Election Reform and Related News: Sunday, August 17, 2008

Election Reform and Related News
Sunday, August 17, 2008



Everyone is welcome to participate. Feel free to:

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

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

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

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

:bluebox: 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.

The Huffington PostAugust 17, 2008

Brain Dead Bureaucrat Watch: VA Blocks Voter Registration at Vets' Hospitals
Paul Rieckhoff

Posted August 15, 2008 | 09:22 AM (EST)


When it comes to making profoundly stupid bureaucratic decisions, the Department of Veterans Affairs is often in a class by itself. When VA bureaucrats aren't losing laptops with millions of veterans' personal data or forgetting to include Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in their budget calculations, they are giving themselves obscene raises. For all the hard working doctors and nurses in VA hospitals and clinics across the country, it's a real shame that some top level VA officials are dragging the VA name through the mud.

Today we have one more bureaucratic blunder to add to the list. The VA has banned voter registration at veterans' nursing homes and homeless shelters. The irony is almost too great. Disabled veterans, who have made such tremendous sacrifices in defense of democracy, are now being denied assistance in voting.

The VA is claiming that voter registration drives are partisan, and would interfere with the functioning of their facilities. But hundreds of nonpartisan organizations regularly participate in voter registration drives -everyone from the League of Women Voters to the Elks Club. Helping people vote is a civic duty, not a partisan activity.

And if voter registration drives interfere with an institution's functioning, someone should tell the Texas Hospital Association and the American Medical Student Association, both of whom run voter registration campaigns at hospitals and clinics. The "Rx: Vote Campaign," run by the National Physicians Alliance, argues:

"Without exercising the right to vote, patients and those who care for them lack the power to improve the health of their communities. As a result, patients' health, and the health of our democracy, suffer. The nation's community health centers, clinics, and hospitals have a unique ability and responsibility to empower patients to participate in the democratic process."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/brain-dead-bureaucrat-wat_b_119120.html

Let's not keep the nation waiting
Rocky Mountain News
Sunday, August 17, 2008

This November in election booths around the state, voters will have no more than 15 minutes to make up their minds on the next president, U.S. senator, a host of ballot initiatives and various legislative races - not to mention local issues and contests.

But will the vote-counters keep the same urgency in mind?

snip...

Unfortunately, the answer to these questions appears to be no. America may have to wait on Colorado until the wee hours of Wednesday morning - at the earliest.

We don't think that's acceptable. If the issue of speed can't be fixed by November, it certainly needs to be addressed next year.

Accuracy is, of course, paramount in tabulating votes. Denver Election Division spokesman Alton Dillard confirmed that November voting will see a "much higher premium on accuracy than speed," and added that the public should get out of the "10 p.m. mind- set" as "those days are over."

more...

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/17/lets-not-keep-the-nation-waiting/

August 16, 2008
The Charleston Gazette: Voting
Some people cheated

During the 2008 primary, West Virginia's voter registration reached an all-time high of nearly 1.2 million - but fewer than half of those eligible went to the polls. It was a discouraging slump for democracy.

During the 2008 primary, West Virginia's voter registration reached an all-time high of nearly 1.2 million - but fewer than half of those eligible went to the polls. It was a discouraging slump for democracy.

Here's more discouragement: The New York Times warns that multitudes of U.S. voters might be cheated out of a chance to back candidates on Nov. 4.

"Elections are so mismanaged - and so many eligible voters are disenfranchised - that ordinary citizens have to get involved," the national paper said. In many states, it added, voters have faced these problems:


.Voter registration forms are not processed accurately and voters' names get deleted from lists of eligible voters.


