ITS THE ERD STUPID: Election Reform NEws & stuff for Friday, 5-26-06

Welcome to the "ERD"

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=203x397093

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.


If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

for MAC users-- IIRC its hold down control- and click on the image to view its source.


I'll be back in the AM to add some articles.........

Meanwhile:

Yates Board of Elections to test out voting machines

By GINA MUSCATO
Finger Lakes Times


PENN YAN — The Yates County Board of Elections is planning a demonstration to gather public input on electronic voting machines.

Vendors will exhibit several machines in the main foyer of the county office building from noon to 7 p.m. June 12. The public will be asked to complete questionnaires about the machines, which will help Board of Elections officials decide which type to purchase.

Liberty Elections Systems of Albany; Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland, Calif.; and Avante International Technology of Princeton, N.J.; will each bring a direct record electronic machine, which are touch-activated. The latter two companies will also bring optical scan machines, which require voters to fill in bubbles or arrows on a paper ballot.

“We want the input of voters. It’s their election, basically, and we want a machine they’re comfortable with,” said Democratic Election Commissioner Wendy Gibson. “It’s too big of a decision to be made without public input.”
More-

http://www.fltimes.com/Main.asp?SectionID=38&SubSectionID=121&ArticleID=11977

E Voting Zaps Quick Totals


By The Morning News And The Associated Press




New electronic voting and tabulating machines delayed vote tallies by hours in Benton and Washington counties. Benton County election officials were still counting at 12:30 a.m. They had partial results from all precincts. Washington County finished unofficial counting about midnight. Election officials around the state struggled with a host of problems.

Benton County
Election officials in Benton County experienced more than a few hiccups:

• Jim McCarthy, Benton County election coordinator, said there were 17 iVotronic, also known as the electronic voting machines, that poll workers did not know how to shut down because they did not receive enough training. He said election officials had to go back and check the votes on those particular machines.

• Russell Odell, Benton County election commissioner, also complained of not having enough time to train the workers. He said there was not enough time between the filing dates and early voting for the primary election.

More-

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/05/24/news/01azelection.txt

MSNBC COVERS, DOWNPLAYS AMERICA'S E-VOTING MESS
EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT, NOTHING TO SEE HERE PEOPLE, KEEP MOVING...
After an otherwise encouraging headline on MSNBC's just posted "Optimism about voting reform wanes: New machines and procedures have been introduced, but problems persist" the article, by NBC News' Huma Zaidi goes curiously downhill thereafter.

Zaidi cursorily mentions early "a group of experts and election officials" who met in DC last month to discuss election reform and "the picture most of them painted wasn't very optimistic". As well, he reports that "Almost a dozen states that have already held primaries this year have experienced problems."

But enough with the facts of the matter. From there, it's time for the Pro E-Voting spin to commence...

Zaidi goes on to quote three different Electronic Voting supporters and not one of those previously mentioned un-optimistic "experts and election officials."
More-

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002874.htm

Optimism about voting reform wanes
New machines and procedures have been introduced, but problems persist

Updated: 2:18 p.m. ET May 25, 2006
WASHINGTON - The current and future state of election reform depends on which expert or official you ask. Six years after the most controversial presidential election in modern history and a federally mandated overhaul of the voting process, a group of experts and election officials from around the country gathered in Washington to discuss reform efforts last month. The picture most of them painted wasn't very optimistic. But the first real test of the new system, they all agree, will come as states hold their primaries this year. Elections administrators hope that the primaries will be an opportunity identify and correct problems before the Nov. 7 general election.
Almost a dozen states that have already held primaries this year have experienced problems. In Pennsylvania's Allegheny County last week, officials found 750 uncounted absentee ballots. Apparently poll workers, using new equipment and procedures, mistakenly put the ballots in the wrong place.
In another Pennsylvania county, a local race was overturned because a worker's error while operating new machines resulted in a miscount. In Tuesday's Arkansas primary, officials in more than a dozen counties reported problems with new machines, necessitating a ballot count that stretched into the middle of the night. Election officials in some Arkansas counties told the Associated Press that the manufacturer of new electronic voting machines didn't provide programming equipment in time to adequately train poll workers.

More-

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12972404/

Election problems force changes ES&S management changes
Thursday, May 25, 2006

By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK - Voting machine problems slowed results from Tuesday's primary elections in some counties and threatened to delay early voting for upcoming runoffs, Secretary of State Charlie Daniels said Wednesday.

Daniels said the Nebraska company that received a $15 million contract to install new electronic voting machines in Arkansas had agreed to bring in a new management team to oversee the project in the wake of electronic voting machine problems in Lonoke County and programming and software problems in Pulaski and Phillips counties.

Election officials in the three counties worked late into the evening Wednesday to correct problems and recount ballots. Isolated problems were reported around the state.

"It's a great disappointment," Daniels said.

He said many of the problems could have been avoided if the Election Systems and Software Co. had been better prepared. ES&S technicians also will remain in the state through the Nov. 7 general election.

More-

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2006/05/25/News/336362.html

Vote tabulation process stretches into Thursday

DANIEL CONNOLLY
Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK - Stubborn technical problems stretched the vote-counting process in Arkansas' primary elections from Tuesday night through the entire day Wednesday, and on into Thursday.

Election officials have just a short time to fix problems left over from the primary before early voting begins next week for the June 13 runoff.
"That's the first priority, but then we'll immediately turn our attention to the runoff," Deputy Secretary of State Janet Harris said Wednesday.

If results from Tuesday's primary are not all counted and certified, early voting could be delayed, said Tim Humphries, general counsel for the secretary of state's office.
The state has a $15.9 million contract with Omaha, Neb.-based Election Systems & Software to provide the counties with new touch-screen machines and other equipment mandated under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. The state ordered more than 4,000 pieces of new equipment to comply with the law.

Under the law, each polling site was supposed to have at least one of the electronic machines to help disabled people. But four of Arkansas' 75 counties - Desha, Jefferson, Stone, and Sebastian - did not use the electronic machines in the primary. Election officials in some counties said the company didn't provide programming equipment in time to adequately train poll workers.


More-

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/14664658.htm

Election problems


By Jennifer Turner Staff Writer // jennifert@nwanews.com

Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006


BENTONVILLE — Election day had its flaws, but the Benton County Election Commission is confident in the election results. "It took us four hours longer using this new system than punch cards did," Election Commission chairman John Brown said. "We should have been out of here by 10:30."

Instead, it was well past midnight before the last vote was counted.

Higher than expected voter turnout, new electronic machines and new paper ballots all resulted in glitches that election commissioners say they couldn’t control.
Precincts in Gravette and Rogers ran out of paper ballots, resulting in long lines. At least four voters didn’t get to cast their votes at all. "We followed the state’s suggestions as far as how to order paper ballots," Brown said. "We didn’t expect the sheriff’s (race) and the judge’s (race) would be so big."

More-

http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/35183/

Touch-screen voting machines have no 'paper trail'
By Charlotte Eby Journal Bureau



DES MOINES -- A handful of rural Iowa counties, including Plymouth, using touch-screen voting systems in the June 6 primary election won't be equipped to back up ballots with "paper trail" accountability measures recommended by the Iowa Secretary of State's office.

That's because a bill that would have allowed voters to walk away from touch-screen machines with a receipt proving they voted stalled in the Legislature amid partisan bickering over other issues.

"We want a safeguard that the voter controls," said John Hedgecoth, a spokesman for Secretary of State Chet Culver's office.
The proposal was scuttled in the Iowa House when Republicans paired it with a proposal that would have required voters to show identification at the polls, an idea that's been opposed by many Democrats who say it is too restrictive.

Hedgecoth said state election officials have confidence they'll run a secure election in Iowa with the touch-screen machines, but want additional assurances in the case a recount is ordered.
More-

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/05/25/news/iowa/e58ab361139e2b93862571790010dd09.txt

Miami Herald: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14669293.htm

Faulty voter cards have been discovered

About 500 to 1,000 Broward voters may have received faulty voter registration cards, but they should be getting new ones soon.

Some voters discovered the error Wednesday when they received their new cards as part of a state-mandated mailing of about 900,000 updated registration cards.

Some voters received registration cards with the name of the voter following them in alphabetical order on the voter roll.

The errors were limited to a handful of voters in the 33067 to 33071 ZIP Codes, said Mary Cooney, a spokeswoman for the Broward supervisor of elections office. The glitch occured only on the voter registration cards of people with last names beginning with either an A or B.

