Behind the Scenes, Officials Wrestle Over Voting Rules -WP

[Rose Siding]

As President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry enter the final weeks of a tight presidential campaign, election officials in many key states are waging less noticed but equally partisan battles that could affect the outcome of the race.

In the battlegrounds of Ohio and Missouri, Republican secretaries of state have crafted election rules that Democrats say could disenfranchise legitimate voters likely to cast ballots for Kerry. Republicans say Democratic election officials in New Mexico and Iowa are making it easier for potential Kerry supporters to vote.
..........
"There's an unprecedented level of scrutiny," said Oregon's deputy secretary of state, Paddy McGuire (D). "Having an election decided by 537 votes in Florida made people see how decisions made by elections officials across this country can add up to electing the next leader of the free world."

Adding to the sensitivity is the fact that a number of chief election officials in key states are playing an active role in the presidential race.......MORE........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20795-2004Oct9.html?nav=rss_politics

[LiberalFighter]

1. Minnesota

In the swing state of Minnesota, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer (R) is fed up with the partisan sparring. Liberal groups have charged her with attempting to stifle voter turnout by failing to keep up with the demand for new voter registration forms, rushing into service a flawed statewide registration system and issuing warnings about terrorism at the polls.

Kiffmeyer said her record speaks for itself: Under her watch, the state has had among the highest turnout in the nation. "But I have the sense that if I walked on water, the Democrats would say I can't swim."

* * * * *

Under her watch, the state has had among the highest turnout in the nation. EXCUSE ME But Minnesota has for a long time had that distinction. She must think that it was because of her that Minnesota has had among the highest turnout in the nation even years before she was Secretary of State. She has been Secretary of State only since 1999. Joan Anderson Growe (DFL) had been SOS from 1975-1999.

[Philostopher]

2. This year is a great argument ...

for the responsibility for election rules to fall to a bipartisan committee, or at least to come under the purview of a bipartisan group before decisions are made. Ken Blackwell will do anything he can to make sure Ohio is skewed Republican, from what I've seen. If each partisan SOS had to run anything s/he did past a bipartisan committee of some kind, these pissing matches would never make the news, no matter which party they're from. How crazy is it that a partisan elected official, regardless of party, makes these decisions anyway?

[LiberalFighter]

3. I'm not sure exactly what happens here in Indiana...

We have a Secretary of State that oversees elections but we also have a State Election Commission which I believe has 3 members. At least one is a Democrat.

In our county we have a Voter Registration Board that is manned by both parties. Each position has a member from both parties.

We also have an Election Board that is responsible for the election itself. It has 3 members. The city clerk I believe is automatically a member of the board and the county chair from each party appoints someone to fill the remaining two positions.

[Philostopher]

6. I don't think local boards of elections in Ohio are partisan,

or else, they're deliberately bipartisan -- but they don't make the rules -- the only enforce them. The state makes the rules, and the Republicans have gerrymandered Ohio almost as badly as Texas Goopers have screwed up Texas. In other words, there's nothing Ken Blackwell can do with my vote but throw it in the trash -- the local BOE is bipartisan or nonpartisan, we vote using punch cards (and our locality maintains the machines correctly), the poll people are from both parties and seem trustworthy. It's the rules the Secretary of State gives the local boards of elections to enforce that seem to be a looming problem, here in Ohio. SOS is an elected, partisan position here, and they gerrymandered all the districts to disenfranchise as many minority voters as possible so they could get a Republican put in charge of election rulings. It's only noise from local BOEs, voters and newspapers that kept us from voting on Diebold machines in all of Ohio this year -- Blackwell wanted them, and tried to force them on all counties until he finally had to give up.

This is all stuff I've read here and in the newspaper -- I want to add the disclaimer that there may be things I don't know or have misread. As far as I know, the SoS is a partisan elected official, but below his level, when you get down to counties and precincts, the election officials aren't partisan, elected people. They're either nonpartisan, appointed posts or deliberately bipartisan groups.

[LiberalFighter]

7. Personally, I think it would be better to use paper ballots for everything

Until electronic voting is foolproof.

It is not necessary for results to be announced within hours of closing.

Counting of the ballots should not be pooled into one central location in the county to be counted. They should be counted at the polling place immediately after the closing. Then reported to the election board and to the media.

[Philostopher]

8. No disagreement here. The advantage of paper ballots

is that most of the pads are numbered. They don't record how you vote (well, except in the primaries, where they record whether you took a Republican or Democratic ballot), so there's an easy way right there to tell if they've pitched out ballots -- check the final count by the empty ballot pads to see if the correct number of ballots have been counted.

I have a German acquaintance who has said he thinks even that is too complex -- he lives near Munich, and they still use a paper ballot and a black marker. Each precinct, or the German equivalent, counts its own ballots and reports the numbers to the district, where they're tallied. I think I'd trust that more, too -- the veteran poll workers in my precinct are much more trustworthy than any machine, I think I'd say that with confidence, especially since I know because of remarks they've made that they'r bipartisan. They're definitely less faulty, on the whole, than a hackable machine! They keep each other honest.

[MaineDem]

10. We vote that way here

Paper, pencil, and count them when the polls close.

A good part of Maine still does it that way. I've never voted with anything else, even when I lived in Massachusetts.

[Carolab]

4. Not only that

Mary Kiffmeyer has been in repeated contact with Hans von Spakovsky (a RAGING conservative Republican attorney from Georgia, member of the Federalist Society", head of Ashcroft's "Voting Section", asking questions about what forms of ID people need and about voter fraud. Voter fraud is Ashcroft's army of prosecutors' special focus this year--trying to stop voters by alleging fraud. I suspect they will hang people up on ID as they try to register at the polls and/or prove their registrations. I think everyone should err on the side of caution nationally and bring more than just a D.L. to the polls--check what ID is required by your state's SOS on their website!

READ WHAT PATRICK LEAHY SAID ON OCTOBER 5 ABOUT VON SPAKOVSKY!!!

Since there will apparently not be an opportunity in this Committee to address voting issues before the election, I would like to take this opportunity to state some of my concerns for the record. Sadly, this Committee has done nothing during this Congress to protect the voting rights of all Americans. In this Congress and the last, we have seen the Chairman of the Committee and the Majority Leader offer floor amendments to extend the Voting Rights Act, which is slated to expire in 2007. On both occasions, those amendments were withdrawn after I and others argued that it would be deeply irresponsible to extend the VRA without building a record to support that step. Indeed, such cursory treatment of the VRA would practically invite the Supreme Court to invalidate the law.

One might think that after Republican VRA extension amendments twice had to be withdrawn on the same grounds, this Committee might at least have held hearings on the issue. Despite my repeated requests, however, such a hearing was never held.

It is thus hard to avoid the conclusion that the amendments offered by Senators Hatch and Frist were anything more than an empty gesture offered as political show.

Meanwhile, we have done nothing to investigate whether conditions for the upcoming election are fair, despite this Committee’s clear interest in and oversight of compliance with the Voting Rights Act. We see almost daily press reports about questionable activities by both Federal and State law enforcement officials that threaten the ability of minority group members to participate fully on November 2. People for the American Way has released an excellent report entitled “The Long Shadow of Jim Crow,” detailing the curtailment of voting rights across the country in recent years. (I would like to place a copy of this report in the Record.) We have read that the Justice Department has placed a great and unprecedented emphasis on “voter integrity,” which has all too often in the past been a euphemism for suppressing the votes of your opponent.

At the same time, the New Yorker has reported that a leading official at the Civil Rights Division, traditionally the protector of voting rights, has publicly suggested that the Justice Department should leave its voter access mission to volunteers and concentrate on “integrity” instead. I suppose this should come as no surprise, since that official – Hans von Spakovsky – came to the Justice Department with a lengthy background in the “voting integrity” movement. In addition to membership in the Federalist Society, a virtual requirement for lawyers holding senior positions in the Bush Administration, von Spakovsky served on the board of directors for the so-called Voting Integrity Project. He also wrote an article for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation urging the sort of aggressive approach to purging felons from the voting rolls that worked so disastrously in Florida in 2000. Indeed, the Voting Integrity Project worked on the design of Florida’s 2000 effort. It should probably go without saying that Mr. von Spakovsky also worked for the Bush campaign as a volunteer during the Florida recount.

http://judiciary.senate.gov/member_statement.cfm?id=1326&wit_id=2629

[Kimber Scott]

5. Republicans say Democratic election officials in New Mexico and Iowa are

making it easier for potential Kerry supporters to vote.

Excuse me... but, when did they make the rule it's supposed to be hard for Democrats to vote. Did I not get the memo?

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Page one -- glad this disturbing info is getting some attention

[Southpaw Bookworm]

11. A Vital Concern

That regular citizens who aren't actively involved in local politics need to be made aware of. If the Repukes steal the election again, these groups are going to be the vehicle for doing so.

[loudsue]

12. If the repukes steal the election again...there's gong to be REVOLUTION

And it won't be pretty. Too many millions of people in this country now realize what's going on, and they know our Democracy has been taken away by the neocons in power. Even the regular ole run-of-the-mill old time republicans are sick of the neocons, and want them out. Look how many have joined DU!

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

[Southpaw Bookworm]

14. Makes me nervous

What we're going to wake up to on that Wednesday morning. If there's a civil war, will the UN send in peacekeepers, or just let the powers that be have at it, thinking it just karma having a go at us?

[Zorra]

13. After Kerry is elected these republicans need to be indicted, arrested,

tried, convicted and sent to prison for 20 years without parole.

They are clearly involved in a conspiracy to illegally overthrow what is left of our democratic government. That is exactly what is happening.