Friday 2/18 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.


Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x328774

Direct link:

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5582

DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x329523

February 17, 2005

Senators Clinton and Boxer, Representative Tubbs Jones and others unveil major election reform bill

by Offices of Sen. Clinton and Rep. Tubb Jones

Legislation Would Enact Sweeping Reforms by Next Major Election Cycle in 2006


WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today unveiled comprehensive voting reform legislation to make sure that every American is able to vote and every vote is counted. Senators Clinton and Boxer announced the legislation today in a press conference joined by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), who will sponsor the legislation in the House of Representatives, and voting rights advocates.

"Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process," said Senator Clinton. "The smooth functioning of our democracy depends on voters having faith in the fairness and accuracy of our voting system, and the Count Every Vote Act is an important step toward restoring this covenant. We must be able to easily and accurately count every vote so that every vote counts."

Added Senator Boxer: "Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth, their vote has a much weight as that of any CEO, any member of Congress, or any President. Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation, and we must take action to ensure that the American people have full confidence in our electoral system."

"I am pleased to join with Senators Clinton and Boxer in introducing companion legislation in the House as we continue our efforts to ensure that every American is afforded their Constitutional right to vote," said Representative Tubbs Jones. "This legislation seeks to combat the tremendous voting irregularities that plagued both the 2000 and 2004 elections. If in fact we see it is our obligation to secure democracy around the world, to monitor and oversee free and fair elections in other countries, most recently in Iraq, then we must ensure, protect and guarantee the right to vote right here at home."


more: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2005/1167

Posted: Feb. 17, 2005

VOTER ID WILL BE REQUIRED IN WISCONSIN

From Journal Sentinel readers


It was Republicans who raised issue




Why do Republicans want to restrict voting?




Photo identification won't solve problems



source: http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/feb05/302585.asp

February 17, 2005

Representative Conyers and others file amicus brief in Ohio Supreme Court

by Dena Graziano

Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, will be filing an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court with the support of Senator Russ Feingold and 17 other members of the House of Representatives recommending that the Court not sanction the attorneys who brought Ohio election contest in Moss v. Bush (no.04- 2088). Mr. Conyers offered the following statement:

"The attorneys in this case had reason to believe that the election results did not reflect the will of the electorate. In good faith, they brought a case based not only on statistical probability but the depositions and affidavits of computer experts, statisticians, and election volunteers. In only a couple months, these attorneys have amassed over 900 pages of evidence.

"While we take no opinion on the underlying case, we firmly support the right of citizens to challenge elections results in court when they have a good faith basis to do so. Truly, Secretary Blackwell's attempt to sanction these attorneys is meant to send a message to anyone who dare challenge his questionable election administration. For our democracy to work properly, we can't allow this sort of intimidation by state officials.”

Original Press Release (in PDF format)

source: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1166

Video - Hardball reports on "Gannon" scandal - 2/17 @ 7:45 PM ET



Video in Real Media format (100k stream / 7 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/hardball_gannon_050217-01.rm

Video - MSNBC Countdown reports on "Gannon" scandal - 2/17 @ 8:00 PM ET



Video in Real Media format (100k stream / 10 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/olbermann_gannon_050217-01.rm

Video - MSNBC Ron Reagan reports on "Clinton" voter rights bill - 2/18 @ 12:45 PM ET



Video in Real Media format (100k stream / 7 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/msnbc_c2c_vote_bill_050218-01.rm

Thursday, February 17, 2005 · Last updated 6:01 p.m. PT

Election reform package passes Senate committee

By RACHEL LA CORTE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Lawmakers pushed ahead with their promise to tackle election reform Thursday as a Senate committee passed several bills while House Republicans announced their agenda on the emotion-charged issue.
...
Dozens of bills have been introduced in both houses since the session began Jan. 12, and a package that passed out of the Senate Government Operations & Elections Committee on Thursday could go to the Senate floor as early as next week.

