers, but this case has much wider implications beyond Florida. This is a test case for the entire nation.”

The Jennings election contest cites four sets of evidence that indicate a high probability of machine malfunction:
Statistical evidence: ES&S’s iVotronic machines were used for Sarasota County’s early and Election Day voting and produced an undervote rate of 15% – more than 6 times higher than the undervote rate on Sarasota’s paper absentee ballots and more than 6 times higher than the undervote rate in the other four counties in District 13.

Eyewitness accounts: From the first days of early voting, hundreds of voters have given eyewitness accounts directly to the media, at public hearings, and in signed affidavits documenting incidences of iVotronic machines systematically failing to record votes cast for Christine Jennings. Eyewitnesses include a former governor, poll workers, pollwatchers, computer experts, and voters from a variety of backgrounds.
Supervisor of Election “Incident Report Forms”: Supervisor of Election Incident Report Forms document widespread occurrences of voters having great difficulty in having the iVotronic electronic voting machines record their votes in the Thirteenth District race, including one that observed that a “voter voted on screen – didn’t show up on review . . . asked poll worker for help . . . ancelled ballot and moved to another machine,” and went on to observe “more than one with trouble on machine.”

Contemporaneous official Supervisor of Elections forms: Other forms document iVotronic machines’ failure to record votes cast, including machines being taken out of service on Election Day because they were “not recording some votes the touchscreen was not working properly” or were “not accepting votes.” Technical support personnel reported receiving “several complaints that voters make selections that do not appear on the summary screen” and that “will not register votes no matter how hard you press screen.”
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2093&Itemid=113

[freedomfries]

15. VoteTrustUSA: Partisanship and the Machines

Partisanship and the Machines

Bob Bauer's Blog
Vote Trust USA
December 02, 2006
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2092&Itemid=113

Just as it is wise to be suspicious of legal solutions to political problems, it is unfortunate when political reflexes overwhelm thought about legal problems. The Wall Street Journal this morning chooses to misrepresent the stakes in the current contest over the outcome in Florida’s Thirteenth Congressional District, “Sore Winners,” Wall Street Journal (Dec. 1, 2006) at A12.

Here we have the stale suggestion that a question about machine malfunction, raised by some 18,000 undervotes in an ultra-tight race, can be explained only by partisan refusal to accept a disappointing outcome. The Journal implies that Democrats seek to win on a statistical demonstration of probable victory—ignoring their efforts to secure comprehensive testing and cooperation of the state and the machine manufacturer in securing access to the source code to check for bugs. The Journal even brushes off the claim, for which there can be no meaningful support, that “negative campaigning” accounts for extensive voter shunning of this race.

The Journal concedes that concerns about the machinery might be held in good faith, but it won’t give credit for any such good faith here. “But back during the Florida debacle in 2000, before touch-screen voting was widely used, the same Democrats and liberal columnists deplored the inaccuracy of paper ballots and those ‘hanging chads’. Indeed they did; they were not alone, as even the Journal seems to accept, referring to the Florida election as a “debacle.” Since that time, a major—though still inadequate—national effort has been made to upgrade the reliability, verifiability and overall public confidence in voting systems. Attention has turned to the strengths and weaknesses of various voting technologies, and no one reasonably disputes that the issues to be responsibly considered and addressed are serious.

As the Journal scorns the Florida Thirteen issues as so much partisan posturing, the Washington Post reports on the National Institute of Standards and Technology ‘s critical assessment of machine systems, such as touch-screens without a paper trail feature, that do not allow for independent ballot verification and recount. Cameron W. Barr, "Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned Paper Systems Should Be Included, Agency Says," Washington Post (Dec. 1, 2006) at A1. These systems have produced a widening problem of voter confidence. They have also presented practical problems in addressing questions that arise naturally—and indeed reasonably—in close elections where problems or anomalies in the vote count have surfaced. And controversies such as these are not common, which is hardly what one would expect if, as the Journal claims, partisanship is the cause of complaints.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2092&Itemid=113

[freedomfries]

7. EpEdNews/DFA Petition to Put Paper Ballots on the National Agenda

SIGN THE PETITION TO PUT PAPER BALLOTS ON THE NATIONAL AGENDA

Allegra Dengler
December 2, 2006
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allegra__061202_sign_the_petition_to.htm

