Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, FRI. 2/2/07

[rumpel]

Several points today to report...I just report what I got (don't shoot me) you may not like some of it or the source

However, it is of great importance to lay it all out there and discuss as we prepare for 2008

First, again - the continuing saga of my daughter's voter registration.

On Tuesday January 30, 07 my daughter received a Birthday Card from the Secretary of State, "Bruce McPherson"! How sweet

You change your socks every DAY
You change your ringtone every WEEK
You change your calendar every MONTH
You change your New Year's
Resolution every Year

You just turned 18.

Now on

Election Day,

you can change California

Happy 18th Birthday

REGISTER AND VOTE

:eyes:

and it is a registration card. Aside from the unimpressive "poem" or whatever it is supposed to be, the exact mailing date of this registration form is impossible to determine as with many mailers, "first class mail, US postage paid and permit # " pre-printed.

The problem is, my daughter turned 18 on October 27, 2006, and the appointed Mr. McPherson was voted out of office on November 7, 2006, and just last month our new Secretary of State was sworn into office.

In addition, she started the registration process on the Secretary of State website in September 2006, which later referred it to the Los Angeles County Registrar, which sent her a pre-printed registration - pretty much only to penn her signature and mail back - which supposedly never arrived - she filled out another registration at the County Registrar's office - only for her to receive a notice in January - that they noticed she voted "provisional" urging her to register yet again- and now this?

Who handles these mailers? Which subcontractors? Is this why voter registrations are so screwed up? Granted, we have problems with USPS - any mail handling division or subcontractor needs to be audited! This is now beyond anger or ridicule... it is representative of mismanagement of grave concern.

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

If you can:

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


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[rumpel]

1. via e-mail: THE ROAD TO BOONDOGGLE IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

News & Issues via e-mail received from uscountvotes.org

Permission to reprint and distribute granted, with link to
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

THE ROAD TO BOONDOGGLE IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS:
HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT (HAVA) LOBBYIST LIST

Question: What happens if you lobby a lawmaker for $4 billion in
expenditures for touch-screen voting machines and go back to that same
lawmaker two years later asking to dump DREs?

Answer: You lose credibility. It might be hard to lobby for other
things. It's politically embarrassing. And your members, or funders,
might have a few questions to ask about the prudence of your lobbying
expenditures.

BUT HOW COULD ANYONE HAVE KNOWN?

The road to voting computers was paved with good intentions. No one
knew that some of the programmers for voting computers would turn out
to be convicted embezzlers.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/14318.html

No one realized that the main sponsor of the HAVA bill -- Rep. Bob Ney
-- would end up going to jail on corruption charges.
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/46466.html

Few realized that the federal testing labs, Ciber and Wyle, weren't
doing their jobs and their overseers -- NASED and now the EAC --
failed to check their work.
Wyle failures (Bowen Hearing): http://www.blackboxvoting.org/itahearing.pdf
Ciber failures: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/46428.html

HAVA bought a lemon.

WHO BIT INTO IT?

Progressive public interest groups. Labor unions. Civil rights groups.

While many election reform activists are under the impression that
touch-screen (DRE) voting machines were some sort of Republican plot
to take over America, the truth is that lobbying for the DRE-seeking
"Help America Vote Act" came primarily from the foundation of the
Democratic Party itself.

Activists throughout America have expressed surprise at the Democratic
Party's unwillingness to pull DREs off the shelf. One reason is simply
this: To do so would damage the credibility of those who lobbied for
HAVA. And those who lobbied for HAVA just happen to be the biggest
funders and activist workhorses for the Democratic Party itself.

WHO INVESTED THEIR CREDIBILITY (AND MEMBERSHIP FUNDS) TO LOBBY FOR HAVA?

1. Public interest groups - mostly progressive
2. Big labor
3. Minority rights groups
4. Disability rights groups
5. Industry

Of these, the first four tend to favor Democrats but the fifth group
-- industry, the group charged with writing the computer code that
counts America's votes -- is made of vendors that are more often close
to the Republican Party.

Democrats lobbied HAVA in but to a large extent, Republican-affiliated
vendors executed the mechanics of the plan. Some would call this
comical; others, tragic.

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUP HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. People for the American Way
2. Common Cause
3. American Civil Liberties Union
4. League of Women Voters
5. American Jewish Committee
6. Hadassah
7. American Association for Retired Persons
8. Public Citizen
9. American Network of Community Options and Resources
10. Constitution Project (Georgetown University)
11. Open Society Policy Center (Soros)

LABOR UNION HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
2. Laborers International Union of North America
3. International Brotherhood of Teamsters
4. United Auto Workers
5. American Federation of Teachers
6. AFL-CIO
7. UNITE (Industrial & Textile employees)

Of the seven HAVA-lobbying groups above, five are among the Top-20
largest donors of all time to any political party. All five donate
almost exclusively to the Democratic Party and its candidates. None of
the top 20 Republican donors lobbied for HAVA.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the labor unions that lobbied for HAVA
have given nearly $150 million to support Democrats since 1989, and
six were in the Top-20 Democratic PAC funders for 2006-06.

MINORITY RIGHTS HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.
2. National Council of La Raza
3. Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF)

DISABILITY RIGHTS HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. American Foundation for the Blind
2. The ARC of the United States
3. National Disability Rights Network
4. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
5. United Cerebral Palsy Association

Black Box Voting has been unable to locate the lobbying disclosure
forms for the American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD)
featuring the vocal Jim Dickson, nor did we find any disclosure forms
for the National Federation for the Blind (NFB), the group that took
$1 million from Diebold. Misfiled? Misnamed? Overlooked? Omitted?

Link for NFB $1 million from Diebold:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/73/36492.html

COUNTY GOVERNMENT HAVA LOBBYING
1. Riverside County, Calif.
2. San Diego County, Calif.
3. Ventura County, Calif.
4. Miami-Dade County, FL

INDUSTRY & BUSINESS HAVA LOBBYISTS

1. Accenture
2. VoteHere
3. Election Systems & Software
4. AccuPoll
5. Danaher
6. Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs
7. US Business & Industry Council
8. Assocation of Technology Act Projects

Not found on lobbying forms pushing HAVA: The SAIC, the ITAA, and Diebold.

Diebold Election Systems Inc does not show up on the 2001-02 HAVA
lobbying forms, but did lobby for elections issues in 2004 and 2005.

Also notably missing are the firms referenced by R. Doug Lewis of "The
Election Center" in an August 2003 meeting. In this tape recorded
meeting, he said that HAVA was put into place by an election systems
task force which included Lockheed, Northrop-Grumman, EDS, and
Accenture.

Of these, only Accenture shows up the lobbying forms, and there is no
entity called Election anything, except for Election System & Software
and another company, election.com, which lobbied for Internet voting.
(See Chapter 8 of Black Box Voting for more on the Saudi-owned
election.com, which was later taken over by Accenture -
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf - See Chapter 16 for
more information on the tape recorded meeting:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-16.pdf )

What about Choicepoint? Choicepoint says it didn't lobby for HAVA.
Choicepoint says it hasn't had any involvement in elections.

The lobbying forms don't show lobbying for voting machines, but a
lobbying firm called Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations filed a
registration form in 2002 indicating they planned to lobby for
"Election Reform" on behalf of Choicepoint. Muddying things up, no
2002 lobbying form appeared showing that they did. In 2001, however, a
lobbying form clearly puts Choicepoint in the middle of HAVA lobbying,
showing that Choicepoint was involving itself in lobbying for the
voter registration component of HAVA.

Choicepoint has repeatedly stated that they have "no involvement
whatsoever" in elections, and in rebuttal to a controversial article
that appeared for a short while on OpEd News, Choicepoint came on to
deny that they lobbied for HAVA. More on Choicepoint here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/17778.html

Choicepoint, a controversial database broker, clearly cannot state
that it has "no involvement in elections."

Choicepoint stakeholder Donna Curling, wife of Choicepoint chief Doug
Curling, has continued to fund election reform lobbying by providing
funding for some of the activists working on the Holt Bill.

THEY THOUGHT DRE VOTING MACHINES WOULD HELP THEM BUILD THE DEMOCRATIC BASE

Those who lobbied for HAVA were convinced that the DRE machines would
solve problems, helping more people vote.

1. Many of the HAVA reformers believed that with DREs, people with
less education would be more likely to fill out the whole ballot. In
fact, they reasoned, the DRE machines would be easier to use for
educationally disadvantaged populations, minorities,
non-English-speaking voters, and the disabled.

Few studies back these conclusions up, and those that do have
generally not been replicated, or were not peer reviewed, and
sometimes show methodology that is as flawed as the lemons HAVA
bought. The occasional studies that have been done -- even those
prepared by DRE advocates -- sometimes end up with troubling caveats.
A Georgia study purported to show that "most people like voting on the
DREs" (but rarely mentions the small print: The same study showed that
the African-Americans surveyed distrusted the touch-screens).

2. The citizens' right to oversee local elections -- and especially
the citizens' right to even get access to information -- has been all
but eliminated through the implementation of HAVA. The original civil
rights concept was virtuous.

Federal Government is the entity that enacted civil rights, HAVA
reformers reasoned, so therefore let's ask the federal government to
fix our elections process.

Be careful what you ask for. It just might get "fixed."

REAL SOLUTIONS

If federal government is going to correct anything, it should start
with enacting tougher standards to give citizens Freedom of Access to
Elections Information -- mandating that the system actually PRODUCE
the information needed for citizens to make sure the right candidate
was place in office, in a TIMELY manner, that is COST EFFECTIVE and
USABLE, prohibiting removal of the information through proprietary
claims.

And above all, local CITIZEN oversight must be protected. In almost
every case, discoveries of problems with elections and the computers
that count them have been discovered by ordinary citizens, not by
government oversight, auditors, consultants, certifiers, or experts.

And if we are going to rid ourselves of the DREs, we need to get past
the -- er -- little "problem" of the threat to credibility if former
HAVA lobbyists take the courageous step of changing course.

They couldn't have known. Perhaps a set of tough investigative
hearings can provide the evidence to brace those backbones for the
change in direction. Look to Calif. Secretary of State Debra Bowen's
well-prepped, no-nonsense hearings on the certification process for
examples, and start by issuing subpoenas to Diebold's master
programmer, Talbot Iredale, and Ciber's Shawn Southworth (who refused
to show up for Bowen's hearing).

This thing can be done. It doesn't need a bandaid, it needs a disinfectant.

SEE FOR YOURSELF HOW HAVA CAME TO BE:

Photocopies of the lobbying forms are in the process of being uploaded
to the Black Box Voting Document Archive. You will find lobbying forms
for all of the groups listed above as they are uploaded here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/46539.html

[rumpel]

2. via e-mail: "The Circular Firing Squad that is the Election Integrity Movement"

uscountvotes.org

The Circular Firing Squad of the Election Integrity Movement
Battles over the FIVE METHODS to Verify Election Outcomes

CAN WE STOP THE CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD of election integrity activists
long enough to achieve election outcome integrity by the 2008
election?

The election integrity movement has been a circular firing squad ever
since July 2004 when I first began devoting time to it. At the first
conference I attended, before I even spoke, I sat down with Lynn
Landes who immediately berated me for using math and exit polls to
evaluate election integrity and who later attacked my work on her web
site and then subsequently plagiarized it, reposting some of my work
with minor changes and without acknowledgement. This behavior on the
part of several activists has been repeated over and over again. It
seems that they glance at the work, don't understand it at first,
attack it, and after reading it later, slightly restate and claim that
it is their own.

VoteTrustUSA, when it began, advertised its affiliation with the
National Election Data Archive on its home page, using our good name
to garner support, while simultaneously refusing to allow me to
participate in any of its email discussion groups. VoteTrustUSA has
consistently refused to mention any of my work for ensuring that
election outcomes are correct that has taken me considerable amount of
time, but they often follow my work within days or weeks by lengthy
articles by their own favorite statistician describing equivalent
work, often with slight changes.

A few days ago I emailed a board member who moderates the Open Voting
Consortium (OVC) discussion list to express my concerns about his
apparent encouragement of plagiarism and also expressed my fundamental
disagreements with some of their positions. By return email, I was
summarily removed from their list and told it was because I cc'd Bev
Harris, Doug Jones, David Mertz, and David Dill. The disagreements
that I expressed were:

1. OVC's President Alan Dechert, in a recent conversation, told me
that he has been meeting with US Congressional Members and encouraging
them not to pass any federal election integrity legislation. In my
opinion, federal legislation mandating routine election outcome
verification via manual vote counting with public oversight is vital
to the continuation of American democracy in an electronic age.

2. OVC's current position is for each voting booth to have a computer
ballot printing or a computer ballot marking voting device. In my
opinion, paper ballots which are cast by machines would mean that
printing errors on ballots could be overlooked even if voters visually
check ballot accuracy before depositing them in a ballot box.
Able-bodied voters should be encouraged to caste their votes directly
on paper ballots so that there is no possibility that any errors were
the fault of improper configuration or programming. A computer is a
ridiculous waste of money for an activity that takes an able-bodied
person ten minutes once a year.

3. The OVC has not adopted a position in favor of manual counts of
voter verifiable paper ballot records (or audits). When OVC's
President Dechert recently addressed California's County Election
Directors none of his presentation materials mentioned manual
audits/counts of VVPR (voter verifiable paper records of ballots). As
we all know, having VVPRs (voter verifiable paper ballot records) with
every voting system is meaningless showmanship unless there are
sufficient routine manual counts, transparency, and citizen oversight.


I appreciate the commendable work of the Open Voting Consortium to
design and promote more trustworthy, secure, accountable, accurate,
less costly electronic voting systems and devise methods to ensure
that any person responsible for vote miscount or vote fraud might be
held accountable. While everything that the OVC is doing would make
the voting system more efficient and trustworthy, efficiency and
accountability do not translate into accurate elections results unless
there are routine manual counts of VVPRs (or audits).

On the other side of the circular firing squad are the persons calling
themselves HCPBs (Hand Counted Paper Ballot Only Supporters) who want
to scrap all electronic voting machines and return to 100% hand counts
on the night of the election. Many in this group vociferously attack
and mischaracterize any other solution that could ensure the accuracy
of election outcomes.

CAN WE STOP THE CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD of election integrity activists
long enough to achieve election outcome integrity by the 2008
election?

It is a mathematically provable fact that there are five separate ways
of using manual counts of VVPRs along with citizen oversight to verify
the accuracy and integrity of election outcomes. They are:

1. 100% Hand counts of 100% of all vote counts

2. 100% hand counts of sufficient numbers of randomly selected vote
counts – Exact – Program

3. 100% hand counts of sufficient numbers of randomly selected vote
counts - Tiered - Table

4. 100% hand counts of sufficient numbers of randomly selected vote
counts – Estimated - Formula

5. Count 10% of randomly sampled ballots of 100% of vote counts

I couldn't give a darn which method is used as long as at least ONE
method is used in every election jurisdiction. These five methods all
have pros and cons. Some are more politically viable than others. Some
may be resisted more by election officials who seem apt to resist any
audits of their work, than others. Some can only be used with certain
voting systems. Some require different amounts of resources and
different procedures. All require auditable voting systems with VVPRs
and all have more commonalities than differences. Any one of the five
would ensure the integrity and accuracy of our election outcomes if
executed with proper procedures and citizen oversight.

This is what I propose: Let us form a new group of activists to work
on a project to explain ALL the possible methods (I can count FIVE so
far) that could be chosen to verify the integrity of election results
using hand counts of VVPRs; give the pros and cons of each method; and
ask that our US legislators pass ANY ONE of them – or a general
requirement that states use AT LEAST ONE of the available methods of
verifying the integrity of election outcomes.

I invite anyone who agrees with the following five ground rules to
join a discussion group to work on this project. If you agree that:

1. We need sufficient publicly observable and verifiable manual counts
of VVPRs in every election to assure the accuracy and integrity of
election outcomes because all voting systems are created and
implemented by human beings 100% of whom are not 100% infallible and
100% honest.

2. We will not mischaracterize or wrongly attack any of the five
methods for ensuring election outcome integrity just because we have a
preference for one particular method.

3. We will point out the flaws or cons of all of the five methods of
ensuring election integrity only after studying and understanding them
first. (We agree to do due diligence by reading and asking questions
before pointing out alleged problems with any of the five methods.)

4. We will help describe and work on a paper explaining all of the
five methods to ensure the integrity of election outcomes; assisting
in our own areas of expertise.

5. We will act with integrity and be honest and stick with the facts.

You do not have to be an expert on all five methods. If you would
like to join a work group of election integrity activists who agree
with the above, in order to explain the possible solutions to ensure
election outcome integrity, please send an email to

[e-mail]

and be sure to reply to the confirmation email. (We can form a Yahoo
group instead if people would prefer but for now, please subscribe to
this list.)

However, please do not subscribe to the list if your aim is to shoot
down any of the five methods rather than to help accurately describe
how each of them would work to ensure the integrity of elections.

Any which way we can do it, we need to ensure the integrity of US
elections by 2008!

[rumpel]

3. via e-mail: OVC Press Release

*Open Voting Consortium CEO to Keynote Red Hat Summit 2007*

Alan Dechert Joins the Growing Panel of Visionaries for the May
Conference in San Diego

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Red Hat (NYSE:RHT), the world's leading
provider of open source solutions, today announced the co-founder,
president and CEO of the Open Voting Consortium, Alan Dechert will
keynote at the third annual Red Hat Summit in San Diego, Calif. The Red
Hat Summit will take place May 9-11, 2007 at the Sheraton San Diego
Hotel and Marina.

The Red Hat Summit 2007 will bring together partners and customers of
all kinds in an open source knowledge exchange. The event will feature
six tracks designed to address the latest areas of interest in the open
source industry including virtualization, Service-Oriented Architecture
(SOA) and intellectual property law. With hands-on workshops,
demonstrations, informative sessions and more, the Red Hat Summit will
feature industry leaders such as Dechert and Chairman of the Software
Freedom Law Center, Eben Moglen. Moglen, a Red Hat Summit 2006 keynoter,
is a confirmed track speaker for the 2007 conference.

“It is an honor to be given the opportunity to keynote at the Red Hat
Summit 2007,” said Dechert. “As a strong open source advocate, I see the
relevance of this conference and the importance of the open
collaboration it fosters among great minds. I am thrilled to be involved
in the Summit and look forward to attending in May.”

Alan Dechert is a seasoned software test engineer and application
developer with over 15 years of industry experience. He helped craft one
of the most widely used open source computer programs to remedy the Y2K
problem. In 2003 he was one of three co-founders of the Open Voting
Consortium, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development,
maintenance and delivery of open voting systems for use in public
elections. Through the use of open source code systems, the Open Voting
Consortium aims to deprivatize the voting system in the United States.
Currently serving as president and CEO of the Open Voting Consortium,
Dechert works full time for the organization educating the public,
pressing for needed legislation for electoral accountability and raising
funds for programming needed for the open source voting machine and
election tabulation software.

Registration for the Red Hat Summit 2007 in San Diego is open with
discounts for those who commit prior to Feb. 16, 2007. For more
information, or to register for the Red Hat Summit, visit
www.redhat.com/promo/summit/ <http://www.redhat.com/promo/summit/>

[rumpel]

4. NYT: Florida to Shift Voting System With Paper Trail

By ABBY GOODNOUGH and CHRISTOPHER DREW
Published: February 2, 2007
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Feb. 1 — Gov. Charlie Crist announced plans on Thursday to abandon the touch-screen voting machines that many of Florida’s counties installed after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The state will instead adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines in time for the 2008 presidential election.