The Senate package would hold the primary a month earlier so counties would have more time to get out general election ballots. It would impose statewide standards for handling ballots, require first-time voters to produce identification at the polls, require regular audits of county election departments, and require a paper trail for touch-screen voting machines like Snohomish and Yakima counties are using.
...
Kastama said the Senate will not accept a Republican proposal for re-registration of all voters, a bill that has been sponsored by the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Pam Roach of Sumner.


more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20XGR%20Election%20Reform&dpfrom=th

Friday, February 18, 2005

Time appears right for Hillary to run

By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST


WASHINGTON -- A mere four years ago, an undistinguished, forgettable Republican congressman named Rick Lazio campaigned for a vacant New York Senate slot with one message: I am not Hillary.

But Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton let him have it. The former first lady flattened him, winning the Senate seat by the convincing margin of 12 percentage points.

She has, by most accounts, been a hard-working, responsible senator and is favored to win re-election next year. And then? Recent polls report that Clinton leads the field for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

This is politically exciting, and risky. When Walter Mondale picked Rep. Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, I wept openly -- as did every other woman I saw that day at the 1984 Democratic Convention. It was a dramatic political breakthrough for our gender.
...
Maybe we are ready now for the next step up. Seriously ready. Other countries have chosen female prime ministers or presidents and survived just fine. And in Clinton, we have one of the most celebrated political figures of our time.


more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/212512_means18.html

February 18, 2005

Indiana Bill won't cure election panel ills

Our position is: Proposed legislation would inject too much partisanship into the oversight of elections.


Indiana elections are partisan affairs. No news flash there. Regulating them, however, should not be.

On that point, the General Assembly is considering a bill that could make election oversight even more partisan. Senate Bill 500 would put the Indiana Election Commission under the authority of the secretary of state, itself an elected position that has been a springboard for higher office.

That's not to say the commission doesn't need reform. Its four members -- two Republicans, two Democrats -- often deadlock on controversial issues of voting or campaign financing. The impasses sometimes wind up in court or aren't settled at all.

But SB 500 isn't the answer. The bill, assigned to the Senate Elections and Civic Affairs Committee, would make the secretary of state, currently Republican Todd Rokita, chairman of the commission and require him to break tie votes. The bill would effectively give control of any disputes to whichever party holds the office.


source: http://www.indystar.com/articles/3/223134-1173-021.html

Friday, February 18, 2005

Kerry, Clinton rock the vote with new bill

By Noelle Straub


John Kerry

WASHINGTON - Ex-felons would win the right to vote in federal elections - as long as they served their time and completed probation - under a bill backed by Sen. John F. Kerry and his possible 2008 rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

``Those who have paid their debt to society and stayed out of trouble should participate in federal elections because that is part of being a good citizen,'' Kerry spokesman David Wade said.

Clinton outlined the Count Every Vote Act yesterday with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Stephanie Tubb Jones (D-Ohio), who forced a congressional debate on the certification of the 2004 election results.

Kerry, who vowed to push for election reform after voting irregularities in the November election, said the bill was not meant to question those results.

``This has nothing to do with me,'' he said. ``This is a right, an American right.''


more: http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=69208

This is a great article on fraud in the 2004 election. It probably deserves its' own thread.

---

02.18.05

Defining Democracy Down

by: Dan Benbow



Ohio '04: Defining Democracy Down

On election morning I went to a local cafe for my morning fix - coffee and a peak at the early exit polls on the Drudge Report. At the front counter the cafe owner told me with concern that an Ohio friend of hers had called to say that the electronic machine she'd voted on had switched her vote from Kerry to Bush. Not this shit all over again, I thought to myself, until I logged on and saw Kerry's promising, if not commanding, numbers across the country.

Kerry’s exit poll margins held until late on Election Day. Polls provided to the networks at 7:30 Eastern Time showed Kerry ahead 51 - 48 nationally. According to Thom Hartmann, a progressive radio host who was on his shift at the time, an AP feed came over the radio at 12:20 a.m. announcing that long-time Bush political consultant Karen Hughes had had a sit-down with her candidate to discuss his imminent loss. As in 2000, Bush survived a near-death experience and made a seemingly miraculous comeback.


