JUNKING TOUCH-SCREENS: Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 02/04/07

[freedomfries]

JUNKING TOUCH-SCREENS?-Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 02/04/07



All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
:patriot:

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
If you can:
:argh:
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=203x37123

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.
:patriot:

[freedomfries]

1. FL: Orlando sentinel Editorial: Ban touch-screen voting machines

Restore trust: Our position: It's crucial for Florida to ban touch-screen voting machines.

Editorial
February 4, 2007
Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed04107feb04,0,1849816.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

Instead of being the butt of jokes when it comes to Election Day fiascoes, Florida is now on the verge of being a national leader, thanks to Gov. Charlie Crist's vow to ban the use of touch-screen voting machines.

Mr. Crist wants to replace touch-screens with less flashy, but more trustworthy, machines that count ballots voters have filled in with a pencil or pen. These "optical-scan" machines may not report results as fast as touch-screens or be as cheap to run, but they are far better for democracy. That's because optical-scan machines rely on paper ballots that can be recounted by hand to ensure accurate election results.

It is to Mr. Crist's credit that he is willing to spend $32 million to restore credibility to Florida's elections, rather than give the idea lip service or stick local governments with the cost. Lawmakers ought to embrace Mr. Crist's proposal and set the standard for fair elections just as their sweeping ethics reforms last year set an example for the nation to follow.

Florida is the trendsetter here. Consider that the Republican governor is supported by U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Delray Beach Democrat already pushing for a federal law to require paper records of touch-screen voting.

While just 15 of Florida's 67 counties use touch-screen machines, huge metropolitan areas like Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough and Pinellas are among them. So 54 percent of the state's voters cast ballots on touch-screen machines that, despite all the promises of accuracy, cannot be manually recounted in the event of a contested election. Nationwide, about 30 percent of voters used touch-screen machines in 2006.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed04107feb04,0,1849816.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
:patriot:

[freedomfries]

2. FL: Quest for voting certainty leads back to paper

Quest for voting certainty leads back to paper

George Bennett
Palm Beach Post, FL
February 04, 2007
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed04107feb04,0,1849816.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

During the chad-hanging agony of Florida's 2000 presidential election, it would have been hard to imagine a politician appearing before a crowd and promising more manual recounts - and getting applause.

But after six years and a contentious experiment with paperless electronic voting in much of the state, Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler last week made hand recounts sound as appealing as low-cost prescription drugs when he spoke to a senior-dominated audience west of Delray Beach.
...
While just 15 of Florida's 67 counties use touch-screen machines, huge metropolitan areas like Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough and Pinellas are among them. So 54 percent of the state's voters cast ballots on touch-screen machines that, despite all the promises of accuracy, cannot be manually recounted in the event of a contested election. Nationwide, about 30 percent of voters used touch-screen machines in 2006.

Even if these machines could be protected from tampering -- and a federal study determined they are vulnerable -- the lack of a paper record dooms their effectiveness. A "recount" on a touch-screen machine is like pressing "replay" on your iPod. The results will never change because it is just a reflection of the data stored there.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed04107feb04,0,1849816.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

[freedomfries]

3. FL: Fla. Touch Screen Voting Machines May Be Replaced

Fla. Touch Screen Voting Machines May Be Replaced

Michele Gillen
Delray Beach, FL
cbs4.com
February 1, 2007
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_032111535.html

Governor Charlie Crist said Thursday that he wants upwards of $30 million to create more sophisticated voting machines that could leave a voter paper trail, meaning the traditional touch-screen format known for controversy in past elections could be done away with in the future.

The governor will ask for the funds so counties that use paperless electronic voting machines can convert to optical-scan systems and establish a voter-verified ballot paper trail.

My recommended budget would allow a verifiable paper trail of Florida's voting system, without placing a financial burden on county taxpayers," said Governor Crist. "Our goal is to increase voter confidence and ensure Floridians have confidence in the voting process."

Crist and U.S. Representative Robert Wexler a democrat from Boca Raton, made a joint announcement in Delray Beach when the Voters Coalition meets according to Wexler's chief of staff.

Fifteen of Florida's 67 counties use paperless touch-screen voting machines. The remaining counties use optical scan machines where a voter marks a paper ballot with a pencil and it is electronically scanned.

Critics of the paperless machines say voters are disenfranchised because there is no record for a manual recount should questions arise about an election.
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_032111535.html

[freedomfries]

4. FL: FL Gov. Wants $32 Million for Voting System

FL Gov. Wants $32 Million for Voting System

Michael F. Haverluck
CBNNews.com
Christian News
February 2, 2007
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/98461.aspx

A sum of $32 million has been proposed to be spent by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in order to make sure that his state's electronic voting machines leave a paper trail. This action has been spurred by complaints about the touch-screen balloting system used by the state, according to a Tuesday report given by a Florida congressman.

Republican governor Crist will be joined by Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler in a Thursday proposal that will advocate spending tens of millions of dollars to revamp the system.

"Gov. Crist has made an extraordinary commitment to ensuring fairness and integrity in our election process," expressed Wexler. .

After Florida's 2000 presidential election recount, electronic voting machines have been endorsed as the resolution to vote-counting errors. However, after approximately 18,000 voters in Florida's Sarasota Country did not have their ballots counted in the November 2006 election, the touch-screen machines continue to be a major focus in Florida's contested congressional race.

Those skeptical about the paperless machines assert that the electronic system does not afford for protection since there is no tangible record left in the event of a recount.
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/98461.aspx

[freedomfries]

5. FL: Miami Herald Op: A paper trail improves the odds of an accurate vote tally

Florida still searching for an election fix
OUR OPINION: A PAPER TRAIL IMPROVES ODDS OF AN ACCURATE VOTE TALLY

Opinion
The Miami Herald
Februart 4, 2007
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16609586.htm
Gov. Charlie Crist got to the heart of Florida's election quandary Thursday with this simple but eloquent declaration: ''You should, when you go to vote, be able to have a record of it.'' With that clear-eyed assertion of intent, Mr. Crist put Florida on track to achieve what hasn't been fully accomplished since the 2000 election when punch-card irregularities and butterfly ballots made our state the laughingstock of the nation.

Mr. Crist is trying to fix problems that have cropped up in several elections since the 2000 fiasco. His approach is a common-sense assessment of what needs to be done to produce statewide elections in which ballots are counted accurately. Achieving that goal, however, won't be easy.

If the governor gets his way, all Florida counties will have optical scanners as their primary voting machine. Mr. Crist would replace electronic touch-screen machines that are used in Broward, Miami-Dade and 13 other counties with the more-accurate optical scanners. He is allocating $32.5 million for the conversion. Because the electronic touch-screen machines are more versatile than optical scanners, counties would be allowed to keep some of them on hand to accommodate special needs, such as for blind voters or having ballots in other languages.

The 2000 Election that President Bush won by a mere 537 votes was a wake-up call for America on the sorry state of affairs of U.S. elections. Millions of people realized for the first time that most elections are flawed, not just Florida's. But the images of Florida election officials poring over punch-card ballots to determine if they had hanging chads, dimples or were pregnant became the visual poster child for election snafus.
...

There are problems with both the touch-screen and optical-scan machines, but the touch-screen snafus are more worrisome in close elections where recounts are needed. That's because touch-screen machines simply recount the votes that were counted in the first place. When there is an error, the machine gives no clue about what went wrong, what the voter did or how the voter intended to vote. For example, in Sarasota County last year, voters in a congressional race to replace Katherine Harris recorded more than 18,000 ''undervotes,'' or ballots in which no vote was tallied for any candidate.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16609586.htm

[freedomfries]

6. FL: Dent promises new voting machines for fall elections

Dent promises new voting machines for fall elections

Venice Gondolier Sun, FL
February 2, 2007
http://www.venicegondolier.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=020207&story=tp2vn6.htm&folder=NewsArchive3

It appears a still-unresolved Sarasota County appeal of the Nov. 7 charter referendum that scrapped more than 1,600 ES&S iVotronic touch-screen voting machines won't prohibit the purchase of new optical scanning equipment that produces a paper trail for election recounts.

"We're going to get the new machines," Elections Supervisor Kathy Dent told the Pelican Press. "My plan is to have the new system ready for a countywide referendum on extending the 1-percent local option sales tax this November and the presidential primary next spring."
...
"Our appeal is about mandatory audit language in the charter amendment that would have us operate under different rules than the other 66 counties," Dent said. "We're going to have optical scanning machines. It's just a question of which company we buy them from."

One more election

There is also a legal question of whether Dent can keep a few paperless ES&S machines for blind and visually impaired voters to use.

"They're entitled to a secret ballot," she said, "and 66 counties are currently allowed to use one touch-screen machine."
http://www.venicegondolier.com/Newsstory.cfm?pubdate=020207&story=tp2vn6.htm&folder=NewsArchive3

[freedomfries]

7. Nat: AmericanThinker: The return of the paper ballot

The return of the paper ballot

Rosslyn Smith
American Thinker
February 2, 2007
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/02/the_return_of_the_paper_ballot.html

This is good news for those of us who have been concerned about the lack of a paper trail with touch screen voting machines. I have another reason to be dubious of this technology.

