Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Monday 7/11/05

[MelissaB]

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[MelissaB]

1. FL: Touch-screen voting Flagler's decision compounds problems

Touch-screen voting
Flagler's decision compounds problems

Last update: July 11, 2005

In the last week of June, Peggy Rae Border, Flagler County's Supervisor of Elections, requested and received $173,000 from the County Commission to buy 43 touch-screen voting machines, one for each of the county's 38 precincts. The machines won't replace Flagler's optical-scan voting system but add to it to give some disabled people the opportunity to vote privately. The machines are manufactured by Diebold Elections Systems Inc. And they produce no paper trail. If the machines malfunction at election time, there is no way to verify an electronically recorded vote against printed proof. The only verification system is the machine's own computer memory chips.

Computers are not infallible, and touch-screen machines have failed in actual elections enough times that Miami-Dade County, for example, may junk its $24.5 million investment in the technology. Border's decision nevertheless to rely on touch-screen technology in Flagler is an unfortunate concession to potential failures at a time when every supervisor should be striving for minimizing voting fiascoes, not planting the seeds for more.

Border is under pressure to comply with state law, which requires counties to have systems in place accommodating disabled voters by July 1. The law also requires that those systems be certified by the state. Diebold's is one of three systems certified. But none of the three companies on the list manufactures machines that provide a paper trail. So the state's mandate is not exactly challenge-proof. To the contrary. It forces local election supervisors into a corner while failing to achieve the law's stated aim -- equal protection for all voters.

Still, Border should have followed Volusia County's example, where the County Council chose to take a stand rather than let itself be cornered. The council refused to approve a $782,185 contract with Diebold despite threats of a lawsuit now pending in federal court. The issue is ripe for a court test. Members of the American Civil Liberties Union tried to make that point at a June 30 Palm Coast town meeting chaired by Jim O'Connell, the newest member of the Flagler County Commission. They got nowhere.


More: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/03OpOPN10071005.htm

[MelissaB]

2. Dollar's Gain Squeezes Exports at Oracle, Diebold, Cuts Growth

Dollar's Gain Squeezes Exports at Oracle, Diebold, Cuts Growth

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. exporters such as Oracle Corp. and Diebold Inc. face the biggest pinch since 2001 from a rising dollar, which is cutting into sales and threatening to widen the record U.S. trade deficit.

...snip

Redwood City, California-based Oracle, the world's third- largest software maker, said July 1 it expects the dollar's rise to cut fiscal 2006 sales by 2 percent. Diebold, the North Canton, Ohio-based maker of automated-teller and electronic-voting machines, cited the dollar's increase on June 30 when it slashed its second-quarter profit forecast and said it will eliminate 300 jobs to reduce costs.

[MelissaB]

4. Link

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a.GDlwOJqsho&refer=us

[MelissaB]

3. Florida county in legal fight over e-voting machines

Florida county in legal fight over e-voting machines

Marc L. Songini, Computerworld

11/07/2005 08:34:35

A Florida county's refusal to purchase specialized voting machines that comply with handicap access laws has put it in the cross hairs of the state's attorney general and handicap rights groups.

On June 29, the Volusia County Council voted 4-3 against authorizing the purchase of 210 touch-screen systems from Diebold Election Systems. According to Florida state law, all counties were obliged to have at least one state-certified touch-screen machine in place by July 1. These particular systems, which have a touch-screen interface, meet the handicap access requirement because they also house devices that enable blind voters to receive verbal prompts to enable them to vote.

The council declined to purchase the machines because they don't generate a paper receipt. The majority of the council is joined by critics who maintain that the touch-screen systems can be rigged for political advantage.

The National Federation of the Blind and others filed suit this week in Orlando Federal District Court.


More: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1334770018;fp;2;fpid;1

[MelissaB]

5. Andy Stephenson (1963-2005) - In Memoriam

(If this has already been posted, I'm sorry. I must have missed it. I found it doing a search for "voting machins" for the daily thread.)

Andy Stephenson (1963-2005) - In Memoriam

Monday, 11 July 2005, 8:44 am
Opinion: Tom Flocco

Andy Stephenson
(1963-2005)
In Memoriam

All-time American patriotic "good guy" Andy Stephenson passed away on Thursday, July 7, 2005 at 6:27 EST/9:27 PST after a rather short but heroic bout with pancreatic cancer. The many thousands who understood his cause and who contributed to the cost of his operation proved the effect he was having upon citizens from coast to coast. It was their "thank-you."

A terrific friend to all patriotic Americans attempting to set the country back on the right course, Andy was passionate about corruption in the American voting system. So intense was his desire to prevent U.S. legislators from allowing elections to be "fixed," Andy set about channeling his life to affect real change by going from city to city explaining potential evils of the new electronic voting machines, i.e. continuous hacking and no paper trail for honest recounts. (The machines are now being forced on all 50 states) Andy demonstrated to countless audiences around the U.S.A. how connected modems could be used to hack the results of any election--making it impossible to throw Presidents, Senators and Congressmen out of office!

Having talked to Andy many times on the phone, he helped me with info for a few of my stories and I can tell everyone that Andy was an incredible researcher--one who was able to connect pieces of an investigative puzzle with ease. Moreover, Andy opened my eyes to the astonishing hypocrisy of the current administration with regard to pedophilia, homosexuality and the duping of "people of faith," using them for selfish electoral purposes. He mailed me countless court documents for two of my most widely read stories about Capitol Hill pedophilia. Andy, you packed a lot of life into your 42+ years. And I have a feeling all Americans "in the know" will join me in asking God to bring us someone else like you who will pick up your flag for "honest elections," even if it takes a second straight presidential impeachment (and hopefully removal in handcuffs with a prison term) to cleanse America of pre-emptive war, an obvious "false-flag" 9/11 attack, millions of illegal aliens and stolen trillions from the U.S. Treasury which is destroying America economically.

...Yes, your Spirit now flies for all of us... May the Lord bless you, Andy--and may you rest in peace.

Your friends,

Tom Flocco and "WHITESTAR"
TomFlocco.com




Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0507/S00132.htm


Discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x383150

and here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4070710

[MelissaB]

6. Michael Moore links this article about "Coingate"

Working for the Republican governor of Ohio and the Republican Party of Ohio can lead to great wealth and power.

Link: http://michaelmoore.com/


OHIO POLITICS
Ex-state aides use old ties to make, raise cash
Lobbyists steered funds to Bush while they enriched themselves

By JAMES DREW
and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


COLUMBUS - From the governor's office to the Ohio Republican Party, high-ranking staff members have traded their official titles for personal riches and the influence that comes with helping select a U.S. president.

A select group of key players in state government have used the same network of connections they established in their official positions to make money for themselves and raise loads of cash for their party and President Bush, a Blade investigation shows.

The payoffs come in the form of lucrative state and federal lobbying deals, political consulting pacts, and having the pull to convince campaign contributors to support their candidates.

With their political mentors still holding all of the state's top offices, the newly minted lobbyists can guarantee that they have the ears of key decision makers in Columbus and access to offices they used to help run.

More: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050710/SRRARECOINS/307100014/-1/SRRARECOINS2