Election Reform and Related News: Sunday, August 3, 2008

Election Reform and Related News
Sunday, August 3, 2008





Everyone is welcome to participate. Feel free to:

:redbox: Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

:redbox: Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

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

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




Recommendations for the Greatest Page are always welcomed. It's the best way to share the news with members who don't frequent this forum. It's the link below.

Verified Voting.org Warns New Feinstein/Bennett Legislation Is Step Backward
Thursday, July 31, 2008 :: infoZine Staff

VerifiedVoting.org voiced strong opposition to voting technology legislation by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT). Today the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing on the bill, S.3212. "The show-stoppers in this bill unfortunately overshadow its positive provisions," said Verified Voting president Pamela Smith.

Washington, D.C. - infoZine - S.3212 fails to require a physical, voter-verifiable record of votes cast. Instead, it calls for an "independent record" of votes that could be electronic, paper, audio, video, pictorial, or "other" -- while exempting some systems altogether. The bill would not require states to use these independent records in a recount or a post-election audit of vote tallies.To be meaningful for audits or recounts, a verification record must be presented to the voter for verification before the ballot is cast, and not be alterable by a failure or manipulation of computer software. A voter-verified paper ballot is the only system that today effectively serves that purpose.

"This bill is likely to increase the cost of elections without solving the problem of voter confidence," Smith said. "It misses a key point; since 2000, more jurisdictions have used paper ballot systems than any other voting system. And states and counties are continuing to choose those cost-effective and reliable voter-marked paper ballot systems to replace their more expensive, complex e-voting systems. The exemptions in the bill allow unverifiable systems to remain, and that means unverifiable elections indefinitely. It doesn't accomplish the goal."

In addition, the bill's language leaves room for debate about whether or not the various types of independent records would be verified by the voter before the voter casts a ballot. "Federal lawmakers have been working on election verification bills for five years," said Warren Stewart, VerifiedVoting.org's Senior Project Director. "The starting point is voter-verifiability of the verification record, which this legislation doesn't require. This bill could remove the voter from the act of verification."

more...


http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/29609/

Voting machine gets LinuxWorld tryout

Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, August 2, 2008


Like many people, Alan Dechert was outraged when the 2000 presidential election was thrown to the Supreme Court because nobody could figure out how Florida's voters had voted.

An engineer who has designed and tested software for a living, he thinks the outcomes of elections should never be in doubt.

So Dechert and a couple of colleagues founded the Open Voting Consortium, a nonprofit group dedicated to delivering "trustable and open voting systems." In addition to lobbying against proprietary voting machines, they have spent the last several years working with scientists and engineers around the world to design and build a voting machine of their own.

On Tuesday their machine will be put to the test at LinuxWorld in San Francisco, where the 10,000 people who are expected to attend the conference will get to vote in a mock presidential election pitting Barack Obama against John McCain.

more...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/01/BUFD1224UC.DTL

Holt Introduces Emergency Election Audit Bill for 2008 Elections
By U.S. Representative Rush Holt Media Release
August 01, 2008

Legislation Would Reimburse States for Conducting Audits

U.S. Rep Rush Holt (D-NJ) today introduced legislation to encourage states to conduct hand-counted audits for the 2008 elections. The bill is a version of emergency legislation that Holt offered earlier this year, but that House Republicans blocked from passage.

“Electronic voting notoriously can lead to disputes and uncertainties. While many states have set in place requirements for a paper ballot or record for every vote cast, we need to do more. We also need to give states the resources to conduct audits to insure that vote totals and paper ballots match,” Holt said.

The bill would authorize funding for states that conduct audits that meet basic minimum requirements, including the use of a random selection, the requirement that audits be conducted with independence, at least a 2 percent audit sample, and public observation. All ballots must be included in the audit and they must begin within 48 hours and be completed prior to certification of the result. Only about a dozen states currently conduct audits.

more...

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2922&Itemid=26

Technologists' Statement on Internet Voting
By Verified Voting Foundation

August 02, 2008

Because of the increasing frequency of proposals to allow remote voting over the internet, we believe it is necessary to warn policymakers and the public that secure internet voting is a very hard technical problem, and that we should proceed with internet voting schemes only after thorough consideration of the technical and non-technical issues in doing so. Please read our statement, and, if you are a "computer expert", consider endorsing it.

