Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, March 25

I would like to dedicate today's thread to all those who have given their lives in Iraq, to the wounded, or the lucky ones that have returned home safe and sound, and finally to those currently serving, waiting for their turn to come home. They wouldn't be in harms way if our election process functioned the way it was intended to work. Let's all make it a top priority to get this process back on track, so we can have transparent legitimate elections. With the people's choices in office, we'll get our troops home where they belong.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

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 new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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

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



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

Stille recall attempt fails as recount upholds election results
Thursday, March 23, 2006
By Terry Judd
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

A recount Wednesday of a failed effort to recall Crockery Township Supervisor Leon Stille did not change the results of that Feb. 28 election, but county officials did find evidence of "sloppy" procedures by election workers in one precinct.
>snip
The hand-written complaint filed by Weimer and Silva alleged precinct workers were told "people they could not vote because they did not know their precinct's number." While Tuesday's recount did not prove or disprove charges by Weimer and Silva, canvassers found problems with how the Feb. 28 election was conducted. These problems included:

# Placing the wrong voting machines in the wrong precincts. Krueger said this error was discovered early in the election and ballots were placed in an "emergency bin" and counted later while the voting machines were properly placed in their respective precincts. Krueger said this error had no affect on vote totals or the outcome of the election.

# A one-number discrepancy between the total number of voters recorded in the poll book for Precinct 1 and the actual number of votes cast. The discrepancy was due to poll worker error and did not affect the election outcome. In an attempt to get a better picture on how many residents voted at Precinct 1, canvassers manually counted election applications, the paper voters sign before receiving ballots, and found a discrepancy of 20 between the number of ballots cast and the number of applications.

Krueger said this error had no bearing on the election but again showed that election workers in Precinct 1 did not carefully follow directions and procedures. He said elections typically are only overturned when there is strong evidence of fraud or malfeasance affecting an election outcome. That was not the case with the Feb. 28 election in Crockery Township, he said.

>more

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1143126918273260.xml&coll=8

Texas Candidate Sues Over Campaign Laws

By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 25, 12:07 AM ET

DALLAS - The comptroller of Texas sued the secretary of state Friday, claiming he is hurting her campaign for governor by unfairly enforcing rules for independent political candidates.

Keeton Strayhorn, elected as comptroller in 1998 and running as an independent against Republican Gov. Rick Perry, has complained for weeks about Secretary of State Roger Williams and even urged that he be removed from office because of his close ties with Perry. Williams, a Perry appointee, is the state's chief elections officer.

Strayhorn's campaign sued in federal court in Austin over Williams' plan to have her petition examined manually, signature by signature, instead of using statistical sampling, which examines only a portion of the signatures. The lawsuit says Williams' plan violates her constitutional rights.
>snip
Strayhorn's campaign has complained about other treatment, including that it was not allowed to begin collecting signatures immediately after the primary polls closed. Williams cited state law in rejecting the request.
> a bit more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_on_el_gu/texas_governor

Strayhorn files suit against state election chief

His office defends deliberate pace of verifying signatures

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, March 25, 2006

By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News

ELECTIONS '06AUSTIN – Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn sued the state's election chief Friday, accusing him of using his office to put up "unlawful roadblocks" to cripple challengers seeking to unseat GOP Gov. Rick Perry – who appointed him to his post.

The 12-page suit says Secretary of State Roger Williams is hurting Mrs. Strayhorn's campaign by purposely choosing to verify petition signatures to put her on the ballot in a time-consuming manual process, delaying her declaration as an official candidate.>snip

"The secretary of state and Rick Perry must be very afraid to throw up all the roadblocks they're attempting to throw up against us which are both unlawful and unconstitutional," said Mrs. Strayhorn's son Brad McClellan, who is also her campaign manager. "The partisan secretary of state is doing all he can to deny the people a real choice for change in November. The governor certainly is calling the shots.">snip

A spokeswoman for Mr.(Kinky) Friedman, who has said the state's political process panders to established parties, said his campaign is considering joining the suit. Mr. Friedman has criticized Mr. Williams for encouraging Texans to vote in the primaries, saying that hurt his chances of getting on the ballot.


http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-strayhorn_25tex.ART.State.Edition2.78517c2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_McClellan

Bradley (Brad) Dean McClellan is the son of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and grandson of W. Page Keeton, long-time dean of The University of Texas School of Law.

Brad's brothers are Scott McClellan, press secretary to President George W. Bush; Dr. Mark McClellan, director of Medicare; and Dudley McClellan, general counsel to the State Bar of Texas. Brad is a former administrative law judge for the Texas Workers' Compensation Commission (now the Texas Department of Insurance - Workers' Compensation Division) and is a noted expert on workers' compensation law. He also served six years as Chief of Workers' Compensation for the Texas Attorney General's Office.

In June 2005, he left that position to become campaign manager for his mother's campaign to unseat incumbent Governor Rick Perry.

Edition Date: Friday, March 24, 2006

Alameda County Is Defendant in Lawsuit By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
A group of voting rights activists—including nationally known labor leader Dolores Huerta—filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in San Francisco this week, seeking to halt the use of the Diebold paper trail electronic voting machines in California, but it is uncertain what affect it will have on electronic voting in Alameda County in the November elections and beyond.

The group’s 24 named plaintiffs are being represented by Berkeley attorney Lowell Finley and the San Francisco litigation law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Candady, Falk & Rabin. The lawsuit names California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson as one of the defendants, along with Acting Alameda County Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold and election officials in other California counties contemplating the use of the new Diebold machine.
>snip
The litigation does not ask for monetary damages, but seeks only to block implementation of the newly-certified Diebold TSx electronic voting machine for the November election. It does not address the use of other similar machines, and would not prevent the use of the new Diebold paper-trail machine in the June primary.
>snip
Speaking at a San Francisco news conference this week, Finley said that while the group “has no intention of walking away from the problems with other electronic voting systems like Sequoia,” the litigation focused on Diebold “because the evidence is so powerful that their machine does not follow California law, and therefore gives us the best opportunity to win an immediate injunction against the use of the machines.” Finley called the Diebold machines “unsafe, unsure, and easily hacked,” and said that the interpretive code used by the machines—the translating code that allows one part of the hardware to communicate with the other—is “particularly vulnerable to hacking. This code can be changed on the fly, after the machines have been certified and tested by the state and the local county agencies. We can’t have trustworthy elections using the Diebold electronic voting machines. And without trustworthy elections, we don’t have a democracy.”
>more

http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=03-24-06&storyID=23713

Louisiana: NOW Echoes Demand for Fair Elections for Hurricane Katrina Survivors

By National Organization of Women

March 24, 2006

In less than a month, the city of New Orleans will hold an election in which hundreds of thousands of residents are expected to cast votes, despite the fact that many of them are thousands of miles from home and not informed about the candidates—or even that an election is being held.

NOW stands today on behalf of its half-million contributing members with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the NAACP, the National Urban League and other civil rights leaders to call for the highest officials in the state and federal governments to ensure fair and accessible elections so that every New Orleanian has a vote and a voice in the political process that will directly impact their lives and their futures.
>snip
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to counteract the systemic racist barriers, intimidation and discrimination against African-American voters. Yet, today, more than 40 years later, these same barriers still affect residents of New Orleans, and we saw it across the nation during the past two presidential elections. We must all demand an end to the mistreatment of Katrina survivors and stand together as leaders, activists and good neighbors, and refuse to allow the government to ignore them once more.

I call on concerned women and men to join me, NOW's Action Vice President Melody Drnach, Rev. Jesse Jackson and others in the April 1 march to the Crescent City Connection, where Katrina survivors were met with gunfire and were blocked from crossing the bridge to higher ground. We will tell the government to protect the survivors' right to vote, their right to return to New Orleans, their right to assist in the reconstruction of the city and their right to organize. New Orleanians deserve that much and more from the government that has allowed them to suffer for so long.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Illinois: No More Payments To Sequoia Until Problems Are Solved Print
By Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA
March 24, 2006

Election Offical Says The Last Few Days Have Been “Extremely Embarrassing”
Sequoia, As Usual, Blames The Election Workers

Responding to widespread failures in Tuesday’s primary elections Cook County and Chicago election officials have announced they will withhold payments to Sequoia Voting Systems until the vendor has fixed the system, which “did not perform adequately.” The county has already paid Sequoia $7.8 million of their $23.8 million contract with Sequoia.

"Nothing worked," Deborah Stein, board member of the Chicago Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois told the Tribune. "They must have worked for 15 to 20 minutes to get it together. They acknowledged that they had not run a test on it before today. So they're pulling it out of the box."


Scott Burnham, a spokesman for Cook County Clerk David Orr, said. "we will not make additional payments until we are satisfied with the system," he said.

>snip
Sequoia, as usual, was quick to deny any responsibility for the problems and to blame election workers.
>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1116&Itemid=113

New York: Motion to Intervene Denied in HAVA Lawsuit

By New Yorkers for Verified Voting

March 24, 2006

The Motion to Intervene in the Department of Justice/New York State HAVA lawsuit filed by New Yorkers for Verified Voting, the League of Women Voters of New York State, and other New York State citizens was denied today in U.S. District Court. Judge Gary Sharpe expressed concern about keeping the case from getting unwieldy if too many parties became involved. The Court held open the possibility that the proposed Intervenors may be allowed to participate later, at a point when a specific plan for HAVA compliance has been proposed.

In another positive development, Judge Sharpe pressed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to concede that it is not seeking to force the remedy called for in the original complaint, which called for "full and complete" HAVA compliance by September. The DOJ attorney signaled that they do not intend to try to force full compliance this year, and understand that there are physical constraints on what could be realistically accomplished in the
remaining time.

In a new development, the Court ordered the State Board of Elections to produce a proposed compliance plan by April 10. The Department of Justice will then have 10 days to react. At that point, the Court will evaluate the plan and determine how to proceed. The State Board has indicated that it is still working out the details of an interim solution.

"Our constitutional right to vote and to have those votes accurately counted must be protected." said Bo Lipari, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting. "We believe that our Motion to Intervene should have been granted, so that New York State citizens have a voice in the outcome. However, we are encouraged that the Court has held the door open for us to participate later, when a specific plan is on the table."

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1115&Itemid=113

KCPW News
Mar 23, 2006

Emery County Election Officer Rejects E-Voting Machines
by Julie Rose

Fears Paper Jams, Memory Limitations, Loss of Votes

The head of elections in Emery County is refusing to use the new Diebold electronic voting machines in the upcoming vote. County clerk Bruce Funk says he's tested the machines and has serious concerns about their security and reliability.

Funk says he received 40 electronic machines in December as part of a statewide contract. Once he and his staff began training with the machines, he noticed regular paper jams. Further investigation yielded discrepancies in available memory space on the computers. Worried, he called the nonprofit watchdog group Black Box Voting who sent well-known computer hacker Harri Hursti (Harry Hershey) to test the machines. The final report has not been released, but Funk says he's seen enough to convince him even old-fashioned, hand-counted ballots will be better than the new machines.

Emery County Officials disagree with the preliminary findings, and Funk says they have barred him from the room where the machines are stored. State Elections Officer Michael Cragun says every county clerk in the state has a contractual obligation to use the Diebold machines this election. That leaves the legality of Funk's decision in question.

http://www.kcpw.org/article/203

Here is a list of election reform groups including many state/county groups as well as national election groups, such as TrueMajority, VoteTrust, etc.

http://www.gaforverifiedvoting.org/docs/election_reform.htm

San Angelo Standard-Times

Vote re-recount begins today

Technical, other difficulties prompt second round

By PAUL A. ANTHONY, panthony@sastandardtimes.com or 659-8237
March 25, 2006

A combination of ''little things'' led to discrepancies in Tom Green County recount totals this week, election officials said, adding that they expect no further delays in the process, scheduled to be restarted today.

The problems were spread out over multiple machines, said Dennis McKerley, chairman of the county Republican Party, which oversaw the March 7 primary and subsequent recount.

''There were all kinds of problems,'' McKerley said. ''Every one machine had a different thing, all the way down the line.''

>snip

Because the recount must be done by hand, the machines are designed to print out a ballot for each voter's choices. When the machines printed out about 8,100 ballots by some observers' counts - the certified totals showed more than 9,500 people had voted - recount officials knew something had gone wrong.

>more

http://www.sanangelostandardtimes.com/sast/news_local/article/0,1897,SAST_4956_4570144,00.html

Bradford County strikes deal with Diebold for voting machines
By LISA R. HOWELER

Times Reporter

TOWANDA - Bradford County struck a deal Friday with Diebold Election Systems out of Texas to provide the county with computerized voting terminals.

The county had originally reached a deal with Advanced Voting Solutions to provide 165 voting terminals by the May primary.

However, the county learned within the last week that the company could not - and then would not - guarantee that the machines would be delivered by the primary.

>snip

Friday the county signed a purchase agreement with Diebold and has been guaranteed all 165 machines well before the primary to allow poll workers time to be trained on the machines.

>more

http://www.eveningtimes.com/articles/2006/03/25/news/news3.txt

03/25/2006
Voting machines to be changed at last minute in Bradford County
By: James Loewenstein

The county will purchase 165 touch-screen AccuVote-TS voting machines from Diebold Election Systems, which was the county's second-choice model, Bradford County Elections Director Marie Zbyszinski said on Friday.

>snip

Earlier this year, Bradford County had joined a 10-county consortium to purchase Advanced Voting Solutions' WINvote machine at a discount, she said.
Now that Advanced Voting Solutions has raised concerns about whether those machines will be delivered in a timely manner, most of the 10 counties have decided to instead purchase their voting machines from Diebold, Schrader said.

>snip

The price for the Diebold machines will be slightly higher than the $547,000 that the county was going to spend on the WINvote machines, she said.

>more



http://www.thedailyreview.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16372378&BRD=2276&PAG=461&dept_id=465049&rfi=6

March 25, 2006
Editorial
Go Away: You Can't Vote

The right to vote should never be curtailed in a way that disenfranchises a whole class of people. This view is gaining traction even in the Deep South, which pioneered the shameful state laws that barred nearly four million ex-felons, parolees and probationers from voting in the last national election. It's heartening to see those laws being modified or repealed across the country. But states will need to re-educate elections officials, who are often dismally ignorant of election laws and biased against people who have been convicted of even minor crimes. As a result, many men and women who have paid their debts to society remain disenfranchised, even in states that guarantee them the right to vote.

One good example is New York, where the State Board of Elections has failed to uphold a state law that guarantees voting rights for people on probation, as well as for those who have completed their maximum sentences or been discharged from parole. As is completely appropriate, the law presumes that ex-offenders are as eligible as anyone else once they meet age, citizenship and residency requirements.

Unfortunately, the law isn't being followed, as was vividly documented in a new study by two civil rights groups, the Brennan Center for Justice, and Demos. Canvassers who contacted all of the state's county election boards found that nearly 40 percent were actually ignorant of the state's voting rights law and that nearly one-third continued to disenfranchise probationers and former inmates who were eligible to register and vote under state law.

>more



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/opinion/25sat4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Today in History - March 25
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:04 p.m. ET

Today is Saturday, March 25, the 84th day of 2006. There are 281 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 25, 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-History.html

There are many more events listed, but I thought this one was particularly relevant to this thread.

Posted on Sat, Mar. 25, 2006

County supervisor draws fire in quest to ensure valid elections
BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Elections controversies just seem to stick to Florida.

>snip<

...Leon County's Ion Sancho is now finding he can't get the equipment he says he needs to guarantee an honest election.

Vendors of the ATM-like electronic voting machines, tired of Sancho's criticisms over the level of security in their software, no longer want to do business with him or the county.

>snip<

Sancho's insistence on quality also has angered several Florida officials, including Gov. Jeb Bush, and has already cost his county more than a half million dollars.

Nonetheless, the feisty 55-year-old has his share of supporters, with the Tallahassee Democrat dubbing him "a zealous solider in election reform battles."

"Ion is one of the few to ask the questions," said Herbert Thompson, chief security strategist for Boston-based firm Security Innovation. "Like, what is this thing actually doing to my vote? How is it processing my vote?"

Thompson said most elections officials use the new equipment blindly.

"Nowadays, with the electronic voting systems, you don't know what even looks suspicious if you're an elections official," Thompson said. "You need people who understand software and software security to understand what the risks are."

>snip<

A separate review of voting machine logs used in Palm Beach County in the 2002 election revealed thousands of errors - just two years after it was forced to manually recount votes when Florida's massive elections problems surfaced while a presidential election was being settled.

Sancho wants to make sure such problems don't occur in Leon County.

"Florida is one example of how partisan politics interfere with having folks' votes being counted accurately," Sancho said in his office overlooking a series of mildew-stained white government buildings near the state Capitol. "Americans have taken elections for granted for far too long."

A major concern in Florida is around computerized ballots - their frequent inability to produce a written receipt of a vote. Beginning with Nevada, some 25 states now have requirements for e-voting machines with attached printers producing voter-verified paper audit trails while others, like Florida, rely on the audit capabilities of the equipment.

"If you make a system that can be manipulated, unfortunately in our current political environment, it probably will be," Sancho said. "Why take that chance?"

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/14186057.htm

This was posted in yesterday's thread, but I thought I'd repost it in case anyone missed it.

Sections of the Voting Rights Act will soon need reauthorization
© Indian Country Today March 24, 2006. All Rights Reserved
Posted: March 24, 2006
by: David Melmer / Indian Country Today
WASHINGTON - The Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1965, will celebrate its 41st anniversary on Aug. 7; yet some provisions of the act, which supporters argue have brought American Indians into the political arena, are due to expire in 2007.
American Indian and non-Indian organizations are in the midst of compiling and reporting research that shows the VRA - with some permanent provisions and some temporary - has made a difference to many minorities and furthers the argument that the VRA is still needed in its entirety.

>snip

It wasn't until 1970 that the Colorado Constitution was amended to allow American Indians to vote and take part in the political process.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ute members were not allowed to register to vote at the tribal headquarters, while the non-Indian population was afforded satellite registration locations in various communities. Litigation changed that situation. Prior to 1997, no American Indian had ever been elected to a county office in Montezuma County, home of the Ute Mountain Utes.

The report stated that defendants in American Indian voting rights cases frequently argue that ''Indians are mainly loyal to their tribes and simply don't care about participation in elections run by the state.''

The report went on to say it was the state itself that created an atmosphere of non-loyalty to the state by denying the American Indian the right to vote.

>more


http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412707

Sat, Mar. 25, 2006

American Indians still face obstacles in voting
MARY CLARE JALONICKAssociated Press

LAKE ANDES, S.D. - When Charon Asetoyer went to vote a few years ago, she was met with unfriendly words and an offensive gesture. A white man, apparently unhappy with the idea of an American Indian walking into the polls, asked her in vulgar terms what she was doing there.

She told him she was there because she had a right to vote and went back to her car to wait for him to leave. Only when he sped away did she walk inside.

Discrimination against Indians is commonplace here, she says. And nowhere is that more evident than in the polling booth.

Asetoyer, an American Indian who lives on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in the quiet flatlands of southeastern South Dakota, compares her home to the South in the 1960s.

"It's outright racism," she says.

Many on this reservation say that kind of behavior is normal in Charles Mix County, a poor, rural section of South Dakota farm country where American Indians make up around one-third of the population. Asetoyer, a quietly determined activist who moved here from California years ago, calls it a land-based struggle, where many of the conflicts are "border issues."

The problem is not limited to South Dakota. As Congress looks to reauthorize parts of the Voting Rights Act, many American Indians say they aren't satisfied with federal and state protections of their voting rights. While the landmark law has brought them a long way from the day when some state governments required they be "civilized" to cast ballots, they say they still suffer from intimidation, restrictive voting requirements and long distances to polling places.

"There's no question that there still is some subtle discouragement," says former Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a member of Colorado's Northern Cheyenne Tribe. "We've come a long way but we have a long way to go."

>snip<

Despite these achievements, tribes point to restrictive voting laws around the country. South Dakota's new voter identification law - passed after Johnson's election - requires residents to show photo identification at the polls, a problem for many on the reservations who don't have IDs. The law permits those without identification to sign an affidavit, but opponents argue there is confusion about what is allowed. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged other voter identification statutes seen as restrictive to Indians in Albuquerque, N.M. and Minnesota.

"The tribes are still very concerned about the targeted efforts to disenfranchise their vote," says Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians. "We are having to change a mind-set that exists."

>snip<

"If those federal protections weren't there, Indians wouldn't have a chance at voting," (Former Sen. Campbell) says. "The law probably ought to go farther."

>more

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/14182860.htm

Thanks for your help this AM. I really appreciate it. One suggestion...try to keep what you post from the articles to 4 paragraphs. It's part of "the rules". I don't want you to get chastised by the mods.
By the way...
Welcome to DU! And, again...love the help. Nice job!

Sorry about that and thanks for looking out for me! :hi:

Anything else I should know? Are the rules for posting on the ERD listed anywhere?

JD

5. Copyrights: Do not copy-and-paste entire articles onto this discussion forum. When referencing copyrighted work, post a short excerpt (not exceeding 4 paragraphs) with a link back to the original.

Other than that, all's well!

http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1143279279124850.xml&coll=2

Euclid accused of bias in voting

Blacks can't win office, U.S. probe concludes

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Thomas Ott and Leila Atassi
Plain Dealer Reporters

Euclid -- The Justice Department has threatened to sue Euclid and force changes in an election system that the federal government says prevents black candidates from winning seats on its City Council.

A former Justice Department lawyer found the timing suspicious. He suggested that the Bush administration, which has not vigorously pressed voting-rights suits, may be trying to polish its image quickly. The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to question Justice Department officials in May about whether they have adequately protected the rights of minority voters.

"It's an outright embarrassment that this appears to be the first case on behalf of black voters brought forth during the Bush administration," said David Becker, who worked for the Department of Justice from 1998 to 2005. The department "had to file a case on behalf of black voters before the oversight hearing took place. Otherwise they would have had a lot of explaining to do about why it hasn't happened in almost six years."

Though Euclid's black population reached 30 percent in the last census, voters have never elected a black candidate to any city or school office. The school board appointed Howard Drake to a vacant seat in 1998, but he lost in an election the next year...

Ohio City Investigated for Voting Discrimination

by Ari Shapiro

Morning Edition

March 24, 2006 ·

The Justice Department is planning to file a voting rights suit against a city in Ohio. The last time the department brought a lawsuit alleging a pattern of discrimination against black voters was in 2001.

snip/listen links

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5298849

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060325/NEWS09/603250380/-1/NEWS

Article published Saturday, March 25, 2006

ELECTION 2006
Democrats view Ohio as fertile territory in '08
Potential presidential candidates start with fund-raising for '06 races

By JIM TANKERSLEY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER

The first official Democratic presidential primary is nearly two years away. But an unofficial, cash-driven "preprimary" is raging already in the state that tipped the 2004 presidential election.

Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and several other Democrats with eyes on the 2008 presidential campaign are lining up to raise money for Ohio Democrats in 2006. Analysts say they are bringing mixed motives with them.

Mr. Kerry will headline a May 20 benefit in Toledo for the state Democratic Party, with tickets up to $1,000 each.

Mrs. Clinton will host a fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland in New York the day before.'Ohio is ground zero' in critical House battles...


'Ohio is ground zero' in critical House battles

http://www.cleveland.com/politics/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1143279495124850.xml&coll=2

Saturday, March 25, 2006
Elizabeth Auster
Plain Dealer Bureau

Washington- Mary Jo Kilroy has her pitch down pat. Sitting in a Washington restaurant, wearing a dark pinstripe suit and a serious expression, the 56-year-old Democratic pol from Columbus calmly explains why she thinks she can knock out one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress.

First, she says, Ohioans are sick of Republicans' "appalling record of political corruption" and eager to send a message "that it's time for a change." Second, she says, she has the muscle and the message to beat Rep. Deborah Pryce, who ranks fourth in the House GOP leadership.

Kilroy's proof: She has beaten tough opponents before, her district is tilting increasingly Democratic, and she plans to paint Pryce as a "rubber stamp" supporter of President Bush who is too conservative for the district.

Kilroy, a two-term Franklin County commissioner, is hardly a celebrity even in Ohio, her home state. But her decision to take on Pryce, of Columbus, has made her a darling of Washington Democrats desperate to end Republicans' 12-year House reign...

Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Court denies Puerto Rico US vote
The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to give residents of the territory of Puerto Rico the right to vote in US presidential elections.

Judges threw out the appeal by a group of Puerto Ricans - the latest development in a long-running debate on the islanders' constitutional rights.

>snip

Although residents cannot vote in presidential elections, they do elect a delegate to the US Congress.

However their representative does not vote, except in committees.

Attorney Gregorio Igartua, who filed the appeal, said the citizens of Puerto Rico "have been unfairly treated" for more than a century.

>more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4828116.stm

Visiting U.S. judge reviewing presidential voting case

By MEGAN POINSKI

Wednesday, March 22nd 2006

ST. THOMAS - Court procedures are again in motion to make a long-awaited decision on a federal court case demanding that territory residents who are United States citizens be represented with votes in Congress and be allowed to vote for president.

The first hearing since 2002 in a voting rights case filed by St. Thomas resident Krim Ballentine went forward in District Court on Monday morning. New Jersey District Judge Anne Thompson made no decisions, but she pronounced the case - completely argued and briefed years ago - ripe for judgment.

Ballentine, a St. Thomas activist and 2004 candidate for V.I. delegate to Congress, filed a lawsuit in District Court in 1999 challenging the Revised Organic Act of 1954. Ballentine's lawsuit claims that he is a disenfranchised voter because he is a U.S. citizen but has no real representation in the federal government.

Residents of the Virgin Islands - and other U.S. territories and possessions - are not represented in the Electoral College, which selects the nation's president. While all states have two U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives based on population, the Virgin Islands - as well as other U.S. territories and possessions and the District of Columbia - is represented in Congress only by a nonvoting delegate who can propose legislation and serve on committees.

snip

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=14695418

Election commission takes light touch with Net regs

By Declan McCullagh

Story last modified Fri Mar 24 18:40:43 PST 2006

advertisement

The Internet's freewheeling days as a place exempt from the heavy hand of federal election laws are about to end.

Late Friday, the Federal Election Commission released a 96-page volume of Internet regulations that have been anticipated for more than a year and represent the government's most extensive foray yet into describing how bloggers and Web sites must abide by election law restrictions.

The rules (click here for PDF) say that paid Web advertising, including banner ads and sponsored links on search engines, will be regulated like political advertising in other types of media. They also say bloggers can enjoy the freedoms of traditional news organizations when endorsing a candidate or engaging in political speech.

If the regulations are approved by the FEC at its meeting on Monday, they will represent a substantial change from a far more aggressive version of the regulations seen by CNET News.com last year. An outcry from bloggers and even members of Congress appears to have caused FEC lawyers--who are under court order to regulate the Internet--to rethink the rules and adopt a more laissez-faire approach.

Though not all the implications of the 96-page document were immediately clear, one prominent advocate of Internet free speech said the rules are preferable over what could have happened.

>more

http://news.com.com/Election+commission+takes+light+touch+with+Net+regs/2100-1028_3-6053986.html?tag=nefd.lede

Posted by Rick Hasen

A First Look at the New Proposed Final Internet Rules

Of course, I have only had a chance to quickly skim the new proposed final internet rules from the FEC and this handy summary from Commissioners Lenhard and Weintraub. I'm not going to summarize the main points, which the Lenhard-Weintraub document does.) Instead, a few initial reactions:

>snip

2. As a matter of substance, this is about everything that the Internet political community could hope for: broad exemptions for most political activity on the Internet, except by those entities that are already highly regulated (such as political committees and candidates).>snip
The proposed rules also create very generous safe harbors for individuals engaged in independent political activity on corporate or union owned computers.

3. On the whole, I think these are very good rules in preserving robust political speech on the internet that takes place without much danger of the corruption of candidates. My one personal disappointment is the FEC draft's decision not to require disclaimers on blogs where the bloggers have been paid by campaigns. >more



http://electionlawblog.org/

Defiant Belarus opposition sets up freedom movement
Sat Mar 25, 2006 2:20 PM GMT

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus's opposition leader on Saturday publicly told President Alexander Lukashenko that more and more people were losing their fear of him and announced the formation of a movement to "liberate" the country from his grip.

In the most audacious public challenge to the man who has just been re-elected after running Belarus with an iron rod for 12 years, Alexander Milinkevich told a rally: "I declare the creation of a Popular Movement for the Liberation of Belarus."

Milinkevich was heavily defeated by Lukashenko in a March 19 poll that the opposition says was blatantly rigged. He told the crowd of several thousand who turned out in a central Minsk park: "We are the ones who have won because more and more people are ceasing to be afraid."

>big snip

Demonstrators are demanding a re-run of the poll, which handed Lukashenko five more years in power.>more

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-25T142029Z_01_L24549584_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BELARUS.xml

Belarus police detain opposition leader, witnesses say
Last Updated Sat, 25 Mar 2006 12:02:08 EST
CBC News

Rows of riot police pushed back opposition supporters on Saturday as protests over disputed elections in Belarus continued in the capital of Minsk.

Police arrested several people and used truncheons to beat demonstrators who tried to approach a detention centre where hundreds of protesters are being held.

Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin, a runner-up in the presidential vote, and several members of his family were pulled from the crowd by police, witnesses said.

Security forces earlier blocked off a central square where opposition leaders had planned to hold their rally. Thousands of protesters instead gathered in a nearby park. >more



http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2006/03/25/belarus-060325.html

Brad Friedman interviewed Carolyn Wilson Crnich on his regular Friday guest appearance on KRXA 540am's Peter B. Collins Show yesterday -- broadcast out of Monterey, CA.

Blogged by Brad on 3/25/2006 @ 2:36am PT...

Brad on Air with Humboldt County Elections Chief


Carolyn Wilson Crnich Admits Hackable Diebold Optical-Scan Voting Machines Kept at Poll Worker Homes the Night Before Elections: Can't Speak to Security Vulnerabilities

I was pleased that Carolyn Wilson Crnich, Elections Registrar of Humboldt County, CA was able to join us on air for one of the segments.

Crnich is one of the officials named as a defendant in the recent lawsuit against CA Sec. of State Bruce McPherson and other county elections officials around the state. The suit, calls for the ban of use and purchase of Diebold touch-screen voting systems in the state since (amongst other reasons) they have proven to be hackable and their recent certification was in violation of state law requiring all certified voting systems to conform to Federal Voting System Standards. Diebold's machines do not conform to such standards because they contain "interpreted code" -- which is specifically banned by the Federal standards. Diebold has now admitted to the existance of such code on their systems. The forbidden code went unexamined and untested by Federal authorities when the machines received Federal certification.

Nonetheless, Crnich (we believe) is one of the good guys. She's proven willing to dump her previous plan to use Diebold AccuVote TSx (touch-screen) machines, which she was going to use in order to meet the disabled-accessible voting device requirement in the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). She is now hoping to use the paper-ballot based Vote-PAD system in Humboldt County this year instead.

However, as our on-air conversation revealed, there are still very serious concerns with Humboldt County's optical-scan system since they use the very system, made by Diebold, which was shown to be hackable last December in Leon County, FL.

>audio links and more

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002604.htm

A voting machine test

Thursday, March 23, 2006

...when touch-screen voting comes up, watch out for the instant rebellion. Opponents fear political tampering with a new technology that, even under best circumstances, isn't completely foolproof.

This suspicion is a burden that electronic voting doesn't need. It's why a court challenge brought by critics of Diebold Election Systems, a major supplier of touch-screen machines, should be considered in San Francisco Superior Court.

The state's top elections official, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, believes the machines are reliable. He conducted his own inquiry and invited in Diebold critics. The results: Hackers could still change election results, but the chances were remote and could be stopped by extra precautions, he said.

The findings haven't ended the perception problem. If there's any doubt here, Mr. Secretary, let the court case be heard, promptly. California deserves the convenience and flexibility of touch-screen voting, but not at the cost of voter fraud.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/03/23/EDGU9GJFT41.DTL

Competing interests backing 5th District candidates
By Paul Hampel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Mar. 26 2006

Officially, the race for 5th District Appellate Court pits Republican Steve
McGlynn against Democrat Bruce Stewart.

But to some observers, McGlynn and Stewart are proxies for the real contenders
- the powerful Metro East personal injury lawyers who support Stewart and
wealthy corporations who support McGlynn.>snip

Both candidates have decried the influx of campaign donations from wealthy
sources, and both say they favor limits on such contributions to avoid a repeat
of the Karmeier-Maag brawl.

Calls for judicial campaign reform have also come from the state legislature,
the Illinois Supreme Court and self-described watchdog groups nationwide.

>more

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/metroeast/story/B430783D4420C4118625713C00583374?OpenDocument

Voting snafu puts hold on library plan

By Adam Jadhav
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

03/23/2006

COLLINSVILLE

snip

A State Board of Election official said late Tuesday that he would have to look closer at the issue, where at least an estimated 2,800 registered voters never got a chance to cast a ballot on the matter because of a glitch.

At issue was whether to expand the current library district, which serves Collinsville, to other areas, including Fairmont City, Hollywood Heights and State Park.

Madison County voters in the library district passed the measure by 144 votes, 793 to 649. Voters in the county outside the district turned it down by 20 votes, 144 to 164. But the questions were never on the ballot for St. Clair County, leaving out several precincts.

The main questions now are whether the library district followed proper election procedures, and if they did, what can be done now that the election is over. Options vary from incorporating only individual precincts that supported the referendum to holding an entirely new election.

snip

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/metroeast/story/AEF31862276AE5D78625713A00196BB4?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2C%22election%22

12 charged in Lake Co. voter fraud

March 23, 2006

HAMMOND, Ind. -- Twelve more people, including a former East Chicago city councilman and a Lake County sheriff's deputy, have been accused of involvement in voter fraud during the 2003 primary elections in Lake County.

The 56 felony counts issued Wednesday against the 12 mean that 34 people are now face criminal charges related to the 2003 election.

snip

Among those charged was former East Chicago Councilman Randall Artis, 49. He was charged with seven felony counts, including allegations he induced a person to apply and to vote in a precinct where she did not live and induced a person to commit perjury.

Artis, a councilman from 1992 until his resignation last year, pleaded guilty in September to federal conspiracy and fraud charges in a $20 million sidewalk project that prosecutors say was done to influence voters before the city's 1999 primary election.

snip

Others charged included a sheriff's deputy who also is a precinct committeeman. He faces felony charges of receiving and examining ballots and inducing others to commit perjury.

snip

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060323/LOCAL/603230499/-1/NLETTER07

Posted on Sat, Mar. 25, 2006
County supervisor draws fire in quest to ensure valid elections
BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Elections controversies just seem to stick to Florida.

With the memory of a botched 2000 presidential election still etched in the minds of most elections supervisors in the state, Leon County's Ion Sancho is now finding he can't get the equipment he says he needs to guarantee an honest election.

Vendors of the ATM-like electronic voting machines, tired of Sancho's criticisms over the level of security in their software, no longer want to do business with him or the county. All three companies certified to do business in Florida - Diebold Inc., Election Systems & Software Inc. and Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. - have said "no."

Sancho's insistence on quality also has angered several Florida officials, including Gov. Jeb Bush, and has already cost his county more than a half million dollars.

Nonetheless, the feisty 55-year-old has his share of supporters, with the Tallahassee Democrat dubbing him "a zealous solider in election reform battles." >more

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14186057.htm

Perhaps electionline took John Gideon's concerns to heart. http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1059&Itemid=113

Pennsylvania’s Machine Rush Could Lead to Polling Troubles, Experts Say

As Keystone counties race to comply, New York punts rather than ‘shoot craps’

By M. Mindy Moretti

snip

Ted Selker, associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that in many cases when people have made the switch to new voting equipment they have reduced the error rate in elections. However, without the proper training on the new equipment they have increased the error rate.

snip

In a letter to the counties, Harry VanSickle, commissioner of the bureau of commissions, elections and legislation, told officials that counties should consider exploring alternatives, “…including the cancellation of any contract or purchase order in favor of another vendor that has demonstrated that it will be able to supply the voting equipment and services necessary for compliance with HAVA for the May 16 primary.”

snip

http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/180/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

With the past notoriety of the documentary "Street Fight", about the political fight for Mayor of Newark between Sharpe James and Cory Booker, many look forward to this years race for mayor in Newark. Booker has secured the services of Ex-James staffers and hired the same Media firm that James used in the last campaign.




SO lets look into how Newark NJ picks, who goes on which ballot line.

Routine Newark ballot drawing: No-show James and defamation suit

Saturday, March 25, 2006
BY JEFFERY C. MAYS
Star-Ledger Staff

It was supposed to be a quiet drawing to determine
who would land in what position on the ballot for Newark's May 9 municipal election.

But yesterday turned into one of the most eventful days in this short campaign season since Mayor Sharpe James rode inside City Hall on a bicycle and dropped off his candidacy petitions.

Deputy Mayor Ronald Rice, a mayoral candidate, announced he was resigning from his $80,000-per-year job to pursue the city's highest elected office.

>snip<

. . . and five members of the city council filed a defamation lawsuit against mayoral candidate Cory Booker.
Despite all the excitement, Sharpe James . . . speculation that he might withdraw his name by Monday's deadline. . . ."The Booker-James rerun is gaining more attention than the first go-around," . . Booker and his slate of candidates sat on one side of the aisle and the mayor's supporters, including his council ticket, sat on the other.

FULL Story:

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-0/114326536149610.xml&coll=1

www.news14.com


Democrats stand behind Black
Updated: 3/25/2006 10:33:17 AM
By: Gary Robertson, Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The day after their leader was referred to prosecutors for potential criminal violations, House Democrats attempted Friday to focus on ways to keep legislators out of trouble in the future.

"We've got to take this opportunity to make the system better," said Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Wake, after a House committee met to discuss potential changes to the state's ethics and lobbying laws.

The State Board of Elections on Thursday asked the Wake County district attorney to examine whether House Speaker Jim Black broke the law by accepting incomplete checks from his fellow optometrists and forwarding them to political allies.

The board also ordered Black's campaign to give up more than $23,000 in what it found to be illegal contributions from people connected to the video poker industry, corporations and business, as well as eye doctors.
>more

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=116307

There is a link to a video at the link above. (Ethics Board Hearing) There are also additional links to previous reports, if you are following the story.

Saturday, March 25, 2006
President Jimmy Carter Weighs in on Missouri Photo ID Bill
Measure falls short of Carter-Baker Commission's recommendations

Jefferson City, Mo. - infoZine - Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced today that she received a letter from former President Jimmy Carter weighing in on Missouri Senate Bill 1014, which would require an approved photo ID to vote in Missouri.

Supporters of the bill have stated repeatedly that their recommendations are based on the "Carter-Baker" report issued by the Commission on Federal Election Reform and co-chaired by President Jimmy Carter. Although proponents have implied that the Commission would support such a bill, Carter writes "That is not the case."

In the letter, Carter wrote that as far as he understands the bill, it is "quite different" from what he and co-chair, former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, proposed on voter identification.

"This letter affirms that SB 1014 falls woefully short of the recommendations for voter identification as put forth in the bipartisan Carter-Baker report," Carnahan said. "Instead of increasing public confidence and voter participation, this bill would make it harder, if not impossible, for nearly 200,000 Missourians, mostly seniors and disabled persons, to cast their votes on Election Day."

>more

http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/13804/

Well, heres some folks that seem to know a bit about SD election law. I wonder what the odds are that SD will vote to support a womans private choice? Do ya think?

South Dakota abortion ban faces ballot challenge

CARLOS CHAVEZ / AP

Hundreds of Los Angeles high-school students stage a walkout Friday to protest congressional legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants.


South Dakota abortion-rights activists said Friday they would challenge the state's near-total ban on abortions by collecting enough petition signatures to bring it to a statewide vote.

The coalition has to gather signatures of 16,728 registered voters by June 19 to put an initiative for repeal of the law on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The law, which bans abortion even in most cases of rape and incest, is set to take effect July 1. But if enough signatures are submitted, it will be suspended pending outcome of the ballot measure.

Legal experts predicted a federal judge would enjoin the law because it violates Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

>snip<

Full Story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002888246_ndig25.html

Company says vote counting machines were programmed incorrectly

March 24, 2006

SWANZEY, N.H. --It turns out a programming error caused a vote-counting machine to throw out hundreds of ballots in the Monadnock Regional School District elections.

L.H.S. Associates of Methuen, Mass., which sells and operates the machines, made a mistake that caused the machine to discard ballots in which residents marked more than one candidate in two races. In each race, voters could choose two of three candidates.

Hand recounts reversed the results in the races and reversed the outcome of a vote on a warrant article.

snip

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/03/24/company_says_vote_counting_machines_were_programmed_incorrectly/



Re-counts on Wednesday reversed the results in two district races and showed a warrant article approved last week in reality was defeated.

For instance, last week's vote showed board member Colline Dreyfus had 80 votes, losing a three-way race for two seats. The re-count showed she won 510 votes, and won a seat. A losing candidate for a budget committee spot was declared a winner in the re-count.

The re-count also showed voters rejected a plan to set aside $231,000 in a capital reserve fund. The original count showed the proposal passed.

School Board Chairman Richard Thackston said the problem casts doubt on the results of about a dozen other warrant articles. But the results may be final because the deadline for recounts was last week.

snip

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/03/23/recounts_show_machine_errors_in_several_monadnock_school_votes/


also

http://www.sentinelsource.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=102019&SectionID=31&SubSectionID=37&S=1

Pantagraph Editorial

Chicago had voting problems; what a surprise

More than $4 billion in taxpayer money was spent nationwide to rectify a voting nightmare in the 2000 presidential election.
And here it is 2006 and what do we have - one of the major U.S. cities with problems six years ago still counting ballots on millions of dollars worth of new electronic equipment two days after the primary election ended.

In case you couldn't guess, the problem is in Chicago. It was the city's first election with electronic voting devices.

Six years ago, more than 120,000 ballots in Cook County - mostly Chicago - didn't register a vote for president. There were cries of fraud, but they didn't get as much attention as Miami because Illinois' electoral votes went to Al Gore, whose supporters were making all the fuss. Florida's much-contested electoral votes wound up going to George W. Bush at the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court.

All we heard for months were Democrats complaining about "hanging chads," "pregnant chads," etc. This time around, Chicago reported machines programmed incorrectly, program cards missing and judges without sufficient training.>more

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/03/25/opinion/110106.txt

Emery County Election Officer Rejects E-Voting Machines

Fears Paper Jams, Memory Limitations, Loss of Votes

Mar 23, 2006

by Julie Rose

(KCPW News) The head of elections in Emery County is refusing to use the new Diebold electronic voting machines in the upcoming vote. County clerk Bruce Funk says he's tested the machines and has serious concerns about their security and reliability.

Funk says he received 40 electronic machines in December as part of a statewide contract. Once he and his staff began training with the machines, he noticed regular paper jams. Further investigation yielded discrepancies in available memory space on the computers. Worried, he called the nonprofit watchdog group Black Box Voting who sent well-known computer hacker Harri Hursti (Harry Hershey) to test the machines. The final report has not been released, but Funk says he's seen enough to convince him even old-fashioned, hand-counted ballots will be better than the new machines.

Emery County Officials disagree with the preliminary findings, and Funk says they have barred him from the room where the machines are stored. State Elections Officer Michael Cragun says every county clerk in the state has a contractual obligation to use the Diebold machines this election. That leaves the legality of Funk's decision in question.

snip

http://www.kcpw.org/article/203


also

snip

Herbert says that Funk violated the contract between Utah and Diebold by conducting tests on the machines without Diebold or state election representatives there to verify it.

snip

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3634490

Concerns About Same-Day Voter Registration

Stowe, Vermont - March 24, 2006

There is a glitch within the statewide voter checklist. Last night, the secretary of state shutdown part of the checklist that chronicles voter history. "It's a glitch we caught and we fixed it," said Secretary of State Deb Markowitz on Friday. >snip

The statewide checklist is also in the thick of another thorny issue, allowing voters to register to vote on the day of an election. "Same day voter registration has a 30 year history and it if it was the greatest thing since Mom's apple pie why wouldn't all 50 states be doing it,"said State Representative Mary Morrissey, a Republican from Bennington.

Seve states currently use same day voter registration. But its argued the computer generated statewide checklist has to be squeaky clean before allowing same day voter registration. "I like to listen to the people who implement this and if they are saying to us, and they are...this could lead to fraud,"said Representative Connie Houston, a Republican from Ferrisburgh.

This is a hot button issue for political parties. The town clerks say they are not partisan and just want a voting system that has integrity. A bill that would allow voters to register to vote on the same day of an election has passed the House and the Senate. Those two sides need to work out their differences. The town Clerks are hoping they will take a go slow approach.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=4679681&nav=4QcS

This is cool. It's an opinion piece from a high school student. You go, guy!


Walt Whitman High School

Opinion
Replace Maryland's Diebold machines
by
Nathan Swire
Opinion Writer
PUBLISHED
3/24/2006 1:42:18 PM
Maryland’s Board of Elections should replace electronic Diebold voting machines with more reliable and transparent optical voting machines to prevent fraud and protect the integrity of the voting process. >snip

Without manually countable receipts, voting machines can invalidate the election by not providing a method of verifying results. While Diebold boasts a powerful set of security measures, including encryption and anonymous storage, the system does not immediately give voters a receipt. Without a receipt, voters cannot verify that the machines counted their votes correctly and the government cannot manually recount votes in the case of fraud or hacking.

Computers that store election data also remain vulnerable. Anyone with access to the central computers can tamper with the results without needing a password. In fact, a video produced by Black Box Voting, a group opposed to Diebold machines, shows a trained monkey hacking and deleting votes from a Diebold computer. Clearly, electronic voting machines do not adequately protect the public from voter fraud.

Because Diebold electronic machines have so many flaws, Maryland should look into alternative systems. The Maryland House recently passed a bill that would lease optical voting machines to replace Diebold machines in the next election. Optical machines count votes by scanning a form that the voter has filled out, and therefore this form can double as a physical receipt. Optical machines cost less than electronic systems and require less maintenance. The bill’s estimated cost falls between $12 million and $16 million. This is small price to pay to safeguard our state’s democracy from fraud and security threats.>more



http://www.blackandwhiteonline.net/DesktopModules/Articles/Articles_Detail.aspx?x=t3S1V757gDDVS9fzgnHPR4l1pNC4q37jqaLZo%2FU1R73a6lc6o%2BeMpEX04PHe78hvJ8R0iAphOK12Bcid0OuZ6w%3D%3D

Debate on whether to renew parts of 1965 voting rights law heats up

By MARCUS FRANKLIN
Associated Press Writer

March 25, 2006, 12:36 PM EST

NEW YORK -- When voting rights marchers reached the highest point on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March 1965, a blue sea of uniforms appeared at the end of the bridge.

Alabama State Troopers armed with night sticks, bull whips and tear gas, as well as guns, stood ready to attack. Television carried the severe beatings near Selma by the troopers nationally.

Days later, President Lyndon Johnson promised to bring Congress an effective voting rights bill. That August, he signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, considered one of the country's most significant laws ever.

Now, more than four decades later, sections of the act are set to expire. The looming expiration date _ Aug. 6, 2007 _ has ignited debate over the provisions' effectiveness and relevance, and over whether they should be extended.>more

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--votingrightsact0325mar25,0,1901916.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork