Open Thread Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Tuesday 04/29/08

[Melissa G]

Hi All,
I'm working two campaigns right now and all I can do is get the ER News Thread started today.

WOO HOO!:woohoo: Thanks to SeattleGirl who has agreed to take Tuesdays starting next week!:woohoo:

We still need a Thursday ER Daily News editor, so PM me if you are interested!
Thanks,
Melissa


Esteemed DUer's, please consider taking a moment (or more)
to graciously participate by posting Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.



If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.


2. Post stories using the Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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


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




Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).
Thank You!

[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

8. Oregon troops overseas can vote by e-mail

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.

More:
http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/2008/04/news04-29-08-02.shtml

[tbyg52]

13. KS: Republicans call for law requiring voter ID

Emboldened by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Republicans on Monday called for passage of a law in Kansas to require that people have a photo ID to vote.

In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld Indiana’s photo identification requirement.

Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh praised the ruling, saying such laws protect against voter fraud.

“Voter identification is critical to the security of the electoral process,” Thornburgh said, and he also urged Kansas legislators to pass a similar law.

More:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/apr/29/republicans_call_law_requiring_voter_id/?city_local

[tbyg52]

16. California voter ID push by GOP rejected

In California, the Democratic-led Legislature since 2000 has rejected a dozen Republican bills related to voter identification. Current law does not require California voters to show ID at polling places except for limited cases in which voters do not provide a Social Security number or driver's license upon registration.

The Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting killed a proposal in January by Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, requiring California voters to show one of six forms of ID at a polling place. Under Assembly Bill 9, a voter without identification could use a provisional ballot but would be required to show a valid ID card to the county registrar within five days. The bill failed on a party-line vote and is dead for the year.

More:
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/897129.html

[tbyg52]

17. IA: Supervisors OK voting equipment

The Clayton County Board of Supervisors has approved the purchase of optical scan voting equipment for the county's precincts.

(A little) more:
http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=199804

[tbyg52]

18. PA: County seeks comment on voting machines

Voting machines will be the topic of discussion Wednesday during the first of two public forums Centre County commissioners are holding to find out how residents want to cast their ballots.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the county Courthouse Annex, 108 S. Allegheny St., Bellefonte.

The board is asking people who want to speak at the forum to pre-register by calling 355-6700. Each person will have up to five minutes to talk, and the county is asking speakers to provide a written copy of their comments.

More:
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/554729.html

[tbyg52]

22. FL: After Records Reveal E-Voting Glitches, Election Official Jokes She'll Stop Keeping Records

snip

So why would Dent tell her conference colleagues that voters never complained about machines until after the election was over, when records her office kept during the election clearly belied this? Is it possible that she simply forgot about all the complaint forms that her workers filled out during the election?

It seems unlikely, given that the CD-13 race was the most controversial and scrutinized election that Dent has overseen since being elected Sarasota's election supervisor in November 2000 (she was re-elected unopposed in 2004). Her office also provided numerous copies of the records to activists, the losing candidate and to journalists. In fact she complained during her conference speech about all of the records requests her office had to fulfill after the election.

I called Dent to ask about the discrepancy between what she told colleagues at the conference and what her election records depicted. She didn't respond.

Dent did, however, tell the conference attendees (in the second video below), that as a result of the 2006 controversy, her office will no longer keep any records that can get her into trouble.

More (with videos):
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/04/florida-electio.html

[kster]

27. K&R.nt

[Wilms]

29. FL-13/Kathy Dent

Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x501635

[tbyg52]

23. NJ: Hard Evidence of Voting Machine Addition Errors

"Princeton Professor, Ed Felton, has posted a series of blog entries in which he shows the printed tapes he obtained from the NJ voting machines don't report the ballots correctly. In response to the first one, Sequoia admitted that the machines had a known software design error that did not correctly record which kind of ballots were cast (republican or democratic primary ballots) but insisted the vote totals were correct. Then, further tapes showed this explanation to be insufficient. In response, State officials insisted that the (poorly printed) tapes were misread by Felton. Again further tapes showed this not to be a sufficient explanation.

(A little) more (plus comments):
http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/04/29/1712215.shtml

[tbyg52]

2. National nt

[tbyg52]

7. Diebold Accuvote Voting System Now on Sale at eBay!

snip

Still, there's nothing like hands-on practice, in the privacy of your home, to make sure you get everything just right before the big day comes. So, might we suggest this lovely new Diebold/Premier Accuvote OSx voting system, currently available to the highest bidder at eBay?

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5935

[tbyg52]

24. Witness: Fundraiser spoke of plan to fire US attorney

A government witness testified Monday that a prominent political fundraiser for the governor told him three years ago that Chicago's chief federal prosecutor would be fired and replaced by someone chosen by then-U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Restaurant owner Elie Maloof testified that Antoin "Tony" Rezko told him that the person picked to replace Patrick J. Fitzgerald as U.S. attorney in Chicago would end a federal investigation into corruption under Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

"The federal prosecutor would no longer be the federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald would be eliminated," Maloof said at Rezko's fraud trial.

Prosecutors said last week that former Illinois Finance Authority executive director Ali Ata, who is set to take the witness stand as early as Thursday, will testify Rezko told him of a plan to replace Fitzgerald.

More:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQRxkYTsoPZU4eCBGiXoTgkGtScAD90B9LG00

[tbyg52]

3. Foreign nt

[tbyg52]

9. UIK: How to avoid electoral fraud

Millions of people in England and Wales are voting this Thursday in council, London mayoral and London Assembly elections. But how can they make sure they do not fall prey to electoral fraud?

It is the one time when people feel in total control.

Millions vote for the politicians who will represent them for the next few years.

The process is open and the winner always deserves their success, having made a compelling case during their campaign.

That is how we like to think of election day.

Electoral fraud - using other people's votes - whether by stealth or force, is associated in most people's minds with less rigorous systems than the UK's.

But it happens here too, sometimes.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7372891.stm

[tbyg52]

14. What next in Zimbabwe's election process?

Verification of Zimbabwe's disputed presidential election results has been put off again to Thursday. Here are answers to some questions about the process.



WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE VERIFICATION PROCESS?

Officials completed a partial recount from the March 29 presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday.

Recounts from the parliamentary election confirmed that the ruling ZANU-PF party had lost control of parliament for the first time in President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.

There are still no results from the presidential vote.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL29119888

[tbyg52]

4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

[tbyg52]

10. How close are we to the streets? The Supreme Court just made that day closer.

There's only one reason anyone or any people adhere to fair elections within a democratic umbrella for determining who will govern: The alternative risks bloody upheaval, and as John Bradford observed while observing a condemned prisoner being carted to the scaffold, "There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford."

You can never know for sure when YOU might be among those tossed out, and it's much healthier on the neckline that the change in political fortunes occur via the ballot box.

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ed_tubbs_080429_how_close_are_we_to_.htm

[tbyg52]

11. According to Plan?

This is kinda circular, but it *did* show up in a news search....!

snip

In Pennsylvania, Clinton admitted that she had to win to stay in the race. And in fact, late polls showed that Obama was closing fast, with some polls reporting a statistical tie. So, sure enough, Clinton did win, just shy of those essential double digits.

But did she win fair and square? That's unknown and unknowable, for 85% of the votes were cast on paperless, touch-screen ("DRE") machines. And as I pointed out immediately before the Pennsylvania primary,

More:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/CrisisPapers/167

[tbyg52]

12. NAACP: Supreme Court's Decision on Voter IDs is Akin to Voter Suppression

The NAACP is deeply alarmed by today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that would allow the utilization of photo identification at polling places in upcoming elections.

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Indiana’s voter identification law, the most restrictive in the nation. The American Civil Liberties Union's case, Crawford v. Marion County Election Board — consolidated with Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita — was an appeal of two lower court decisions that upheld the state's law requiring voters to present government-issued photo IDs in order to vote. The ACLU, NAACP and others argued that the Indiana law creates an unconstitutional burden on voting rights.

“As the dissent notes, Indiana’s law will sadly but predictably have its greatest impact on tens of thousands of voters in any state who are poor, elderly, belong to racial minorities, or have disabilities,” said NAACP Interim General Counsel Angela Ciccolo. “Many of whom are less likely to have or carry a photo ID or have the means to secure such an identification.”

More:
http://www.naacp.org/news/press/2008-04-29/

[tbyg52]

15. Voter ID: Stopping fraud, or stopping Democrats?

What happened
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, upheld Indiana’s voter ID law, one of the strictest in the nation. The law, adopted along party lines by state Republican legislators in 2005, requires voters to show a driver’s license or passport, or one of a few other state or federal photo ID options, before casting a ballot in person; Democrats and civil rights groups said the law places an undue burden on voters who might have trouble obtaining such ID, primarily minorities and the elderly, disabled, and poor. (USA Today)

What the commentators said
The Indiana law is “ostensibly to protect the integrity of the voting process” against fraud, said Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report blog. But it’s really “part of a national strategy that Republicans hatched a few years ago” to tamp down Democratic voter turnout. In Indiana, the groups least likely to have valid IDs are black people, those whose education stopped at high school, and those younger than 34 and older than 70. The difference between demographic groups isn’t huge, but it’s certainly enough to “shave a few percentage points” from Democrats.

More:
http://www.theweekdaily.com/news_opinion/top_stories/40341/voter_id_stopping_fraud_or_stopping_democrats.html

[tbyg52]

5. Campaign Finance nt

[tbyg52]

19. Voter ID and Campaign Finance:

Reading over Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Voter ID case, it occurs to me that the case shares a lot of structural similarities with McConnell v. FEC, 540 U.S. 93 (2003), the McCain-Feingold/BCRA campaign finance case. In both cases, there were two basic issues: (1) What's the degree of scrutiny for a facial challenge to a statute that is claimed to infringe on constitutional rights central to the voting process, and (2) How much evidence is there of a problem in need of correction, and how hard should the courts look for it?

Of course, the two cases raise different issues, and as with any two cases, different Justices can vote differently for lots of perfectly legitimate reasons. Still, it's interesting to note that the statutes in the two cases have generally opposite political polarities — while Voter ID laws tend to be supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats, the 41 "no" votes against BCRA in the Senate were 38 Republicans and 3 Democrats — and there was only one Justice of the seven on the Court for both cases who voted either to uphold both laws or strike both down. And the vote of that one Justice, Justice Stevens, has of course been the subject of considerable speculation to answer the puzzle of why he voted as he did.

Comments:
http://volokh.com/posts/1209491784.shtml

[tbyg52]

20. The Great Campaign Finance Debate

For the last couple of days, I’ve been selling out arenas nationwide on the Pro-Corruption World Tour. Last night’s stop included the Humanities building on the UW-Madison campus, where Common Cause held a debate on the merits of campaign finance reform. I debated Senators Mike Ellis and Jon Erpenbach, along with poor Gail Shea, who wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise with all of our hot air taking up the time.

Here’s how it went down:

More:
http://www.wpri.org/blog/?p=163

[tbyg52]

6. The Youth Vote nt

[tbyg52]

21. Arizona High School Student Files Paperwork for Initiatives for IRV and Easier Ballot Access

On April 22, Emerson French, a high school student in Tempe, Arizona, filed the paper work to launch two statewide initiatives. One would implement Instant Runoff Voting in federal and state elections in Arizona, and the other would make it easier to qualify a new party for the ballot.

(A little) more (plus comments):
http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/04/29/arizona-high-school-student-files-paperwork-for-initiatives-for-irv-and-easier-ballot-access/

[tbyg52]

25. That's all (I've got time to do) folks!

I hope I haven't missed any really big stories, but this isn't my regularly-planned night, and I only had time to get the things that loaded fastest on my dialup....!

Thanks for starting the thread, Melissa, and anybody do please post if you come across something juicy!

[Melissa G]

28. tbyg52 is Queen of the Universe and Rocks Big Time!!!

THANK YOU!!!! :yourock:

[EFerrari]

26. Thank you, tbyg! And, thanks, SeattleGirl!

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[Kurovski]

30. Thanks, MG and tbyg!

:loveya: both.