Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, May 7,2006

The Good Democrat

by Mark E. Smith

http://www.opednews.com

Can a Green vote for a Democrat? As an election reform activist and a registered Green Party voter, I’d been planning to vote a straight Green Party ticket in the next election, with the exception of voting for California State Senator Debra Bowen, a Democrat who is running for Secretary of State. Bowen has taken the lead on election integrity, sponsoring important legislation and holding investigative hearings. Debra Bowen is exactly what I would call a good Democrat. Progressive, intelligent, a leader, and concerned about the things I care about.

But I keep remembering how John Kerry had raised millions of surplus dollars towards the end of his 2004 campaign by saying that he needed the money for lawyers and legal fees to challenge the election outcome if necessary. As it turned out, the lawyers all volunteered to work without pay, but Kerry conceded early and told them to go home. As for the money, he kept some of it for his war chest, and donated some of it to the Democratic Party and to Democratic candidates.

So along comes Debra Bowen who understands that we have a serious election integrity problem in California and sincerely wants to do something about it. Everybody seems to assume that once elected Secretary of State, Bowen will immediately move to decertify Diebold election systems in California. Everybody except me, that is.

You see, we used to have a Democratic Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley, and he actually did decertify Diebold. Then the Republicans mounted a recall campaign, removed him from office, and appointed someone who immediately recertified Diebold. The Democratic Party was unable to stop this from happening.

More: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_e___060506_the_good_democrat.htm

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002792.htm

Vote counting goes on up north
Cuyahoga County's first electronic ballot is a high-tech failure

By Carl Chancellor
Beacon Journal staff writer
CLEVELAND - And they were still counting.

Early Saturday afternoon, a full 86 hours after the polls officially closed Tuesday night, workers at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections were hard at work continuing to tally the nearly four-day-old vote -- with no end in sight.

A red-eyed, neck-cracking, arm-stretching, back-twisting, yawning contingent of weary election employees, hand tabulating thousands of paper ballots, filled the desks and bank of long tables on the second floor of the board's Euclid Avenue headquarters.

``Most of our staff is in. We have between 60 and 70 people working today doing 12-hour shifts.... It's a 24-hour operation,'' said Jane Platten, an administrator of the Cuyahoga elections board.

``At this point, all of our resources are into the hand count,'' said Platten, who, like nearly all the board employees, has been virtually living at the elections office since the Tuesday primary election debacle.

J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state, who is the state's top election official, has launched an investigation into what delayed ballot counting in Ohio's largest county, which struggled with using electronic voting for the first time.


More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/14519470.htm

The video everyone should see is by Mark Crispin Miller, Author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)! It's a presentation covering Electoral Fraud/Problem of Electronic Voting he delivered at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

To see the video, http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/0406/btv040906_4b.ram">Click Here (RealPlayer).


Disclaimer: Sure, this video has been posted before, but it can hardly be referenced too many times; if you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch--it's worth the time and will leave you in little doubt about what happened in 2004!

What the hell is this Arlington group. We need to research this

Blackwell is darling of foes of gay marriage

Sunday, May 07, 2006
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus -- In June 2003, a group of evangelical Christian leaders met in Arlington, Va., to map strategy for a clash they viewed as the political equivalent of Gettysburg, the greatest battle ever fought on American soil.

The group members, veterans of the culture war and the birth of the religious right that followed the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 ruling legalizing abortion, coalesced around an issue that they felt crystallized the depths of depravity to which America had sunk -- same-sex marriage.

For Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Thought to have little chance of beating either Attorney General Jim Petro or Auditor Betty Montgomery in a Republican primary for governor, Blackwell seized the moment and led a successful, high-profile campaign to outlaw gay marriage in Ohio in 2004. In the process, he helped hand President Bush a second term.

...snip

Largely as a result, Blackwell today is the Republican nominee for Ohio governor. He also is a national political figure and, courtesy of the organizers of the Virginia conference, a member of the Arlington Group, a powerhouse, by-invitation-only organization whose roughly 60 members have direct access to the White House.

Arlington Group members and their spouses have donated $18,400 to Blackwell, and their organizations have provided vast quantities of money and assistance to him in other ways.

