Election Reform, Fraud & Related News Wed 10/11/06-Deceit & Denial Edition

Election Reform, Fraud & Related News Wed 10/11/06-Deceit & Denial Edition


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October 10, 2006
Paper Trails At The Voting Booth

E. J. Dionne tackles the controversy over electronic voting machines that has arisen since their rushed implementation following the 2000 presidential election. Dionne argues that a little paranoia isn't always a bad thing:

Sometimes, paranoids are right. And sometimes even when paranoids are wrong, it's worth considering what they're worried about.

I speak here of all who are worried sick that those new, fancy high-tech voting systems can be hacked, fiddled with and otherwise made to record votes that aren't cast or fail to record votes that are.

I do not pretend to know how large a threat this is. I do know that it's a threat to democracy when so many Americans doubt that their votes will be recorded accurately. And I also know that smart, computer-savvy people are concerned about these machines.

The perfectly obvious thing is for the entire country to do what a number of states have already done: require paper trails so that if we have a close election or suspect something went wrong, we have the option to go back and check the results.

For most of us, the perfectly obvious thing was to question why a balloting process that had been in use for decades had to be tossed aside simply because one party didn't like the outcome of the race. In California, we had used the butterfly ballot for decades; we had one in every election in which I voted. The punch-card ballots made it very easy to ensure that my vote was recorded correctly, and booth instructions warned voters to check that all chads got properly cleared from the ballot before filing it.

more at:
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/008254.php

Review Finds Mistakes On 5,100 Absentee Ballots
Board Of Elections To Send Reprinted Ballots To Voters

POSTED: 5:24 pm EDT October 9, 2006
UPDATED: 6:20 pm EDT October 9, 2006

CLEVELAND -- There are more troubles for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections just one month before the state votes on a new governor.

The troubles center around the absentee ballots sent out to voters. A weekend review revealed 5,100 ballots that have misprints of one form or another, NewsChannel5 reported.

The review was prompted by last week's discovery that 1,500 ballots in Ohio's 7th House District race listed the wrong party affiliations for the candidates.

Some mistakes discovered over the weekend include one candidate's name appearing smaller than his opponent's on the ballot because of its length.

Other things include punctuation problems with a couple of local ballot questions. All the ballots in question are being reprinted and will be mailed out to the voters who will be contacted.

"We will contact them personally to let them know. We will also contact them by the notification of the absentee ballots. We'll also let the candidates know, and if they would like the list of those registered voters who are impacted, they will have the opportunity to contact those individuals themselves," said board of election Director Michael Vu.

If a person already mailed back their ballot, that ballot will be set aside and the new ballot will be the one that is counted.

If no new ballot is received, the board will decide on an individual basis whether the initial ballot will be counted.

http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/10037560/detail.html

October 10, 2006
Voting electronically? Be very afraid!
Posted by Phil Windley

Digg This!

This November's election marks the first widespread use of electronic voting in the US. There is considerable concern among computer security professionals and others that electronic voting is not secure and evidence keeps mounting that the current crop of machines are not secure as they could be.

The Help America Vote Act (or HAVA) mandated certain things to states with respect to how the run elections. The most important for this discussion is a mandate that punch card voting machines be replaced. For many states that meant turning to electronic voting machines, commonly called direct recording equipment or DREs by voting officials and vendors.

We could argue that there were non-DRE alternatives for replacing voting equipment, but that train's left the station. Jurisdictions that have purchased DRE voting machines are not going to throw them out without a big fight. So far activists haven't been able to put up enough of a stink to make most elections officials even break into a sweat.

On the positive side, most people who use DRE machines like them. My parents, in their 70's, reported to me that they really felt confident that they were voting for who they wanted. What's more, they weren't intimidated by the equipment. Most reports from voters who've used the machines give similar reports. This is music to an election official's ears.

more at:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3756

Poll: Only Half Of Ohioans Believe Election Will Be Fair
Dated: 10/10/2006 5:28:05 PM

About half of Ohioans expressed great confidence that their vote would be fairly counted, but Democrats were far less sure about it than Republicans, a poll released Tuesday shows.

The survey, sponsored by the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, came Tuesday as critics of Ohio's election process appended a new civil rights charge to their pending lawsuit: new voter ID requirements coming this fall are discriminatory.

Lawsuits, protests and complaints by mostly Democratic elected officials have called the state's election procedures into question since President Bush won Ohio's electoral votes to clinch a tight contest with Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

The Republican president's victory in a state where the GOP held a virtual lock on state government and the chief elections official Ken Blackwell is a Republican made many Democrats skeptical of the outcome. They also criticized the fact that the chief executive of the Diebold Inc., which makes many of Ohio's voting machines, was a Bush supporter.

Four years later, just over 53 percent of respondents to the poll expressed great confidence that ballot counting will be fair this year, while another 31 percent expressed some confidence, 11 percent little confidence and 5 percent no confidence in the system.

more at:
http://www.wdtn.com/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=60542&RequestTimeout=500

Brennan Center Report Finds Most Voting Machines Fail to Address Needs of the Disabled
Voting Experience of Disabled Citizens Still Unequal, Demeaning and Time-Consuming
Report Provides Guidance for Local Election Officials In Assessing Needs of the Disabled When Selecting Voting Technology

NEW YORK - October 10 - The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, today released a report and policy proposals, concluding that many jurisdictions must do more to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Voluntary Voting System Guidelines regarding access for the disabled. The report provides specific guidance for state and local election officials in assessing the needs of the disabled when selecting and using voting technology.

“As we approach the 2006 election, states and localities across the country have made major strides to improve the voting experience for Americans with a range of disabilities – but we still have a long way to go,” stated Michael Waldman, Executive Director of the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Brennan Center report, The Machinery of Democracy: Accessibility of Voting Systems, will serve as a road map for election officials seeking to maximize participation of disabled voters in the electoral process.

Among the report’s key recommendations:

read the rest at:
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/1010-07.htm

Verified Voting's Election Transparency Project

Do you wonder whether your vote counts? Are you losing faith in our electoral process? Do you think our elections are as accurate as they should be? Are you concerned that the results might be vulnerable to fraud or machine failure?

There is something you can do NOW, even before the election starts. Verified Voting's Election Transparency Project is enlisting members

of the public (and especially organized groups) to help find out what really goes on in our elections. Our aim is to document everything we can, so that we actually know what happened after election day.
There are enough close races in this election that what we witness could affect the outcome of a race. The presence of observers will keep election officials on their toes, and there will be fewer problems as a result.

Most importantly, the findings from this project will keep election reform advocates busy for several years proposing improved election procedures and new legislation, so that future elections are much more accurate and transparent than current ones.

more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-dill/verified-votings-electio_b_31339.html

Sequoia Tries Pulling the Wool Over New York’s Eyes
By Bo Lipari, New Yorkers for Verified Voting
October 10, 2006
If the facts don’t fit, make something up

Recently, Sequoia distributed a press release to New York State legislators and election officials implying that the DREs it hopes to sell New York had received top ratings in the recent Brennan Center Usability Study. Unfortunately, this extremely misleading press release makes statements which directly contradict the actual conclusions of the Brennan Center Study. Using such deception in a widely distributed press release at a critical moment in New York’s voting system certification and selection process is not only false advertising; it assumes that New York officials who received the release won’t look at the facts behind Sequoia’s spin.

In almost every sentence the claims made in Sequoia’s press release are misleading, if not unabashedly false. To understand the context you need to take a look at the three statements made right at the top of the press release:
Sequoia Voting Systems' AVC Edge Receives Best Rating in New Brennan Center Report on Usability

Wednesday September 20, 3:04 pm ET

Used in Nevada for 2004 Presidential Election, Sequoia's DRE With VVPAT Produces Lowest Residual Vote Rate of All Voting Systems

Full-Faced DRE Most Secure, Reliable, Accessible and Accurate Voting Solution for New York


NEW YORK, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Sequoia Voting Systems' AVC Edge, a touch screen Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting system, received the top usability rating of any voting machine in the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law's recent report…

Let’s take a look, line by line, at these statements.

The Big Lie – Want Fries with that Whopper?

Line 1 – “Sequoia Voting Systems' AVC Edge Receives Best Rating in New Brennan Center Report on Usability”

They start right off with a whopper. The Brennan Report doesn’t rate voting machines. It evaluates how different types of voting systems affect a voter’s ability to accurately record their votes. It’s not some Consumer Reports style “Top Ten Voting Machines” article that gives 1 star to this DRE and 5 stars to that ballot scanner. So right off the bat they’re implying the report is something that it’s not - a contest, and one that they have won. And as we’ll see, if it had been a contest, Sequoia would have lost - big time.

Line 2 – “ Used in Nevada for 2004 Presidential Election, Sequoia's DRE With VVPAT Produces Lowest Residual Vote Rate of All Voting Systems”

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1868&Itemid=113

Howard Dean: Take the Day Off
Posted by Ginny Cotts
October 10th, 2006

Howard Dean has emailed the DNC list requesting commitments to take Election Day off to help the Dems win big. No one who is reasonably conscious and of competent mental status could be unaware of how portentous this midterm election is. We have 28 days to make that change for the good.

The issues are immense. Iraq, Afghanistan, National Security, everything veteran, economy, health care, the GOP scandals, Bush’s signing statements, NSA surveillance, torture and lack of oversight. Regaining at least the House of Representatives is essential and appears likely. Even the Senate is not out of reasonable possibility. The GOP is in it’s worst position of every poll than it has been in years. For those of us who have been trying to get to this reversal of the political pendulum for decades, it is no time to stand back and watch. We have seen defeat handed to us from the jaws of victory too many times.

It all hinges on the vote 11/7: the machines, the turnout, and the choices the voters make.

more at:
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4427

Fitrakis, Lehto, Wasserman Exposing The Act Of Election Fraud


Recorded from webcast, find it @ Http://freepress.org/podcasts October 7, 2006.

Includes live commentary about Blackwell’s recent appearence with Larry Pratt, a white supremacist.

And how the republican party is chipping away at fair elections and the Busby/Bilbray debacle.

Suprising Zogby poll on election machinery.

Vote switching on DREs.

Recalibration lies.

The art of election fraud.

AUDIO:
http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2006/10/11/fitrakis-lehto-wasserman-exposing-the-act-of-election-fraud/

::E-GOVERNMENT
Nedap voting machines knee-deep in controversy
Tuesday, October 10 2006
by Maxim Kelly

A European group of hackers has urged governments not to use the Dutch-made e-voting machines currently stored by the Irish government for future elections.

Did you know you can get the e-Government Digest sent direct to your inbox every week? Just email us to get your free copy.

The German Computer Chaos Club (CCC) has called for a ban on the Nedap ES3B voting machine because of fears radio emissions from the electronic voting booths could be intercepted and citizens' voting preferences exposed.

According to Margaret McGaley of lobby group Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-Voting, the ES3B is "practically identical to the machines we have in Ireland besides a few extra LED lights on the front."

Indeed Dutch lobby group "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (We don't trust voting computers), which took part in a TV programme in the Netherlands last week demonstrating how the machines could be made to record inaccurate voting preferences, used publicly-available manuals from the Nedap-built Irish version to demonstrate unsuitability for the upcoming Dutch general election.

It is understood the CCC advised the Dutch group in their technical analysis of two used Nedap machines acquired from municipal authorities in the Netherlands.


more at:
http://www.electricnews.net/frontpage/news-9828620.html

The case against voting machines

The evidence mounts

By INQUIRER newsdesk: Tuesday 10 October 2006, 16:45

THE FOLLOWING appeared in our INQBox from the guys at http://www.blackboxvoting.org. Its appearance was prompted by our piece yesterday on apparently flawed technology in use in Europe here.
Citizens are fed up with black box elections, and are mustering up evidence of improper behavior that will swing the pendulum back in the direction it belongs.

Examples of the astonishing evidence uncovered by candidates and extraordinary citizens follows.

At first, we proved that the machines "theoretically' could be tampered with. Then, in experiments in Leon County and Emery County, citizen-led investigations machines could ACTUALLY be tampered with.

At first, public records requests from Black Box Voting and others proved that election results were not authenticatable using available audit records. And now, Black Box Voting and citizens are coming up with audit records that show strong indications of improper behavior.

more at:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34978

Election officials reassure voters about voting machines
October 10, 2006

During primary elections this year, electronic voting machines malfunctioned in Chicago, voters got the wrong ballots in Denver, and machines crashed in Maryland. In Minnesota, all ballots cast on Nov. 7 will be electronically counted. State election officials say voters should feel confident about the state's voting equipment.

St. Paul, Minn. — Last month, a Princeton University professor and two graduate students released a video that shows them tampering with a Diebold AccuVote-TS, the mostly widely used voting machine in the country. They used vote-stealing software to make Benedict Arnold beat George Washington in a simulated election, and they hacked into the voting machine in less than a minute.

The video may be alarming to voters, but Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer wants to reassure them. She said Minnesota doesn't use the Diebold AccuVote-TS, and the state has a paper trail of every vote cast.

more at:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/10/10/secofstateissues/

Ohio voting requirements change
New regulations require ID at polls
BY JENNIE KEY | COMMUNITY PRESS EDITOR
Be prepared to identify yourself at the polls in November.

John Williams, the director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, said Ohio law now requires all voters in Ohio to verify their identity before casting a regular ballot.

"The August special election was the first time the identification requirement was in force," Williams said. "There were few problems."


Williams said the board of elections has sent letters to more than 560,000 registered voters in Hamilton County, and plans to have inserts in utility bills before the elections reminding voters of the new requirement fro identification.

"We are trying to get the word out to people," he said.

There were also changes in the law regarding absentee ballots.

According to Sally Krisel, absentee voting administrator, any Ohio registered voter may now vote by mail.

more at:
http://news.communitypress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061011/NEWS01/610110382/1074/Local

"Scrap electronic-voting for good" - Slowey Oct 10, 6:32 pm
Any move to introduce electronic voting ahead of the next general election must be vigorously opposed according to a Donegal county councillor.

Fine Gael's Terence Slowey said that following the findings of a Dutch group last week, it is clear the system can be interfered with.

He said public confidence is non-existent in a scheme which has had a dire financial impact.

Clr Slowey called on the government to sell the machines since he doesn't believe there's any intention to use the machines which have cost €60million.

http://www.oceanfm.ie/onair/donegalnews.php?articleid=000003633

In the public interest
Misspelling of ‘public’ forces Michigan county to reprint ballot for $40,000
NBC Video: Odd news
Oct 10, 2006

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - Ottawa County will pay about $40,000 to correct an embarrassing typographical error on its Nov. 7 election ballot.

That's how much it will cost the county to reprint 170,000 ballots that were missing the letter "L" in the word "public."

The mistake appeared in the text of a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban some types of affirmative action programs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15213622/

Voter excitement level highest in years
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 11, 6:00 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Politics is a water-cooler topic, a dinner-table subject, an issue to discuss after Sunday services, and this year the interest of American voters is at its highest level in more than a decade.

ADVERTISEMENT

That renewed attention could translate into higher voter turnout on Nov. 7, according to an Associated Press-Pew poll.

Seventy percent say they are talking politics with family and friends, and 43 percent are debating the issues at work. Among churchgoers, 28 percent share their political views, a number that rises to 34 percent among the congregations in the South.

The relationship with politics is not unrequited.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_el_ge/motivated_voters_ap_poll

October 11, 2006

"The Machinery of Democracy: Voting System Security, Accessibility, Usability,& Cost."

The Brennan Center has issued this report. Dan Tokaji calls the report "essential reading not just for those who care about disability rights but for anyone with an interest in the continuing development of voting technology."

http://brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Accessibility_10-10.pdf

U.S. Says Blacks in Mississippi Suppress White Vote
By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: October 11, 2006

MACON, Miss., Oct. 5 — The Justice Department has chosen this no-stoplight, courthouse town buried in the eastern Mississippi prairie for an unusual civil rights test: the first federal lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act accusing blacks of suppressing the rights of whites.

The action represents a sharp shift, and it has raised eyebrows outside the state. The government is charging blacks with voting fraud in a state whose violent rejection of blacks’ right to vote, over generations, helped give birth to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yet within Mississippi the case has provoked knowing nods rather than cries of outrage, even among liberal Democrats.

The Justice Department’s main focus is Ike Brown, a local power broker whose imaginative electoral tactics have for 20 years caused whisperings from here to the state capital in Jackson, 100 miles to the southwest. Mr. Brown, tall, thin, a twice-convicted felon, the chairman of the Noxubee County Democratic Executive Committee and its undisputed political boss, is accused by the federal government of orchestrating — with the help of others — “relentless voting-related racial discrimination” against whites, whom blacks outnumber by more than 3 to 1 in the county.

His goal, according to the government: keeping black politicians — ones supported by Mr. Brown, that is — in office.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/us/politics/11voting.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin

New voter registration laws leave thousands off the rolls
Updated 10/10/2006 11:04 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions | Subscribe to stories like this

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Some of this year's elections could be decided by those who can't vote.
VOTING FRAUD: Report refutes fraud at poll sites

Across the country, new laws restricting who can register and vote have reduced the number of people who are eligible. Some of those laws have been blocked in court. Even so, critics say, the damage has been done:

•In Arizona, about 21,000 voter registration applications were rejected because of inadequate proof of citizenship, required under a 2004 law. Most who were affected lacked up-to-date driver's licenses, birth certificates or passports.

A federal appellate court blocked enforcement of the law — which also requires voters to show ID at the polls — last week, four days before the registration deadline. "We're looking at an enormous disparate impact on people of color," says Linda Brown, executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network.

•In Florida, a law setting up new requirements for independent groups that register voters prompted the League of Women Voters to suspend registration drives for five months until a court intervened. In that period, the league could have registered thousands of people, The registration deadline is Tuesday. "You've just got to assume it's going to have an impact," says Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti, the league's state president.

more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-10-voter-registration-laws_x.htm