IF A GUY IS STUPID-IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE!-Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed 3/14/07

[kpete]

IF A GUY IS STUPID-IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE!-Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed 3/14/07

America has been conducting an experiment for the past six years, trying to validate the proposition that it really doesn't make any difference who you elect president. Now we know the result of that experiment. If a guy is stupid, it makes a big difference.

From General Tony McPeak

This is from a Rolling Stone roundtable about Iraq that asks, How bad can it get? The answers span the gamut from soul-crushingly-depressing to abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter-here. In other words, don't click the link unless you've taken your Prozac today. Seriously. You have been warned.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_03/010912.php
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13710030/leaving_iraq_the_grim_truth/print


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.ph...

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.

[kpete]

1. WA: GOP leader confirms he called U.S. attorney about governor's race

Posted on Tue, Mar. 13, 2007
GOP leader confirms he called U.S. attorney about governor's race
By Les Blumenthal

The Seattle Times


WASHINGTON - A former chairman of the Washington state Republican Party said Tuesday he talked with the GOP-appointed U.S. attorney in Seattle during the agonizing recounts in the 2004 governor's race.

Chris Vance said then-U.S. Attorney John McKay made it clear he would not discuss whether his office was investigating allegations of voter fraud in the election. He said McKay cut off the conversation.

"I thought it was part of my job, to be a conduit," Vance, who now operates a consulting business, said in a telephone interview. "We had a Republican secretary of state, a Republican prosecutor in King County and a Republican U.S. attorney, and no one was doing anything."

Vance also said that he was in contact with the White House's political office at the time.

Those conversations and others are coming to light as Democrats in Congress investigate whether McKay and seven other U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons.

more at:
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/16897028.htm

[kpete]

2. White House wanted prosecutors fired because of voter fraud cases

White House wanted prosecutors fired because of voter fraud cases

The New York Times reports: The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.

Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians who complained directly to the president, according to an administration official. ...

In early 2005, Harriet E. Miers, then the White House legal counsel, asked a Justice Department official whether it would be feasible to replace all United States attorneys when their four-year terms expired, according to the Justice Department. The proposal came as the administration was considering which political appointees to replace in the second term, Ms. Perino said.

Ms. Miers sent her query to D. Kyle Sampson, a top aide to Mr. Gonzales, the Justice officials said. Mr. Sampson, who resigned Monday, replied that filling so many jobs at once would overtax the department. He suggested replacing a smaller group, according to e-mail messages and other memorandums compiled by the Justice Department.

more at:
http://www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/005069.html#comments

[kpete]

3. Latest WH Lie: All U.S. Attorneys Suspect for Not Investigating Voter Fraud

Latest WH Lie: All U.S. Attorneys Suspect for Not Investigating Voter Fraud
By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Tue Mar 13, 2007


The lastest lie from the White House is that all 93 U.S. Attorneys were being considered for firing by the President for not appropriately investigating voter fraud. Today's New York Times, White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors,

Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

This is an absolute and utter sham.

more at:
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/3/13/102433/269

[lancdem]

4. When I saw that quotation yesterday

I was LMAO. Unfortunately, the reality of the unbelievable damage Bush has caused is no laughing matter.

[kpete]

5. "Hand counted paper ballot" bill filed

March 14, 2007
"Hand counted paper ballot" bill filed
From my inbox, the following is from VoteRescue:

VoteRescue in Austin, Texas is proud to announce the submission yesterday of HB 3894 by Texas Rep. Lon Burnam of Tarrant County, which calls for hand-counted paper ballots, and the elimination of electronic voting systems for our elections in Texas. The exception would be ballot marking machines such as Automark. Our founder, Karen Renick, had a major hand in crafting this bill.

Vote-PADS or Equalivote systems, both non-electronic voting systems, will be recommended for use with the disabled community to fulfill the Help American Vote Act mandate.

More info about the bill is here:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=genera_vickie_k_070311_texas_rep__lon_burna.htm

more info here:
http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/009004.html#009004

[Peace Patriot]

6. Some doings on FL-13 today. ES&S machines flawed--Sarasota knew it!

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3160852

And see today: www.bradblog.com. (They've got the actual letter up.)

I'm not sure what to make of it. An ES&S letter has surfaced, that Kathy Dent was supposed to have received, warning of a flaw in the touchscreens that 'disappeared' 18,000 Democratic votes for Congress. Who knows, with these people? If nothing else, the letter reveals the UNBELIEVABLY bad--not to mention obvious--security holes in this FRAUDULENT--not to mention malevolent--'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY vote counting system. ES&S says maybe they'll get their bad code "certified" (for what that's worth), and maybe not, so maybe they should put up a sign to warn voters? That would be a "win-win," Kath.* But Kath didn't bother. So who is responsible--this dreadful and I mean DREADFUL transnational corporation, funded by a far, far rightwing Bushite--or this, ahem, "public" official who stuffed their pockets with millions of taxpayer dollars for these crapass, insider hackable voting machines?

Stay tuned.

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

*(They didn't really say it's a "win-win," and the letter wasn't addressed to Kath, but rather to "Dear FL Users." I guess FL means Florida. "Users" would be our publicly salaried election officials. Users.)

[kpete]

7. Ga. voting machines left in leaky DeKalb County warehouse

Posted on Tue, Mar. 13, 2007
Ga. voting machines left in leaky DeKalb County warehouse
SHANNON McCAFFREY
Associated Press

ATLANTA - Thousands of moisture-sensitive Diebold voting machines have been left under tarps in a leaky DeKalb County warehouse, more than a year after officials learned of the problem, county officials told the state Election Board on Tuesday.

Board members said the revelation raised serious questions about the integrity of Georgia's voting process. Officials with the secretary of state's office said counties across the state are being ordered to conduct audits to ensure their voting equipment is intact and being housed appropriately. They plan to inspect each audit.

"It's outrageous," David Worley, a Democratic appointee to the board, said of conditions at the Decatur warehouse.

The leaky storage for the 2,758 voting machines came to light on Tuesday after embarrassing news earlier this year that about 40 voter access cards and three electronic ballot encoders belonging to DeKalb County had shown up for sale on an Internet auction site.

The cards have all been recovered and officials say there is no evidence they were ever used. They were lost when DeKalb County, near Atlanta, sold old furniture without cleaning out the drawers. The furniture buyer found the cards inside and posted them for sale on e-Bay.

Critics said the incident raised questions about the security of the state's electronic voting system.

more at:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/16896246.htm

[kpete]

8. Voting machines a waste

Voting machines a waste


It's obscene what counties pay for electronic voting machines to count our votes with secret software. That cost is putting a huge financial burden on counties and at times costing county clerks their sanity.

Will we ever know the cost to the integrity of our elections if we continue to use these hackable machines? And at what cost are we handing over our sacred votes to corporations that will not let us see how they're being counted?

Unfortunately, we may be heading down another costly road. Adding expensive printers for worthless paper trails does not solve the security problems for a multitude of reasons, most importantly because citizens are still shut out of the process.

The hand counting of paper ballots in full public view is the only system worthy of the people who paid the ultimate price to secure our right to vote.

JONI ASHBROOK

[email protected]

Bastrop

[kpete]

9. House Subcommittee to Hold Election Reform Hearing on "Machines and Software"

House Subcommittee to Hold Election Reform Hearing on "Machines and Software"
By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
March 14, 2007

The Elections Subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration will hold a hearing on March 15, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 1539 of the Longworth House Office Building in Washington D.C. The meeting will be chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). There will be two panels, the first of which will focus on Accessibility and Voting Machines Issues and will include the following witnesses:

Diane Golden - Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities
Kelly Pierce - Disability Access Voter, Working Group Cook County
Eric Clark - Mississippi Secretary of State
Ted Selker - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brit Williams, Kennesaw State University
The second panel will address software disclosure and will include the following witnesses:

David Wagner - UC Berkeley, ACCURATE
Matt Zimmerman - Electronic Frontier Foundation
Brian Behlendorf - Collab.net, Apache Software Foundation
Hugh Gallagher, Election System Acquisition and Management Services
The hearing is open to the public.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2318&Itemid=26

[kpete]

10. GA: GAVV Complaint Referred to the Attorney General for Investigation

GAVV Complaint Referred to the Attorney General for Investigation
By Georgians for Verified Voting
March 14, 2007
The Georgia State Election Board on March 13, 2007 voted unanimously (with one abstention) to refer a complaint filed on December 13, 2006 by Georgians for Verified Voting (GAVV) to the state Attorney General for investigation. GAVV is a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizens' action group that advocates for voting systems and processes in Georgia that are transparent, verifiable and secure.


The complaint raises questions about the electronic voting system used in the 2006 primary and general elections: whether key rules and procedures related to system certification were followed by the former Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Election Director Kathy Rogers, Britain Williams, consultant to the state's voting system certifying agent, Kennesaw Center for Elections, and Diebold Election Systems.

Bob Barr, former member of the U.S. Congress (1995-2003) and president of Liberty Strategies, presented the complaint to the Board.



In his statement Barr said: "When there are credible questions raised about touch-screen electronic voting, the state must confirm the source, identify the problem, and put into action a plan to correct the problem or to credibly assure the public that the perceived problems were not in fact extant. The state of Georgia has a profound interest in taking all reasonable steps to investigate such concerns...."



"We have every confidence that the Attorney General will conduct a thorough and complete investigation into this matter," said Donna Price, director of GAVV, "and we applaud the State Election Board for their decision. Full Complaint

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2317&Itemid=113

[FogerRox]

11. Bradblog- FL-13: Company Warned of Touch-Screen Voting System Defect

Melinda Henneberger at Huffington Post runs a news item today concerning an August 2006 letter from the voting machine company ES&S to Florida Elections officials warning about a defect in the iVotronic touch-screen voting machine which succeeded in losing the votes of some 18,000 voters in the razor-thin election between Christine Jennings (D) and Vern Buchanan (R) in Florida's 13th U.S. House Congressional district. Buchanan was provisionally seated, pending a Congressional challenge and state lawsuit filed by Jennings, after he was declared the "winner" by 369 votes.

The Sarasota, FL, Election Supervisor, Kathy Dent, decided against both having their machines patched to take care of the defect and posting a warning notice for voters as advised by ES&S. "No one in the State of Florida updated," their machines after receiving the letter, Dent told Henneberger. "That's because it was too close to the election. It was a state decision that it was too late to make changes."

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4265