Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News January 24, 2006

[autorank]

Herbert Thompson, director of research at Security Innovation Inc.

Is the security in e-voting up to the standards that business executives would demand in their applications? No way. Definitely not. Five years ago, yes, but in the current climate, no. These guys are betting their critical business processes on software. They need to consider who might do harm to that system. This level of rigor isn't applied to e-voting systems.

What should be done? There should be much more severe security-testing requirements. The key is you need to raise awareness that these vulnerabilities do exist and can be exploited, and you need a way of measuring security.

THE STORY OF ELECTION FRAUD IS BREAKING OUT…ALL OVER

They can try to silence Mark Crispin Miller’s newest book, but Editor & Publisher will have none of it. And with people like Herbert Thompson on the case, well, the clock is ticking on the folks at fraud central.

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

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News January 24, 2006

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[autorank]

1. Cyber-Software Security Expert: Herbert Thompson Nails It—Computerworld

Every article I find is better than the last. But this is THE BEST. Look at the subject interviewed, he’s a distinguished expert (and he looks like he learned about computer security the “right way.” And look at the publication, “Computerworld”…one of the trade journals in the biz. Oh oh, crooks and liars beware, the security guys are after you. Won’t be long now until major breaks start rolling in daily.


http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,107950,00.html

Expert Calls for Increased E-voting Security
Q&A by Marc L. Songini

JANUARY 23, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Herbert Thompson, director of research at Wilmington, Mass.-based Security Innovation Inc., is a co-author of several books, including How to Break Software Security (Addison Wesley, 2003). He volunteered last May and again last month in Leon County, Fla., to hack an optical scan system made by Diebold Elections Systems Inc., after county officials voiced fears about the system's accuracy and security. Thompson recently discussed the result of the test hacks in an interview with Computerworld.


Herbert Thompson, director of research at Security Innovation Inc.

Can you provide some details of your effort to hack into Leon County's Diebold e-voting machines on Dec. 13? We conducted a hack of the Diebold AccuVote optical scan device. I wrote a five-line script in Visual Basic that would allow you to go into the central tabulator and change any vote total you wanted, leaving no logs. It requires physical access to a machine. In Leon County, they have good policies and procedures in place. But in many counties, where such awareness doesn't exist, that brings up some serious concerns about someone being able to tamper with the results.

(Finnish security specialist] Harri Hursti ) who also took part in the hacking exercise changed the contents of a memory card used in the optical scan device and preloaded it. If you can get access to the memory card, you can change its logic and have it do whatever you want. That hack was like prestuffing a ballot box to handicap one candidate by giving them negative votes and giving another positive ones.
Do you think e-voting security has become a political issue? I'm strictly an independent person donating my time. It's not political. Bad software is the issue. I'm a software security guy. I see a lot of bad software. All software has security vulnerability -- this is just particularly bad. As an election official, you have to be wary when touching a tabulator or a memory card; it has to be treated like a box of live ballots.

[Wilms]

9. Sidebar: Diebold Calls Fla. Hacks Invalid

Sidebar: Diebold Calls Fla. Hacks Invalid

News Story by Marc L. Songini

JANUARY 23, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Diebold Election Systems last week called the two tests of its electronic voting systems in Leon County, Fla., invalid.

In fact, the Allen, Texas-based vendor contends that Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho's decision to sponsor hacks of the system in June and December may have violated licensing agreements and intellectual property rights.

A Diebold spokesman said the Dec. 13 hack, described by participant Herbert Thompson in an interview with Computerworld last week, was perpetrated on equipment that's more than 10 years old. The far more sophisticated security on Diebold's new touch-screen voting machines would prevent such an attack, the spokesman said.

He said that even the older optical-scan machines are vulnerable to hacks only when normal security procedures aren't followed.

snip

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,107951,00.html

[autorank]

2. Nation: Editor & Publisher Gives MCM a Big Boost—Won’t be Silenced

Well, they can ignore MCM but they can’t shut up the excellent Editor & Publisher. Read this. Wow!

EDITOR & PUBLISHER
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001883280

Columnist Mentions Election Book Ignored By Most Newspapers

By Dave Astor

Published: January 23, 2006 2:28 PM ET

NEW YORK Mark Crispin Miller says most general-circulation newspapers haven't reviewed his "Fooled Again" book, which alleges that the 2004 election was stolen. But Creators Syndicate columnist Paul Craig Roberts gave the three-month-old book a positive mention in a piece dated last Thursday.

"Miller describes considerably more election fraud than voting machines programmed to count a proportion of Kerry votes as Bush votes," wrote Roberts, a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury under President Reagan. "Miller reports incidences of intimidation of, and reduced voting opportunities for, poorer voters who tend to vote Democrat."

Roberts added: "Some of Miller's evidence is circumstantial. However, he documents widespread Republican dirty tricks and foul play. The media's indifference to a stolen election burns Miller as much as the stolen election itself."

[autorank]

8. Paleo Con Raves About Mark Crisipin Miller's New Book--It's Real!!!

Evidence of a Stolen Elections

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts140.html

by Paul Craig Roberts

As coincidence would have it, Mark Crispin Miller’s new book, Fooled Again (Basic Books), documenting the Republican theft of the 2004 presidential election, arrived in the same mail delivery with the January 12 edition of the Defuniak Springs Herald, the locally owned weekly newspaper in a Florida panhandle county seat.

<snip>

The outcome of the 2004 presidential election has always struck me as strange. Although Kerry was a poor candidate and evaded the issue most on the public’s mind, by November of 2004 a majority of Americans were aware that Bush had led the country into a gratuitous war on the basis either of incompetence or deception. By November 2004 it was completely clear that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and that Bush had rushed to war. People were concerned by the changing rationales that Bush was offering for going to war. Moreover, the needless war was going badly and the results bore no relationship to the rosy scenario painted at the time of the invasion. It seems contrary to American common sense for voters to have reelected a president who had failed in such a dramatic way.

Miller directs our attention to Bush’s high-handed treatment of dissenters. If electronic voting machines programmed by private Republican firms remain in our future, dissent will become pointless unless it boils over into revolution. Power-mad Republicans need to consider the result when democracy loses its legitimacy and only the rich have anything to lose.

WHO IS PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS?
Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

[autorank]

3. AL: Tales of Fraud and Corruption—negated elections twice fold!

This is a tale of two ‘political hits.’ Siegelman, Dem, lost the governors race last time out in Alabama. He actually won until a Magistrate in a small Alabama county had a dream, woke up, and reported enough “found” ballots to push the Republican over the top. Siegelman wants to run again. Here’s democracy in action. They were not satisfied to take the election based on phantom ballots (nobody saw them, the dreaming Magistrate just reported them), now they’re going to charge him with fraud. How much longer can we tolerate this garbage? I hope he gets one of those populist Southern juries, gets off, and wins the election.


http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/13693418.htm

Posted on Mon, Jan. 23, 2006

Judge sets Siegelman case trial for May 1

PHILLIP RAWLS
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A federal judge on Monday ordered the government corruption trial of former Gov. Don Siegelman and three co-defendants to begin May 1, which means Siegelman should have a verdict before he runs in the Democratic primary for governor on June 6.

"This is great news for us," Siegelman said after receiving the order from U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller.

Siegelman, former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, and two former Siegelman Cabinet members, Mack Roberts and Paul Hamrick, were indicted by a federal grand jury on government corruption charges in October.

[autorank]

4. NYC: Nation’s vanden Heuvel Lionizes Conyers—Election Fraud Fighter

Here’s a great article about our hero of election fraud research and activism.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060123/cm_thenation/752113;_ylt=A86.I1i6itVDlysBIQ79wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Opinion Saving Our Democracy

Katrina vanden Heuvel Mon Jan 23, 6:30 PM ET
The Nation -- On a glorious Saturday in New York, a spirited crowd of close to eight hundred people gathered inside the cavernous, subterranean Great Hall at New York's Cooper Union to hear Representative John Conyers (news, bio, voting record)--and a dozen other eloquent speakers--address the gravest issue of our time: How do we save our imperiled democracy?

At the New York conference, Conyers--who was greeted with a standing ovation--spoke at the iron cast podium from which Lincoln addressed the nation 146 years ago. (It was from the Great Hall, in February 1860 that the President--in a rousing peroration--argued that slavery was a moral wrong that must be ended. "Let us have faith that right makes might," Lincoln told the assembled crowd.) Conyers echoed Lincoln's words, reflecting on the darkness of our times and the necessity of saving the republic from constitutional crisis.

The nineteen-term Congressman, who has courageously led the challenges against the White House on issues from Ohio election fraud to the Downing Street Memo, spoke clearly about the importance of struggle. We must stay strong, Conyers said, if we are to emerge from this interregnum of fear and stay true to the principles which make us just and secure. He challenged the Administration--as well as his own party--to uphold principles of peace, rule of law, civil liberties and economic and political justice. ("Three things, in these last decades, have been my mantra: Jobs, Justice and Peace.") And he spoke passionately of his work to hold the Administration accountable--especially through introduction of House Resolution 635, which calls for establishment of a select committee with subpoena authority to investigate possible impeachable offenses with regard to the
Iraq war. (It was gratifying to hear Conyers commend The Nation for our recent decision to support only candidates who seek a speedy end to the Iraq war and occupation.)

[autorank]

5. Nation: US “Democracy” Group Interferes with Election in Haiti

This is a little different but it’s highly instructive. We have this group called the National Endowment for Democracy. Guess who heads it? A long time neocon! Guess who is on the board? See this post and the reply for the board members. It’s enough to make you sick. We have a lot of house cleaning.


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/23/1441204

ANTHONY FENTON: Well, indeed, obviously, there is an ongoing military occupation there ever since the forced ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February of 2004 in a coup d’etat that was assisted and planned by the Canadian government, along with the U.S. government and the French government. Of course, speaking from Canada, Canada played an integral role in the overthrow of Aristide and continues to play an integral role in the post-invasion occupation of Haiti.

They're leading up to what are now the fourth scheduled period of elections. There have been several postponements. This is due in part -- the original intention of the invasion, of course, was to subvert the young process of popular democracy that existed in Haiti prior to the coup, and of course, if Aristide hadn’t been overthrown, Haiti would have already carried out their democratic election, their presidential elections.

And, of course, the fear of the United States and of organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy and the State Department, of course, was that popular democracy would take root in Haiti under another Lavalas government, and they have set about to undermine the popular movement that existed in support of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Lavalas Party. And we're seeing today the consolidation of the elite rule that they have long envisioned for Haiti ever since the fall of “Baby Doc” Duvalier in the mid-80s.

[autorank]

6. Nation: Who is the National Endowment for Democracy? Must see!

I’m stunned. Vin Weber runs this. Remember him from the stolen Florida vote, 2000—the “felon purge” was done by a company in which Weber was a principal. Now he’s spreading the word. Look who is on the board.

National Endowment for Democracy
http://www.ned.org/about/about.html

About Us
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private, nonprofit organization created in 1983 to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts. The Endowment is governed by an independent, nonpartisan board of directors. With its annual congressional appropriation, it makes hundreds of grants each year to support prodemocracy groups in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.

The Endowment is guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values. Democracy cannot be achieved through a single election and need not be based upon the model of the United States or any other particular country. Rather, it evolves according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures. By supporting this process, the Endowment helps strengthen the bond between indigenous democratic movements abroad and the people of the United States -- a bond based on a common commitment to representative government and freedom as a way of life.

Officers and Directors
NED Staff: Office of the President ~ Program Section ~
Finance Section ~ International Forum for Democratic Studies


Officers and Directors
http://www.ned.org/about/who.html

Officers
The Honorable Vin Weber More. (You’ll remember Vin, he was tightly connected with the software company that helped with the 2000 “felon purge”, and you know the one that disenfranchised black voters in Florida leading to the election being even close. ..
(Chairman)

Clark & Weinstock

The Honorable Evan Bayh, More...
United States Senate

General Wesley K. Clark, More..oops!
Wesley K. Clark & Associates

The Honorable Christopher Cox, Republican …we all know who he is.

Ms. Rita DiMartino, More...

The Honorable Kenneth M. Duberstein …as in Reagan administration etc...
Chairman and CEO
Duberstein Group Inc

Ms. Ester Dyson, More...
Chairman
Edventure Holdings

The Honorable William H. Frist …a true friend of democracy.
United States Senate Dr. Francis Fukuyama, More...
Johns Hopkins University,
Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies

Ms. Suzanne Garment, More...
Weil, Gotshel & Manges

The Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, More...


The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, More...
Director
The Woodrow Wilson Center

Mr. Michael Novak, More...
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

---------Top---------

Office of the President
Carl Gershman, More...
President

And who might Mr. Gershman be? ...a neoconservative!

From

“Highlights & Quotes
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1199

Carl Gershman, the long-time head of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), has been a central figure in U.S. sectarian politics for decades. He was a member of the Socialist Party USA when it split into two factions in the early 1970s: a left wing led by Michael Harrington and a right wing led by Gershman, Tom Kahn, and Rachelle Horowitz. The right faction morphed into Social Democrats USA (SD/USA), which in the early 1970s rallied around Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, the hawkish Democrat from Washington State whose staff was made up of several key neoconservative figures, including Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, and Elliott Abrams.

Like many of these neoconservatives, Gershman was tapped to serve in the Reagan administration. In 1984, Gershman took over the helm of the NED, a congressionally funded organization created by Ronald Reagan in 1982 to support groups in the Soviet Union and other communist countries that promote democracy.

…but there’s more
“An even more dubious initiative,” wrote Barbara Conry for a 1993 Cato Institute report, “was NED’s involvement in Costa Rica. Not only is Costa Rica a well-established democracy—former president George Bush visited the country in 1989 to celebrate 100 years of democracy there—it is the only stable democracy in Central America. But Costa Rican president Oscar Arias had opposed Ronald Reagan’s policy in Central America, especially his support of the Nicaraguan Contras. Arias received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to dampen conflicts in the region, but he incurred the wrath of right-wing NED activists. So from 1986 to 1988 NED gave money to Arias’s political opposition, which was also strongly supported by Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. As Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-NY) commented: ‘They may technically have been within the law, but I felt this clearly violated the spirit. … The whole purpose of NED is to facilitate the emergence of democracy where it doesn’t exist and preserve it where it does exist. In Costa Rica, neither of these applies’.” (8)

[autorank]

7. Canada: Fraud Canadian Style

They may have paper ballots, kudos, but they also have a few problems. At least they can catch the fraud.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1137800375900&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_Canada&call_pageid=968332188774&call_pagepath=News/Canada

Election fraud allegations dismissed

Jan. 20, 2006. 10:30 PM
RITA DALY
STAFF REPORTER

Elections Canada said Friday there is no evidence of fraud involving more than 4,000 names on the Trinity-Spadina voters’ list, but campaign organizers for Liberal incumbent Tony Ianno continued to insist on a review.
“We stand by our numbers and we continue to be very, very concerned,” said Tom Allison, Ianno’s campaign manager.
Ianno organizers recently filed objections to numerous names they claim have improper addresses in the riding, to rule out possible fraud. Canvassers uncovered names of people living at city hall, the Eaton Centre, provincial courthouse, Loblaws and office towers while canvassing the riding, they said.

[Wilms]

10. FL: Paper-trail advocate (Clint Curtis) to air rigging concerns

Paper-trail advocate to air rigging concerns

By George Bennett

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, January 23, 2006

Clint Curtis, a familiar name to those who follow election-stealing allegations on the Internet, will get an official audience this week with the committee advising Palm Beach County on voting technology.

Curtis is the Florida computer programmer who emerged in December 2004 at an Ohio forum and online with an affidavit claiming he had been an unwitting accomplice four years earlier in a Republican plot to rig touch-screen elections.

His disputed story has found a receptive audience in Palm Beach County with some Democrats and foes of electronic voting. Curtis was a featured speaker at this month's county Democratic Party meeting and a participant last month in a demonstration outside the county elections office demanding a ballot "paper trail."

The protest took place before a meeting of the Elections Technology Advisory Committee formed by Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson. A member of that committee, Democratic activist Jack Sadow, has been trying since September to get the panel to listen to Curtis.

snip

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/01/23/s1b_curtis_0123.html

[Wilms]

11. Jesse Jackson Jr.: The Right to Vote

state of the union

January 19, 2006 (February 6, 2006 issue)

The Right to Vote

Jesse Jackson Jr.

"The vote" is a human right. It is seen as an American right. In a democracy there is nothing more fundamental than having the right to vote.

And yet the right to vote is not a fundamental right in our Constitution. Some liberals argue that the fundamental right to vote for every American citizen is implied in the Constitution, based on Supreme Court precedent. Yet when I ask them about the denial of voting representation in Congress to District of Columbia citizens, or about the denial of ex-felons' voting rights in most states, many liberals concede that the current structure of our Constitution limits the ability of the courts and Congress to adequately address important voting-rights issues.

It is amazing to me that many Democrats failed to grasp the most fundamental finding in Bush v. Gore: "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States."

snip

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060206/jackson

[Wilms]

12. Here's one way to get good news...make it yourself.

California Tests Find Diebold Touch-Screen Voting 100 Percent Accurate During November 2005 Election
Parallel monitoring procedures during live election validate accuracy of Diebold system

ALLEN, Texas, Jan 23, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- A report released by the California Secretary of State in early January indicates that the Diebold Election Systems touch-screen voting systems used in California proved to be 100 percent accurate during the thorough Parallel Monitoring accuracy testing conducted during the November 8, 2005 statewide election. A directive from the California Secretary of State requires Parallel Monitoring accuracy testing of all touch-screen voting systems during each election conducted within the state.

The Parallel Monitoring testing procedure includes the random selection of touch-screen voting stations the morning of an election from various precincts within counties using the technology. Once selected, the touch-screen units are thoroughly tested for accuracy and reliability by designated California Secretary of State election personnel. The accuracy testing runs the entire duration of the election. Election result reports are then generated from each touch-screen unit once the election concludes so the accuracy of the system can be validated. The accuracy of Diebold's touch-screen technology has been tested several times within California and in other states as well, and results of these Parallel Monitoring tests have proven the technology to be 100 percent accurate each and every time.

"We are extremely confident in the proven performance of our touch-screen technology, and the successful results of the California Parallel Monitoring accuracy testing substantiate the reliable operation of our voting systems," stated David Byrd, vice president of operations, Diebold Election Systems.

"The performance of Diebold's touch-screen technology was also verified during the extensive system volume testing conducted in September in California, when more than 11,000 votes were cast on 100 touch-screen stations with voter-verifiable paper audit trail printers with 100 percent accurate election results and very reliable system operation. The California Elections Division determined that the volume test would be deemed successful if no more than 1 percent of the machines experienced a failure that affects the record of the vote on the AccuVote-TSX or on the VVPAT paper trail. Diebold surpassed these test criteria with flying colors."

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=106584&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=807176&highlight=


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x410416

[Wilms]

13. NH: Tobin disputes jamming verdict

Tobin disputes jamming verdict

Friday, January 20, 2006

Bangor Daily News

CONCORD, N.H. - Attorneys for a Bangor, Maine, man have filed three motions in federal court seeking to overturn his conviction last month in a phone-jamming scheme.

snip

Charles "Chuck" McGee of Manchester, N.H., the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party who came up with the phone-jamming idea, served seven months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to jam phone lines.

Allen Raymond, who found the Idaho firm that made the repeated hang-up calls to five Democratic offices and a firefighters union, is scheduled to be resentenced on Feb. 2 in federal court in Concord. Raymond testified at Tobin's trial that he was hoping his five-month sentence would be reduced with Tobin's conviction.

On the witness stand, McGee and Raymond gave conflicting stories of what they knew about the plan and when it was hatched.

Raymond testified that Tobin was aware the plan was to prevent Democrats from getting to the polls on Nov. 5, 2002, when a hotly contested U.S. Senate race was on the ballot. He said that Tobin told him to expect a call from McGee two to three weeks before the election.

McGee testified that a few days before the election, he outlined a vague idea to Tobin about disrupting the Democrats' communications on Election Day and asked Tobin to refer him to someone who was knowledgeable about phone systems and telemarketing.

Both men testified in December that if Tobin had discouraged them from pursuing the plan, they would not have gone forward.

snip

In state court, New Hampshire Democrats are pursuing a civil lawsuit, which they hope will expose knowledge or approval of the scheme by GOP officials higher than Tobin. Republicans have insisted it was conceived and executed at the state level.

snip

He stepped down as the regional campaign chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign in October 2004, when Democrats filed their lawsuit, which alleged that he took part in the scheme. Tobin was indicted by a federal grand jury later that year.

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=127414

[Wilms]

14. GOP Tire-Slashing Trial Comes To Surprising End (Dems did the slashing)

GOP Tire-Slashing Trial Comes To Surprising End

POSTED: 4:54 pm CST January 20, 2006

MILWAUKEE -- A judge on Friday accepted no contest pleas by four of five Democratic presidential campaign workers to misdemeanor criminal damage to property for puncturing the tires of Republican vehicles on Election Day 2004.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan accepted the pleas after a jury deliberated for a second day after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges. The defendants had faced potential 3 1/2-year prison terms and $10,000 fines.

The lesser misdemeanor charges carry potential nine-month jail terms and fines of $10,000.

Defendant Justin Howell was the only one not included in the deal, and jurors found him not guilty Friday of the felony charge.

http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/stepsaway/6285652/detail.html

[Wilms]

15. John Gideon's Daily Voting News

'Daily Voting News' For January 23, 2006

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002322.htm

[Wilms]

16. CA: County chooses new voting system (AutoMark)

Tuesday January 24, 2006

News

County chooses new voting system

By Sarah Lunsford

Monday, January 23, 2006 11:04 AM CST

During the June election, Calaveras County residents will have a new voting system on which to cast their votes.

This week, the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of a new voting system which will bring the county into compliance with new federal and state mandates.

The punch card system that has been used for many years in the county has been decertified by the federal government, said Karen Varni, county-clerk recorder.

The county is contracting with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) for the voting system and the AutoMARK voter assist terminals which will allow the county to meet Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements along with meet requirements to provide an equal opportunity to vote for disabled voters.

snip

http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/articles/2006/01/23/news/news03.txt

[livvy]

17. Times Editorial: Dead Last in Voting Reform

January 24, 2006
Editorial
'Dead Last' in Voting Reform
There are times when residents of New York can only look to the State Capitol in Albany and ask, What in tarnation are those people doing? Here we are, more than five years after the disastrous presidential vote in 2000 prompted Congress to pass the Help America Vote Act. That powerful law provides each state with lots of money to revamp its old voting systems. And so far, every state except New York has gotten the job started.

New York is so far behind the rest of the country that the Justice Department has threatened to sue, and that could cost New York some of $2.3 billion in federal funds for fixing the voting system.>snip

Dawdling, of course, has always been one of the Legislature's strong suits. But it is not hard to imagine how lobbyists, smelling this huge vat of money, have been driving things. The salespeople are pushing for equipment that can be too expensive and not secure enough. What every New York voter needs is what every other American voter needs - a verifiable paper record. But agents for voting machine companies have been trying to convince state leaders that they cannot deliver those machines, at least not quickly.

The most promising solution is to use a system that is available, works well and provides paper for recounting, which is required so often in this state. That is the optical scanning machine, which is cheaper than other electronic machines. Most companies make them, even though some try to keep that hidden, probably so they can sell more expensive machines. >more







http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/opinion/24tue3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

18. Thank you for your tireless...

...work on election fraud, Autorank. You deserve some kind of award for it.

[mod mom]

19. OH: Lawyer violated Law picked for Warren Co BOE

business as usual:

Lawyer who violated law picked for elections board

By Staff and Cox News Service dispatches

LEBANON | A lawyer who violated Ohio election law during his challenge of the election of Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel in 2004 has been nominated for a seat on the county board of elections.


David Fornshell of Lebanon was nominated Friday by the Warren County GOP. Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell will make the appointment.

It was the second county board nomination of the week for Fornshell, who was appointed to the Warren County MRDD by the county commissioners Tuesday. His appointment to the elections board is less certain because he made a false statement during the primary race against Hutzel.

The Ohio Elections Commissions found "clear and convincing evidence" that his early campaign T-shirts falsely indicated he was prosecutor.

<snip>



http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0124lawyerelect.html

[Wilms]

20. Crain’s Cleveland Business: Diebold’s property

Editor's Choice: Jan. 24, 2006

By JEFF STACKLIN

January 24, 2006

(Half-way down)

snip

Diebold’s property

Democrats in Alaska are in an uproar. Party officials are demanding that electronic voting files — not the results but the actual data — from the 2004 election be turned over for examination, according to this article.

The state of Alaska, however, is saying no, “arguing that the data format belongs to a private company and can't be made public,” according to the article. The company that owns the data format is Diebold, which says formatting is proprietary.

The article continues, “The official vote results from the last general election are riddled with discrepancies and impossible for the public to make sense of, the Democrats said Monday. A detailed analysis of the underlying data could answer lingering questions about an election many thought was over more than a year ago, they say.”

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