Sun-Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fvote26may26,0,5037352.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

Mailroom glitch sends voters' registration cards to wrong people in Broward

By Scott Wyman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted May 26 2006

When Brad Biggar of Coral Springs opened a letter addressed to him from the Broward County election office Wednesday night, he found a new voter identification card for his wife. His wife got one for their daughter, and the daughter got one intended for a Debra Bigler.

All across Coral Springs and Parkland, voters whose last names begin with the letters A or B received the ID cards of relatives, neighbors and crosstown residents rather than their own. The cause was a mailroom glitch that resulted in up to 1,000 people receiving the card for the next person alphabetically on Broward's voter registration rolls.

Elections officials caught the problem before it struck the third letter of the alphabet, but it left behind a new headache for the office.

For some, the foul-up revived bad memories of Miriam Oliphant's tumultuous tenure as elections supervisor and even the grueling 2000 presidential recount. For others, it raised fears of identity theft.

Recount shows no change in election outcome

FRANKFORT, Ky. A recount of the votes cast in two close House races during last week's primary showed no difference in the outcomes.

According to the secretary of state's office, Thomas H. French, of Fancy Farm, picked up two votes over fellow Democrat Robert D. "Dan" Voegeli of Fulton in their close western Kentucky House primary election.

However, Voegeli still had 22 more votes than his counterpart and will likely face incumbent Steven Rudy in November's general election. The seat represents a handful of counties in the western part of the state.

Meanwhile, Democrat Richard Henderson of Jeffersonville maintained his lead in a seven-candidate matchup for an open seat in eastern Kentucky.

more-

http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=4951727&nav=menu181_2

PAISD Recount Still On Hold
Reported by Camille Eaton
May 25, 2006 - 10:04PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New developments tonight in the possible recount of the Port Arthur School Board election.
Carolyn Guidry tells KFDM that she met today with Board President Julia Samuels and other representatives.
Incumbent School Board trustee Donna Worthington requested the recount claiming discrepancies with the electronic voting system.
Guidry says today's meeting was very productive and the Port Arthur representatives now realize there were only minor problems and they were associated with human errors, not machine problems.
Samuels told Guidry she will make her decision by 5PM tomorrow on whether a recount on Tuesday would be of any benefit to the community.

Here-

http://www.kfdm.com/engine.pl?station=kfdm&id=14948&template=breakoutlocal.html

Anderson requests recount

By Ken Fountain
Baytown Sun

Published May 25, 2006

Baytown District 5 City Councilman Ronnie Anderson filed a petition Wednesday requesting a recount of the May 13 election in which challenger Lynn A. Caskey defeated him by seven votes.

Anderson’s petition means that Caskey will not be sworn in to office at tonight’s City Council meeting as planned until the recount is resolved, said Baytown city clerk Lorri Coody.

“I’ve had a lot of supporters, both in my district and out of my district, which surprised me, who have contacted me and urged that we get this done,” Anderson said by phone while out of town on a business trip.

Anderson, an administrator at Community Resource Credit Union, said he would be at tonight’s Council meeting. He was first elected to the District 5 seat in 2000.

“The margin of victory was way too small not to do this, and obviously, had the vote count gone the other way, Mr. Caskey would have certainly requested a recount,” he said.

More-

http://web.baytownsun.com/story.lasso?ewcd=f3c74d21b08a042b

DonCarlos takes over as mayor

By Ken Fountain
Baytown Sun

Published May 26, 2006

In a Baytown City Council meeting that was by turns emotional, amusing and businesslike, new Mayor Stephen DonCarlos took the reins of office from outgoing Calvin Mundinger Thursday.

Harris County Justice of the Peace Tony Polumbo gave the oath of office to DonCarlos and re-elected Council members Don Murray and Sammy Mahan. Lynn A. Caskey II, who narrowly defeated District 5 Councilman Ronnie Anderson on May 13, was not sworn in because Anderson asked for a recount.

After taking the oath, DonCarlos addressed Mundinger, telling him, “Your leadership style, humor and grace under pressure has been an example to all of us. The biggest compliment I could give you is that the city of Baytown is better for your service to the city.”

The audience filling the Council Chamber gave Mundinger a standing ovation.


more-

http://web.baytownsun.com/story.lasso?ewcd=0f1e1fe109cb2ea6

Hispanics draw attention to issues in Port Arthur
By CHRISTINE RAPPLEYE, The Enterprise
05/24/2006
Email to a friendPrinter-friendly
PORT ARTHUR - Normally, those who triumphed at the ballot box are sworn in by now. Normally this time of year, trustees and school officials are focused on the upcoming high school graduation.


Normally.

But Tuesday at the Port Arthur school board meeting, newly-elected Kenneth Marks and Lloyd Marie Johnson remained in the audience. The nameplates hadn't changed on the empty seats of trustees Donna Worthington and Lonnie Linden, who were deemed beaten in the May race when the votes initially were counted.

A manual recount Worthington requested because of concerns about the electronic voting system is proposed for Thursday, Friday or May 30. Exact dates and times have not been set, board President Julia Samuels said after the meeting. The deposit for the recount is $2,640; it has not been paid, according to a letter from Jefferson County Clerk Carolyn Guidry.

Mark, Johnson and returning Trustee Greg Flores were sworn in Thursday, but the action was later voided after district officials were informed of the recount.

Despite the election uncertainties, the board moved on.

More--

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16683112&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512589&rfi=6

Judge denies hand recount in Overland mayor race
By Norm Parish
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/26/2006

A circuit judge denied today a former Overland mayoral candidate’s request to count by hand her past election that she initially lost by four votes in April.

Mary Beth Conlon made the request after a machine recount of the election on Tuesday found that Mayor Ann Purzner retained her seat and picked up one vote. Purzner remains mayor.

Conlon said she wasn’t sure if she would appeal Judge Larry L. Kendrick’s ruling because she hadn’t yet talked to her lawyer.

Conlon specifically wanted to review 43 ballots that were not tabulated in the election because they were properly punched or had some other problem.


More-

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/35013D1BBC8716488625717A006B18DC?OpenDocument

Two candidates ask for recount
By Mary Jo Shivey Guenzel Guard Staff Writer
Published Friday May 26, 2006

Two candidates have requested a recount of Tuesday’s tally of votes.

William ‘Bill” Keller, who lost to District 7 Justice of the Peace Robert Cuzzort by seven votes, has filed for a recount, he told the Batesville Daily Guard this morning.

And Harold Wilson, election commission chairman, told the Guard that Melvin McGill, incumbent Gainsboro Township constable, has also filed for a recount.

McGill lost to Pam Treadway by a vote of 96 to 91.

“We’re not going to do anything until Tuesday since we have a holiday,” Wilson said, saying the commission has 10 days before certifying the ballots, according to the laws of the state election commission.

Wilson said anyone wanting a recount had a 48-hour window of opportunity after an election to request a recount, and both Keller and McGill’s request fell in that window.

More-

http://www.guardonline.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=34794&format=html

Former senator calls off recount
BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - A former state senator has called off a recount in his bid to regain his seat, citing lack of support from friends and family.

Leonard Anderson called Greenbrier County Clerk B.J. Livesay Thursday and told him not to start the recount of votes in the 10th District Senate Democratic primary, which had been scheduled to begin Thursday afternoon.

Anderson says he feels bad because some of his own family didn't vote and some of his friends didn't even vote. He told The Register-Herald of Beckley that he has at least 50 employees and only about seven of them voted.

Anderson says he's proud of the years he served in the Senate, but what's the point if people don't go out and vote.

More-

http://www.woay.com/news.cfm?showarticle=A4BED3DC-94BE-4479-B38D314350164107

OP/ED: Don't trust computer voting machines, verify ballots

On Primary Election day, I voted in Lehigh County on one of the new ''touch-screen'' electronic voting machines. I immediately felt that I might as well have cast my vote in the sewer. They contain a glaring flaw that must be corrected before they are used in the general election in November.

The old lever-type machines were easy to understand. They were simple mechanical counters where you could verify your vote before you pull the master lever to close the booth; and they could be checked out by a polling-place staff with minimum education. Those machines could be trusted.

Lehigh Valley Local Links
These new touch-screen voting machines are really computers and at present, there is no way of verifying what the electorate voted for! This is dangerous for democracy.

Big problem! How to explain, by simple example, this flaw to the average person who knows nothing about computers. I have been wracking my brain over this problem ever since the Pennsylvania primary election. I think I have the solution.


more-

http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-klinikowski5-26may26,0,477533.story?coll=all-newsopinionanotherview-hed

Voting machines better but still have faults
By Thomas D. Elias
May 26, 2006

In the annals of election corruption, three places stand out more than all others: Chicago and New York, with their legendary tales of stuffed ballot boxes and the voting dead, and the old South, where African-Americans were systematically excluded from the vote for almost a century.

Mechanized balloting, cleanups of the rolls and federal voting rights laws changed much of that, and there wasn't much talk of election cheating through the last two decades of the 20th century.

But with the new millennium came new voting technology and a spate of cheating allegations. It's more than merely the hanging Florida chads that helped spur still ongoing charges of fraud. There is also Ohio.

By 2004, most Ohio counties were using touch-screen voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems, an Ohio-based company whose chairman and founder loudly promised President Bush he would "bring in Ohio for you." When Ohio was narrowly decided that year, with counties using Diebold touch-screen machines essentially providing Bush's national margin of victory, charges of fraud rang out loudly from the left.


more-

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_4727679,00.html

In one of the more disgracefully anti intellectual anti democratic moves in modern times, the Virginia circuit court in charge of the Deeds-McDonnell recount for Attorney General (Deeds behind by 320 odd votes) REFUSED to recount 500,000 optical scan paper ballots. They bought the corrupt logic of the Republican A.G. candidate who said: “It reduces the amount of ballots that will be counted by hand and the chance for change.”

Utter idiocy. The optical scan ballots are there. They can be recounted in front of witnesses. What’s the problem? Are these people unaware of the proud tradition of democracy started by Jefferson, Madisoin and Mason. They seem more akin to the shenanigans of the segregationists who turned voting laws on their head. Disgraceful.

Hampton Roads Pilot Online

Panel's recount ruling goes McDonnell's way

By WARREN FISKE, The Virginian-Pilot
© December 10, 2005
Last updated: 10:50 PM
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=96670&ran=223285

RICHMOND — Republican Robert F. McDonnell won a legal battle Friday in the recount of last month’s attorney general vote when a three-judge panel ruled that about 500,000 paper-based ballots do not have be recounted individually.

Lawyers for Democrat R. Creigh Deeds had asked that all paper-based ballots cast in the Nov. 8 statewide election either be recounted by hand or resubmitted through optical scanning machines.

The circuit judges sided with McDonnell, who argued that it is sufficient to simply re-add computer tapes from voting machines that contained totals for each candidate. In cases where the tapes were illegible or contested, the judges said they would be willing to consider ordering individual recounting of ballots.

The attorney general’s race was Virginia’s closest statewide election in at least a century. The State Board of Elections certified McDonnell as the winner, saying he edged Deeds by 323 votes out of 1.9 million cast.

County certifies 700 electronic voting machines
New devices will head to primary polling sites, but activists fear hacking
Friday, May 26, 2006
BY JONATHAN CASIANO
Star-Ledger Staff


While lawyers continue to chal lenge the constitutional validity of electronic voting machines in state appeals court, a new batch of 700 machines was inspected and certi fied in Newark yesterday, as Essex County prepares to use electronic machines for the first time in the June 6 primary.

Lined up in neat rows inside a sprawling warehouse, the machines were inspected one by one by local clerks and primary candidates who wanted to see first-hand how the new machines function. Already programmed and ready to go, the machines will start being shipped to polling sites on Tuesday, despite persistent complaints from activists who claim the machines are unreliable and easily hacked.

"It's definitely a dark day for Essex County to see them giving up machines we had no problems with for machines we have so many doubts about," said Katherine Joyce, a member of the Essex County Task Force on Voting Rights.

>snip<

Still, Joyce said that she and other opponents will be casting their votes on paper absentee bal lots and hoping the appellate court rules in their favor.

"We're really disappointed that our county officials had the opportunity to make a smarter decision and they didn't," she said.

whole article-

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1148621590283100.xml?starledger?nex&coll=1

And they said -

No votes were lost.

The outcome of the election was not affected.

All problems were due to human error.