Election Reform and Related News: Saturday, May 5, 2007: In Memory of Andrew Weiss

I was going to post my usual cartoon, but after learning about the loss of maggiegault's brother, I felt that something else would be more appropriate. For it's all interconnected, isn't it? Illegitimate election practices led to an illegitimate administration which led to an illegitimate war that we can't seem to get ourselves out of. The results have been devastating on a national and global level.

Today it's personal.

Today this thread is for maggiegault, and the family and friends of Spc. Andrew R. Weiss. They have joined the 3,362 other families who have suffered the loss of a beloved family member in Iraq. Peace.

                



Please stop by the thread below. We have a member of our DU family who could use a lot of DU love.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x825584

Election Reform and Related News
Saturday, May 5, 2007

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

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

2. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

3. If you have information from an election reform activist organization outside of DU feel free to post (local or national)

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

5. Election related sources
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

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New Story for Firing Emerges
Ex-U.S. Attorney Clashed With Bosses Over Murder Probe

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 5, 2007; A07

A U.S. attorney in Seattle was singled out for dismissal in part because he clashed with senior Justice Department officials over the investigation of a federal prosecutor's murder, and he was recommended for removal 18 months earlier than was previously known, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews.

D. Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, told congressional investigators that he believes he may have recommended former U.S. attorney John McKay's removal in March 2005 because of conflicts with senior Justice officials over the investigation of the 2001 murder of federal prosecutor Tom Wales, according to congressional aides and Sampson's attorney.

Several officials familiar with the investigation said McKay and other officials in Seattle believed that senior Justice officials were not paying enough attention to the case. Sampson did not cite specifics, saying only that McKay had demanded actions that led to conflicts, congressional aides familiar with his account said.

The suggestion of a connection between the firing and the unsolved Wales murder case generated angry reactions from McKay and others in western Washington yesterday.

>more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050402169.html

DU discussion thread posted by maddezmom here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2835476

GOP convention papers ordered opened

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press WriterSat May 5, 2:27 AM ET

The city cannot prevent the public from seeing documents describing intelligence that police gathered to help them create policies for arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention, a judge said Friday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Francis IV made the ruling regarding documents about information the New York Police Department says it used.

The city had contended that the documents should remain confidential, saying opening them would jeopardize the city's rights to a fair trial. Lawsuits allege that the city violated constitutional rights when it arrested more than 1,800 people at the convention.

The judge stayed his ruling for 10 days. Peter Farrell, a city lawyer, said the city is considering an appeal.

>more

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070505/ap_on_re_us/convention_arrests

DU discussion thread by kpete here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x828015

Breaking: RF Kennedy, Jr. Says USA Griffin Under Investigation
by 4Freedom
Fri May 04, 2007 at 08:25:13 PM PDT

Tonight in Montpelier, Vermont, Greg Palast announced that he received a phone call this evening from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that US Attorney replacement Timothy Griffin, Rove's former assistant, is under investigation for election fraud.

Palast published this on Griffin in March:
Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove’s assistant, the President’s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.

Key voters on Griffin’s hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women.

(snip)

Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

>more
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/4/221338/5335

Another great find and thread by kpete:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x827977

Blair is defiant after poll beating

Labour took a beating from voters across Britain in the final electoral test of Tony Blair's career as Prime Minister.

While avoiding the meltdown some had been predicting, the party lost hundreds of councillors, was overtaken by Nationalists in the Scottish Parliament and saw its Welsh Assembly representation shrink.


>snip

The elections were marred by delays because of new systems and technical glitches, prompting the Electoral Commission to launch an inquiry into voting chaos in Scotland.

Confusing ballot papers were blamed for as many as 100,000 invalid votes in elections to the Scottish Parliament and councils north of the border.

New electronic equipment for vote-counting also gave rise to concerns as counts in England and Scotland suffered delays due to technical difficulties.

>more

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/display.var.1379493.0.blair_is_defiant_after_poll_beating.php

>snip to include details of the various problems

In a day of drama the nation had waited with bated breath as a picture emerged of chaos caused by the new voting system and up to 150,000 spoiled papers.

>snip again

An investigation has been launched after a night of chaos at counts across the country left the final result a mystery for most of the day.

Critics point the finger at the decision to hold two different ballots - each with separate voting systems - on the same day.

They say many voters struggled to understand the complicated ballot papers, and confused the two systems.

>more of the problems

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1379211.0.salmond_claims_his_new_job.php

Saturday, May 05, 2007

— Time: 2:47:20 AM EST

Election 2007: Elections officials say they’re ready

By Diana DeCola, ddecola@mariettatimes.com

Elections board members said they are ready for Tuesday’s primary election and feel things should run smoothly.

Tom Cox, chairman of the Washington County Board of Elections, said all that’s left on the checklist is to meet with the presiding judges Saturday and give them all the information they need to run a successful election.

“We’ve got everything lined up for the poll workers, and we’ll meet with the presiding judges Saturday,” Cox said.

Cox said the only major differences since the November election are some changes in polling locations. A few months ago, the board approved switches to locations that had better handicap accessibility in a few precincts.

>more

http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/new43_55200724720.asp

News of secret Gonzales memo irks lawmakers
MediaNews Washington Bureau
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:05/05/2007 01:31:45 AM PDT

WASHINGTON - The disclosure of a secret order by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that gave broad authority to his former chief of staff over the hiring and firing of senior Justice Department employees is drawing bipartisan ire in Congress.

Even Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who was Gonzales' lone defender during his recent Senate testimony, said the order should have been turned over to Congress.

"It's disturbing that Congress had to learn about the March 2006 memo through the press," Hatch said. "We should have known about this."

The National Journal broke the story this week.

The revelation of the "internal" order turned up the heat this week on the Justice Department, already suffering from a dwindling number of supporters in Congress as the investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys drags on.

>more

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_5825524

Red flags in attorney case

May 5, 2007

The New York Times said in editorials for Friday, May 4:

There is yet another U.S. attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Yang was not fired, as eight other prosecutors were, but she resigned under circumstances that raise serious questions, starting with whether she was pushed out to disrupt her investigation of one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress.

If the U.S. attorney scandal has made one thing clear, it is that the riskiest job in the Bush administration is being a prosecutor investigating a Republican member of Congress. Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney in San Diego, was fired after she put Randy Cunningham, known as Duke, in prison. Paul Charlton, in Arizona, was dismissed while he was investigating Rick Renzi. Dan Bogden, in Nevada, was fired while he was reportedly investigating Jim Gibbons, a congressman who was elected governor last year.

Yang was investigating Jerry Lewis, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Lam and most of the other purged prosecutors were fired on Dec. 7. Yang, in a fortuitously timed exit, resigned in mid-October.

Yang says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, the White House counsel at the time, had asked him more than once about Yang.

>more

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/OPINION03/705050316/1039/OPINION03

editorial
Crowded stage in GOP debate
The Republicans' first presidential debate often seemed like a contest for the Reagan mantle. There was no real opportunity for any of the candidates to break out of the pack.
By The Denver Post Editorial Board
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated:05/04/2007 07:27:53 PM MDT

Ten Republican candidates for president stood on a stage at the Ronald Reagan Library the other night, each trying to look more presidential than the next.

Standing in the shadow of Reagan's Air Force One jet, the setting fit the tenor of the debate. The 40th president's legacy loomed large over the candidates as they tried to embrace his optimism and conservative values. His name was invoked at least 20 times as the candidates flirted with GOP primary voters seven months before the first primaries begin.

President Bush's name was mentioned only seven times, even though they debated the cornerstones of his presidency, including the Iraq war and a possible showdown with Iran.

The candidates roundly detested the early execution of the war, but most endorsed it in principle and vowed to fight on to victory. Only Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who voted against the war and deplores "nation building," spoke out against it.

>more

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5820212

Netroots Take Primary Position With Dems
May 5, 2007(The Nation) This column was written by Ari Melber.

"To clarify, Rep. Tauscher is not a blue dog." The emphatic one-line e-mail, dashed off by a spokesman for California Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, is one of the first signs that a new coalition of unions and Internet activists has gotten the Democratic Party's attention. Tauscher has long been a pro-business voice and outspoken member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition. Yet recently her conservatism — from supporting the GOP bankruptcy bill to airing her concern that liberals might run Congressional leaders "over the left cliff" — has put her in the cross hairs of an effort to reform the Democratic Party from the bottom up. She was branded a "top offender" on the Web site of Working For Us, a new political action committee pressing Democratic incumbents to support "economic security," a "living wage for all workers" and a "progressive political agenda." Breaking sharply with the posture of most progressive organizations, the group will not simply criticize Democrats who fail that test. It will try to end their careers.

Working For Us was founded by, among others, veteran labor strategist Steve Rosenthal, and it's backed by unions, such as the Teamsters, Steelworkers and SEIU, that traditionally cultivate close relationships with Democratic politicians. But Working For Us is following the confrontational approach of top liberal bloggers, promising primaries to depose disloyal incumbents. Rosenthal says the group is a "marriage of the grassroots and the netroots," uniting door-to-door organizers, unions and bloggers in an effort to "change the tenor of politics."

The strategy is set by two boards made up of traditional labor leaders like SEIU secretary-treasurer Anna Burger and pioneers from the Internet left like MoveOn.org heads and Markos Moulitsas, founder of the top Democratic blog Daily Kos. Moulitsas has spent years fanning grassroots opposition to Democratic incumbents once considered untouchable. He rallied national support for Ciro Rodriguez's 2006 primary challenge to Henry Cuellar, a Texas Congressman who supports estate tax repeal, free trade and George W. Bush, whom he endorsed in 2000. (Cuellar squeaked through the primary with 53 percent and went on to re-election.)

Moulitsas often hammers on three faults of conservative Democrats: economic conservatism, disloyalty to the party and desertion of their home districts' priorities. In a recent blog entry making the case against Tauscher, for example, he highlighted that she "consistently undermined the Democratic Party," led the charge for the Republican bankruptcy bill, and "acts like she represents Utah while serving in a 59 percent Kerry district."

>more

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/opinion/main2761401.shtml

Alameda County scolded for giving away e-voting records
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 05/04/2007 09:14:11 PM PDT

A state judge chided Alameda County officials Friday for giving away the only internal electronic records of a contested election to Diebold Election Systems Inc., after an appeals court ordered the county to preserve those records.

"Nobody thought outside the box?" Alameda County Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith said to lawyers for the county. "Why was that not a wise, not even a wise, but a reasonable thing to do?"

The judge's scolding came as a medical marijuana group, Americans for Safe Access, sought penalties against the county for getting rid of its touchscreen voting machines last summer without first downloading the electronic ballots and internal logs related to contested Measure R, a marijuana dispensary initiative that Berkeley voters rejected in 2004.

Smith heard out both sides Friday and did not say when she might rule.

What Alameda County did with those 420 touchscreen voting machines could end up reaffirming the results of Berkeley's election or, if discrepancies are found in the internal electronic data, result in a replay of that election in 2008, plus the payment of financial penalties by Alameda County.

>more

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_5820652

New York to Grill Voting Machine Testing Lab

Friday, May 04, 2007

by Kim Zetter

Vote_2 Congress is holding a special field hearing in New York on Monday to discuss problems the state has had in switching to new e-voting machines. But that's less interesting than the fact that testifying at the hearing will be Mac Slingerland, president & CEO of CIBER. CIBER is the lab that has been responsible for testing and certifying the majority of voting machines in the country. The lab, however, lost its accreditation last summer after federal officials newly tasked with overseeing voting machine testing labs discovered that CIBER had a long-standing problem with quality-assurance procedures and documentation of tests performed on machines. Strangely, the federal Election Assistance Commission that evaluated CIBER kept the news about CIBER's problems quiet from the public and from election officials purchasing machines. EAC's report on CIBER's problems became public only when the New York Times disclosed it (registration required) in January.

snip

This is just one problem with the testing, however. I chronicled many other problems with the testing and certification of voting machines in this 2004 story.

BTW, here's the EAC's latest letter to CIBER detailing what the lab still needs to do to satisfy the commission.

The hearing in New York will be held Monday, May 7th at 9:30 am at the city council chambers in New York's city hall by the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives. EAC chairwoman Donetta L. Davidson will also be testifying -- conceivably about why the committee withheld its report on CIBER for so long.

snip

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/new_york_to_gri.html


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x472202

Thank you, livvy. :hug:

You are absolutely and unfortunately correct about the illegitimate administration. "The results have been devastating on a national and global level."