Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Sunday, March 30, 2008

[EFerrari]

Paper ballot edges back into voting process
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Saturday, March 29, 2008


The dust is settling in the three-month-long controversy over how to conduct 2008 elections. And many Coloradans are wondering how they're going to cast ballots this Election Day.

The answer is fairly simple.

Most people will vote the same way they did in 2006. But a large number who had voted on electronic machines will also have the option to cast paper ballots.

The only major exception is in Denver. Two years ago, it was all e-voting at vote centers. This year, it will be mostly paper ballots at neighborhood polling places.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/29/paper-ballot-edges-back-into-voting-process/



Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Sunday 03/30/08





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


1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. Here's the link to the News Directory:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240


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

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


Recommendations are much appreciated.

[EFerrari]

1. States.

[EFerrari]

5. PA: Decisions delayed on vote scanners

Decisions delayed on vote scanners
By Richard Robbins
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Fayette County Election Board delayed until next week a series of decisions concerning new eScan voting machines, including whether to alert voters when they have not voted in all eligible races.

At a meeting Friday, the board instructed election bureau Director Laurie Lint to contact the two counties where the machines have been in use, Bedford and Lancaster, and the manufacturer, Texas-based HartIntercivic.

The county recently purchased 113 of the machines at a cost of $580,120. Election officials from throughout the county will receive training on the machines the week of April 14, Lint said.

Primary election day is April 22.

"They will be all right," said Lint after the meeting, referring to the paper-fed scanners.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_559836.html?source=rss&feed=28

[EFerrari]

7. AZ: County plans to clamp down on distribution of test ballots

County plans to clamp down on distribution of test ballots
GARRY DUFFY
Tucson Citizen

Political party observers of elections will no longer be able to take test ballots from elections offices to run their own accuracy tests prior to elections, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said Friday.

Secretary of State Jan Brewer complained to Huckelberry earlier this month about the practice, citing concerns that the sample ballots could be reproduced and used to stuff ballot boxes.

Huckelberry wrote that the practice of allowing party-appointed observers to conduct logic and accuracy tests "has occurred for 30 years" without any security problems arising.

"The test ballots used by the political parties for the logic and accuracy tests have been clearly marked and identified as 'test' ballots," Huckelberry wrote to Brewer on Friday.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/local/81104.php

[EFerrari]

8. NJ: Sequoia Voting Systems Announces New Jersey Source Code and Accuracy

Sequoia Voting Systems Announces New Jersey Source Code and Accuracy . Review by Wyle Labs

Review by Wyle Labs 28/03/2008 21:27:00 Business Wire Sequoia Voting Systems today announced that it has secured Wyle Laboratories to review and test voting equipment source code and accuracy as used in the state of New Jersey.

Wyle Laboratories (www.wylelabs.com), an Election Assistance Commission (EAC) accredited Voting System Test Lab, is a leader in the development of approaches to improve the test and evaluation of large software systems.

During the February 5 New Jersey primary, some Advantage direct recording electronic (DRE) machines appeared to show a discrepancy between the number of votes cast and the reported number of votes for each party.

A subsequent review by the state of New Jersey and Sequoia Voting Systems determined that the data on all cartridges in the affected counties were correct, and that all votes were accurately recorded.
Sequoia engineers have since identified the cause of the discrepancy, shared this information with its customer, and have upgraded the source code that is currently undergoing certification testing to eliminate the potential for future discrepancies.

http://www.infobolsa.es/v2002/Noticias/noticias_titulares2.asp?srv=&FechaNot=20080328&Fuente=IBNW&clasif=C&numnot=104502

[EFerrari]

9. AL: Siegelman appeal could take a year or more to be decided

Siegelman appeal could take a year or more to be decided
Prosecutor suggests 18-month time frame

Sunday, March 30, 2008
KIM CHANDLER
News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - Former Gov. Don Siegelman has nine months of prison behind him, but the legal saga ahead of him could stretch out a year or more, lawyers in the case said.

During that time, Siegelman's quest for a reversal of fortune partly will focus on the legal test for proving a campaign contribution was a bribe and allegations of juror misconduct, according to his attorney.

Lawyers involved in the case gave estimates ranging from six to 18 months on how long the appeal in the government corruption case will take.

Art Leach, a lawyer representing Siegelman co-defendant Richard Scrushy, the founder of HealthSouth, estimated the appeal could take six months to a year. Chief prosecutor Louis Franklin put the time frame at 18 months. "That's taking into account the voluminous nature of this case," Franklin said.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1206864974224150.xml&coll=2

[EFerrari]

10. AL (Video): Siegelman Released from Prison; Did Bloggers Play a Role?

Siegelman Released from Prison; Did Bloggers Play a Role?
30 Mar 2008, 5:41 PM CDT


Siegelman Released from Prison; Who Played a Role?
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC-TV, MyFoxAL.com)

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is celebrating his release from prison on Friday. Siegelman, who was released on bond pending appeal, said in an interview near his home that so many people played a major role in his release. FOX6 News Reporter Sherea Harris spoke with two bloggers who believe they played a major role.

http://www.myfoxal.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6173319&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[EFerrari]

11. AL: Prison term blamed on politics

Prison term blamed on politics

By ADAM NOSSITER
The New York Times


MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, released from prison Friday on bond in a bribery and corruption case, said he was as convinced as ever that politics had played a leading role in his prosecution.

Speaking by telephone in his first post-prison interview, Siegelman, a Democrat, said there had been "abuse of power" in his case and repeatedly cited Karl Rove, the former White House political director.

"His fingerprints are smeared all over the case," Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case. He was sentenced to serve seven years last June after a guilty verdict on bribery and corruption charges a year earlier.

After spending nine months in prison, the former governor said he would press to have Rove answer questions to Congress about his possible involvement in the case.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004315516_alagov30.html?syndication=rss

[EFerrari]

14. PA: County officials expect record voter turnout

County officials expect record voter turnout
By CAITLIN HEANEY
Evening Sun Reporter
Article Launched: 03/30/2008 04:06:06 AM EDT

Adams County officials are predicting record turnout for a presidential primary this year.

Monica Dutko, the county's director of elections and voter registration, said she expects 30 to 40 percent of registered voters in Adams County to vote in the state's April 22 primary election. About 25 percent of registered voters typically turn out for a presidential primary, she said, and the record turnout is about 27 percent of registered voters.

"This time, people are interested," Dutko said.

Adams County received 292 absentee ballots for the 2004 presidential primary election, Dutko said, but the county already has received nearly 500 absentee ballots this year. And that number will continue to grow since the election is still three weeks away, she said.

http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_8746339

[EFerrari]

17. CA: Announcement. Beach Impeach 5 + David Swanson in SF Bay Area

BEACH IMPEACH 5 -- Saturday, April 26, Ocean Beach, San Francisco,
arrive by 10:00, helicopter overhead at 11 sharp

ANTI-WAR TOWN HALL WITH DAVID SWANSON, APRIL 24, -- GRAND LAKE THEATER, OAKLAND



:woohoo:

[EFerrari]

2. National.

[EFerrari]

12. Clinton vows no surrender in election race

Clinton vows no surrender in election race

by Alain Jean-Robert

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania (AFP) - Democrat Hillary Clinton vowed to stay in the White House race to the bitter end as party elders Sunday floated ideas to avert a paralyzing struggle between her and Barack Obama.


In a Washington Post interview, the former first lady said: "I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong.

"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests, and until we resolve Florida and Michigan."

The two states were stripped of their delegates to the Democrats' August convention when they advanced their primaries into January. Clinton won both contests and needs the results to stand to have any chance of overhauling Obama's lead in the national popular vote.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080331/pl_afp/usvote_080331014321

[EFerrari]

15. 'Daily Voting News' For March 30, 2008 - Gideon

Last weekend a diverse group of members of the Election Integrity community met in Palo Alto, CA. One of the group's jobs was to write a mission statement. This statement became known to them as the "Creekside Declaration" and was recently memorialized by Chicago Tribune Columnist Robert Koehler, a participant in the meeting, in his column. The "Creekside Declaration" gives the mission of that small group, and I would argue all of us who work on elections integrity issues, as; "Mission: To encourage citizen ownership of transparent, participatory democracy."

Back from New Orleans so today I will catch up on a few of the big stories that took place while I was gone and catch up with the latest.

Did you think that no one uses punch cards any longer? You were wrong. One of the last, Ada Co Idaho has decided to change over to optical-scan because their punch-card machines and tabulators are just getting too old....


http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_jgideon_080330__daily_voting_news__.htm

[Wilms]

18. Justice Dept. Staff Cleared in Election Report Inquiry

Justice Dept. Staff Cleared in Election Report Inquiry

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 30, 2008; Page A07

An independent investigation has found that Republican appointees in the Justice Department did not, as had been alleged, censor a bipartisan commission's report on the sensitive topics of voter fraud and voter intimidation.

snip

The inspector general, Curtis Crider, concluded the editing delays and changes resulted from the belief that the report was "poorly written" and "contained unsupported conclusions." "We found no evidence to support the allegation that the changes were made to the report due to improper reasons or political motivations," he said.

Former Justice Department lawyer Hans A. von Spakovsky said the conclusions represented a personal vindication. Von Spakovsky's appointment to the Federal Election Commission has been held up for months because of allegations that he tried to exert undue political influence on the government's handling of voter fraud and identification matters.

The report, in a section describing allegations of inappropriate Justice Department influence, quoted one of the Republican appointees to the commission claiming that von Spakovsky "certainly tried to influence" him, adding: "There's no question about that."

But von Spakovsky said yesterday that the commissioner, Paul DeGregorio, had misinterpreted his role in the process -- that the Justice Department was supposed to serve the commission in an advisory capacity. "The purpose of the advisers is to provide advice. I was entirely within the scope of my job," he said.

snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032901762.html?hpid=topnews


Discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x499834

[Wilms]

19. California review of the ES&S AutoMARK and M100

Freedom to Tinker

… is your freedom to understand, discuss, repair, and modify the technological devices

California review of the ES&S AutoMARK and M100

March 26th, 2008 by Dan Wallach

California’s Secretary of State has been busy. It appears that ES&S (manufacturers of the Ink-a-Vote voting system, used in Los Angeles, as well as the iVotronic systems that made news in Sarasota, Florida in 2006) submitted its latest and greatest “Unity 3.0.1.1″ system for California certification. ES&S systems were also considered by Ohio’s study last year, which found a variety of security problems.

snip

The accessibility report is very well done and should be required reading for anybody wanting to understand accessibility issues from a broad perspective. They found:

* Physical access has some limitations.
* There are some personal safety hazards.
* Voters with severe manual dexterity impairments may not be able to independently remove the ballot from the AutoMARK and cast it.
* The keypad controls present challenges for some voters.
* It takes more time to vote with the audio interface.
* The audio ballot navigation can be confusing.
* Write-in difficulties frustrated some voters.
* The voting accuracy was limited by write-in failures.
* Many of the spoken instructions and prompts are inadequate.
* The system lacks support for good public hygiene.
* There were some reliability concerns.
* The vendor’s pollworker training and materials need improvement.

Yet still, they note that “We are not aware of any public device that has more flexibility in accommodating the wide range of physical and dexterity abilities that voters may have. The key, as always, is whether pollworkers and voters will be able to identify and implement the optimal input system without better guidance or expert support. In fact, it may be that the more flexible a system is, the more difficult it is for novices to navigate through the necessary choices for configuring the access options in order to arrive at the best solution.” One of their most striking findings was how long it took test subjects to use the system. Audio-only voters needed an average of almost 18 minutes to use the machine on a simplified ballot (minimum 10 minutes; maximum 35 minutes). Write-in votes were exceptionally difficult. And, again, this is arguably one of the best voting systems available, at least from an accessibility perspective.

snip

so much more

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1269


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x499838

[EFerrari]

3. International.

[EFerrari]

13. Zimbabwe: Rattled Mugabe could be losing his grip on power

Rattled Mugabe could be losing his grip on power
Last updated at 03:37am on 31.03.08

Robert Mugabe's grip on power in Zimbabwe looks to be loosening.

Opposition leaders claimed to have ended his 28 years of brutal and economically-disastrous rule with a sweeping election victory.

But there were fears that the 84-year-old dictator may be planning to defy the result of Saturday's poll and launch another crackdown.

His spokesman warned that "premature" victory claims by the opposition would be seen as an attempted coup, adding ominously: "We all know how coups are handled."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23468927-details/Rattled%20Mugabe%20could%20be%20losing%20his%20grip%20on%20power/article.do

[EFerrari]

4. OpEd.

[EFerrari]

6. Zimbabwe: History in the making

SW Radio Africa (London)

OPINION
29 March 2008

Mary Ndlovu

Zimbabwean people must at a minimum strive to vote Mugabe out of power and elect a leadership that will unite Zimbabwe, rebuild the economy and deliver justice and healing as opposed to revenge.

Anyone trying to predict the outcome of the Zimbabwean election must be either bold or foolhardy or both. No sooner has a prophesy gone to press than a new factor slips into the equation and everything has to be re-calculated. Commentators are reduced to scenarios - and the number of scenarios required to cover all eventualities and twists of fate multiplies by the day.

And yet six short weeks ago it all looked sealed and delivered to Robert Mugabe. Morgan Tsvangirai's formation of the MDC had refused, against their own party's and President's apparent interests, to form a coalition with the Mutambara faction. Without a united opposition, ZANU PF could not fail to win. Nothing would change, our downward rush to disaster would not be halted.

If a week is a long time in politics, six weeks is an eon. Enter Simba Makoni, and it all looked different. For the first time, the long talked-of split in ZANU PF would make a difference at the polling stations. For the first time, there would be a three-way contest for the top position. For the first time, Mugabe might not know who would do his bidding and who would subvert it. For the first time, there could be a run-off vote.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200803290091.html

[EFerrari]

16. John McCain is Very Scary. ( NM State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino)

March 29, 2008

John McCain is Very Scary,

By Stephen Fox

For months now, I have had this recurring nightmare: the Bush/Cheney junta figures out how to stay in power. I used to think they’d come up with some version of an our-national-security-is-at-too-high-a-risk-to-permit-elections scenario and refuse to leave, just hanging on to the reins themselves, hunkering down against all critics. That, however, was apparently too big a leap for even these most calloused of neo-Cons to attempt (though I’m not confident the American people couldn’t have been cowed into doing without elections). Now their strategy is apparently to do what a year ago seemed beyond belief: they’ve actually found a candidate to run under their banner who promises to keep the Ship of State on the precise course they’ve steered for the past eight years.

That was certainly a very tough search. Even more incredibly, they managed to find someone to do so that seems capable of doing it with a straight face! There is in my estimation no more straight-faced person in American politics today than John McCain., and after hearing some of his recent public pronouncements, there may be no more boring politician on the American scene than John McCain. The guy seems capable of making even Fred Thompson at his most somnambulant sound comparatively exciting. However, we’ve had yawn-inducing candidates many times before. That is part of the price we pay for Democracy. What is scary about McCain is not that he is capable of putting us to sleep but that he is hell-bent on replicating every blunder of Dubya’s administration…and tacking on a few doozies of his own for good measure.

Concerned about the economy? John McCain isn’t. He thinks more tax cuts may be needed but mostly all we have to do is tough it out. Just like Dubya. Of course the economy mostly bores old John, so he puts most of his concentrated thought onto foreign affairs…like Iraq. His prescription? More war. Up to fifty or even a hundred years of war if that’s what it takes to secure “victory” in that abused locale.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__080327_john_mccain_is_very_.htm

[livvy]

20. Thanks! knr n/t

[Mnemosyne]

21. This fine thread needs

:kick:

Thanks Beth! :hi:

[Kurovski]

22. K&R.Thanks!

:hug: