Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday, Jan 21

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

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 new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

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.



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

[livvy]

1. Reform Hypocrisy

Reform hypocrisy

First published: Saturday, January 21, 2006

The intense media attention given to the Jack Abramoff scandal in Washington will almost certainly pressure Congress into enacting some kind of lobbying reform, but it may be little more than window-dressing. As critics have pointed out, tightening the lobbying rules without also reforming campaign finance laws will result in no reform at all. Lobbyists will be able to continue to ply lawmakers with free meals, travel and other perks -- and throw in a campaign contribution to make it all legal. That's because the gifts that may soon be outlawed under a lobbying reform measure will continue to be legal under campaign finance regulations.

It's yet another example of congressional hypocrisy. Then again, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the co-authors of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform measure, may be able to keep the heat on. This week, he acknowledged the lobbying reform loophole and vowed to close it. And on Sunday, appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," he lashed out at the Federal Election Commission as corrupt for carving out so many exceptions to McCain-Feingold.
Sen. McCain's anger is justified, but he is far too selective in placing blame. It's not just the lobbyists or big-money contributors who are part of the problem. So are President Bush and the Democratic leaders in Congress.
>more
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=442014&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/21/2006

[livvy]

2. Montana- GOP Urges Voting in Online Burns Poll

GOP urges voting in online Burns poll

Associated Press

HELENA - The state Republican Party asked supporters Friday to influence a newspaper's Internet poll that posed a question about Sen. Conrad Burns and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, hoping to sway the unscientific survey's results.>snip

Newspapers often run such queries on their Web sites as a way to engage readers. They are very different from the scientific telephone polls that newspapers occasionally commission to gauge public sentiment on issues for news stories. Republicans, worried about too many votes showing deep concern over the Burns-Abramoff story, asked members in a Friday e-mail to "vote early and vote often."

The e-mail offered tips on how to manipulate a web browser that would allow GOP faithful to vote several times, presumably to say they were "not at all concerned" about Burns and Abramoff.

Republicans said they sent the e-mail after they suspected Democrats were leading a charge to sway the poll results against Burns.>more

There are many links to the Burns-Abramoff story at the bottom of the page.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2006/01/21/build/state/74-burns-poll.inc

[livvy]

3. Miller: Why Won't the Media Touch This Book?

Saturday, 21 January 2006, 11:48 pm
Opinion: Mark Crispin Miller
Why Won't The Media Touch This Book?

An email from Mark Crispin Miller
Regarding his new book Fooled Again
Bush/Cheney stole their re-election in 2004.

They stole it not just in Ohio, but all throughout the USA, from coast to coast.

They stole it not by using any single ploy, but through a stealthy combination of computerized vote theft, bureaucratic monkey business, systematic shortages of viable equipment and old-fashioned dirty tricks, including rampant bullying, disinformation and obstructionism.

Such foul play was not apparent "on both sides" in the 2004 election, but was committed mainly by the Bush Republicans.>more

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0601/S00170.htm
DU discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410074
edit for discussion link

[livvy]

4. Opinion: TN- Let Public Fund Elections

Let public fund elections
Public funding of elections would make candidates less beholden to donors

Published: Saturday, 01/21/06

If legislators are serious about campaign finance reform as part of the special session on ethics, they will seriously consider a proposal for public financing of election campaigns.

Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, has introduced a measure that would establish a Tennessee Democracy Fund from which candidates could dip to finance their election efforts. The system would be voluntary. A candidate could finance a campaign by familiar ways — raising big gobs of money — or by relying on public funds that are put aside. In exchange for taking the public funds, the candidate would have to follow strict spending limits.

The amount of funds available would be the average amount spent in the previous election cycle. While official estimates haven't been determined, Jackson expects the funding would need to be about $10 million a year, according to a Knoxville News-Sentinel report. In order to qualify for the money, House candidates would have to raise small donations, between $10-$100, from 200 individual donors. A Senate candidate would need such donations from 400 donors, and a candidate for governor would need 7,000.

The system would encourage good candidates to enter races. More important, a candidate who relied on the public funding would not be beholden to special interests. Part of the reason lawmakers are in special session is because the public has valid concerns that candidates are being bought by big campaign donations. >more
http://www.rctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/OPINION01/601210321/1007/MTCN0305

[livvy]

5. Hawaii: Rep. Case to Challenge Akaka

Hawaii Congressman to Challenge Senator

By TARA GODVIN, Associated Press WriterFri Jan 20, 12:58 AM ET

Rep. Ed Case (news, bio, voting record) announced Thursday he will challenge fellow Democrat Sen. Daniel Akaka (news, bio, voting record) in the September primary, saying voters should have a chance to replace the 81-year-old senator with a younger leader.

Case, 53, said his campaign will not target Akaka's performance but focus instead on the need for a transition that "requires that we phase in the next generation to provide continuity."

Case said he wanted to give voters control over that transition rather than risk having Akaka's successor chosen by Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, who would appoint a new senator if Akaka or Sen. Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record) died in office.

Akaka has indicated he will run for a fourth term, and no Republican opponent has emerged.>more
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060120/ap_on_el_se/hawaii_senate;_ylt=AknPab8xi4ACM6qoyVfbSvOyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Edit:links to discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=147x1331

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=147x1334

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=147x1311

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2053522

[FogerRox]

6. FL., Special Election Set for Tuesday

Published Saturday, January 21, 2006
MULBERRY

Special Election Set for Tuesday

Mulberry voters will go to the polls Tuesday in a special election to fill two seats on the City Commission.

Voting will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the commission chambers at City Hall.

In one election, former commissioner and mayor Sam McLaughlin, who resigned his seat last June, will face political newcomer Debbie Mullis.

In the other contest, former commissioner Irene Sams, who resigned at the same meeting as McLaughlin, will face former commissioner Jerry Woods, who she defeated in last April's general election.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060121/NEWS/601210420/1004

[FogerRox]

7. PHOENIX- Voter I-D laws to get tougher with March election

PHOENIX Election officials across Arizona are scrambling to educate voters about the new identification requirements created by Proposition 200.

County recorders, election directors and city clerks are meeting regularly to create media campaigns that will outline what voters need to bring to the polls when they vote.

Their goal is to prevent voters from being disenfranchised.

This week, Maricopa County hired a Phoenix public relations firm to develop a campaign.

It'll tell voters what kinds of identification they need to bring to the polls on March 14th.

___

Information from: East Valley Tribune/Scottsdale Tribune, http://www.aztrib.com



http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=4391662

[livvy]

8. Thanks for the backup, FogerRox.

I am swamped today! I'll try to dig up some more stuff this afternoon.

[livvy]

9. Commentary by C. Floyd: Loot the Vote

Loot the Vote
Posted: 2006/01/21
From: Chris Floyd


Things are looking a bit grim for the Bush Faction these days. Their chief bagman, Jack Abramoff, is in the clink, naming names. Their top congressional enforcer, Tom Delay, is in the dock, sinking fast. Their "war of choice" in Iraq has stalled in murderous quagmire. Their poll numbers are plummeting , as scandal after scandal -- corruption, despotism, torture, incompetence, deceit -- turn the American people against them. What then will be the fate of these brutal, bungling, bloodstained goons when they face the voters in the coming elections?

Why, victory, of course!
In fact, this year's congressional races and the presidential contest in 2008 are already over, and the Bushists have won. It's true that some of the candidates have not yet been chosen – including whatever front man the goon squad picks to replace the kill-crazy klutz from Crawford – but the vast machinery of electoral malfeasance that propelled this extremist faction to power over the wishes of the electorate in both 2000 and, yes, 2004, is not only still in place, it's growing stronger all the time.

No one has laid bare the malodorous innards of this democracy-devouring monster better than Mark Crispin Miller, whose new book, Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too, takes us back to the dastardy of Election Day 2004 and the hydra-headed campaign of vote-rigging that preceded it. This second heist of the White House is one of the great untold stories of our time – even though it was largely carried out in plain sight. Miller performs the simple but increasingly rare act of journalism and gathers a mountain of overwhelming evidence from publicly available material. This is no "conspiracy theory" stitched together from anonymous sources, strained inferences and dark innuendo, but a solid case based on official records, sworn testimony, eyewitness accounts, news reports – and the Bushists' own words.
>more
http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=507580

[Febble]

10. K&R

[Wilms]

11. Judge Alito's Views of Election Law: Clarified Only a Bit...

Election Law Blog

January 20, 2006

Judge Alito's Views of Election Law: Clarified Only a Bit By His Written Responses to Judiciary Committee Questionnaire

Responses to Judiciary Committee Questionnaire

by Rick Hasen

Howard Bashman has posted Judge Alito's answers to certain written questions posed to him by some Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A few of the questions from Sen. Schumer related to election law. Here is a brief summary:

1. Sen. Schumer asked (pdf 32-33) for Judge Alito's reaction to a statement supposedly made by Justice Scalia that the Court had to take Bush v. Gore or else it would have given the Florida Supreme Court "another couple of weeks in which the United States could look ridiculous." Judge Alito failed to respond directly to the question, instead giving a general answer about the breadth of the Supreme Court's ability to grant cert. on important questions.

snip

Bottom line: We continue to know very little about Judge Alito's views of election law.

snip

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/004765.html

[freedomfries]

12. k & r