...snip

Blackwell was invited to join the Arlington Group in the summer of 2004 after he was identified as a leader of the anti-gay marriage movement by Arlington Group co-founder Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss.

Only two other Ohioans - Burress and televangelist Rod Parsley, senior pastor at World Harvest Church and head of the Center for Moral Clarity in suburban Columbus - are members.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1147002913139070.xml&coll=2

‘... under God, divisible’
Ohioans sincerely at odds about how much religion should mix with politics

Sunday, May 07, 2006
Darrel Rowland , Joe Hallett and Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


"The real Ken Blackwell wouldn’t be standing up here if he didn’t first say, ‘All the glory is God’s.’ " Those were the first words in the GOP gubernatorial nominee’s victory speech last week. A few minutes later at the Democrats’ victory party, Ted Strickland’s Jewish running mate was extolling Strickland’s virtues as "an ordained Methodist minister."

Like it or not, religion almost certainly will play a major role in Ohio’s race for governor.

A Dispatch Poll shows that many Ohioans will like it — but about as many won’t.

And therein lies the danger for both Blackwell and Strickland. One segment of Ohio wants them to talk about their religious beliefs. But overdoing the God talk risks alienating the rest of Ohio.


More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/05/07/20060507-A1-01.html

Year of the black in GOP

Published May 7, 2006


WASHINGTON -- Brace yourself, America. I'm going to stick my neck out and make a prediction.

I'm going to predict a future presidential matchup that, I guarantee you, is as reliable as any other serious, long-range political prediction.

Here it is: Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois versus Republican Gov. J. Kenneth Blackwell of Ohio.

I know, I know, a couple of things have to fall into place before this scenario can happen.

First, Blackwell, now Ohio's secretary of state, will have to beat his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, in November. That won't be easy. A psychologist and ordained minister from southeastern Ohio's rural Appalachian region, Strickland has enough conservative appeal to hold an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association.

Nevertheless, after winning Ohio's Republican gubernatorial primary last week, as pollsters predicted he would, Blackwell has created a lot of excitement. He represents a racial milestone. A victory would make him the second elected black governor in U.S. history. (Democrat L. Douglas Wilder, now mayor of Richmond, Va., was elected that state's governor in 1990.)


More: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0605070401may07,1,649540.column?coll=chi-news-col


:rofl: Only if Blackwell controls all the voting machines... I can't see Blackwell having a chance.

Campaigns tied to ballot issues

BY HOWARD WILKINSON | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Republican Ken Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland will have one thing in common as they lock horns in the Ohio governor's race this fall - each will have a favorite statewide constitutional amendment on the ballot to help fire up their troops.

For Blackwell, it will be the Tax Expenditure Limitation (TEL) Amendment, a proposal he helped draft that would limit the growth in state and local government spending to 3.4 percent a year.

For Strickland, it will be an amendment backed by his allies in organized labor that would raise Ohio's minimum wage from the current $4.25 an hour to $6.85.

More: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060507/NEWS01/605070416/1077

Election results should be known by this morning
Sunday, May 07, 2006

Olivera Perkins
Plain Dealer Reporter
Tuesday's election remained a cliffhanger Saturday, but Cuyahoga County elections officials say the suspense should end today.

County elections Director Michael Vu said the board planned to release the results this morning. "This has been a long and arduous election, but we did the right thing," Vu said.

He was referring to his order to have workers hand-count more than 15,000 paper absentee ballots.

The ballots could not be counted by optical-scan machines.

The outcome of the elections hinged on the absentee ballots since 51 races were too close to call without them. The hand count was finished Friday, which was the first step of the process.

Results also were delayed when 70 memory cards, which record votes in electronic voting machines, could not be found. Officials have since found that some workers inadvertently left the memory cards in machines or in storage bags at board offices.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1146991076239750.xml&coll=2

Blackwell may lure black crossover vote
The GOP's candidate for governor could take part of the Democratic base.

By Jim DeBrosse

Staff Writer

DAYTON — Many Dayton-area black voters say they're uncommitted in the race for Ohio governor, lending support to political analysts who believe large numbers of black Democrats may defect to vote for Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell in November.

"I'm keeping an open mind," said James Washington, 57, of Dayton.

Democrats in Ohio usually draw support from blacks and urban areas.

But Republicans have nominated Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state. He's the state's first black candidate for governor from either major party.

...snip

But Russel Byars, a 45-year-old Lebanon resident, said, "He's a man of God. I like his stands (against) abortion and same-sex marriage."


More: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/ddn0507blackwell.html


(Where have I heard this before? :shrug: Don't these people ever learn?)

Election may swing on crossover vote
Blackwell may draw a big chunk of blacks, but Strickland has a chance at moderates from the GOP.

By Jim DeBrosse

Staff Writer

DAYTON — Whether Republican candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell's appeal to black voters is a deciding factor in Ohio's race for governor could depend on how well Democratic candidate Ted Strickland communicates his own message to the black population by the November election, analysts and voters say.

...snip

"Yes, (Blackwell) has appeal, and he is charismatic," Lieberman said. "But once the African-American community becomes more educated about his right-wing, ultra-conservative stand on the issues, he will fail to get their vote. But the Democrats must do their job."

Typically, about 10 to 15 percent of black voters support Republicans in Ohio, analysts say.

If Blackwell gets 30 percent to 32 percent, "you're talking about some serious numbers (for) the Democratic Party," said Peter Schramm, a political scientist at Ashland University.

Herb Asher, a political scientist at Ohio State University, however, said Republicans have more to fear from Strickland drawing moderate voters from their own party than Democrats do from Blackwell enticing away black Democrats.

"There are a lot of Republicans who don't like Blackwell, who see themselves as more moderate," Asher said. "Some don't like his pro-life stance, some don't like his tax limits. And they see Blackwell taking the party in a direction they don't want to go."


More: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/ddn0507blackwell2.html

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/05/07/20060507-A4-04.html

Sunday, May 07, 2006
Mark Niquette and Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Members of a Columbus Lutheran church say it was wrong for the campaign of gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell to put leaflets on cars in the church parking lot on the Sunday before last week’s primary.

The tactic was offensive and suggested the church was endorsing Blackwell when churches are not allowed to back candidates, the church’s pastor and a member said.

"I think that they were trying to use the church as a vehicle to promote Ken Blackwell, and that made me angry," said church organist Laura Silva of Dublin.

Silva said she would be angry if a Democratic candidate did the same thing. "People should be free to worship God on Sunday and not have someone put campaign fliers on their car," she said...

Primary results put Ohio in spotlight, again

By Jessica Wehrman
Staff Writer

WASHINGTON | Ask political scientist Stuart Rothenberg which Ohio congressional districts will be competitive this November, and he sounds a bit like a bingo announcer.

"Sixteen, 13, one, six, 15, 18," said Rothenberg of the political newsletter, The Rothenberg Report.

The numbers are districts across Ohio that host well-known incumbents such as Reps. Ralph Regula, R-Navarre, Deborah Pryce, R-Columbus, Bob Ney, R-Heath, and Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, as well as open seats vacated by Reps. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, and Ted Strickland, D-Lisbon.

Now that Ohio's primary elections are over and the slate of candidates is known, Rothenberg and other political observers find themselves in a familiar position, focusing once again on the Buckeye State.

Developments so far include:

• The National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have, combined, dumped more than $1.1 million into the 6th District — Strickland's open seat — where Democratic state Sen. Charlie Wilson won a decisive primary campaign as a write-in after he failed to get enough signatures to get on the ballot.

• DCCC chair Rahm Emanuel has labeled Ohio "ground zero" in the Democratic attempt to win back the House majority.


More: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0507ohcong.html

COUNTY DUSTING OFF LEVER MACHINES

By Larry Ault/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, May 6, 2006 10:36 PM CDT

For many Jefferson County voters accustomed to using lever-type voting machines, early voting will be a different experience for them because they will be required to vote on paper ballots.

Some of Jefferson County’s elected officials say they can’t remember voting any other way except with the lever- type machines that are being phased out because of changes in federal voting laws.

In Jefferson County, the lever-type voting machines will be used for one more election in the May 23 primary and June 13 runoff elections because the county was not prepared to use new touch-screen voting machines.

The Jefferson County Election Commission voted unanimously a week ago to use the county’s old lever machines even though it had previously voted to use the new touch screen voting system by Election Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb. Commission Chairman Trey Ashcraft said several ES&S “failures” forced the change in plans.