On Election Night, DFA-endorsed candidate Barbara McIlvaine Smith was down by 19 votes in her race for the Pennsylvania state house. She refused to concede, saying, "It is not about winning or losing... It's about making sure our democracy is intact."
Earlier this week the count of absentee and military paper ballots
concluded, and Barbara won by 23 votes -- switching the Pennsylvania House from Republican to Democratic for the first time in 12 years.
This powerful victory happened because every paper ballot was counted. But across America votes are increasingly being cast electronically with no paper record. Had the election in Pennsylvania been conducted electronically there is no saying how the race might have been decided.
You helped elect a new Democratic House and Senate in Washington, D.C. It's
time to put our majority into action. Ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi to put paper ballots on the agenda in the new Congress's first 100 hours:
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/paperballots

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_allegra__061202_sign_the_petition_to.htm

[freedomfries]

3. Electronic votes shouldn't be a leap of faith

Electronic votes shouldn't be a leap of faith

Dan Radmacher
The Roanoke Times, VA
December, 2006
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/radmacher/wb/wb/xp-94148

You'd think that, of all places, elections officials in Florida especially would want to do everything humanly possible to avoid voting irregularities.

After the butterfly ballots and hanging chads in 2000, who would want even to chance an embarrassing repeat?

But here we go again. In Sarasota County, Fla., about 18,000 votes in a hotly contested House race apparently have vanished -- and there's no good way to find out what happened because the votes were recorded, or not, on electronic voting machines that produce no paper record. There's nothing to double check.

The margin of victory in that hard-fought race to replace defeated Senate candidate Kathleen Harris was only 363 votes. Democrat Christine Jennings is refusing to concede. Lawsuits have been filed.

Chads would be better than this. As Dan Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida, told The Associated Press, "I think we actually are a step behind where we were in 2000 because then at least we had the ability to determine a voter's intentions. That's not possible when there is no paper trail."

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/radmacher/wb/wb/xp-94148

[freedomfries]

5. Feds Say E-Voting 'Cannot Be Made Secure'

Feds Say E-Voting 'Cannot Be Made Secure'

KLTV.com, Jacksonville, FL
December 2, 2006
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5759338

Paperless electronic voting machines in widespread use across the country may be vulnerable to errors or sabotage and cannot be made secure, a draft report by a federal agency said.

The report by researchers at the influential National Institute of Standards and Technology said the paperless voting machines essentially notebook computers programmed to display ballot images and record voter choices "in practical terms cannot be made secure."

"Many people, especially in the computer engineering and security community, assert that the (voting machines) are vulnerable to undetectable errors as well as malicious software attacks," the report said.

A key weakness is that there is no audit mechanism or paper trail to verify election results other than what the machine itself reports, the report said.

"Potentially, a single programmer could 'rig' a major election," the report said.

After examining the issue, including volunteering as election workers at polling sites, NIST researchers said in their report that they concluded that they not know how to write "testable requirements" to make the machines secure and it is their recommendation that the machines "in practical terms cannot be made secure."

Many states bought the paperless electronic voting machines with money provided by Congress after the 2000 presidential election, whose disputed results went all the way to the Supreme Court.

Gail Porter, NIST's public affairs director, emphasized that the draft report is a "discussion document" whose conclusions and recommendations could change.

The report will be discussed at a meeting Monday by NIST's Technical Guidelines Development Committee at the agency's headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md. The committee is tasked under a law enacted by Congress in 2002 to advise the Election Assistance Commission on developing guidelines for voting systems.

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5759338

[freedomfries]

9. Report recommends voting paper trails

Report recommends voting paper trails

United Press International
December 3, 2006
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20061203-011604-6724r.htm

A draft report from a U.S. government agency recommends that all electronic voting machines provide a paper record to guard against fraud.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology report follows the disputed results in Florida's 13th congressional district, the Miami Herald reported. While Republican Vern Buchanan has been declared the winner, 18,000 voters in the district mysteriously did not select a congressional candidate.
"As we've seen in Sarasota, where officials have been unable to account for about 18,000 undervotes in the congressional election, it is crucial that there be an independent record that can be reviewed by election officials," said Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., the incoming chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.
The report said 27 states mandate paper records with touch-screen machines, while another eight use them even though they are not legally required.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi/20061203-011604-6724r.htm

[freedomfries]

10. "Paper trails are fools' gold"

Passing paper trails at this stage, based on what we know right now is really fools gold.