Last November county employees where I live went door to door rounding up senior citizens and driving them to the polls. When I went to vote, I was surprised by how many of these elderly voters were in need of assistance because they were unfamiliar with touch screen systems. As I watched I thought how easy it would be for a helper to say the ballot has been cast even though the machine was un-cleared and to then change the vote as the person in need of assistance left the booth. Many of our seniors are already susceptible to suggestions on how to vote from caretakers and authority figures, making absentee ballot abuse among residents of nursing homes a major source of low tech vote fraud. The use of an unfamiliar technology that requires assistance for a great many elderly voters to use and then leaves no paper trail can only make this situation worse.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/02/the_return_of_the_paper_ballot.htm

[freedomfries]

8. OH: Ohio is keeping its touch screens

Ohio is keeping its touch screens
Brunner plans review to improve voting

Joan Mazzolini and Michael O'Malley
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
February 03, 2007
http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isope/1170511013257810.xml&coll=2

Ohio's top election official said Friday that the state can't afford to give up on touch-screen voting machines despite decisions by two other states to abandon the technology.

Instead, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she wants to boost confidence in touch- screen systems and plans a review within six months to look for ways to better handle and secure the machines during elections.

Her comments came a day after Florida's governor announced the state will scrap touch-screen machines used in 15 counties because they do not produce a back-up paper record. Ohio, in contrast, requires a paper record for all touch-screen machines.

Some observers contend the move by Florida, and Virginia's decision to phase out touch- screen machines that operate much like automated tellers, spell trouble for the technology.

Candice Hoke, director of the Center for Election Integrity at Cleveland State University, said Florida's decision is "certainly an important point on the path toward decommissioning touch screens."

Hoke said optical scanners, which read paper ballots filled out by voters, are much more reliable and less expensive than the new touch-screen machines.

"They're prohibitively expensive," she said of the touch screens, noting they require special training, rigorous testing and tedious programming. "For the taxpayer, it's been a tremendous step backwards," she said. "It's mind-boggling that they went with them in the first place."
http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isope/1170511013257810.xml&coll=2
:patriot:

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Prohibitively expensive, definitively, in that they are less than worthless.

They are counterproductive in terms of being irremediably vulnerable to the disgracefully unambiguous level of fraud evidenced in the recent elections, statistically identified with compelling certainty.

[freedomfries]

9. MD: Voting reform seen unlikely until 2010

Voting reform seen unlikely until 2010
Miller cites state budget problems

Melissa Harris
Baltimore Sun
February 1, 2007, 9:23 PM EST
Re-post
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-voting0201,0,3333299.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said Thursday 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.
...
"I think money is a valid concern, but it's hard to put a price on a secure election," said Johanna Neumann, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Election Integrity Coalition.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-voting0201,0,3333299.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[freedomfries]

10. CA: W-NV County Committee inspects voting machines

W-NV County Committee inspects voting machines

The Union, CA
Jill Bauerle, [e-mail]
February 2, 2007
http://www.theunion.com/article/20070202/NEWS/102020179

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."

Carol said she became concerned about electronic voting equipment after 2004 election results in Ohio cast doubt on the reliability of Diebold voting machines. Exit polls predicting Kerry's win in the state did not match up to the official count and reports surfaced of machines that recorded incorrect votes.

After working on the committee, Carol said that most of her doubts about the machines have been allayed.

"I'm coming away pretty reassured, and I'm pretty skeptical," Carol said. Her biggest fear - electronic hacking - would require that the programmer in charge of the county's software be in cahoots with someone from the Secretary of State's Office because of all of the checks and balances included in the system.
http://www.theunion.com/article/20070202/NEWS/102020179
:think:

[freedomfries]

11. VoteTrust USA: Senate Committee Hearing on Electronic Voting Problems of 2006 Election

Senate Rules Committee to Hold Hearing on Electronic Voting Problems of 2006 Election

Rules Committee Media Release
Vote Trust USA
Thanks Bill Bored
February 04, 2007
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2238&Itemid=26

Hearing Chaired by Senator Feinstein is first step in the Committee's efforts to address the hazards of electronic voting

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) announced that the U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, February 7 on "The Hazards of Electronic Voting – Focus on the Machinery of Democracy."

The hearing will focus on concerns related to the security and auditability of voting systems used in federal elections, with an emphasis on reported problems in the 2006 federal elections.

"One-third of voters cast their ballots in the 2006 midterm election using new electronic voting machines, and problems arose in various jurisdictions throughout the country. The most serious problem occurred in Sarasota, Florida, where there were 18,000 undervotes in the Congressional election and officials have been unable to account for what happened to these votes because there is no independent record," Senator Feinstein said.

"Just yesterday, Florida Governor Charlie Christ announced plans to abandon the touch-screen voting machines used in many of Florida's counties and adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines. Other states are considering similar plans.

It's time that Congress also considers such safeguards for all federal elections. We must do everything we can to restore confidence in the outcome of elections by helping to ensure that every vote cast by an American eligible voter is recorded accurately."
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2238&Itemid=26

[freedomfries]

12. BradBlog: Obama-Schumer and the Advance of Voter-Centered Reform

Obama-Schumer and the Advance of Voter-Centered Reform

Bob Bauer
Bob Bauer's Blog
BradBlog.com
February 03, 2007
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2236&Itemid=26

Among the early criticisms of the Obama-Schumer “deceptive practices” bill is an odd one: that it is an incumbent protection statute. An understandable reaction to any form of regulated “campaign speech”, it is here misplaced. At its core, Obama-Schumer takes up the cause of voters, not of candidates, which distinguishes it from much of the campaign regulation in recent decades.

This distinctiveness emerges with particular clarity when Obama-Schumer is compared to the last “dirty tricks” provision enacted by the Congress, in the wake of Watergate.That was mainly a candidate self-protection measure. In the difference between the two statutes can be seen a shift of regulatory attention from the needs of candidates to the rights of voters, and this, in the period of preoccupation with election reform in the voters’ interests, suggests the importance of Obama-Schumer.
...
The debate that will take place along these lines is to be welcomed. For it is the occasion for a genuine reckoning, at long last, with the serious problem of concerted, well financed and organized efforts to trick, confuse and intimidate voters with false information intended to stop them from voting. In this day and age, when the more brutal methods of the past have become too risky, the deliberate lie has come into vogue, and it is seen in election after election. The magnitude of the problem is undetermined, in part because the activity by its nature is designed to elude measurement. But another reason for the absence of data is that there has been no systematic undertaking to pursue measurement, which is not surprising when, to this moment, there has been little inclination to do anything about it.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2236&Itemid=26

[freedomfries]

13. SafeVote: "The price of freedom is eternal vogolance."

http://www.safevote.org/

[freedomfries]

14. Nat: The Nation Op: Stopping the next war

Stopping the Next War

Opinion
The Nation
February 1, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070201/cm_thenation/15162478

The Bush Administration has a new one size fits all scapegoat for everything that ails Iraq: Iran.

To listen to the Administration recently, you'd think Iran was solely to blame for US soldiers dying, reconstruction stopping and the Iraqi government faltering. The recent US attacks on Iranian targets in Iraq and accusations leveled at the government in Tehran have members of Congress and foreign policy experts increasingly concerned that the Administration is rushing the US into another war, under false pretenses and blind to the consequences.

"The White House has established a Media Outreach Working Group whose mission is to establish international outrage against Iran," Colonel Sam Gardiner testified yesterday on Capitol Hill. "We're seeing a pattern very much like the run up to the invasion of Iraq."

At a hearing convened by Rep. Barbara Lee (news, bio, voting record), military and foreign policy experts stressed the need for Congress to exert its constitutional check on the White House.

"Congress can play a decisive role to prevent the situation from escalating out of control," said Dr. Trita Parsi, President of the National Iranian American Council. "If the President refuses to engage in diplomacy, then perhaps Congress should take on that responsibility."

A bipartisan group of Congressmen have introduced legislation requiring President Bush to get Congressional approval for any military action against Iran. Barbara Lee has gone one step further, sponsoring a bill that blocks the use of funds for "any covert action for the purpose of causing regime change in Iran or to carry out any military action against Iran in the absence of an imminent threat, in accordance with international law."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070201/cm_thenation/15162478

[freedomfries]

15. Enjoy your Sunday!

[Algorem]

16. OH- new attorney general Dann fires Blackwell's election-case lawyers

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/117058143776290.xml&coll=2

Attorney general fires Blackwell hires
Private lawyers handled election cases

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Reginald Fields

Plain Dealer Bureau

...Brunner said the firings were about preserving public money, though she admits her political differences with Blackwell were also a factor...

...."Some of those cases are two and three years old, and for elections cases, that's a long time," he said.

Brunner called the fired lawyers hand-picked "ideological attorneys" who backed Blackwell's "philosophical bent" on election laws and procedures. Brunner made similar criticism of Blackwell a staple of her campaign last year...

The cases range from challenges raised by news agencies blocked by Blackwell from doing exit polling for the 2004 presidential race to fights against re vised voter registration rules started before the 2006 elections...

[livvy]

17. Mid-morning kick and rec. Thanks!

:kick: :hi:

[FogerRox]

18. Ditto.

[salin]

20. evening kick