Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News WEDNESDAY 11/30/05

DONATE NOW TO THE DEEDS RECOUNT. VA DEMS FIGHTING HARD FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY. A NATIONAL EXAMPLE

VIRGINIA DEMS “FIGHTING FOR EVERY VOTE" to make Creigh Deeds, Dem, VA Attorney General... and holding the line against a Pat Robertson-Jerry Falwell take over of that state office.

Democrat Creigh Deeds is less than 400 votes behind Republican McDonnell in the Virginia Attorney General Race. It’s a vital race since McDonnell is 100% pure Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell backed.

IN VIRGINIA, UNLIKE SOME OTHER STATES, THE DEMOCRATS IMMEDIATELY CALLED FOR A RECOUNT AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION.

LET’S SUPPORT THEM FOR STANDING UP FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY.

DONATE NOW TO THE DEEDS RECOUNT. VA DEMS FIGHTING HARD FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY. A NATIONAL EXAMPLE

http://www.creighdeeds.com/

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.

Only the deluded & complicit accept election
results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News WEDNESDAY 11/30/05

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

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

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391



All previous daily threads are available here:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

Please

"Recommend"

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

VA: It’s Recount time for Virginia Attorney General-Huge Stakes!!!
All right, you asked for it. Democrats who care enough about winning and doing the right thing to fight for an election, full tilt boogie! VA Attorney General Candidate Creigh Deeds and the ENTIRE VIRGINIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY is fighting this one out.



http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768414736

Deeds asks for recount

Richmond Times-Dispatch
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Lawyers for Democrat R. Creigh Deeds filed a court petition this morning asking for a recount in the closest-ever statewide election in modern Virginia history. Deeds trails Republican Robert F. McDonnell by 323 votes in the Nov. 8 election for attorney general in which more than 1.9 million Virginians cast ballots.

The petition asks for a retabulation of the vote to be overseen by a three-judge panel headed by Judge Theodore J. Markow, the chief judge of the Richmond circuit court. Two other judges will be appointed by Virginia Supreme Court Justice Leroy Hassell.

"What we're asking for is a fair and accurate count of the votes," Mark Bergman, the spokesman for the Deeds campaign, said in an interview after the filing. On Monday the state Board of Elections certified McDonnell as the winner.

Legal experts for McDonnell, a state delegate from Virginia Beach, and Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, are optimistic that the recount proceedings will be completed no later than the end of December.

Both Deeds and McDonnell have transition offices and are preparing to become the state's top legal officers. The new attorney general is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 14 during inaugural ceremonies in Williamsburg.

DONATE NOW TO THE DEEDS RECOUNT. VA DEMS FIGHTING HARD FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY. A NATIONAL EXAMPLE

On election eve as Tim Kaine won a stunning victory over Pat Robertson Republican Kilgore, the Republicans won the A.G. seat by several hundred votes. Mark Warner, D, Gov. VA shouted “We’re fighting for every vote” and sternly cautioned the press to not call this race (they didn’t). The fight is on.


http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-29277sy0nov29,0,5667839.story?coll=dp-widget-news

Winner named, but it's not over yet
Republican McDonnell is certified by the elections board. Democrat Deeds promises a recount.

BY JOHN M.R. BULL AND HUGH LESSIG
247-4768
November 29, 2005

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE -- The State Board of Elections declared Robert McDonnell the winner of the attorney general race Monday, officially certifying a scant 323-vote margin of victory.
"I have full confidence I won," the Virginia Beach Republican said in a conference call with reporters. "The landslide jokes are starting to actually get funny now."

But the closest statewide election in memory is not over yet.
Within minutes of the certified results being announced Monday, McDonnell's opponent, Democrat Creigh Deeds of Bath County, said he planned to ask a court today for a statewide recount of all ballots, which state law allows when the results are so close.

"We don't know who won this race," said Larry Framme, chairman of Deeds' recount effort.

A recount, which is expected to take roughly three weeks, will check the vote tabulations in each voting machine used in the Nov. 8 election, examine all punch card ballots, and make sure absentee and provisional ballots are re-examined. In short, every vote will be double-checked.