Download the statement in PDF form


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer Technologists’ Statement on Internet Voting

Election results must be verifiably accurate -- that is, auditable with a permanent, voter-verified record that is independent of hardware or software. Several serious, potentially insurmountable, technical challenges must be met if elections conducted by transmitting votes over the internet are to be verifiable. There are also many less technical questions about internet voting, including whether voters have equal access to internet technology and whether ballot secrecy can be adequately preserved.

Internet voting should only be adopted after these technical challenges have been overcome, and after extensive and fully informed public discussion of the technical and non-technical issues has established that the people of the U.S. are comfortable embracing this radically new form of voting.

A partial list of technical challenges includes:

• The voting system as a whole must be verifiably accurate in spite of the fact that client systems that can never be guaranteed to be free of malicious logic. Malicious software, firmware, or hardware could change, fabricate, or delete votes, deceive the user in myriad ways including modifying the ballot presentation, leak information about votes to enable voter coercion, prevent or discourage voting, or perform online electioneering. Existing methods to “lock-down” systems have often been flawed; even if perfect, there is no guaranteed method for preventing or detecting attacks by insiders such as the designers of the system.

more...

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2923&Itemid=26

Voting can be chore for military
Process can take as long as 3 months for overseas troops

Sunday, August 3, 2008 3:26 AM

By Jeb Phillips

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Technology could allow overseas voting to take just a few days, but Ohio troops in foreign countries still must vote the way troops did during World War II.

They have to rely on traditional mail or on a sometimes-expensive express mail service. That means the entire process, from requesting an absentee ballot to having a vote arrive at a county elections board, might take months.

So those overseas troops should request a ballot for November's election as soon as possible. This week, if they can.

The current system is all that state law will allow.

more...

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/08/03/GI_VOTERS.ART_ART_08-03-08_A1_5RATUQA.html?sid=101

Where are the Technologists on the EAC Advisory Board?
By Ed Felten, Princton University

July 31, 2008

This article was posted on Ed Felten's Freedom to Tinker Blog and is reposted here with permission.

Barbara Simons, an accomplished computer scientist and e-voting expert, was recently appointed to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) Board of Advisors. (The EAC is the U.S. Federal body responsible for voting technology standards, among other things.) This is good news.

The board has thirty-nine members, of which four positions are allocated for “members representing professionals in the field of science and technology”. These four positions are to be appointed by Majority and Minority leaders in the House and the Senate. (See page 2 of the Board’s charter.) Given the importance of voting technology issues to the EAC, it does seem like a good idea to reserve 10% of the advisory board positions for technologists. If anything, the number of technologist seats should be larger.

Barbara was appointed to the board position by the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Kudos to Senator Reid for appointing a genuine voting technology expert.

What about the other three seats for “professionals in the field of science and technology?” Sadly, the board’s membership list shows that these seats are not actually held by technical people. Barbara Arnwine holds the House Speaker’s seat, Tom Fuentes holds the House Minority Leader’s seat, and Wesley R. Kliner, Jr. holds the Senate Minority Leader’s seat. All three appear to be accomplished people who have something to offer on the board. But as far as I can tell they are not “professionals in the field of science and technology”, so their appropriate positions on the board would be somewhere in the other thirty-five seats.

a bit more...

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2920&Itemid=26

Editorial
A Bad Electronic Voting Bill

Published: August 3, 2008

Congress has stood idly by while states have done the hard work of trying to make electronic voting more reliable. Now the Senate is taking up a dangerous bill introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Robert Bennett, Republican of Utah, that would make things worse in the name of reform. If Congress will not pass a strong bill, it should apply the medical maxim: first, do no harm.

Voters cannot trust the totals reported by electronic voting machines; they are too prone to glitches and too easy to hack. In the last few years, concerned citizens have persuaded states to pass bills requiring electronic voting machines to use paper ballots or produce voter-verifiable paper records of every vote. More than half of the states now have such laws.

There is still a need for a federal law, so voting is reliable in every state. A good law would require that every vote in a federal election produce a voter-verifiable paper record, and it would mandate that the paper records be the official ballots. It would impose careful standards for how these paper ballots must be “audited,” to verify that the tallies on the electronic machines are correct.

The Feinstein-Bennett bill does none of these. It would permit states to verify electronic voting machines’ results using electronic records rather than paper. Verifying by electronic records — having one piece of software attest that another piece of software is honest — is not verifying at all. The bill is also vague about rules for audits, leaving considerable room for mischief. The timeline also is unacceptable. States might be able to use unreliable machines through 2014 or longer.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03sun2.html?ref=opinion

Original post and discussion by cal04

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x374460

More on Diebold, the patch, and the 2002 Georgia election
August 2nd, 2008 by JOE WINDISH

The NYTimes’ Adam Cohen outlines the issue in an editorial opinion piece Thursday:

The 2002 Georgia Senate and Governor Races — Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was defeated for re-election and Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, was unseated. Polls had suggested that both men would win.

The votes were cast on Diebold A.T.M.-style machines. A whistle-blower who helped prepare the machines reported that secret “patches” — software intended to fix glitches — were installed late in the process without being certified by the state, as the law required.

The unexpected outcomes were likely because of heavy turnout by rural whites, prompted by a Confederate flag dispute, not faulty voting machines. Still, skeptics wonder if the patches contained malicious software that changed votes. Because the Diebold machines did not produce paper records, there is no way to put those doubts to rest.

RawStory’s Larisa Alexandrovna fills in some details:

Initially, the whistleblower said, there were no concerns or questions regarding the $54 million contract, for which Diebold beat out eight other firms, to install a statewide electronic voting system. It was only after certain “red flag” events occurred that people inside the Secretary of State’s office, as well as Diebold employees, began to have suspicions, he added.

more...

http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/corruption/21505/more-on-deibold-the-patch-and-the-2002-georgia-election/

Cohen's Editorial from Thursday:

July 31, 2008
Editorial Observer

A Tale of Three (Electronic Voting) Elections
By ADAM COHEN

Electronic voting has made great strides in reliability, but it has a long way to go. When reformers push for greater safeguards, they often argue that future elections could produce the wrong result because of a computer glitch or be stolen through malicious software. That’s being too nice.

There have already been elections in which it is impossible to be certain that the right candidate was declared the winner. Here are three such races. It is not just remarkable that these elections were run so badly, but also that the flaws are still common — and could easily create havoc in this fall’s voting.

1. The 2002 Georgia Senate and Governor Races — Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was defeated for re-election and Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, was unseated. Polls had suggested that both men would win.

The votes were cast on Diebold A.T.M.-style machines. A whistle-blower who helped prepare the machines reported that secret “patches” — software intended to fix glitches — were installed late in the process without being certified by the state, as the law required.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31observer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Voting Rights Destruction (Part 2): Lack of Transparency
Sunday, August 03, 2008 by: Heidi Stevenson

NaturalNews) It is not enough to have the right to vote. The people also need to know that their votes are counted in an open and fair manner. Without that transparency, there is no way to be sure that an election was fair or that one's vote mattered. The result of that lack is a people who have no faith in their government, who cannot trust that members of the legislature or any other administration position truly respond to them. There can be no assumption that the government is supported by its citizens.

Such a state must rule by force, as it does not rule by the sufferance of the people -- even if the people actually did vote for their leaders. Without the ability to see and document that all votes are counted, there is no reason for the people to believe that their leaders are who they selected.

That is where the United States is heading. The following tale, which just happened in California's Monterey County during the June 3rd primary election, is a case in point. Jim March, a member of the Board of Directors of Black Box Voting, wrote of this incident, "The collapse of transparency was deliberate and systematic, and violated state laws, the certification rules promoted by the California Secretary of State's office and democratic principles in general."

Pre-Inspection Process

Brian Rothenberger and Valerie Lane presented letters to Monterey County, California Registrar of Voters, Linda Tulett, who is the chief election official for the county. The letters stated their credentials, as outlined by California's Election Code 15004. As required, they represent a qualified political party and there are only two of them, the number specified by law. Code 15004 is quite clear about what they are entitled to observe in elections:

more...

http://www.naturalnews.com/023767.html

Note from David Earnhardt, "Uncounted" filmmaker: Each week until the election we will release a clip from UNCOUNTED because now, more than ever, people need to see stories that will motivate them to stand up and help save our democracy. Please spread these clips around - to the bleary-eyed and the overworked and the uninspired and the skeptical. This week we offer the story of Nashville, Tennessee businessman Athan Gibbs, who had a very simple, yet extraordinarily powerful, idea.

WEEK 4: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?

Click Here to Watch the Athan Gibbs Story

Athan Gibbs had a dream: Count every vote. Athan Gibbs had a standard: You should be able to verify your vote the same way you can verify how much money you have in the bank. Athan Gibbs had a question: Why, if you're an ATM manufacturer, would you make a machine that doesn't provide a paper trail and can't be audited? Athan Gibbs had an idea: Make a voting machine where the voter has an opportunity to verify that their vote has been received , recorded and counted.

This is the story of Athan Gibbs' quintessential dream - and its tragic conclusion.

Click Here to Watch the Athan Gibbs Story

--

Mary Mancini
Co-producer, UNCOUNTED
http://www.uncountedthemovie.com

Dr. Strangevote saves mankind with Luddite voting recipe

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Paper Ballot

By Dan Goodin in San Jose

Published Wednesday 30th July 2008 22:03 GMT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Usenix When it comes to elections, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen opts for blander, more traditional technologies, and that preference is helping her sleep better at night.

Speaking Wednesday at the Usenix Security Symposium in San Jose, California, the state's top elections official laid out a decidedly low-tech approach for ensuring that each voter's ballot is recorded as cast. It involves the use of ink pens to record votes on old-fashioned paper. An optical scanner records the information, and to make sure votes are counted correctly, ballots are randomly selected and compared with what's been tallied.

Not only is the method cheaper and less prone to polling-place glitches, she said, it also brings a transparency and auditability to elections that you can't get with today's electronic voting machines.

"Voting and counting paper ballots are things that all citizens can understand and in the case of random hand tallies, something that all citizens can observe and understand," she told about 400 attendees. "Hand tallies mean never having to say 'I trust you' to hundreds of thousands of lines of code no matter how cute and appealing they may be."

more...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/30/debra_bowen_usenix_keynote/

Early voting starting up
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Friday, August 1, 2008

Early voting is starting in Colorado for the Aug. 12 primary elections. Here's how the process works:

Registered voters can go to any designated polling site in their county to cast ballots for the primary.

Early voting begins today in Arapahoe, Boulder, El Paso, Pueblo and Montezuma counties, according to the Secretary of State's office. All of the other counties will open their early voting sites Monday. The sites will be open during business hours until Friday.

There are fewer early voting sites than Election Day sites, so voters should contact their county clerk's office or check those Web sites to find the locations.

more...

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/01/early-voting-starting-up/

Web site offers help to voters on candidates, issues, precincts
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF • August 3, 2008

If you use the Internet, it's easy to find where to vote and even how to vote in Tuesday's primary election and the Nov. 4 general election.

An upgraded Secretary of State Web site allows voters to quickly check if they're registered, the location of their voting place and even the actual ballot they'll mark at the polls.

The Michigan Voter Information Center (www.michigan.gov/vote) was completed last year, so this is the first general election year it's available, said Secretary of State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney.

"We call it one-stop shopping for voting information. It's a pretty slick site," Chesney said.

more...

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080803/NEWS06/808030639

County elections supervisor has primary fight on her hands
Incumbent Snipes, activist square off

By David Fleshler | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

August 3, 2008


Like the property appraiser and clerk of courts, the Broward supervisor of elections used to attract little attention outside Broward County.

That was before the fiasco of the 2000 presidential election, the governor's decision to dismiss Broward elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant and the popularization of the name Flori-duh for a state that much of the country began to believe couldn't open a ballot box. The office has become a hot seat, particularly now that Florida is the biggest swing state in presidential elections.

The supervisor organizes elections, selects equipment, maintains campaign finance records, sets up polling places and manages an 82-member staff. In the run-ups to primaries and election days, the supervisor must recruit and train about 10,000 poll workers, truck drivers and phone bank workers, and make sure they do their jobs.

The Democratic primary for elections supervisor pits incumbent Brenda C. Snipes, appointed in 2003 to replace Oliphant, against Adriane Reesey, a party activist and community involvement specialist for the Broward Sheriff's Office.

more...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-elxsupervisor0803sbaug03,0,5083456.story

Voting machines ready
Secretary of state comes to BG to demonstrate how new eScans work

By JIM GAINES, The Daily News, jgaines@bgdailynews.com
Friday, August 1, 2008 11:47 AM CDT

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson stopped in Warren County Clerk Dot Owens’ office Thursday to display and demonstrate the optical-scanning voting machines that will be used here this fall.

