Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, July 16, 2006

The Thumb

Tribune Editorial

Planning ahead: All signs are that Utah's first run-through of an election using those newfangled touch-screen voting machines worked out just fine, up to and including a couple of recounts. But any system needs oversight, and the relatively small turnout recorded in last month's primary doesn't exactly qualify as an acid test. Good on Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, then, for announcing that he has appointed a committee to develop a statewide policy for how future recounts will be conducted. It should be ready for the November elections. There will be a time when the accuracy, even the security, of the voting machines is questioned. And then it will be too late to figure out how to make sure the recount process is honest and reliable.



More: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_4057159

State begins voting system reimbursement

LUVERNE (AP) — Secretary of State Nancy Worley has begun distributing $23 million to Alabama counties for the cost of new voting systems required by federal law.

The first reimbursement check went to Crenshaw County for $108,450, Worley's office announced Saturday. Crenshaw got its completed application for the funds submitted first.

The voting system changes are required by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, known as HAVA. Alabama got approximately $40 million in federal funding to pay for HAVA requirements.

Crenshaw County Commission Chair Ronnie Blackmon said the county purchased 18 voting machines in time for the June 6 primary. The county selected Automark machines manufactured by Election Systems and Software.

The Automark machines, which will be used by all of the state's 67 counties, produce paper ballots that can be verified by the voter, according to Worley.

Link: http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060716/system.shtml

Sunday's Our View
Glitches

Computerized voting was supposed to be the cure for ballot fiascos such as the 2000 presidential election; but activist groups say it has only worsened the problem, and they've gone to court across the country to ban the new machines. Pottawattamie County voters need only think back to the June primary election to understand the concerns of those groups.


Lawsuits have been filed in at least nine states, alleging that the machines are wide open to computer hackers and prone to temperamental fits of technology - or, in the case of this county's primary glitch that resulted in election votes having to be counted by hand, human error - that have assigned votes to the wrong candidate. Manufacturers, not surprisingly, counter by saying their machines are more reliable than punch cards and other traditional voting technologies.

Voter Action, a nonprofit and nonpartisan group based in Berkeley, Calif., has filed lawsuits in Colorado, California, Arizona and New Mexico. Voters in Texas, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania have sought similar bans. On Thursday a coalition of groups filed a lawsuit in Georgia.

New York University's Brennan Center for Justice released a one-year study last month that determined that the three most popular types of U.S. voting machines "pose a real danger" to election integrity. The survey examined optical scanners, which electronically read ballots, and touch-screen machines, which operate like ATMs. Some produced paper receipts, others didn't.

More than 120 security threats were identified, including wireless machines that could be hacked "by virtually any member of the public with some (computer) knowledge" and a PC card; the failure of most states to install software that could detect outside attacks; and the failure of many states to audit their electronic systems.


More: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16924728&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555110&rfi=6

Throwing good money after bad

By: Paul Jacobs - Commentary

At last Tuesday's Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting, the public learned that elections in this county are a closed shop. The supervisors never refuse the registrar of voters, which is why they've spent 30 million of our tax dollars on machines that voters increasingly avoid using.

Since the introduction of electronic elections there has been a marked increase in the number of voters choosing to vote by absentee paper ballot. But the supervisors and their appointed registrar can never admit to making a $15 million mistake and then doubling it, so they keep throwing more money at a voting machine system that is incredibly complicated, unwieldy and unpopular.

The civic group Democracy for America ó Temecula Valley once again tried to convince the supervisors to form a year-round citizen's independent voting integrity commission to have a team approach to ensure Riverside County's election procedures are transparent, secure and accurate. The stubborn supervisors ignored sound arguments for having an outside audit of our election system and rejected the notion of citizens having access to meaningfully observe our votes being counted. Why do county officials insist on excluding citizens from the process?


All five supervisors have miserably failed their fiduciary responsibility to protect the public's interest in every conceivable way. Electronic elections promised to save taxpayers $600,000 in annual ballot printing expenses, but with the foray into electronic voting, the amortized cost has averaged $5 million per year. Thirty million dollars could have paid for the county's paper ballot elections for the next 50 years, and no voting machine will last that long.


More: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07/16/opinion/jacobs/71506193035.txt

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x440753

Goodman: We should vote non, nein, nyet on multilingual ballots

Published July 16, 2006


It was embarrassing to watch the House of Representatives debate whether to renew the Voting Rights Act.

This was a serious question?

The 1965 act was a crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. We're talking about what's probably the most stirring struggle of 20th century America. But some conservatives, sounding a lot like those trolls who fought the Freedom Riders 40 years ago, wanted an overhaul.

...snip

As things stand, elections offices are feeling the strain, producing so many ballots in so many languages.

It's why many elections supervisors are smitten with electronic touch-screen voting.

It's easy! You can program ATM-type machines to display all the languages you want! It's a lot simpler and cheaper than printing, bundling and distributing paper ballots in everything from Creole to Tagalog.

Never mind that the devices don't allow for voter-verified audits. If something's amiss with the vote count, we'll have a devil of a time finding out.


More: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-phoward16jul16,0,3542714.column

Isle nonvoters don't seem to care, but why?

THOSE WHO could vote but won't are a cynical bunch, according to the latest Star-Bulletin Insider Survey.

Cynicism and an unfriendly voting system are cited as the two major reasons why voters in Hawaii are turned off.

The facts show that Hawaii has a problem getting its citizens to the polls. In 2000, just 44 percent of those 18 and older in Hawaii voted, the worst in the nation. In 2002, Hawaii mustered 45 percent, but 17 states had worse turnout rates. But in 2004, Hawaii was back at the bottom with the lowest percentage among the 50 states -- just half of those eligible to vote did so.

Our bipartisan group of lobbyists, legislators and neighborhood board chairmen were open to the idea of changing how Hawaii votes to encourage more participation. Ideas included mail-in voting, praise for the new absentee ballot drive by the Honolulu City Clerk Denise DeCosta and encouragement for more political debates and information.


More: http://starbulletin.com/2006/07/16/editorial/borreca.html

Irish politicians think e-voting lacks support

16 July 2006 By Alison O’Connor

A majority of politicians believe that the Irish public has turned against electronic voting since it was first piloted five years ago, with the belief that there is now widespread opposition to its introduction.

A survey of Oireachtas members highlights the difficulties faced by the government in restoring the public’s faith in the system, which has cost more than €50 million to date.

The poll showed that just over three quarters of TDs and senators believe that public opinion of the system has changed, with initial support for the idea disappearing, while 17 per cent said they felt the public’s view had remained the same since 2002. It also showed that politicians were split in their opinion on what should be done with the existing electronic voting system - just over a quarter believe the system should be abandoned in favour of the traditional paper ballot.

Another 18 per cent said it should be shelved and electronic voting considered at a later date. A further 15 per cent said it should be written off and replaced by a different electronic voting system.

However the largest number - 37 per cent - said electronic voting should be implemented once improvements were made. Just one politician said the system should be implemented in its current form.


More: http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=15699-qqqx=1.asp

Precincts aim to accelerate voting with express polling
Process cuts down amount of tables voters have to go to

BY ALAN RIQUELMY
Staff Writer

Pulling levers and marking paper ballots have long been replaced by electronic voting.

Now it's time for the latest change at the voting booth: Express polling.

"This process is going to be very different for the voter when they go into the precinct," said Nancy Boren, executive director of the Muscogee County Office of Elections and Registrations.

The difference is in the number of tables a voter must visit before getting a plastic voting card. In the past there were four. For Tuesday's primary, there will be two -- a number Boren believes will streamline the voting process and speed things up.

"We envision it working more like a bank," she said.

Previously, voters would step up to a poll's first station -- the voter certificate table -- where they would verify a pre-printed form with their personal information. Next would be the elector's list table. A poll worker would locate the voter's name in a large black book and mark it showing the person had voted, Boren said.

The third step -- the numbered list of voters table. There, a poll worker would write down the voter's name on the appropriate list divided by political party.


More: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/15048076.htm

Then and now, EFF defends traditional liberties in high-tech world

Sunday, July 16, 2006
By Anick Jesdanun, The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- In March 1990, when few people had even heard of the Internet, U.S. Secret Service agents raided the Texas offices of a small board-game maker, seizing computer equipment and reading customers' e-mail stored on one machine.

A group of online pioneers already worried about how the nation's laws were being applied to new technologies became even more fearful and decided to intervene.

And thus the Electronic Frontier Foundation was born -- 16 years ago this week -- taking on the Secret Service as its first case, one the EFF ultimately won when a judge agreed that the government had no right to read the e-mails or keep the equipment.

Today, after expanding into such areas as intellectual property and moving its headquarters twice along with its focus, the EFF is reemphasizing its roots of trying to limit government surveillance of electronic communications, while keeping a lookout for emerging threats even as the Internet and digital technologies become mainstream.

...snip

The EFF continues to tackle issues like anonymity, electronic voting, patents and copyright, but the Sept. 11 attacks nearly five years ago have forced the EFF to spend more time on surveillance.


More: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06197/704795-96.stm

Megachurches build a Republican base

Jul 16, 2006 — By Andrea Hopkins

LANCASTER, Ohio (Reuters) - It's not Sunday but Fairfield Christian Church is packed. Hundreds of kids are making their way to vacation Bible school, parents are dropping in at the day-care center and yellow-shirted volunteers are everywhere, directing traffic. In one wing of the sprawling church, a coffee barista whips up a mango smoothie while workers bustle around the cafeteria.

"There are people here from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day — sometimes later," senior pastor Russell Johnson says as he surveys the activity.

The 4,000 members of Fairfield Christian are part of the growing evangelical Christian movement in middle America. In a March survey, a quarter of Ohio residents said they were evangelicals — believing that a strict adherence to the Bible and personal commitment to the teachings of Jesus Christ will bring salvation.

...snip

"There was a particular intensification of evangelical links to the Republican Party during the Bush administration in 2000 and 2004."

due in part to environmental issues!

Anyone remember those recent stories, or am I imagining things?

Thanks for the ERD thread melissaB! :applause:

A toll-free blunder

KEN Blackwell's free use of the Ohio Turnpike for political purposes forebodes a trace of imperiousness that is unwelcome in this year's campaign for governor.

The Republican candidate failed to pay tolls July 6 when he traveled the turnpike to stage several campaign press conferences, including one at the I-280 exit near Toledo. He was pitching his controversial plan to sell management rights to the tollway and use the proceeds for economic development.

Mr. Blackwell's campaign staff argues that their man's trip was given "nonrevenue status" by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which chauffeured him around - for security reasons. He should have insisted on paying regardless.

As a candidate for the state's highest office, the secretary of state should be striving to gain the trust of ordinary Ohioans, none of whom can escape turnpike tolls, not behaving like political royalty.


More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/OPINION02/607160328

Foreign companies buying U.S. roads, bridges

Sunday, July 16, 2006
Leslie Miller
Associated Press

Washington- Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.

On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.

Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company - which also owns a bridge in Alabama.

About half the states now let companies build and operate roads. Many changed their laws recently to do so.

So Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell wants to sell the turnpike. Illinois lawmakers are examining privatizing the Illinois Tollway and New Jersey lawmakers are considering selling 49 percent of the state's two big toll roads.


More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1153047473285390.xml&coll=2

Strickland unknown, but his foe sure isn’t

Sunday, July 16, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

WEST CHESTER, Ohio — Harold and Linda Harper say they avoid talking politics with their friends and neighbors in their affluent southwestern Ohio township.

That’s because the Harpers are staunch Democrats in a Republican county that gave President Bush the highest vote plurality of any Ohio county in 2004 and hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

It’s also the home region of Cincinnati native J. Kenneth Blackwell, who garnered 70 percent of the vote in southwestern Ohio to win the Republican nomination for governor in May.

But even though the Harpers say they plan to vote this fall for U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, it’s simply because he’s a Democrat — not because of who he is or his stance on key issues.


More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/07/16/20060716-A1-04.html

Ethanol becomes election issue

The Associated Press

Rising gasoline costs and outrage at the pumps have turned ethanol into a popular campaign issue in states electing governors this year, especially in the Midwest.
Both the Democratic and Republican candidates in Ohio say a key piece of their plans for reviving the farm economy is in alternative fuels made from the state’s two top cash crops — corn and soybeans.

The climbing gas prices and new energy regulations that have U.S. refiners clamoring for more ethanol have provided the catalyst for more investment this year in the fuel additive made from fermented corn.

The number of ethanol plants — now at 101 — has doubled nationally since 1999, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. There are 41 new or expanded ethanol plants under construction.
Ohio does not have any corn-based ethanol plants operating now, though there are dozens of plants in other Midwest states.

Democrat Ted Strickland wants to invest $250 million each year on developing renewable energy sources, including corn-based ethanol and biodiesel made from soybean oil.
The money would come from tax-free bonds, and both big companies and farmers would have a chance to invest it in new ethanol plants. “I would like our corn producers to become owners and operators of ethanol facilities,” Strickland said.


More: http://www.chroniclet.com/Daily%20Pages/071606local1.html

Candidates focus on faith
Blackwell, Strickland proud of their religion

BY HOWARD WILKINSON | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Ohioans have never heard so much about God and faith from their candidates for governor.

Republican Ken Blackwell has been seen often at campaign events toting the Bible under his arm, he delivers Sunday morning sermons at evangelical mega-churches and counts Ohio's most high-profile pastors of the "religious right" among his closest friends.

Democrat Ted Strickland reminds voters often that he is an ordained United Methodist minister, tells the listeners of Christian radio stations he will be guided by "biblical principles" as governor, and points to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as the best guide for making public policy.


Both quote scripture as freely as policy wonks rattle off census data.

It sounds, at times, like a contest for "pastor-in-chief."

More: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/NEWS01/607160357/-1/CINCI

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x440774

Conservative on May ballot as Republican wants to run as independent vs. GOP U.S. Rep. Pryce in fall

Beacon Journal staff report

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has ruled that Madison County Republican Charles Morrison II cannot run as an independent congressional candidate in November.

Morrison had hoped to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce of Upper Arlington in a three-way race with Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, a Franklin County commissioner. The 15th District includes parts of Franklin, Madison and Union counties.

Morrison said he disagrees with Blackwell's ruling and is expected to challenge it in court.

The two Republicans on the Franklin County Board of Elections voted in June against putting Morrison's name on the ballot as an independent because he ran in the May 2 primary for Republican leadership posts. They contend he is a Republican, not an independent. The two Democrats on the elections board voted to allow his name on the ballot, and it was up to Blackwell to break the tie.

Morrison, a strong conservative, had the potential to take votes away from the more moderate Pryce, who faces a strong challenge from Kilroy.


More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/15051126.htm

Dean's List
The Democratic chair plans to fight in every one of the 50 states. Is this shrewd strategy or a recipe for disaster?

By Dan Gilgoff
Posted Sunday, July 16, 2006


DIAMONDHEAD, MISS.--Here's what the front line of Howard Dean's revolution looks like: two dozen senior citizens seated inside this gated community's clubhouse listening intently as operatives from the state Democratic Party pitch them on becoming precinct captains. A rep named Jay Parmley approaches an oversize easel and flips to a page showing John Kerry's share of the 2004 presidential vote here in Hancock County. "28%" is scrawled in magic marker. "Kind of scary," Parmley says.

But he flips the page to show former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's share of the vote here in his unsuccessful 2003 re-election bid: "43%." The discrepancy, Parmley explains, shows that the better Mississippians know a Democrat, the more likely they are to vote for him. Which is why he's here recruiting precinct captains. If Democrats can define themselves on a "neighbor to neighbor" basis, Parmley says, their candidates can win again, even here, in a red county in a red state.

If that doesn't sound revolutionary, consider this: Mississippi's Democratic Party hasn't trained precinct captains for more than a decade. Until recently, the state party consisted of a single full-time staffer. In 2004, the Democratic National Committee invested so little here that activists shelled out thousands of their own dollars to print up Kerry yard signs. That all changed last summer, when newly elected DNC Chairman Howard Dean began rolling out his "50-State Strategy," a multimillion-dollar program to rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up. Over the past year, the DNC has hired and trained four staffers for virtually every state party in the nation--nearly 200 workers in all--to be field organizers, press secretaries, and technology specialists, even in places where the party hasn't been competitive for decades. "It's a huge shift," Dean tells U.S. News. "Since 1968, campaigns have been about TV and candidates, which works for 10 months out of the four-year cycle. With party structure on the ground, you campaign for four years."