JohnGideon
'Daily Voting News'
December 02, 2006
Bradblog
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3871

"The most important thing for Congress is to take a deep breath," says Dan Tokaji, an election-law expert at Ohio State University. He worries that momentum is building for something that could prove to be a mistake. "Passing paper trails at this stage, based on what we know right now is really fools gold. It may provide an initial sense of confidence. But that confidence won't be long-lasting unless we resolve some deeper issues." Tokaji is absolutely correct. He just didn't go far enough and say that with no confidence in the paper trail there should also be no confidence in Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. They are both, together or singly, "fools gold".

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3871

[freedomfries]

16. NIST Draft of White Paper on Electronic Voting

http://vote.nist.gov/DraftWhitePaperOnSIinVVSG2007-20061120.pdf

[philb]

21. A few of the Security Problems noted by voters in 2006 election

Marion County. Thousands of votes are missing on 66 missing memory cards (e-ballot boxes). Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler (R) says this occurs every election. "Usually it doesn't make a difference in the outcome of an election, so no one pays attention to that. But in this case it could make or break a candidate's position," she said. So far 23 cards have been found. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6785

There were similar reports throughout the country.

Yellowstone County. Mt, Election administrator may have counted some absentee ballots twice, so he will recount all ballots in the county. Procedures for the ES&S scanners require that absentee ballots be 'zeroed out' before regular ballots are scanned, and the administrator forgot this step on two scanners. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6783

This problem also was reported in many locations.



Shelby County. Tennessee, Several electronic voting cards, used to cast ballots on Diebold touch screens, are missing from a polling place in Memphis, according to the Tennessee Republican Party. "Once cast, an illegal vote made with the reprogrammed Smartcard would be indistinguishable from a legally cast vote," Davis wrote. http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local/article/0,2845,MCA_25340_5115699,00.html

El Paso County, Texas,
Problem logs requested by KTSM newschannel 9 show that, in the presence of an election judge, "a janitor in precinct 108 removed tamper seals and opened some voting machines." http://www.ktsm.com/news/local/4726001.html

[freedomfries]

6. CA: Election probe a good start

Election probe a good start

North County Times, CA
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12/03/opinion/editorialscal/18_32_1112_2_06.txt

Our View: The problems have been well-documented, but last week's decision to launch this investigation is the first welcome sign that anyone at the top has any real concerns.

The county Board of Supervisors has taken a good first step in deciding to look into problems that arose during and after the Nov. 7 election.

Among the supposed benefits of electronic voting ---- of which Riverside County was a pioneer, and for which it spent in excess of $30 million ---- were greater accuracy, reliability and speed. What we appear to have gotten for that money was less reliability and slower results. The question of accuracy remains unanswered and here we are, almost four weeks after the election, and the registrar of voters office just posted what appear to be final numbers late Saturday.

State law gives the registrar four weeks after an election to certify it ---- make a final count ---- but it has rarely, if ever, taken that long before. Nor should it.

The problems have been well-documented, but last week's decision by the Board of Supervisors to launch this investigation is the first welcome sign that anyone at the top has any real concerns.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12/03/opinion/editorialscal/18_32_1112_2_06.txt

[philb]

18. Documentation of millions affected in dozens of Calif. counties by electronic machine

unreliability and glitches; and similar for other states throughout the count


Documentation on problems in most states including California:
2006
www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html
www.flcv.com/eirsppp6.html
www.flcv.com/eirsoth6.html
www.flcv.com/eirsdt6.html

2004
www.flcv.com/summary.html

Touch screen machines are extremely unreliable and easily manipulated.

[freedomfries]

8. NJ: Your vote may or may not have been counted on Election Day

Your vote may or may not have been counted on Election Day

Michele Rosen
Asbury Park Press, NJ
Decmber 1, 2006
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061201/OPINION/612010384/1030

Election Day should be a celebration of our Democratic government and the rights and privileges we enjoy. While Americans have grown increasingly cynical about their government and those who serve in it, the fact so many people vote indicates we take those rights and privileges seriously. Perhaps that is why the events of the past few weeks in Ocean County have been so distressing.