.Voters are required to present photo identification, even when law doesn't require it.

more...

http://sundaygazettemail.com/Opinion/Editorials/200808150692

August 16, 2008

"Rove is orchestrating a fix for the 2008 election"

By OhioBlues


Democratic Party leaders, fearful of the size and scope of voting machine fraud, have chosen to turn their heads at their and our risk. With public awareness and outcry that this is not yesterday's issue, Ohio attorneys Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis can shine the light on Rove's machinations to steal the upcoming election, if it is a close one. It will not be enough for the Obama people to raise funds, turn out the vote, etc. if the devil's advocates are in the software and the devil is Karl Rove. According to Arnebeck:

"Rove is orchestrating a fix for the 2008 election, using the same methods by which he stole the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections, according to a tipster at a strategic level within the McCain campaign, the reliability of which has been confirmed by one of our experts."

The nation's foremost private internet security specialist, Stephen Spoonamore (see bio), a lifelong Republican and consultant to the Pentagon and FBI, has just come forward with important new evidence proving that our current electronic voting system is eminently hackable if the election in November, 2008 is at all close. Click here and here: http://thejournal.epluribusmedia.net/index.php/features/1-latest-news/137-connel l.

On July 17, 2008, Ohio attorneys Arnebeck and Fitrakis held a press conference detailing their current suit in federal court in which they plan to prosecute Karl Rove and his team.

more...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/-Rove-is-orchestrating-a-f-by-OhioBlues-080812-971.html

August 16, 2008

Preposterous Polls and Corrupt Campaigns

By Jim Fetzer

Madison, WI. What's wrong with this picture? Everyone hates George W. Bush. Everyone wants change. Over 65% of the American people agree the nation is headed in the wrong direction. One candidate is brilliant, inspiring, charismatic and represents change. The other is aging, inarticulate, incoherent and stands for the status quo. The first has been running a brilliant campaign, the other a campaign in virtual chaos. Each day one candidate offers serious solutions for significant problems, while the other makes a fool of himself. Yet the polls say, "McCain is gaining ground" and "Obama is losing ground." One national poll even has them running neck and neck or shows John McCain ahead of Barack Obama.

Do any of us stop to think that these poll results cannot possibly be correct? That when Obama meets with heads of state in the Middle East and Europe and draws 250,000 to a rally being held in Berlin, while one reporter welcomes McCain in Manchester, NH, it is not credible that McCain should be competitive with Obama? Or that during a week in which celebrity Paris Hilton produces a video that very skillfully and effectively rebuts McCain's use of her image-along with that of Brittany Spears-we are supposed to believe (according to The Wisconsin State Journal, August 6, 2008), that "Among voters aged 18-29, Obama lost 16 percent and McCain gained 20?" Are we supposed to be so dumb that we accept this at face value?

When you think about it, it was not that long ago that Obama enjoyed a 15-20% lead over McCain. The campaigns, meanwhile, have been far kinder to Obama than to his rival, if you ignore the many contrived attacks McCain's side has launched against him. Some of them have verged on the absurd. Using the images of Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears, for example, in an attempt to belittle Obama's "celebrity" massively backfired. The Paris video response to the use of her image was stunning, where "the bimbo" had a better energy plan than McCain! Meanwhile, McCain appeared at a biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota announcing, "We are going to win in Iraq by winning!" He then encouraged his wife to enter the "Miss Buffalo Chip" contest ("Cindy McCain as Miss Buffalo Chip"), even though the contest is a lewd affair that even includes a topless competition.

It is beyond me how anyone can take this man seriously, yet the press still seems to adore him. I have been astonished that in spite of constant change on crucial positions-for campaign finance reform, now against; against offshore drilling, now for it; against inflating tires, now for it-he has not been held to account by the mass media. Moreover, no reporter in the newspapers or on TV has ever raised any questions about the impact of 5½ years of torture and interrogation upon his mental and emotional health. How could anyone endure this brutal and humiliating experience and not be severely mentally and emotionally scarred? Consult clinical psychologists about their opinion. Yet according to Poll Tracker (August 9, 2008), as recently as last week, the influential Rasmussen poll reported McCain leading Obama by 47% to 46%.

more...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Preposterous-Polls-and-Cor-by-Jim-Fetzer-080813-983.html

If Crist acts now, more ex-offenders can vote
Mark R. Schlakman
August 17, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist recently announced 115,000 ex-offenders who completed their sentences regained their civil rights since certain clemency rules were changed last year and can register to vote. But that number is illusory.

About 90,000 were cases dating to the 1970s, and 25,000 were recent cases pending final action by the governor and Cabinet sitting as the Clemency Board. Relatively few will be able to vote in the upcoming elections. Many notification letters were returned because addresses were out-of-date. Many, therefore, don't know they can register.

More than 300,000 older cases identified by the Department of Corrections ultimately were deemed ineligible under the new rules.

The Parole Commission, which is the investigative arm of the board, has a backlog of almost 60,000 rights-restoration cases, but the 2008 Legislature ignored the commission's request for additional staff to handle the caseload. Its overall budget was cut by 20 percent.

more...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/orl-myword1708aug17,0,123351.story

Weekend balloting decision left to Brunner
Franklin County board deadlocks on expanding voting hours at Vets
Friday, August 15, 2008 3:04 AM
By Jim Woods

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Ohio secretary of state will decide whether Franklin County voters can cast absentee ballots on weekends, after the county's Board of Elections split on the issue yesterday.

Democrats William A. Anthony Jr. and Kimberly E. Marinello voted to have ballots available at Veterans Memorial, 300 W. Broad St., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays from Oct. 4 through Nov. 2.

Republicans Douglas J. Preisse and Michael E. Colley voted against the weekend hours.

Preisse made a counterproposal for Saturday hours of 8 a.m. to noon on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1. Anthony and Marinello rejected that idea.

Under Ohio law, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner can break the tie votes of county boards of elections. Brunner is a Democrat. County Elections Director Michael Stinziano said Brunner can let the tie votes stand, choose from among the options presented, or set different hours.

more...

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/08/15/copy/electboard.ART_ART_08-15-08_B2_I4B1ILT.html?sid=101

Officials call for voter registration card checks
By LARRY SANDLER
lsandler@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 15, 2008

Wisconsin Republicans and local politicians are calling on state and Milwaukee election officials to be more vigilant about checking voter registrations, following news that workers for two activist organizations tried to sign up dead, imprisoned or non-existent voters.

But election officials say they’re already taking at least some of those measures. And Mayor Tom Barrett said the system is working because the fraudulent registration cards were caught.

As many as 15 paid workers from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the Community Voters Project are under scrutiny for the registration cards they submitted. In most cases, the groups say they caught the fraud and fired the workers before the cards were turned over to the Milwaukee Election Commission. The commission staff found problems with cards from another former Community Voters Project worker.

Election Commission Executive Director Sue Edman said she has referred five of the former registration workers to the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution, and plans to refer at least two more. Others remain under review, she said.

more...

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=783903

On edit: Check out the last line of the article:

"Also, some letters to legitimate Milwaukee central city addresses are coming back undeliverable, possibly because letter carriers fear those neighborhoods, said Nat Robinson, chief of the board’s Elections Division."

Elections Board Told How To Reduce Lines At Polls
Friday, August 15, 2008 2:57 AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Franklin County elections officials want an additional 250 voting machines to help prevent long lines at polling places during the November election.

The additional machines fit with the recommendations of a report released Thursday into voting delays in the November 2004 election, 10TV's Kevin Landers reported.

Ohio State University engineering professor Theodore Allen wrote the report, which was commissioned by the county's board of elections.

The report also suggested that voters head to the polls around lunchtime, which is the least crowded time of day for voting. The longest lines are found in the morning when the polls open, and in the late afternoon after work.

more...

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/local/stories/2008/08/15/voting.html?sid=102

Ohio's Election Stolen Again? State May Face 600K Voter Purge in Coming Weeks
By , Advancement Project and Project Vote
Posted on August 13, 2008, Printed on August 17, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/94977/

Editor's note: In 2004, election integrity activists challenged the results of Ohio's presidential election before the Ohio Supreme Court, and convinced Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to challenge the state's Electoral College vote before a joint session of Congress. The reaction by Ohio's then Republican-controlled Legislature was to enact a series of election reforms that punished likely Democratic voters. Some of the laws adopted were later thrown out in court, such as penalizing voter registration drives. But others, including a technical process to require certain voters to prove their registrations are valid on Election Day -- or lose their right to vote, remain in effect. Two of the nation's top voting rights groups, Advancement Project and Project Vote, this week reported 600,000 Ohio voters could be effected. This article is a combination of the releases both groups issued this week. George W. Bush beat John Kerry by nearly 119,000 votes in Ohio in 2004. -- Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet Democracy and Elections editor.

Columbus, Ohio August 13, 2008 -- Nearly 600,000 eligible Ohio voters may be dropped from the voter rolls if Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner doesn't act to protect these voters, according to findings based on publicly available information discovered by Advancement Project and Project Vote.

These voters -- disproportionately voters of color and young voters -- are subject to being removed from Ohio's voter registration rolls without notice or a hearing because of the state's vague regulations on vote caging, a process that enables representatives of one political party to challenge the voter registration credentials of voters at polling places on Election Day.

The Ohio counties with largest numbers of returned notices prior to March 2008 Presidential Primary are Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Summit, where Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo are located.

The mechanism of caging or challenging voters dates back to legislation passed soon after the 2004 presidential election.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/story/94977/

'Arrow' ballots require caution

By KIMBERLY MILLER

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 16, 2008

As a left-hander, Boca Raton resident Corie Tanenholz is extra careful when voting these days.

The "connect-the-arrow" ballot style now being used in precincts countywide can be a little tricky because the edge of her hand obscures the front of the arrow, making it more likely that she'll draw a line to the wrong tail end, she said.

The result could be an undervote, where optical scan equipment won't record a choice at all - a disconcerting prospect during a presidential election year in a state where a difference of just 537 votes decided the winner in 2000.

A study released by the Brennan Center for Justice last month confirmed that Tanenholz is not alone when it comes to trouble connecting the arrows.

In the report "Better Ballots," researchers for the New York University-based center found that voters are more familiar with ballots where a vote is cast by coloring in an oval.

more...


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2008/08/16/a1a_bad_ballots_0817.html

August 16, 2008

Donnelly to request recount of race

State representative lost to Koster by fewer than 800 votes in attorney general primary.

Chad Livengood
News-Leader

State Rep. Margaret Donnelly says she plans to ask Secretary of State Robin Carnahan to conduct a recount of the four-person Democratic attorney general primary.

Initial results from the Aug. 5 primary indicated state Sen. Chris Koster beat Donnelly by 783 votes or two-tenths of one percentage point of the entire vote.

Under state law, any candidate who finishes within 1 percent of the winner is entitled to a recount of the vote.

But a recount cannot be formally requested until Carnahan and the state Board of Canvassers certifies the vote on or before Aug. 26, said Carnahan spokesman Ryan Hobart.

Donnelly said her supporters have encouraged her to proceed with a recount request.

more...

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080816/NEWS06/808160342

Election vans' decals ruffle feathers
By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
In print: Saturday, August 16, 2008


A county van promotes Buddy Johnson, Hillsborough’s supervisor of elections, and “Voting with a Paper Trail.”

(pretty schnazzy, eh?)

TAMPA — Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson has decked out the exteriors of two county vans to remind people that Florida has switched to paper ballots.

snip

His challenger in the November election, Phyllis Busansky, says Johnson's message is self-promotion in disguise.

snip

Busansky, a Democrat and former county commissioner, said Johnson is publicizing himself using tax dollars.

"I just need to tell you, Buddy has gone over the edge," she said. "The state has not mandated him to use those funds for his own personal campaigning. I think he's just desperate."

more...



http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/local/article772909.ece

Published: August 17, 2008 01:37 am

Elections officials gearing up for high voter turnout

Davis says 82 percent possible in November

Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — With a higher-than-usual voter turnout expected this fall, state officials are urging local boards of elections to begin preparing now for the Nov. 4 general election.

“I can’t understand why someone doesn’t vote,” said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin during a recent visit to Cumberland.

That might not be such an issue this November. State officials “have anticipated 82 percent turnout,” said Kitty Davis, administrator of the Allegany County Board of Elections, compared to 31.49 percent turnout in Allegany County in February’s primary election.

“We’re going to be busy, we hope,” Davis said. “That’s why we’re here.”

more...

http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_230013710.html

Sunday, 17 August 2008
Democratic party registration sluggish
Joe Pyrah - Daily Herald

This is supposed to be the Democrats' year.

Barack Obama is filling stadiums at home and abroad, and locally Utah County. Dems have a slate of respected candidates raising respectable piles of cash.

But despite huge registration drives nationally, state and county numbers show that Utah voters are not flocking to the Democratic Party. At least not on paper.

" voters have a reputation for being independent when they have choices, viable choices, on the ballot," contends county Democratic chairman Richard Davis, "They're not voting for the party, they're voting for the person."

more,,,

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/276987/17/

NEW YORK'S BACK DOOR TO THE BALLOT BOX

by Howard Stanislevic

August 17, 2008

snip

(I)n 2008 in the State of New York, some disabled voters whom HAVA was intended to help may be putting their votes at risk, even if their ballots are counted by hand. And in 2009, they may have a lot of company. This is because at least one electronic vote-counting system, to be used only as an accessible ballot marking device (BMD) this year in dozens of counties in the state, features a low-tech way to corrupt even a rigorous post-election audit procedure or a full hand count: an old fashioned stuffable ballot box.

snip

To date, we are not aware of any other open-ended vulnerability, security or penetration testing of the Sequoia/Dominion ImageCast machine, but clearly, it is only too easy to penetrate with low-tech methods such as ballot box stuffing. New York will be hand-counting the BMD ballots this year, instead of relying on software-driven optical scanners which have thus far exhibited hundreds of discrepancies in their source-code reviews against the 2005 federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines that the state requires voting systems to meet as part of its certification process. But even a full hand count cannot compensate for a stuffed paper ballot box!

snip

Until now, stuffing ballot boxes at elections in New York was thought to be a thing of the past, thanks to our decades-old, yet reliable lever voting machines. We can only guess what other “back doors” may exist in the proprietary, unobservable, undetectably mutable ImageCast software, but if this obviously shoddy hardware design is any indication, it could be the tip of the iceberg. New Yorkers therefore need to think twice before actually allowing their votes to be counted on such machines.

Professor Bryan Pfaffenberger of the University of Virginia Dept. of Science, Technology & Society was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the lever voting machine. In Machining the Vote, he defends levers, which were designed with an eye toward preventing paper ballot fraud:

"Having studied the history, I strongly believe that there would be no such call for paper if the ugly history of fraudulent practices enabled by paper ballots were known -- unfortunately, the American people have forgotten the lessons they learned a century ago, and I greatly fear that we will have to repeat them in order to learn them again."

"In my analysis, the lever machine deserves recognition as one of the most astonishing achievements of American technological genius, a fact that is reflected in their continued competitiveness against recent voting technologies in every accepted performance measure."

Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips, who like Rady Ananda, and unlike many armchair investigators and pontificators, has first-hand experience investigating the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio, wrote in a recent essay entitled: In Defense of Lever Machines,

"I simply will not defend the use of paper ballots if they are transported to another location before they are counted. I would much rather have lever machines counted at the polling place than any system, paper or paperless, counted elsewhere."

