There will be a lot of debate on the Kennedy article in the coming days. This article in the Michigan State University student news paper is probably one of the few intelligent critiques around.

The State News, Michigan State University Independent Voice

Printed Tuesday June 6th, 2006.
Kennedy shines light on 2004 election
http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=36464


<snip>

Among other facts, Kennedy included that nearly 6 million American voters living abroad either never received their ballots or received them too late. More startling, a consulting firm called Sproul & Associates was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.

While his facts are legitimate, several questions surround Kennedy's thesis on the national conspiracy theory.

First, why would he wait almost two years into President George W. Bush's second term to release these findings?

In a contradictory sense, Kennedy's stance gains more validation with time. While it's easy to make a claim of conspiracy theory, it's more difficult to make the same claim based on facts. It takes time to gather factual information and to assemble it into meaningful data. The amount of time it took Kennedy to release his information only makes his claims more legitimate.

<snip>

Whether you regard yourself as a conservative, liberal or libertarian, take Kennedy's advice seriously, and realize that the only legitimate role in politics is an active and informed role.

Location:

All content ©2006 The State News

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

Oh stop your whining. Try posting on a forum that’s the subject of cheap shots all the time. When people wrote in and said Salon sucks AND it hasn’t done anything much for a long time AND it might as well be a Republican house organ because it legitimizes their election anytime the magazine gets a chance, at least they were TELLING THE TRUTH. When almost all (reasonable extrapolation from “most”) letters are negative, it’s time to recognize that the games up, no more betting on Salon, it’s a bad pony.

Salon answers its critics
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/06/06/salon_answers/

We've uncovered GOP voter-suppression scandals since 2000, and we'll keep at it, but there's still no proof Republicans "stole" Ohio. Plus: A sample of the raging online debate.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/06/06/salon_answers/

By Joan Walsh
Pages 1 2

June 6, 2006 | Farhad Manjoo's article criticizing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Rolling Stone piece "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"generated hundreds of letters, most of them critical, and hot debate in the blogosphere (with most but not all lefty voices raised to criticize Salon). You can read the letters to Salon here, and we've sampled some of the leading blog responses below. Salon, face it, you are despised.

<snip>

Salon has aggressively covered Republican efforts to suppress Democratic voter participation going back to December 2000, when we revealed how Florida's program to purge supposed felons and other people allegedly ineligible to vote prevented thousands of eligible voters, most of them African-American, from casting ballots -- just one example of the many GOP maneuvers that suppressed votes for Vice President Al Gore. (Writer Greg Palast brought us the story, and a team of Salon reporters contacted county election officials in Florida to report it out with him.) Just a few days later, we followed up with a feature on the Republican-connected firm that carried out the purge, ChoicePoint, along with a history of GOP efforts at voter suppression. That must have been hard. You had the best reporter around leading you to stories. Good work.

<snip>

He has approached his stories on the massive problems with voting in this country in the same way, with an open mind. We’ll see about that in a moment He investigated the many different allegations used to charge that President Bush "stole" the state of Ohio in 2004 and found all of them wanting. But in every piece, including his Kennedy article, he's also made it plain that probably legal but unethical methods were used in Ohio and elsewhere to suppress voter turnout and discourage people from voting, and that those tactics are America's shame. It's clear, however, that a divide has opened on the left between those who want to label the 2004 election intentionally "stolen" by the GOP, and those who think unproven charges of theft -- and they remain unproven, even after Kennedy's ambitious piece -- undermine efforts to work on the very real, documented problems in our voting system. Bull shit alert “unproven” – typical nonsense requirement…how can a charge be “proven” if there is no investigation. It’s like a teacher saying, “Well, your grades are not looking good” before any material is graded. Please, that’s just horrible. How can you “prove anything without an investigation.

<snip>

From what I can tell, there are only two things that will allow us to move forward with unity and hope. First, we need a lot more on the ground activism to try and retake control of our electoral infrastructure. Do they just pull this stuff out of their ear. It’s very weak. Second, we need a national agenda for election reform that people on all sides of this issue can get behind."Sure, lets have an “agenda” – what about 2006

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

mod mom Donating Member Tue Jun-06-06 01:39 PM
Original message
Cliff Arnebeck's response to Farhad Manjoo article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x431927
(Mods, I have permission to print the entire response from Cliff Arnebeck. )
***********

I was counsel of record in litigation over both the 2000 Ohio Supreme Court election and the 2004 Ohio Presidential election.