We know the election was flawed by what the Ocean County Board of Elections calls "glitches" in the program that tabulated the votes on the voting machines for Barnegat. And we know the board conducted a recheck of the vote totals on all of the machines used.

The so-called "glitches," however, are not glitches at all, but major flaws that may have changed the election results, at least at the municipal level, and the recheck proved nothing at all.

Instead of code words that understate the problems that occurred and press releases that ignore the issues, voters in Barnegat and throughout Ocean County need explanations from the board.

First, the board said the tabulating program counted the votes on one electronic voting machine in Barnegat's 10th district twice. This makes no sense. Every electronic voting machine has a removable cartridge (like a memory stick). The board claims the vote tally for this one machine was not received from the municipal clerk and, therefore, that same cartridge was reread. But two tallies were recorded. The board needs to explain how the cartridge was read twice when it is supposed to be formatted so it can only be read once in order to avoid duplicate tallies.

Second, the board claims that 75 votes cast for Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., on that same Barnegat electronic voting machine were not tallied in Barnegat but were added to Menendez's total in Lakewood. Again, this makes no sense. The county's own precinct report shows that after deducting the duplicated votes for Menendez, his total vote was 143, the exact number the machine tally showed on election night.

The Board of Elections must explain how those 75 votes got on the cassette and provide proof that every cassette used in the election had been completely cleared of previous election data before they were used Nov. 7. If that cassette was not reformatted, the implications are overwhelming. A few votes, left on several cartridges from a previous election, would have changed the election results at the local level. And this kind of failure would be undetectable because no candidate received 100 percent of the vote. Therefore, a few extra votes in any district that had not actually been cast in the 2006 general election would go unchallenged.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061201/OPINION/612010384/1030

[freedomfries]

11. NH: State GOP to pay Democrats $125,000 in phone-jam suit

State GOP to pay Democrats $125,000 in phone-jam suit

Garry Raino
Union Leader Staff
December 2, 2006
http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?gallery_id=5510&sequencenum=0&provider_id=332&process=gallery&page=

Manchester – The state Republican Party will pay Democrats $25,000 a year for the next five years, a total of $125,000, under a settlement reached Friday in the 2002 Election Day phone-jamming suit.

The total is far short of the $4.1 million Democrats sought at the beginning of negotiations and much more than the $5,000 Republicans offered.

The settlement comes several days after Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones dealt blows to both parties's cases.

Also under the agreement, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee will each make a payment of $5,000 to two charities: one affiliated with the Manchester Professional Firefighters and the other charity affiliated with the Manchester police.

Republicans do not admit any liability under the agreement, and did not apologize, as state Democratic Party chair Kathy Sullivan had demanded.

However, Sullivan said yesterday she was pleased the settlement was reached as both sides faced significant risks if the trial had gone forward as scheduled tomorrow.

"For the Democratic Party, it was never about money, but about unravelling the conspiracy behind the phone jamming and about having the various defendants take responsibility for their actions," she said.

http://pictopia.com/perl/gal?gallery_id=5510&sequencenum=0&provider_id=332&process=gallery&page=

[freedomfries]

12. NH: Judge lets Democrats seek more damages in phone-jam case

Judge lets Democrats seek more damages in phone-jam case

Bangor Daily News, AP
December 1, 2006
http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=143643&zoneid=500

MANCHESTER, N.H. - A judge has ruled New Hampshire Democrats can go after more than just the cost of renting and using telephones that were jammed by Republicans on Election Day four years ago.

The ruling offers the Democrats the right to argue the GOP jamming in 2002 hindered their attempt to boost voter turnout.

Republicans wanted Judge Philip Mangones to rule the Democrats could claim only $4,974 in damages — the cost of renting and using phones for the get-out-the-vote campaign. Democrats argued they should be able to go after more than $4 million in damages — the cost of seven months of work for the get-out-the-vote effort.

That’s nearly half of what Democrats spent on their effort, which was disrupted for nearly two hours the day it was supposed to pay off.

Mangones placed some limits on Democrats’ claims.