Voting experts said Florida’s move, coupled with new federal voting legislation expected to pass this year, could be the death knell for the paperless electronic touch-screen machines. If as expected the Florida Legislature approves the $32.5 million cost of the change, it would be the nation’s biggest repudiation yet of touch-screen voting, which was widely embraced after the 2000 recount as a state-of-the-art means of restoring confidence that every vote would count.

Several counties around the country, including Cuyahoga in Ohio and Sarasota in Florida, are moving toward exchanging touch-screen machines for ones that provide a paper trail. But Florida could become the first state that invested heavily in the recent rush to touch screens to reject them so sweepingly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02voting.html

[rumpel]

16. FL: Governor's paper-trail plan gets mostly good reviews

Herald Tribune

By LLOYD DUNKELBERGER and TODD RUGER

[e-mail]
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday moved to delete the controversial touch-screen voting machines from Florida's political memory, as he endorsed a $32.5 million plan to convert all of the state's counties to a paper-based voting system.

The Republican governor chose to make his announcement in the heart of Palm Beach County -- where Democrats still blame a faulty ballot design for their loss in the 2000 presidential election.

It was paper-ballot problems, like the infamous "hanging chads," that led many of Florida's largest counties to move to the paperless electronic touch-screen machines after the 2000 election.

But the electronic machines had plenty of critics too. Their biggest complaint was that the machines left no paper record that could be used to settle a disputed election -- like last year's 13th Congressional District race in Sarasota, where Democrats claimed 18,000 votes went unrecorded on the touch-screen machines.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/NEWS/702020364

[rumpel]

5. DNC Statement on DC Voting Rights

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Democratic
National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement on
the DNC resolution advocating full voting rights for the District of
Columbia:
''I would like to thank Donna Brazile, who is the author of this
important resolution, for her tireless and continued efforts to advocate
for full voting rights on behalf of the residents of the Nation's Capitol.
For too long residents of the District of Columbia have been denied
Representation in the halls of Congress. The District of Columbia is home
to over a half a million residents who work hard everyday, pay their taxes
and serve proudly in the armed forces just like many Americans all across
the country.
''The Democratic Congress has already moved swiftly to restore the
District's voting rights, which were stripped under the Republican
Congress. This critical resolution expresses the full support of the
Democratic National Committee that the District of Columbia receives full
voting rights and Representation under the law. I call on Republicans to
join Democrats in supporting this effort which will help to remedy a voting
rights disparity that has existed for too long.''
Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee,
http://www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any
candidate or candidate's committee.

SOURCE Democratic National Committee

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-02-2007/0004519211&EDATE

[rumpel]

6. CA: Ruff fined for misreporting election loan

San Diego Union Tribune

By Kristina Davis
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 2, 2007

Former sheriff candidate Bruce Ruff has been fined by the Fair Political Practices Commission after an audit found that he misreported the source of a $6,000 loan during the 2002 election.

Ruff, who lost the race to incumbent Sheriff Bill Kolender, agreed to pay $2,500 for violating the Political Reform Act, which requires every candidate to properly report loans and other campaign contributions.
The resolution, agreed upon by Ruff and the FPPC's executive director, will be presented to the five-member commission committee in Sacramento next week for approval.

The $6,000 loan came from Ruff's brother in 2001 so Ruff could pay for his candidate's statement on the ballot pamphlet, according to FPPC documents.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070202-9999-1m2ruff.html

[rumpel]

7. CA: Committee inspects voting machines

The Union.com

By Jill Bauerle, [e-mail]
February 2, 2007


The citizens' committee that is reviewing Nevada County's electronic voting machines put Hart Intercivic equipment to the test Thursday.

The four-hour evaluation with four Hart Intercivic officials was meant to help the committee make recommendations to the county Board of Supervisors before the county Elections Office selects either Hart Intercivic or Diebold Inc. to provide voting equipment. The committee reviewed Diebold's machines last week.

The county must sign an agreement before a July 1 deadline to qualify for $877,000 in state money to buy the machines. The purchase helps the county comply with a 2002 state law to modernize voting equipment.

One committee member put security at the top of her list of concerns.

"I'm representing the paranoid voter," said Grass Valley resident Julia Carol. "I want to make sure that our elections stay fair."

http://www.theunion.com/article/20070202/NEWS/102020179

[rumpel]

8. NM: Justice Department settles NM voting rights claim

4 KOBTV (NBC)

Last Update: 02/02/2007 8:47:14 AM
By: Associated Press

GRANTS, N.M. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice has settled voting rights claims against Cibola County.

The department has settled allegations that the county violated the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act.

An attorney for the county, Joe Diaz of Albuquerque, says those claims were added to a lawsuit alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act.

That lawsuit was originally filed in 1995.

