DOJ Suing NY for HAVA Non-compliance!

From New Yorkers for Verified Voting --

On January 10, 2006, the Department of Justice sent a letter to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the New York State Board of Elections informing them that:

"I have authorized the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the United States against the State of New York as well as the New York State Board of Elections, et al, pursuant to Sections 301 and 303(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, 42 U.S.C && 15481 and 15483(a).Section 401 of HAVA, 42 U.S.C. & 15511, authorizes the Attorney General to bring an action in federal district court for such declaratory and injunctive relief as is necessary to carry out the requirements of Title III of HAVA."

Basically, the Empire State is considered non-compliant with the voting machine provisions of HAVA (section 301), and the voter registration database requirements (Section 303).

The letter is clear that they feel NY is the worst of the worst non-compliant states:

"It is beyond dispute that New York is not now in compliance..."

and

"...it is clear that New York is not close to approaching full HAVA compliance, and , in our view, is further behind in that regard than any other state in the country."

They state that resolution may be resolved through a

"negotiated consent decree rather than through costly and protracted litigation"

and ask if NY is willing to

"enter into negotiations for a fair and equitable settlement of this matter..."

U.S. Threatens to Sue Albany Over Voting

By MICHAEL COOPER

Published: January 12, 2006

ALBANY, Jan. 11 - The federal Justice Department has threatened to sue New York State over its failure to modernize its voting system, saying New York "is further behind" every other state in complying with new guidelines stemming from the 2000 presidential election dispute.

The state has yet to decide what kind of new voting machines it will certify, leaving many local elections boards in uncertainty as they try to modernize their voting systems in time for next fall's primary elections. And the state missed the Jan. 1 deadline for creating a statewide database of registered voters, as required by the federal Help America Vote Act.

New York is behind all other states and territories in deciding how to spend its share of $2.3 billion in federal aid to modernize voting machines and other elections technology. So far the state has received $220 million to replace its 20,000 aging voting machines, train local election officials to use the new machines, and create the voter database. The money is unspent and collecting interest, officials say.

A Justice Department letter told state officials this week that it had authorized a lawsuit against New York for failing to comply with the law. The letter said that the department hoped to settle the matter by negotiating a court order with the state instead going to court but that "we are prepared to file a complaint if the matter is not resolved expeditiously."

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/nyregion/12vote.html

Help Republicans Steal the Vote?

Can't get those machines into the Democratic states fast enough, I guess...

when they realize that the NY Attorney General gets to rake the Feds over the coals over the ITA's certifying equipment that doesn't meet federal standards! :rofl:

This might turn out to be the best thing thats happened for our side yet. :)

Steven P.

Going after Spitzer... It will be interesting to see what the next step is.

Abramoff) billions into Diebold and ES&S's pockets, pronto, New York!

Reminds me of one of the "corruption" charges against CA Dem Sec of State Kevin Shelley (who had sued Diebold and decertfied their crap-ass touchscreens prior to the 2004 election), that he "misused HAVA funds." Turns how what he did was refuse to release the funds for counties to purchase the crap-ass, hackable machines. That's all it was.

Non-transparent elections are not elections. They are tyranny. And what we have here, in this crap-ass Bush junta lawsuit against New York is an example of the kind of tyranny that RESULTS from non-transparent, crap-ass elections controlled by Bushite corporations! VOTE TABULATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW! And HAVA with it! Or better yet, toss them onto Ellis Island at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, to rust into oblivion!

And Alberto Gonzales can take his lawsuit, and his voter DB purge and torture list, and shove it up his ass!

It's 1776 all over again, but this time, YOU are there.

Attorney General
Elliot Spitzer
Executive Offices: Albany
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224-0341
(518) 474-7330

or

New York City
120 Broadway
New York City, NY 10271
(212) 416-8000

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/contact/addresses.html#hotline

LITIGATION
NYC:
120 Broadway
New York, New York 10271
(212) 416-8610
(212) 416-8611

Albany:
Justice Bldg. Room 355
Albany, New York 12224
(518) 474-8370

The Department's Litigation Bureaus (one in New York City and one in Albany) prosecute and defend actions in state and federal court on behalf of the State, its officers and agencies in virtually all substantive areas of the law. The Bureaus' major clients include the Departments of Social Services, Health, Taxation and Finance, Insurance, Civil Service, Correctional Services, Banking, Housing and Community Renewal as well as the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the Office of Mental Health, and the State's major educational institutions.

OTHER BUREAUS

LEGISLATIVE AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS BUREAU
146 State Street 3rd Floor
Room 301
Albany, New York 12207
(518) 486-3000

The Bureau of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs is responsible for the preparation of the Attorney General’s Legislative Program and its submission to the State Senate and Assembly, as well as the coordination of all significant communications between the Attorney General’s Office and the New York State Legislature, Congress and other public officials. The Bureau also provides legislative information and service to every bureau, division and office within the Attorney General’s office, working with Assistant Attorneys General and staff to identify and seek to remedy statutory weaknesses which adversely affect the public interest and the success of litigation brought or defended by the State, as well as providing information on pending legislation and new laws, state and federal, relevant to any subject area affected by the work of the Attorney General’s office. The Bureau is also responsible for reviewing and providing comments on legislation passed by the Legislature and pending before the Governor, and responding to legislative and case inquiries from local, state and federal officials and governmental bodies and members of the public.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/tour/tour.html

Steven P.

We use the mechabical machines and they are very good.

to keep your opponent's candidate counter from advancing once the counter starts to produce enough drag.

Did you know that the number most often recorded on those machines is 99? :(

On Edit: The following comes from Doug Jones' web site.

"Roy G. Saltman has noted that the number 99 shows up in the vote totals on lever machines significantly more frequently than would be expected if vote totals were randomly distributed -- that is, the number of 99's is noticably different from the number of 98's or 100's. The probable explanation is that it takes more force to turn the vote counting wheels in a lever machine from 99 to 100, and therefore, if the counter is going to jam, it is more likely to jam at 99. The fact that this is a frequent occurance in vote totals reported from lever machines is empirical evidence that the lever machines that have been used in real elections are, in fact, inadequately maintained and that this results in the loss of a significant number of votes. Exhaustive pre-election testing would be expected to detect these jams, but exhaustive testing of a mechanism as complex as a lever voting machine is very time consuming, and performing such tests on every voting machine prior to every election would be prohibitively expensive."

http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/pictures/

Steven P.

Will probably have to stay after school and write on the blackboard 100 times, "I will do my homework on time."

You'll survive.;)

Here's the letter to the New York State Attorney General and the State Board of Elections, from the Department of Justice.

It's a .pdf.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/New%20York/doj_letter.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050616-9.html

The President intends to nominate Wan J. Kim, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Attorney General (Civil Rights) at the Department of Justice. Mr. Kim currently serves as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. He previously served as Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Prior to that, Mr. Kim was an Associate with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd & Evans, PLLC. Earlier in his career, he was a Trial Attorney for the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice. Mr. Kim received his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Wan J. Kim
Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Telephone Number for the General Public - (202) 514-4609

Fax Numbers

(202) 514-0293
(202) 307-2572
(202) 307-2839

Telephone Device for the Deaf (TDD) - (202) 514-0716

Assistant Attorney General

Wan J. Kim
(202) 514-2151

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General

Bradley J. Schlozman
(202) 514-2151

Deputy Assistant Attorneys General

Rena Johnson Comisac
(202) 514-2151

Loretta King
(202) 616-1278

Counsels

Tobi Longwitz
(202) 353-9752

Cynthia McKnight
(202) 305-0864

Eric Treene
(202) 353-8622

Omar Vargas
(202) 305-1873

Special Assistant

Olegario D. Cantos VII
(202) 616-7920


Steven P.

I was interested to see if NY would try to hang on to it's lever machines. This could be the Fed's way of saying "don't try to pull anything...let alone a lever".

But it is past one of the deadlines, and a bunch of states aren't ready. I was wondering how DoJ would respond, and this seems mild. Plus, NY ought to get it's act better together.

In fact I give them a hell of a lot of credit for not allowing themselves to be rushed into a bad purchase on that phony HAVA deadline. Maybe they'll follow the lead we're setting in some counties in California and go with paper ballots for most people. One can only hope.

Steven P. :kick: