Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 06.26.06 17 States at Risk!!!

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You can’t keep the Cinderella Man Down.

A brilliant thinker, mathematician, and debater; an innovator; and a great friend, TIA is a man for all the seasons I care about and a man for this special season of our discontent and perilous destiny.

THE ‘COMMON CAUSE’ 17:
States with major risks for election problems in 2006.
Is your state here? “Come on down:”

Arkansas
Deleware
DC
Florida
Georgia
Iowa
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia

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1. History of Exit Poll Controversy – TIA, DU, Simon, althecat.

This is the history as I see it and I’m not fully aware of the entire picture. No offense at all intended if I’ve left out anyone or any key event, which I’m sure I have.

The Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is just the latest step in realizing the truth about stolen election 2004.

Just so everyone understands, here’s how it all started, imho.

National Exit Polls are released periodically throughout Election Day showing Kerry winning (up through the final poll of the day at just after midnight).

We were not supposed to see them but great lawyer, statistician, thinker Jonathan Simon captured the unintentionally released exit polls. He knew there were problems when the vote count contradicted the exit poll results. So did many of us as we reviewed Ohio and the rest of the voter disenfranchisement efforts across the nation. TIA got a hold of the data and noticed something very wrong, outlining the case by Nov. 9, 2004.

Simon and Alastair Thompson (althecat) wrote their two amazing articles: November 11, 2004 and November 17, 2004.; both published by "Scoop" Independent News.

The truth was out and TruthIsAll, Steve Freeman, Ron Baiman and the rest of the brave “math people” made the case while while Bob Fitrakis, PhD, Richard Hayes, PhD, Bob Arnebeck, and a host of wonderful activists all over America nailed down the rest of the evidence of voter suppression and disenfranchisement.

DU and its Elections Forum were absolutely central to the process.

TIA Collections

2004 Election Collection. TruthIsAll - DUer DrDebug
www.TruthIsAll.net/ - DUer byronius

http://www.geocities.com/electionmodel/ - TIA

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2. USA: WE need the Voting Rights Act

USA: Voting Rights Act Essential!!!

The Republicans are doing a serious stall on the Voting Rights Act. They are getting extra points with the racist who they pander to but the real goal is more voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement. Keep the minority vote down, help the Republican candidates chances. Nice work Republicans.

LINK for updates: Leadership Council on Civil Rights
http://renewthevra.civilrights.org/resources/details.cfm?id=44551

VOTING RIGHTS ACT STILL NECESSARY TO PROTECT VOTERS OF COLOR

By Cynthia Tucker Sat Jun 24, 8:07 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20060625/cm_ucas/votingrightsactstillnecessarytoprotectvotersofcolor

But a year ago, the GOP-dominated Georgia Legislature reminded me why the VRA remains a necessary protection for voters of color. Georgia Republicans rammed through a divisive requirement for state-issued photo ID at the polls, the most restrictive voting law in the nation. While Republicans claimed they wanted only to protect against voter fraud, that contention wears not one stitch of credibility. There is much more fraud in the use of absentee ballots, but the Legislature loosened the laws governing those.

What Georgia Republicans really wanted to do was bar a small group of voters who tend to be rural, isolated, poor and predominantly black. According to many studies, those voters are less likely to own a car and, therefore, less likely to have a driver's license. They are also more likely to vote for Democrats. They may be a small group, but they'd make a difference in close races. For years, Republicans have used similar voter-suppression strategies around the country, trying to bar voting by small numbers of Latinos, blacks and Native Americans, all of whom are more likely to support Democrats.

(Section 5 didn't protect Georgia's black voters from this bit of harassment;
President Bush's highly partisan Justice Department approved the state's restrictive voter ID law. But Section 5 is still one necessary tool among many, including the federal courts. It might be more fairly used by a future Justice Department.)

Is Georgia's voter ID law racist or merely partisan? It's unlikely that Republicans would have passed the bill if black Georgians were faithful GOP voters. But it hardly matters. In a new book, "Cheating Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression," Spencer Overton, a George Washington University law professor, writes: "The different voting patterns of many people of color give politicians the motive to suppress their votes, and the unique physical and socioeconomic traits that characterize people of color make them particularly vulnerable."

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3. New York Times (Sunday): Another Kennedy (Censored due to NYT bad taste)

The NYT’s piece on RFK Jr. has an inflammatory headline. If you follow the link, and agree (it’s so obvious), let the Public Editor know. He’s a decent guy. [e-mail]. In the profile, typist Liebovich puts down Kennedy’s recent work on election fraud in Rolling Stone.

Another Kennedy (Censored due to stunning
bad taste on the part of the New York Times)

By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: June 25, 2006
San Francisco
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25bobby.html?ex=1151380800&en=060a7f802801dfd8&ei=5087%0A

Now 52, Mr. Kennedy, is one of the country's most prominent environmental lawyers and advocates. Clearly he was traumatized by his youthful act of environmental insensitivity and vowed as an adult to become a fervent protector of all the planet's salamanders. Or perhaps this is overreaching, seeing too much in a simple picture. (Sometimes a dead salamander is just a dead salamander). But it goes with the family territory — the speculating, over guessing — and it would seem particularly inevitable for anyone burrowing through life with the name Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Mr. Kennedy presided last week at the annual conference of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an assembly of 153 "keepers" from around the world charged with protecting the planet's most vulnerable watersheds, largely through litigation or threat thereof. On Wednesday the riverkeepers, baykeepers, coastkeepers, deltakeepers, channelkeepers and inletkeepers packed into three zero-emission hybrid-electric buses bound for Treasure Island on San Francisco Bay. There they ate dinner on biodegradable plates and took turns giving brief speeches. They spoke with earnest commitment, contempt for industrial polluters and awe for Bobby Kennedy.

<snip>

Recently, much of Mr. Kennedy's public focus has been on democracy, and he has taken increasingly audacious leaps into political swamps that transcend the environment. He roiled the blogosphere and cable news shows this month after declaring — in an article he wrote in Rolling Stone — that Republicans stole the 2004 presidential election through a series of voting frauds. "I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004," Mr. Kennedy wrote in the exhaustive, strenuously footnoted article, which relied heavily on the published research of others.

<snip>

Farhad Manjoo, of Salon.com, wrote: "If you do read the Kennedy article, be prepared to machete your way through numerous errors of interpretation and his deliberate omission of key bits of data."*

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4. USA: Two Stolen Elections by “Most Hated President Ever” – OpEd

Yikes!!!

Op-Ed News
Bush - Most Hated President Ever Stole Both Elections
Tell A Friend

June 3, 2006 at 12:51:41

by Evelyn Pringle
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_evelyn_p_060603_bush___most_hated_pr.htm
http://www.opednews.com

The latest polls say Americans now dislike Bush more than any other president including even Tricky Dick. It only took the public five and half year to see through him.

That said, I wonder how long it will take people to accept the news that Bush never won either election and the country is in such a mess that it will take 50 years to get back to how it was when Bush took office.

According to Robert Kennedy Jr's article in the June issue of Rolling Stone, "Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush’s victory as nut cases in ?tinfoil hats.?

Well Republicans can call me whatever they like because this nut-case is finally going to weigh in on this subject.

Bush needed Ohio. He could not win the election without Ohio and he knew it.

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5. USA: COMMON CAUSE 17 AT-RISKK STATES FOR ELECTION PROBLEMS.

Election Reform: Malfunction & Malfeaseance. A Report
on the the Voting Machine Debacle.

Common Cause: 17 States At-Risk.

PDF of Common Cause Report

Today’s installment “A” through “K”…tomorrow, the rest.




New report shows 17 states at high risk for election results compromised due to electronic voting machine problems
http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=194883&ct=2676319

A new report released Thursday by Common Cause concludes that the push to use direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines was misguided, has resulted in serious security and reliability concerns, and should be reversed. The report also assesses states at greatest risk of having elections compromised due to problems with voting machines, presents information on voting systems used by each states and makes recommendations on safeguarding votes to citizens who must use a DRE in November.

"With nearly 40 percent of voters in 37 states expected cast ballots on DRE voting machines in less than five months, Congress needs to stop ignoring the problems and take action to assure that citizens votes are counted as cast," said Common Cause President Chellie Pingree. "We need legislation passed that would mandate random manual election audits of voting machines and require voter-verified paper trails, and citizens need to come to the polls knowing how to safeguard their vote."

The report, Malfunction and Malfeasance: A Report on the Electronic Voting Machine Debacle, finds that 17 states, including critical swing states such as Pennsylvania, are at "high" risk of having election results compromised due to problems with voting machines known as DREs. States designated as high risk because they use DREs with no paper backup are: Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Twenty-three states are at mid-level risk of having election results compromised. Those states use a voter-verified paper trail, but do not conduct manual audits. Eleven states are at "low" risk for a compromised election because they require mandatory audits and use voting systems that have a voter verified paper ballot.