He said Democrats can’t include the entire cost of their seven-month-long, get-out-the-vote operation. The costs of "postage, signs, rent and other such expenditures that were not proximately impacted by the telephone system interference would generally not be recoverable," he ruled.

In rejecting Republicans’ arguments, Mangones said jamming the phone lines prevented Democrats from communicating with field offices, volunteers and voting sites.

"To the extent that the can establish a direct link between the precluded communications and the hindered activity, such evidence would warrant consideration for purposes of damages," he said.

The Republicans hired a telemarketing firm to place hundreds of hang-up calls to phone banks for the Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters union, a nonpartisan group offering rides to the polls. The election featured a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in which U.S. Rep. John Sununu defeated Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.

http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=143643&zoneid=500

[freedomfries]

13. MA: Nantucket post-election fireworks

Post-election fireworks

Capecod Today
posted by Jamie
December 2, 2006
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/Nantucket/2006/12/02/post_election_fireworks

“We petition for a hand recount of the ballots cast in the special election of November 21, 2006 to fill a vacancy on the Nantucket Board of Selectman on the grounds that irregularities in the conduct of the election and the preliminary and final counting of optical scanner-read and so called rejected ballots caused the record of such balloting to be erroneous and that a recount will effect the results. To preserve the issues for additional legal review of the election, we allege: that the initial hand count of the 70 rejected-as-unreadable ballots resulted in an adjustment to the vote tallies totaling 73, above the two-vote margin that decided the election; that the subsequent count of rejected ballots resulted in a count that was significantly different, statistically, than the voting pattern reflected in the machine read ballots; that an unauthorized person, namely, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Whiting Willauer, was present in the secure ballot counting area and interfered with the orderly counting of the rejected ballots; that the Town Clerk, who was a candidate for the office, appears to have certified the ballot and/or caused her name to be placed at the top right corner of the ballot, and that the ballot layout deviated from the standard election ballot layout employed by the Town Clerk previously, and resulted in voter confusion over which oval corresponded with each candidate.” (credit here to Grant Sanders for publishing this text; see his blog at www.grantsanders.blogspot.com)
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/Nantucket/2006/12/02/post_election_fireworks

[freedomfries]

14. AZ: Action stalled on political 'robocalls'

Action stalled on political 'robocalls'

Stuart Frohm
Midland Daily News, AZ
December 2, 2006
http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17540417&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6

Before the Nov. 7 election, a woman called the Midland Daily News. She said she wanted to call the source of a political campaign message on her answering machine. But she couldn't because there was no identifying information.

Some of the calls voters get are placed by computers and tagged with the "robocall" label.

For years, state lawmakers haven't acted on Midland Republican state Sen. Tony Stamas' bill aimed at part of the anonymous-call problem. If necessary, the plan is to reintroduce Stamas' bill soon after the 2007 Senate session begins, said Chad Wing, Stamas' chief of staff.

That might be necessary. The Associated Press recently reported that Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema said the Republican-controlled Senate won't take up campaign finance and ethics bills this year.

Stamas proposed that campaign phone calls made to voters and relating to a candidate include disclosure of who is paying for the calls. That would include whether a candidate committee authorized the calls. The fine for knowing violation could be as high as $1,000.

Instead, the Senate could have acted on a House-passed bill. The fine would be the same. But the House-passed bill:

* would forbid making robocalls after 9 p.m. and before 9 a.m.

* applies to calls relating to "an election, a candidate or a ballot question," not merely to a candidate.

And the House-passed bill says that if a person, not a committee, makes an automated call to a voter, the secretary of state is to receive the caller's identity, address and phone number where the caller can be contacted during normal business hours, the name of the person paying for the call, and the caller's pay for making the call.

http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17540417&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6

[philb]

19. Robo Calls are clearly unethical and I assume illegal & were used in several races in several states

by the Repub party. Something should be done about it. Such unethical, illegal systematic and widespread tricks have been used in many counties of many states in both 2006 and 2004

2006
www.flcv.com/eirsdt6.html

2004
www.flcv.com/summary.html

[freedomfries]

17. Electionline Analysis of 2006 Nationwide Election Problems

Analysis of 2006 Election Finds Problems Nationwide
Lack of post-vote controversy masks widespread voting difficulties

Electionline.org
http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/228/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

The nation’s leading source for nonpartisan and non-advocacy news and information on election reform released its first comprehensive look at the 2006 election, finding widespread problems but no meltdowns at the nation’s polling places.

The 2006 Election, the 15th in a series of policy briefings by electionline.org, found widespread reports of voting system troubles, sporadic incidents of voter intimidation and/or poll worker confusion over voter identification requirements and some breakdowns at polling places because of problems with newly-mandated voter registration systems.

“The question most frequently asked after the election is whether it was a success,” said Doug Chapin, the organization’s director. “Success can be measured in a two ways. If success is measured through picking winners, then yes, there were few races in which polling-place problems could have affected the outcome. But, on the other hand, if it is measured through whether every voter who showed up at a polling place had an opportunity to cast their vote without problems or obstacles, then the answer is no.”

With more than a third of all voters casting ballots on new voting systems compared with just two years ago, human and machine errors were widespread. In a number of states, including Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Arkansas, and Illinois, inexperienced poll workers struggled to start, troubleshoot and close electronic voting machines. Voters in a number of states reported “vote flipping,’ whereby machines indicated choices other than those made by the voter, either when the screen was touched or when the choices were revealed on a review screen.

Voting machine breakdowns throughout the day were common as well, slowing voting in parts of California, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, New Jersey and other states.

http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/228/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

[philb]

22. It appears these people didn't do as thorough a job of analysis as they think

There is no way that they could conclude that it appears the 2006 elections were successful at picking the winners prefered in most races, given the well documented widespread touch screen switching, glitches, programming problems, compiler problems, security problems, and also widespread problems with opti-scan and eSlate and level machines that were documented.

This is in addition to widespread voter suppression affecting millions in many states, including widespread systematic illegal dirty tricks, widespread purges of legal and active voters, manipulation of registrations and absentees, widespread malfeasance by officials/poll workers, long lines, huge numbers not allowed to vote, etc. that were documented by reports of voters and poll workers to Election Protection hotlines.

www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html
www.flcv.com/eirsppp6.html
www.flcv.com/eirsoth6.html
www.flcv.com/eirsdt6.html

see the 2 threads on close races to specific races that were close enough and had enough irregularities that appear they might have been swung by manipulation. I'm aware of about 20 such high level races, and no one has looked at the thousands of lower level close races throughout the country, many of which were likely affected by the widespread manipulation, glitches, long lines and other factors preventing millions from voting, most often in minority areas, and likely sufficient to have swung many elections.

[philb]

20. Denver elect. supervisors asked to resign & Auditor recommends firing all senior Denver El. Official

s after disastrous 2006 election

Denver Election Commissioners asked to resign after disastrous election due to electronic machine problems and Auditor recommends firing all senior election staff.

Computer glitches prevented many thousands of residents from voting, piles of absentee ballots are still to be counted, and Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher today asked that Denver's two elected voting commissioners - Susan Roger and Sandy Adams - resign and that the mayor fire Clerk and Recorder Wayne Vaden as well as the entire senior staff of the election commission, including executive director John Gaydeski
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6782

Denver. Co. most machines failed while long lines formed and an estimated 20,000 voters unable to vote, about 30% of the number that were able to vote.
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6918 ; http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6774
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6742 ; http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6920

Denver. Sequoia misprinted the barcodes that identify precincts on absentee ballots, so the county has to sort 70,000 ballots into the 23 different ballot styles. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6867

Denver. One of two Sequoia absentee ballot scanners broke down and had to be replaced during the counting process on election day. http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6867

Denver wasn’t only place in Colorado with major problems

Douglas County. The county's 300 eSlates weren't enough to handle the turnout with such a long ballot, says the County Clerk in an apology to the voters. 200 more are needed to avoid long lines
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6787

[freedomfries]

24. good comments and info philb!

:yourock:

[philb]

25. Another Congressional race with very high undervotes, Cong. Dist 1, Butler County

Cranley and Chabot Ohio Dist 1
also touch screen switching, machine problems, long lines, minority and student voter suppression, malfeasance, etc.

apparent undervote percent in Butler County in the 2 Congressional races was 19.5%

higher than Sarasota

also seems to be very high undervotes in the U.S. Senate race
which is very unusual

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=461171&mesg_id=461476

[Land Shark]

26. Kick