Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday 6/14/05

[MelissaB]

Everyone is encouraged to participate.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233

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.



Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x377974


:bounce: All previous daily threads are available here: http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[Botany]

1. Noe and the Ohio coin scandal

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050615/NEWS24/50615005

to sum up known facts as of 6/15/05
Ohio workers comp lost 215 million in a republican run hedge fund ..... the repug Gov. of Ohio found out about this in Oct. '04 but kept it from the
public until after the election .... the same worker's comp program invested in coins and baseball cards sold by republican pioneer Tom Noe ...... Noe
also owned the company that put the value on the coins & cards ...... at least 50 million was spent on these collectables which were over valued by
at least 15 million ..... Noe was also connected to the Ohio Turnpike commission ...... which recently fired all state employees and replaced them w/
private contractors (less oversight for Money laundering ????) .... he was also connected to the Lucas County Board of elections by his wife ...... Lucas county
had voting machines "lock up" on 11/2/04 in democratic precincts .... had computers with voter data bases stolen from the Kerry HQs ...... a couple that had
lived in the same house from 1960 and voted at the same place since 1960 had to vote provisionally because they were no longer registered ..... all members of
the Lucas County BOE had to resign after the election ....... Congressman Sherrod Brown (D) Lorain, OH is on record as saying, "This calls into question the
outcome of the election." ....... and now a house in Colorado with evidence from the coin scam in Ohio is broken into and the evidence has disappeared ......

[MelissaB]

2. Announcing a National Election Reform Conference

in Portland, Oregon, Sept 30 - Oct 2, 2005
http://www.oregonvrc.org

Announcement and Call for Presenters for a National Election Reform Conference

Conference Goals:

To bring together grassroots election reform organizations, legislators, election officials, news media, and the general public to share best practices and innovative solutions for election reform.

To focus on solutions and empower participants with knowledge and tools to effect real election reform.

To provide a non-partisan and safe venue for discussing diverse opinions and alternatives for achieving clean elections.


See above link for full details.

:woohoo:

Thanks to math_is_for_girls here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x377393

[Algorem]

3. Review: Rampant Ohio voter fraud a myth

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1118827862312460.xml&coll=2

Review: Rampant voter fraud a myth

Still, Ohio lawmakers keep up reform push

Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus- Of 9,078,728 votes cast in Ohio in 2002 and 2004, only four were fraudulent, according to a new review by a pair of voter advocacy groups.

The review's sponsors - the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the League of Women Voters - contended Tuesday that rampant voter fraud in Ohio is a myth that is being used to impose new restrictions on voters in future elections.

"The stories still persist - but we wanted to make the record clear," said coalition director Bill Faith. "There is no evidence to support the stories."

The survey of Ohio's 88 county elections boards turned up only four actual cases of voter fraud - in which one person improperly cast another's ballot - in the past two election cycles. Two were in Madison County, west of Columbus, and one each occurred in Medina and Lorain counties...

[Algorem]

4. Ohio Senators considering allowing in-person voting before elections

Ohio Senators considering allowing in-person voting before elections

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-17/11188575266880.xml&storylist=cleveland

Senators considering allowing in-person voting before elections
6/15/2005, 2:56 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Senators are considering allowing people to vote in person before Election Day to try to eliminate the long lines of November's presidential election, a key Republican said Wednesday.

Senators would have to win the support of House members who rejected the idea as part of a bill to revamp election law, saying they were concerned about the burden on county elections boards.

The Senate also is considering removing a provision of the bill to allow voters to cast absentee ballots by mail without giving a reason why the could not vote in person, said Sen. Kevin Coughlin, a Cuyahoga Falls Republican. He sponsored the Senate's version of the election reform bill...

The Senate version also could require voters to show identification with their photo to vote. Proponents say that will reduce voter fraud, but critics contend there's no proof of widespread fraud and that requiring a photo ID could discourage people from voting...

[Algorem]

5. "Suppressing the vote",Toledo Blade editorial

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050615/OPINION02/506150318

LEGISLATION being pushed quickly through the General Assembly appears to have one prime motivation - to make it harder rather easier for Ohioans to vote.

In addition to introducing partisan voter registration for the first time in state history, House Bill 3, sponsored by Rep. Kevin DeWine (R., Fairborn), contains a whole slew of provisions that would throw up obstacles to voters and those who wish to register others to vote.

Especially troubling is talk around the Statehouse that Republican leaders intend to amend the bill to require ex-felons to get a court order to restore their right to vote.

Even Florida, no model of election reform, discarded this exclusionary practice after it was used in the contested 2000 presidential election to turn away thousands of voters, including many who were improperly put on a state list of ex-felons...

[MelissaB]

6. Volusia gets OK for municipal elections

Volusia gets OK for municipal elections

Staff Report

Last update: June 15, 2005

Despite the County Council's rebellion against touch-screen voting machines, Volusia is in the clear as far as state Division of Elections is concerned -- for the time being, at least.
But the future of a different option favored by touch-screen opponents is murky.

...snip

Still, whether the county will be able to use alternate equipment wanted by activists who prefer a paper ballot is unclear.

Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, said, if the system, known as AutoMARK, is certified for use in Florida, the county can buy it -- but it may not be compatible with Volusia's current system.

She acknowledged that could depend on AutoMARK's access to information owned by Diebold Election Systems, which maintains the county's paper ballot system. That's not for the state to decide.

A Diebold spokesman, David Bear, said sharing information wasn't on the table.

"We've not moved into discussion of, as competitors, working the two systems together," he said.

County Chairman Frank Bruno said he didn't want to put the "cart before the horse" but would consider switching to another optical scan system that would work with AutoMARK to guarantee a voter-verifiable paper record.


