Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 03/03/08

[tbyg52]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 03/03/08

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[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

9. TX: Confusion Rampant Over Texas 'Primacaucus' Rules

The Texas Two-Step is not a primary and a caucus. It is a primary and a "precinct convention." This terminology, alone, has Texans scratching their heads. As a questioner from Dallas TV said in a conference call with the Obama Campaign Friday, "we are getting calls into the station; people are confused. Is there going to be anything else on election night?" You'd think Texans would know by now. But ask anybody with the Iowa and Nevada Democratic parties, and they will tell you that voters have to be given instructions over and over again.

Last week, as has been reported, the Texas Democratic Party held a conference call with the Clinton and Obama campaigns to go over the rules for the Texas primary conventions. At this time, lawyers for the Clinton Campaign stated that the campaign reserved the right to challenge the rules. The Clinton Campaign has been criticized, both by the Texas Dems and by the Obama Campaign, for adopting this stance. However, the lawyers are only doing their job in keeping options open. The scuttlebutt is that the Clinton Campaign's objection to the rules is the timing of the release of the results of the primary conventions. This well may be a strategy, for if Hillary Clinton wins the Texas popular vote, she can ride that momentum for a few days until a delayed release of tentative results for the precinct conventions (and anything until the Texas state convention in June is only a ballpark figure).

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/confusion-rampant-over-te_b_89548.html

[tbyg52]

11. OH: Ohio 'paper' vote system debuting with flaws, researchers say

Cuyahoga County -- which encompasses Cleveland -- will retire its touch screen voting machines on March 4 in favor of a paper/optical scan system. The ballots will be counted at a central location.

One of the potential problems is that voters will not get a chance to run their ballots through a scanner before handing them in -- a step available in some other jurisdictions with optical scan systems, say the researchers. This scan provides an important opportunity for voters to catch mistakes.

"This is not an auspicious debut," says University of Maryland political scientist Paul Herrnson who led the research team. "Voters will go to the polls Tuesday without a safety net. They should be very careful to avoid stray marks and to review their ballots closely. If they want to make changes, they ask for a new form instead of erasing. Colorado dropped this particular configuration of the paper/optical scan machines because it eliminates this important accuracy check."

The ballots are computer forms similar to those used in standardized tests, in which voters register their choices by filling in small ovals with a pencil.

More:
http://www.physorg.com/news123779092.html

[tbyg52]

12. MA: Same-day voter registration a cause for debate in area

On Jan. 16, the deadline for voters to register for the presidential primary election, a whopping 117 people showed up at election offices in Attleboro to sign up.

Some of them would have done it on the day of the election - if it was possible, said Joan Pilkington-Smyth, chairwoman of the city's election commission.

The expectation of even more crowds and long lines on Election Day has made Pilkington-Smyth leery of a proposal to allow citizens to register and vote on the same day.

"Trying to get as many people out to vote is a good thing," Pilkington-Smyth said. "But with people just showing up that day, the problem is going to be able to find out if they are not registered somewhere else."

More:
http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2008/03/03/news/news02.txt

[tbyg52]

13. PA: Philadelphia Democrats suggest forgery

AN ELECTION-fraud prosecution in Erie, pursued by the state Attorney General's Office, is sending tremors into Philadelphia, where two state House members and a state Senate candidate submitted scores of apparently bogus signatures on recent nomination petitions.

Attorney General Tom Corbett announced last week that he was filing criminal charges against former state Rep. Linda Bebko-Jones, 61, a Democrat who had represented Erie in the state House for 14 years, and her former chief of staff, Mary Fiolek.

A state grand jury alleged that when Bebko-Jones was running for re-election in 2006, she and Fiolek sat in their Harrisburg offices and forged dozens of signatures on her nominating petitions, using an Erie County phone book and the lawmaker's personal address book to find the names.