DONATE NOW TO THE DEEDS RECOUNT. VA DEMS FIGHTING HARD FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY. A NATIONAL EXAMPLE

This story was initially developed by a Charlottesville VA political blogger, see below. It’s stunning. Read it and see why this recount counts!

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20051121&s=blumenthal

The Virginia GOP's Dirty Money

by MAX BLUMENTHAL



Editor's Note: The original version of this report, posted November 4, erroneously stated that Peter Gemma, former media director of the National Policy Institute, had met with neo-Nazi leader Bill White. That reference has been removed. The Nation regrets the error.

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, promising an aggressive crackdown on day laborers and undocumented immigrants attending state universities. "Will we reward illegal behavior with hard-earned dollars from law-abiding citizens?" he asked a campaign rally crowd this August. "I say the answer to this question should be an easy one: no!" While Kilgore accepts the financial support of an anti-immigrant group with racist ties, he also has taken massive contributions from companies notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrant labor.

Virginia Republican Attorney General candidate Bob McDonnell has declared himself "a drug dealer's worst nightmare," while appearing in ads slamming imaginary crooks behind prison doors and pledging to protect Virginians from sexual predators. McDonnell has not only financed his campaign through a possibly illegal slush fund but has hired three former associates of indicted Republican über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. One of them, who once served as McDonnell's campaign manager, is now in prison for soliciting sex with a young boy.

With friends like these, it's hard to imagine how Kilgore and McDonnell expect their law-and-order message to be taken seriously. Without such friends, however, it would be difficult for them to plaster their message on TV screens throughout the Old Dominion. And so they have eagerly racked up contributions from controversial and at times contradictory interests, hoping that wedge issues and pseudo-populist rhetoric will paper over their sordid finances. Thus far, with Kilgore running neck-and-neck with his Democratic challenger, Tim Kaine, and McDonnell enjoying a comfortable lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds--and with less than a week left until election day--the strategy seems to be working.

DONATE NOW TO THE DEEDS RECOUNT. VA DEMS FIGHTING HARD FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY. A NATIONAL EXAMPLE

Hey, Virginia is the birthplace of the internet (well, Fairfax County, VA to be specific). Here are two great blog sources on the recount.



http://waldo.jaquith.org/index.php?s=deeds+recount

Waldo Jaquith actually did a lot of the research that ended up in the Blumenthal article. That story should have been national of course but CM (corporate media) spiked it. At any rate this is one source to watch and contribute ideas.

http://www.raisingkaine.com/category/voting/



Raising Kaine is one of the main Kaine for Governor blogs. They are also doing a good job of mobilizing the troops.

DONATE NOW TO THE DEEDS RECOUNT. VA DEMS FIGHTING HARD FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY. A NATIONAL EXAMPLE

Oh, I hope that the test shows Diebold can be hacked. But when I see Arnie’s Secretary of State selecting the hacker, just one, then I ask a few questions. 1) Since Kevin Shelley was fully exonerated of all charges made shortly after trashing Diebold, why has he not been returned to his office. 2) Why is Bruce McPherson, a Republican, in that office, Secretary of State, when a Democrat was elected. 3) Why is Diebold even allowed in the state after placing uncertified machines in operation and being caught (by Shelley). The hacker may be good but be sure of this, it’s a rigged game from the Secretary of State’s office. McPherson, do the right thing, RESIGN.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/29/BAG8TFVC2M1.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

SACRAMENTO

Hacking of voting machines put on hold

- Chronicle Staff Report
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Sacramento -- A state-sanctioned attempt at hacking one brand of electronic voting machines will not occur Wednesday, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said Monday at what's billed as the nation's first summit on voting machine testing.

The hacker, a computer security expert from Finland, needs more time to prepare before trying to show that the latest voting machine model made by Diebold Election Systems is vulnerable to attacks by hackers.

"We have imposed the strictest voting system tests in the country. We think this should be part of it too," McPherson said about the attempted hack.

California and its 58 local election officials face a Jan. 1 deadline to comply with requirements imposed by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Among them is creation of a statewide database of voters and allowing disabled persons to vote unaided. The state requires all electronic voting machines have a paper-ballot backup to record votes for the June 2006 primary.

