THANK YOU INFORMED CONSENT! Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 03/25/07

THANK YOU INFORMED CONSENT! Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 03/25/07

Informed Consent
March 23, 2007
Thanks Bradblog!
http://informedconsent.typepad.com/informed_consent/2007/03/another_ess_let.html
:patriot:

Source Says Second ES&S Letter Tried to Dictate What Florida Test Reports Could Say
After my story about the ES&S memo posted yesterday I heard from someone in Florida who sent me a copy of a second ES&S letter, this one sent to David Drury, who oversees voting system certifications for the state's Division of Elections. ES&S sent the correspondence on December 15 as state officials and Florida State University's SAIT Lab were preparing to conduct two examinations to test voting systems used in Sarasota county last November and do a source code review of the software. The testing was done to try to determine the reason that some 18,000 ballots didn't have any vote cast in the 13th Congressional District race.

The letter is a detailed list stating what the testing reports should and should not say. In the letter, ES&S refers to its list as "guidelines," but the instructions are extensive -- running a page and a half -- and make some pretty strong demands.
Among them, that the report should make (the quotes are ES&S's):

* No statements about possible "vulnerabilities"
* No statements about the "style" of the source code
* No statements commenting on the use of less desirable techniques, instructions, or constructs
* No statements regarding conformance to source code standards of any type or kind
* No statements regarding ES&S hardware or software engineering practices or design methods
* No statements regarding the use of preferred or non-preferred data structures, data types, data formats, databases, storage methods
* No statements rendering opinions on security techniques employed or not employed
* No statements discussing presence or absence of cryptography or other security methods and techniques
http://informedconsent.typepad.com/informed_consent/2007/03/another_ess_let.html




All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:
:argh:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page.
:patriot:

Crist touts paper ballots in D.C.

Lesley Clark & Gary Fineout
Herald Washington Bureau
Bradenton Herald, FL
March 24, 2007
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/16964783.htm

- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, whose state just can't seem to shake a reputation for voting mishaps, testified before a congressional panel Friday that Florida is entering "a new era" in voter confidence by moving toward paper ballots.

But while Crist exuded confidence in Washington, his quest for $30 million to junk most of the touch-screen voting machines in 15 counties and replace them with optical-scan machines faces an uncertain future.

Florida lawmakers have yet to consider his proposal and both chambers have thus far refused to put the money in their budgets.

"The issue is whether you fund what looks like a mistake," said House Speaker Marco Rubio, a West Miami Republican, adding, "I don't know why they (the counties) gave into temptation to buy these touch-screen machines and listen to the lobbyists for the companies who sold these."

Rep. Dean Cannon, the Winter Park Republican who chairs the panel that oversees the state's elections budget, said he wants to know whether or not Florida can use federal money - instead of state tax dollars - to pay for new machines.

Federal officials have told the state that it can't use federal money to purchase optical-scan machines, but can use federal grants to purchase printers for touch-screen machines. The Department of State estimates that it would cost as much as $7.5 million to add a printer to one touch-screen machine in each precinct in Florida, and another $3 million to add them to machines used in early voting.

There's opposition in the Senate as well, where Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, said senators want to spend less than Crist has proposed.

Crist's testimony came as federal officials are also looking at legislation to require paper trails for voting machines across the United States - a move prompted in part by 18,000 so-called undervotes in the contested District 13 congressional race.

The Republican governor - introduced by Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler, of Boca Raton, who has lobbied for years for paper trails - said Florida is ready to move beyond "the finger-pointing and laying blame.

"We've entered a new era," Crist said. "We want to ensure every Florida vote is counted and verified."
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/16964783.htm

Crist Updates Congress On Plans To Eliminate Touch-Screen Voting
Governor Wants Paper Trail For Use In Recount

Associated Press
news4jax.com
March 23, 2007
http://www.news4jax.com/news/11349114/detail.html

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Charlie Crist updated Congress on Friday about Florida's plans to replace touch-screen voting machines with optical scanners that provide a paper trail for use in a recount.

Crist testified before a U.S. House elections subcommittee to outline the proposal he is presenting to the Florida Legislature during the current session.

"Every aspect of this proposal is aimed at a commitment to ensuring that every Floridian's vote will be counted and verifiable," the new Florida governor said.

Crist's proposal would replace most ATM-style touch-screen machines. But touch-screen machines used by the disabled or visually impaired would be retrofitted with a paper trail that voters can verify.

"Our goal is to restore voter confidence," Crist said. "The right to vote is the most fundamental of all American rights."

Florida has been embarrassed by elections foul-ups several times this decade, starting with the 2000 presidential election recount that left the state a laughingstock around the world.

To avoid that from happening again, many Florida counties switched to the ATM-style machines to replace the punch card ballots and hanging chads made notorious in 2000.

But last year, questions arose about touch-screen devices after a congressional race registered more than 18,000 electronic ballots with a choice in the contest. Crist later announced his plan to scrap touch-screens.

Crist was joined by U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton and Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Miami and Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning at the hearing.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/11349114/detail.html

Many fear 'paper trail' law moving too fast

Bee Washington Bureau
FresnoBee.com
March 24, 2007
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/37172.html

To deal with widespread concerns about the integrity of elections, a House panel is weighing controversial legislation requiring states to bring back the paper ballot as the official record.

Many, if not most, states are concerned that Congress is moving too fast because the pending legislation would take effect in time for the 2008 national presidential elections, with primary balloting beginning in January.
Only 17 states have voter systems that would be in compliance with the proposed law.
The legislation has divided advocacy groups. State elections officials are opposed to it.
County officials don't like it.
Even among those who support the idea, such as California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen, the consensus is that it will cost a lot more money than the cash-strapped Congress may be prepared to spend.

"Three hundred million dollars is not enough, especially for states with only touch-screen voting," Bowen said of the bill, introduced by Reps. Rush Holt, D-N.J., and Tom Petri, R-Wis.
...
"The last thing any of us want is to truncate public review of any system, rushing through approval under the presumption that any solution is better than the current system, only to find ourselves back here in two or three years, having the same discussion all over again," Bowen said in a letter to the committee to accompany her testimony.

Bowen is one of only five state secretaries of state backing the legislation so far.
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/37172.html

Early voting a growing trend
Some officials predict up to half the votes cast in 2008 will be before Election Day

Russell Lissau
Daily Herald, Il
March 25, 2007
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=294350

Polling places across Illinois open Monday for voters casting ballots ahead of the April 17 election.

As is normally the case in elections without national races at stake, turnout is expected to be comparatively light, election officials said.That likely will be the case for early voting, too, which runs through April 12, officials added.

Regardless, as word of the relatively new system grows, many Chicago-area election officials predict early voting will explode here by the time the United States elects its next president.

"In November of '08, we will have some precincts in McHenry County (in which) more than half of the voters will vote prior to Election Day," county Clerk Kathie Schultz prophesized.

That's not necessarily a good thing, said Curtis Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a nonpartisan group that analyzes voting trends. Early voters may miss out on important news that breaks late in a campaign and could influence an election, Gans said.

And in some states, particularly those allowing early voting by mail, fraud is a serious concern, he said.

"It's an accident waiting to happen," Gans said.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=294350

Maryland: Voting Rights Advocates Appalud House Passage of Paper Trail Bill

Thanks VoteTrustUSA
By SaveOurVotes.org
March 24, 2007
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2346&Itemid=113

Senate Urged To Pass the Same Bill

On March 21, the Maryland House unanimously passed for the second year in a row, legislation to meet voters’ demands to replace the state’s current unreliable electronic voting system with a secure system that provides for a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) and optical scanning. Unfortunately, the Senate’s now considering amending its version (SB 392) to remove all the protections the House bill requires.

“Polls show two of every three Maryland voters are troubled and want a paper trail,” said Shelley Fudge of Save Our Votes. “The House deserves high praise for again listening to the voters. Now the voters are counting on our Senators to do the same.”

As introduced by Sen. Edward Kasemeyer with an impressive 37 co-sponsors, SB-392 had virtually the same vital provisions as HB-18 (sponsored by Del. Sheila Hixson and passed unanimously March 21). But the EHEA Committee is considering amendments to remove those very requirements that proponents and experts, including Dr. Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins, have testified are absolutely necessary to detect and recover from vote fraud, security breaches, and technical failures. Such incidents have shaken voters’ confidence and plagued recent elections in Maryland and the nation. For example, the U.S. Congress seat remains undecided for Sarasota, Fla., where 18,000 votes were not recorded in November 2006.

“The proposed amendments to the Senate bill do not require voter verification, paper ballots, or audits,” said Robert Ferraro of Save Our Votes. “That completely defeats the purpose of a voter-verified paper audit trail bill, and makes it not worth the paper it’s printed on.”

While opponents of the VVPAT requirements blame the states budget crisis, lack of funding is not a real obstacle because replacing our touch-screen voting machines with a paper ballot and optical scan system would save the state millions each year from the beginning, according to Rebecca Wilson of Save Our Votes. “Studies of comparable purchases in other states have shown that Maryland would save $3-5 million annually in operating expenses,” she said. “A $20-million purchase financed over five years would cost $4 million each year.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2346&Itemid=113

Electronic ballots discussed at forum

David DeKunder
The Gazette-Enterprise, Seguin, TX
March 25, 2007
http://seguingazette.com/story.lasso?ewcd=ee06a62e6af7b2f9

SEGUIN — An elections official Thursday tried to assure a sometimes skeptical audience that its vote does count in Guadalupe County.

County Elections Administrator Sue Basham spoke before nearly 30 people at Texas Lutheran University’s Ayers Recital Hall during a discussion centered on electronic voting.

The forum — “Verifying Electronic Ballots” — was sponsored by the Guadalupe County Democratic Club and the TLU Young Democrats.

Basham answered questions from people who were concerned that somebody could undermine the security of the county’s electronic voting machines and possibly manipulate election results.

Basham said she and her staff are doing everything they can to make sure the machines are secure before and after an election.

“I am here to give you an honest election,” Basham said. “I want your vote protected.”

For someone to break into one of the machines, Basham said they would have to get a key, break two seals on the side of the machine and take the memory card that stores the election results.

Basham said keys to the machines are locked up until election day and only the Elections Office staff has access to them.
http://seguingazette.com/story.lasso?ewcd=ee06a62e6af7b2f9
:argh:

Ruben Navarrette Jr.: The surge of Hispanics

Ruben Navarrette Jr. -
sacbee.com
March 25, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/143192.html

One of the most distressing aspects concerning the eight fired U.S. attorneys is what happened to David Iglesias of New Mexico, and what it tells us about how allegations of voter fraud have become a proxy for anxiety over illegal immigration.

First, try this: Whenever you hear the phrase "voter fraud," substitute "surging Hispanic political power."

Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson were so fearful about voter fraud ("surging Hispanic political power") and how it might hurt Republicans and benefit Democrats in New Mexico, that they tried to pressure Iglesias to make prosecutions out of whole cloth. When he refused, state Republican Party officials complained to the White House, where others were also concerned with voter fraud ("surging Hispanic political power"). After Republicans took a thumpin' in the 2006 midterm elections, Iglesias' name was suddenly added to a list at the Justice Department of the U.S. Attorneys slated to get the ax.

Context is everything. This isn't about allegations of the dead voting, or even of live folks voting more than once. In New Mexico, and anywhere in the Southwest, when someone says they're worried about voter fraud ("surging Hispanic political power"), you know they're talking about the possibility of illegal immigrants going to the polls. And since in these parts, most illegal immigrants happen to be Hispanic, the issue comes with built-in and not-so-subtle ethnic overtones.

Don't misunderstand. It is not that the nation's 40 million Hispanics have to rely on fraud to flex political muscle. They don't.

This is a young population, and its influence over the political process will be felt for many generations to come just by relying on eligible voters. Still, it's undeniable that much of the modern-day concern over voter fraud ("surging Hispanic political power") is tied to the larger anxiety that many Americans feel about changing demographics and how illegal immigration plays into that.

I asked Iglesias if he thought this issue was really about the GOP trying to suppress the Hispanic vote.

"I think it's a little more nuanced than that," he told me last week in an interview. "I think the concern wasn't just that Hispanics were voting but illegal immigrants in this country, who have no legal right to vote, were voting."

Are there people who really believe this? To think that illegal immigrants would hand over their savings to smugglers, trek across the desert, settle into an underground economy, and then suddenly get the urge to risk it all by rushing out to vote. We can't even get sufficient numbers of American citizens to vote, and they don't have to invest anything more than a lunch hour.

Iglesias doesn't buy that scenario either.
...
I can't help but wonder if the suspicion that Iglesias was soft on voter fraud ("surging Hispanic political power") had something to do with, oh, say, the fact that he is Hispanic. I asked him if he ever felt he was being held to a different standard and if he thought that -- if his name were Smith -- he would still have been harassed.

Iglesias pondered the question for a few seconds. Then he acknowledged with a detectable sadness, "There may be something to your theory."
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/143192.html

Cynthia Tucker: GOP Playbook seeks to exploit alleged voter fraud

OpEd
yahoo.com
March 23, 2007
ttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20070324/cm_ucas/gopplaybookseekstoexploitallegedvoterfraud

There they go again. Seeking a seat in Congress, a Georgia GOP legislator is raising the specter of phony voters: illegal immigrants sneaking into the voting booth to cast a ballot.

In a letter to potential contributors, state Sen. Jim Whitehead wrote, "An illegal immigrant should no more be voting in our elections in Georgia than you or I should be voting in Mexico. That's just wrong!" according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Jim Galloway and Tom Baxter.

Whitehead didn't give any examples of voting by illegal immigrants because he can't cite any. Said Thomas Patterson, an expert on elections at Harvard's Shorenstein Center: "If you are an illegal immigrant, the last thing you want to do is show up at a polling place. ... We have enough trouble getting people to vote when they're eligible. The idea that people are going to stick their necks out and get (a) penalty stretches the imagination."

But an epidemic of fraudulent voters has become a favorite fairy tale of the Republican Party, a made-up monster they've planted under voters' beds that will jump out and scare us into endorsing voter ID laws. They invent stories about droves of people stealing driver's licenses or passports so they can sneak into the booth to cast an illegal ballot. GOP leaders have intimidated voters of color, unfairly purged voter rolls and set up unconstitutional barriers to the ballot box -- all in the name of cleaning up "voter fraud."

This unfortunate campaign has further eroded the GOP's credibility among voters of color, who see this for what it is: an effort to block black and brown voters, who tend to support Democrats, from the ballot box. And it may prove more costly still to the Republican Party. The obsession with so-called voter fraud helped fuel the dismissal of federal prosecutors -- an ugly purge that has set up the possibility of a constitutional crisis.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20070324/cm_ucas/gopplaybookseekstoexploitallegedvoterfraud

Administration silent on reasons for McKay's firing

Les Blumenthal
The News Tribune
The Olympian, WA
http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/72431.html

WASHINGTON - During his five years as U.S. attorney for Western Washington, John McKay pretty much flew under the radar screen.

Even as his office handled high-profile cases ranging from the Millennium Bomber to eco-terrorists to a Bandidos motorcycle gang leader, McKay kept a low profile and was little known in the Evergreen States political circles.

But McKay, who was forced out in December along with six other U.S. attorneys, now finds himself at the center of the political controversy enveloping U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and threatening to ignite a constitutional confrontation between the White House and Congress.

McKay infuriated conservative Republicans when in the wake of the hotly contested 2004 Washington governors race he refused to convene a federal grand jury to investigate allegations of voter fraud. Democrats suggest that's why he was ousted.

But the 3,000 pages of documents and e-mails released last week by the Justice Department shed little light on what prompted McKays firing and what role the White House may have played.

In one document, McKay was praised as an effective, well-
regarded and capable leader while at the same time criticized for a pattern of insubordination and poor judgment.

Top officials at the Justice Department, including Gonzales, were aware of Republican anger over McKay's refusal to investigate the governors race after Democrat Chris Gregoire came from behind on the second recount and beat Republican Dino Rossi by 129 votes. Six months after the election, six Republican members of the King County Council sent a letter to Gonzales requesting a federal investigation.

In follow-up letters to Gonzales, the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation in Olympia accused McKay of malfeasance and asked for his removal if he didn't act.

The letters were widely circulated within the Justice Department.
http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/72431.html

Danny Westneat: McKay's mortal sin: honesty

Danny Westneat, staff columnist
The Seattle Times
March 25, 2007
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003634932_danny25.html

I think I know why John McKay was fired.

It wasn't because Western Washington's ousted U.S. attorney did a bad job, as the Bush administration has claimed. It wasn't because he's a closet Democrat. And it wasn't because he's too liberal. (If you think that, he'll be happy to regale you with the many virtues of the USA Patriot Act.)

No, McKay, a lifelong Republican, got canned because he's a burr in the butt of politics as usual. He's always been so — a stickler who relishes telling it as he sees it, no matter if it's to his bosses, who least want to hear.

In e-mails released last week, they dubbed him insubordinate, a troublemaker. That's what they call you in Washington, D.C., when you care more about a principle or two than you do the game.
...
I was a reporter at the Capitol. I kept hearing about this Republican from Seattle who was crusading for aid to the poor. What was fascinating — and what seemed to most inflame some Republicans — is that a guy from their party was using GOP talking points against them. He would insist it was bedrock conservative philosophy that the justice system be open to everyone.

It was good theater. At one meeting, a congressional staffer got personal: "How can you call yourself a Republican?"

McKay retorted: "You better get over this ridiculous idea that helping poor people makes you a liberal softy."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003634932_danny25.html

High alert at US and UK bases, Middle East armies on the ready lest Iran’s seizure of 15 British seamen Friday is only first Iranian reprisal action

Debkafile.com
March 24, 2007, 11:20 PM (GMT+02:00)
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3961

Our military sources report that Middle East and Persian Gulf nations as well as the US and UK are bracing for further Iranian marine, air or terrorist operations in Iraq and other places in reprisal for the sanctions measure before the UN Security Council in New York. On the ready too are the Saudi armed forces and some Israeli air and naval units.

According to Iranian sources the 15 British Royal navy seamen and marines which an Iranian warship seized with their commando craft Friday, March 23, have confessed to entering Iranian waters.

London insists the UK marines routinely inspecting merchant vessels for smuggled goods were on the Iraqi side of the divided Shat al Arb waterway which flows into the Persian Gulf. Tehran accuses them of entering Iranian waters.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say the incident was but a pretext. According to incoming intelligence, Tehran plans to release a series of reprisals after sanctions are approved in New York Saturday evening, March 24.

The Islamic Republic is also cautioning its Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, whose foreign ministers meet visiting US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Assuan Saturday morning, not to cooperate with Washington’s regional policies and to stay neutral in the US-Iran dispute.

President Mahmoud Admadinejad’s last-minute cancellation of his appearance before the Security Council is further indication that Tehran gave up on diplomatic maneuvers for pre-empting the sanctions resolution and, assuming their approval was not preventable, turned instead to ramping up military tensions.

Thursday, DEBKAfile reported exclusively a rendezvous Wednesday between the French nuclear carrier Charles de Gaulle and its task force with the USS John C. Stennis in the Arabian Sea Wednesday for joint missions in the global war on terror.

The next day, Iran launched a new naval war game in the Persian Gulf. Just before the British sailors were seized, UK commanders in Basra accused Iran of being behind 90% of the violence in S. Iraq and paying out $250 to anyone willing to attack British troops.

Amid rising tensions in the strategic Gulf waters, DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose the American-French rendezvous was timed to coincide with the UN Security Council session Wednesday to debate expanded sanctions against Iran for continuing its banned uranium enrichment program.
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3961

To paper! :toast:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/brent_larkin/index.ssf?/base/opinion/117472535390250.xml&coll=2

Firing the Board of Elections threatens to become a tradition

Sunday, March 25, 2007
Brent Larkin
Plain Dealer Columnist

The man known far and wide as the "happy warrior" was any thing but when he stormed into the offices of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections on the afternoon of May 2, 1972.

Senator and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey's political future was on the line that day in Ohio. Only a win in this state's presidential primary election would keep alive Humphrey's campaign against the Democratic front-runner, Sen. George McGovern. And to win here, Humphrey needed his many friends in organized labor to deliver a big vote in Cuyahoga County.

For Humphrey, step one of getting a big vote was that the good people of Cuyahoga County be able to vote. And on this particular day, tens of thousands of them were not, prompting Humphrey to sputter that what happened here was the "greatest disgrace I've seen in public life."
Anyone who doubts the adage about history repeating itself should look no further than the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, where embarrassment has been a frequent visitor over the last 35 years.

It showed up again just last week, when Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner began the process of firing the four-member board in the wake of blunders in last year's primary election that also cost the elections director and his top deputy their jobs...







Edited on Sun Mar-25-07 04:42 PM by Algorem
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/brent_larkin/...
Firing the Board of Elections threatens to become a tradition

Sunday, March 25, 2007
Brent Larkin
Plain Dealer Columnist

The man known far and wide as the "happy warrior" was any thing but when he stormed into the offices of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections on the afternoon of May 2, 1972.

Senator and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey's political future was on the line that day in Ohio. Only a win in this state's presidential primary election would keep alive Humphrey's campaign against the Democratic front-runner, Sen. George McGovern. And to win here, Humphrey needed his many friends in organized labor to deliver a big vote in Cuyahoga County.

For Humphrey, step one of getting a big vote was that the good people of Cuyahoga County be able to vote. And on this particular day, tens of thousands of them were not, prompting Humphrey to sputter that what happened here was the "greatest disgrace I've seen in public life."

Anyone who doubts the adage about history repeating itself should look no further than the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, where embarrassment has been a frequent visitor over the last 35 years...








http://www.lakewoodbuzz.com/RoldoBartimole/RB-07-21-04....
...Political reporting at the PD essentially is the domain of the editorial page boss Brent Larkin. As such just about nothing of political significance gets exposure in the PD without his imprimatur. Larkin, even with his dedication to the party line, seems to have gotten lazier and lazier. He produces less and he doesn’t allow others much leeway in giving the PD readership some insight into what’s going on...