More: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/LocalGov/03AreaPOLL01061505.htm

[MelissaB]

7. MT: Election-day registration, new technologies in works for 2006

Election-day registration, new technologies in works for 2006

By MIKE DENNISON
Tribune Capitol Bureau


HELENA — It's a while until the next Election Day, but state voting officials already are prepping for some major changes, including the first-ever chance for Montanans to register and vote on the same day.

This week, election officials across Montana get a close-up look at technology enabling "same-day" voter registration and voting, as well as other steps to make voting and vote-counting easier and more efficient.

"I think it's going to allow us, on a number of fronts, to increase accessibility to the voting process," said Secretary of State Brad Johnson, the state's chief election officer. "And we've done it in a way that allows us to protect the integrity of the process."

The changes on tap include:


* A statewide "voter registration database" that allows people to register to vote on Election Day, beginning in the November 2006 general election.

* Permanent absentee ballots, so voters don't have to reapply every election.

* New machines at polling sites that check ballots for mistakes before they go in the ballot box for counting.

* Electronic audio voting machines for the blind or other disabled citizens, enabling them to vote privately without assistants, who otherwise would see their votes.


More: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050615/NEWS01/506150302/1002

[MelissaB]

8. DU article: Fighting Back

Fighting Back
The Quiet Plot to Steal America, and What to Do About It

June 15, 2005
By Andrew M. Gracy

America is under attack. It's time to pull our collective heads out of the sand and realize the nature of the political battle that rational, constitutionally-minded Americans now face. We are, to borrow a phrase from Bill Moyers, in the fight for our lives. From the decades-long efforts to eliminate the press as the fourth estate of government to the onslaught on Social Security, from the attack on academic freedom in our colleges and universities to the attempts to stock our judicial system with conservative judges, the Right has garnered the financial and political resources in recent decades to reshape the social landscape of America.

...snip


1. The American media have been lost to the Right.

There is no liberal bias, even in the traditional bulwarks of liberalism, PBS and NPR. Rather, there is a conservative ruse to propagandize Americans into believing liberal bias exists to divert attention from the real issues. The loss of the media as the fourth estate is a function of consolidation, i.e. corporate control over the media, and the favor-trading that goes on between corporate America and government. The lesson? Don't look to the media to help turn back the political clock. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

2. The electoral system in the U.S. has quietly been privatized in recent years by the use of electronic voting machines, and the control of elections has thereby been placed in the hands of corporations with deep political and financial ties to the Republican Party.

The truth is, the 2004 presidential election was almost certainly fraudulent (as were many of the Congressional races), and George W. Bush was ushered into office by subterfuge and against the will of the voting majority. There is too much evidence to support this hypothesis to be ignored - from exit polls to statistical studies of voting patterns in a number of states - but it is not a story that could break into the corporate media. The lesson? You've already been disenfranchised, and conventional methods of political activism will likely prove ineffective against the power establishment. But there is a darker lesson here as well: in a true democracy, one has a moral mandate to adhere the will of the people, even if one is part of the minority; in a totalitarian state, one has a moral mandate to make government beholden to the people - a mandate to resist the illegitimate imposition of power by the ruling class. Without fair elections, we live in a de facto totalitarian state.


More: http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/06/15_fighting.html

[MelissaB]

9. Sign petition on Coingate!

Ask Governor Bob Taft to Appoint an Independent Investigator to Investigate Ohio’s "Coingate" Scandal

http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/{FB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665}/MAP_COINS_SMALL.GIF

The fallout from the Ohio “Coingate” scandal, involving Thomas Noe, a rare-coin dealer and Republican financial backer, who is a major player in Ohio politics for years has reached beyond Ohio. Noe is at the center of a major scandal and is under investigation for the loss of up to $13 million worth of rare coins that were part of a dubious $50 million investment by the state workers comp fund he was responsible for managing. Now, Noe is a focus of a federal investigation in his role as a Pioneer for President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, responsible for raising at least $100,000 for the President. He is accused of violating federal campaign finance law by reimbursing donors who gave to the President’s campaign committee. While Noe’s beneficiaries are falling over backwards to disassociate themselves from him, Ohioans are waiting answers as to how their tax dollars fell through the cracks.

Given the wide swath of Noe’s influence in a state dominated by the Republican party in all branches of government, the only way that we can get to the truth about how accountability failed at every level is to enlist an independent counsel to investigate these serious allegations.

We the undersigned call on Governor Bob Taft to appoint an independent investigator to get answers to the following questions:

* How did state oversight mechanisms fail to discover the questionable actions and obvious conflicts of interest of a major party fundraiser with responsibility for investing state funds?

* Why did it take seven years and only after press scrutiny for it to come to light that taxpayer money was being dumped into highly questionable investment funds – rare coin collections considered a dubious investment by public finance experts.

Link: http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=810579&en=jmIPJaM2IhLYJhOPLcJTL9O2KnITIbO2LrK1JlNaIAK


Thanks to helderheid here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x378208

[MelissaB]

10. In John Conyer's blog today:

...snip

(Also, lest you think Downing Street is all I am thinking about, I taped an interview with a group doing a very interesting documentary on Ohio 2004).

Link: http://www.conyersblog.us/

[MelissaB]

11. DUH! I dated this wrong! It should be Wednesday 6/15/05

Please excuse my brain fart.

[tommcintyre]

12. Uh oh! Then I better go fix the archives. ;)

Thanks for "keepin' on keepin' on" Melissa B. I is much appreciated.

:yourock:

[MelissaB]

13. I'm so sorry, Tommyintyre!

:cry:

[tommcintyre]

14. Please don't cry... it's all better now.

;)