Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News January 16, 2006

[autorank]

BOB FITRAKIS DAY

THANK YOU FOR YOUR Appearance on DU

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

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News January 16, 2006

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).

[autorank]

1. WORLD: Iraqi Panel Election Fraud Investigation Announced Tomorrow.

We’ll see how diplomatic they are. There were 2000 complaints, but only 50 investigated. The reason—only 50 would make a difference in the election. So it’s just like America, you can do all sorts of fraud but you’ll only get hassled if you did less than could change the results of the election. Of course, if the election is rigged, how would this matter anyway?

MSNBC-AP

Probe of alleged Iraqi election fraud completed
Final tally coming in February; U.S. releases hundreds of Iraqi prisoners

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10867343/from/RSS/

Updated: 9:05 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq’s election commission will announce results of its investigation into allegations of vote fraud on Monday, officials said, while the tribunal overseeing Saddam Hussein’s trial confirmed the chief judge has asked to resign.

The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, or IECI, has worked through the 50 or so serious complaints of voter fraud lodged after the Dec. 15 election, Safwat Rashid, an official with the panel, said Sunday.

About 2,000 complaints were filed overall, but the commission said only 50 had the potential to change vote totals.

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2. Nation & Ohio: Ney Steps Down – House Admin. Comm. Scandal cited.

Well, we all remember Bob New, the Oh Congressman who held hearings on Ohio 2004. Now he’s tied up with Abramoff and he’s under investigation. He held hearings on Ohio 2004. They were rigged. If he’s indicted, he’s the one person in OH who could bring down the entire house of cards.

Washington Post

Ney to Step Down As Chairman Of Panel on Lobbying Practices

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/15/AR2006011500663.html?nav=rss_politics/fedpage

Monday, January 16, 2006

Rep. Robert W. Ney, an Ohio Republican implicated in a lobbying corruption investigation, will step aside temporarily as chairman of the House Administration Committee, his spokesman said yesterday.

He said the congressman needed a few days to think about the decision after word got out Friday that he was in negotiations with House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to relinquish the post.

Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, is in talks with House Speaker Dennis Hastert about resigning his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee.
Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, is in talks with House Speaker Dennis Hastert about resigning his chairmanship of the House Administration Committee. (Bill Haber - AP)

"Congressman Ney continues to believe he will be vindicated and he hasn't done anything wrong," spokesman Brian Walsh said yesterday.

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3. OH: Brad Friedman Outlines Ney's Role in OHIO 2004.

This story is just plain strange. Take a look

BradBlog
www.bradblog.com

Blogged by Brad on 3/24/2005 @ 4:58pm PT...

'Voting Rights' Group Leader Withholds Bush/Cheney/RNC Ties During Congressional Testimony! Describes Himself as 'Advocate of Voter Rights' But Not as Bush/Cheney '04 General Counsel!

Monday's testimony to a U.S. House Committee by Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, the leader of the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) -- who also happens to be the National Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04, Inc. -- has just been added to the website of the "non-partisan", tax-exempt, one-week old "Voting Rights" group.

In his testimony, Hearne failed to mention to the U.S. House members, either his connection to Bush/Cheney or his long roots in the Republican Party going back to the Reagan Administration. The testimony was given last Monday to the U.S. House Administration Committee at hearings held on the Ohio Election problems. The hearings to which Hearne was invited were held just 3 business days after the ACVR suddenly appeared for the first time on the Internet...or anywhere else that we've been able to find. More on that here.

In Hearne's testimony, as seen via the page posted today on the ACVR's website, he describes himself as a "a longtime advocate of voter rights and an attorney

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4. CT: Finally, great advice from a consultant to a state board!!!

It appears that CT’s voting regulations were never really there, just verbalized. Terrific. In addition, the state now had an elections consultant who wants to test all DREs, says it’s only smart business.. Interesting read.

WTNH.com (Connecticut)

Supposed state requirement for voting machines never existed in law
Still looking for high-tech voting system - by Mark Davis
http://www.wtnh.com/global/story.asp?s=4360823

(WTNH, Jan. 13, 2006 6:12 PM)

<snip>

(The Department of Justice talking about suing states that fails to meet HAVA deadlines

"We have no guarantees, we need to proceed with determined speed, in good faith, as quick as we can," says Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

<sip>

But the state's voting technology board heard Friday from an expert who has tested voting technology for Iowa, Arizona and Florida, who said more oversight of those making the machines is necessary because the federal standards aren't tough enough to make sure new voting machines are reliable and secure.

"Anytime you hire a contractor to do anything you've got to check the quality of their work," says Prof. Douglas Jones, University of Iowa, "and what I find in the world of elections is a tremendous willingness to rely on the contractors to certify the correctness of their own equipment."

[Wilms]

11. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409377

[Wilms]

12. NC: Advocates urge adherence to North Carolina voting code review

Advocates urge adherence to North Carolina voting code review

Sunday January 15, 2006

By: Jay Lyman

snip

Despite Diebold's arguments that the North Carolina law is overly broad, Diebold Director of Marketing Mark Radke told NewsForge the company has not fought a thorough review of its systems and code. "In fact, just the opposite is true," Radke wrote in an email. "Our systems have been reviewed more than any other electronic voting system in the marketplace, and are viewed as secure and reliable."

That contention may be arguable, considering past reports on Diebold code, including Johns Hopkins University professor and e-voting expert Avi Rubin's critical review. In an email, Rubin said Diebold's contentions that their systems are among the most thoroughly tested and trustworthy in the country reflect how poorly voting systems have been tested in general in the US.

"When we looked through the Diebold source code, we found it to be poorly written and incomplete," Rubin said. "If their systems are truly among the most rigorously tested and trustworthy, then we are all in a lot of trouble."

Rubin added that the North Carolina law is a step in the right direction to increase transparency and decrease the likelihood of a rigged or flawed voting machine ending up in use.

"It's hard to imagine that there would be anyone that would not fully support such a law," he said. "This should be the absolute minimum required standard for security practices."

snip

http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/06/01/13/1759225.shtml?tid=136&tid=147

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5. CA: Northern CA counties looking at mail-in ballots, cites public dislike

HAVA deadlines are designed to create HAVoc and force decisions on unacceptable alternatives. This one might not be too back with reasonable observations and audits. Don't count on it.

SFGate

BAY AREA

Counties push for mail-only vote
Machine problems causing anxiety as June election nears

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/12/BAGIOGM0M21.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Voting machines could disappear, at least temporarily, from a number of Bay Area counties if the state agrees to allow vote-by-mail-only elections for the June 6 primary.

Problems are continuing to pop up with the new electronic voting machines that will be required in June, and county election officials are worried they could be left in the cold if California's secretary of state can't quickly certify the machines for use.

"We have very few options, and the clock is ticking,'' said Elaine Ginnold, Alameda County's acting registrar.”It's getting very late in the game.''

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6. Nation: BuzzFlash Interview – Mark Crispin Miller – January 16, 2006—Thnx

Miller lays it out. The sad sorry story of the past and the certain projection of more vote fraud in the future...unless we wake up. Noam Chomsky is right, the coutry would be greaqtly aided by an "opposition" party.

January 16, 2006

Mark Crispin Miller Connects the Dots on Election Problems

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW


Mark Crispin Miller: Let me begin by making a general point. When a movement tries to force an alien agenda on a democratic nation, it must devote itself full-time to that endeavor. The subversion of electoral democracy must be the movement's overriding goal, because it's very difficult to disenfranchise a majority. It takes vast planning and tremendous effort, and a ton of laundered cash. In short, it has to be that movement's main concern; and I believe that it is Bush/Cheney's main concern, and that it is the main concern of the regime's most fervent backers.

Because the US press refuses to go near the issue of election fraud, it's easy to assume that Bush & Co.'s subversion of the last election was just one of many dark endeavors. That assumption would be dangerously wrong. The subversion of American democracy is the primary interest of the Bush Republicans, whose vast electoral shenanigans were but a part of their ongoing program - a program not at all conservative, but anti-democratic and anti-republican.

So the appointment of those two party agents to the FEC is an especially brazen example of the Busheviks' subversion of American democracy. Of course, the right would say, and probably has said, that such a move is merely a pre-emptive strike against those evil liberals who would stack the FEC to further their nefarious agenda. But that would merely be the usual projective nonsense. Bush/Cheney's moves against the FEC are moves against the possibility of real American democracy. In this they are identical to the regime's deliberate placement of religious maniacs and corporate goons atop the entire edifice of federal power-slash-and-burn types running the Department of Interior and EPA, creationists and anti-sex fanatics running scientific agencies, and so on. Such flagrant strokes against the public interest are not motivated just by greed alone, but by a deeper animus against democracy itself - or, to be more accurate, against the whole program of the Enlightenment.

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7. Miller's 2002 BuzzFlash Interview--Great stuff.

Mark Crispin Miller
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
Mark Crispin Miller is the author of "The Bush Dyslexicon," available as a BuzzFlash.com Premium.

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/07/19_Mark_Crispin_Miller.html

* * *

BUZZFLASH: Let's start with Bush's abdication of responsibility on 9/11, which you discuss at length in your new preface. The new edition of your book deals closely with the disconnection between the actual George Bush -- an incompetent and arrogant man -- and his media image as a stalwart, able leader. Talk about that discrepancy.

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Bush's rehabilitation after 9/11 offers us a fine example of the way his propagandists and the mainstream media system tacitly collude to help him get past his mistakes. By any rational standard, his performance was abysmal on that day -- as several top Republicans admitted. Even one of Bush's staffers said as much. But once Bush found his footing, two days later, his propagandists -- much like Stalin's -- started to recast his abject failure as a study in heroic wartime leadership. Karl Rove spread the story that the White House had received a sinister phone message warning that Air Force One was next. The caller allegedly had certain "secret codes." The claim was so preposterous that certain mainstream media outlets said outright that it did not add up. Why would terrorists warn the White House that they were going after Air Force One? And how could they possibly attack it? With a runaway passenger plane?

It was ridiculous, and finally insupportable. The White House itself eventually conceded that it never happened. Nevertheless, the news divisions that had rightly called it quickly backed away from it, while most others -- including The New York Times -- reported Rove's disinformation as a fact. Not that a lot of people out there didn't want to hear the fantasy, which, in that time of terror, was a lot more rousing than the unheroic truth that Bush had simply taken flight -- "trying to get out of harm's way," as he later blurted out. But the audience's momentary neediness is no excuse for journalistic confirmation of a propaganda fiction. In any case, it was that heady mix of White House spin and journalistic irresponsibility that saved the presidential bacon at a crucial time.

[IndyOp]

8. Link to Mark's BuzzFlash Interview is on this thread:

< http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409319 >

Thanks, Autorank! Nice work as usual - :kick:

[Wilms]

9. FL Opinion: Paperless voting opens door for election stealing

Paperless voting opens door for election stealing

BY FRED GRIMM

Sun, Jan. 15, 2006

Ion Sancho worries about an inside job. Sancho, Leon County's supervisor of elections, allowed a couple of computer scientists to try hacking into his voting system last year. With the same access as one of Sancho's election workers, the scientists were able to switch around votes willy-nilly.

''I'm positive that an eighth-grader could do this,'' computer science professor Herbert Thompson told The Miami Herald after he redirected 5,000 votes from one hypothetical candidate to another.

In another test last month, Sancho's employees staged a mock election. They voted 6-2 ''NO'' -- that Finnish computer expert Harri Hursti couldn't hack their system. The vote count registered 7-1 ``YES.''

snip

If Ion Sancho is worried, South Floridians should be terrified.

Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and 12 other Florida counties use touch-screen computer systems that may well be vulnerable to intruders. Who knows? Florida's Secretary of State's office, which ought to be hiring its own hackers, has left security concerns up to private vendors.

Touch-screen systems leave no paper trail. If someone suspects that ballot boxes had been cyber-stuffed, elections officials have no way to know. In huge urban election offices, just one crooked employee with an offshore banking account could fix the vote. And some elections -- $50 million bond issues or local approval of slot machines -- are worth stealing.

snip

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13622609.htm


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409345

[Wilms]

10. FL: Broward Election Reform Coalition Meet - Clint Curtis Keynote Speaker

“Achieving Election Reform in Broward County!”

January, 18, 2006
7-9:30 PM

Leonard Weisinger Community Center
6199 N.W. 10th St., Margate, FL 33063
Phone: [phone]

Whereas the Declaration of Independence refers to the Consent of the Governed as the self-evident truth from which Government derives "just Power";

When elections are conducted under conditions that prevent conclusive outcomes, the Consent of the Governed is not being sought. Absent this self-evident source of legitimacy, such Consent is not to be assumed or taken for granted.

We are excited to have as our first Keynote Speaker

Clint Curtis!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409326

[Wilms]

13. Connecticut totally screws up their voting systems procurement

Not Quite a Blog 2.0

Joseph Lorenzo Hall

Connecticut totally screws up their voting systems procurement

01/15/06

The State of Connecticut is now claiming that a certain law never existed.

snip

However, I know that Connecticut knew that this provision didn't exist over a year ago!!!

snip

Compare the email below, that I sent on 4 Jan 2005, to the contents of the news stories I point to above... (I never did get any response from CT):

snip

http://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/2006/01/15/p752

[Wilms]

14. CT: Why Reading The Law Is Important!

Election Updates Blog

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Why Reading The Law Is Important!

by Thad Hall

Newsday reported today that Connecticut officials reviewed their state election code and discovered that, in fact, there is no requirement that requires a voting machine to show a full-face ballot.

snip

Having spent the last month reading state election codes for the EAC's vote count and recount project, I can say that the problem in Connecticut is easy to understand. In many states, election laws are very complex, combining statutes dating back 100 years with modern statutes and this blending makes for very difficult interpretations and complex readings of multiple provisions in order to make an interpretation.

snip

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2006/01/why-reading-law-is-important.html

[Wilms]

15. Election Center: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse Updated

Election Center: The Fox Guarding the Henhouse Updated

The Election Center Wants To "Improve" Democracy - And The Profit Margins Of Their Corporate Sponsors

Contributed by Joyce McCloy, NC Coalition for Verified Voting

January 15, 2006

They are back at it again, the ethically challenged Election Center. They have a new web-page, nice layout, though many of the links still don't work. Amazing that they are first to recommend electronic solutions for voting and registration, yet they can't design a working website. I am sure these broken links are just "glitches" that happen when skeptical computer scientists try to perform time travel! But while the Election Center may have a new website, the mission is the same: promote expensive unreliable and unverifiable voting machines and the vendors that make a profit from them.

snip

Just how much does the Election Center cares about Democracy? Take a look at the Election Center's List of Election Legislation - nowhere do you see even a negative reference to HR 550, considered the "Gold Standard" by the Verified Voting Foundation, and strongly endorsed VoteTrustUSA, Common Cause, Working Assets, MoveOn, Electronic Frontier Foundation and voting integrity organizations across the country. HR 550 has more co-sponsors than all the bills listed from both chambers combined. But then HR 550 might actually help ensure verifiable elections and wouldn't provide a windfall for the voting industry - no reason for the Election Center to even mention it!

The Election Center is offering a Special Workshop in Albuquerque, NM Feb. 22-26 With a welcome by Diebold along with some classes and workshops. These workshops are reminiscent of how those Home Improvement stores give classes on how to use the merchandise that you are going to buy from them (hint hint) - kind of like product placement, or a flat out endorsement of that technology.It must be safe and reliable, since the Election Center recommends it. and Diebold must be good, they are hosting the Welcome Reception.

Just where does the Election Center's funding come from. As a non-profit corporation, their tax reports are supposed to be filed and available for public view. But their 2004 reports are still unavailable. I guess they are reluctant to release them after activists used their previous returns to embarass top state election officials such as the North Carolina Elections Chief, Gary Bartlett, who was also a member of the Election Center Board of Directors.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=741&Itemid=26


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x409385

[Algorem]

16. OH-Evangelical churches accused of illegal political activities

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-22/113740284260360.xml&storylist=cleveland

1/16/2006, 4:07 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Local clergy from nine mainstream denominations have accused two evangelical churches of illegal political activities involving an Ohio candidate for governor and want the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, The Columbus Dispatch reported Monday.

The 31 religious leaders met Sunday night and signed a letter asking the IRS to determine if the churches should lose tax-exempt status over what they claim to be improper campaigning for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican.

The Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church in Columbus and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster improperly used their churches and affiliated entities for partisan politics, according to the complaint to be faxed to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson...


The complaint alleges that Blackwell was the only gubernatorial candidate showcased in church-sponsored events conducted by Parsley and Johnson. It also alleges that the evangelists' voter-registration campaign was done to support Blackwell and "biased" voter education materials were distributed by the churches for Blackwell's candidacy...

Churches could face IRS probe
Pastors Parsley, Johnson exploited pulpits to play politics, ministers’ complaint alleges

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/01/16/20060116-A1-00.html

Monday, January 16, 2006
Mike Harden and Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

ADAM CAIRNS | DISPATCH

More than 30 local pastors last night officially accused two evangelical megachurches of illegal political activities.

In a rare and potentially explosive action, the moderate ministers signed a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate World Harvest Church of Columbus and Fairfield Christian Church of Lancaster and determine if their tax-exempt status should be revoked.

The grievance claims that the Rev. Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church and the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church improperly used their churches and affiliated entities — the Center for Moral Clarity, Ohio Restoration Project and Reformation Ohio — for partisan politics, including supporting the Republican gubernatorial candidacy of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

The complaint asks the IRS to seek a court injunction "if these churches’ flagrant political campaign activities do not cease immediately." It was signed by 31 pastors from nine denominations during a meeting last night at the North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus and was to be faxed late last night to IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson...

Group Seeks I.R.S. Inquiry of Two Ohio Churches

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/national/16church.html

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: January 16, 2006

A group of religious leaders has sent a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service requesting an investigation of two large churches in Ohio that they say are improperly campaigning on behalf of a conservative Republican running for governor.

In their complaint, the clergy members contend that the two Columbus-area churches, Fairfield Christian Church and the World Harvest Church, which were widely credited with getting out the Ohio vote for President Bush in 2004, have allowed their facilities to be used by Republican organizations, promoted the candidate, J. Kenneth Blackwell, among their members and otherwise violated prohibitions on political activity by tax-exempt groups.

They are asking the I.R.S. to examine whether the churches' tax exemptions should be revoked and are requesting that Mark W. Everson, the federal tax commissioner, seek an injunction to stop what they consider improper activities.

Both churches denied that any of their activities violated limitations on nonprofit political activity. "We endorse values, but not candidates," said the Rev. Russell Johnson, Fairfield's leader...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2044271

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=409389&mesg_id=409389

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=172&topic_id=10870&mesg_id=10870

[rumpel]

17. Zogby Special Feature: Post 2005 election poll VA; NJ; OH; CA

BATTLEGROUND 2005: Democratic Victories Amid Presidential Weakness

http://www.zogby.com/features/features.dbm?ID=224

[Wilms]

18. .