More:
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/20080303_Petitions_for_3_Philadelphia_Democrats_suggest_forgery.html

[tbyg52]

17. VA: ACLU Lawsuit Says Officials Unconstitutionally Prevented Man From Voting In Virginia

The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Virginia today filed a federal lawsuit against a Virginia county’s voting officials for refusing to allow a resident to vote when he was unable to produce identification. Virginia law allows registered voters in state elections to vote without an ID, once they have signed an identity verification form.

R. Leigh Gillette showed up at a Prince William County, Virginia polling place on November 6 about 30 minutes before the polls closed. Because he was on his way to a recreation facility and his wife was driving, Gillette was not carrying an ID. When a poll worker told him he could not vote without ID, Gillette asked to speak to the person in charge who also told him he could not vote. Gillette was never offered an Affirmation of Identity form as required by Virginia law.

“This is our number one complaint from voters on Election Day,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis. “Contrary to state law, the spirit of democracy and common sense, voting officials in Virginia frequently lead voters to believe they must have an ID to vote. In Mr. Gillette’s case, it was more than misleading – it was an outright denial, even after he questioned the decision by voting officials.”

More:
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=60356

[tbyg52]

18. TX: Citizen Exit Pollers Display E-Voting "Wheel of Glitches"

Austin, Texas
Media representatives who have come to Texas to cover the high-drama Presidential Primary election can take VoteRescue's "Wheel of Glitches" for a spin on Election Day and see the many ways electronic voting machines used in the state can "mess with" a voter's vote.
~
When: Tuesday, March 4th, 2008, ELECTION DAY, 12 pm Noon.
~
Where: Austin, Texas, at the Rosedale Elementary School, 2117 W. 49th Street, Austin, Texas 787__ , Travis County Precinct 236.
~
Who: VoteRescue and their Coalition, Texans for REAL Elections
~
What: Display of VoteRescue's "Wheel of Glitches", a large roulette wheel affixed to the screen of a giant-size Hart InterCivic E-Slate voting machine, the kind used in Travis County (Austin), Harris County (Houston), Tarrant County (Ft. Worth) and other parts of the state.
~
Why: To demonstrate the myriad of ways that electronic voting machines can secretly alter votes, totally unknown to the voters.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_vickie_k_080303_tx_citizen_exit_poll.htm

[tbyg52]

21. CO: County voting machines recertified

After listening to input from county clerks across Colorado and further testing the machine, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office has decided to recertify the vote-counting device used by San Miguel County.

The eScan machine, an optical-scan voting machine made by a company called Hart InterCivic, is used by all but 12 Colorado counties.

Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified the machines in December, after testing showed that they sometimes miscounted votes that had stray pen marks or extra doodles on the ballot.

More:
http://www.telluridenews.com/news/x1907847449

[tbyg52]

27. Coffman's 'Never mind'

After 10 weeks of uncertainty surrounding the technology that will be deployed in this year's elections, it looks as if Colorado counties will be able to use the voting devices they purchased after all.

Nearly all the equipment that Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified in mid-December got Coffman's OK late last month. The vast majority require no new programming or hardware modifications. The only machines that haven't yet passed muster are optical ballot scanners used by two counties that are still being retested.

And they may get a thumbs-up sometime this week.

So we're left wondering: What was that all about?

More:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/03/coffmans-never-mind/

[tbyg52]

22. AL: Governor Riley Creates Task Force to Develop Internet Voting System for Troops

Governor Bob Riley created a bipartisan panel and tasked it with developing a plan that will allow deployed military troops and other Alabamians overseas to vote in elections using the Internet.

"If there is any group of people who understands the importance of voting, it is the men and women of our armed forces. But the very people who defend our freedom to hold elections are often faced with a bureaucratic and slow-moving process when it is their turn to vote," said Governor Riley. "They deserve better. They deserve an absentee ballot system that is easy to navigate with no time-consuming hassles standing in their way."

By executive order, the Governor has created the Alabama Military and Overseas Voting Task Force that will be chaired by the Secretary of State, the chief elections officer of the state. The task force will develop a plan of action for the implementation of a secure system for Internet voting for deployed military personnel and citizens of the state who are living overseas at election time.

More:
http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=7956896&nav=menu91_3

[tbyg52]

23. OH: State ruling gives county voters a choice of ballot options

Paper or plastic?

That oft-heard refrain in supermarket checkout lines will apply to Tuesday’s key presidential primary in Ohio, and to the thousands of voters expected to turn out to cast ballots in Lorain County.

Voters who show up within the first several hours at the county’s 104 polling places will likely have the best chances of having their choice of casting either a paper or touchscreen ballot.

Those who come later in the day will, in all likelihood, have to vote on touchscreen ma-chines.

More:
http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/03/03/state-ruling-gives-county-voters-a-choice-of-ballot-options

[tbyg52]

25. WV: Officials stand behind voting machines

Cabell County Clerk Karen Cole said they are sticking with the iVotronic Touch Screen Voting System for May’s primary elections, and she maintains confidence in its accuracy.

Cole said the county began using the Election Systems & Software’s vote tabulators before the 2000 general election. After a series of ordinances and charter changes approved by the Huntington City Council in 1999, all future Cabell County and city elections were held together. When the candidate participation increased, Cole said a new system needed to be introduced.

“We used an optical scan, paper and pencil, ballot in the 2000 primary election, and we had a lot of issues with it. It didn’t work for Cabell County,” Cole said. “Since the elections were linked, the paper ballots were too cumbersome for effective voting. So, we became the first county in the state to use the iVotronic Voting System.”

More:
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x112305686

[tbyg52]

26. CO: Clerk: Mesa County in trouble if bill passes

A bill telling election officials to use paper ballots this year instead of electronic voting machines is starting through the legislature.

Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified most of the state's electronic voting and ballot-counting machines because of security and accuracy concerns.

Many machines, including those used in Mesa County have since been cleared for use.

Some legislators and the governor have still support using paper ballots until the issue is completely resolved.

But Mesa County uses only computerized voting machines.

More:
http://kjct8.com/Global/story.asp?S=7957205

[tbyg52]

29. TX: Justice Department to Monitor Elections in Texas

The Justice Department today announced that on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, it will monitor elections in Brazos, Fort Bend, Galveston and Waller Counties, Texas, to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting rights statutes.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered in the Act itself or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities for the elections in Fort Bend and Galveston Counties, based on the special coverage provisions, and they will be assigned to monitor the election in Brazos County, pursuant to a federal court order entered in 2006.

Brazos, Fort Bend and Galveston Counties are obligated to provide all election information, ballots and voting assistance information in Spanish as well as in English according to the Voting Rights Act. The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in these jurisdictions. Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

In addition, Justice Department personnel will monitor polling place activities in Waller County, Texas. A Civil Rights Division attorney will coordinate federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/justice-department-to-monitor-elections-in-texas,300498.shtml

[tbyg52]

30. NY: New Steuben voting machines coming

Steuben County expects to have an optical scan voting machine in each of its 58 polling places in time for the Sept. 9 primary election.

Democratic Election Commissioner Sandra Dennison said the county has ordered 60 Sequoia Dominion ImageCast machines to comply with terms of the federal Help America Vote Act.

The devices, which are accessible for people with disabilities, are required to be in place in all New York counties by this fall's primary.

"If all goes well, these machines will replace all the lever machines," Dennison said.

More:
http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/NEWS01/803030310

[tbyg52]

31. VA: U.Va. professor to examine voting machines in lecture

HAMPTON - A University of Virginia professor will speak to the public in Hampton on Tuesday night about "Why the World's Information Technology Leader Can't Count Votes."

Bryan Pfaffenberger, an associate professor of Science, Technology and Society says that controversy over voting machines traces back to the 1920s, when the first mechanical voting machines were introduced.

More:
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/hampton/dp-local_voting_0304mar04,0,7270231.story

[tbyg52]

32. FL: Think you have the right to vote? Think again

Do you think the U.S. Constitution gives you the right to vote?

You're wrong if you do, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho told a group of elections activists attending the third annual Florida Election Reform Conference in DeLand.

snip

Sancho has been an outspoken critic of the use of touch-screen machines, and resisted state mandates to use them in 2004. In 2005, he invited computer experts to Leon County to demonstrate security problems that allowed hackers to get in undetected and change vote tallies on optical-scanning equipment.

Now he's looking at another problem, one he said contributes to the lax standards applied to voting equipment and election integrity nationwide.

"The individual citizen has no individual constitutional right to vote for the president of the U.S.," Sancho said. "With no federal right to vote, that right is protected only by the individual states, who are not well equipped to deal with federal constitutional rights."

More:
http://www.beacononlinenews.com/dailyitem.php?itemnum=647

[tbyg52]

34. FL: South Miami election foul-up kept voters home

A minor mess-up by the Miami-Dade County elections office is having major consequences in the city of South Miami, where dozens of voters were mistakenly told they could not cast ballots in last month's municipal election.

Those 53 voters, who were incorrectly told they lived outside the city limits in unincorporated Miami-Dade, could have changed the outcome of one City Commission race: Incumbent Velma Palmer beat challenger René Guim by 24 votes.

One week later, Palmer led a 3-2 vote to fire the city manager -- and pay a $102,000 severance package. Guim said he would have voted against the firing.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/coral_gables/story/441727.html

[tbyg52]

36. HI: Hawaii considers electing president by popular vote

Hawaii lawmakers are trying again this year to push through a measure that would elect the president of the United States by a popular vote and ditch the old Electoral College.

But opponents claim the current system protects small states like Hawaii from being rendered insignificant by states with millions of more voters.

The debate in Hawaii falls closely along party lines, with majority Democrats trying to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election when Al Gore lost to President Bush despite receiving the most votes overall.

More:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20080302-1741-wst-xgr-popularvote-hawaii.html

[tbyg52]

37. TN: ACLU sues over Tennessee’s felon disenfranchisement law

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN), joined by the national ACLU Voting Rights Project, filed a lawsuit today in federal court challenging the state’s 2006 law that made the restoration of voting rights for people convicted of crimes contingent on the payment of all outstanding legal financial obligations (LFOs), namely restitution and child support fees.

According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, requiring some individuals to bear anundue financial burden before voting is tantamount to a poll tax in violation of the constitutional right to vote and the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. “The legal financial obligations provision creates an undue burden on the voting rights of the economically disadvantaged,” said ACLU-TN Cooperating Attorney Charles Grant, of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz. “Although not intended, these provisions harken back to a time when Blacks, the poor and other marginalized groups were required to pay poll taxes for the privilege to vote. We are hopeful the courtwill protect the rights of all Tennessee voters, not just the ones who can afford to buy back their franchise.”

More:
http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2008/03/03/aclu-sues-over-tennessee%E2%80%99s-felon-disenfranchisement-law%E2%80%8F/

[tbyg52]

38. AL: Riley asks judge to release him from voter registration duties

Gov. Bob Riley asked a federal judge Monday to release him from his court-appointed duties overseeing Alabama's new voter registration database.

Riley legal adviser Ken Wallis filed a report with U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins saying a new statewide computerized voter database was in place and had no significant problems in last month's presidential primary. The report said Riley wants to turn the supervision of the database over to Secretary of State Beth Chapman.

Watkins appointed Riley in 2006 to be a special master in charge of the voter registration system after ruling that then-Secretary of State Nancy Worley's office had failed to meet a federal deadline for implementing it.

More:
http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-34/120457587543350.xml&storylist=alabamanews

[tbyg52]

40. TX: Texas short on election workers for primary

Texas short on election workers for primary
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Monday March 3, 2008

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Print This Email This

With a record voter turnout expected in Tuesday's primary, Texas is scrambling to find enough election workers to cover the polls.

Election Judge Mike Conwell even went door-to-door in Travis County on Saturday, looking for volunteers. "I think it is an unusual step ... but I'm kind of running out of options," Conwell told Austin's KVUE News.

"If the county doesn't get enough volunteers by Tuesday," KVUE reported, "precincts may be combined, which could create confusion for voters."