Early voting begins Monday and Ashcraft said ES&S has not provided the county with many essential and critical tools needed for the county to conduct the election.


More: http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2006/05/07/news/news2.txt

Voting glitch creates tension
Company knew of situation

Saturday, May 06, 2006
By JOSEPH DEE
Staff Writer
TRENTON -- The deficiency in Mercer County's electronic voting machines comes as a surprise to practically everyone except the people who made them.

The 600 machines for which the county paid $4 million in 2003 lack counters to track the number of people who vote in particular elections.

Such a count is essential to the preferred method for determining whether a runoff will be required in Trenton's at-large city council election Tuesday.

Michelle Shafer, vice president of communications for machine manufacturer Sequoia Voting Systems, said the company is aware of the problem. "This is something in the queue to be updated," she said. "Obviously, if we're not already in touch with Mercer County on this, we soon will be."

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said the county has been hounding Sequoia to retrofit the machines with paper ballots that can be counted in the event of a computer glitch, and said he will ask that the voter-count problem also be fixed.

...snip

Referring to the paper ballots, Hughes said, "They say the technology is difficult. My response is, `I can get a paper trail for a purchase at any Wawa or 7-Eleven. It can't be as difficult as you're making it sound."'

The machines' flaw surprised city at-large candidates when they were contacted by The Times Thursday. Candidate Kathy McBride said she and at least one other candidate have lawyers looking into the matter. Depending on the attorneys' advice, McBride said she might ask federal officials to intervene and perhaps postpone the election.



More: http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1146902786181880.xml&coll=5

Indiana, New Hampshire, ID voting laws
Two states, two states of mind

By John Burtis
Sunday, May 7, 2006

What? Howard Dean is having a tantrum that Indiana has passed a photo ID bill for voting? Why?

It comes as a shock, I know, that illegal aliens, out of towners, out of staters, folks with multiple addresses, college students, felons who aren’t supposed to, and the dead vote any number of times in our elections with the precision of an IBM punch card machine.

You may also notice that these disparate groups are all valued members of the great new growing all-encompassing big tent Democratic Party, especially those without any documents, convicted criminals and the newly buried.

It also should come as no surprise at all that a study in New Jersey awhile ago found that the overwhelming majority of the five thousand or so dead who voted in the 2004 election went Democrat.

In fact, the sheer numbers of dead who managed to get to the polls in Jersey were so shocking that it caused a judge to order that the polling lists be immediately expunged of the voting incorporeals.

Deputy sheriffs will be asked to advise cemetery owners and operators to lock down their gates to insure that their charges stay put during the hours the polls are open, in an attempt to keep the walking zombies, victims of Voodoo curses and bad juju away from the ballot boxes in Bergen County.


More: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/burtis050706.htm


This is from Canada and a crock of dung, but we need to know how election reform is being played in the media.

New voting rights crisis: disfranchisement

May 7, 2006
Recent elections have brought to the fore a silent crisis threatening minority voting rights in Tennessee and other states in which criminal disfranchisement statutes bar convicted felons from voting.

Such laws have a dramatic impact on minority voting rights. In Florida, for example, it is estimated that about 31 percent of the state's adult black men have been disfranchised by its law -- which, like the one in Tennessee, requires those who have been convicted of any felony and completed their sentence to seek approval from the state before their voting rights can be restored.

Restoration of voting rights, when a state's statute provides this option, can be a very cumbersome process. (Tennesseans convicted of one of several crimes, including murder, aggravated rape, treason or voter fraud, are not eligible for voting rights restoration at all.)

Late in the 2005 term, the U.S. Supreme Court was petitioned in the Johnson v. Bush case to address whether Florida's criminal disfranchisement statute could be challenged under Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, the section that prohibits states from setting voting requirements that deny any citizen's right to vote "on account of race or color." Although lower federal courts have issued split decisions on this question, the high court exercised its discretionary power and refused to hear the case.

More: http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/opinion_columnists/article/0,1426,MCA_539_4676185,00.html

Ore.'s mail-in voting has other states taking notice

May 7, 2006

BY BRAD CAIN

SALEM, Ore. -- Nobody heads to the polls when it's time to vote in Oregon. Now other states are starting to think that's not such a bad idea.

For eight years, Oregon has been the only state whose citizens vote exclusively by mail in statewide elections, but others are moving in that direction.

Nearly 90 percent of Washington state's ballots this year, and 40 percent of California's, are expected to be mailed by voters, who are allowed to become ''permanent absentees.'' Counties in California and Colorado are pushing for vote-by-mail programs, and Arizona may have the issue on the ballot this November.

''In 1998, people thought Oregon was quirky,'' said Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a leading booster of the vote-at-home system. ''Now they're taking a second look at what we've done.''

More: http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-oreg07.html

State drops ball on voting issues

Every state and county official who has any responsibility for managing elections should be embarrassed that the U.S. Justice Department has been forced to sue the state not once, but twice this year for failing to meet federal voting guidelines.

Secretary of State Nancy Worley, Alabama's chief elections official, should be especially embarrassed, since she has the primary responsibility to ensure that the state complies with federal election laws.

The latest issue involves the state's failure to meet a federal deadline to create a statewide computer database of voters designed to discourage voter fraud.

This latest lawsuit comes several weeks after the Justice Department sued to force the state to develop a system to ensure that the votes of overseas military voters would be counted in primary runoff elections. Thanks to a last-minute bill approved by the Legislature, the state dealt with the military voting issue by delaying the primary runoff elections by three weeks.


More: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060507/OPINION01/605060342/1006

S.C. strikes duplicate voters from state's rolls

The Associated Press
COLUMBIA - More than 5,600 voters were put on South Carolina's inactive list after the state recently compared registration rolls with Kentucky and Tennessee.

More than 14,000 names on the S.C. rolls were duplicated on Kentucky and Tennessee voter registration lists, State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said Friday.

Whitmire said when a name was duplicated, it was kept on the rolls of the state that had the last contact with the voter. For example, if a person had voted in Kentucky more recently than in South Carolina, that name stayed on Kentucky's list.

"We are working to and would like to compare our lists with all other Southeastern states," Whitmire said.

More: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/14522030.htm

COMMENTARY
Public trust is in need of a boost

STEVE KRASKE
The Kansas City Star
Up to Date with Steve Kraske | Weekday public affairs talk show on public radio 89.3. KCUR-FM
The longer I cover politics, the more I dislike the influence of big money.

But there’s something I dislike even more, and that’s not knowing who’s contributing that big money and whom they’re supporting with those fat checks.

...snip

The idea of wealthy Missourians handing over $100,000 checks to favored candidates is a scary idea — but no more so than not knowing which wealthy individuals are writing the checks.

That’s essentially what’s happening now in a system that allows Mr. and Mrs. Deep Pockets to write unlimited checks to myriad local party committees, which then launder the money through other local party committees. The money eventually winds up in the coffers of favored candidates, and no one knows its origin.

The system in Missouri right now is a farce, because the public has no idea who’s contributing the really big bucks.

Shields’ bill may be bottled up, but the Senate is expected to get another crack at the legislation on a related measure coming over from the House.

The right thing to do: Pass it.

...snip

■ Back in Missouri, the honorables also are considering legislation that would do away with straight-ticket voting.

That’s the practice where a voter pushes one button that casts a ballot for every candidate from a certain party.

For the first time in 2004, Missouri kept track of how many voters cast straight-ticket ballots. The answer: more than one of every three voters.

Of those, about 594,000 were Democrats and 498,000 were Republicans, although about 40 mostly rural counties didn’t provide data.

Republicans say getting rid of the practice would make voters think more about their choices.

Democrats claim that the GOP is seeking an advantage at the polls.

The right thing to do: anything that makes voting easy. Status quo, please.

■ The hottest issue of all in Missouri is GOP-backed legislation requiring that voters have photo IDs to cast a ballot.

Democrats complain that the move would disenfranchise 170,000 Missourians, many of them elderly and disabled.

But the bill includes exemptions for both categories. Former president Jimmy Carter went along with the idea. And given recent concerns about voter fraud in Missouri, it’s a way to boost the integrity of the system.

The right thing to do: Pass it.



More: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/14519292.htm