Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 10/30/05

[Mnemosyne]

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=view_all&address=203x398839

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm











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

[Mnemosyne]

1. Deal Near on Democratic Presidential Schedule

By Chris Cillizza
Special to the Washington Post
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A05

A plan to shuffle the 2008 Democratic presidential calendar -- placing several states between the traditional Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary -- is gaining momentum on a commission studying the party's nominating process.

A consensus is developing to recommend scheduling nominating contests in two or possibly three states in the days between Iowa and New Hampshire, according to some members of a Democratic National Committee panel looking at ways to revamp the nominating schedule.

"It is getting to be a done deal," said Mike Stratton, a member of the 40-person commission headed by Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.) and former labor secretary Alexis Herman. The commission is to make a final recommendation to the DNC at its Dec. 10 meeting.

If such a recommendation were adopted, it likely would diminish the influence of two small states that for decades have enjoyed outsized influence in picking presidential nominees, and would cause aspiring presidential candidates to rethink their strategies about travel and spending, and potentially even their campaign messages, in pursuit of the nomination.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901078.html?sub=AR

[Mnemosyne]

2. Activists Have Hopefuls for Dinner

Attempting to literally dine out on their influence, some Washington-based liberal activists are hosting informal meals with Democratic politicians thought to be considering the 2008 presidential race.

The dinners are hosted by former America Coming Together executive director Steven Rosenthal and America Votes president Cecile Richards. They generally include eight to 10 guests. So far the group has dined with Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner and Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.). Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is next, slated to break bread with the group early in November.

Attendees say there is no agenda at the sessions; the goal is for both sides to become more familiar. "The dinners provide an opportunity for progressive leaders and potential candidates to let their hair down and get to know each other a little better," Rosenthal said.

This gathering and others like it are done largely out of the media glare but represent a key element of the "primary within the primary" in which all prospective 2008 candidates must compete. Wooing key players in the party infrastructure can lead to increased visibility for a candidate among party donors, who will provide the financial backbone of a national campaign, and the ground troops who will be needed to win Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, which put a premium on "retail" campaigning.

more here, scroll down:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901079.html

[Mnemosyne]

3. Virginia Governor's Race Close, Polls Show

By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer Sun Oct 30, 3:35 AM ET

RICHMOND, Va. - Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Jerry Kilgore are in a tight race for governor, two new statewide polls show.

In a poll conducted by The Washington Post and published in Sunday's editions, 47 percent of respondents said they would vote for Kaine, while 44 percent said they would vote for Kilgore. However, the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

"This is going to be a very close race that goes down to the wire," Kaine spokesman Mo Elleithee said.

The newspaper said 1,004 likely voters were surveyed from Oct. 23 through Oct. 26.

Kilgore campaign manager Ken Hutcheson criticized the poll, saying results from GOP strongholds — such as the Shenandoah Valley and southwest Virginia where Kilgore is from — didn't make sense.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051030/ap_on_el_st_lo/governor_poll;_ylt=ArTR1EG.xmCZuiN9s7GD1bKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

[Mnemosyne]

4. Election May Overshadow Women's Conference

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 27, 2:57 PM ET

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Determined as its organizers are to keep a major state women's conference free of politics, the looming Nov. 8 special election has placed California first lady Maria Shriver's signature event under a decidedly political spotlight.

Thursday's conference features celebrity speakers, including actress Jane Fonda, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, singer Mary J. Blige and retiring Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor.

But less than two weeks before voters decide Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" ballot initiatives, all eyes will be on Shriver, whose public endorsement of the measures has been conspicuously lacking.

The initiatives target public employee unions and the power Democrats hold over state politics. Shriver has not talked publicly about them nor has she discussed the widespread protests or the union-financed television ad campaign targeting both the initiatives and her husband.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051027/ap_on_re_us/women_s_conference_4

[Mnemosyne]

5. Red-State Seats Tricky Fruit to Pluck

# Democrats may find that social issues hamper their ability to convert public dissatisfaction with the president into midterm election wins.

By Ronald Brownstein, Times Staff Writer

STAUNTON, Va. — In the Republican-leaning state of Virginia, the political climate has rarely been as favorable for Democrats as it is in this year's gubernatorial election.

Outgoing Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner is leaving office with a stratospheric 75% approval rating after an energetic term in which he closed a state budget shortfall, invested in schools and roads and presided over booming job growth.

Even some Republicans consider Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the Democratic candidate to succeed Warner, a smoother and more skilled campaigner than GOP nominee Jerry W. Kilgore, the former state attorney general.

And, although President Bush comfortably carried Virginia last year, polls show his approval rating has slipped below 50% in the state.

more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-virginia30oct30,1,3971614.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&ctrack=1&cset=true

[Mnemosyne]

6. Indictment Over Bush Donations

TOLEDO, Ohio — A coin dealer and major GOP donor at the center of a scandal in Ohio state government was charged Thursday with illegally funneling $45,400 in contributions to President Bush's reelection.

Tom Noe was accused in a federal indictment of giving money directly or indirectly to 24 friends and associates, who then made the campaign contributions in their own names. In that way, he skirted the $2,000 limit on individual contributions, prosecutors said.

"It's one of the most blatant and excessive finance schemes we have encountered," said Noel Hillman, section chief of the Justice Department's public integrity section.

Calls to the White House and Noe's lawyers were not immediately returned. Prosecutors said the Bush campaign had cooperated with their investigation.

Noe also is under investigation over a $50-million investment in rare coins he managed for the state workers' compensation fund. Noe has acknowledged that as much as $13 million is missing, and Ohio's attorney general has accused him of stealing as much as $6 million. No charges have been filed in that case, though state officials say they plan to do so.

more (one paragraph):
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-coin28oct28,1,7757698.story?coll=la-news-politics-national

[Mnemosyne]

7. Mail ballot request deadline approaching; voters in nine counties urged to

From YubaNet.com

By: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
Published: October 29, 2005 at 9:03

With the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot fast approaching, the California Voter Foundation is urging voters in nine electronic voting counties to "Get it on paper."

That's because these nine counties - Alameda, Merced, Napa, Orange, Plumas, Riverside, Santa Clara, Shasta, and Tehama -- will be using paperless, electronic voting machines in polling places on November 8.

"Studies continue to find that electronic voting machines are prone to error," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation (CVF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advancing paper backups and public auditing of computerized vote counts. A recently published U.S. Government Accountability Office report found numerous security problems with electronic voting systems, and recommended the use of voter-verified paper audit trails, as did the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform.

Citing security concerns and an inability to conduct meaningful audits of election results on the paperless systems, Alexander said voters in the nine e-voting counties should immediately request an absentee ballot from their county elections office.

more:
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_27115.shtml

[Mnemosyne]

8. $2M needed for ballot scans

Saturday, October 29, 2005

$2M needed for ballot scans
U.S. funds cover only part of Hamilton County bill

By Kimball Perry
Enquirer staff writer


When the federal government ordered modern voting systems, it provided Hamilton County with $8.4 million to pay for them.

The problem is, the new machines will cost more than $10 million.

"This is what's called an unfunded federal mandate," said county Board of Elections director John Williams.

He will ask Hamilton County's commissioners at a Monday meeting to provide the additional $2 million needed next year to pay for the voting machines.

more:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051029/NEWS01/510290374/1056

[Mnemosyne]

9. E-voting system: 'It's easy'

Sunday, October 30, 2005


Butler County introduces touch-screen balloting

By Janice Morse
Enquirer staff writer


While voters in three nearby counties will cast ballots on machines that are as familiar as old friends, Butler County voters are plunging into the awkward "let's-get-acquainted" stage with something new: computer touch-screens.

Butler will be among 41 Ohio counties inaugurating the touch screens Nov. 8 - and will the first county in Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky to try this type of electronic voting, officials say.

Clermont County is continuing to use optical-scan voting machines, in which voters darken ovals on a paper ballot.

Warren and Hamilton counties are using punch-cards this election but will switch to the optical-scan method next year to meet federal mandates to replace the problem-prone punch-card systems.

more:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300413

[Mnemosyne]

10. Voting twice turns out to be right thing to do

Quirk in laws has some cities holding elections Nov. 1 & 8

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News
October 29, 2005

"Vote early and vote often," at least in three Colorado cities, isn't an attempt at Chicago-style political chicanery. It's patriotic advice.

Because of a peculiarity in the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, some cities are holding two elections this year.

Pueblo, Trinidad and Vail have charters that require municipal elections to be held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday - the traditional fall election date in the U.S. Each has city council elections on Nov. 8.