Those crazy exit polls

In the weeks after the 2004 election, reports of voter intimidation, outrageous lines, electronic votes switching from Kerry to Bush, machine malfunctions, and other problems in Ohio - all of which benefited Bush - flooded the Internet. In combination with the exit poll numbers, these incident reports led some of the bolder bloggers to suggest that Ohio '04 was a replay of Florida '00, in which Bush stepped into office on the backs of tens of thousands of disenfranchised voters.

Academic reports appeared that backed these theories: Steven Freeman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, weighed the election day exit polls in three swing states - Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania - and concluded that the chances of the exit polls swinging to the extent they did was 1 in 662,000. Ron Paul Baiman, an economist and statistician at the University of Illinois, put the chances of the exit poll swing at 1 to 255,000,000. Republican pollster Dick Morris said: "So reliable are the surveys that actually tap voters as they leave the polling places that they are used as guides to the relative honesty of elections in Third World countries" (Morris went on to blame the exit poll discrepancy on a corporate media conspiracy to suppress the Republican vote in the West.)


much more: http://www.getunderground.com/underground/features/article.cfm?Article_ID=1786

From The Houston Chronicle:
Feb. 17, 2005, 11:55PM

Democratic lawmakers push measure to make Election Day a holiday

Clinton, Kerry join call for bill aiming for higher turnout and fewer problems at polls

By DEVLIN BARRETT



Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. John Kerry,
potential Democratic candidates in the 2008
presidential race, discuss the Count Every Vote Act
on Capitol Hill on Thursday.


WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate in 2008, joined 2004 nominee John Kerry and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting.

She also pushed for legislation allowing all ex-felons to vote.

Standing with Kerry, of Massachusetts, and other Democrats who had alleged voting irregularities in 2004, Clinton said, "Once again we had a federal election that demonstrates we have a long way to go."

"I think it's also necessary to make sure our elections meet the highest national standards," the New York senator said.


more: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/3045174

Friday, February 18, 2005

Election expert praises King County
Record-keeping called very accurate

By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER


The head of the nation's largest election system thinks King County displayed amazing accuracy in a bureaucratic process that the Republican Party is focusing on in its attempt to overturn the governor's election.
...
While King County officials defend the process in question as highly accurate and GOP critics call it shockingly inaccurate, McCormack said it's a red herring, a flap over a postelection file-maintenance chore that has no bearing on the accuracy of the election returns.

"It has nothing to do with the ballot-counting. It's a separate process," she said this week. A nationally recognized authority on election administration and reform, McCormack made the comments in an interview given at the urging of King County election officials.

The criticism, she said, is "maligning the accuracy of the count based on something that has nothing to do with the accuracy of the count."


more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212625_county18.html

February 18, 2005 E-mail story Print Most E-Mailed

Bills Would Alter Election Procedures

Democrats' measure would make sweeping changes in the national voting process to ease task of balloting. A GOP version focuses on fraud.

By Mary Curtius and Richard Simon


WASHINGTON — Sen. John F. Kerry, whose losing presidential campaign last year was followed by complaints of voting problems, on Thursday joined fellow Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — a potential presidential candidate herself — in introducing a bill that would institute sweeping changes in the nation's election process.

Aligned with Kerry, of Massachusetts, and Clinton, of New York, were Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio). Boxer and Tubbs Jones earlier this year challenged the congressional certification of President Bush's victory in November to call attention to voting problems in Ohio, the state that decided the election.

The bill faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Congress.

But its drafting — along with a measure introduced by GOP lawmakers on Thursday — underscored continuing concern within both parties about voting irregularities.


more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vote18feb18,1,7067877.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Video - CNN's Novak slurs Hillary and Voter Rights Bill - 2/18 @ 4:35 PM ET

In this video:

• Novak slurs Hillary Clinton and bashes Voter Rights bill
  
• Begala mentions Gannon scandal
  
• Bush is listed behind Nixon in Gallup poll

Video in Real Media format (100k stream / 3 minutes):
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_crossfire_hillary_gannon_050218-01.rm

Posted February 18 2005

Jeb Bush rethinks taking election powers after firestorm of criticism

Governor rethinks taking power from county election supervisors

By Brent Kallestad


Tallahassee · Facing a firestorm of criticism in the wake of an attempt to consolidate more elections supervisory powers under his authority, Gov. Jeb Bush signaled a willingness to compromise Thursday.