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=30140&cat=NMTOPSTORIES

[rumpel]

24. A much better report: Justice Department settles Cibola County voting rights claim

The Santa Fe New Mexican

Associated Press
February 1, 2007

GRANTS, N.M. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice has settled voting rights claims against Cibola County.

The department announced Wednesday it had settled allegations that the county violated the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act. Those claims had been added to a lawsuit alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act, which originally was filed in 1995, attorney Joe Diaz of Albuquerque, who represented the county, said Thursday.

Justice Department oversight of elections in the county will be extended through 2008 under a consent decree with the county.

The federal agency filed the consent decree Wednesday resolving the lawsuit. It still must be approved by a federal judge.

"I felt that the county had been complying but the Justice Department felt there were a few problems" that warranted the extension, Diaz said.

American Indians complained that their rights continued to be violated, and county officials agreed to the extension, Diaz said.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/56285.html

[rumpel]

9. MS: Voting rights trial recesses for judge's decision

By John Mott Coffey
[e-mail]
Thursday, February 1, 2007 11:10 AM CST

JACKSON - The Noxubee County voting-rights trial nearly reached an end Wednesday, but it recessed to let lawyers prepare for a battle of experts helping a federal judge decide whether black Democrats use bias and fraud to trample over the county's white minority.

In a two-year-old case pitting the Bush administration against Noxubee County's black-dominated government and Democratic Party, lawyers for both sides Wednesday said they've finished presenting their trial witnesses with the exception of two political scientists.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee on Feb. 15 will hear the elections expert enlisted by the Noxubee County Democrats to counter allegations by another political scientist hired by the U.S. Justice Department.

The trial - which began Jan. 16 - is for the first lawsuit ever filed by the U.S. Justice Department alleging whites' voting rights have been violated.

Noxubee is 69 percent black and 29 percent white.

http://www.cdispatch.com/articles/2007/02/01/local_news/local04.txt

[EFerrari]

10. Thank you, rumpel!

:hi:

[rumpel]

14. :)

:hi:

[rumpel]

11. PA: Civil rights movement: A dialogue

By: URI News bureau
Narragansett Times.com

02/02/2007

KINGSTON - Gassed, beaten, left for dead - but undeterred in her determination and vision. Amelia Boynton-Robinson, veteran civil rights activist, and Bernard LaFayette Jr., a distinguished scholar-in-residence and director of the University of Rhode Island's Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, will talk about their shared experiences in the Civil Rights Movement on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.
Kendall Moore, URI assistant professor of journalism, will facilitate the talk, which will be held in Independence Auditorium, Kingston campus. The conversation is free and open to the public.
Boynton-Robinson and LaFayette were linked at a crucial time in the nation's history. She became a nationally recognized figure when she marched on March 7, 1965, also known as "Bloody
Sunday." She was gassed, beaten, and left for dead on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama.
Her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement extends far beyond that tragic Sunday, both before and after. She has long advocated for civil and human rights around the country, spending the 1930s fighting for voting rights and property ownership for African-Americans throughout poverty-stricken Alabama.
During the 1960s, Boynton-Robinson's home and office became the center of Selma's civil rights battles, used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his lieutenants, including LaFayette, and by Congressmen and attorneys from around the nation, to plan demonstrations that would lead eventually to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1964, Boynton-Robinson was the first female African-American to seek a seat in Congress from Alabama, and the first woman, white or black, to run on the Democratic ticket in the state.
As a centenarian, she continues to influence the development of civil and human rights throughout the nation, while maintaining a national and international speaking schedule.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1714&dept_id=73829&newsid=17796784&PAG=461&rfi=9

[rumpel]

12. PA: Jill Porter | Already, a call to end new reform

Philadelphia Daily News

Posted on Fri, Feb. 02, 2007

WELL, THAT didn't take long.

One poll in a mayoral race that's barely just begun and our feckless leaders are jumping the reform ship and aiming to suspend campaign finance limits.

Worse yet: The effort is being peddled as a noble gesture to protect rowhouse voters from losing their influence on the election - when in fact, it will have the opposite effect.

City Councilman Jim Kenney sponsored the bill to ditch contribution caps after wealthy businessman Tom Knox catapulted from obscurity to 22 percent of support in the poll released this week. That's thanks to a $2 million blitz of TV ads that Knox bought out of his own pocket.

Need I say Kenney supports another candidate, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady? And that Knox, the Only Other White Guy, would seem to be Brady's biggest competition, assuming - which I don't - that this election will be the city's usual racial do-si-do?

Rich candidates like Knox are allowed to spend as much of their own money on the race as they want. Freedom of speech, says the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/16603999.htm

[rumpel]

13. MD: Voting reform seen unlikely until 2010

Baltimore Sun

Miller cites state budget problems
By Melissa Harris
sun reporter
Originally published February 2, 2007

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said yesterday that he could not support an overhaul of the state's paperless voting system until 2010 in light of anticipated budget shortfalls and a hectic election season in Baltimore.

"There's a consensus that we need to change the voting system and have a more secure voting system," Miller said. "But we're facing a roadblock of economy. We haven't even finished paying for our current system. ... I don't believe it will pass this year without money."

Miller's unwillingness to commit to "paper-trail" legislation this year significantly lowers the chances that voters will cast their ballots on modified or new equipment next year. Meanwhile, another election reform, a proposed constitutional amendment to permit multiple days of early voting, is on a fast track.

Miller's statements on voting technology reforms frustrated advocates who have urged the state to scrap the new machines, which they argue could have undetectable software glitches or malicious viruses that kill or switch votes.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.election02feb02,0,7678141.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

30. interpretation: Diebold needs to make $millions more

You'll not stop making Diebold rich until Lamone tells you to!

[rumpel]

15. MT: Same-day voting opposed by House

By The Associated Press

HELENA - A bill that repeals same-day voting, blamed for long lines and other problems last year, was pushed through a key House vote by Republicans on Thursday.

The vote along party lines showed the big split between Republicans and Democrats on the issue.

Democrats said same-day voting should be continued, and problems that cropped up last year should be fixed as election administrators become familiar with the system.

Republicans said late registration and voting should be stopped four days before the election to stave off confusion and potential voter fraud. The effort is supported by many election administrators who said same-day voting made it hard to maintain proper lists at the precincts of who had already voted.

The House approved the measure on a 51-49 vote. It faces a state Senate controlled by Democrats who largely oppose the measure, following one more procedural vote in the House.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Johnson said local election officials have asked his office to roll back the same-day voting law.

Johnson said voters should be responsible enough to get registered four days before the election as the bill calls for.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/02/02/news/state/52-legivoting.txt

[rumpel]

17. WI: Voter registration changes for spring primary

htrnews.com

Posted February 2, 2007

Deadline passes for mail registry

Herald Times Reporter


MADISON -- Wisconsin's 20-day deadline prior to the spring non-partisan primary election in February has passed.
Registration requirements change during the period between now and Tuesday, Feb. 20, the date of the spring primary.
Residents who want to vote in the State Supreme Court race or other primary contests, and who are not yet registered, must now register in their municipal or county clerk's office or at their polling place on Election Day.
Registration by mail or by special registration deputy —often used in voter registration drives — is no longer possible.
To register in a municipal or county clerk's office, Wisconsinites must have proof of residence. The following documents can be used to prove a voter's residence:

http://www.htrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/MAN0101/702020587/1984

[rumpel]

18. ME: Democratic leader taken aback by editorial's tone

Friday, February 2, 2007

I am the Democratic Majority Whip of the Maine House. I was taken aback by an editorial (Jan. 30) opposing a bill sponsored by Rep. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, LD 203, An Act Concerning Student Voter Registration.

It is part of my job to speak out for the viewpoints of House Democrats, and, sometimes, against the viewpoints of Republicans. I agree with many comments in the editorial regarding the substance of LD 203. If it is the consensus within my caucus, I will fully enjoy a substantive debate with those Republicans who sponsored and co-sponsored this bill. It is appropriate to draw the public's attention to their position.

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/letters/3575273.html

[rumpel]

19. Bill would limit voting rights for non-Mainers

The Bowdoin Orient

February 2, 2007

By Nat Herz
Orient Staff


A lawmaker has introduced a bill in the Maine House of Representatives that would take away voting rights for college students from out-of-state.

The legislature's Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony on the bill Wednesday and will hold a vote on February 7.

The sponsor of the bill, Representative Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, said that sometimes college students commit voter fraud by voting both at college and at home, according to a report in the Kennebec Journal. Other supporters of the bill say that students living in dormitories in Maine colleges just aren't residents.

Tom Charpentier '10 made the trip to Augusta to testify against the bill. In his testimony, he said that while students do not necessarily pay taxes or live in the state all year, they do contribute to local economies, are subject to state laws, and benefit from state and municipal services.

Some individuals have taken aim specifically at Bowdoin students. One post on a Waterville newspaper's message board questioned whether Bowdoin students were sufficiently knowledgeable to vote in local elections.

http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2007-02-02§ion=1&id=10

[rumpel]

20. MT: Bypassing Electoral College an intriguing idea

Great Falls Tribune

Some eloquent defenses of the Electoral College exist, but most of them in this day and age come across as elaborate rationalizations.

When people find out how the system actually works, they are surprised, if not shocked.

And most Americans got a crash course in how the system actually works in 2000, when after more than a month of wrangling George W. Bush won the presidency via the Electoral College but lost the popular vote to Al Gore.

It almost happened again in 2004, when Bush won the popular vote by about 3 million, but could have lost in the Electoral College if 60,000 more Ohioans had voted for John Kerry.
Much election reform has occurred since then, including cleaning up many mechanical irregularities and inconsistencies in the voting system. The Help America Vote Act is the primary manifestation of that effort. For the most part HAVA has been a success.

But that pesky Electoral College, written into the original Constitution, remains as a clumsy memorial to the founders' belief that they had to protect the landed aristocracy from the hazards of majority rule.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/OPINION01/702020319

[rumpel]

21. MD: Voting paper trail option offered

State election chief concedes paper voting record will be part of future Maryland elections

By JEFF HORSEMAN, Staff Writer
The state election chief yesterday warned lawmakers not to be too hasty in requiring voting machines to have a paper trail, offering instead a short-term solution that would allow voters to use electronic machines or the older paper-based devices.

The growing cry for a paper trail to ensure the integrity of voting was one of two election reform issues aired before the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday. The other was a proposed constitutional amendment to allow early voting, which could be on the ballot next year.

Addressing the panel, state Elections Administrator Linda Lamone conceded that a paper voting record will be a part of future Maryland elections, although she still believes in the integrity of the state's current system.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/02_02-54/GOV

[rumpel]

22. CA: Proposed High School Voter Registration Law

KGO-TV/DT


Must Register Before Diploma
By Nannette Miranda


Feb. 1 - KGO - A San Jose lawmaker's proposal to get the vote out among young people is drawing criticism from teens and other legislators. Before high school seniors can graduate, there's one more thing they might have to do before getting that diploma. It's not study harder, take one more class, or pass another test. The new chairman of the Latino caucus is assigning homework: students will need to register to vote.

Assm. Joe Coto, (D) San Jose: "What I want to do is try to increase the level of participation by young people in registering and voting in elections and taking a greater interest in the democratic process."
"Rock the Vote" is one popular effort to boost voter registration among the young. But, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, just less than half of 18 to 24-year-olds voted in the last presidential election, while an impressive 72-percent of those 55 and up did.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=politics&id=4995153

Once again, thank you for the B-Day card - Mr. McPherson....

[rumpel]

23. WAPO: STATE ELECTIONS - Legislators Warming to Early Vote

Creation of Paper Trail for Ballots Also Is Gaining Support
By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 2, 2007; Page B06


Measures to change the way elections are run in Maryland are gaining momentum in the General Assembly, with top legislative leaders agreeing yesterday that the state Constitution needs to be amended to allow early voting.

They have also reached a consensus that Maryland needs to supplement its electronic voting system with a paper trail for each vote. A bill could pass this session, but Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said a lack of funding and limitations in technology might make it difficult to fully implement changes.

Lawmakers said the legislative remedies should rectify some of the problems that affected voters around the state during last year's primary and general elections, including long lines and faulty voting machines.

During separate hearings, Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) offered testimony about companion bills that call for a constitutional amendment on early voting. If the legislation is approved, a question would go before voters next year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101976.html

[rumpel]

25. VoteTrust: CIBER Voting Machine Test Lab Failures is 'Old News' Known by Top Election Officials for

Years



By Michael Richardson
February 01, 2007
'CIBER Has Absolutely No Idea What It's Talking About'
Testing Secrecy Has Allowed CIBER to Profit From Sloppy Work


CIBER, Inc., the nation’s largest so-called “independent test authority” (ITA) of electronic voting machines, is at the center of a growing scandal about lax testing of voting equipment. The recent release of a long-kept secret assessment of the company by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) detailing a shocking record of sloppy, incomplete or non-existent testing by CIBER led the test lab’s CEO, Mac Slingerlend, to call the report “old news” in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News.

While CIBER’s shortcomings may be “old news” to Slingerlend, unaware election officials around the nation are angered at not being informed by the EAC prior to the November 2006 elections when voting machine models “tested” by CIBER were used by 68.5% of the registered voters in the country.

Last year the EAC took over testing responsibilities for electronic voting machines from the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) and refused to grant CIBER interim accreditation because of numerous deficiencies at the test lab located in Huntsville, Alabama.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2233&Itemid=26

[rumpel]

26. Brad Hosts On-Air Election Integrity Townhall in Phoenix on Peter B. Collins Show Today!

LIVE Bradcast Begins at 6pm ET (3pm PT, 4pm AZ time!) - Come on Down to the Show if You're Near Phoenix!

Today's special live Townhall BradCast from AZ is sponsored by AuditAZ.org, Arizona Advocacy Network, VelvetRevolution.us and 1480 KPHX Phoenix's Air America/Nova M affiliate!

A great show lined up! Tune in to find out if I'm telling the truth or not and feel free to use this item as an Open Thread while we trash Peter B. Collins' good reputation! (While the mouse is away!)

If your local affiliate doesn't carry the PBC show, Listen online here or here

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4111

http://www.peterbcollins.com/

Station Lineup
KRXA 540 Monterey CA, live 3-6pm
KPHX 1480 Phoenix AZ, live 3-6pm
KGOE 1480 Eureka CA, live 3-6pm
KBBR 1340 Coos Bay OR, live 3-6pm

[autorank]

27. K&R Sweet! n/t

[Kurovski]

28. Please think about recommending this thread on the event...

as soon as possible!:-) Thanks. (and thanks to our dear "rumpel of the daily" for today's thread!)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x466405

[texpatriot2004]

29. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm

[Kurovski]

31. Kick to the top.(nt)