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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:23 PM
Original message
Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 04/21/08
Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 04/21/08

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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. States nt
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:44 PM
Response to Reply #1
11. PA primary will be unauditable; GOP blocks e-voting reform
On the eve of tomorrow's hotly contested and relatively close Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania, a number of voting activists are sounding the alarm one last time about the state's election systems. Over 85 percent of PA voters will vote on paperless touchscreen machines that are hackable, failure-prone, and fundamentally unauditable.

The ever-vigilant Bradblog has a roundup of which models will be used in tomorrow's contest, and it's not pretty:

* Two PA counties, one of which, Montgomery, is the state's most populous, will use the same Sequoia AVC Edge touchscreens that are now the subject of an investigation in New Jersey because of their spectacular failure in that state's recent primaries.

More:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080421-pa-primary-will-be-unauditable-gop-blocks-e-voting-reform.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:48 PM
Response to Reply #1
15. PA: Voters need to remember to take ID to polls
Record numbers of Pennsylvanians have registered to vote for the first time in Tuesday's primary election -- but some may be unaware that they are required to bring identification with them when they go to cast their votes.

The Pennsylvania Department of State is doing its best to get that information to first-time voters, going so far as to call some new registrants with this recorded message: "If you are voting in Pennsylania for the first time on April 22nd, remember to bring an approved form of ID with you when you cast a ballot or absentee ballot."

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortez says there are more than 217,000 newly registered voters in the state this year, and officals want to make sure everyone is prepared when they go to the polls.

Cortez told Public Radio Capitol News, "For first-time voters, and that includes those who are new registants as well as those who have changed maybe their address, and they're voting at a new polling place, we need to make sure they know that in Pennsylvania you must bring an approved form of identification to the polls."

More:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpsu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1263765§ionID=1
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:51 PM
Response to Reply #1
17. SD: E-Vote: South Dakota Introduces Voter Information Portal
South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson today introduced a Voter Information Portal (VIP) as absentee voting began for South Dakota's Primary Election.

"I am thrilled to introduce another service to the citizens of South Dakota," said Nelson in a release. "Today we are throwing open the curtain to South Dakota's Voter Information Portal. VIP is a Web-based resource available at our Web site. Simply enter your first name, last name, date of birth, and hit the search button. VIP will query South Dakota's voter database to find your voter registration information. When a match is made, VIP will show an array of information personalized for you.

(A little) more:
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/295516
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:53 PM
Response to Reply #1
19. MN: E-Vote: E-Mailed Ballots Reduce Time Challenge for Minnesota Military
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie last week praised the enactment of S.F. 1218, a bill related to Military and Overseas Voting, which makes voting easier for Minnesotans overseas by cutting in half the transit time of mailed absentee ballots. The new law allows blank ballots to be sent overseas to absentee voters via e-mail while still requiring the voter to print out the ballot and return it by U.S. mail. This fulfills the requirement that all votes cast in Minnesota are done on paper ballots while making the process faster and more convenient to voters.

"This legislation provides a significant boost to deployed service members," said Colonel Eric Ahlness, Minnesota National Guard. "It will ensure their personal information is protected and provide the structure to reduce the delivery time of ballots to service members. This change improves delivery time by 50 percent which helps make their vote count."

More:
http://www.govtech.com/gt/295809?topic=117673
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:56 PM
Response to Reply #1
20. PA: Suggestions from a Bucks County, Pa Judge of Elections and Voting Activists
This is the unedited and modified version of the letter to the Intelligencer, Doylestown, Bucks County, Pa.,printed today. See the italicized remarkes for the unedited thoughts that especially reflect my experience as voting integrity activist. It’s a long letter; I’m appreciative to Intell for publishing most of it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter to Editor:
For this important Primary, all over the State,, ‘get out the vote’ by encouraging others to vote in large numbers. For the unseen, unknown problems with the computerized voting, your candidate will be more likely to win if there are large numbers of votes for him/her to overcome a possible error rate of the machine’s software.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=7099
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:04 PM
Response to Reply #1
25. FL: Voting Hurdles
Casting your ballot and having it counted this fall could be problematic
say several voting rights groups. The NAACP, The ACLU and others say Florida is the most hostile state in the nation to new voters.

