Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Thursday, Feb 1, 2007

[EFerrari]

How do you spell "relief"? :)



All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

If you can:

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

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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

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

Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page.

[EFerrari]

1. National: Senate bill outlaws campaign trickery

Senate bill outlaws campaign trickery
Cardin backs curb on bogus endorsements

By Matthew Hay Brown
Sun Reporter
Originally published January 31, 2007, 9:36 PM EST

WASHINGTON // Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin added his support Wednesday to a measure that would make it a federal crime to distribute campaign literature that makes false claims about political endorsements -- an issue that came up during his campaign last fall.

Maryland Democrats say brochures sponsored in part by the campaign of Michael S. Steele -- Cardin's Republican opponent for the Senate in the November election -- were designed to mislead African American voters about Steele's party affiliation and his support from prominent black leaders.


The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007, proposed by Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Charles E. Schumer of New York, would call for penalties of up to $100,000 and five years in prison for those convicted of knowingly communicating false information on the time, place and manner of elections, voter eligibility and rules, a candidate's party affiliation, and endorsements.

Cardin, who has pressed Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to examine the Maryland allegations, signed on as a co-sponsor.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-election0131,0,2884948.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

[EFerrari]

2. AL: County wonders what to do with obsolete voting machines

County wonders what to do with obsolete voting machines
Thursday, February 01, 2007
By DAN MURTAUGH
Staff Reporter

Mobile County officials are struggling to do something with hundreds of voting machines that have gone the way of 35 mm film, rotary phones and cassette tapes.

About 450 touch-screen voting machines are idling away in a dark corner of a cavernous warehouse on Schillinger Road.

The county used the machines in every election for the past 20 years before June 2006, when it switched to a paper-and-scanner system.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/117032522668660.xml&coll=3

[EFerrari]

3. CA: Bill takes new tack on young voters

Bill takes new tack on young voters
By Edwin Garcia
MEDIANEWS SACRAMENTO BUREAU

* Vote: Should voter registration be required for a high school diploma?

SACRAMENTO - Assemblyman Joe Coto has a provocative proposal to increase voter participation among young people: He wants to require high school students to register to vote before they can receive a diploma.

If his measure becomes law, graduating seniors beginning with the class of 2010 who meet the state's criteria to become voters --18 years old and a U.S. citizen, for example -- would be required to submit proof of registration to the school.

It's believed California would be the first state to tie registration to graduation. The bill allows students to opt out of the requirement, but they would have to put their request in writing.

"What we want to try to do is just increase the engagement of people in the Democratic process," said Coto, D-San Jose. "The percentage of people who determine the outcomes of elections is a very small percentage of the population because there are so many people who are not registered."

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/16595198.htm

[EFerrari]

4. FL: Crist says he needs $32 million for 'paper-trail' voting machines

Crist says he needs $32 million for 'paper-trail' voting machines

By Anthony Man
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted February 1 2007

BULLETIN: DELRAY BEACH -- Gov. Charlie Crist said Thursday he wants to spend about $32 million to ensure that voting machines throughout Florida leave a paper trail.

``What we're talking about here is Democracy and it is precious,'' Crist told a crowd of several hundred people in Delray Beach.


``You should, when you go vote, be able to have a record of it. That's all we're proposing today,'' Crist said, calling it ``common sense.''

The proposal will be part of Crist's budget he presents to the Legislature on Friday.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pvoting01feb01,0,7532401.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

[EFerrari]

5. ID: Legislature mulls vote-by-mail idea

Legislature mulls vote-by-mail idea
Posted: Thursday, February 1, 2007 4:44 AM EST


Elections: Bill would let counties to send ballots to every registered voter

By Dan Black - Idaho Press-Tribune

CANYON COUNTY — A proposal by the Association of Idaho Counties would let voters pick their candidates at their leisure through a vote-by-mail system. That would save counties money and improve voter turnout, proponents say.
The idea will be presented this morning at an 8:30 hearing in the Capitol before the State House Affairs Committee.

The bill would allow each Idaho county to go to vote-by-mail if it chooses. Absentee ballots are now only sent if requested, but vote-by-mail counties would mail out ballots to every registered voter, said Patty Weeks of the Idaho Association of County Clerks.

She said there would still be some polling places for same-day registration and voting, she said, but the county would have to spend less money renting polling spaces, maintaining machines and arranging for polling workers if voting took place by mail.
She said the main reason for the change is voter turnout. Idaho allows sparsely populated precincts to use mail only voting and in those 22 precincts the turnout is “overwhelmingly higher.”

Oregon and Washington recently switched to vote-by-mail and saw better turnout. Another proponent of vote-by-mail is Maria Gonzalez-Mabbutt of Idaho Latino Vote.

http://www.idahopress.com/articles/2007/02/01/news/news4.txt

[EFerrari]

6. KY: Grayson fretting over cost of runoff for counties

Grayson fretting over cost of runoff for counties
COUNTIES WOULD PAY $3 MILLION FOR REVOTE
By Jack Brammer
HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU

FRANKFORT - Secretary of State Trey Grayson is concerned about the cost of a primary runoff election if one is needed in this year's race for governor.

Grayson, the state's top election officer, said yesterday that a primary runoff would cost about $5 million -- $2 million from the state and $3 million from local governments.

"At the state level, we made it a necessary government expense so the state will find the money to do it," Grayson said. "My concern is the counties. It's late in the fiscal year for them. It will be a real big burden."

Under current state law, the top vote-getters in the May 22 Democratic and Republican primary elections for governor must get at least 40 percent of the votes to win their party's nomination to run in the November general election.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/16585376.htm

[EFerrari]

7. MD: Lawmakers Begin Work On Paper Voting Records

Lawmakers Begin Work On Paper Voting Records

POSTED: 6:54 am EST February 1, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Top Maryland lawmakers have said they are ready to require paper trails on electronic voting machines.

They will begin work on the idea when a House committee considers a bill to require a paper voting record.

The paper trail proposal would require physical voting records, either paper receipts on the Diebold electronic voting machines currently used in Maryland or a switch to optical-scan ballots where voters mark their choices with a heavy pen.

Separate House and Senate committees will consider a proposed constitutional amendment to allow early voting. The legislature has already approved plans to allow voting several days before an election, but the state's highest court found the idea unconstitutional. That means the legislature will have to send voters a constitutional amendment before early voting could happen here.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/10897328/detail.html?rss=bal&psp=news

[EFerrari]

8. NJ: School board weighs in on polling place changes

School board weighs in on polling place changes
Board of Ed letter responds to council comments
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN - The borough Board of Education is standing by its request to end the practice of using the schools as polling places, despite opposition from the Borough Council.

At Monday's special meeting of the board, BOE President John Schiels read a letter that the board will send to the council in response to comments made by council members opposed to the change.

"The board read with much distress the public comments made by certain council members to the press," the letter states. "These comments, hopefully, are founded in a lack of understanding of the reasons behind this request."

Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said at last week's Borough Council meeting that he met with acting Superintendent Barbara Struble to discuss a change of venues for voting districts.

http://atlanticville.gmnews.com/news/2007/0201/Schools/036.html

[EFerrari]

9. NY: Voting machine mess still far from resolved.

Voting machine mess
still far from resolved

BY FRANK LOMBARDI
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

The city's antiquated voting machines won't be sent to the scrap yard for at least two more years - perhaps even longer - according to state and city election officials.

Federal mandates enacted after the 2000 presidential election required all states to upgrade their voting machines to modern systems starting in 2004.

But New York State's compliance efforts continue to be plagued by delay after delay. The latest hitch is that testing of a new voting system seeking state certification has come to a standstill because a contractor hired to conduct the tests failed to pass muster with federal authorities.

A showdown with the contractor, Ciber Inc., could come as early as Tuesday in Albany at a meeting of the state Board of Elections.

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/493342p-415553c.html

[EFerrari]

10. PA: Citizens blast voting office

Citizens blast voting office
Thursday, February 01, 207
By SARAH CASSI
The Express-Times

EASTON | Residents and officials aired a list of concerns with Northampton County's voter registration office, from vote tallies to the grammar of official memos.

Nazareth resident Bernie O'Hare took issue with poll workers not offering voters provisional ballots, calls to the office on Election Day going unanswered and a discrepancy in the unofficial vote tally that showed Charles Dertinger winning Northampton County in the race for the 15th Congressional District seat when official vote tallies showed he lost the county.

"Do you think that makes some people suspicious? You're darn right it does," O'Hare said.

The concerns were discussed at the Wednesday night meeting of the citizen advisory committee reviewing the county's voter registration office.

http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1170307338172440.xml&coll=2

[EFerrari]

11. VA: Ex-mayor sentenced to 2 years on election fraud conviction

Ex-mayor sentenced to 2 years on election fraud conviction

By Laurence Hammack

WISE -- The man who personified both power and corruption in the tiny coal town of Appalachia was sentenced today to two years in jail for stealing an election.

Ben Cooper, the town's former mayor and acting town manager, received the sentence from Wise County Circuit Judge Tammy McElyea.

Prosecutors have said that Cooper, motivated by his desire for total control of a town of about 1,800, directed a scheme in which he and 13 others consipred to steal absentee ballots from the mail and cast them for a slate of candidates who later took control of the town council. Other votes were bought with cigarettes and beer, according to an indictment returned by a grand jury last year.

The sentencing of Cooper and three other defendants today marked the apparent end of a case that has been called the state's largest election fraud in the past half century.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/102548

[EFerrari]

12. Press release: A New Congress and a New Bill for Fair Elections

A New Congress and a New Bill for Fair Elections

Dear Friends of Fair Elections,

Today Senators Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer introduced the "Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007." Please see the attached link for more information about this critically important step toward ridding the country of practices that threaten the integrity of our election system.

http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/content/advocacy/support_dpvipa

The counsel and experience of the Lawyers' Committee's National Campaign for Fair Elections and the Election Protection Coalition were invaluable in demonstrating the compelling need for this important bill and for shaping the most effective response to this challenge.

Thank you for your continued support for our efforts to lead the way in ensuring that every American voter has equal access to the ballot box and to have that vote counted. Please don't hesitate to contact me should you care to learn more about this initiative, the National Campaign's work plan for 2007-2008, or any of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our election system.

Regards,

David

David Salie
Director of Development for Project Support
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
202-662-8314 (o)
202-783-0857 (f)
202-903-6813 (c)
[e-mail]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_press_re_070131_a_new_congress_and_a.htm

[Kurovski]

13. Kick to the top.

Thank you, sfexpat2000!:kick:

[FogerRox]

14. A wee kick & Rec

Video, DUers caught at DC March

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x15075