But TABOR specifies that any odd-year tax-related ballot issue - Refs C and D this time around - must be decided on the first Tuesday in November. This year that's Nov. 1.

more:
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/election/article/0,1299,DRMN_36_4195764,00.html

[Mnemosyne]

11. Noe indictment could boost Dems at polls

Inside Columbus

By Jon Craig
Enquirer staff writer


COLUMBUS - Earlier this year, federal prosecutors were criticized by some Democratic leaders for failing to launch a probe of rare coin dealer Tom Noe before the November 2004 election.

With Noe's indictment Thursday, 12 days before this year's election, a Toledo grand jury's timing could shape the future of politics in Ohio, Democrats hope.

You've seen the television ads: "Clean up Ohio" or "Protect your vote." State issues 3 through 5 were inspired in part by what Democrats see as the pay-to-play environment and campaign-finance shenanigans of Noe and others. Noe is accused of concealing $45,400 in campaign contributions to President Bush in October 2003.

The same day Noe was indicted, newly filed campaign finance reports revealed that proponents of campaign-finance limits and changes to redistricting and election oversight raised about $2 million, much of it from out-of-state environmental and liberal groups.

more:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300404

[Mnemosyne]

12. Election database to be tested

By MIKE DENNISON
Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Although voters won't notice any changes at the polls in municipal elections on Nov. 8, 10 Montana counties are testing a new database that will lead to same-day voter registration.

The counties, which include Yellowstone, Missoula, Lewis and Clark and Gallatin, are the first to test a statewide list of registered voters that will be used in all Montana counties by next year.

"We'll get the real acid test directly," said Elaine Graveley, head of the Elections and Legislative Bureau in the secretary of state's office.

If all goes well in the test counties, the system will be installed across the state over the next four months.

more:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/10/29/build/state/55-database.inc

[Mnemosyne]

13. $2M needed for ballot scans

U.S. funds cover only part of Hamilton County bill

By Kimball Perry
Enquirer staff writer


When the federal government ordered modern voting systems, it provided Hamilton County with $8.4 million to pay for them.

The problem is, the new machines will cost more than $10 million.

"This is what's called an unfunded federal mandate," said county Board of Elections director John Williams.

He will ask Hamilton County's commissioners at a Monday meeting to provide the additional $2 million needed next year to pay for the voting machines.

more:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051029/NEWS01/510290374/1056

[Mnemosyne]

14. Commissioners OK new electronic voting machines

By PATRINA A. BOSTIC

Friday, October 28, 2005

Gregg County commissioners on Thursday approved a contract that will take county voters into the electronic age.

Beginning with next year's March primaries, all Gregg County-run balloting will be done on voting machines being purchased from Austin-based Hart Intercivic. The company's eSlate machines allow voters to cast their decisions without paper ballots.

County commissioners agreed to purchase 160 of the machines for $2,500 each. The county received $539,000 from the state in April to pay for the new equipment. Money not spent on the machines can be used for voter education and training.

The contract helps the county meet a federal mandate that all counties have at least one so-called "direct-record" electronic machine at each polling place by Jan. 1 that is accessible to people with disabilities, residents who don't read well and people who don't understand English.

more:
http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/10/28/102805LNJVoting_machines.html

[Mnemosyne]

15. Volunteers Help Avert Poll Worker Crisis

Berkeley Daily Planet
Edition Date: Friday, October 28, 2005
Article

By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR
Suppose they held an election in Berkeley, but no one showed up to open the polls?

That’s the situation the city was facing ten days ago, when Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi informed Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz that Berkeley was short 90 poll workers, and did not have enough staff to open three separate polling places. Muranishi listed the Westminster House, the YWCA Main Lounge, and the 515 Arlington Ave. polling places as the three in jeopardy.

Since that time, enough new workers have signed up that city precincts are now only about 10 short, and the three problem polling places are close to full staffs.

According to acting Alameda County Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold, “whatever people have been doing out there to get the word out about the staffing problems, it’s working.” She said that county employees were recruited, and Berkeley High School students, especially, were helpful in filling the unmet polling place needs.

Election workers are coordinated through the office of the county Registrar of Voters.

more:
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=10-28-05&storyID=22617

[Mnemosyne]

16. Town Meeting Tradition May Be Replaced

BY ROGER LeCOURS, News Correspondent
Friday October 28, 2005


HARDWICK -- Townspeople may have to fight if they want to keep their traditional town meeting.

No public opposition, however, has yet surfaced against Bert Smith's determined effort to abolish the annual town meeting and replace it with Australian ballot voting on elected officials, town budgets, social service appropriations and public questions.

The town has a population of 3,000 and there are 2,277 registered voters.

Smith is seeking voter support for a change in the town charter that would do away with the 210-year-old tradition of gathering at the Town House on Town Meeting Day and instead, voting on the town budget, debating issues, and electing town officials on nominations "from the floor."

more:
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/local_news/story/54ce3e8af

[Mnemosyne]

17. 14 precincts eliminated to reduce costs

Wednesday, October 26, 2005



By DEBBIE BURT MYERS
Managing Editor


Supervisors have voted to consolidate the county’s 38 voting precincts into 24 in order to more easily comply with federal mandates.

The action is pending approval by the U. S. Department of Justice.

Among other things, the consolidation eliminates three Native American precincts – Bogue Chitto, Tucker and Pearl River.

At a meeting on Monday, Board of Supervisors Attorney Wade White worked individually with supervisors as they put their consolidations down on paper.

more:
http://www.neshobademocrat.com/Main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=297&ArticleID=11421

[Mnemosyne]

18. Is Arizona's Speaker of the House afraid of what might happen if the truth

Pandora's Box
By John Dougherty

Published: Thursday, October 27, 2005

State Republican Senator Jack Harper's enraging a powerful legislator with his determined effort to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive vote-counting scandal at the Maricopa County Elections Department.

The second-term senator from Surprise plans to hold legislative hearings early next year into the controversial September 7, 2004, District 20 recount, where the inexplicable appearance of nearly 500 new votes between the primary and the recount challenge the accuracy and integrity of elections in the nation's fourth-largest county.

Harper's plan to hold the hearings before the Senate Government Accountability and Reform Committee, which he chairs, is upsetting some key Republican legislators, including Arizona Speaker of the House Jim Weiers.

Weiers took the unusual step of summoning Harper to his office on June 16 to berate him for planning to investigate the District 20 recount. Weiers told Harper that the issue doesn't belong before the Legislature.

more:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2005-10-27/news/dougherty.html

[Mnemosyne]

19. HOUSE BILL TAKES AIM AT VOTERS OF COLOR

By Cynthia Tucker Sat Oct 29, 8:12 PM ET

Last week, an ugly bit of business transpired in the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, where Republican hard-liners succeeded in passing a measure that would limit the ability of nonprofit groups to conduct voter registration drives. It was one of those moments when you don't have to wonder what the jihadist faction of the GOP is up to: They want to restrict the franchise to people who think as they do.

Rep. John Lewis (news, bio, voting record), D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement, said the measure would "take us back to 1964 or 1965. I just think they (Republicans) want to be in a position to stifle the participation of poor people and minorities in the political process. They want to take us back to another period."

This heavy-handed step was of a piece with other Republican efforts to place obstacles in the way of voters they fear may favor Democrats. In Georgia, the GOP-dominated legislature passed a law earlier this year requiring all voters to have a state-sponsored photo ID, such as a driver's license. Happily, a federal court has ruled the law an unconstitutional impediment to voting.

In South Dakota, Republican legislators were more successful with their onerous voter ID requirement, passed in 2003 and apparently aimed at Native Americans, who also tend to support Democrats. Last year, though, two Republican senators, Kit Bond of Missouri and Richard Shelby of Alabama, failed in their attempt to sneak a provision into law that would have prohibited public housing sites from hosting voter registration initiatives and get-out-the-vote drives.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20051030/cm_ucas/housebilltakesaimatvotersofcolor


discussion here:
Thanks to Judi Lynn!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1887593

[Mnemosyne]

20. Deal Near on Democratic Presidential Schedule

By Chris Cillizza
Special to the Washington Post
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A05

A plan to shuffle the 2008 Democratic presidential calendar -- placing several states between the traditional Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary -- is gaining momentum on a commission studying the party's nominating process.

A consensus is developing to recommend scheduling nominating contests in two or possibly three states in the days between Iowa and New Hampshire, according to some members of a Democratic National Committee panel looking at ways to revamp the nominating schedule.

"It is getting to be a done deal," said Mike Stratton, a member of the 40-person commission headed by Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.) and former labor secretary Alexis Herman. The commission is to make a final recommendation to the DNC at its Dec. 10 meeting.

If such a recommendation were adopted, it likely would diminish the influence of two small states that for decades have enjoyed outsized influence in picking presidential nominees, and would cause aspiring presidential candidates to rethink their strategies about travel and spending, and potentially even their campaign messages, in pursuit of the nomination.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901078.html?nav=rss_politics

discussion here:
Thanks to madfloridian!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1887449

[Mnemosyne]

21. Alexander gave $5,000 to Delay campaign before Texan indicted

By MIKE MADDEN
Tennessean Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lamar Alexander gave money to embattled former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's re-election campaign just before DeLay was indicted on conspiracy charges, federal records show.

Through his political action committee, Tenn PAC, Alexander gave $5,000 to DeLay, the powerful Texas Republican who was indicted last month on charges he conspired to flout laws in his home state barring corporate contributions to campaigns there.


A review of Federal Election Commission records by The Tennessean found that the Tennessee Republican was the only senator to give money to DeLay's re-election account, formally called the Tom DeLay Campaign Committee.

Alexander personally delivered the check to DeLay less than two weeks before a Texas grand jury returned charges against DeLay, forcing his resignation as majority leader and handing political ammunition to Democrats who are trying to build a broad corruption case against the GOP.

more:
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20051029/NEWS02/510290356/1009/NEWS

Discussion here:
Thanks to Judi Lynn!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1887721

[Mnemosyne]

22. Edwards works on possible bid in 2008

By GLEN JOHNSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - John Edwards came downstairs and found 5-year-old son Jack on the floor, arranging toy trucks in a column.

"What are you doing?" the former North Carolina senator asked.

"Making a motorcade," came the exuberant reply.

A year after Democrats John Kerry and Edwards lost the White House election, young Jack still may think about the heady days of last fall. His father, however, has moved on - without a Secret Service escort.

-He is traveling the country, trying to rally college students to the cause of fighting poverty in the U.S.

more:
http://www.newsobserver.com/24hour/politics/story/2852004p-11514935c.html

discussion here:
Thanks to highplainsdem!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1887879

[Mnemosyne]

23. Kaine Inches Ahead In Va. Race, Poll Finds

Kilgore Accused of Negative Campaigning

By Michael D. Shear and Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A01

Democrat Timothy M. Kaine has taken a narrow lead in Virginia's governor's race, buoyed by newfound strength in Northern Virginia's outer suburbs and an electorate turned off by what it considers the negative tone of his Republican opponent, according to a new Washington Post poll.

Kaine leads Republican Jerry W. Kilgore among the most likely voters by three percentage points, 47 to 44, according to the poll, which has a three percentage point margin of error. Independent candidate H. Russell Potts Jr. was supported by 4 percent of the voters.

The poll suggests a photo finish to a contest in which Kaine has cast himself as the logical successor to Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner, who is barred from running for reelection. Kilgore has sought to define Kaine as a liberal who is out of touch with the state's conservative soul.

Kaine, the lieutenant governor and former mayor of Richmond, has tapped into Warner's sky-high popularity and enters the final stretch before the Nov. 8 election with momentum. But the governor's mansion is still within reach for the GOP, which holds solid majorities in the state legislature and closes strongly in statewide races.


more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901449.html


discussion here:

Thanks to brooklynite!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1887881

[Mnemosyne]

24. New York Libertarians Win a Better Line on Ballot

October 23rd, 2005

On October 21, a lower New York state court ruled that the Libertarian nominees, not the Socialist Workers Party nominees, should have the sixth line on the New York city ballot next month. The law provides that the qualified parties get the left-hand columns. New York has five qualified parties, so they fill up the 5 left-most columns.

The unqualified parties get the remaining columns, in the order in which they turn in their petitions. The Libertarians had turned in a petition for one nominee (for an office covering just part of New York city), earlier than any other unqualified party had turned in any petitions.

The Socialist Workers Party had filed next, for all of its nominees. Then, the Libertarians had turned in their remaining petitions, including the petition for the city-wide nominees. The City Board of Elections gave the sixth column to the Socialist Workers Party and the seventh column to the Libertarian Party. But the court reversed the decision. The law says the parties are listed in the order in which “the first candidate” of a group filed, not “the first candidate for Mayor”. The court applied these words literally.

no more on this, but other great articles:
http://ballot-access.org/2005/10/23/new-york-libertarians-win-a-better-line-on-ballot/

[Bill Bored]

25. That BoE -- when will they start reading the election law? nt