Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wed 11/22/06 Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wed 11/22/06 Happy Thanksgiving DU

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EXCLUSIVE: Whistleblower Stephen Heller Says 'Diebold Cannot be Trusted to Run Elections in America'
Plea Deal for 'Wobbly Felony' Conviction, 3-Years Probation, May be Reduced to Misdemeanor after One Year of Good Behavior

In an exclusive statement sent to The BRAD BLOG earlier today excoriating the privatization of America's voting system, whistleblower Stephen Heller says, "Diebold has shown they cannot be trusted to run elections in America."

He oughta know.

As we reported last night, Heller pled guilty yesterday in an agreement with Los Angeles prosecutors, after his arrest earlier this year on felony charges related to his release of attorney-client privileged documents he obtained while working as a temporary word-processor at Diebold's law firm, Jones Day.

The agreement, which required him to sign an apology, pay $10,000 in restitution, and not discuss the documents he released, may also allow Heller's felony conviction to be reduced to a misdemeanor charge after one year of "good behavior."

As well, in exchange for Heller's signed apology and commitment not to discuss the documents themselves (which are already publicly available since he released them originally to both the media and Election Integrity activists), Jones Day signed an agreement that they would not sue him in civil court in the matter.

more at:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3826

The GOP's dirty deeds of 2006
Salon's guide to robo-calls, push polls, vigilantes and other murky dealings from this year's elections.

By Alex Koppelman and Lauren Shell

Before the 2006 midterm election, you couldn't escape the predictions of Election Day disaster: voting machine meltdowns, interminable lines, endless recounts. But ultimately, none of that came to fruition -- or at least not on the scale imagined by some -- and so the issue has been all but dropped by the chattering classes, who seem to have declared election chicanery a dead issue in this country.

But while this year might not have included any repeats of Palm Beach County or Ohio, that doesn't mean dirt wasn't going down. This November there were some old-school dirty tricks that had nothing to do with voting machines or secretaries of state. An unscientific sample seems to show that most were the product of a party that was desperate for something, anything, that would help it protect its doomed congressional majorities. Most of this year's murky dealings took place in those tightly contested races -- from the battle for Virginia's Senate seat to House races in Illinois, New York and Connecticut -- that were crucial to control of Congress.

more at:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/21/cheat_sheet/

Tiny town could be Waterloo for vote machines
BY FRED GRIMM
fgrimm@MiamiHerald.com

Defenders of electronic voting machines can explain away the disappearance of 18,380 votes in Florida's 13th District congressional election as the dross of disgusted voters after a nasty campaign.

Or the results of a confusing ballot design.

They deny the election was compromised by a bug-ridden, unreliable electronic voting system.

That won't be so easy in Waldenburg, Ark. Waldenburg voted on ES&S machines, the same system used in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

In Sarasota County, Republican Vern Buchanan enjoyed a 369-vote margin over Democrat Christine Jennings in an election in which more than 18,000 voters mysteriously decided not to bother with the congressional race.

That was 10 times more undervotes than usual. But Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent defended her voting machines. She subscribed to the theory that voters were turned off by an onslaught of negative advertising.

Voters discouragement can't explain the undervote in Waldenburg, population 80, a microcosm of high-tech voting vagaries.

more at:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16062940.htm

Electronic Vote Counting: Where Did We Go Wrong?
By Howard Stanislevic, VoteTrustUSA E-Voter Education Project
November 21, 2006

Recent discussions with other researchers in the election auditing field led me to a paper published over 30 years ago that shows just how "far" we've come in ensuring the integrity of our elections.

In 1975 while working for the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), Roy G. Saltman, authored a paper entitled, "Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying." In Appendix B of that seminal work, "Mathematical Considerations and Implications in the Selection of Recount Quantities", Saltman described a methodology for determining sample sizes to be used in independent audits of electronic vote counting systems which include optical scanners, punch card readers and touchscreen or pushbutton direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines with voter-verified paper audit trails.

Among other things, Saltman reported that regulations covering recounts in different states varied, as they do today. Some typical recount regulations were:
(1) a manual recount could be demanded by any candidate willing to pay for it;
(2) a full manual recount was automatic if the candidates' totals differed by a very small percentage of the vote and;
(3) a fixed percentage of precincts were manually recounted regardless of the apparent vote separation (margin) between the candidates.
He also pointed out that the then current law in the state of California which called for a fixed audit percentage of only 1% of the state's precincts was inadequate, stating that, "recount percentages should increase as the opposing vote totals approach equality." In other words, narrower reported margins of victory require larger audits. Yet the 1% law is still on the books today and until recently, did not even include absentee ballots!

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2067&Itemid=26

Robo-Calls and Other 2006 Election Irregularities
Submitted by Elliott Fullmer on Tue, 11/21/2006 - 17:50.
Topics: U.S. Congress | U.S. government | democracy

Congresspedia is tracking the reports of irregularities in the 2006 congressional elections, which include problems with electronic voting machines, voter suppression tactics and even voter registration fraud. These issues, which came as little surprise to many, were not confined to one state or region, but rather propped up in nearly every corner of the country.

One widespread controversy involved the use of “robo-calls,” or automated telephone calls, in the weeks preceding the elections. These calls, the vast majority of which were paid for and authorized by the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), were reported in at least 53 competitive House districts. The NRCC-sponsored calls typically began with an automated voice saying, “Hello, I’m calling with information about ,” not revealing that they were sponsored by the GOP until the end of the call, which left residents under the impression that the call was from a Democratic candidate if they hung up before the call was over. Indeed, numerous Democratic campaign offices around the country received complaints and requests to halt the calls. In addition, many voters later expressed that the calls led them to oppose Democratic candidates at the polls.

This robo-call tactic, while considered unethical by many, also has potential legal implications. FCC regulations require makers of prerecorded phone messages to, “at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call.” Also, telephone solicitations to residential subscribers “before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.” are prohibited. Many citizens reported being woken up by robo-calls as late as 2:30 a.m. In several states, such as Indiana and New Hampshire, the calls were ordered to cease because they violated state law. On November 6, the day before the elections, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.) asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, FCC chairman Kevin Martin and FEC chairman Michael Toner to probe whether the NRCC calls violated federal law. The FCC would neither confirm nor deny an ongoing investigation into the matter, while a representative from the FEC said that the agency has no record of a complaint. Congresspedia also contacted the Justice Department, but has not yet received a response.

more at:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5494

FL-13: On the Initial Hearing
Posted by jesselee
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 at 4:37 PM

From the Jennings campaign...

Statement Regarding Initial Hearing in Election Contest

TALLAHASSEE – This morning in Tallahassee, Leon County Circuit Court Judge William Gary held an initial hearing regarding the Jennings campaign’s contest of the 13th District Congressional Election.


“While we would like the process to move as quickly as possible, we are pleased with the judge’s decision to move the discovery time up to 15 days from the usual 30- to 45-day timetable,” said Kendall Coffey, attorney for the Jennings campaign.


Continued Coffey, “We’re concerned, however, that the machines which will be tested in the Secretary of State’s audit next week will not be machines that were used for actual voting in Sarasota.”


During today’s hearing, Judge Gary set the discovery period at 15 days, during which time the state must respond to the Jennings campaign’s discovery requests, which included access to election hardware and software. On a related discovery matter, the judge determined that ES&S should be brought before the court concerning Jennings’ request for access to ES&S source codes to the elections software.

more at:
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/005588.html

Legal Fight in Florida’s 13th Could Stretch Into 2007
By Rachel Kapochunas
Tue Nov 21, 7:28 PM ET

The number of Nov. 7 House general elections in which the winner has not been firmly established has dwindled to four. But at least one of these, the controversy-plagued contest for the open seat in Florida’s 13th District, is unlikely to be decided for weeks — and even has the potential to kick off the Democratic-controlled 110th Congress in January with a dispute over whether to seat the certified winner.

That candidate is Republican Vern Buchanan: The Florida secretary of state’s office yesterday certified the wealthy car dealer as the victor, by a margin of 369 votes, over Democrat Christine Jennings, a former bank president.

Jennings immediately filed a lawsuit in Leon County, which is well north of the 13th District but includes the state capital of Tallahassee. The crux of Jennings’ complaint — which demands that a new election be called — is that there were more than 18,000 “undervotes” in Sarasota County, the district’s largest jurisdiction and the source of Jennings’ greatest electoral strength.

The “undervotes” refer to ballots in which votes were registered for other offices but not for the House race between Buchanan and Jennings.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20061122/pl_cq_politics/legalfightinfloridas13thcouldstretchinto2007

Pryce’s lead over Kilroy grows with 2 counties’ totals
Still-uncounted votes in Franklin County will decide winner of U.S. House race

By Robert Vitale and James Nash
The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 12:11 AM

Deborah Pryce's lead over Mary Jo Kilroy grew by 181 votes yesterday in their still-undecided congressional race, a smaller gain than expected in the Republican strongholds of Madison and Union counties.

The seven-term incumbent now leads her Democratic challenger by 3,717 votes out of more than 200,000 cast. The current but still-unofficial totals: Pryce, 102,071; Kilroy, 98,354.

In Democratic-leaning Franklin County, the biggest in the 15th Congressional District and the only one carried by Kilroy on Nov. 7, no new totals were announced yesterday as elections workers continued reviewing the eligibility of thousands of provisional voters.

As many as 19,500 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots in Franklin County portions of the district will decide the race, one of six U.S. House contests nationwide where a winner is still uncertain three weeks after Election Day.

more at:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=228255

Thousands of reported machine glitches all across the country

http://www.votersunite.org/news.asp

Georgia Fights Donzella James E-Voting Lawsuit to Require Paper Trail

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0108.html