Some of the state's 67 elections supervisors said Bush broke faith with them when the secretary of state's office -- an agency of the governor's office -- disclosed its recommendations for changes in the state's elections laws in a late afternoon conference call Wednesday.

"This whole process comes at the 11th hour out of the blue, completely contradicting what the Division of Elections has been telling the supervisors of elections for the last two years," veteran Leon County elections chief Ion Sancho said Thursday. "It's clear the considerations to make this change are political and not legal ones."

The recommendations from Secretary of State Glenda Hood's office also blindsided legislative leaders.


more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-felect18feb18,0,2320468.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

"Gannon", media manipulation and Rove "dirty tricks" all go hand-in-hand in the stealing of U.S. Elections.

Stop the lies and media complacency or all the voting bills in the world won't stop the neocons from stealing every election.

Gannon is a part of the fraud committed the 2004 election.

Even gun-shy CBS manages to see the connections...

---

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2005

Rove- Gannon Connection?

by Dotty Lynch

...
But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the "boy genius." Rove, who rarely gave on-the-record interviews to the MSM (mainstream media), had time to talk to GOPUSA, which owns Talon.

GOPUSA and Talon are both owned by Bobby Eberle, a Texas Republican and business associate of conservative direct-mail guru Bruce Eberle who says that Bobby is from the "Texas branch of the Eberle clan." Bobby Eberle told The New York Times that he created Talon to build a news service with a conservative slant and "if someone were to see 'GOPUSA,' there's an instant built-in bias there." No kidding.

Some of the real reporters in the White House pressroom were apparently annoyed at Gannon's presence and his softball, partisan questions, but considered him only a minor irritant. One told me he thought of Gannon as a balance for the opinionated liberal questions of Hearst's Helen Thomas. But what Gannon was up to was not just writing opinion columns or using a different technique to get information. He was a player in Republican campaigns and his work in the South Dakota Senate race illustrates the role he played. It is also a classic example of how political operatives are using the brave new world of the Internet and the blogosphere. Gannon and Talon News appear to be mini-Drudge reports; a "news" source which partisans use to put out negative information, get the attention of the bloggers, talk radio and then the MSM in a way that mere press releases are unable to achieve.

One of Gannon's first projects was an attempt to discredit the South Dakota Argus Leader, South Dakota's major paper, and its longtime political writer, David Kranz. According to the National Journal, which reported on this last November, Gannon wrote a series of articles in the summer of 2003 alleging that Kranz, who went to college with Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle, was not only sympathetic to him but was an actual part of the Daschle campaign. These articles then got a huge amount of play on the blogs of John Lauck and Jason Van Beek, and were picked up by other conservative sites and talk radio. The paper was bombarded with messages about its bias and acknowledges that these had an impact on its coverage.
...
Daschle aides told Roll Call, "This guy (Gannon) became the dumping ground for opposition research." The connections are so strong that there is an FEC challenge which could be a test case on the limits of the use of the Internet in federal campaigns.



more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/18/opinion/lynch/main675050.shtml

Friday, February 18, 2005

CBS Speculates That Karl Rove Was Jeff Gannon's Contact Inside the White House; Retitles Article to Highlight Gannongate Element

By ADVOCATE STAFF


In a stunning development -- which The Advocate can't help but feel is related to the revelation last fall that Karl Rove was possibly behind Rathergate and (therefore) CBS News's recent decline -- CBS News has gone out on a limb and made it clear that it suspects Karl Rove to be Jeff Gannon's White House Contact. The article, originally titled "Karl Rove's Warning to GOP," has just now been renamed, in the last few minutes, "Rove-Gannon Connection?" to emphasis that aspect of the story (which is not solely about Jeff Gannon) most relevant to the Gannongate scandal.