But, the state argues that just because they say it, doesn’t make it true

Under Florida law, former felons still face huge hurdles registering to
vote. Supervisors of elections are forbidden from hand counting paper
ballots, and new identification standards make it easier to deny someone the right to vote.

Leon supervisor Ion Sancho says that’s just the beginning.

More:
http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/17981294.html#
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #25
36. A state of hostility toward new voters
If the point of elections laws is to make voting as convenient as possible, Florida has missed it. The state has just been named by three voting rights advocacy groups as "the most hostile state in the nation to new voters." The cumulative effect of some recently passed election laws has made voter registration drives more fraught with pitfalls and registering to vote more difficult.

State law requires residents register to vote at least 29 days before an election. Some other states, such as Connecticut, Maine and Minnesota, allow citizens to register and vote on the same day. Florida's long lead time means that a voter has to plan well ahead in order to exercise his or her franchise.

More:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article463654.ece
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:11 PM
Response to Reply #1
31. PA: Feds to keep an eye on Pennsylvania primary
As Democrats go to the polls on Tuesday to pick between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as their presidential nominee, the Bush administration said on Monday they will be keeping a close eye on the voting.

Citing previous allegations that the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, had violated voting rights laws, the Bush administration’s Justice Department announced it would monitor the primary contest.

(A little) more:
http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/04/21/feds-to-keep-an-eye-on-pennsylvania-primary/
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
33. AL: Bridges miffed over phantom vote
DuWayne Bridges feels “violated.”

A vote for the state constitutional amendment to repeal grocery sales taxes was made on his statehouse machine last Wednesday though Bridges, the District 38 House Representative, was in Asia on a trip aimed at attracting industry to Alabama.

“I was in China ... that’s as far away as you can get,” said Bridges, a Republican from Valley. “I’m not a master of telepathy. I feel violated. They are imposing their beliefs on my machine. I would not have voted against removing the sales tax on groceries. I don’t think we need to repeal that tax.”

Vacated machines of other absent legislators, Richard Laird, D-Roanoke; Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery; and Jeff McLaughlin, D-Guntersville, were also used to vote for the constitutional amendment, proposed by Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery.

Sixty-three votes were needed to pass. Ironically, 63 votes were received.

More:
http://www.oanow.com/oan/news/local/article/bridges_miffed_over_phantom_vote/11484/
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:32 PM
Response to Original message
2. National nt
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:46 PM
Response to Reply #2
13. Sequoia Voting Systems Publicly Confirms B BLOG Report on Hart InterCivic's Hostile Takeover Attempt
On Sunday, April 13th, following our Thursday April 10th exclusive investigative report revealing that the nation's 4th largest voting machine vendor, Hart InterCivic, was on the verge of a successful hostile takeover of the nation's 3rd largest voting machine company, Sequoia Voting Systems, in order to become the nation's 2nd largest powerhouse in the "election industry," Sequoia quietly issued a press release on their website, publicly confirming our report.

The release is not linked from their main page, but we were able to trip across it this morning nonetheless. We post it in full at the end of this article since Sequoia's website has been frequently hacked at times of late, and the company also has a history of revising, scrubbing and doctoring officially published material on their website without noting those changes.

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5915
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:59 PM
Response to Reply #2
21. Florida Senator: Change Voting System Now
Last week team Why Tuesday? visited with Senator Bill Nelson (D-FLA) in his Washington, D.C. office to discuss his sweeping plan to change the way and day we vote, and why he chose now to introduce his plan. Watch the video for his answers.

The Senator told us that, after discussing his plan with elections experts and others, he intends to bring his plan to Congress in the weeks ahead.

He announced the elements of his plan in his home state on March 27 with a press release. They were: 1) abolish the Electoral College, 2) establish rotating interregional primaries, 3) provide for nationwide early voting, 4) allow absentee ballots on demand, 5) improve vote verification by "requiring there to be a verifiable paper ballot to accompany every vote that is cast and it would require the elimination by 2012 of touch-screen voting machines" as has occurred in Florida along with decertification of such machines in other states, 6) fund pilot vote-by-mail and Internet voting, and 7) establish standards for voter registration lists.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-soboroff/florida-senator-change-vo_b_97846.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:00 PM
Response to Reply #2
22. Brunner to be honored for her political courage
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner kept her campaign promise to review Ohio's election system, a challenge that earned her a place among the 2008 recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

Brunner is being honored for her "political courage by a distinguished bipartisan committee of national, political, and community leaders," according to a statement from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

Brunner will receive the award in a ceremony at the library in Boston on May 12, along with Debra Bowen, California's secretary of state.

Past recipients of the award include former President Gerald Ford, U.S. Sen. John McCain and former United Nations chief Kofi Annan.

More:
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/04/20/sns042108brunner.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:01 PM
Response to Reply #2
23. Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter Registration for Injured Vets
On the same day the Pentagon's commander in Iraq told the Senate that new troop withdrawals could not considered for months, Secretary of Veterans Affairs James B. Peake told two Democratic senators that his department *will not help injured veterans at VA facilities to register to vote before the 2008 election.*

"VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert substantial resources from our primary mission," Peake said in an April 8 letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass. He was referring to a 1993 federal law that allows government agencies to host voter registration efforts.

..."The Department of Veterans Affairs should provide voter materials to veterans," Feinstein said. "I believe the cost of providing these voter materials is minimal. It's a small price to pay for the sacrifice these men and women have made in fighting for our nation's freedom. I am disappointed."

More:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2825&Itemid=26
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:34 PM
Response to Original message
3. Foreign nt
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Zimbabwe: Britain accuses Mugabe of recount fraud
British Foreign Secretary has accused Zimbabwe's President Mugabe of trying to steal victory in an ongoing recount in presidential vote.

The international community has no faith in a recount of some results from the parliamentary poll, said David Miliband on Monday.

He said Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has unleashed a campaign of violence to support his attempts to steal the country's elections.

Miliband also questioned the security of the ballot boxes held by the authorities since March 29 and noting that election officials had been arrested.

More:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=52553§ionid=351020506
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:42 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. Canada: Tories violated elections law
Elections Canada alleges the Conservative Party of Canada deliberately violated federal elections law by spending about $1.1 million over its national limit on media advertising and deliberately filed misleading statements in its official returns.

In a sworn affidavit released yesterday by the Conservative Party, a senior investigator in the office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections claimed last week's extraordinary search of the party's national headquarters was justified in order to obtain evidence supporting the allegations.

Ronald Lamothe, assistant chief investigator in the office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, stated investigators would look for material "that could reasonably be believed to evidence" of the offences.

He sought hard-copy and electronic copies of correspondence, emails, invoices, accounting records and all kinds of other papers that would outline discussions between Conservative officials and its media production and buying agencies Retail Media, Yield or Yield Integrated, Republic Publicité + Design Inc.

More:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/416499
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:43 PM
Response to Reply #3
10. Nigeria: How to stop election rigging—Oshiomhole
IMMEDIATE past President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday, said stopping election rigging in the country depends on the mind-set of the nation’s President and the electoral law providing serious punishment for identified and proven perpetrators of rigging and other electoral crimes.

Comrade Oshiomhole, who spoke during a visit to the Kirikiri Canal, Apapa, Lagos, Corporate Head office of Vanguard Media Limited, argued that everything depends on the willingness of the President to stop election rigging, stressing if the President sees election as a do or die affair, there is no way rigging can be stopped in the country.

The AC gubernatorial candidate who was only recently declared winner of the Edo governorship election by the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Benin city, Edo State, lamented a situation where police officers compromised their position to assist in election rigging without any form of sanction.

He suggested the amendment of Electoral Act to prescribe serious punishment for those identified and proven to have committed electoral fraud.

More:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7068&Itemid=42
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:52 PM
Response to Reply #3
18. UK: Crackdown on fraud as elections near
POLICE today vowed to crack down on election fraud in Kirklees.

Officers are working with council officials to ensure the elections are problem-free.

Postal ballot papers for the Thursday, May 1, local elections are being sent out.

This year will see even closer co-operation between the police, council returning officers, electoral fraud experts from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Electoral Commission to ensure the local elections are run fairly and safely.

More:
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2008/04/21/crackdown-on-fraud-as-elections-near-86081-20794231/
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:35 PM
Response to Original message
4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:39 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Shamos: Why e-voting paper trails are a bad idea
My comment - I can't imagine any argument that would cause me to be satisfied with electronic recording alone.....

Many computer scientists have been arguing for years that electronic voting machines absolutely must sport paper trails that can be verified by the voter and subsequently used in manual recounts.

It's a formal policy position of the U.S. arm of the Association for Computing Machinery, the professional organization of computer scientists. Stanford University's David Dill even created the pro-paper-trail Verified Voting Foundation and has co-authored an article for us that argues against Internet voting, too.

But support of paper trails is not unanimous. Michael Shamos, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who teaches an e-voting class and has been a consultant to the Pennsylvania government since 2004, believes that electronic methods of tabulating votes actually tend to be more secure than paper-based ones.

In addition to reviewing the source code of some electronic voting systems under nondisclosure agreements, Shamos has been an e-voting consultant for Texas and Nevada. An April 2004 paper he wrote says that e-voting systems do have risks but paper isn't the answer (and suggests alternatives). In it, he quips that out of a million or so computer scientists and mathematicians, only 100 or so have signed a statement calling for paper trails; it drew an angry response posted at Verified Voting's Web site.

More:
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9924361-38.html?tag=newsmap
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:41 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. The 2008 Election Will Be Stolen
A new collection of essays edited by Mark Crispin Miller called "Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008," tells the story better than any single source I've seen yet.

The Supreme Court stopped a recount in Florida in 2000 that would have made Al Gore president. This is not speculation. The recount was later done.

Numerous elections were stolen in 2002, in Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and elsewhere, including Senate, Governor, and House races in Georgia that were practically openly swiped by Diebold's elections unit president flying in at the last minute and altering the election machines. The theft of Don Siegelman's 2002 election as governor of Alabama was almost as transparent. One county reported a set of results from electronic machines that made Siegelman governor, then recalculated and reported a different set of results. The new results were statistically impossible, and the pair of reports strongly suggested exactly how the machines were rigged, first mistakenly and later as intended.

More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0804/S00297.htm
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:45 PM
Response to Reply #4
12. Vote Early, Vote Often: Ten Movies To Watch Before the November Election
Buck up, folks. The Pennsylvania primary this week may be the decider of the Democratic candidate in November. It's high time to revisit some fine politically minded movies to stir our electoral souls. And with Jay Roach's Recount out next month (Kevin Spacey movie coming out this year) - one wonders where that film will sit if we revisit this list later. At any rate, here is some required viewing to gear up for another tumultuous election year.

1. No election year would be complete without Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. As poignant as it was in 1939, nothing beats those election blues like hearing Jimmy Stewart's voice ring out that eternal question: “What happened to freedom?”

2. On the opposite end of the spectrum, but no less relevant, is Alexander Payne's Election, about ethical transgressions committed around a high school election campaign. Reese Witherspoon's character Tracy Enid Flick has inspired troubling comparisons with Hilary Clinton: “ think they can just all of a sudden, one day, out of the blue, waltz right in with no qualifications whatsoever and try to take away what other people have worked very, very hard for their entire lives.”

More:
http://www.greencine.com/central/node/720
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:47 PM
Response to Reply #4
14. The Pennsylvania Primary: Democracy of the Gods
On Tuesday night, you will be told who the winner of the Pennsylvania Primary is. You will accept it. You will have no choice. No matter who the winner really is. Or isn't.

This Tuesday's crucial contest will be primarily run on 100% faith-based, Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen or push-button) e-voting machines across the state. There will be no way to determine after the election whether the computers have accurately recorded, or not, the intent of those voters who voted on them. As VerifiedVoting.org summarizes the crucial contest, it "will be essentially unrecountable, unverifiable, and unauditable."

Most of the votes, more than 85%, will be cast on such DRE systems which do not provide so-called "Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails" (VVPATs), as their use has been found unconstitutional in the state, since its been determined, accurately, that ballot secrecy cannot be guaranteed when using such paper trail systems. Not that it matters.

More:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5916
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:49 PM
Response to Reply #4
16. ‘Due Process’ Democrats Have Their Heads Buried in the California Sand
My first boss in the Legislature was Budget Chair under Speaker Unruh, and his particular interest was in the State’s program for crippled children.

When Ronald Reagan ended 8 years of Pat Brown in 1966, that program was gutted to save money. Dozens of kids died for lack of care. Thousands more were beset with the emotional problems that occur when teased by their peers for the inability to speak with a cleft palate. I learned of their situations individually, by answering letters from anguished parents for my boss.

It showed me that there was a difference between Democrats and Republicans. A difference worth fighting for.

And, it demonstrated to my satisfaction that, when you lost, a lot of people paid the consequences.

So when I read the tepid arguments of due process Democrats who would sacrifice the election advantages provided by partisan redistricting in the name of “fairness” or “due process”, I feel disgust. Such people view politics as a game where the outcomes matter less than ‘how the game is played’. Matter less to themselves, I’m sure. But not to those whose lives – or quality of life – is directly dependent on political outcomes.

More:
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/04/due_process_dem.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:03 PM
Response to Reply #4
24. What if 5.3 Million More Americans Could Vote?
This is a big year for American democracy. Hundreds of thousands of new voters are not only registering, but are actually showing up at the polls. States whose primary races have never counted before are suddenly the center of attention. Voters in Wyoming, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Kentucky, who have long gone ignored during primary season, finally find themselves with a voice and a vote. This year they matter.

Despite this, our democracy still falls far short of its promise to be a government that truly represents the will of its citizens. Across the country there are 5.3 million Americans who are denied the right to vote because of a felony conviction in their past. Nearly 4 million of these people are not in prison; they live, work, pay taxes, and raise families in our communities, but remain disenfranchised for years, often for decades, and sometimes for life.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/rights/82457/
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:07 PM
Response to Reply #4
26. Our current system is an unjustified way to select a president
The continued existence of the Electoral College is a remarkable phenomenon. This is not simply because there is reason to criticize how it operates.

Many political institutions attract such criticism, but are justified on the basis that the benefits they provide outweigh the problems they cause.
Advertisement

What makes the Electoral College so extraordinary is that it both causes problems and fails to deliver the benefits it is supposed to provide. It is the political equivalent of Monty Python's dead parrot, only enduring as part of the American political system because the Constitution nailed it there.

More:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/OPINION01/804210317/1008
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 05:36 PM
Response to Original message
5. Campaign Finance nt
Edited on Mon Apr-21-08 06:10 PM by tbyg52
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
34. Court to hear campaign finance case
Those who become exercised over campaign spending limits, believing they violate free speech, will get a day in court Tuesday.

The Supreme Court will hear a constitutional challenge to the so-called Millionaire's Amendment to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, the spending reform law passed in 2002.

The amendment permits congressional candidates who run against wealthy, self-financed opponents to raise contributions subject to higher contribution limits.

For example, in the House, the provision allows House candidates to raise contributions in excess of the usual $2,300 cap when they are running against wealthy candidates who spend more than $350,000 of their personal funds on their race..

More:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/supreme_court_to_hear_campaign.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:17 PM
Response to Reply #5
35. McCain Financing Structure With RNC Skirts Intention Of Public Finance
The media has been abuzz over speculation that John McCain will accept public financing in the general election. The attention has overshadowed a new fund structure that will allow the McCain camp to collect significantly more money than the individual limits placed by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the details of McCain's fund:

Campaign manager Rick Davis released the details of the "McCain Victory 08" fund on Friday. He said the entity is a joint committee, combining the McCain campaign, the Republican National Committee and four key states under a "hybrid legal structure."

The idea is to tap donors for more than the $2,300 limit set by campaign finance laws. Under legislation pushed by McCain in his role as a senator from Arizona, an individual can donate a maximum of $2,300 to a presidential primary campaign and the same amount to the general election campaign. Although McCain received the number of delegates necessary to secure the nomination in March, he will not be the party's official nominee until the convention in September--so he is still running a primary campaign.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/21/mccain-financing-structur_n_97816.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:07 PM
Response to Original message
27. The Youth Vote nt
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:08 PM
Response to Reply #27
28. Philadelphia Hip-Hop event to get out the vote
Who would think voter registration in Philadelphia would draw crowds of thousands?

Granted, perhaps the line that started forming early this morning outside the Liacouras Center on Temple University's North Philadelphia Campus had more to do with the hip-hop headliners that were scheduled to perform as part of the voter-registration and get-out-the-vote event.

Whatever the reason, a long line of mostly 20-somethings had formed by 9:15 for what was billed as the launching of the National Hip-Hop Team Vote 2008 Campaign.

Shortly before 2 p.m., when the extravaganza aimed at amplifying the youth vote was due to get . . . hopping, the 10,000-seat Liacouras Center was nearly half full.

Music was blaring from speakers.

When the much-anticipated artists took the stage, the building filled with raucous applause.

The stars preached to the audience on the importance of voting.

More:
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080420_Philadelphia_Hip-Hop_event_to_get_out_the_vote.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:09 PM
Response to Reply #27
29. CNN Launches New Voter Web Site
CNN has launched a new web site today, titled "The League of First Time Voters," today, which will take aim at young voters in America.

The site will include information, maps and voter registration forms for visitors. Also available will be a video archive and links to political web sites.

CNN's Rick Sanchez will front a series of special reports on young, new voters in the 2008 election, which will air on television and on the web.

More:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/cnn_launches_new_voter_web_site_82884.asp
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:10 PM
Response to Reply #27
30. Young people ready to make voices heard this election
Young voters may not have played a big role in past elections, but this one could be different.

"What you're seeing is this generation is very engaged," said Ed Munn, who teaches political science at Gaston College.

His classes often get into "good American debate" over the issues and the candidates.

"It's hard to get away from it," said Gaston College student Christopher Crumley, 23, of the election. "I think the fact that the people running are younger, that has more of an impact on younger voters."

Jeffrey Cannon, 20, said he's heard how his generation isn't serious.

More:
http://www.gastongazette.com/news/people_19611___article.html/young_vote.html
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:14 PM
Response to Reply #27
32. U of S student thinking big with voter-registration idea
Where a sense of civic duty alone may not be enough to move people to register to vote, Joseph Maddalone believes the chance to save some cash might do the trick.

The University of Scranton student is founder of Voice Your Choice, a voter registration incentive program in which participating businesses offer a 10 percent discount to customers who present a valid voter identification card.

So far, the 19-year-old freshman from Centerport, Long Island, N.Y., has recruited a handful of downtown businesses to participate and is talking to about 20 others.

More:
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19502496&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 06:20 PM
Response to Original message
37. That's all, folks!
A few more rec's for the news appreciated!
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Melissa G Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-21-08 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
38. Proud to be #5! Thanks, tgby52!
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tbyg52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Apr-23-08 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #38
39. Thanks to you as well! nt
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