Some may claim that software-driven "precinct-count" optical scanners fulfill this requirement, but how do we know that the paper ballots will in fact be counted correctly by these special-purpose trusted computing devices? (Hint: we don't!)

snip

And as e-voting expert Dr. Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins and the ACCURATE center ruminated in his blog:

"The current certification process may have been appropriate when a 900 lb lever voting machine was deployed. The machine could be tested every which way, and if it met the criteria, it could be certified because it was not likely to change. But software is different. (Y)ou cannot certify an electronic voting machine the way you certify a lever machine.... (W)e absolutely expect that vulnerabilities will be discovered all the time...."

snip

Let's stop pretending that e-vote counting systems -- with or without paper trails -- are safer overall than a voting system comprised mainly of lever voting machines. There is no evidence to support such claims, especially given the way paper ballots are being used and abused -- particularly with respect to software-driven computerized optical scan "recounts" that are rapidly becoming standard practice in state after state in lieu of the even less trustworthy DREs they are replacing.

http://e-voter.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-yorks-back-door-to-ballot-box.html


See the ballot stuffing video:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x170181


ER Forum Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x506985

"Twelve of the thirteen upcoming presidential election swing states are susceptible to outcome-altering vote fraud."

Check out the pdf. Is your state on the list?

http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/2008Election/SwingStatesSusceptible2008.pdf

These states represent a lot of EVs. Folks, we have a lot of work to do. Please get involved with your local Obama campaign office. We need a massive turnout and volunteers to help protect the voters when they get to their polling place. Get people registered, get them out to vote. Go to Obama's site. There are many volunteer opportunities there, some that you can do without even leaving your favorite chair.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/actioncenter

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php (main page)

Take action for election reform:

http://electionarchive.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=8&Itemid=62

http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/

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

I wouldn't normally post from this site, but I thought I'd make an exception here.

Hack the Vote
Five ways Internet tricksters could tamper with the 2008 elections.
By Christopher Beam
Posted Friday, Aug. 15, 2008, at 1:53 PM ET

In the late 1800s, during the heyday of Tammany Hall, New Yorkers would often show up to vote with a full beard. "When you've voted them with their whiskers on, you take them to a barber and scrape off the chin fringe," explained Democratic boss Big Tim Sullivan. If the political machine needed still more votes, the voter would return with nothing but a mustache, and then once again clean-shaven. "That makes one of them good for four votes," according to Sullivan.

Technology has cleaned up elections since then. Voting machines ensure one person casts only one vote. Electronic databases let secretaries of state compare their rolls to avoid double registration. Hotlines tell voters where and when to show up on Election Day.

This year, campaigns are relying more than ever on e-mail, texting, and the Web to get their message out and raise cash. But high-speed communication also means more opportunities for electronic skullduggery. Just as new technology lets voters get good information faster than ever in 2008, mischief-makers can spread bad information quickly.

Election tricksters—perhaps working for campaigns, perhaps freelancing—disseminate false polling locations and closing times. They spread rumors that Democrats vote Tuesday, Republicans vote Wednesday, or that anyone with outstanding parking tickets, unpaid rent, or family members in prison can't vote. Voters also get misled about ID laws, believing they're stricter than they really are. (A recent Supreme Court decision to uphold Indiana's voter ID law could be misinterpreted as applying to other states as well.)

Campaigns and voting rights activists are anticipating all kinds of Internet dirty tricks to spread this misinformation. Here are five they are most worried about—and how they can be stopped.

more...




http://www.slate.com/id/2197502/

From the Los Angeles Times
MOVIE REVIEW
'Stealing America: Vote by Vote'
Documentary explores whether every vote really counted in 2004.
By Gary Goldstein
Special to The Times

August 15, 2008

If the prospect of reliving 2004's U.S. presidential election -- or any of the other key domestic political races from the last dozen years -- is too much to bear, then Dorothy Fadiman's documentary "Stealing America: Vote by Vote" might seem like homework. Settle in for 90 brief minutes, though, and this persuasive refresher course on our increasingly sketchy electoral process will prove essential viewing for any constitutionally minded American.

That's not to say Fadiman has crafted scintillating cinema, per se. With its modest graphics, multitude of talking heads and rote TV news clips, visually it's fairly bland stuff. Peter Coyote's measured narration doesn't provide much of a jolt either, although the writing is lucid and occasionally stirring.

"Stealing America's" real strength lies in its head-shaking regurgitation of the political realities -- and surrealities -- that helped cement George W. Bush's reelection against a tide of contrary exit polling. Electronic machines rigged to switch votes; a barrage of rejected, destroyed or uncounted ballots; and race-based voter suppression tactics -- all get incriminating close-ups here, with compelling anecdotal support from experts on both sides of the political aisle such as economist and Reaganite Paul Craig Roberts, lawyer-activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and polling authority John Zogby as well as from average citizens caught in various voting fiascos.

While the film inherently tilts left, Fadiman justly spreads the blame among underreporting mainstream media outlets, compliant Republican operatives and hobbled Democrats who chose to fold their tents rather than fight to the finish.

a bit more...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-stealing15-2008aug15,0,6372123.story

Satire!

President George W. Bush vows to ensure 'no election fraud'

by Dominus Noster

WASHINGTON, D.C.--President George W. Bush held a press conference earlier today, responding to allegations by one of the leading news networks, the Onion News Network, that the election is going to be rigged in favor of John McCain.

"These allegations made by the Onion News Network are totally irresponsible and without any merit," said President Bush. "At this point, my administration has no intention of rigging the election in favor of John McCain, because we are planning on creating an emergency crisis in order to cancel the elections altogether. I am going to remain President into the foreseeable future. The Onion News Network's story about a rigged election is shoddy journalism." President Bush said that by canceling the elections altogether, this will ensure that there will be "no election fraud."

The Onion News Network issued a story retracting the earlier story, but insisted that they only reported what had been leaked to the news network. "If there was a mistake," said an ONN anchor, "it is because somebody with an agenda wanted to spread disinformation, probably trying to conceal the administration's plans to cancel the elections."

Republican Party strategist, Faye Kerr, called this a bold move, a win-win situation, and said that this is certain to win over some of the conspiracy-minded folks who are against election rigging and fraud. "By not having an election at all, this would certainly disarm those critics. They should be satisfied knowing that there will be no election to steal," explained Faye Kerr. "This should also satisfy conservative Republicans who see John McCain has being too liberal on some issues. They will get President Bush for another term, instead."

one last paragraph...

http://www.unconfirmedsources.com/index.php?itemid=3475

SysTest Labs under Fire For Shoddy Methods & Collusion with Vendors

by Rady Ananda

August 15, 2008

SysTest Labs, LLC, one of two federal testing labs responsible for certifying our nation's voting systems, is under investigation for failing to document or validate its test methods. The lab is also accused of using unqualified personnel to run these highly technical tests. Emails from the lab indicate possible collusion with another voting system vendor, ES&S, whereby SysTest's "test approach takes into consideration" actions that will "ensure certification" of the M650 and M100 optical scanners being tested for Ohio.

snip

On July 16th, Ron Thomas of SysTest sent an email to Election Systems & Software (ES&S) regarding the ongoing certification of two of ES&S' optical scan voting systems being used in Ohio, by setting the goals of speedy tests and ensuring certification. On July 25th, the EAC took exception to Thomas' email that:"contains language in which SysTest sets a goal 'to ensure certification' of (a) manufacturer's system. This statement may be read as an inappropriate promise of certification."