(What does that tell you about where this scandal is headed?).


According to the article,




The CBS theory would seem to fit, given recent revelations from Editor & Publisher and Raw Story that "Jeff Gannon" had a long history of bragging -- both to fellow journalists and even publicly, at the Free Republic website -- about his ability to get important news stories before anyone else had them.



more: http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/cbs-speculates-that-karl-rove-was-jeff.html

Friday, February 18, 2005

BREAKING NEWS: Gannon reportedly knew about Iraq attack four hours before it happened

by John in DC - 2/18/2005 09:57:00 AM

UPDATE: RawStory.com has posted an article detailing more instances of Gannon claiming to have had exclusives on various big stories. At this point he's either incredibly well connected, or a good liar, or both. I also have had feedback from several reporters who say that many people know the attack was coming in advance, so it is possible that again Gannon was trying to sound "in the know" when he wasn't any more in the know than anyone else. Just wanted to report back on all of this, to help folks decide for themselves what to believe. JOHN
---------------------------


A news producer for a major network's local affiliate just told me that Gannon told the producer the US was going to attack Iraq four hours before President Bush announced it to the nation.

According to the producer, Gannon specifically told them that in four hours the president was going to be making a speech to the nation announcing that the US was bombing Iraq. The producer told me they were surprised that Gannon, working with such a small news outfit, could have access to such information, but "what did you know, he was right," the producer said today. The producer went on to say that Gannon often had correct scoops on major stories, including information about Mary Mapes and the Dan Rather BUSH/AWOL scandal that this news outlet got from Gannon before any had the information publicly.


This more than a few questions and points:

1. Assuming this news producer is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe they are not, how did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?
   
   
2. Even if Gannon were part of a press gaggle that was told embargoed information about the war by the White House, this producer alleges that Gannon would have broken any such embargo, which is a security risk to the operation, and more generally shows that concerns about Gannon's White House access posing a risk to national security might now be warranted.
   
   
3. How would someone on a day pass, who hadn't gotten the requisite 3-4 month FBI background check that other full-time White House employees get, get access to such highly classified information? Certainly the White House didn't include someone with simply a day pass in the highly-classified pre-briefing about details of the war (assuming such a briefing even occurred)? If the White House did a briefing and Gannon were included, this would mean ANYONE could walk in off the street, say they're a reporter, and provided by they don't have a criminal record, the White House will simply tell them at what hour we're launching a major attack? And if there was no briefing for reporters, then how did Gannon allegedly find out?
   
   
4. Even if the White House had simply told the press pool that Bush was speaking to the nation in a few hours, and the press had figured out that this meant were were attacking Iraq, was the information about the upcoming speech embargoed? Was the information about the upcoming speech also announced to the public four hours before? Or did Gannon get access to inside information concerning the war simply because of his presence in the White House - a presence that should have required an FBI background check considering how often he was there?
   
   
5. How would Gannon get inside information on the Dan Rather scandal BEFORE the rest of the major media? Assuming the producer is correct, did it come from a White House source, and if so, what does this say about possible White House involvement in creating this scandal in the first place?

According to my source, Gannon's insider tidbits were always on the mark. "Gannon's stuff was always golden," the producer says. My source says they kept asking themself, "how does this small news outfit get this info?"

How indeed.


source: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html

2/18/2005

Gannon’s own statements suggest he fed exclusive stories damaging Bush opponents to networks; Bragged of feeding Rather story

Gannon bragged about feeding damaging stories to media

Rep. Slaughter: Every day brings a new revelation

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor


According to his own accounts, the disgraced White House reporter writing under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon bragged about feeding an exclusive story discrediting President Bush’s opponents to a major news outlet, RAW STORY has learned.

In addition, a producer at an affiliate of the major networks told AmericaBLOG’s John Aravosis that they had also received notice of the story, and another story as well–the exact time for the beginning of the U.S.-led “shock and awe” campaign in Iraq–four hours before President Bush announced it to the nation.

Gannon also claimed to have had access to a highly confidential CIA memorandum naming CIA agent Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who was outed by syndicated conservative columnist Robert Novak.

