Election Reform, Fraud & Related News Thursday May 18, 2006

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News
Thursday, May 18 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

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

Worley: Chapman plan is a 'stunt'
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
By BILL BARROW
Capital Bureau

MONTGOMERY -- Secretary of State Nancy Worley, a Democrat, has accused Republican Beth Chapman of politicizing the voting process by promising to watch polls in a heavily Democratic county and offering monetary rewards to voter fraud whistleblowers.

Chapman, the state auditor running for secretary of state, announced her plans last week in a made-for-TV news conference, complete with Chapman and a group of Hale County voters raising purple index fingers, a la Iraq, in support of honest elections.

Chapman said the Hale voters invited her to spend the June 6 primary in their county, long a hotbed for election disputes and alleged irregularities. It was her idea, she said, to offer two $5,000 rewards to voters who provide information about primaries that leads to voter fraud convictions.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1147857824179040.xml&coll=3

Pima County puts off buying ballot machines
BRAD BRANAN
Tucson Citizen

The Pima County Board of Supervisors postponed Tuesday a decision on the purchase of controversial voting machines.

The board had been scheduled to vote on whether to spend $2.1 million to buy 409 Diebold machines to serve disabled voters protected by federal law.

County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the county wants to find out what happens with a lawsuit filed in Maricopa County last week questioning the reliability and security of electronic machines such as Diebold's.

The lawsuit was filed by Voter Action, a California-based not-for-profit group.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/12727.php

Nebraska Company To Send Technicians For Voting




The Nebraska company providing new electronic voting machines to 72 Arkansas counties is to have technicians deployed Tuesday for the state's party primaries.

Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Nebraska has a $15 million-dollar contract with the state. The Arkansas secretary of state's office says the company has now provided all 72 counties with electronic machines ready for early voting.

The machines are needed to comply with federal law. Three counties, Columbia, Ouachita and Union, already had voting equipment in place to satisfy federal law.

The company representatives are to be on hand Tuesday to deal with any last-minute hitches.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=28730

(Feel better now? :crazy: )

MicroVote asks court to bar Rokita
By Niki Kelly
The Journal Gazette


INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana voting system vendor has asked a Marion County judge to bar Secretary of State Todd Rokita from participating as an administrative law judge in an investigation into possible wrongdoing by the company.

In April, Rokita opened an inquiry into whether MicroVote General Corp. of Indianapolis violated Indiana election law, including the possible sale of uncertified election equipment to Knox and Bartholomew counties.

Nine area counties – including Allen – depend on MicroVote for their machines.

A hearing was conducted April 17 with Rokita acting as judge in the case. A few days later MicroVote officials testified at an Indiana Election Commission hearing, acknowledging they installed uncertified software into voting machines in 47 Indiana counties.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/14608975.htm

Garrard incumbent mulling recanvass request
By Greg Kocher
CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU

Incumbent Garrard County Judge-Executive E.J. Hasty said today that he may seek a recanvass of Tuesday's vote, in which he lost the Democratic nomination to David Wilson.

Hasty, who is in his second four-year term, lost by 19 votes in the final tally of 506-487, said Garrard County Clerk Stacy May.

At one point during the Tuesday night vote count, Hasty and Wilson were tied at 361 each.

May said officials later discovered that a computer was not reading all the votes cast on a variety of voting machines.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/14603174.htm

Outcome changed in one race

Gabbard blames computer glitch
By Bill Robinson
Register News Writer

RICHMOND — Madison County Clerk Billy Gabbard released what he thought were accurate primary election returns at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, but after discovering a computer programming error, he had to release new totals at 11:35 p.m.

The new figures changed the outcome in the fourth district constable.

However, the margin of victory widened in three close races — the Democratic nomination for sheriff, fourth district magistrate and the Republican nomination for state senate.

At 8:30 p.m., Hank Harrison thought he had been elected constable in the fourth district with 235 votes, 18 more than Gary Payne.

http://www.richmondregister.com/localnews/local_story_138080613.html?keyword=secondarystory

Early voting safe from fraud, Lamone says
Ehrlich grills state elections chief on 'e-poll books' at meeting

By Kristen Wyatt
The Associated Press
Originally published May 17, 2006, 3:10 PM EDT

State elections administrator Linda H. Lamone, responding to concern that Maryland's newly passed early voting law will allow unscrupulous voters to cast multiple ballots, maintained today that such fraud won't be possible.

Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. grilled Lamone on early voting for about half an hour during a Board of Public Works meeting. Lamone insisted throughout that the primary and general elections this fall will be fair and safe from would-be cheaters.

"We will be ready" to safeguard the polling, Lamone said.

Many of Ehrlich's questions were about electronic polling books that will be used this year. The "e-poll books" will record when a person has voted. Lamone said they'll be networked to prevent a person from voting in one precinct and then going to another precinct to try to cast a second ballot, she said.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-voting0517,0,4447421.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

Ehrlich on offensive against early voting
By Andrew A. Green and Stephanie Desmon
Sun reporters
Originally published May 18, 2006

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. escalated his assault yesterday on an early-voting system approved by the Democrat-controlled legislature this year, calling it a "farce," questioning its integrity and renewing threats of a lawsuit at the state Board of Public Works meeting.

Heading into what many believe will be the most competitive election season in modern Maryland history, each party is accusing the other of manipulating the election system to its advantage.


Republicans say Democrats realize they could never win a fair fight and have chosen to install new rules and procedures that invite fraud and deceit. But Democrats say Republicans want to suppress turnout because they know that a true majority of Marylanders might not support Ehrlich's re-election.

Ehrlich is in full attack mode against the new procedure. His campaign workers are vigorously trying to collect the more than 52,000 signatures necessary to bring to referendum two bills establishing early voting in Maryland, which the Republican executive says could throw the 2006 election into chaos and its results into doubt.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.voting18may18,0,4900585.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

Worries mount about voting machine security

Critic says new software problem is so bad that he won’t detail the vulnerability
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

ANNAPOLIS — A computer scientist at Johns Hopkins University warned Monday that Maryland’s touch-screen voting machines are so vulnerable to hacking that he is holding back some of the details in the name of election security.

Avi Rubin, the Johns Hopkins computer scientist who has been raising security concerns about Maryland’s Diebold elections system since 2003, said a new software vulnerability is more serious than previous threats.

Diebold designed the machines to be easily upgraded, making the software susceptible to tampering, Rubin said.

‘‘I challenge the state board of elections to find a single computer scientist to say that these machines are now safe,” he said Monday. ‘‘This is just more justification to get rid of these machines.”

http://gazette.net/stories/051706/montcou190158_31949.shtml

:toast:

Bill would ease voting procedures for soldiers serving overseas

May 16, 2006

BOSTON --Soldiers serving overseas or out of state would be able to cast votes electronically in Massachusetts under a bill filed Tuesday by Gov. Mitt Romney.

Currently, soldiers serving abroad must submit their ballots by regular mail. That can lead to missed votes or delays in having votes counted.

The bill calls on the state secretary to establish a secure, electronic method for soldiers to cast ballots directly.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/16/bill_would_ease_voting_procedures_for_soldiers_serving_overseas/

Voters dispute lopsided tally
Brunswick residents insist machine failed to register ballots cast for board candidate who only saw 2 votes

By TIM O'BRIEN, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Thursday, May 18, 2006

TROY -- With a voting machine recording only two votes in a candidate's home area, some residents are questioning whether the election results are accurate.

Ilene Clinton lost by 95 votes, but while other candidates received between 99 and 146 votes on the election machine at School 18, Clinton got only two.

The machine was used by Brunswick residents who live in the district.

"Many of them have assured me they voted for me, but the votes weren't counted," Clinton said. "I just don't want to let the people down who voted for me. I need to pursue it for them."

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=483229&category=RENSSELAER&BCCode=&newsdate=5/18/2006

State Adds Five New Locations For NYC Disabled Voters
May 17, 2006

Election officials announced Wednesday that there will be five new locations across the city with special voting machines to accommodate disabled voters this fall.

The announcement follows a lawsuit filed in March against the state by the Department of Justice which said New York had fallen behind in implementing the Help America Vote Act. That act called on states to overhaul their election systems.

With the November elections fast approaching, city and state officials said there wasn't enough time to revamp the whole system, so the state offered a scaled-back version.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=59524

ASE OF FORMER ELECTIONS OFFICIAL
Board calls for ethics investigation
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Robert Ruth and Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Franklin County Board of Elections asked state ethics regulators yesterday to investigate a former deputy director’s ties to three companies that do business with the agency.

In a unanimous vote, the four-member board asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to look into Michael R. Hackett Jr.’s connections with SST Systems of New Albany, a North Linden printing company and an international nonprofit agency hired to train Franklin County poll workers.

In a front-page article on Sunday, The Dispatch revealed Hackett’s links to SST, a fledgling company that was paid $785,000 last year to provide 900 storage carts for voting machines.

However, Hackett’s ties to Capitol Communications and Washington, D.C.-based IFES were not publicly known until yesterday’s motion asking for an ethics investigation.

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/05/18/20060518-A1-03.html

Greene's new voting machines nearly flawless
By Brandon Szuminsky, For the Herald-Standard
05/18/2006

WAYNESBURG - Other than a stand with a broken leg, the first election in Greene County using the iVotronic voting system went smoothly Tuesday, the county commissioners were told during their agenda meeting Wednesday.

"I thought it went really well," Chief Clerk Gene Lee said. "We had a couple of little glitches, but other than that, it went really well."

The commissioners praised the work of the county elections office and the quick posting of unofficial results on the county's Web site.

"We were way ahead of surrounding counties," said commission chairwoman Pam Snyder, referring to the posting of the results.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16655037&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

Allegheny County gives good grade to new voting machines

Thursday, May 18, 2006
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Yes, there were glitches, particularly with getting the new electronic voting machines started. In some cases, machines arrived at polling places with cracked screens. And the vote took much longer to count than in past elections, leaving some outcomes hanging into the wee hours.

But all in all, Allegheny County officials were pleased with Tuesday's debut of electronic touch-screen voting, even as they look for ways to eliminate glitches and speed vote counting before November's general election.

"It turned out to be an OK night for the county, didn't it?" Chief Executive Dan Onorato said yesterday afternoon, less than 12 hours after the elections division had finished counting the vote.

Pennsylvania residents in all but one county cast ballots Tuesday using either electronic touch-screens or optical-scan systems for the first time. The devices replaced mechanical lever and punch-card machines.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06138/691137-85.stm

:eyes:

Election officials pleased with machines
By Anne Danahy
adanahy@centredaily.com

BELLEFONTE -- While the new voting equipment Centre County used in Tuesday's primary election didn't lead to quicker reporting of results, election officials in the county and throughout the state say they were happy with how the technology performed.

"Overall it went very well," said Wanda Hockenberry, assistant director of the Office of Elections.

State residents in all but one county cast ballots Tuesday using either electronic touch-screens or optical-scan systems for the first time. The devices replaced outdated mechanical-lever and punch-card machines.

In Centre County, both the optical scan and touch-screen systems were available to voters.

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/14605740.htm

:eyes: :eyes:

Election chief: County will be better prepared for November
BY NICHOLE DOBO STAFF WRITER 05/18/2006

While the introduction of electronic voting machines in Luzerne County seemed smooth, the courthouse was a little jumbled Tuesday night.

First, vote counting did not begin until Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak arrived to give a short speech and pose for a photos — an hour after the polls had closed. Then, there were a results screen that failed to flash election returns, a line of election judges that snaked through the courthouse and a group of counters swamped with 316 bags of votes that seemed to arrive at once.

But really, the only people affected by the glitches were eager candidates waiting for results, grumpy election judges tired of standing in line and a deadline-driven gaggle of reporters hoping to get election results before press time.

There were almost no complaints about the new voting technology from the voters, said Leonard C. Piazza, the Luzerne County director of elections.

“All in all, it went very well,” he said.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16655796&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6

:eyes::eyes::eyes:

New voting machines work well locally
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The election process appeared to go smoothly on Tuesday in Monroeville.

Jeff Lazor, judge of elections at a polling place in council chambers at Monroeville Municipal Center, said the new voting machines weren't posing any problems.

"We had one woman who walked out disgusted and said she'd never be back, but most people, even the older residents, love the new machines," he said.

Lazor and his poll workers, like all in Allegheny County, attended a seminar to learn about the new electronic machines.

http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/timesexpress/61295/

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

May 18, 2006
Primary vote count delayed by problems

Computer, staffing issues lead to 4 a.m. filing of county results.
By Tom Coombe
Of The Morning Call

The combination of a computer glitch and a lack of manpower significantly slowed the vote-counting process in Northampton County's primary election Tuesday night.

As a result, long lines of poll workers waited at the Governor Wolf building in Easton until close to midnight to drop off their returns at the election office, while election office staff stayed until 4 a.m. Wednesday to file results with the state, making it one of the last counties to do so.

But officials say it's a one-time thing that won't repeat itself for the general election in November.

''There was a glitch,'' County Executive John Stoffa said late Wednesday morning. ''It will be corrected right away.''

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/easton/all-b1_3votemay18,0,2680295.story?coll=all-newslocaleaston-hed

Voters not intimidated by new systems
The Evening Sun

By STEVE MARRONI
Evening Sun Reporter

It went without a hitch.

That's how Adams County Director of Elections Monica Dutko described the new optical-scanning voting process in Tuesday's primary election.

She said there were a few minor hangups in the morning – one with a machine not feeding correctly, and another where a machine worked only off battery power – but those issues were quickly resolved.

Statewide, voters cast ballots in Tuesday's primary election using new electronic voting machines, with some complaining of technical difficulties and others praising the high-tech devices.

For the first time, all but one county are using either electronic touch-screens or optical-scan systems, replacing the previous hodgepodge of equipment that included now-obsolete mechanical-lever and punch-card machines.

http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_3832920

Voting machines praised by election officials despite hiccups
DANIEL LOVERING
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - New electronic voting machines may have had minor equipment hiccups and led to some voter frustration, but officials say the technology largely performed well during Pennsylvania's primary election.

State residents in all but one county cast ballots Tuesday using either electronic touch-screens or optical-scan systems for the first time. The devices replaced outdated mechanical-lever and punch-card machines.

County election officials said most voters quickly adapted to the new systems, which they said promise more efficient polling in the future.

"Talking with the voters and poll workers and the public, it was about 90 percent positive," Butler County election director Regis Young said. "In another election or two, I think there will be a substantial change in time, where we'll be done very early."

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14602978.htm

(I think I have to :puke: now.)

With election over, it's time to tinker


By David Hunt
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, May 18, 2006

The rush of poll workers Tuesday was a welcome sight, but still a chaotic one for Westmoreland and Fayette county officials who say they've already begun brainstorming ways to cut down the amount of traffic and lines at election headquarters in November.

"We're going to do quite a few changes to try to streamline it," said Laurie Nicholson, Fayette's election director.

"We met at 10 a.m. this morning," said David Ridilla, Westmoreland's technology director. "We'll be meeting again at 10 a.m. tomorrow."

Both counties switched from using mechanical levered machines this year to comply with the Help America Vote Act, a federal law passed in response to the vote-counting problems that plagued Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Pennsylvania received $136 million in federal money to give to counties for equipment upgrades.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_454421.html

Mother, Daughter On Trial for Illegal Voting
May 17, 2006 04:06 PM

The trial is underway for a San Juan woman and her daughter - who are charged with illegal voting.

Maria Luisa Rodriguez and 32-year old Maria Luisa Rodriguez are both charged after voting 'twice' in last year's San Juan elections.

The case is creating more controversy because two of the candidates wives took the women to the polls.

According to Hidalgo County Election Administrator Teresa Navarro the election coordinator for San Juan did not follow proper election procedure.

http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=4919496&nav=0w0v

Unlikely allies fight all-mail voting
Groups cite fears of lax controls and lost ballots

By GREGORY ROBERTS
P-I REPORTER

It was a strange-bedfellows moment: A lawyer from a hard-right advocacy group, a former Green Party candidate and a self-described "dues-paying Democrat" joined Wednesday to protest a proposal for all-mail voting in King County.

"Moving to vote-by-mail would be a major step backward for King County in terms of security and integrity in their elections," said Jonathan Bechtle of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. The non-profit organization in Olympia spends much of its time railing against public-teacher unions, big government and taxes.

Gentry Lange, the Green Party candidate for county executive in 2005, said it's as foolish to trust your ballot to the Postal Service as it is to send cash through the mail. And Jason Osgood, the solidly Democratic representative of Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, warned about lax controls over mail-ballot processing.

As part of the event, staged outside the county administration building downtown, a half-dozen protesters declared that they are switching their registrations from permanent absentee to poll voting.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/270679_vote18.html

(That's weird. Here in SF, the GP organized a nonpartisan Absentee drive. . .)

Vote Canvass Nearly Complete
Posted 5/18/2006 06:00 AM

Secretary of State's Office debriefing county clerks for account of primary.

Story by Juliet A. Terry Email | Bio

Publicity surrounding new voting machine problems may present the picture of a problematic primary election.

But West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland is reminding the public of how far voting has come since Florida's 2000 presidential election voting problems and West Virginia's long history of voter fraud.

Ireland was not available for an interview, but in an open letter, she said the following:

"What happened during the primary election? After the primary, the headlines captured stories of close elections, negative campaigning and election software vendors who dropped the ball, all of which gave a fairly accurate depiction of the event. While it certainly was not 'Mission Accomplished,' nevertheless, the 2006 Primary Election had many bright and positive spots.

http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=10986

From Ballot Access News:

California Public Funding Bill
May 17th, 2006

The California Senate Elections Committee had scheduled a hearing on May 17 on AB 583, the “Clean Elections” public funding bill for state candidates. However, the hearing was cancelled, and it is not likely that the bill will pass in a future hearing this year. An initiative will probably appear on the November 2006 ballot to implement “Clean Elections” in any event. Unfortunately, the initiative is even more discriminatory against members of minor parties, and independent candidates, than AB 583.

http://www.ballot-access.org/2006/05/17/california-public-funding-bill/

emocracy's Revenge? Bush v. Gore and the National Popular Vote

Peter M. ShanePeter M. Shane
Joseph S. Platt/Porter Wright Morris & Arthur Professor of Law; Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies
May 16, 2006

Bush v. Gore struck many Americans, myself included, as an egregious affront to democracy. The judicial disenfranchisement of potentially thousands of Floridians through the unprecedented application of dubious constitutional doctrine seemed a plainly illegitimate exercise in judicial overreaching. It robbed Florida of the opportunity to rescue its exercise in election administration from ignominy. It insured that the uncontested winner of the 2000 national popular vote would not become President of the United States in 2001.

But democracy may have its revenge. At least, that's the hope of a project called National Popular Vote.

NPV is a non-profit corporation, with a distinguished bi-partisan advisory board of political heavyweights, that believes it has figured out how, without a formal constitutional amendment, we can guarantee that the national popular vote winner will always win the electoral college.

The plan is elegantly simple. It requires a number of states whose collective electoral votes would amount to a majority in the electoral college to form an "interstate compact." Through identical legislation enacted by all of its members, each state would promise - once the requisite number of states signed up - that it would appoint electors in each presidential election committed to voting for the national popular vote winner.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/2006/060516.php

Secretary of State to investigate fraud allegations in Clay County
By Art Jester, Jennifer Hewlett And Jim Warren
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS

State and federal officials will investigate an alleged vote-fraud scheme yesterday in six of Clay County's 20 precincts, Secretary of State Trey Grayson said last night.

"This will be high priority for the (state) attorney general's office and the U.S. attorney to pursue," Grayson said. "That one sounds like something happened."

Grayson said his office received about 15 phone calls regarding possible fraud in Clay County. The alleged fraud involved deliberate misinformation about the voting process, he said.

Poll workers allegedly told voters that they had already cast their vote, even though voters were still looking at a screen that only summarized their selections.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/14597544.htm?source=rss&channel=kentucky_state

Voting machines first time out will be primary

By RICHARD SHAW
Sun Advocate publisher

Some big changes in voting are coming this year and Carbon County will be one of the first places that those changes will be tried out in the state of Utah.

The reason? Carbon is one of the few places where there will be a primary election of any kind and may be the only area where a local primary is conducted.

The first and largest change is the use of computerized voting machines. Despite the controversy that has taken place in Emery County, Carbon County clerk Bob Pero says things are full steam ahead for the use of the machines in Carbon.

“It will be a new day for the electoral process,” said Pero as he stood in the Active ReEntry building near the fairgrounds last week during a demonstration of the machines for people with disabilities. “Everything will be easier and more accurate with these machines in place.”

http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&pub=2006-05-18&page=news

Rx for voter procrastination

In a deal with elections supervisors, Walgreens will have voter registration forms on hand - take one, follow directions, mail it in.

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
Published May 18, 2006

TALLAHASSEE -- Now you can register to vote while waiting for a prescription.

In a first of-its-kind partnership in Florida between retail stores and supervisors of elections, Walgreens is offering voter registration forms to customers.

The drugstore chain joins a growing list of voter registration sites along with driver's license offices, libraries, armed forces recruiting stations, and agencies that handle food stamps and Medicaid and help people with disabilities.

"It is our goal to reach out to citizens, wherever they may be," said Citrus County Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill, president of the supervisors' statewide group.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/18/State/Rx_for_voter_procrast.shtml

:wtf:



New voter ID cards aren't needed to cast ballots

ALBUQUERQUE New state-issued voter identification cards are not required when voters cast ballots during elections.
The state is spending one (m) million dollars for the new plastic cards.

Under the state law, identification will be required for all voters -- on election day at a polling place, for early in-person voting before election day, using an absentee ballot or a provisional ballot.

Acceptable voter identification includes a photo I-D, a utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck, or student or tribal I-D.

http://www.kvia.com/global/story.asp?s=4921369

Leahy, Rummy clash at hearing
EVAN LEHMANN, Banner Washington Bureau

Thursday, May 18
WASHINGTON — Under pointed questioning by Sen. Patrick Leahy Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he is hopeful there will be a reduction of American troops in Iraq this year.

Minutes later, however, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted that large gaps in the Iraq military must be closed before the American presence in the nation struggling to stand up a roundly accepted government amid ongoing violence can be reduced.

"We are still in the process of assisting their armed forces," Pace told an Appropriations Committee panel with sway over the Pentagon's $423 billion budget request for 2007. "There are still logistics and command and control parts of their army that need to be built for them to sustain themselves completely."

Still, he said 14 of the 18 provinces in Iraq are "essentially calm, secure." And there's been progress in establishing Iraqi troop strength in the 120 battalions being developed.

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/headlines/ci_3835891

Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2291881

The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool

By Robert Poe| Also by this reporter
08:00 AM May, 17, 2006

The equipment that technician Mark Klein learned was installed in the National Security Agency's "secret room" inside AT&T's San Francisco switching office isn't some sinister Big Brother box designed solely to help governments eavesdrop on citizens' internet communications.

Rather, it's a powerful commercial network-analysis product with all sorts of valuable uses for network operators. It just happens to be capable of doing things that make it one of the best internet spy tools around.

"Anything that comes through (an internet protocol network), we can record," says Steve Bannerman, marketing vice president of Narus, a Mountain View, California, company. "We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments, see what web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their (voice over internet protocol) calls."

Narus' product, the Semantic Traffic Analyzer, is a software application that runs on standard IBM or Dell servers using the Linux operating system. It's renowned within certain circles for its ability to inspect traffic in real time on high-bandwidth pipes, identifying packets of interest as they race by at up to 10 Gbps.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70914-0.html?tw=rss.index

Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2291645

Thank you, sfexpat2000.

cuz we all need to know

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051806T.shtml

"A New Election Lawsuit in Florida
    By Siobhan Morrisey
    Time

    Thursday 18 May 2006
"The League of Women Voters claims a new state law will unlawfully depress voter registration.
  
"Miami - The League of Women Voters has been signing up voters ever since women won the right to vote in 1920. But now, for the first time in the League's storied history, a branch of the organization has shut down its operations to protest a new Florida law that the League claims it will have a chilling effect on voter registration - in a state that already has one of the nation's most notoriously dysfunctional election systems.

    "In a federal lawsuit filed in Miami on Thursday against the Florida Secretary of State and Division of Elections, the League's Florida branch acknowledged that it had recently ceased efforts to register voters because of what it calls the law's draconian fines against organizations (other than political parties) for submitting forms late. The League of Women Voters of Florida joined several other pubic interest and labor groups, including the Florida AFL-CIO, in challenging the constitutionality of the law, which went into effect Jan. 1. They are asking the US District Court to immediately suspend the fines - which the groups say could bankrupt their voter registration budgets.

    "As the lawsuit puts it, 'the challenged law imposes civil fines of $250 for each voter registration application submitted more than 10 days after it is collected, $500 for each application submitted after any voter registration deadline, and $5,000 for each application submitted. Plaintiffs are strictly liable for these fines, even if their inability to meet the statutory deadlines results from events beyond their control, such as the destruction of applications in a hurricane.'

    "On March 19 the board of directors for LWV of Florida voted unanimously to suspend voter registration rather than put its volunteers and $80,000 annual budget at risk, says its president, Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti. 'I'm angry, okay?' Wheatley-Giliotti says. 'This hits at the core of our mission. We were founded to educate voters and get them involved in the political process. I can't do my job, really.'"

"Florida is the only state that levies fines for submitting registration applications late or not at all, says Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, who also represents the plaintiffs. And the LWV of Florida claims the impact of the fines could be devastating. 'The League of Women Voters' entire annual budget of $80,000 would be decimated if only sixteen voter registration applications collected by its volunteers were lost in a flood, or if its volunteers took 11 days to submit the few hundred applications they often collect during one day's work,' according to the lawsuit....

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