Diebold's new voting machine system had its certification for use yanked in May 2004 by then Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. It has failed to win it back.

Last May, Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland who has been asked by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to attempt to infiltrate one of the voting machines made by Diebold, successfully hacked a Diebold voting machine in Florida, changed election results and inserted a new program that flashed the message "Are we having fun yet?" on the machine's screen.

Voting-machine deadline at risk

California's secretary of state says he may not certify any more electronic ballot systems this year, throwing compliance with a U.S. disabled-voter law into doubt for many counties

By Kevin Yamamura Sacramento Bee November 29, 2005

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson conceded Monday that he might not certify any more electronic voting machines this year, leaving many of the state's 58 counties at risk of missing a Jan. 1 federal deadline requiring upgrades for voters with disabilities.

But McPherson promised that the state would work with federal officials to comply with the Help America Vote Act by the next statewide election in June. He spoke to reporters during a two-day summit on voting systems tests in Sacramento attended by 100 elections officials and experts from throughout the country.

"Jan. 1 might be a difficult date to hit," McPherson said. "But the Department of Justice and others have said you're moving in the right direction ... . We think we are going to be right on target. We hope to be there certainly by June."

HAVA requires by Jan. 1 that voters with disabilities be able to vote independently and privately with at least one accessible machine per polling place. Voting systems also must allow users to review ions before they cast their ballot and inform them if they mistakenly mark off more than one candidate.

snip/more

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=6403

Election Updates Blog

California to study open source software for voting systems?

Monday, November 28, 2005

by Michael Alvarez

Recently I received an inquiry from the California Secretary of State's office for research regarding open source software in voting systems. I've been hearing rumors for months that there is some sort of task force or study committee that has been in the works, though no formal announcement that I know of has been made about a study on the open source software issue.

The inquiry I received stated:

California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is leading a fact-finding, impartial study regarding the use of open source software in voting systems in California. Secretary McPherson is responding to Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) No. 242, filed with the Secretary of State on August 31, 2004. ACR 242 asks the Secretary of State to investigate and evaluate the use of open source software in all voting systems in California. It also requests that the Secretary of State report his findings and recommendations to the Legislature by January 1, 2006. I have enclosed a copy of ACR 242 for your review.

In order to provide thorough research on the issue of open source software in voting systems, Secretary McPherson is asking for public input, including but not limited to reports, studies, summaries and other written documentation relating to open source software in voting systems. He is seeking a broad range of opinion and information because he recognizes that open source software is a complex and technical issue and it deserves a careful, balanced and in-depth study over time.

Secretary McPherson is convening a group of experts, representing a variety of viewpoints and expertise that will have regular meetings and hold public hearings if necessary. One of Secretary McPherson’s top priorities is to ensure the security and integrity of the elections process and this group, along with public input, allows for a careful and thoughtful examination rather than a hasty superficial review.

snip/more

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/11/california-to-study-open-source.html

There is no mention of what type of system in the article. It is sad to see a county clerk, who is oblivious to the much "rumored" problems of electronic voting machines.
The whole article is about how wonderful electronic voting is.

County switching to voting machines
By Caroline Trowbridge, Editor and Publisher
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
In next August's primary election, Leavenworth County voters will use touch-screens to cast ballots, instead of pencils and paper.

By the August election, all counties must comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, which was enacted in 2003.

As Leavenworth County Clerk Linda Scheer investigated adjustments the county must make to adhere to requirements of the act, she decided that moving to electronic voting was prudent.

snip

On Thursday morning, Scheer will seek permission from the Leavenworth County Commission to move ahead with the purchase of the machines, which will feature touch-screens.

snip
"It would just mean that each polling place that's open would have to have a computer that has all the registered voters on it," she said. "... That's one of the options that I think would be really a fun thing to have because I really think a lot of our people go out of town to work. I think it would really be an awesome thing."

snip
"There have been a lot of counties throughout the country that have used these for a number of years," she said. "I think these are more trustworthy and better-tested than the old lever machines that were available a number of years ago."

http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/8542

Damn, that’s a great headline. Democracy, middle east style.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/international/middleeast/29mideast.html

November 29, 2005
Gunfire, Fraud and a Stolen Lion: In Gaza Voting, Chaos Wins
By STEVEN ERLANGER

JERUSALEM, Nov. 28 - Palestinian gunmen, shooting into the air, pushed their way into polling places in Gaza on Monday and forced the postponement of primary elections for the main Palestinian party, Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

The violence - and the unrelated kidnapping by gunmen of a lion cub and rare parrots from the Gaza zoo - were examples of the chaos in Gaza, especially among rival security forces, as Mr. Abbas tries to restore stability, exercise authority and prepare the population for legislative elections on Jan. 25.

In 1996, the year of the last parliamentary elections, Yasir Arafat picked Fatah's candidates. Now, a year after his death, Mr. Abbas is trying to bring more openness and democracy to Palestinian political life and to Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority.

But there have been widespread complaints of fraud in the primary, which began over the weekend in the West Bank, with gunmen and candidates complaining of ballot-stuffing and saying valid voters were missing from election rolls. It was unclear on Monday when the vote would be completed.

Mr. Abbas and Fatah face a significant challenge in January from the militant Islamic movement Hamas, which refuses to give up its weapons and is committed to the destruction of Israel. Hamas, which has done well in municipal elections, is running in legislative elections for the first time.

In opinion polls, about 30 percent of potential voters say they favor Hamas, whose leaders are picking its candidates. But many Palestinians also say they are upset with the

Look at #10.


http://www.crisispapers.org/essays-w/santa.htm

Santa Baby,
Please Make These Wishes Come True

By Bernard Weiner (Thank you Bernard Weiner for your courage!)
Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers
November 29, 2005


Let us stipulate that maybe much in the list below is not going to happen. But one sits on Santa's lap not for the certainty that the presents requested will be under the tree on Christmas Day, but because we can voice our hopes out loud to a stand-in for our preferred deity that perhaps, just perhaps, a few of our wishes will be granted.

With that understood, here is what I -- representing, I think, a goodly number of Americans roughly from the center-left to the center-right -- want for Christmas.

Oh please, Santa, make at least some of these come true. …

10. Noting the many questions raised about the integrity of the election process under a computer-voting system, all states return to paper ballots, hand-counted, with party observers verifying the honesty of the vote-tally. In addition, investigations are held to determine the validity of the 2000, 2002, and 2004 federal elections and the 2005 balloting in Ohio. A number of Diebold technicians testify under oath that they manipulated ballot numbers on orders of their superiors; officials of the GOP-supporting computer-voting companies are indicted.

an investigation. Go Virginia!

"IN VIRGINIA, UNLIKE SOME OTHER STATES, THE DEMOCRATS IMMEDIATELY CALLED FOR A RECOUNT AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION.
LET’S SUPPORT THEM FOR STANDING UP FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY."

Voting machine hubbub persists

ROBERT CYR, Register Citizen Staff

11/29/2005

HARWINTON -- As new First Selectman Frank Chiaramonte settles into office, he faces many issues that will have to be clarified in the near future, including the state’s mandate that electronic voting machines be installed at polling places by 2006.

Outgoing First Selectman Marie Knudsen said shortly before leaving office that the topic was a confounding one that was steeped in contradictory language from more than one municipal source, she said.

The state’s official stance was that each polling station was to have at least one electronic machine, ranging from $5,000 to $7,000, a cost that may be averted considering that the state will get each town started with one free machine, Knudsen said.

But as far as getting rid of the old stand-by - the traditional lever-pull configuration, complete with a curtained voting enclosure -- the laws don’t seem as hard-lined and specific as they could be, she said.

"I’m very upset about a mandate that we should go to electronic," she said. "No one seems to be sure if it is really a mandate. According to my papers, it’s not mandated."

snip/more

http://www.registercitizen.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15656183&BRD=1652&PAG=461&dept_id=12530&rfi=6

Election Law Blog

November 29, 2005

New Article on Election Administration Reform

The Washington and Lee Law Review has sent me the final version of my article, Richard L. Hasen, "Beyond the Margin of Litigation: Reforming U.S. Election Administration to Avoid Electoral Meltdown," 62 Washington and Lee Law Review 937 (2005). The article should appear in print and on Westlaw and Lexis within a few weeks. In the meantime, you can download a pdf of the article at this link.

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/margin-final.pdf

Here is the abstract:

snip/more

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/004524.html

November 29, 2005

When Democrats Ask For Money

by Susan H. Pitcairn

It happens daily: Letters and emails arrive unbidden, one after the next, urgently seeking money for various Democratic causes, great and small. Message after message warns me of what will happen if Democrats fail to win in 2006.

Because I share these concerns, I have opened my wallet time and again.

Yet never do these appeals mention the one peril that most endangers Democrats, as well democracy — corrupt elections.

Ever since Bush's alleged victories challenged by countless election watchers and analysts, I have doggedly sent dozens of messages to Congress, urging an end to "black box voting." I have joined protests and I have passed petitions. The response? Little but thundering silence, especially from those who should be leading this charge —the likes of John Kerry, Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Hillary Clinton.

Finally, I have seen the light. It is time to send the ultimate message — no more money for Democrats until they speak out united for serious election reform.

snip/more

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1129-33.htm

Thanks to Amaryllis

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x403262

Allen County ballots soaked in flooding

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1133333730323900.xml&storylist=cleveland

11/30/2005, 1:33 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

LIMA, Ohio (AP) — Elections officials in Allen County said they might have to conduct recounts in two races by hand after about a third of the ballots from the Nov. 8 election got wet when the office flooded...

Elections Director Keith Cunningham said he didn't know yet the condition of the ballots that need to be recounted. Wet ballots cannot go through the optical scan machines.

Heavy rains Monday night caused flooding in the elections office in the basement of the 3rd Ohio District Court of Appeals, including in the vault, where some of the ballots were stored on the floor because they did not fit on the shelves.

Cunningham said elections workers also are concerned that marks voters made with felt-tip pens could be blurred and unreadable...


http://www.limanews.com

-BamaLefty

Letters
Tales of Voter Suppression
Letters published November 30, 2005

The challenger nets a Muslim: In response to Lou Bartulovic's letter(below) asking Scene to provide a list of suppressed voters, I can contribute at least one name: Antesar. I'm not sure if this is the correct spelling, or if it is a first or last name; all I know is that this is the name of a woman who was denied the right to vote in Lakewood's 2nd District last November.

After voting myself, I was on my way out when I noticed a man with a clipboard having a cigarette outside. Curious, I asked him about his role in the elections, and he told me that he was the Democratic "challenger." He wasn't there to challenge any votes, but rather to make sure that the Republican "challenger" didn't overstep her boundaries.

I asked him if anyone had been "challenged," and he pointed to a woman, who identified herself as Antesar, standing nearby in Muslim-style garments with her daughter. While we stood outside chatting in the rain, she told me about earning her citizenship earlier in the year and about the pride she felt when she registered to vote. She told me that she believed she had been turned away because of her religion, and she told me of friends and neighbors who had also been turned away, and of others who simply didn't bother to go to the polls, so certain were they of being denied. She told me that she was not offered a provisional ballot, but simply ordered to leave.

I know that it's not a huge list of names, but, unfortunately, I was not able to stick around to find out if any other voters were being turned away, because moments later the Lakewood Police arrived and, after taking down my name and address, informed me that I would be arrested unless I stayed away from the polling location.

Jessica Ferrato
Lakewood

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/mostrecent/letters.html

Doggedly Seeking Truth
Reader bites editor -- that's news: I am not a big fan of either John McCain or Ken Blackwell. However, you accuse Blackwell of suppressing the vote in the last election . What is the proof of this? Please provide a list of people who were suppressed (other than the occasional slug who did not make it to the polls on time). Where are the pictures of rabid dogs preventing people from entering the polls?

People in the media really need to do real reporting when accusing someone of wrongdoing. You simply state, "Blackwell suppressed the vote," and it is up to him to disprove this, when he did nothing wrong. Truth is neither Republican nor Democrat, and it does not take sides. It does, however, make an issue very clear. Readers are getting to the point where they demand that you provide a modicum of truth in your comments. Your political bent should not dictate your writing.

Lou Bartulovic
Twinsburg

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2005-11-23/news/letters.html