Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. 04/27/08

[EFerrari]

Few states allow overseas troops to vote by e-mail
By Associated Press
Sunday, April 27, 2008

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan can speak to their families by Web camera and fight insurgents using sophisticated electronic warfare. Yet when it comes to voting, most troops are stuck in the past.

Communities in 13 states will send overseas troops presidential election ballots by e-mail this year, and districts in at least seven states will also let them return completed ballots over the Internet, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the Overseas Vote Foundation.

That still leaves tens of thousands of service members in far-flung military bases struggling to meet voting deadlines and relying largely on regular mail to get ballots and cast votes — often at the last minute because of delays in ballot preparations in some states.

Adding an electronic boost to the process would ease those problems, but it raises security and privacy concerns.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/general/view.bg?articleid=1090056&srvc=rss




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. :hi:

[EFerrari]

1. National.

[EFerrari]

6. DESPITE DEFEAT IN CAPITOL Holt won't give up on voting bill

DESPITE DEFEAT IN CAPITOL
Holt won't give up on voting bill
Home News Tribune Online 04/27/08

By RAJU CHEBIUM
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON — A Central Jersey congressman's four-year effort to prevent the types of balloting problems that marred the 2000 presidential elections has suffered another legislative setback.



A frustrated Rep. Rush Holt, D-12th Dist., said Thursday he would continue to push his measure but acknowledged that time's running out.

"Can we get it done this year? I don't know," Holt said.

The bill's future, he said, "depends in no small measure on what form the support in the Senate takes. We could, for symbolic purposes, pass it in the House. But would it be of anything more than symbolic value if the Senate just sits on it?"

Holt's bill, introduced in January, would allow states and counties to install electronic voting machines capable of maintaining paper trails of every vote cast. Jurisdictions that choose to do so would be able to share $630 million in federal grants.

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS03/804270445

[EFerrari]

8. Bush Administration Stops Vets from Registering to Vote

April 25, 2008

Bush Administration Stops Vets from Registering to Vote

By Project Vote
Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

The ability of injured veterans to vote in November's presidential election rests in the hands of Bush Administration officials, who have so far refused demands from advocates and lawmakers that the Department of Veterans Affairs help hospitalized veterans register to vote.

"'It is an insult to those who have fought to spread democracy and freedom overseas to be denied the right to participate in their own democracy here at home,'" wrote Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) to the Department of Veterans Affairs in March. "'If each facility took a few simple steps to provide voter registration materials, the VA could do its part to guarantee access to voter registration.'"

In response, VA Secretary James Peake opposed efforts by lawmakers to get the federal agency to provide voter registration opportunities under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 "'without any legal basis or rational explanation,'" said Kerry, as reported by AlterNet's Steven Rosenfeld on April 10.

Peake claimed that "department policy restricts partisan political activities in VA facilities and the department also does not have the resources to be responsible for a large-scale voter registration effort," wrote Rick Maze of the Marine Corps News on April 18.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_project__080424_bush_administration_.htm

[EFerrari]

2. States.

[EFerrari]

5. OR: Voting gets easier for disabled Oregonians

Voting gets easier for disabled Oregonians
April 27, 2008

Access to voting for Oregon seniors may grow more inclusive this May.
Advertisement

Voting seniors here already fair better than some of their counterparts in other states, courtesy of Oregon's vote-by-mail system and registration requirements.

Now, a new alternative format ballot — likely to be available for next month's primary — will allow seniors with visual, motor or cognitive impairments to vote privately and independently using technology available at home or at their local elections offices.

The AFB will enable any person — including seniors — who are unable to access or mark a regular, printed ballot to cast a ballot using a computer and printer.

When a qualifying person requests an AFB, elections staff create an electronic version of the ballot for the district in which they live. The electronic version is then sent on a CD or by e-mail to the voter, who can use a variety of assistive technologies to help them complete and print the ballot. Voters also will be provided with standard secrecy and return envelopes in which they can send printed ballots back to their elections offices.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS/804270322

[EFerrari]

7. NJ: One in 5 ballots a write-in

One in 5 ballots a write-in
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
04/27/2008

Nature abhors a vacuum. So do Lackawanna County voters, apparently.



Nearly 15,000 times in Tuesday’s primary, a voter driven to make a statement or merely inspired by a blank line on the ballot wrote in a candidate’s name — the third straight election that at least 11,900 write-in votes have been cast in the county.

It works out to about one write-in vote for every five voters and begs a question: Have we become write-in happy?

Not necessarily.

Election observers say the trend reflects both a recognition of the potential of write-in campaigns and the ease with which county voters found they could cast write-in votes, first with the since-decertified electronic touch-screen machines and now with paper ballots.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19522301&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6

[EFerrari]

9. NJ: Judge: Activists may examine electronic voting machines

Judge: Activists may examine electronic voting machines

By JEFFREY GOLD • Associated Press • April 27, 2008

NEWARK — A state judge has ruled that voting rights activists will have a chance to have an expert examine the programming of touch-screen voting machines they claim are unreliable and vulnerable to hackers, officials said.
Advertisement

The advocates said the decision is believed to be the first of its kind.

Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg, sitting in Trenton, also dropped a May trial date on the reliability of the machines but said the trial should start by September.

The delay nearly assures that the outcome will be too late to change how millions of New Jerseyans vote in November's presidential election.

The judge is to decide if the state's 10,000 electronic voting machines should be scrapped, as the voting rights advocates contend. The state of New Jersey maintains the machines should continue to be used.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS01/804270373

[EFerrari]

10. AL: Request to extend voting hours denied

Request to extend voting hours denied
By: Margaret Gibbons
04/23/2008

A Montgomery County judge Tuesday evening turned down a request by the county Democratic Committee to extend voting hours by an additional hour at one Cheltenham poll for voters who could not use an electronic voting machine to cast their ballots until some 2 1/2 hours after the poll opened.

"There is a strong likelihood that some voters were disenfranchised because of the problems there and, if by staying open one hour later, just one of those voters can vote, it is well worth any inconvenience," argued Norristown lawyer Joel B. Bernbaum in behalf of the Democratic Committee.

However, Judge Bernard A. Moore said, that reasonable efforts, including the use of emergency ballots, were made to address the situation.

"Extending election hours by an hour is an extreme remedy and there have to be extreme circumstances for that," said the judge. "That is not the case here."

No one in the courtroom could recall the county ever extending voting hours on Election Day.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19509317&BRD=1306&PAG=461&dept_id=187823&rfi=9http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-04292005-482861.html

[EFerrari]

13. CA: Bowen: Paper ballots will remain at polls

Bowen: Paper ballots will remain at polls
Nicole Brambila • The Desert Sun • April 27, 2008

California will be using paper ballots for the foreseeable future, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Saturday before a Democratic fundraiser in Banning.

"It's old technology, but that means the bugs have been worked out," Bowen said. "It's reliable. It's transparent."

More than 200 people turned out for the Pass Democratic Club's fourth annual Unity Dinner fundraiser at the Morongo Resort Spa and Casino. Betty McMillion, the event's chair and vice president of the club, credited Bowen for the turnout.

Within months of taking office last year, Bowen conducted a first-of-its kind security review of the state's electronic voting systems amid growing concerns that the machines, and therefore the vote, could be tampered.

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS01/804270325/1026/news12

[EFerrari]

14. CA: California secretary of state 'amazed' at upcoming Profile in Courage award,

California secretary of state 'amazed' at upcoming Profile in Courage award, she says at Cabazon event

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, April 26, 2008

By ERIN WALDNER and SHIRIN PARSAVAND
The Press-Enterprise

CABAZON - At a ceremony next month in Boston, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for her controversial decision to decertify touch-screen voting machines and implement more stringent security measures.

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation is also awarding Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who ordered paper ballots be provided to any voter who requested one in the March primary and called for the replacement of all the state's electronic voting systems by the November presidential election.

"I was so surprised," Bowen said of the honor. "To this day, I have no idea who made the nomination."

Bowen was the keynote speaker at a Pass Democratic Club dinner Saturday night at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_bowen27.4254a24.html

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[EFerrari]

15. CT: ROVAC President Addresses Dead Voters

ROVAC President Addresses Dead Voters - Media Remains Dead To Larger Issues

George Cody, President Registrars Of Voters Association Connecticut, responded to the Dead Voters Issue with a letter to the Hartford Courant <read>

Connecticut and the registrars are stuck between a rock and a hard place — aggressively clean up the database and risk dropping voters incorrectly — or demand clear evidence to drop a person from the rolls to avoid disenfranchisement.

Names are removed from the active rolls upon positive evidence of a change in status or residency. Proof positive is required to make changes in status. Registrars use several methods to seek out information. When notified of a voters death, they make every effort to verify the information through obituaries, death certificate records in the town clerk’s office or through local probate records. There is often a time gap in this information and, as the article points out, registrars do not have regular access to state and federal records. The time required to match and verify the information might lead to a delay in a voter’s final removal from the rolls, but the status of these voters is changed to inactive during the verification process.

When voters move out of state or town, their former town of residence is not necessarily notified, resulting in only anecdotal information…

http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=193

[EFerrari]

16. NY: Counties buying new voting machines

Published: April 26, 2008 08:04 am

Counties buying new voting machines

Disabled people are able to use devices this year

By Tom Grace

Cooperstown News Bureau

PHOENIX MILLS _ Local counties are receiving new optical-scan voting machines, although elections officials are not certain who will use them this year.

"As it stands right now, they'll probably be used only by persons with disabilities, but we'd like to have everyone use them.'' said Sheila Ross, Otsego County's deputy Republican elections commissioner.

Otsego County has received four scanners, out of 40 ordered.

"We have 33 for polling places, four for training and three for back-ups,'' Ross said.

http://www.thedailystar.com/local/local_story_117080426.html

[EFerrari]

3. International.

[EFerrari]

11. Failure to automate ARMM polls to affect 2010 elections

Failure to automate ARMM polls to affect 2010 elections
By DAVID DIZON
abs-cbnNEWS.com

The failure to automate the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in August 11 could have dire consequences on the automation of the May 2010 elections, according to a Japanese professor studying electoral modernization in the Philippines.

Dr. Masataka Kimura of Ibaraki University in Japan said the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) should already choose what technology to use in the 2010 polls to avoid repeating its failure to automate the 2004 national elections and this year’s ARMM polls.

"I think the failure to automate the ARMM polls will have an adverse effect on the 2010 elections. What should be done is to plan for the 2010 elections now. First, they have to choose the technology to use and then open it for bidding within this year. Then next year, they can already start training and educating voters," Kimura told abs-cbnNEWS.com on the sidelines of the two-day ICT and Sustainable Development Conference in New World Renaissance Hotel in Makati City.

Kimura said the COMELEC has become cautious in granting its electoral modernization project after the Supreme Court nullified the agency’s poll automation contract with Mega Pacific Consortium in 2004.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=116252

[EFerrari]

21. UK: Postal vote system turns farcical with lessons in spotting forgery

April 28, 2008
Postal vote system turns farcical with lessons in spotting forgery
Jill Sherman and Dominic Kennedy

What started as a reform to increase British election turnout has descended to such a farce that staff counting this Thursday’s polls have needed lessons from the Forensic Science Service.

Postal voting on demand was supposed to herald a democratic golden age of greater participation and social inclusion, but its benefits have been exaggerated, a report concludes today.

Suspicions of cheating, though, have become so grave that every London borough has sent poll officials for training by police experts on how to detect whether voters’ signatures have been forged.

The story of how Britain slumped from a century of faith in the fairness of its elections is outlined by the Rowntree trust. The report shows that half the convictions for electoral malpractice since 2000 happened in just four Muslim communities in Lancashire and Birmingham.

Since 2000, accusations of election cheating have been investigated by every police force in England, with the exception of the City of London Police.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3828387.ece

[EFerrari]

4. OpEd.

[EFerrari]

12. Is e-voting as safe as e-banking?

April 25, 2008

Is e-voting as safe as e-banking?

By Stephanie Frank Singer

People who say that electronic voting is as safe or safer than banking are missing two key points.

First, in every banking transaction, both sides get to audit the results: the bank controls the electronic information, and the customer can check the bank's monthly statement against her own records. In e-voting, the County, and often the machine vendor, control the electronic information, and the customer (voters, watchdog organizations, candidates) cannot check the end result -- the vote tally -- against anything at all.

Second, banks operate in the free market. If you don't trust your bank, you can go to the competition. Elections, on the other hand, are by their nature run by monopolies. So while election officials have every incentive to make their elections run smoothly, the only outside incentives to make the process transparent and accountable come from watchdog organizations (such as VotePA) and active citizens.

As a Ph.D. mathematician with advanced training in computer science, I know that democracy can be accountable only if each citizen marks her intent on a record that can be preserved without the interference of technology, and only if the votes are counted in a way that every citizen may see and understand.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_stephani_080424_is_e_voting_as_safe_.htm

[EFerrari]

17. Elizabeth Edwards: Bowling 1, Health Care 0

Bowling 1, Health Care 0

FOR the last month, news media attention was focused on Pennsylvania and its Democratic primary. Given the gargantuan effort, what did we learn?

Well, the rancor of the campaign was covered. The amount of money spent was covered. But in Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the country this political season, the information about the candidates’ priorities, policies and principles — information that voters will need to choose the next president — too often did not make the cut. After having spent more than a year on the campaign trail with my husband, John Edwards, I’m not surprised.

Why? Here’s my guess: The vigorous press that was deemed an essential part of democracy at our country’s inception is now consigned to smaller venues, to the Internet and, in the mainstream media, to occasional articles. I am not suggesting that every journalist for a mainstream media outlet is neglecting his or her duties to the public. And I know that serious newspapers and magazines run analytical articles, and public television broadcasts longer, more probing segments.

But I am saying that every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/opinion/27edwards.html?em&ex=1209441600&en=ee333fd6085ec821&ei=5087%0A#

[EFerrari]

20. Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x355650

[EFerrari]

18. TOMMY STEVENSON: Siegelman fights on

Published Sunday, April 27, 2008
TOMMY STEVENSON: Siegelman fights on

New trial possible as former governor looks to clear name It has taken some people a while to realize that when former Gov. Don Siegelman files the appeal of his conviction on federal corruption charges, it will be limited only to what happened in the courtroom where he was found guilty and sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

All the stuff that has gone on outside the courthouse - the charges that there was a Karl Rove-hatched "plot" to ruin Siegelman's political career, that he was selectively targeted by the Department of Justice, that he was hustled off to prison immediately upon sentencing while many "white collar" defendants are allowed to remain free pending appeal - won't be at issue.

But Vince Kilborn, Siegelman's

Mobile-based lead attorney, says he thinks he can find things in that transcript - especially in what he says was evidence not allowed to be presented to the jury, evidence withheld from the defense by the prosecution in the "discovery" process, and in jury instructions by federal Judge Mark Fuller - that could get the verdict overturned or at least get Siegelman a new trial.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20080427/NEWS/804270331/1013/apkeyword

[EFerrari]

19. Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x355676

[tbyg52]

22. Kick. A few more recs, please.....! nt

[OnTheOtherHand]

23. anything for you! off to greatest.... n/t

[EFerrari]

24. Hey, thank you.

:hi:

[tbyg52]

28. Thank *you*!

:yourock:

[Kurovski]

25. Kick.

Thank you, sfexpat2000. :thumbsup:

[kster]

26. K&R..nt

[livvy]

27. Early Monday morning kick and lucky #13!

Thanks, Beth, :yourock: