Any word from Ohio yet?

You're on our minds. Please report back when you can.

there were many reporters, I believe I was interviewed by about 5 or 6. the room was filled with observors many wearing orange sashes (20- 30?) while there were also a few pink L of WV as well. Low and behold after the recognition of state sports teams, the Republicans Majority decided to call a conference. We were told by someone that this is like a sports time out but it is open ended and can last for as long as they like. I left at 2:45pm (kids) and they were still absent. We believed this was an attempt to thin the spectators. I will post when I hear from someone who stayed.

Thanks for the update. How frustrating! It sure sounds like a crowd-thinning tactic to me, too.

Thank you for being there, Mod Mom!

to hand out. what a great idea. People ask about the plain colored button and you have an opening to discuss the need for verifiable fair elections. I will wear mine everywhere and plan to find out where to purchase them to hand out! Nothing on my list servs yet, nor did the local NPR reporter who covers the Statehouse give a report.

Wasn't the Ukraine uprising a CIA thing? I've always been confused about this and have never taken the time to check it out thoroughly.

Other than that, I love the idea.

Am in my PA state Capitol rotunda RIGHT now, wearing my bright orange jacket to the Senate meetings.

Regardless of the politics, the elections in the Ukraine WERE still funky and the UKRAINIAN PEOPLE got into the streets and protested in numbers we can only imagine right now. But we'd better start imagining such things or OUR (so-called world's greatest) democracy is done for.

Orange is a great color, we should start branding it like Code Pink has done with "their" color.

http://www.orangeamerican.org/

And we use orange all over the place:
http://www.votePA.us

Nice ta see ya, and gee, it's fun to read the election news this week. So far, so good, eh?

I share your reticence about Ukraine politics -- I know just enough to be wary of the whole thing, including orange. (Maybe it's leftover distaste for Anita Bryant !!!)

In Texas, we saw the same kind of delaying tactics used in the hearings the public could attend on redistricting (which appear at this point to have been a 100% complete sham orchestrated by Tom DeLay). The state legislators played dodge ball with the public, changing the meeting dates, room nos., etc. at short notice. Not so easy to attend on short notice if you're coming from around Texas to Austin -- it's a big state.

And nice to see you, too.

My overall sense of the week's news is bleaker than yours, though there has been some exciting stuff. What's happening in Ohio and the execution of Tookie Williams in California are loud in my brain.

I think it's a good sign in a way that the repukes seem to have to hide from us. It may be that they see our power more clearly than we do!

voting machine and coincidentally, received $$ from 3 Diebold execs...

from DBD site for Diebold Stockholders:

Diebold Execs Gave To GOP Despite Ban

12/08/05 02:34 pm
Msg: 10424 of 10503

 Diebold execs gave to GOP despite ban

Thursday, December 08, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus

-- Money from three Diebold executives began trickling into two Republican
campaigns
last August, just two months after the voting-machine maker banned political
giving by a
handful of its top brass.

Mike Jacobsen, a spokesman for the manufacturer based in Green, Ohio, expressed
regret
over the donations, which totaled $1,400 to U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and state Sen.
Kirk
Schuring of Canton, according to campaign finance reports.

<snip>


http://www.cleveland.com/ohio/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/113403461250230.x

of correcting it? thanks!

http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/113403461250230.xml&coll=2

Diebold execs gave to GOP despite ban

Thursday, December 08, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus

-- Money from three Diebold executives began trickling into two Republican campaigns last August, just two months after the voting-machine maker banned political giving by a handful of its top brass.
Mike Jacobsen, a spokesman for the manufacturer based in Green, Ohio, expressed regret over the donations, which totaled $1,400 to U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and state Sen. Kirk Schuring of Canton, according to campaign finance reports.
But he said the three officials who gave were not subject to the 2004 ethics policy changes, which applied only to the chief executive, Walden O'Dell; president; chief financial officer; and vice president in charge of Diebold Election Systems.
News of the donations came as a voluminous election-reform bill was set to clear a key Ohio Senate committee late Wednesday, bearing evidence of continued political strife over what constituted the worst problems in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004.
Republican lawmakers, indignant over suggestions that President Bush's victories are somehow suspect, used the measure to crack down on potential abuse of the election system.


The proposal - likely to win Senate approval soon - mandates that all voters show identification to vote, makes it tougher to get a constitutional amendment on Ohio's ballot, and severely limits the scope of voter registration drives.
Democrats left the room still insisting the biggest problems in the past two national elections were voter disenfranchisement and unreliable technology, for which they see Diebold as a poster child.
Cleveland NAACP director Stanley Miller blasted the voter-ID provision as harking back to the Jim Crow laws of the old South.
"We do not believe this body intends to try to take us back in time, but the lack of trust and skepticism that exists today makes these types of changes tough to sell," he testified.
Opponents also cited a recent study by the watchdog U.S. General Accounting Office, which identified significant vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines and pushed for more thorough federal standards, machine testing and monitoring for the systems.

But Ohio's GOP lawmakers extracted a House-added provision in the bill calling for random recounts in counties where new electronic machines are used, satisfied that current law requires ample cross-checking of the vote.


Diebold's O'Dell drew national criticism in 2003 for his involvement in President Bush's re-election campaign, and for his pledge in a fund-raising letter to help "Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."


Isac Tabib, vice president of technology and IT services for a New York-based Diebold security subsidiary, made the largest donation: a $1,000 check to DeWine in June.


A pair of Ohio-based executives, Paul Feaser and Chuck Scheurer, gave Schuring - whose district includes the company's headquarters - four donations totaling $400 between last August and this June, according to campaign reports. Feaser is Diebold's director of security, and Scheurer, who has since retired, was vice president of human relations.
Jacobsen said Diebold purchased Tabib's company, Antar-Com Inc. of White Plains, in August 2004 and all employees there may not know of the strong desire at headquarters against political participation.
"Quite frankly, he didn't do anything wrong. The policy doesn't reach out to that level of associate," he said.
"Clearly, the last thing we want to do is step on anybody's constitutional rights. At the same time, we wanted to send a strong message that it would be good if employees didn't give."


To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272




© 2005 The Plain Dealer© 2005 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

It is Kevin DeWine who authored HB3 and is not the DeWine referred to in the article I posted regarding Diebold execs. contributing to DeWine. My bad!!!

OK maybe an exaggeration, maybe not. That is what the handmade sign
said in the lobby of the Statehouse, after the vote was taken in the
Ohio session of the Senate in the late afternoon yesterday, Tuesday,
Dec.13. "Democracy dies today." I guess the only surprise was one
Republican Senator voting with all the Dems against this horrid bill.
It was 22 for it, 11 against, after a lively debate, consisting mostly
Dem. Senators calling it a "voter suppression bill" and the originator
of the bill defending it.

It was heartening to be with so many who stood together against this
bill. Most  of us activists were on the side of the gallery that is
near the Democratic Senators. The LWV reps, in their purplish sashes,
were on the other side of the room, perhaps to show non-partisanship or
to remind the R Senators of their stance. Of course they have been
outspoken against this bill from the git-go.

I estimate that there were 25 of us voting rights activists, coming and
going throughout the four hour session. About fifteen of us had on
orange sashes that I cut from cloth Mon. night. I would have made more,
but ran out of cloth. I had written messages on the sashes such as,
"HB3 steals votes," and "Senators, where is the audit?" (the house
version of this bill had an automatic hand count audit of counties with
touchscreen machines, but the Senate sub committee took it out of the
bill!), but the security guy made us turn the sashes around so the
lettering wouldn't show. A CASE member and I were asked to take our
signs (lying harmlessly at our feet) outside also. When we all
applauded Sen Fedor's excellent speech and many of us cheered, we were
gavelled loudly and told we would be removed if we did it again. We
were allowed to cheer when the newly elected mayor of Cincy came in and
was recognized. I don't know where he stands on election reform, but
I'd be quite surprised if he supports HB3. He is a slender,
feisty-looking African American man, reminding me a little of Malcolm X
in demeanor.