I write in response to the Salon Magazine article challenging Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s Rolling Stone Magazine article which asserts that the 2004 Presidential election was stolen.

In his response to RFK Farhad Manjoo correctly points out that in the 2000 election, Democratic state supreme court candidate Alice Resnick got more votes than Al Gore in dozens of counties -- and by 126,000 more votes throughout the state.

However, this was a truly exceptional situation, and those familiar with it would not argue that it disproves Kennedy’s thesis.

As part of their plan to pack the Ohio courts with business friendly justices, the Ohio and US Chambers of Commerce in year 2000 spent a total of some $7 million of illegal corporate money attacking Justice Resnick.

The critic of exit polls in the Manjoo article was supportive of Exit Poll Problems in January 2005, just a few months before the interview with Salon. Then he turned around, for whatever reason. At that point, Manjoo wrote a big article about all the “distractions” Exit Polls caused. Oh, really, distractions from the stolen election of 2004
Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of U.S. Presidential Election Results by Bruce O'Dell January 31, 2005
"There are statistical indications that a systematic, nationwide shift of 5.5% of the vote may have occurred, and that we'll never get to the bottom of this, unless we gather the data we need for mathematical analysis and open, robust scientific debate.", says Bruce O'Dell, USCountVotes' Vice President.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1137

No Exit. Fahrad Manjoo 06.15.2005

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2005/06/15/exit_polls/print.html
I have no idea what Manjoo intended by this article other than to present a biased, one sided approach to exit polls. That’s evident by his redial exclusively on one source until near the end of the article…the source is critical of exit polls. Here’s the coincidence. The Carter-Baker Commission Houston meeting was on June 30, 2005. This electronic article came out on June 15, 2006. It’s a thoroughly biased attack on exit polls. The coincidence resulted in discrediting USCountsVotes and the statisticians and mathematicians who challenged the election. No wonder people don’t like Salon.

Republican friendly Discredit the Exit Poll trash

"In my opinion, we've been sidetracked," O'Dell says of the fraudsters' months-long focus on exit polls. He adds that the kind of exit poll analysis that he and others have been working on is a distraction from their pursuit of real election reform, such as making sure that electronic voting machines get paper trails, and that voters in Democratic precincts aren't forced to wait in line for hours and hours in order to cast their ballots. O'Dell is critical of his compatriots, some of whom routinely suggest that a "corrupted vote count" is the only explanation for the odd exit poll results. "It's impossible that they have actual evidence that vote fraud must have occurred," he says. "They're overstating their data -- I think it's crying wolf or chicken little big time to proclaim you have evidence of vote fraud when actually you don't."
”Sidetracked” from what, oh right—paper trails and line. Now lines are totally unacceptable. Since they’re deliberate, you go to court, again and agin or the streets. Paper ballots, now there’s a good one…What about malicious code, Republican vendors, hacking the vote, precinct changes, OR the systematic disenfranchisement of minorities, barring “felons” from voting at any point, etc. etc. Why would Manjoo just sit there and listen to this. No wonder people don’t like Salon.

Discredited “reluctant bush responder” theory

Mitofsky says it's impossible to say precisely why more Kerry voters than Bush voters participated in exit polls. Were Kerry voters simply more willing to speak to pollsters? Were pollsters more willing to speak to Kerry voters? Or, conversely, were Bush voters less willing to talk? Were pollsters less willing to seek out Bush voters? It's likely that some mix of such "motivational factors" contributed to the biased exit poll, Mitofsky says, but at this point it's not possible to determine why some voters were willing to be interviewed, why some were not, and what the interviewers were thinking at the time.
This was the Republican meme at the time…the reluctant Bush responders. Oops, TIA showed that these reluctant ones were predominantly in the eastern states, you know that part of the country where people are really shy, don’t ever speak up. This was a non starter. Republican propaganda. No wonder people don’t like Salon.

Mitofsky on why he’s incompetent

Other factors support Mitofsky's theory that interviewers may have been using their own judgment in selecting voters to include in the poll. According to Mitofsky's report, the polling error tended to be larger in precincts where interviewers had been recently hired or reported being insufficiently trained; where precinct officials, lawyers or other vote observers interfered with pollsters' opportunity to approach the voters as they left the precinct; where pollsters were made to stand far away from the precinct; and where the weather wasn't great (remember the rain in Ohio?).
More propaganda. This is Mitofsky coming up with lame excuess for telling the truth through the exit polls. He’s only done this a few decades. Don’t you think Mitofsky has this down…of course he does. The uncritical Manjoo, imho, hands out the talking points for the apologists for stolen election 2004. No wonder people don’t like Salon.

The USCountsVotes.Org Hit

In the absence of precinct-level exit poll results, Baiman says, Mitofsky's theory is just that, a theory, and an "implausible" theory at that. In an official response to Mitofsky's report that the group released in March, Baiman and 11 other political scientists, statisticians and mathematicians at US Count Votes (USCV) said Mitofsky "did not come close to justifying" the position that Bush voters were underrepresented in the exit polls, and therefore that the exit poll was wrong. This leaves only one explanation for the discrepancy between the official vote count and the exit poll results, they said -- that the exits were right, and the official count was wrong. The USCV researchers listed several possible ways in which fraud might have occurred, the main one being rigged voting machines "developed, provided, and maintained primarily by a handful of private vendors with partisan ties."
BINGO…Here we go, we get to the last 1/3rd of a hit piece on Exit Polls and we get our FIRST exit poll proponent. Bull Shit alert. No wonder people don’t like Salon.

When apartheid ended in South Africa and a representative government was chosen, there were reconciliation hearings. There were just too many people to put in jail. Perpetrators (government ministers, workers, police, etc.) of the old regime and the people sat in hearings where the people ripped the perps a new one. If that ever happens in this country, all 0.5% of Americans who watch Wolfie will line up to take their shot. He’s a disgrace…he’s what Max Weber was getting at when he talked about a typical man…not an average, an exemplar of a class or group. Wolf is an exemplar of the uncritical, coiffed creatures of the tube. He’s the “Neo” of our Brave New World; seeking mediocrity at all costs and accepting the script as written by management, amen, world with out end.

BradBlog - Blogged by David Edwards on 6/5/2006 @ 7:16am PT.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002907.htm
http://www.ameratsu.com/media/vid/cnn/cnn_sr_kennedy_stolen_election_060602a_320x240.flv&width=320&height=240&OrigWidth=320&OrigHeight=240">Video in Streaming Flash format

Windows Media

CNN- WOLF ATTACK: Blitzer, Bush/Cheney Spokesman Gang Up Against Robert Kennedy on CNN

Wolf Pounces, Hands off to Holt for Phony Claims, RFK Jr. Holds Own Wolf Blitzer hosted a "debate"/ambush on CNN's Situation Room between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Bush/Cheney '04 spokesman, Terry Holt. In his Rolling Stone article Kennedy shows that Republicans prevented 350,000 voters from voting or having their votes counted.

Blitzer allowed a more civil discussion than did Tucker Carlson in another recent interview with Kennedy. CNN must have decided that an interview with Kennedy -- which would be entirely warranted -- would have appeared partisan. Republicans don't need someone who is uniquely qualified to defend their illegal electioneering in Ohio. Terry Holt can parrot the same tired GOP lies talking points and unsubstantiated, evidence-free charges as well as any talking head.

Holt said he would turn Kennedy's charges of Republic election rigging "on it's head". His first line of defense was that "an exhaustive bipartisan study of all 88 counties in Ohio was conducted after the election and Republicans and Democrats... have agreed that there was no significant or insignificant fraud." Kennedy is quick with a strong response, saying that, "there has no been no bipartisan commission... It's simply wrong to say that."

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

He deserves it! Come on, nobody advocates spanking anymore but Tucker, yikes. I’m talking about the “spanking” delivered by our friend Jon Stewart. In minutes, he tore down Tucker and Begalla and ended the show. He also turned their own audience on them. Kennedy does very well. Tucker’s taken too many hard blows to the head;)

BradBlog - Blogged by David Edwards on 6/2/2006 @ 5:40am PT...


VIDEO - Robert Kennedy Explains 2004 Stolen Election to Tucker Carlson

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002900.htm

http://www.ameratsu.com/media/vid/msnbc/msnbc_tc_kennedy_election_stolen_060601a_320x240.flv&width=320&height=240&OrigWidth=320&OrigHeight=240">Streaming with Tucker Carlson

Windows Media Format

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

as Carlson, surely tells us something about them completely 'off the dial', to be found only in the last stages of socio-political degeneracy - an abysmal crassness, a fathomless stupidity, so surreal in its enormity, that future generations will be utterly dumbfounded. They will be lost in wonder that ANYONE with an IQ in excess of 60 could be so devoid of the most elementary sense of proportion as to deny the Everest of hard facts concerning the electoral fraud, rendered all the more compelling by the incontrovertibly damning statistical, circumstantial evidence of that criminal, Alice in Wonderland over-reach.

