Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 10/01/05

[Wilms]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post 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 "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.


If you want to know how post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=395412&mesg_id=395412


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

[Wilms]

1. CA Sec. of State Forming Panel to Investigate Open Source Software

CA Sec. of State Forming Panel to Investigate Open Source Software for Elections

California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is forming a panel to investigate using open source software in elections. He has invited OVC president Alan Dechert to be on the panel, and has asked for Dechert's input on who should be on the panel.
Many people, including Charlene Woodcock, have written to Secretary McPherson asking him to meet with OVC. In a letter to Charlene dated SEP 21, 2005 , McPherson wrote:

"My staff has met with Alan Dechert of the Open Voting Consortium and continues to communicate with him on this subject. My office will be appointing a task force consisting of experts such as Mr. Dechert to conduct a study of Open Source Code and provide it to the Legislature. We have also asked him to recommend participants on our panel that will study open source code for voting systems."

Engineer extraordinaire, Amy Pearl and OVC co-founder, Board Secretary, Professor Arthur Keller also attended the July meeting (referred to in McPherson's letter). Amy and Arthur deserve much of the credit for bringing the Secretary of State's office around.

snip/more

http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=35

[Wilms]

2. LOUISIANA TO STUDY PLAN FOR INTERNET VOTING POST-KATRINA

LOUISIANA TO STUDY PLAN FOR INTERNET VOTING POST-KATRINA

By Charlie Russo, News Writer

09.29.2005 | SearchCIO.com

As New Orleanians start returning home and rebuilding their city after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Secretary of State office is forming a task force to determine the best way to preserve one of the most basic and essential ingredients of a community: government elections.

With one set of elections already postponed and the next vote scheduled for Feb. 4, including the mayoral election, New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert earlier this week proposed online kiosk voting as a way to make ballots available to city residents dispersed by Katrina.

Jennifer Marusak, spokeswoman for the office of Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater, said the task force being formed by her office will consider all options for conducting the February elections. But she said the office remains skeptical of any form of online voting, including Internet kiosks.

"Orleans can't go on their own and decide they want to do Internet voting," Marusak said yesterday. "The mayor and the parish have no say-so in how, when and where this election is conducted. We are asking for their input on the task force for reaching these displaced voters."

snip/more

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1130226,00.html

[Wilms]

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· DAVID COBB, Green Party Pres. Candidate
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· ELLEN THEISSEN of VotersUnite.orq
· Atty. PAUL LEHTO (Suing Sequoia Voting Co.)
· Tribune Media Columnist, ROBERT KOEHLER
· Vote-Rigging Whistleblower, CLINT CURTIS
And many many more!

Your DONATIONS are greatly appreciated!

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[Wilms]

4. Election Updates: Vote Count and Recount Project

(not exactly)

Friday, September 30, 2005

Election Updates

Vote Count and Recount Project

The EAC recently awarded a consortium led by me the contract to study Vote Count and Recounts in all 50 states, as well as best practices for vote counts and recounts. The team also includes Mike (a given!), Doug Chapin from electionline.org, Kim Brace from Election Data Services. We are planning to work quickly to capture this information and then move to studying best practices in vote counting and recounting. This should be an exciting project and bring out some interesting issues and helpful information to local election officials just in time for the '06 elections.

# posted by Thad Hall @ 2:36 PM

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/09/vote-count-and-recount-project.html

[Wilms]

5. CA: State Secretary Seeks Ethnic Media’s Help in Reaching Voters

State Secretary Seeks Ethnic Media’s Help in Reaching Voters

News Report, Eugenia Chien,
New America Media, Sep 30, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO – Six months after taking office California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson on Sept. 29 met with members of the ethnic media to ask for their help in reaching out to voters.

“You have different ways to reach out to different communities,” McPherson said at a roundtable at the University Club in San Francisco attended by 35 journalists from Chinese, Thai, Indian, Latino, Filipino and African American media, among others.

He said voter turn out among youth and the disabled was among his top concerns. Only 50 percent of 18-24 year old eligible voters are registered to vote, he said, and that the state needs more funds to improve voting access for the disabled.

McPherson, a Republican from Santa Cruz, was unanimously confirmed by the state assembly to replace Kevin Shelley, who stepped down from the post after a fundraising scandal involving Chinese fundraiser Julie Lee. Lee was accused of funneling money intended for an immigrant resource center to Shelley.

snip/more

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=c381f3f72d03fd82e21a3434ca57e23d

[Wilms]

6. NM lawsuit against the Secretary of State on behalf of voters update

From Voter Action on the NM lawsuit against the Secretary of State on behalf of voters:

Lopategui v. Vigil-Giron Lawsuit Update:

Our initial discovery process is revealing startling evidence of serious voting machine problems, top-to-bottom incompetence in the administration of elections, cover-up by election officials of major errors they know have gone uncorrected, and the ceding by election officials of oversight and control over our elections to unaccountable private companies.

snip/more

http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/2005/09/voter_action_up_1.html

Thanks to garybeck for posting

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x395408


Voteraction.org

http://www.voteraction.org

[Wilms]

7. Election Updates: Information from NASS

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Information from NASS on the situation in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana

The following message was sent out by Leslie Reynolds, Executive Director, National Association of Secretaries of State last week:

snip/more

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/09/information-from-nass-on-situation-in.html

[Algorem]

8. Ohio suit to stand; Republicans must open calendars, campaign data

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1128160809325941.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

Hagan suit to stand; Republicans must open calendars, campaign data

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Columbus-Democrat Tim Hagan lost the 2002 governor's race but won the right Friday to begin forcing top-ranking Republicans to open their calendars and campaign coffers to unprecedented scrutiny.

A county judge denied Republican efforts to dismiss Hagan's lawsuit accusing the GOP of trading unbid contracts for campaign cash...

"I believe discovery will show that these defendants have used no-bid contracts to loot the state of Ohio of hundreds of millions of dollars, making the Bureau of Workers' Compensation fiasco look like small change."...


Filed in August 2004, the lawsuit alleges that Ohio's GOP-controlled government awarded billions of dollars in unbid state contracts to vendors who artificially inflated their prices to cover contributions they kicked back to Republican political funds...

[Wilms]

9. Diebold Elects New Member To Its Board Of Directors

Press Release Source: Diebold, Incorporated

Diebold Elects New Member To Its Board Of Directors

Friday September 30, 2:36 pm ET


NORTH CANTON, Ohio, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Diebold, Incorporated has announced that Alan J. Weber has been elected to its board of directors, effective October 1.
Weber recently retired as chairman and CEO of U.S. Trust Corporation and as a member of the executive committee of The Charles Schwab Corporation. Prior to joining U.S. Trust in October 2002, Weber was vice chairman and chief financial officer at Aetna, Inc., where he was responsible for capital management, information technology, investor relations, e-business and financial operations.

Weber, 56, also held a number of senior-level positions at Citibank, N.A., where he worked from 1971 to 1998, including chairman of Citibank International and executive vice president of Citibank. During his tenure at Citibank, Weber oversaw operations in approximately 40 countries including assignments in Japan, Italy and Latin America.

Weber currently serves as a director of ComputerRepair.com, an IT services company he helped establish. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

snip/more

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050930/clf515.html?.v=4


Thanks to WillYourVoteBCounted for posting:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x395640

[Wilms]

10. electionline.org: Exclusive Interview: Louisiana Secretary of State

I. In Focus This Week

Exclusive Interview: Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater (R)
State’s top election official on coping with the aftermath of Katrina

By Elizabeth Schneider
electionline.org

http://www.electionline.org/Newsletters/tabid/87/ctl/Detail/mid/643/xmid/155/xmfid/3/Default.aspx

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

11. Please see post 12 in this thread for info re Diebold tabulators etc

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2129759