Grayson’s aide wheeled in a waist-high black plastic case. Most of that is a bin into which paper ballots drop after they’re read. The actual scanner is a laptop-sized device on top. They brought sample ballots, with small rectangular boxes next to names for party straight-ticket and the presidential race.

Deputy clerks and two members of the Warren County Board of Elections - secretary Mary Stahl and new Democratic board member Harold Miller - looked on as Grayson described the machine.

Voters will be asked to completely fill the box next to the candidate of their choice. Pencils or pens can be used.

more...

http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2008/08/01/news/news6.txt

Iowa Leaders Preparing for Election
by Colleen O'Shaughnessy
KIMT News 3

CLEAR LAKE, IA - County leaders are preparing for a record number of voters at this year's presidential election. This week more than one hundred auditors from across Iowa met in Clear Lake to discuss plans for November's election. Cerro Gordo County Auditor Ken Kline said it's going to be big.

More than five-hundred people have already applied for absentee ballots. Kline told KIMT News 3 that's more than he's ever seen this early in the year. Both the Democrat and Republican parties are going door-to-door to encourage absentee voting.

Kline explained, "I think the parties have educated voters, and really pushed that for their purposes. They want their voters to turn out."

Kline said they're also discussing new voting machine requirements. This year, all votes need to be tracked on paper. Nearly eighty counties are updating or changing their machines.



http://www.kimt.com/news/local/26192134.html

Sunday, August 03, 2008 Story Last Updated: Friday, August 01, 2008

Broward Supervisor of Elections Begins Mailing Primary Election Sample Ballots



FT. LAUDERDALE - Broward County Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda C. Snipes announced her office will begin mailing out 570,000 sample ballots to registered voters throughout Broward County for the primary election, scheduled for Tuesday, August 26, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.

The sample ballot information will include information on early voting sites, which open August 11 through August 24.

In the primary election, voters will receive a double-sided paper ballot. Voters will be required to have a picture identification card (with signature) when preparing to vote. Acceptable identification includes a Florida driver’s license, Florida ID card, U. S. passport or debit/credit card, etc.

Voters will be asked to fill in the ovals on the ballot for the candidate or issue of their choice with a pen provided at the polling location. The ballots are then inserted in a DS 200 Optical Scanner, providing a paper trail for all ballots cast.

more...

http://www.southfloridacaribbeannews.com/story.asp?ID=4266

County to post election results on Web site

By John Hacker
Carthage Press
Fri Aug 01, 2008, 02:17 PM CDT

CARTHAGE, Mo. -
Jasper County’s revamped Web site has information that can help voters before the Aug. 5 election and will provide another source for election results after the voting.


Jasper County Clerk Bonnie Earl announced on Thursday that she plans to post the final results of Tuesday’s primary election as soon as they are available at the county’s Web site http://www.jaspercounty.org.

Chris Chappel, the county’s geographic interface system operator and Web site administrator, said this August primary will be the first election where the county attempts to post the results after the final tally.

In November, depending on how things go on Tuesday, he might try posting a running tally of results as the precinct judges bring in their results.

more...

http://www.carthagepress.com/news/x1542105202/County-to-post-election-results-on-Web-site

August 1, 2008
Top Stories

The deciding factor
Nearly 500,000 Arizonans will receive mail-in ballots for Sept. 2 primary

By Jackee Coe, jackee.coe@azcapitoltimes.com

If this spring’s presidential preference election can be used as an indicator, the upcoming primary and general elections could be decided in large part by Arizonans who cast ballots through the mail.

More than 45 percent of voters statewide opted to mail in their ballots for the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday election, instead of actually going to a neighborhood polling place.

With the primary election a little more than a month away, elections officials are expecting more people than ever will skip the lines at the polls and send their ballots through the mail.

Yvonne Reed, director of communications for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office and the Maricopa County Elections Department, said early balloting is a growing trend that more people are taking advantage of because of the conveniences it offers.

more...

http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?id=9183

New voting machines: Paper trail to nowhere?

Jim Stratton | Sentinel Staff Writer

July 28, 2008

After Sarasota's 2006 voting debacle, which featured huge undervotes and bitter accusations of technical failures, the state outlawed touch-screen voting. That made optical-scan systems the election technology of choice in Florida.

The move was hailed by reformers, who said the hard-copy ballots of optical systems provided a crucial backstop -- a paper trail -- if the results of an election were decided by just a few votes.

"What we're talking about here is democracy, and it is precious," Gov. Charlie Crist said when he proposed the 2007 overhaul. "You should, when you go vote, be able to have a record of it."

But it hasn't worked out that way.

more...



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-papervote2808jul28,0,7510487.story

State reaches out to register Spanish-speaking voters

Saturday, August 2, 2008 11:38 PM PDT

By Thacher Schmid


Tri-Cities-based newspaper La Voz will distribute 22,000 Spanish-language voter registration forms to subscribers across Washington, the Secretary of State's office announced Monday. The unprecedented move is part of a state effort to reach out to a growing number of Spanish-speaking voters.

In the Lower Columbia region, nothing like this is happening — yet.

Five years after the election of Woodland Mayor Doug Monge, Cowlitz County's first Latino mayor, there's been little local effort to reach out to Spanish-speaking voters.

"We have not had any interest" in Spanish-language materials, said Cowlitz County Elections Supervisor Carolyn Myers. Not one phone call has come in, she said.

The idea of targeting potential voters who speak only Spanish hasn't caught hold with political parties locally, either.

more...

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/08/03/area_news/10346127.txt

Man accused of voting twice pleads not guilty to felony charges


By Erik Hidle, Peninsula Daily News


PORT TOWNSEND — Todd McGuire, charged with signing his wife's ballot in the Feb. 6, 2007 special election, has pleaded not guilty to class C felony charges alleging he signed his wife's name on her absentee ballot in February, 2007.

"Mr. McGuire is entering a plea of not guilty on both charges — both on the first and alternative charges," McGuire's attorney Ben Critchlow told Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser during McGuire's arraignment on Friday.

McGuire, a prominent Jefferson County Democrat, was present but did not speak during the hearing.

He is charged with repeating a vote, or in the alternative, criminal impersonation in the first degree.


more...

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080803/NEWS/808030306

August 3, 2008

Some hand-wringing, ANTI-RNC thoughts.

By JOHN LORENZ

How Democrat passivity and the Rovian dirty tricks playbook and the collusion of the Lamestream press are all once again combining to yield the rigging of the coming Fall election. The national dialog so far is allowing the RNC to define the nature and content of the "debate" (more like mud-fest).

::::::::

The real card being played this pre-election season is not the race card as much as it is the “stupid” card. This stupid card is the result of the press’s perennial focus on campaign superficialities and labeling tactics, while side-stepping urgent policy needs and issues of substance. The press always lets McSlander set the debate and the topics in their attempt on helping him define Obama and tell the American public what to think. It is the usual RNC game where the Democrat has to constantly counter the dirty tricks, sapping him of time to discusss real issues. . He must reassure the crowds with non-issue statements, like, for example this one(quote)"The reason McCain wants to talk about race, or experience -- the reason he wants to make you afraid -- of me, of terrorists, of immigrants -- is simple: he doesn't want this campaign to be about policies and issues of substance. Because if it is, he will lose.” (unquote).

A lot of people know that the media allied with McSlander will cause him to be able to set the tactics and topics. The plain fact is, Republicans, the mainstream media and John McCain want to sell you more fear, so they can take away your money and any of your benefits and give them to Exxon et al. In fact, who cares about Paris Hilton except the lie-masters of the RNC? The Republicans gave her a $90 million dollar tax cut when they cut the inheritance tax. .

In every election the Republicans manage to make the campaign about something other than the issues and we the public let them.The winner isn't the one who follows the polls; it's the one who gets to shape the debate with talking points…forcing the other to defend their ground. It gives advantage to the dirty-low-down Repugs. The media is a willing participant in this game, having relegated this campaign to be among the stupidest in history because their standard bearer -- the guy they want to make king -- is the stupidest candidate to run for the office in many years. This stupid guy -- John McCain -- graduated 894th in a class of 899 from his war college yet says he knows how to win wars -- he knows how to apply the lessons he didn't learn at war college. McCain's stupidity is evident in his decisions -- voting against MLK day as a national holiday, voting against civil rights legislation, being part of the Keating 5, voting repeatedly against veterans bills, making jokes about rape, a meteoric temper and on and on -- he's a dimwit. His comments about the economy, his wilingness to engage in never-ending war regardless of costs, lives and limbs lost and even whether the war is in our national interests also shows his stupidity.

So the politics of stupid is intentional. If stupid is the drumroll the media creates for this campaign, the richy-privileged guy who graduated 894th out of 899 in his war college class (McCain) becomes as acceptable for President as the half-white guy called "black" from a lower middle class background and a single mother who ended up in any Ivy League school as editor of his law review solely based on his brilliance (Obama).

more...

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=8438

Waiting for the result
Friday, 01 August 2008 12:29
The Zimbabwean on Sunday

Issue No.6

23 March 2008


Waiting for the results

Zimbabwe is in suspense today. Our hearts tell us to keep hoping, but our reason insists we face the painful reality that there has been massive election rigging by Zanu (PF). The evidence has been well documented in this newspaper, its sister paper The Zimbabwean and countless other independent media around the world.

Laws of the land were reversed by presidential decree just days before the elections- to suit Mugabe.

Agreements reached between the MGC and Zanu (PF) under the Thabo Mbeki –brokered negotiations were reversed by presidential decree- to favour Mugabe.

The negotiators spent months discussing various aspects of the conduct of the elections. Mbeki pronounced that agreements had been concluded and would be implemented in a number of areas. Quite frankly, nothing that was agreed has been implemented by Zanu (PF). Fooled-yet again! The entire negotiation process, the fruit of almost a year of Mbeki’s much-touted “quiet diplomacy” has been rendered null and void at the stroke of Mugabe’s pen.

more...

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14518:waiting-for-the-result&catid=46:editorial-comments&Itemid=79

Latvian referendum to boost voter rights fails
03/08 02:15 CET

A Latvian referendum on whether to give people the right to throw out their parliament in between elections has failed to win enough backing.

Half the eligible voters -around 750,000 people -had to back the change, for it to succeed.

But with ballots in almost all voting centres counted, it was apparent this quorum would not be reached.

But analysts said the high turnout – around 40 percent of eligible voters – could create pressure for change.

more...

http://www.euronews.net/en/article/03/08/2008/latvian-referendum-to-boost-voter-rights-fails/

Automated polls travel by land, sea, carabao


By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:43:00 08/03/2008


BY HORSE, CARABAO AND BANCA.

This is how the Commission on Elections plans to transport the state-of-the-art, touch-screen voting machines to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the elections next week.

Officials of Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies Inc. and Avante International Technology Inc. said setting up the automated voting and counting machines in the country’s most underdeveloped region would be a big logistical challenge.

Some villages and towns are so remote, the companies’ technicians literally have to cross fields and seas to bring the machines and ballots to ARMM’s 1.5 million voters in time for the country’s first-ever automated elections on Aug. 11.

“We have to be creative and innovative in transporting the machines and in retrieving them after the elections,” said Vince Dizon, Smartmatic-Sahi spokesperson, in a recent interview.

more...

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080803-152294/Automated-polls-travel-by-land-sea-carabao

Iraq parl't session on election law in doubt

By Waleed Ibrahim
Reuters
Sunday, August 3, 2008; 8:49 AM

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Efforts to pass an election law that has stoked tensions with Iraq's minority Kurds faced problems on Sunday with parliament struggling to get enough members to hold a special session.

Parliament must vote for a second time on the law, which is needed before provincial polls that could redraw the country's political map and has exposed fissures over the fate of the northern city of Kirkuk.

But by mid-afternoon, it was unclear if enough lawmakers were present to reach a quorum.

Deputies passed the provincial election law last month, but Kurdish MPs boycotted the session partly because the bill delayed voting in Kirkuk.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080300403.html

check to make sure you are registered to vote, and encourage others to do the same. There is a handy chart with information here:

http://www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp

If you have additional info, send VU an email. I did this yesterday, and my info was added right away.

Be sure to pass the chart along!

:hi:

Thanks and :hi: back atcha'