They have become so used to living in the vapid, perverse and uterly spurious reality that they have habitually been able to engender and impose on society, that they have, as the Psalmist indicated so long ago concerning their "proud" counterparts in his day, been "scattered in the imagination of their hearts"; eventually coming to believe their own publicity, victims of their own tortuous media scam.

There was no level of contempt for the public too deep for them express, but somehow with each 'big lie' they propagated, the enormous mendacity they were peddling, in some strange way, actually came to be reinforced in their own hearts and minds. Caught like rats in a trap, the butt of an amazed world's derision.

The entire three paragraphs but this line, oh my:



Elliot comes to mind because they are truly "the hallow men."

Makes you wish you were a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas, doesn't it?!

What a novel idea, how quanit. They’re going to “measure up” the candidates based on how they handle pressure and deal with the issues. Unlike here where people look at the debates and decide which person is the biggest loser, then vote for him.
MEXICO
Presidency may hinge on TV debate
A nationally televised presidential-election debate in Mexico -- the first forum bringing all of the candidates together -- is likely to have a decisive effect on the voting.
BY JON GAMBRELL
Knight Ridder News Service 06.06.06
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14749073.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

MEXICO CITY - After a year that saw hundreds of thousands of people march in the streets, record spending on searing TV ads and endless political intrigue, Mexico's presidential campaign probably will turn on what happens in a television studio tonight.
For two hours, the contenders will debate the issues that voters face: more jobs, less crime and a better future. It'll be the first time that all the presidential candidates will be on the same stage.
But with less than a month to go before the vote July 2, the questions are really just three: Which of the two leading contenders, pro-business Felipe Calderón or populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will come out ahead? Will the country's former political old guard survive an election in which its candidate is running a distant third? And how will the public react to what could be an incredibly close finish?
What's known is that whoever wins will set a six-year course for the country that could be as important to the United States as it is to Mexico. Issues that include what to do about migration to the United States, what foreign policy to pursue and whether to open the economy to more foreign investment face the next president.

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

I’m shocked, simply shocked that this could happen. I’m less than shocked to see people demoralized. There should be indictments galore out there but there are none. There should be people serving time out there, but there are none. There should be hope that a new slate will take over, but I seriously doubt if this is possible on any scale.

Why Is Blackwell Stonewalling Greens In Ohio?
Tuesday, 6 June 2006, 5:19 pm
Opinion: Harvey Wasserman
Why Is Ohio's Blackwell Stonewalling The Green Party Off The Fall Ballot?

by Harvey Wasserman
June 1, 2006
From: http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1378

Green Party candidates who submitted more than twice the legally required number of petition signatures to get on this fall's Ohio ballot are being stonewalled by the state's infamous Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who has expressed personal contempt for the Greens' gubernatorial candidate, Bob Fitrakis.

Blackwell served as co-chair of the Ohio 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. As chief administrator of the statewide ballot, he delivered Ohio's 20 electoral votes---and thus the presidency---to George W. Bush in a bitterly contested election riddled with charges of intimidation, fraud and theft, electronic and otherwise. Nearly two years later, the charges that the election was stolen continue to escalate.

Blackwell is now Ohio's Republican nominee for governor. His Democratic opponent in the fall, 2006, vote is U.S. Congressman Ted Strickland. A moderate Methodist minister from southern Ohio, Strickland currently holds a slight lead in the polls over the extreme right-wing fundamentalist Blackwell.

But on May 2, the Green Party gubernatorial campaign of Bob Fitrakis and Anita Rios submitted more than 11,000 petition signatures to get themselves on the fall ballot. The Green Party candidate for Secretary of State, Tim Kettler, also submitted more than 10,000 signatures. State law requires about 5,000 valid signatures for third party candidacies (but just 1,000 for Democrats or Republicans).

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

BTW. Blackwell is going to be so PO-ed when he finds out what attorney is representing Morrison! bwa-ha-ha! Does everyone here remember the nasty Pryce responding on Jan 5 2005 to the seatng of the Ohio electorate?