The Dems proposed  substantive amendments (I'll have to check my notes
to remember if it was 2 or 3), which the R dominated Senate voted down.
One amendment did make it--I think it had been agreed on beforehand. 
The whole process was fascinating. At one point the R. Senator tried to
defend the philosophy of his bill that the D's were calling voter
suppression, by saying (not exactly but words to this effect), " I know
the opponents to this bill have a philosophy of having as many as
possible be registered and as many as possible vote," and then he went
on to criticize our failure to address security of those votes. But he
came across as sounding like he was against having as many as possible
register and vote! I found myself thinking, "This may be the crux of
the differences between the sides. Do the proponents of this bill
really want just certain people voting? ...the "responsible" (by their
definition) members of society,eg, those who pay enough taxes, those
with checking accounts, who have verifiable addresses and job
histories?" I am thinking this might be the case, though they won't say
this because it is not "politically correct."

The bill gets voted on in both houses today, where it is expected to
pass, but probably over strident Democratic objections. Some CASE Ohio
activists lobbied the R Senators in the morning before the session. One
activist woman told me, "The senators just said,'We disagree on this.'"

Are the Dems in the legislature ripe to hear about related problems with the elections in Ohio now?

This looks like a situation where a court challenge to the law is really important. Is anyone talking about that yet? Are there parts of the law that could be challenged via civil disobedience?

Thank you for fighting the good fight, mod mom. Keep filling us in...

(and I quote) There were only 4 documented cases of election fraud (that's right they said election not voter)during the '04 election. They did not mention the GAO report. I was interviewed yesterday and made a point of the serious problem of Electronic Voting and the proof from the GAO Report.

I do think there will be a challenge of this. I can only hope the the Dem Party will do, since us self funded election reform groups have been taxed to the max. Bob Fitrakis was there and I haven't have a chance to go to free press today, but you might want to check there:

freepress.org

If not I'll get more scoop on Friday at a holiday party. What do you think about me asking Bob to do an online chat with DUers on this forum? (like Mark Crispin Miller and others have done)

That's just lovely. It's amazing how few cases of documented fraud we can have when we're forbidden access to the documentation, isn't it?!

Sounds like you've been doing great work. Enjoy the party. And sure, why not invite Bob to do one of those things. (I don't really know what they are because I've only heard of them after the fact.)

edited because subject line made no sense

Strickland Statement on Republican
Voter Suppression Bill

Columbus, Ohio - Ohio gubernatorial candidate Congressman Ted Strickland issued the following statement today opposing Ohio Republican's efforts to enact HB3, a voter suppression bill.

"Ohio Republicans should be ashamed of themselves," Strickland said. "Instead of working in a bipartisan way to protect every Ohioan's right to vote, they're seeking to suppress votes in a power grab to protect their culture of corruption. And let there be no mistake--that is what this bill is all about for Ohio Republicans: power, pure and simple. This voter suppression bill is nothing less than a poll tax and as such is deeply immoral, undemocratic and un-American."

Strickland noted that a similar voter-ID requirement passed in Georgia was recently halted by a federal court, which ruled it was likely tantamount to a poll tax because voters are required to pay fees for required forms of identification.

Following is a link to an article on the Georgia decision: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20051019/localnews/28132.shtml

Following is a link to the court decision: www.acluga.org/briefs/voterID/PIOrder.pdf

Just before 6:00 p.m. today (Wed) the House voted 91-0 to defeat the Senate
>> amendments to HB3.  This throws it into a conference committee, which will
>> probably not report for 2 or 3 weeks, according to DeWine.  Phil, aren't you
>> on Harris's list to be notified of meetings?  You might want to ask to be
>> notified of when the conference committee will meet.
>> 

ps for all of you unfamiliar to OH politics, Dewine mentioned here is OH Sen Mike Dewine's brother.