On none of the stories–Plame, Mapes and the start of the Iraq war– did Gannon actually break the story. This allows for the possibility that Gannon pretended he had information he did not have.

The producer’s account, however, suggests Gannon was used to plant stories in the mainstream press, stories that the White House could not have placed themselves without taking damage politically.


more from THE RAW STORY: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=98

February 18, 2005

IMMIGRANTS BOOST KERRY VOTE

By STEPHANIE GASKELL

Voter turnout in New York City got a big boost in the last presidential election from immigrants, according to a study released yesterday.

Foreign-born New Yorkers accounted for 97 percent of new voters in the city during the 2004 election, according to an exit poll conducted by the New York Immigration Coalition.

Of 191,000 new voters, 185,000 of them were immigrants, the study found.
...
This new voting bloc could make a huge difference in the upcoming mayoral race — in 2001, Mayor Bloomberg won the election by less than 40,000 votes.

"As a group, they now have the power to swing the outcome of key local and citywide races," said Margie McHugh, the coalition's executive director. "Finally, there's a real constituency there."

Nearly 80 percent of the immigrants voted for Democrat John Kerry, the study found, noting that more than 73 percent are registered Democrats.


more: http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/40023.htm

From The Olympian:
Friday, February 18, 2005

Sides seek election clarity
Parties head back to court with unanswered questions

by BRAD SHANNON
THE OLYMPIAN


Lawyers on both sides of Dino Rossi's legal challenge of Gov. Christine Gregoire's election head back to court today as Democrats push to clarify a judge's Feb. 4 ruling in the case.

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges ruled two weeks ago that Rossi's challenge of the results can move to a full trial later this year.
...
Democrats are taking a starkly different approach. They say the election contest law that Judge Bridges would use to decide the case makes clear that he can either confirm Gregoire as winner or set aside the result, declaring Rossi the winner. But he cannot simply declare the election null or void, forcing a vacancy and eventually a new election, according to Democratic lawyer Kevin Hamilton.

"The standards the judge articulated ... are going to make it extraordinarily difficult for the Republicans to prevail," Hamilton said in a recent interview. "They have to show for whom those (disputed) voters voted."

In fact, the Republicans must show that the felon and disputed provisional ballots actually took away Rossi's victory, Hamilton said. He cited a 1912 case in a Washington contested election in which one disputed felon vote was left to stand because no one could tell with certainty which way the illegal vote was cast. In that case, the voter had fled the state and the only evidence about which way he voted was hearsay, Hamilton said.


more: http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050218/southsound/90382.shtml

Friday, February 18, 2005

GOP Ohio trio trade jabs in warm-up
Candidates for governor clash with Blackwell

By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau


COLUMBUS - The top three Republican contenders for governor in 2006 squabbled Thursday over who has the most sensible approach to holding down the growth of government.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is heading a group that he says will collect signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. It would limit state and local government growth to inflation plus the percentage of population growth, and make it more difficult to raise taxes.
...
But in what is likely a preview of debates to be played out over the next 15 months, his key rivals, Auditor Betty Montgomery and Attorney General Jim Petro, criticized the plan. The three sat together during a media session sponsored by the Associated Press.

"There's more than 20 states that have some type of restraint, and this one is probably the most gimmicky of all," Petro said.


more: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050218/NEWS01/502180389/1056

February 18, 2005

Fiddling While Ohio Burns

By Gerard Valentino


Despite Republican dominance in statewide elections Ohio was still a toss up on November 2\super nd\nosupersub with President Bush squeaking out a hard fought 118,000 vote victory.

A sign of weakness that Republican operatives refuse to acknowledge.
...
Even with such a staggering tax-rate Ohio's schools are in desperate need of funding. Over the last 12 months a record 63 sc hool districts put a tax levy on the ballot with only 38% winning voter approval. After many of the levies failed school boards had no choice but to severely cut extra curricular activities or suspend them al together.

A clear sign that voters are growing more resentful of Republican tax and spend habits.
...
Conservatives in Ohio have not forgotten how they were taken for granted over the last eight years and Bennett's luck finally may have run out leading up to the 2006 Republican primary for governor. Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a conservative barely tolerated among Ohio's liberal Republican establishment, has promised a run against anointed Party favorite Jim Petro who currently serves as Attorney General.
...
More than likely the powerful party apparatus will break Blackwell's campaign through sheer might and Bennett will convince either Montgomery or Petro to "wait their turn."

Putting the eventual winner in Bennett's debt but also in the driver's seat to win the nomination and the governor's seat. Ohio's status quo will continue with Republicans running a state government that has failed residents economically, socially and fiscally.


more: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=%5CCommentary%5Carchive%5C200502%5CCOM20050218c.html

February 17, 2005

Felon Ban Hurts Blacks and Democrats

The denial of voting rights to hundreds of thousands of blacks is a travesty of justice, and a blot on the democratic process.


During the last presidential campaign Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry tepidly spoke out against the ban by some states on ex-felon voting. He should have shouted out against it. The ban hurts Democrats far more than Republicans. Blacks make up a huge percentage of those barred from voting because of a prison stint. They are far more likely to vote Democrat than Republican.

The ex-felon vote ban in Florida in 2000 did much to snatch the White House from Al Gore. The ban on ex-felon voting also may have deprived Kerry of thousands of potential votes in Ohio. That almost certainly helped swell Bush's vote total in that pivotal state, and insure his White House return. Kerry, and top Democrats have said and done little since the election to get states to modify or scrap their vote bans. The Sentencing Project, in a recent report, again noted that more than a dozen states still permanently bar ex-cons from voting, or make it so difficult for them to get their rights restored that for all practical purposes they're banned from voting for life. Blacks are still the hardest hit by the bans. One in four adult black men are effectively disenfranchised by the bans.

It's no accident that five of the dozen states that perpetuate this morally and legally indefensible practice are Southern states. The South has had a long and deplorable history of devising an arsenal of racially abusive tactics including poll taxes, literacy laws and political gerrymandering to drive blacks from the voting booths.

This thinly disguised relic of the South's Jim Crow past has done much to drastically dilute black political strength. In 1996 about 4.5 million black men voted in the presidential election. If the 1 million black men in prison, on parole, or probation that were disenfranchised because of their criminal record had been added to the total their vote might have made a crucial difference in deciding close statewide contests.


more: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/21300/

Friday February 18, 2005 at 8:01 PM EST

Gannon attended White House Christmas parties -- but who invited him?

Former Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon (aka James D. Guckert) attended at least two invitation-only events in Washington, D.C.: the 2003 and 2004 White House press Christmas parties. Gannon has been discredited by numerous charges -- most notably that he is a Republican activist who has reproduced sections of Republican Party and White House materials verbatim in his own "news reports," and not a true news reporter. So the question arises: who invited Gannon to these exclusive events?

In a February 11 interview with Editor and Publisher, Gannon claimed that "The only connection I had with (White House press secretary) Scott McClellan was when he got married and I sent him a card." McClellan told Editor & Publisher that Gannon was not issued a permanent White House press corps pass, but obtained only daily passes. And according to a February 18 New York Times article, McClellan said that White House "credentialing is all handled at the staff assistant level."

But in past years, the White House press secretary has played a significant role in arranging the guest list for the Christmas parties. As the Washington Post reported on December 9, 1992: "Some national correspondents who cover the president (George H.W. Bush) have apparently been unceremoniously axed from the annual White House Christmas party list. ... Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, who's said to be wielding the ax for the half-dozen gigs, didn't return a call."

Former President Bill Clinton apparently delegated the responsibility to the White House social secretary, according to the Post on December 25, 1995: "The Clintons draw far and wide to make up their holiday invitation lists, said Ann Stock, White House social secretary. ... The season takes a toll on Stock and her staff. 'It's 16- to 18-hour days for a month,' she said on Friday, adding with evident relief: 'Now everyone can turn to their personal Christmas.'"

But an April 29, 2002, New York Times article suggests that the responsibility in the current Bush White House -- at least for the previous year's party -- again rested with the press secretary: "(then-Press Secretary Ari) Fleischer offered to have Rachel Sunbarger, the 23-year-old, highly efficient manager of the White House press office, work as a clearinghouse to sort invitations (to the White House Correspondents Dinner for administration officials). ... Ms. Sunbarger, who considers her position 'the greatest job in the world,' said that the invitation task was not as bad as the job she had in December of overseeing the invitations to the White House Christmas party for the clamoring press." McClellan replaced Fleischer as press secretary in July, 2003.

The 2004 White House news media Christmas party had "two shifts of 600 guests each," according to a December 13 New York Times report. As for the significance of the Christmas party, Chicago Tribune columnist Michael Killian observed on December 31, 2003, that receiving an invitation is a sign that "one may consider oneself a member in good standing of the fabled Washington establishment."


source: http://mediamatters.org/items/200502190003

Friday, February 18, 2005

Shelley fills campaign board vacancy just before leaving office

By STEVE LAWRENCE


Shelley, facing allegations that he mishandled federal election funds, accepted tainted campaign contributions and sexually harassed employees, announced Feb. 4 that he would leave office March 1.
...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has nominated former state Sen. Bruce McPherson, a Santa Cruz Republican, to succeed Shelley, but Matthews said McPherson, if confirmed as secretary of state by the Legislature, would not be able to remove Huguenin from the commission.

"There's no provision in the Political Reform Act that would allow the revoking of an appointment by the next appointing power," Matthews said.
...
Huguenin, a Democrat who spent 27 years with the CTA, a teachers' union, said he didn't know Shelley personally and assumed that he was appointed because of "recommendations from others."

"I have a reputation as an experienced labor and employment law attorney," he said. "I've spent a lot of time representing public sector unions and their members. My guess is that based on that experience my name was put forward to Mr. Shelley as someone worthy of the appointment."


more: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/18/state/n171749S96.DTL

Flurry of paper trail bills introduced in state legislatures
Cost is central issue in debates

electionline Weekly - February 17, 2005

By Sean Greene
electionline.org

Vastly different election-day experiences in two states along with lingering suspicion and uncertainty among some lawmakers with electronic voting have once again made paper trails a hot issue in legislatures around the country.

Lawmakers in 17 states have introduced bills that would require direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines to produce a voter-verifiable paper trail (VVPAT). (For a complete list, click here.) In 2004, similar bills were introduced in nearly 20 states though most failed.

It is still unclear whether this year’s batch will have more success. It is certain, however, that the 2004 election provided new and some say powerful ammunition for paper-trail proponents.

-snip/more-

<http://www.electionline.org/index.jsp?page=Newsletter%20Feb%2017%202005>

News From The U.S. Election Reform Movement
Saturday, February 19, 2005

Jeff Gannon and Karl Rove Attended the Same "School"; Or, "The Best Theory Yet for How Gannon Got Hired By GOPUSA and Karl Rove Got In Touch With Him"

By ADVOCATE STAFF

Karl Rove is a graduate of Morton C. Blackwell's Leadership Institute.

So is Jeff Gannon.

Rove went to the Institute's "Youth Leadership School," graduating from that grist-mill of conservative quackery in 1979.

Gannon went to the Institute's "Broadcast Journalism School," graduating (to the extent $50 in cash enabled that "achievement") in 2003.

Both "schools" cost substantially less than a bargain-basement television set, and provide approximately the same degree of instruction in critical thinking. .

The Leadership Institute Gannon (and Rove) graduated from has an Employment Placement Service/Intern Program which, according to the Institute's solicitation to prospective "students," "opens doors for you which would otherwise remain shut."

And how!

The "Intern Program" boasts "weekly private dinners with Washington VIPs," including (as a sampling, from the website) Fox News commentators, Reagan Administration officials, former Republican U.S. Attorneys General, and sitting U.S. Members of Congress (e.g., Representative Tom DeLay ; former House Majority Leader, Dick Armey ).

Link: http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/jeff-gannon-and-karl-rove-attended.html