Board delays decision on Pryce challenger
Friday, June 02, 2006


The Franklin County Board of Elections will decide June 21 whether to allow an independent candidate into the race against U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce.

Board members postponed a hearing they had scheduled for yesterday to consider Republican complaints that Charles R. Morrison II has too many ties to the GOP to qualify as an independent.

Morrison, a Madison County business owner who challenged Pryce in past party primaries, has submitted enough valid signatures to qualify as an independent for this year’s general election.

He voted in the May 2 Republican primary, a day after he turned in the signatures. Republicans say Morrison can’t do both.

<snip>

http://www.ohioelects.com/?story=dispatch/2006/06/02/20060602-E4-02.html

Center Daily Times. Central Pennsylvania
Electronic machines bring many risks to the voting process

Posted on Mon, Jun. 05, 2006

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/14736244.htm
The recent primary election gave Pennsylvania voters a preview of new voting machine technology -- touch-screen and optical-scan ballots -- that could be available for the midterm elections in November.
News accounts have suggested that voters and some local election officials appeared to endorse the technology: The voting machines were perceived as easy-to-use, and as Centre County Commissioner and Election Commissioner Chris Exarchos put it, "the way of the future."
New voting technologies offer approaches to known risks.
We need alternatives to error-prone punch-card ballots and hanging chads. But new technologies always entail new risks. We need to understand those risks in order to protect both the voter's privacy and the voter's vote.
All information systems are susceptible to tampering, whether from outsider hacking or insider data fraud. Reports of tampering are in the news more or less every week.

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

Update
http://voteraction.org/States/Pennsylvania/PA.html

Across PA., an array of new voting machines to debut
Eleven systems will be used, many acquired at the last minute. Some predict problems.

May. 15, 2006
By Nancy Petersen | Inquirer Staff Writer

Joe Zaber could not believe it.

Tomorrow, when he goes to the polls in West Chester to vote in the primary election, he will be handed what looks to him like a piece of paper.

"You're back to a paper ballot?" he asked Chester County voter-services director Linda Cummings at a public demonstration of the county's new voting system last week.

"Good God, we had that 48 years ago. Progress is wonderful," he said incredulously.

:hi:

They had some problems in Arkansas but, hey, no problem. It’s 06.06.06! Go for it, buy more, more machines, less confidence, fewer voters…Sweet! Music to Republican ears.

NW Arkansas Times
Election commission considering more electronic voting machines

BY DUSTIN TRACY Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Saturday, June 3, 2006
http://nwanews.com/nwat/News/41385/

The Washington County Election Commission discussed the possibility of using more electronic voting machines in future elections Friday.

John Logan Burrow, head of the commission, said the machines were a big hit when they were debuted in May’s primary elections.

The county has 135 electronic voting machines and only implemented one per precinct during the past election. "The whole excursion has been a learning experience," Burrow said. "I think we’ll be more prepared for November now."

The commission also signed and notarized a state affidavit certifying that they followed all of the state’s regulations for holding an election. "We’re proud to say that we complied and even exceeded the state election regulations," Burrow said.

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

VoterAction.Org is superb. They’re fighting machine voting everywhere. They win too. It was this group that pushed NM Gov. Richardson into a reasonable position on voting. Richardson got credit but so what. The job got done.

Cortez Times. Colorado
Voting system draws lawsuit
Group: Diebold, other electronic machines susceptible to fraud

http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/06/news060603_3.htm
Saturday, June 3rd 2006
By Joe Hanel | Journal Denver Bureau

DENVER - A group of Colorado voters has sued La Plata and eight other counties, claiming their electronic voting machines are vulnerable to fraud.
"The system has repeatedly been exposed to glaring security holes that have not been fixed."
-Lowell Finley Voter Action

Montezuma County is not named as a defendant, but if the plaintiffs are successful, the ruling would apply to all Colorado counties.

The voters also sued Secretary of State Gigi Dennis for certifying machines made by Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, ES&S and Hart InterCivic.

All of the machines have serious flaws, but the Diebold machines used by La Plata County have the longest history of security problems, said Lowell Finley, a lawyer from the group Voter Action, which is supporting the suit and has filed cases in other states.

http://www.ElectionFraudNews.com

Updates

http://voteraction.org/States/Colorado/CO.html

Colorado Voters File Lawsuit to Halt State’s Purchase or Use of DRE Computerized Voting Systems

Group Cites Deficiencies in Security, Reliability, and Verifiability
in Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S and Hart Computerized Voting Systems

For Immediate Release: Denver, Colorado, June 1, 2006 – A non-partisan and diverse group of Colorado voters who seek to protect the integrity and purity of elections as required by the Colorado Constitution, filed a lawsuit today challenging the
Secretary of State’s certification of certain computerized Direct Recording Electronic (“DRE”) computerized voting systems and asking the Court to prevent the use of these computerized voting systems in Colorado elections. The DREs manufactured by Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, ES & S, and Hart InterCivic have a well-documented history of problems with security, reliability, verifiability, and disability access. Named defendants are Secretary of State Gigi Dennis and the boards of county commissioners of Adams, Araphahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Douglas, Jefferson, La Plata, Larimer and Weld Counties which are representative of the counties around the state planning to use the DREs.

The law firms Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP in Denver, and the Law Offices of Lowell Finley, representing the Colorado voters, filed the complaint in Denver District Court.

A copy of the complaint is available on www.voteraction.org.

“The Secretary of State is not upholding her duty to Colorado’s citizens to ensure reliable, secure, and verifiable voting as required by our State Constitution and election laws,” said Myriah Conroy, a plaintiff in the Colorado voters’ suit. “Colorado voters deserve to know that the state’s voting systems preserve the fundamental right to have their votes recorded and counted as intended. DRE computerized voting systems from these manufacturers are easily hacked and compromised, and have a history of operational problems which have disrupted elections across the country. Further, they are virtually impossible to recount in a contested election, and fail to accommodate voters with a broad range of disabilities,” said Conroy.

“The Secretary of State’s Office has failed to issue rules setting minimum standards for security of these systems. The election rules permit the DRE manufacturers to simply tell the State that their machines are secure,” said Paul Hultin, an attorney with Wheeler Trigg Kennedy LLP. “Worse, the Secretary is not following the law. No certification reports required by law have been prepared even though these systems have been certified for months and counties are preparing to use these dubious systems in the upcoming election,” stated Hultin.

I must be possessed or somethin'

Blackwell gets brunt of registrants' anger
He denies trying to disenfranchise voters

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1149582726265130.xml&coll=2

Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus- Democrats and representatives of voter-registration groups accused Secretary of State Ken Blackwell on Monday of trying to rig this November's election by publishing draconian new rules governing the activities of people who register voters.

Testifying at a hearing chaired by Judy Grady, Blackwell's director of elections, lawyers for ACORN, Common Cause, the Ohio Democratic Party and other groups said training documents drafted by Blackwell's office are so vague that they subject registrars to felony penalties for even inadvertent violations...

Samuel Gresham, an attorney for Common Cause, charged that the rules are "part of a consistent pattern, intentionally so," by Blackwell to disenfranchise black, low-income and Democratic voters.

Blackwell's actions, Gresham and others said, are intended to suppress Democratic voter turnout in what is shaping up as a closely contested governor's race between Blackwell, a Republican, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland...


Article published Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Critics rip rules for paid staffers signing up voters
Ohio's regulations too restrictive, scare away volunteers, they say

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060606/NEWS09/606060378/-1/NEWS

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU


COLUMBUS - Emergency rules regulating people who are paid to register voters are too restrictive and have scared off volunteers afraid of crossing a vaguely drawn line, critics charged yesterday.

The rules, written by Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's office, took effect with Gov. Bob Taft's signature on May 1. Mr. Blackwell's office held a hearing yesterday as it prepares to submit permanent rule language to a legislative committee for review.

The rules were triggered by a state law passed earlier this year that, in part, reacted to stories of fraud during the 2004 presidential election, including a Defiance County case in which a man who tried to register the likes of Mary Poppins and Dick Tracy was paid in crack cocaine.

An online training manual that flows from the rules requires paid registrars to "directly" submit registrations to county election boards or the secretary of state rather than any number of other public drop-off locations available to volunteer registrars...



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2324617

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x431899

http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2006/06/06/news/top_stories/top01.txt

Monday, June 5, 2006 5:18 PM CDT

White County Election Commissioner claims state advised to break the law

By Warren Watkins
The Daily Citizen

White County election officials are trying to untangle red tape, work around ineptitude by a private contractor and follow the advice of a seemingly helpless state office as they attempt to continue the election of 2006.