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6. AR: Democrat SoS Incumbent Screwed by ESS Failures, Lack of “heads up”

This just makes me sick. Here’s a Democratic Secretary of State who got screwed by ESS. They failed to deliver on service etc. Eight Arkansas counties are going all paper in 2006 and don’t care what EAC says…it’s that bad. Why didn’t our guy get some outside help? Because, aside from Dean, nobody seems to have a clue at the national level as to how bad the vendors and the system are. Wake up; we’re being hurt as a party in all sorts of ways by this.

Arkansas

NWA.com
Lagrone lashes out at Daniels

BY MICHAEL R. WICKLINE
Posted on Wednesday, June 21, 2006

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/158294/
Secretary of State candidate Jim Lagrone on Tuesday outlined his plan to fix what he describes as an election “fiasco” caused by incumbent Charlie Daniels.

Some of Lagrone’s solutions would cost money, but he offered no estimate for his proposals.

Daniels said he agrees with many of Lagrone’s suggestions and has been working on some issues for the past three years. He repeated his contention that the company that sold his office new voting machines is to blame for most of the problems in the May 23 primary. Fewer problems occurred in the June 13 runoff.

Lagrone, a Republican from Bryant, is challenging Daniels, a Democrat from Bryant, in the Nov. 7 general election. Daniels has been secretary of state since 2003 and was the state’s land commissioner from 1985-2003.

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7. DC: Two major Problems

How can anything good come out of a government run by these two bozos?

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8. DE: State Clueless on Voting and Citizen Information

How good is this! When do you think they might get around to letting citizens know about vital aspects of the election process. They have more money than Gates for goodness sakes;)

Deleware

FAQS

The content for this page is currently unavailable. If you have any questions, please email [e-mail] or call the Department of Elections for New Castle County at 302.577.3464. Thank you.

Performance Measures

The content for this page is currently unavailable. If you have any questions, please email [e-mail] or call the Department of Elections for New Castle County at 302.577.3464. Thank you.

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9. FL: Kindergarten Security Procedures for Centralized Voter RegistrationDB

Hey, it’s Florida, what did you expect?

Florida

Computerworld
Auditor's Report Criticizes Florida's Voter Database
State agrees to fix security woes that could lead to unauthorized access

Marc Songini
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=13&articleId=112204

June 26, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Florida voter registration data can be vulnerable to theft, corruption, unauthorized access and alteration, despite the best efforts of elections officials, indicated a report by the Florida auditor general.

The report, released earlier this month by Auditor General William Monroe, found several IT security problems with the state's central voter registration database. "There were some procedures that were missing we felt needed to be in place," noted Jon Ingram, an IT audit manager in the Florida auditor general's office and a contributor to the report.

For instance, Ingram noted that the review of the system found that a state worker was erroneously given access to the database and that a worker whose contract was finished mistakenly retained access.

The Florida Voter Registration System (FVRS) database was created by Secretary of State Sue Cobb's office to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act. HAVA mandates that every state create a centralized voter information repository to, among other things, protect against election fraud. Work on the project started in 2003, and the database was rolled out in January.

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10. GA: Critics Say Scrap Voting Machines.

This is what needs to happen…get rid of the whole damn system. Georgia 2002 is one of the landmark election fraud case studies. How did two popular incumbents lose when they lead by significant margins just a few days before the election? Could it have anything to do with the patch a Diebold contractor put in 1/3rd of the machines just before the election, a patch never investigated or examined? We will never know.

Georgia

11 Alive (TV) Atlanta
Critics: Scrap Voting Machines

Reported By: Jon Shirek
Last Modified: 6/22/2006 7:24:46 PM
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=81166

On Thursday, less than a month before Georgia's July 18th primary elections, a coalition of voter-rights groups warned that the state’s controversial, touch-screen voting machines may not record the votes exactly as voters cast them, despite assurances from the state to the contrary.

The critics, “Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia,” or “VoterGA.org,” announced they will file a lawsuit against the state to try to force a change, claiming that the state’s four-year-old, $54 million system is obsolete and needs to be scrapped.

As it is, "Your ballot may not match what you see on the screen," said VoterGA.org’s Garland Favorito.

Favorito and others in his coalition say they don't trust the electronic machines Georgia uses partly because the machines do not print any hard-copy records of the votes, to be able to compare the print-outs (during recounts and other challenges) with the results that each machine stores electronically.

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11. IA: Pure Politics Gets in the Way

I don’t even know the parties of those involved. The loser in an election, someone who should have won, in his humble opinion, says, “Hey, this election used the same machines that screwed up a few miles away in another election” but he can’t get an investigation. Why, because the guy running the election might look bad.

Iowa

Des Moines Register:
Polk County recorder to contest election
Tim Brien says he can't accept his primary loss without ensuring that another county's error wasn't duplicated.

http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060624/NEWS05/606240322/1001

BERT DALMER
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
June 24, 2006

Polk County Recorder Tim Brien, a five-term incumbent who was soundly defeated by a political newcomer in June's primary elections, plans to challenge the election results based on the failure of similar voting machines in another Iowa county.

Brien lost his re-election bid to a former colleague, Julie Haggerty, by 3,670 votes. He said he can't accept the numbers without firm assurances that a ballot-counting error in Pottawattamie County did not also happen in Polk County. Brien has suggested recounting ballots by hand, as Pottawattamie County officials did when they discovered that they had improperly programmed their new counting machines.

"I think it's the only way to lay it to rest," Brien said. "It could be totally clean as a whistle. But if I don't ask, I never will find out. I just want to make sure the process worked like it should work."

But some county officials fear that Brien's protest will have farther-reaching effects than on his own livelihood. By contesting the election results, Brien is effectively challenging the competence of Polk County's election commissioner, Auditor Michael Mauro, who is campaigning to become Iowa's top election authority as its new secretary of state.

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12. IN: Problems Identified but Officials Say it’s all OK

Indiana had major problems with its centralized voter registration database extensively covered by local media and reviewed here. Great stuff. AT least the press is doing something in the real world. They certainly are not here in DC.

[IndyOp]

17. IMPORTANT: Omission In Common Cause Report is replicated in IndyStar !!

The final line of the IndyStar article is this: "Common Cause recommended voters opt instead for an absentee ballot. In Indiana, though, only voters who certify they will be unable to go to the polls on Election Day may cast an absentee ballot."

This line is technically accurate, but it OMITS the very important information that Indiana has no fault EARLY VOTING throughout the state.

To vote absentee you have to have a compelling reason why you cannot vote on election day and you must complete an application for an absentee ballot well in advance of the election.

EARLY VOTING, in person, at your county clerk's office is no fault. You do *not* need to have any reason at all why you want to vote early.

Where can you learn about early voting in Indiana? Good luck! You will NOT find any information about early voting in ANY of the following documents on the SOS site:
# Quick Reference Guide
# 2006 Election Calendar Brochure
# Indiana Voter Information Guide
# More Information for Voters

I searched for "early voting" on the Indiana Secretary of States' Website and found only one relevant entry - and it makes early voting sound bad...

http://www.in.gov/sos/press/old/09052004.html

In recent years, the acceptance of procedures such as early voting and voting by mail have made it even more accessible to Americans. But an increase in the promotion and use of these techniques has not been followed by an increase in voter turnout. Just the opposite is true.

That raises the question, "Why don't more people vote?" The more important question, and the one on which I've focused the efforts of my administration is, "What can we do about it?" From voter registration drives at the Indiana State Fair and Indiana Black Expo to extensive voter education programs, my office continues to seek the elimination of barriers that keep Hoosiers from voting.

That's why since taking office in 2003 I have aggressively pursued policies that encourage voting and confidence in our elections. I have made it a point to work in a bipartisan manner to increase penalties for vote fraud, provide resources to local election officials and create Indiana's first statewide voter registration system.

EARLY VOTING in Indiana - EVERY registered voter has the *right* to vote early. You do *not* need to have any reason why you wish to vote early.

This Fall: You may vote early Monday-Friday (8 am to 4 pm) from Tuesday, October 10th until noon on Monday, November 6th in person at your clerk's office.

You may vote early on Saturday, October 28th & Saturday, November 4th from 8 am to 4 pm in person at your clerk's office.

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13. KA: IDed as Trouble Spot but Secretary of State says , relax, it’s cool.

I’m sure it’s the same line in every state. Local media: “Common Cause says our state has a lousy voting system and that that state is “at high risk for major election problems?” You’re Secretary of State, how did that happen?” Dilbert the Secretary of State: “Oh, no problem. They don’t understand. You see, I’m elected, the people chose me. I know what I’m doing, which is good because I’m the decider.” All over America, B.S. excuses will be made to sluff off Common Cause. Unfortunately for the officials, there’s an election where results count. We’ll see...

Kansas

49 News (TV):
The use of touch screen voting machines is growing, and with that new technology come new risks.

http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/jun/23/report_shows_electronic_voting_machines_have_high_/

Washington D.C.-based Common Cause looked into those risks and released the results in this study.
49 News spoke to one of the study's authors. “Its true machines can be hacked very easily and this has been demonstrated by computer experts,” said Barbar Burt, one author of the study.

The report said across the country, 37 States will use the electronic voting machines in the 2006 mid-term election. Of those states, 19 do not have laws that require voter verified paper ballots. Kansas is one of those states and according to the study that puts it at high risk for voting fraud and malfunction.

Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh said the state has many safeguards in place to prevent voter fraud and machine malfunction.

“They fail to look at the entirety of the security system,” he said. “They're looking at each machine as merely a stand alone element and that's just not the fact.”

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14. KY: Election Problems, No doubt, but check this out.

This is just good scandal. There are election problems and people are addressing them right now and the Common Cause comments are important too. But check this out, damn!

Kentucky

The Post Chronicle:
Kentucky Politics - The Damnedest?

by James L. Clark
Jun 10, 2006
http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/opinion/article_21222561.shtml

It's unlikely that even Kentucky -- at least government-wise -- has formerly been through what it has experienced in the last few years. Starting during the previous governor's term, the legislature made it a habit not to pass a budget, so Governor Paul Patton was left to approve the checks and carry on business according to his own design. This habit on the part of the legislature continued into Governor Fletcher's term, leaving him to do the same, notwithstanding that the state Constitution mandates the passing of a budget by the legislature during each biennium.

In the legislative session just ended, and after a court ruling necessitating it, the legislature finally passed a budget at the right time. The legislatures' dereliction of duty -- fueled, as always, by 138 sets of eyes on the next election cycle -- was reprehensible and actually points to malfeasance.

The peccadilloes -- personal and otherwise -- of Gov. Patton, some of which replicated by Gov. Fletcher, also point to malfeasance, though corruption in state government is more expected than surprising in Kentucky. Patton came upon hard times personally when his dalliance with a woman not his wife became a matter of public awareness. It was a disgusting affair of trysts in motels, and was also fraught with overtones of favoritism and outright corruption. Then, Patton, shortly before leaving office, managed to pardon four indicted persons -- two in his administration and two in Louisville's union-labor infrastructure -- for crimes that amounted to felonies (vote fraud) and for which significant prison time could be expected upon convictions. He obviously could not risk testimony that might touch him.

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15. The hit parade continues tomorrow with these locales...

Louisiana

Maryland

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

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16. CA: Riverside County Deceived Paper Ballot Voters During June 6th Primary

Via
Wilms

Riverside County CA Deceived Paper Ballot Voters During June 6th Primary
Those Requesting Paper Ballots Had Privacy Violated and Votes Entered Into E-Voting Machines Anyway!

by John Gideon

6/25/2006

Many Riverside County California voters went to the polls on primary election day, June 6, with the plan that they would use their right to request paper ballots instead of voting on the Sequoia Edge Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, touch-screen) voting machines.

Those voters will probably be surprised to learn that the county Registrar of Voters thumbed her nose at them. The paper/absentee ballots they were given, Xerox copies of the ballot on 8 1/2×11 paper, were then punched into the DRE's by election workers later. The same touch-screen systems the voters had wanted to avoid by requesting a paper ballot in the first place. This was all done without their knowledge, without their permission, and without their ability to verify that their ballots were voted as they had voted them.

Moreover, the voters were forced to attach their names and addresses to the ballots! So much for private voting in Riverside!…

snip

Thanks to Art we also have a copy of the instructions that were used by elections workers to do this work.

snip/link to elections workers instructions

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=2996


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x436487

[Kurovski]

18. Kick to the top! (nt)

[understandinglife]

19. K&R with gratitude to you, TIA and the many others who are striving ...

... to save our Republic by protecting the right to vote and the absolute necessity to COUNT THE VOTES PUBLICLY.


Not One Single Line Of Software Between A Voter And A Valid Election


Peace.