Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News 02/28/06 BONIFAZ DAY

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BONIFAZ FOR SECRETARY OF STATE: MASSACHUSETTS

Campaign Web Page
Why?

* Lead the figh for a full recount in Ohio of all of the votes cast for President in the 2004
general election. Contribute

* Defended the Massachusetts Clean Elections Law and won a landmark ruling forcing the
state to provide the necessary funds to all qualified candidates running in the 2002 state elections.

* Worked to overhaul the nation's campaign finance system by defending mandatory
campaign spending limits, public financing of elections, and other important campaign reforms.

…and in his spare time, o-founded: AfterDowningStreet.Org is a coalition working
to expose the lies that launched the war and to hold accountable its architects, i
ncluding through censure and impeachment Go here

Contribute

(Note: I had a chance to meet John Bonifaz at a DC fund raiser, hence my bias. He's the
real deal!)

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News February 28 ,2006 BONIFAZ DAY

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

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.

Please

"Recommend"

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

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1. Bonifaz: Voters Bill of Rights

Bonifaz: Voters Bill of Rights
Bonifaz discussed the first three points of the bill at his DC meeting Monday night. He’s as bright in person as he is on the net or on paper. This is a classic. Send it around and visit his site.

(Permission to publish entire document)

Voters' Bill of Rights

Format for printing
http://www.johnbonifaz.com/votersbillofrights

1. Count every vote

The right to vote includes the right to have our votes properly counted.

We must ensure that every citizen's vote will be counted. This includes a guarantee of open and transparent elections with verified voting, paper trails, and access to the source codes for, and random audits of, electronic voting machines. It also includes a guarantee that we the people, through our government, will control our voting machines — not private companies.

2. Make voting easier


We should enact election day registration here in Massachusetts, removing the barrier of registration prior to Election Day. Six states have election day registration. They have a higher voter turnout in their elections and have no evidence of voter fraud. We should be encouraging greater participation in the political process, starting with election day registration.

We should also ensure absentee voting for all, allow for early voting, and remove other barriers that make it difficult for people to vote.

3. End the big money dominance of our electoral process


In a democracy, public elections should be publicly financed. In Maine and Arizona, publicly financed elections has enabled people to run for office who would never have dreamed of running under a system dominated by big money interests. We, as voters, need to own our elections, rather than allow the process to be controlled by the wealthy few.

We also need to enact mandatory limits on campaign spending. In 1976, the Supreme Court wrongly struck down mandatory campaign spending limits for congressional elections. A federal appeals court in New York has recently revisited that decision and ruled that campaign spending limits in Vermont can be constitutional. That case is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Massachusetts should help lead the way with campaign spending limits for our elections.

4. Expand voter choice


Instant run-off voting: Voters should be able to rank their choices of candidates, ensuring majority support for those elected and allowing greater voter choice and wider voter participation.

Cross Endorsement Voting (Fusion voting): Voters should be able to cast their ballots for major party candidates on a minor party's ballot line, placing power in the hands of the people and broadening public debate on the issues of the day.

Proportional Representation: Voters should be allowed their fair share of representation, ensuring that majority rule does not prevent minority voices from being heard.

5. Ensure access for new citizens and language minorities


The right to vote does not speak one specific language. It is universal. No one should be denied the right to vote because of a language barrier.

6. Level the playing field for challengers

Redistricting reform — Incumbent legislators should not have the power to draw their own district lines. We must transfer this power to independent non-partisan commissions and create fair standards for redistricting, thereby promoting competition in our electoral process and improving representation for the people.

7. Ensure non-partisan election administration


The Secretary of the Commonwealth must be a Secretary for all of us, regardless of party affiliation. The Secretary should not be allowed to serve as a co-chair of campaigns of candidates. To ensuring the people's trust in the integrity of our elections, the Secretary must conduct the administration of elections in a non-partisan manner.

8. Make government more accessible to all of us


Democracy is not just about our participation on Election Day. We need to participate every day and our government needs to be accessible to us every day. This means a government that is open and transparent, that encourages people to make their voices heard, and that enlists citizen participation in addressing the major issues of our time.

9. Re-authorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965

We must continue the fight to protect the right to vote and to end voting disenfranchisement schemes. The Secretary of the Commonwealth must fight for congressional re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

10. Amend the US Constitution to ensure an affirmative right to vote

One hundred and eight democratic nations in the world have explicit language guaranteeing the right to vote in their constitutions, and the United States — along with only ten other such nations — does not. As a result, the way we administer elections in this country changes from state to state, from county to county, from locality to locality. The Secretary of the Commonwealth must fight for a constitutional amendment that affirmatively guarantees the right to vote in the US Constitution.

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2. MA: Bonifaz: Endorsed by Jesse Jackson, Jr, Champion of Election Integr

MA: Bonifaz: Endorsed by Jesse Jackson, Jr, Champion of Election Integrity

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. takes Bay State politicians to task

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/11/rep_jesse_jackson_jr_takes_bay_state_politicians_to_task/

By Adrienne P. Samuels, Globe Staff | February 11, 2006

Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. yesterday used an appearance at Freedom House in Roxbury to chide the state's politicians and to endorse a Democrat who hopes to topple Secretary of State William F. Galvin.

''I want to reflect upon not the necessity or need to vote," said Jackson, an Illinois Democrat who is the son of the famous civil rights activist. ''I want to comment on the condition of Roxbury, where, from my perspective, nothing ever changes."

<snip>

Many in the crowd stopped eating their eggs, bacon, and breakfast potatoes to applaud Jackson's statements at the nonpartisan town hall meeting, which was sponsored by Freedom House and the voting rights organization Dunk the Vote.

Jackson also endorsed John Bonifaz for secretary of state, saying that Bonifaz was uniquely qualified for the state's top elections position because of his decade of working to improve voting rights across the country

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3. MA: Bonifaz: AlterNet Interview

Answering the S.O.S. for Election Reform
http://www.alternet.org/story/31946/

By Jan Frel, AlterNet. Posted February 9, 2006.

The coming 2006 elections offer activists and political donors who want election reform the opportunity to support at least two secretary of state candidates who have bold and pro-democratic positions on voting rights and voting machines: John Bonifaz in Massachusetts, Mark Ritchie in Minnesota. If elected they would join Bill Bradbury of Oregon and Deborah L. Markowitz of Vermont, two standing secretaries of state widely considered to be leaders in progressive election reforms.

John Bonifaz is a voting rights attorney and founder of the National Voting Rights Institute, which he founded in 1994 in Boston. Bonifaz has also worked for public funding of elections He was a leader in the push for Ohio's recount effort starting on No. 3, 2004. Bonifaz, with his father, also works at a private law firm that handles international environmental and human rights cases.

Mark Ritchie has been involved in Minnesota politics for the past 20 years. He is a founder of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and has served as its director since 1986. During the 2004 elections he helped create and lead the November 2nd campaign, a coalition of over 1,000 organizations and activist groups that worked to register five million new voters and turn out 10 million on Election Day.

Bonifaz is running for the Democratic Party nomination against the incumbent office holder, and Ritchie is running for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nomination to face the Republican incumbent in the general election. AlterNet spoke with the two candidates to learn more about why they decided to run.

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4. MA: Bonifaz: Supporting strong reforms.

Voter-reform bill gains backing of Galvin rival

http://www.lowellsun.com/front/ci_3524021

By REBECCA DEUSSER, Sun Statehouse Bureau

BOSTON -- A stalled push to change the state's voting laws got a nudge this week, after candidate John Bonifaz announced he supports the reform.

Bonifaz, 39, of Boston's Jamaica Plain, is challenging Secretary of State William Galvin, in a Democratic primary for the seat this fall.

He endorses the idea of forming a task force to look at ways to improve voter turnout, such as Election Day registration -- a practice that allows voters to register to vote in a community on Election Day.

"Election Day registration is an important step," Bonifaz said. "It increases voter turnout, and I think we ought to have it in Massachusetts."

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5. CO: Mountain retreat goes electronic…but cant buy equipment.

”…we can’t even buy (the new equipment) because it’s not yet certified” says the elections official of this fine community. What difference does it make, it’s all garbage. Just buy some paper ballots, you’re a small community.

Check this out kids…a MountainCam

Mail voting likely in next federal election

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20060228/NEWS/60227010
BY DUFFY HAYES
summit daily news
February 28, 2006

SUMMIT COUNTY — Voters in the next partisan election could be deprived of the nostalgic exercise of going to the polls and dropping a ballot in the box that casts a deciding vote. And hanging chads are to blame.

Across the nation, county clerks are nervously eyeing an approaching deadline that mandates modern ballot counting equipment under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed by Congress in response to the Florida election debacle of 2000.
The problem: With an August 8 primary election date looming, there’s no new certified equipment to buy.

“We’re getting really close to (election deadlines),” said Summit County Clerk and Recorder Cheri Brunvand. “With all the vendors — the ones we’re supposed to be buying equipment from — we can’t even buy (the new equipment) because it’s not yet certified.”

“We should have had the new counter in the office as of Jan. 1, if not earlier. The earliest we can get one is mid-June, even though we ordered it back in September,” Brunvand added.

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6. NY: Chenango changing voting machines.

What’s a Chenango. It’s an upstate New York skiing community. There’s a theme to todays thread, winter sports. Good to put me to sleep. 22,000 lever machines in New York State are being replaced by the “screens” or the “scanners.” NY officials are not too happy about the deadlines and they point out that the Elections Assistance Commission empowered by HAVA has been to late with too little. No MountainCam, so I’d ski in Colorado.


Tuesday February 28, 2006
NEWS

New Chenango voting machines won't be ready by fall

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060228/NEWS01/602280341/1006
By JIM KOZUBEK
Correspondent

The Chenango County Board of Elections will replace its lever-pull voting machines with electronic or optical scan machines, but the new machines will not be in place for this fall's election.

"There is still a lot of work to do," elections board member Harriet Jenkins said.

State officials also said Monday it is virtually impossible to have the electronic machines ready in time, meaning voters across the state will continue to use the lever-style machines.

The change to a new system was mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act, passed following the hanging-chads controversy in Florida's punch-card voting system during the 2000 presidential race

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7. LA: Baton Rouge burb has real life election fraud.

Read the whole story. It’s like a soap opera. Only in Louisiana.

St. Martinville elections troubled for many years

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/ourviews/2380191.html
By RICHARD BURGESS
Acadiana bureau
Published: Feb 28, 2006

Democracy in St. Martinville took a 12-year vacation, then returned in 2002 with election shenanigans that ultimately resulted in two lawsuits, a recall campaign and criminal charges against eight people, including a councilwoman.

And as the city’s April 1 election approaches, one wonders whether the city will shake the reputation it earned four years go.

St. Martin Parish as a whole has a bit of a reputation for voting irregularities and was home to one of the largest vote-buying cases in the state.

A grand jury in 1997 indicted 64 people parishwide on vote-buying and vote-selling charges in the 1995 St. Martin Parish elections. Prosecutors said that votes were sold for as little as $5.

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8. CA: More total bullshit – Heller prosecuted for whistle blowing on Diebo

Do California Democratic leaders have a party death wish? What a strange thing this is. Maybe the legislature could pass a law exempting any voting machine company whistle blowers from whistle blower laws. Amazing but the again...

We prosecute whistleblowers now? Well, when there's election fraud involved....

Now this is just WRONG!

Since WHEN do we attack those who expose the crimes of others?
http://www.progressiveu.org/105410-we-prosecute-whistleblowers-now-well-when-theres-election-fraud-involved

A word processor accused of stealing damaging documents about electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems was arraigned Tuesday on three felony counts.

Stephen Heller was charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. He pleaded not guilty.

"It's a devastating allegation for a whistle-blower," said Blair Berk, Heller's attorney. "Certainly, someone who saw those documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming elections."

The charges arise from Heller's alleged disclosure two years ago of legal papers from the Los Angeles office of international law firm Jones Day, which represented Diebold at the time. Heller was under contract as a word processor at Jones Day.

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9. Indonesia: Third major democracy in South Pacific Rim wants more

This is a very thoughtful editorial. It discusses the need for democratic leaders to avoid trading elections for “stability and public order.” Lets clip this and send it to the WH. Good advise when Bush looks at dumping democracy measures in the “Patriot Act.” Who voted for that anyway?

Cost of democracy

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060228.C01&irec=0

The Philippines and Thailand, the two oldest democracies in Southeast Asia -- Indonesia joined the club only in 2004, after a brief flirtation with democracy in the 1950s, instantly becoming the world's third largest democracy after India and the United States -- have faced deepening political crises over the last few weeks.

If Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fail to demonstrate statesmanship and resolve these political crises using democratic means, the impact will be felt not only in the two countries, but throughout the region.

The stability, security and very existence of sustainable democracy in the other member states of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is at stake. The political crises in the two countries are alarming. And it is not impossible that Indonesia -- a new kid on the democracy block -- could face similar problems as the Philippines and Thailand.

<snip>

Democracy is still a relatively new phenomenon for the region, although the 10 ASEAN members will insist they have adopted democracy in accordance with their own needs and cultural values. And the leaders of the least democratic countries in the region will find new pretexts and excuses to defend themselves, arguing that democracy is not more important than maintaining public order and stability.

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10. Uganda: US calls for investigation of election fraud” (exact "s, honest)

Here’s my quote:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

US calls for investigation of election fraud

http://www.monitor.co.ug/news/reg02287.php

KAKAIRE A. KIRUNDA
MBALE

The United States government has called for a transparent investigation of the opposition charges of fraud in Thursday’s general election that saw President Yoweri Museveni retain his seat.

The call was made on Friday by the State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Mr Adam Ereli, soon after partial returns from the polling stations started coming in.
“There have been reports of administrative and procedural irregularities by observers, as well as other claims of irregularities by the opposition. Those claims need to be investigated,” Ereli said.

According to the Voice Of Africa report, the US assessment of the poll and call for the investigation was based on reports from American diplomats in Kampala.

Prior to the Thursday polls, the US Embassy in Kampala issued a statement saying it would dispatch 60 observers to cover 13 districts in the central, northern, western and eastern regions of the country.

[DemReadingDU]

11. Mr. Bonifaz so so dynamic!

He is one of my favorite people to hear speak on election fraud.

[paineinthearse]

12. "What can I do to help?", you may ask.

Auto,

Your elections work is stellar, thank you for giving John your endorsement. I'm proud to have given this post its #5 nomination.

1. Kick and recommend this post.

2. Get and display a "John Bonifaz "Gold Standard" Blogger Badge". Show your support for John by using these badges on your blog or website. We're trying to show Massachusetts that John is "The Gold Standard" for Secretary of State candidates. And that's why we're calling these "Gold Standard" Blogger Badges.
HTML for adding these badges to your blog or website is posted underneath each image. Let everyone know that you support John Bonifaz for Massachusetts Secretary of State!

<a href="http://www.johnbonifaz.com"> <img border="0" alt="John Bonifaz for Massachusetts Secretary of State" title="John Bonifaz for Massachusetts Secretary of State" src=""></a>

<a href="http://www.johnbonifaz.com"> <img border="0" alt="John Bonifaz for Massachusetts Secretary of State" title="John Bonifaz for Massachusetts Secretary of State" src=""></a>

3. Donate! Cash is always welcome.

4. Read and share the "Voter Bill of Rights". John wants to make Massachusetts the gold standard for the rest of the country. Imagine if these rights had been law in Ohio: http://www.johnbonifaz.com/votersbillofrights

5. Bookmark this post. Bookmark the campaign website - http://www.johnbonifaz.com - and share with friends and neighbors.

6. Volunteer. If you live in Massachusetts or a nearby state and can get into Massachusetts to leaflet, gather nominations or work in the office, register via the "quick sign-up" at http://www.johnbonifaz.com/, or send an email to [e-mail] ESPECIALLY NEEDED: MASSACHUSETTS DELEGATES.

7. Support John's other efforts: the National Voting Rights Institute - www.nvri.org - and After Downing Street - www.afterdowningstreet.org.

8. Read John's book - "Warrior King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush".

9. Invite John to speak. If you would like John Bonifaz to speak with your group, please email us at [e-mail].
Include your contact information and a description of your organization or event.

10. Finally, do as John says. KEEP ON!

[paineinthearse]

13. PDA article by William Rivers Pitt

A great article about John authored by William Rivers Pitt has been published on the Progressive Democrats of America website: http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/campaigns/bonifaz.php.

[az chela]

15. Cant open this site

Please fix as i really want to read what Will has to say

[Wilms]

18. .

http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/campaigns/bonifaz.php

[radio4progressives]

14. kick and recommended

:kick: :applause:

[az chela]

16. Me TOO

Get out and vote for John.No excuses

[understandinglife]

17. K&R.

Peace.

[Algorem]

19. Did 308,000 cancelled Ohio voter registrations put Bush back in the White

House?

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_549.shtml

By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
Online Journal Guest Writers


Mar 1, 2006, 00:35

While life goes on during the Bush2 nightmare, so does the research on what really happened here in 2004 to give George W. Bush a second term.

Pundits throughout the state and nation -- many of them alleged Democrats -- continue to tell those of us who question Bush's second coming that we should "get over it," that the election is old news.

But things get curiouser and curiouser.

In our 2005 compendium HOW THE GOP STOLE OHIO'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, we list more than a hundred different ways the Republican Party denied the democratic process in the Buckeye State. For a book of documents to be published September 11 by the New Press, entitled WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO?, we are continuing to dig...

[Trevelyan]

20. K&R nt.

[paineinthearse]

21. 3/1: Argued election spending limit case at SCotUS

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=415189&mesg_id=415243