Last month’s primary election was conducted in the county with a few minor problems, but early voting began with homemade paper ballots being used instead of the new iVotronic electronic voting machines supplied by Election Systems and Software (ES&S). Personal Electronic Ballots (PEBs) due to be delivered to the White County Election Commission before last Tuesday never arrived, and the paper ballots were printed by the commission as a stop-gap measure.

When the PEBs finally arrived Friday, they were not useable.

“The situation has been a royal mess,” Tanya Burleson, White County Clerk, said. “Our PEB's that were received were wrong. We have no absentee ballots. We can send ballots like we are using for early voting, but ES&S was supposed to have paper ballots to us by Friday and no ballots have been received. It is definitely a mess.”

Election Security 2006
Steven Hill
June 05, 2006

Steven Hill is director of the Political Reform Program of the New America Foundation . Portions of this article are excerpted from the author’s new book, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy. Part I of a two-part series. Part II will outline a forward-looking agenda for how to secure the vote in the United States.

Will your vote count on Tuesday? As we head into another election season—with control of Congress potentially up for grabs—ongoing concerns about voting equipment and election administration continue to worry fair elections advocates. Recent headlines have added to previous fears, but there are also signs that effective advocacy is paying off.

Last month, The New York Times and other news media reported on a new security glitch uncovered in election equipment manufacturer Diebold Election System’s ATM-like touch-screen voting machines. Voting technology experts have called it the "worst security flaw ever"—any person with basic knowledge and a minute or two of access to a Diebold touch screen could load virtually any software into the machine and disable it, redistribute votes or alter its performance in myriad ways without being detected.

"This is worse than any of the others I've seen. It's more fundamental," said Douglas Jones, a University of Iowa computer scientist and veteran voting system examiner for the state of Iowa. "In the other ones, we've been arguing about the security of the locks on the front door. Now we find that there's no back door.”

more at:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/06/05/election_security_2006.php

:hi:

http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2006/06/media-advisory-humboldt-press.html

Media Advisory: Humboldt Press Conference Challenging Election Results

June 5, 2006

MEDIA ADVISORY: Press conference

FROM: Voter Confidence Committee

CONTACT: Dave Berman, 707-845-3749, or info@voterconfidencecommittee.org

VOTER CONFIDENCE COMMITTEE TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY, JUNE 6, TO CHALLENGE VALIDITY OF ELECTION RESULTS

The Voter Confidence Committee, which has been calling for verifiable election results and objecting to the use of Diebold optical-scanning machines because they are illegal and unreliable, will hold a press conference on the steps of Eureka City Hall at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6, to announce it will not accept as valid results from the Primary Election in Humboldt County.

Dave Berman, founder of the Committee, whose new book, We Do Not Consent (.pdf), grew out of his group's two-year campaign to ensure verifiable elections, will preside at the press conference and later address the Eureka City Council about the election conditions.

Berman also will announce that the Committee and supporters are planning to march from the City Hall to the county courthouse to protest the use of the secret vote counting machines, which deliver unverifiable results that could be manipulated or contain gross tabulation errors, though the voters would never know.

In addition, Berman will describe plans for further protests on Wednesday, June 7, to demand counting of the ballots by hand to verify the machine totals.

YOUR COVERAGE IS INVITED. Opportunities for interviews with Berman and Committee supporters also will be available after the march at the courthouse.

Background:

--Diebold optical scanners use secret, proprietary programming codes. Unless we hand count the ballots to verify the reported results, we all are accepting the outcome with blind faith that the machine-counted results are true and accurate.

--Diebold optical scanning machines (a) do not meet state and federal security standards and (b) are the subject of lawsuits filed on behalf of voters across the nation. The Diebold corporation itself is facing more than a half dozen class action suits filed by shareholders.

--Memory cards can be manipulated in a variety of ways (as happened in a Leon County, FL, "hacking" incident), both when the cards are separate from the machines and when they are "sealed" in to the machines. A stunning cross-country "train wreck" of state Primary Elections has shown hundreds of machines failing to power up or work continuously throughout the voting day.

--Precinct-based data from the scanners is transmitted via technologically unsecure modems to the "central tabulator," another Diebold program called GEMS. Media and government reports have shown the ease with which GEMS can be manipulated, changing election results without leaving a trace.

--Diebold spokesman David Baer, dismissing the disclosure of yet another newly discovered security flaw, said, "It's only a vulnerability to those who would commit a felony." The VCC agrees that tampering with an election is a felony, and the equipment that would allow it should never be used.

--The Committee's protest action is not based on the results, whatever they may or may not be, but because of the conditions that make it impossible to be certain of the true outcome.

--In order to verify the results reported as true and accurate, the VCC calls on the County to recruit citizen volunteers to conduct a full hand count of the ballots.###

And NO, you CAN'T have a receipt.


Thanks for holding the torch high, autorank! Onward!


:patriot:

That is way heavy for the kid...

Stand Up for Democracy With Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

by Thom Hartmann

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has written a brilliant new article about the biggest political story in the history of the United States: An American politician illegitimately took the office of president by outright theft and fraud. Although such high crimes and misdemeanors have been rumored in previous elections, none in the history of the republic have been so thoroughly documented. George W. Bush is not the legitimate president of the United States.

Schoolchildren read (in the few remaining civics classes in America) about the multiple pollings and tense standoff that led to Thomas Jefferson's election as president in "the Revolution of 1800," because newspapers of the day looked into and reported on such things. But - unless we speak out - odds are that few will read about what happened in Ohio in 2004 in future history books, because modern newspaper editors are increasingly corporate appendages, and many of today's "reporters" worry more about currying favor with institutional power than investigating stories that may inconvenience or upset their "sources."

Kennedy's story - "Was The 2004 Election Stolen?" - broke on Thursday, June 1, 2006, when Rolling Stone magazine put it on their website and it appeared on other websites including www.commondreams.org. It hit the newsstands soon thereafter. In the article, Kennedy lays out the details of exactly how the Republican Party, in several states but particularly in Ohio, engaged in a criminal conspiracy to both steal the 2004 election and to cover up the evidence of that theft.

The subtitle of the article lays out Kennedy's foundational premise: "Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House." And that's just the beginning of the story, which includes ballot-box stuffing, electronic voting machine manipulation, "caging" in defiance of a court order banning Republicans from the notorious practice, threats and intimidation of Democratic voters by imported Republican goon squads, and multiple illegal uses of the office of the Secretary of State to disenfranchise Democratic voters.


More: http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/060606Hartmann.shtml

This is a post from the most consistent source of information on election fraud since BEFORE THE 2000 ELECTION! althecat (of "Scoop") is providing a highly informed warning of the events that are about to transpire. It's time to pay attention. We need to start playing chess instead of checkers. Lets plan ahead for what we know is coming.

Donating Member Tue Jun-06-06 09:53 PM
Original message
Forget Whether 2004 Was Stolen - What We Gonna To Do About It If It Was?




Forget Whether The Nov. 2004 Was Stolen - What We Gonna To Do About It If It Was?
or...
A Proto-Theory On The Karl Rove Strategy For Keeping GOP In Control In Congress
An exclusive speech in DU Election Forum by DUer Althecat

MEANWHILE BACK ON THE RANCH...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1369167

*****


US... election time is coming fast... first summer, an abundance of hurricanes and a president playing with his cactuses… and then come September/October it will hit us all in the face like the train wreck that we all know it will surely be.

And then before we have time to collect our thoughts, it will have happened again. Election Theft 2006. Terry Holt said as much to Wolf Blitzer yesterday.

At present the conventional wisdom among Democrats who think they lost fairly in 2004 (plus a bunch of those who thought 2006 was crooked too) is that the good guys cannot possibly lose in November 2006 with a President so unpopular, events in the real world playing so badly for the administration (The War and the Climate) and a GOP so out of tune with reality.

This is a mistake....

The combination of skillful media management (Karl Rove's true genius) combined with wide scale election theft is an unbeatable combination unless it is actively opposed at both a grass roots and central party committee level.

Meanwhile most of the grass roots and all but a tiny minority of party leadership are still on a planet where election integrity remains fully intact. As of yesterday even though major networks had covered the story Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum & Markos Zúniga had not personally commented on the piece by JFK Junior.

So lets for a moment suspend discussion of whether JFK Junior is right and 2004 was stolen. Rather lets simply assume that it was and then think what that means. Principally:

IF 2004 WAS STOLEN ---- IS IT REMOTELY POSSIBLE THAT A PLAN IS NOT NOW ALREADY UNDERWAY TO STEAL THE ELECTION IN 2006?

Thanks Autorank. To be fair though... I think I started reporting on the actual theft of elections in 2002. Though like everybody I was shocked about 2000 too... the first article I recall was.

excerpts from articles)

An essential resource...
AMERICAN COUP II - 1999-2005

http://www.scoop.co.nz/features/usacoup.html