There could be even greater problems facing Texas voters in some counties. According to a blog at OpEd News:

"The lines at many Democratic Precinct Polling Places in Republican heavy counties may be frustratingly long. Long lines and long waits at Democratic Polling places are likely to occur because Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson (R) used 2004 primary voting pattern numbers to allocate Election Clerks and County owned Voting Equipment to 2008 Democratic Primary Precinct Polling places. ...

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Texas_short_on_election_workers_for_0303.html

[tbyg52]

43. FL: Democratic Primary Re-Election in Florida?

Democratic voters in Florida may soon be called back to the polls.

Governor Charlie Crist supports a repeat of the Democratic Presidential Primary, According to Bloomberg News.

More:
http://www.wmbb.com/gulfcoastwest/mbb/news.apx.-content-articles-MBB-2008-03-03-0008.html

[Wilms]

46. Los Angeles: Friday, March 7th Hearing on the February Primary Vote

Hearing on the February Primary Vote

Join Secretary of State Debra Bowen for a Joint Informational Hearing by these California state government committees:
Assembly Committee on Elections & Redistricting;
Senate Committee on Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments;
Senate Select Committee on Integrity of Elections;

Regarding Problems Faced by Voters in the Feb. 5 Presidential Primary Election.

Friday, March 7, 2008
1:00pm - 4:00pm
Ronald Reagan State Building Auditorium
300 South Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Please arrive early if you plan to testify. If you encountered problems during the February primary:
SPEAK UP about your Election Day experience, if there was a snafu... SPEAK UP about problems that need to be addressed.

SHOW UP to support your fellow citizens who lost their vote and their voice on Election Day.

There will be time allotted for public testimony. If you experienced or know of any problems on this past election day, WE URGE YOU to prepare a short testimony (have it on paper to hand in, in case you don't get on the roster.) And, yes, there were problems. Now, why did we have them?

You've undoubtedly heard of the massive voter disenfranchisement of those non-partisan voters (at least 50,000, likely many more) who wished to vote Democratic in the recent primary election: they unfairly had to take an extra step (marking a special ballot entry, or "bubble") which was unknown even to huge numbers of poll workers. Less reported by the press were other problems, including absentee ballots that never arrived in time and unusually high registration problems.

What you likely don't know is that, at separate meetings, multiple activists warned the County Registrar's staff of potential trouble from the extra "bubble" EIGHT DAYS BEFORE the election-- plenty of time for meaningful alerts to be sent to every poll inspector. One especially prescient citizen suggested that the electronic readers used to check for voting errors be programmed to check for this extra bubble - a warning that was ignored (hey, those machines only cost you $25,000,000 - oh well).

Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x498322

[tbyg52]

2. National nt

[tbyg52]

10. Diebold Stock Soars After $3 Billion Takeover Bid by Defense Contractor Conglomerate

Prices for Diebold stock shares are soaring out of the 7-year basement this morning, where they'd been sitting for the past several months since a coordinated insider sell-off by a dozen or so officers on the very same day last August when the stock had been near it's 52-week high at $53.04/share. Within days after the sell-off, the company renamed its humiliated Diebold Elections Division to call it Premier Election Solutions, and the stock had been falling, some 50% in total ever since. Until today.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported a take-over attempt of the entire company by defense contractor conglomerate United Technologies Corp. (UTC). Their initial $3 billion hostile bid to buy Diebold at $40/share is "a 66 percent premium over Diebold’s Friday closing price of $24.12," according to the Times' report.

As of 2pm ET today, Diebold's share price has soared some 60% to more than $38/share.

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5759

[tbyg52]

24. Diebold rejects 'opportunistic' United Tech offer

Diebold Inc (DBD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday its board has rejected an unsolicited $2.64 billion takeover offer by diversified U.S. manufacturer United Technologies Corp (UTX.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

The No. 2 maker of automated teller machines said in a statement that the $40-per-share bid undervalues the company, whose shares have fallen over the last few months amid scrutiny by U.S. financial regulators.

"UTC's proposal is an opportunistic attempt to buy Diebold at a time when shareholders do not have sufficient data to evaluate the offer and as such, the board believes that it would be irresponsible to engage in discussions with UTC at this time," said John Lauer, Diebold's nonexecutive chairman, in a statement.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN0336110120080303

[tbyg52]

28. The Political Thriller Behind United Technologies-Diebold

My comment: Note that they are interviewing a *political* science, not a *computer* science, professor.....

United Technologies today made a surprise $2.63 billion, $40-a-share offer to buy automated-teller-machine and voting-machine maker Diebold, which rejected the bid saying the timing was wrong. As readers might remember, Diebold was the subject of numerous conspiracy theories in the past two presidential elections. Does United Technologies know what it is getting into?

To find out what it all was about, Deal Journal turned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of political science Stephen Ansolabehere, a member of the CalTech/MIT Voting Project that follows the issues around the voting process.

DJ: What do you think of the theories that the function of Diebold machines influenced the outcome of the last two presidential elections?
SA: I generally don’t find those to be at all compelling. It’s fairly hard to pull off something like that without there being a smoking gun. A lot of the statistical patterns depended on the exit polls, which themselves have problems. I think the bigger issues are the problems of actually administering and implementing elections on a localized level as tech becomes more sophisticated and governments want to get rid of expertise to run elections. It used to be that those old lever machines, the cities used to have people on staff to program those machines. With punchcards, they had people on staff to clean out the machines. There is no longer any capability to do that with computers, so all of that becomes a contract with the government.

More:
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/03/03/the-political-thriller-behind-united-technologies-diebold/?mod=googlenews_wsj

[tbyg52]

15. Whitehouse Explains Caging: An ‘Especially Nefarious Voter Suppression Tactic’

Last week, the Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on the voter suppression tactic known as “caging.” Its first witness was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a former U.S. attorney who has introduced a bill explicitly outlawing the procedure.

Whitehouse’s testimony clearly explained the tactic, which gained prominence during the U.S. attorney scandal. Karl Rove pushed heavily for the ouster of the U.S. attorney in Arkansas in order to install his protege, Tim Griffin. During his time as research director for the Republican National Committee in 2004, Griffin allegedly engaged in the caging of African-American servicemembers.

As Whitehouse notes, caging is a three-step process that targets voters of the opposite party, who are often minorities. The campaign sends “do not forward/return to sender” letters to those individuals, and then challenges the votes of those whom do not respond — even if they are servicemembers stationed abroad, as happened in 2004. From his remarks:

Indeed, vote caging was used as early as 1960 in Arizona and continued, in fits and starts, through the 2004 elections — when evidence surfaced that voter caging lists were being compiled. While not every voter caging effort is successful in disenfranchising large numbers of voters, the failure of a voter suppression effort is no excuse for its legality.

More:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/03/whitehouse-caging/

[tbyg52]

19. Voters wait for hours to vote, only to find their names missing from registration list

Welcome to the first presidential election in which nearly every state must have a list of every registered voter. Here’s the catch: if your name isn’t on it, you may have trouble casting a ballot in this historic race for the White House.

The lists have already caused problems in New Mexico, Arizona and California, where people waited hours to choose a presidential nominee only to find they weren’t listed as registered voters — or they weren’t listed in the party of their choice.

On Tuesday, when folks line up in the crucial states of Ohio and Texas, election observers fret that similar snafus will confuse and delay primary vote counts that could help decide whether the Democratic nominee will be the first woman or the first black man to hold that title.

"It could be the sleeping giant in terms of voting problems," said Larry Norden of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school, which monitors election issues.

More:
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1077245

[tbyg52]

20. Voting rights of Asian Americans taken up

Congressman Bobby Scott has questioned the Department of Justice on barriers to voting for Asian American voters, including issues of language access and unauthorized requests for voter identification. Rep. Scott directed questions to Asheesh Agarwal, Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justices Civil Rights Division, at a voter suppression hearing held by the Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.

Rep. Scott, Chair of the Civil Rights Taskforce of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) and member of the Judiciary Subcommittee, highlighted a recent study conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF). The report documented barriers to voting for Asian Americans in nine states and the District of Columbia during the 2006 elections. Problems include mistranslated voting materials and inadequate interpreters, hostile poll workers, and improper or excessive demands for voter identification.

More:
http://www.indiapost.com/article/communitypost/2198/

[tbyg52]

33. Election Reform Put to the Test With Online Voting System

To Paul DeGregorio, it’s only a matter of time before online or phone voting is the standard way for people to cast their ballots in the United States.

In fact, he notes, it’s already arrived, just not in the political world.

“Tens of millions of people vote on ‘American Idol’ using technology,” he says. “When there are so many people doing that on a regular basis, a younger generation is going to demand it.”

And this year, he points to the new generation interested in the outcome of the presidential race and the voting landscape of coming years.

“I think they’re going to demand greater flexibility in casting ballots,” he says. “They’ll want to do it from the convenience of wherever they are instead of waiting in line at a polling place.”

More:
http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=62404404.8538777.1594346.3145076.80452102.888&aID2=122633

[tbyg52]

3. Foreign nt

[tbyg52]

6. Russia: Complaints of Fraud, Bribery and Pressure

Voters and opposition parties complained of ballot stuffing, bribery and intimidation in Sunday's presidential election, in which Kremlin-backed candidate Dmitry Medvedev appeared set for a landslide victory.

Golos, the only independent Russian monitoring group, said that a majority of the violations occurred not at the ballot box, but rather in the run-up to the election and during the tallying of votes.

Authorities, meanwhile, either denied any voting irregularities or dismissed them as negligible.

"These are free and democratic elections, and they were preceded by a free and democratic campaign," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by telephone Sunday evening.

More:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/03/03/002.html

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8. EU Observers Claim Poll Fraud In Russian Presidential Election

The dust has yet to settle in Nairobi as Kenya was finally able to iron out the two-month political unrest resulting from poll fraud, a similar scenario may have a repeat in Russia. Amid victory celebrations for the electoral victory of Dmitry Medvedev as President of Russia, the European Union observers claim there was fraud committed.

According to Andreas Gross, chairman of the EU delegation, while the result reflected the popularity of outgoing President Vladimir Putin's anointed and the will of the Russian electorate, there was lack of freedom and uneven access to media during the campaign period, giving Medvedev undue advantage.

"We believe there was not freedom in these elections," Gross said. He added, "The results of the presidential elections... are a reflection of the will of an electorate whose democratic potential was, unfortunately, not tapped."

More:
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010212982

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7. Nigeria: Court asked to overturn election verdict

A top opposition leader has gone to Nigeria's Supreme Court to challenge President Umaru Yar'Adua's election victory, court papers showed Monday.

Muhammadu Buhari had promised to appeal last week's lower-court ruling in Yar'Adua's favor, and court papers showed he followed through over the weekend.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has also said he would appeal to Nigeria's highest court for a final say on whether the 2007 vote should be annulled and a new election held. His lawyers say they expect to launch their appeal this week.

More:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20080303183617587C710982

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16. Zimbabwe: Fears of Flawed Poll Mount

ZANU PF has stepped up violence and intimidation against opposition supporters ahead of this month's polls, virtually shutting out the possibility of a free and fair election, The Standard can report.

Reports of violence, threats by security chiefs against legitimate protest and directives on how uniformed officers should vote all disregard the SADC guidelines on how elections should be conducted.

Zanu PF's complaints to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on remarks made by an opposition spokesman about lessons from Kenya compound an already flawed process. The Standard has also learnt that the election management body's limited capacity to publicise constituency boundaries, the list of candidates, and the wards in which voting will take place will conspire to create a highly uneven electoral field.

More:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803030475.html

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4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

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14. NJ: Election integrity at stake

New Jersey is ready to go into the crucial presidential election with a voting machine system that makes many people uncomfortable. Chances are there will be no serious problems in November, but there's also a possibility that in a tight race, New Jersey could become the Florida of 2008. Only this time the talk won't be about hanging chads but whether computer hackers tampered with the outcome.

The Legislature, which has time to act, should direct counties to abandon the existing system and opt for one that provides a paper trail that verifies votes. The current machines don't do that.

Questions about the reliability of the touch screen and other electronic voting devices are driving the debate about election security and the integrity of the results not only in New Jersey but across the nation. Only 14 states do not demand some sort of paper verification of a vote, and five states have decertified the electronic machines that are in use in New Jersey or are seriously considering other options. The trend is to paper ballots used in conjunction with optical scanners.

More:
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2008/03/election_integrity_at_stake.html

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5. The Youth Vote nt

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35. Mobilizing the Youth Vote in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island

CREDO Mobile, the San Francisco-based mobile phone service from Working Assets, is employing an innovative way to get out the youth vote this Tuesday: their cellphones.

The phone company, along with the ONE Campaign, will "text out the vote" by sending non-partisan voting reminders to 3,000 of their members and supporters. The groups have already sent out over 20,000 messages in primaries earlier in the year.

Already, turnout by young voters has reached unprecedented levels in primary contests. While registrations are up, the need to ensure that young voters follow through and vote is more important than ever.

On the eve of the election, CREDO Mobile will send an alert out to mobile phone users who requested a text message to remind them to vote.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/mobilizing-the-youth-vote-in-texas-ohio-vermont-and-rhode-island,299942.shtml

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39. IS THE YOUTH SURGE A CAMPUS EXCLUSIVE?

Despite the impressive increases in the sheer numbers of young people turning out to vote this year, a large segment of the young population is still being left out-- those who haven't been to college.

A new analysis of the Super Tuesday primaries by CIRCLE, a civic participation organization, finds that nearly 80% of the people under thirty who voted on February 5th had completed at least some college. The turnout rate for young people with a high school degree or less hovered around 7%, while those with more education had a 25% rate.

This gap is especially high when you consider than in 2007, only half the population of 18-29 year olds in the US had attended any college, and just 18 percent of of them had attained a Bachelor of Arts or higher.

More:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=293719

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41. Election Sparks Interest in Politics Among Younger Voters

Historically, they've been seen as liberal, Democratic, anti-war and seemingly too young to be concerned about the state of the national economy. But though this generation's most defining factor has been that their voter turnout made them appear to be either too apathetic or too turned off by politics to vote, in recent elections younger voters have become more engaged in the political process.

Today, with a newly energized young electorate, more young voters are exercising their right to vote. Youth voter turnout in 2008 has doubled, tripled and even quadrupled in some primary states compared to their levels in 2004. In Democratic primaries, young people have gone from being 9 percent of all voters four years ago to 14 percent of voters this year.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/29/ST2008022902607.html

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42. Obama Top Choice in American University Survey

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) emerged as the leading candidate among 128 young people surveyed online by American University last month.

The junior senator from Illinois received 71 percent of the vote among those who had voted or were planning to vote in a Democratic primary, while Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y) received 12 percent of their primary votes. Among Republican primary voters surveyed, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) received 41 percent of their votes, followed by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), a favorite among some young people, who garnered 18 percent of the respondents' votes; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney trailed with 15 percent and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee drew 10 percent of the respondents' votes.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022902588.html

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44. Students take interest

The 2008 presidential election has sparked the attention of Texas A&M students. John McCain has the respect as an American hero, Barack Obama has fascinated the nation with his idealism, Hillary Clinton has Washington experience and Mike Huckabee is the conservative underdog. McCain may have the Republican nomination in the bag, but the the Democratic hopefuls are in a potential race-ending showdown in Ohio and Texas.

The role of the Internet in campaigns - the use of Youtube, Myspace and Facebook -heightening awareness among the younger crowd on issues being debated between candidates. Blogs and profiles have given candidates, especially the Democrats, the opportunity to successfully reach out to voters via pop culture.

Jacob Lopez, class of 2010 political science major, plans to vote for Obama.

More:
http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2008/03/03/Aggielife/Students.Take.Interest-3246683.shtml

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45. That's all folks!

A couple more rec's would be greatly appreciated! :hi: