Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 10/04/05

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Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News TUESDAY, 10/04/05

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



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

Please

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

CLICK HERE to get quick access to Election Results and Discussion Forum on your “Latest” page.

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1. TX: Techies Say a Big Yes to Ronnie Earle and Bye Bye To DeLay

This kid should get a full scholarship, a car, and all A's
http://www.dailytoreador.com//

RHODE: The 'Beast' exposed
DeLay must answer for own behavior

http://www.dailytoreador.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/10/03/4341a97dec7c5

By Jason Rhode/Columnist
October 03, 2005

Last week saw two great beasts dragged out of their dark lairs: the giant squid and Tom DeLay, majority leader for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Both were legendary in their time for possessing vast tentacles brimming with suckers and hooks to wrap and ensnare their prey. Both were true denizens of the deep; they shared a knack for the low and hidden place while cultivating reputations of terror and mystery.

However, here the two creatures diverge. The giant squid lacks the gas-filled bladder of many fish. DeLay, nicknamed "The Hammer," is famously full of hot air. The giant squid will see its power in the depths continue unabated. Tom DeLay probably will not be so lucky, and may yet return to his original job of insect exterminator.

Last Wednesday, a Texas grand jury in Travis County indicted DeLay, the Bugman of Sugar Land, on charges of criminal conspiracy. His arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 21.

As a result, DeLay, although immensely powerful in politics and fundraising, was forced to step down from his position, albeit temporarily - hopefully permanently. The Hammer himself admitted that the House rule demanding leaders facing criminal charges to step down "has never been implemented before." No kidding.

It's to the country's benefit.

DeLay is one of the worst members of Congress. He was rebuked three times by the House Ethics Committee in 2004 alone.

He got admonished in 1999 for berating Electronic Industries Alliance; their crime was not hiring a Republican as their president.

This isn't counting the questionable conduct not considered by the ethics committee, including the so-called "Celebrations for Children" charity, which seemed more to focus on getting an IRS exemption to raise soft money, his trip to South Korea funded by the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, headed by DeLay's former chief of staff and the recent ethics committee purge of Chairman Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo.; Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo.; and Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio. The latter two were replaced with DeLay loyalists. To say nothing of his acceptance of gifts and favors paid for by lobbyists like Jack Abramoff.

And now comes word that His Hammerness has been formally accused. Also sharing the limelight are his cronies John Colyandro, executive director, TRMPAC, or "Texans for a Republican Majority" Political Action Committee, and Jim Ellis, director of ARMPAC, or "Americans for a Republican Majority" Political Action Committee.

Both were indicted earlier in September. But accused with what? Specifically, the 147th Judicial District tells us that DeLay and company plotted on Sept. 13, 2002, to make illegal corporate campaign contributions to shift the statewide elections - to ensure the Republicans would have power enough to redistrict the state. Which they did, some time after. Injecting funds this way is in violation of Subchapter D, Chapter 253 of the Texas Election Code.

This didn't stop TRMPAC from accepting corporate donations from Sears, Roebuck & Co. ($25,000); Diversified Collection Services ($50,000); Williams Companies, Inc. and the Questerra Corporation (both $25,000); Cornell Companies ($10,000); Bacardi, USA ($20,000).

Ellis then delivered TRMPAC Check No. 1161 (these donations and others amounted to $190,000) to Terry Nelson of the Republican National Committee, along with a list of candidates for the Texas House and amounts to be contributed, specifically to the campaigns of Baxter, Bohac, Dawson, Flynn, Green, Stick and Taylor; all but Green and Stick were elected, in a clever circumvention of Texas law.

DeLay was intimate with TRMPAC. It was bankrolled with his "leadership fund," and he was on its advisory board 2001-2002. He dinnered, favored, solicited and plotted tactics on its behalf. It's his creature.

At least the Bugman hasn't lost his sense of humor. Prior to not taking questions at a press conference, he was heard to say "I have the facts, the law and the truth on my side."

He might have lost his mind, though; he told Chris Matthews on Hardball that the grand jury never asked him to testify - yet his own lawyer Dick DeGuerin and jury foreman William Gibson both affirmed that an invitation had been extended.

DeLay also charged the district attorney prosecuting him, Ronnie Earle, a democrat, of being "vindictive and partisan." Curious. Earle's prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans. Earle brought charges on himself for missing a filing deadline - by a day. Partisan? Pot, meet kettle.

Poor DeLay. All Americans should be proud of this moment. DeLay joins a group that once held the famously corrupt Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (Democrat, Mail Fraud), and now includes such stars as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Republican, Insider Trading), the two representatives from Flagrant Nepotism, Maxine Waters (Democrat) and Roy Blunt (Republican); and last but certainly not least, Congressmen William Jefferson (Democrat, Outright Thievery). The above transcend party affiliation. The only group guys like this belong to are the criminal class. DeLay's a crook and a bully, and should be thrown behind bars.

When DeLay had his gerrymandering bender, and the Democratic members of the Texas Legislature ran out-of-state so as to prevent a quorum from taking place, wasn't it the Hammer who contacted the Office of the U.S. Attorney in San Antonio, two U.S. Marshals' offices, a quartet of FBI offices (Corpus Christi, Dallas, Austin and Ardmore, Okla.), the Department of Justice's Office of Legislative Affairs, three Federal Aviation Administration offices (Ft. Worth, Washington and Oklahoma City), and the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center in California? Why yes, it was. Wasn't this the man so intent on seeing Clinton impeached? Who, after the tsunami, publicly quoted the part of Matthew 7 about the sinner-killing flood? It was.

Where has his famous lust for judgment gone? Does he no longer wish to see eminent sinners smote hip and thigh?

During the Terri Schiavo controversy, shortly after the deaths of Atlanta Judge Rowland Barnes and the mother and husband of Chicago Judge Joan Lefkow, when death threats were being made against the judicial branch, DeLay told Americans that "the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

Every man has a reckoning, Tom. Yours begins shortly.

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2. PA: Philly, Just Say NO to National Voter ID

Baker-Carter Commission: Good Will Ambassadors to the USA

THE VOTING FRIGHTS ACT

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/12803669.htm

Posted on Mon, Oct. 03, 2005


WILL NEW PROPOSALS KEEP POOR AND MINORITIES OUT OF THE VOTING BOOTH?

SOME PEOPLE ARE being polite, citing the "good ideas" to come out of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform recently.
We won't be. The commission's good ideas - like taking the administration of elections out of the hands of partisan politicians - are overshadowed by one exceedingly bad idea: a proposal to require everyone in every state to show a government-issued picture ID in order to vote.

For those without drivers' licenses - one in eight Americans, disproportionately poor, minority, elderly and disabled - a special ID would be required. Neither a passport nor military identification would suffice. And the states would be required to distribute the IDs.
Of course, since the poor, minority, elderly and city dwellers tend to vote Democratic, there wouldn't be much of an incentive for Republican governors to make the IDs available.

<snip>

A national voter ID requirement suggests that there is a problem with eligible "voter impersonators," when there's no credible evidence to support it. As the Century Foundation reported, in the exceedingly close gubernatorial election in Washington State last year, only six instances of alleged double voting were found.
In fact, the problems that have given rise to distrust in our electoral process have centered on barriers to voting - long lines, inaccurate registration information, inconsistent standards for counting provisional ballots, even intimidation.

Some of the long lines and bad information that continue to plague our election system are simple and innocent mistakes. But the fact that elections often are administered by state politicians with a stake in the outcome revs up suspicion.

The poster children for election problems in the last two presidential races were Kathleen Harris, secretary of state in Florida in 2000, and Michael Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state in 2004. Both were chairs of the Bush campaign in their states and both had strong incentives to keep Democratic voter turnout down.

From the Democratic side, Gov. Rendell was criticized last year for following the letter of the law in requiring military absentee ballots be received by the Friday before the election. Rendell has proposed changes to the election code that will make it easier for members of the military to vote.

When it comes to trust in the electoral process, appearances are important. The place to start for national election reform is to take control of elections from the partisans and give it to nonpartisan administrators, people who oversee elections no matter who sits in the

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3. BradBlog: Brad Goes Mano Y Mano, Wins by TKO!

Well, this deserves a cheap joke. Thank you Brad.

Brad Debates ANN COULTER on Republican Ethics (or lack thereof)!
AUDIO FILE NOW AVAILABLE FOR LISTENING!

http://www.bradblog.com/

{Blogged by Brad in Portland, OR}

Just finished my hour on the Ron Insana Radio Show with Ann Coulter...Well, half hour with Coulter. She left at the bottom of the hour for some reason.

Prior to the show, when Ron asked her off air if she would be able to stay for the full hour, she said "Well, I had it down for 30 minutes, so I'll have to let you know at the bottom of the hour if I can stay."

For some reason or another, she was then gone after the bottom of the hour. Hopefully, you can listen and decide for yourself why that may have happened. :-)

UPDATE FROM DAVID: Higher-quality audio of Brad's debate with Ann Coulter is now available (MP3 format). The breaks have been cut from this version. Total playing time is about 35 minutes.

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4. NYSE: Diebold on the Ropes for Standing Eight Count

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_dorfman&sid=aTOoxq52l9Oc

Amerigroup and Diebold Are on the Casualty List: John Dorfman

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg)
<snip>
I am putting those four stocks on my quarterly Casualty List. At the end of each quarter, I put a few stocks that have suffered big declines, and that I think have comeback potential.

This column contains Casualty List No. 22.
<snip>

Diebold

Diebold Inc. (DBD), with headquarters in North Canton, Ohio, makes automated-teller machines, access-control devices, voting machines and other self-service delivery systems. It has reported at least 18 consecutive annual profits, and in the past five years earnings growth has averaged 7 percent on revenue that rose an average of 13 percent.

On Sept. 21, Diebold cut its profit forecast to about $2 a share this year instead of $2.53. U.S. banks are ordering ATMs at a slower rate than in the past.

In addition, Diebold said that Chief Operating Officer Eric Evans had resigned and that his duties were assumed by Chief Executive Officer Walden O'Dell. ``Our recent financial performance has been unacceptable,'' O'Dell said. He also blamed Hurricane Katrina for part of Diebold's problems.

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5. Philippines: I'll Convince Everybody yet! The Philippines is a Harbinger

From Dow Jones News Service

http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/051004/15/3vedz.html

International

Tuesday October 4, 1:08 PM

Philippine Shares End Down On Political Jitters

MANILA (Dow Jones)--Philippine shares finished lower Tuesday, spooked by political jitters, traders said.

The benchmark 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 7.47 points, or 0.4%, to 1938.35, after rising 0.2% Monday. The market traded in a range of 1932.32 and 1952.22.

Limiting the market loss was continued bargain hunting in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., up 0.3% at PHP1,695 on favorable third-quarter earnings hopes, and Ayala land, which rose 2.5% to PHP8.20 on the positive property sector outlook and the stock's low valuation.

Decliners led gainers 42 to 16, while 54 stocks were unchanged.

"Investors are factoring in the fact that the country may be headed for another bumpy ride. All the political noise is making investors jittery, although moving forward, I don't think there will be a lasting effect," said Citiseconline.com investment analyst Mark Alan Canizares.

<snip>

Just last month, Arroyo survived impeachment complaints filed against her by the political opposition on allegations of election fraud and corruption. Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing and has refused to step down.

"The political noise has damped investors' conviction to go ahead and infuse more funds into the stock market," said Canizares. "And there's nothing happening on the economic side. All the good news have come out already and have been factored into share prices."

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[Wilms]

6. E-voting experts call for revised security guidelines

E-voting experts call for revised security guidelines

Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2005-10-03

A federally funded group of voting system experts called on the United States' Election Assistance Commission, which oversees the nation's state-run elections, to revamp its recommended process for evaluating the security of electronic voting devices.

“ We do not believe that open, unrestricted publication to the Internet is in the public interest and this is not based on intellectual property issues. We believe that open inspection must be controlled and managed to prevent reckless claims from being made against our system for the protection of the public and our customers. ”

Neil McClure, vice president, Hart InterCivic In comments published on Friday, the ten researchers that collectively make up A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE) stated that current voting systems are not designed with security in mind and current testing procedures mistakenly focus on voting functionality, not system security. The center, funded by the National Science Foundation in August, released the comments on the last day of a public comment period held by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on its Voluntary Voting System Guidelines.

"There used to be no gap between the process of voting and people's understanding of voting," said Deirdre Mulligan, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Law and a member of the ACCURATE team. "Now, the advances of technology have taken a process that was meaningful and transparent and understood by everyone, and turned it into a black box that only a regulator can understand."

The comments are the last in a flood of nearly 1,000 submissions received by the EAC regarding guidelines for the creation and use of voting systems. While researchers and civil rights groups have voiced strong criticism of electronic voting technology--and in particular the systems' security--the national elections held in November 2004 saw only small problems that would not have impacted the outcome of the election.

snip/more/links

http://online.securityfocus.com/news/11336

[eomer]

7. Carter Baker Dissent: ID Card Proposal Worse Than Georgia

Commissioner
Spencer Overton


ROLL CALL, September 28, 2005

The Carter-Baker ID Card Proposal:
Worse Than Georgia

By Spencer Overton

In unveiling the Carter-Baker Election Reform Commission's proposal on voter identification, former President Jimmy Carter condemned Georgia's recently enacted voter ID law. He labeled the Georgia law -- which makes government-issued photo ID an absolute requirement to vote -- a discriminatory poll tax that should be "overthrown by the courts." He tried to distinguish the Carter-Baker ID proposal by asserting that it had adequate safeguards to ensure that legitimate voters would not be excluded.

But the Carter-Baker proposal is more exclusionary than any state ID law -- including Georgia's.

Just under half the states require ID to vote, and most of these states accept a long list of non-photo ID such as a utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck. About a dozen of these ID states allow voters without ID to prove their identity by signing an affidavit or reciting information such as birthdate and home address.

The Carter-Baker ID proposal would phase out the affidavit safety net and limit the forms of permissible identification to a "Real ID" card. If Georgia adopted the Carter-Baker ID proposal, voters would no longer be able to vote using a U.S. passport, military ID card, student ID card from Georgia State University, government employee ID card or tribal ID card.

<snip>

http://www.carterbakerdissent.com/rollcall.php

[Wilms]

8. Comments by Senator Edwards on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

Comments by Senator Edwards on the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

As we all know, the 2004 election was marred by widespread voting problems - long lines, miscast ballots, votes that people weren't sure were cast properly by new machines they'd never used before.

Many of the worst problems happened in Ohio. After the election, 28 percent of voters there reported problems with their voting experience. These problems were ones that shouldn't exist in America, like intimidation and not being able to find your polling site. The racial disparities within these problems are especially alarming: in Ohio, African American voters were twice as likely as white voters to experience problems.

The result of these problems is a dramatic blow to our faith in our democratic system: in Ohio in 2004, only 19 percent of African Americans were confident that their vote was counted correctly. That's not the way it should be in America.

So, while I commend the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for taking another look at problems in our voting system, I'm concerned that these guidelines - just like those issued in 1990 and 2002 - do not go far enough.

snip/more

http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/eac-voting.asp


Thanks to Amaryllis for posting:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x395997

[NoBushSpokenHere]

9. Just a thanks for keeping up with all the news

I often pop in to read and recommend threads without posting comments and wanted to say thanks, your work hasn't gone unnoticed.