The EAC then warned SysTest that EAC-accredited Voting System Test Labs "are responsible for the independent testing of a voting system to the appropriate standards and should not have as the end goal the certification of the voting system." NIST and the EAC put SysTest on administrative oversight. These violations, if true, could result in revocation of SysTest's accreditation as a federal voting system certification lab.

snip

Adding to SysTest's woes with NIST and the EAC, SysTest approved*** Sequoia/Dominion's ImageCast ballot marking device for use in New York, which sports a convenient slotted hole that enables ballot stuffing into the locked ballot box.

snip

http://www.opednews.com/articles/SysTest-Labs-under-Fire-Fo-by-Rady-Ananda-080815-39.html


*** Wilms Notes: While SysTest is testing the ImageCast for New York State, they have not completed that work, nor have they given final approval. However the Ballot Marking part of the system (complete with ballot stuffing slot) has been approved for use on an experimental basis.

see also:

NY: Paper-Ballot Box Stuffing -- With An Electronic Voting System! (Op Scan)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x170181


ER Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x506919

Scottish Labour leader candidate Iain Gray comes under fire for election fiasco
Aug 16 2008 By Kevin Schofield

THE Scottish Labour leadership campaign erupted into a war of words yesterday - after the favourite was accused of helping botch last year's Holyrood elections.

A senior Labour figure said Iain Gray should shoulder much of the blame for the debacle, when thousands of ballots were discarded.

Gray, now the MSP for East Lothian, was a special adviser in the Scotland Office in the run-up to last year's ill-fated vote.

The insider said: "He must have advised then Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander about the election and things like the ballot paper but it ended up a total disaster.

"You've got to ask yourself whether someone so heavily involved in an almighty cock-up is the right person to lead Labour in Scotland."

more...

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/08/16/scottish-labour-leader-candidate-iain-gray-comes-under-fire-for-election-fiasco-86908-20699132/

Zimbabwe Crisis Persists; Summit Fails to End Impasse (Update1)

By Mike Cohen and Brian Latham

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai remained divided over a proposed power-sharing accord after three days of talks with regional leaders failed to overcome the impasse.

``We have agreed that Mr. Mugabe will remain president while I become prime minister,'' Tsvangirai said by telephone from Johannesburg today. ``Where we haven't reached agreement is on the division of powers. Fundamental to any agreement is to whom ministers report and who has the power to dismiss ministers.''

Zimbabwe has been in political limbo since Mugabe claimed victory in a one-man runoff presidential election that Tsvangirai boycotted in protest of violence targeting his supporters. Tsvangirai won the most votes in the initial poll on March 29, and his Movement for Democratic Change won the most seats in the lower house of parliament.

The Southern African Development Community appointed South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate, and he had aimed to conclude his work by the time 15-nation bloc ended its annual summit in Johannesburg today. Mugabe joined other heads of state at the summit's opening ceremony in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, while Tsvangirai was seated among the observers.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aG7.mxbGn3BY&refer=africa

Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
Obama campaign wants no problems at Fla. polls
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
AP Political Writer

Barack Obama's campaign manager said Friday during a visit to Florida that a team of lawyers will be in place ahead of November's election to make sure there are no glitches that keep people from voting in areas where higher turnout is expected.

Florida became a poster child for dysfunctional elections when it took five weeks to determine a winner in the 2000 presidential election. But David Plouffe said part of the campaign's strategy will be to make sure voting problems are avoided.

"We're going to make sure that we have a sense of how many people we think are going to turn out and some assessment of whether the current plans can handle that," he said. "Whether you win or lose an election, it's not OK to have people turned away because they have to wait in line for three or four hours because of a lack of equipment and a lack of planning."

Many Democrats believe the 2000 election, which President Bush won by 537 votes, would have turned out differently if not for problems in Florida. Many of the reported problems were in largely black precincts, including machine malfunctions, higher levels of discarded ballots, poorly trained poll workers and overcrowded polling places.

more...

http://www.bradenton.com/180/story/811493.html