The strategy is also a reaction to the past two presidential cycles, when the shrinking number of battleground states the Democratic nominee was competing in left no room for error. Both elections were arguably determined by a single state: Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Says Dean: "We've gotten to the point where we're almost not a national party."


Rita Royals leads a session on how to
be a Democratic precinct captain in Diamondhead, Miss.


Much more: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060716/24dems.htm

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1647895

and here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x440783

8 indicted in alleged vote buying sheme in Bath County

Bennett Haeberle
WTVQ-TV, Action News 36
Jul 14, 23:28 PM EDT

State and federal investigators are crediting "citizen complaints" as a key to uncovering a suspected vote buying scheme in Bath County that has now led to the indictment of eight people.

The allegations of voter fraud in Bath County first surfaced weeks before this year's primary election when the county clerk, Glen Thomas, noticed hundreds of people voting early absentee.

During a May interview with WTVQ-TV, Thomas said his office was visited twice by KBI agents prior to election day. While the attorney general's office would not confirm it at the time, Thomas said the agents copied hundreds of documents, including voter assistance forms.

Prosecutors allege would-be voters were paid to say they were disabled, blind or unable to read English, which would allow them to have assistance in the voting booth.

More: http://www.wtvq.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WTVQ/MGArticle/TVQ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149189167909&path=

House Subpoena Targets Abramoff's White House Contacts-WP

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- The House Government Reform Committee has subpoenaed the former law firm of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff for records of any contacts he or members of his lobbying team had with the Bush White House, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Committee Chairman Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., authorized a subpoena weeks ago to Greenberg Traurig, according to several of the law firm's former clients who have been notified that it is turning over billing records, e-mails, phone logs and other material that reflects efforts to lobby the White House, the newspaper said.

Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on March 29, after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that required him to provide evidence about members of Congress, the Post said.

Representatives of four of Abramoff's former tribal clients said they have been notified by Greenberg Traurig that the firm is turning over records. In some cases, there were scores of phone calls or other contacts with the White House. It is not known whether any of those contacts resulted in improper aid to Abramoff. Several tribal representatives said they believe many contacts were with staff members at the White House office of intergovernmental affairs, the newspaper said.
The subpoena - read to The Washington Post by a former client who received a copy from Greenberg Traurig - seeks all firm billing records "referring or relating to matters involving Jack Abramoff or any person working with Jack Abramoff," as well as all records reflecting any contacts those lobbyists had with the White House. The subpoena seeks records from Jan. 1, 1998, to the present, though Abramoff did not begin work at Greenberg Traurig until early 2001.

J. Keith Ausbrook, chief counsel to the Government Reform Committee, declined Saturday to discuss the scope of any investigation. "We're not commenting at this point on the existence of a subpoena," he said in the Post. The panel is charged with oversight of the executive branch.


More: http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=24191&lang=fra&NewsRubrique=2

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING--COMING TO OAKLAND?

By Joanne McKray

Readers of the California Progress Report had the opportunity last week to read an excellent article by John Russo, Oakland City Attorney and recent candidate for State Assembly, describing how Instant Runoff Voting works and arguing that its adoption would constitute a step towards a healthier democracy.

The City of Oakland could be on the verge of taking that step.

IRV’s advocates have been promoting adoption of IRV in Oakland for years, beginning with the voters’ passage of Measure I in 2000 which instructed the city to try new voting methods, such as Instant Runoff Voting, in special elections. Subsequently in 2002 an Election Reform Taskforce advised the use of IRV in all city elections. It hasn’t happened.

At the moment, however, Oakland is as close to IRV implementation as it’s ever been. Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan are sponsoring a Charter Amendment designating that IRV be used for all local elections and asking the City Council to place it on the ballot. But the road to success is a rocky one.

More: http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2006/07/instant_runoff_1.html

:kick:

Great job

Sorry, had to run today - intended to add in the afternoon -

:banghead: