BRADBLOG:DNC VOTING RIGHTS INST ISSUES STATEMENT CALLING FOR MANUAL COUNT

[lindisfarne]

DNC'S VOTING RIGHTS INSTITUTE ISSUES STATEMENT CALLING FOR 'MANUAL COUNT' OF ALL BALLOTS IN BUSBY/BILBRAY ELECTION!
Here's the Bradblog link: http://www.bradblog.com/
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3069#more-3069

Here's the actual text of the statement:
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/07/dnc_voting_righ.php

DNC Voting Rights Institute on CA-50 Special Election
Posted by Greg Moore on July 14, 2006 at 02:29 PM

For several weeks since the June 6th Special Election in California’s 50th Congressional District there have been reports of election irregularities. The DNC Voting Rights Institute (“VRI”) has been monitoring the developments since Election Day and has raised a number of concerns regarding new and disturbing information.

First and foremost is the fact that any election where there are allegations of machine tampering, break downs in chain of custody, security breaches and other such irregularities must be taken seriously. There are several facts in this race that raise very deep concerns.
<snip>

The San Diego County election official responsible for administrating post-election manual vote counts has given three different arbitrary cost estimates for conducting the hand count. The quoted fees are as much as six times the costs estimates for similar hand counts in surrounding counties. The estimates portray the expense of a manual vote count to be cost prohibitive.

<snip>
The VRI will continue to monitor facts as they become available and will call for a swift and verifiable “manual count” of all 150,000 ballots cast in California’s 50th District’s "bellwether" June 6th special election in order to ensure the integrity of November 7th general elections and the overall integrity of our country’s voting systems in this still-untested age of computerized voting.

[IndyOp]

1. I was just about to go looking for this. Thanks, lindesfarne!

And THANK YOU BRADBLOG!!

And all election justice advocates everywhere!

I do hope this is just a 'warm-up' for the DNC VRI is ready to go in November.

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[mom cat]

9. I hope your optimism is justified. I wil, however, be watching to see

just how hard they fight the vote rigging and how much money they spend on securing the elections that we won but were stolden. I put a lot of time, money and effort into Kerry's campaign. I will not play the fool again for any party or candidate. I don't have the time, money or energy to waste on elections that will be forfitted by wimps.
The words of the latest statement ars strong and good. Now I want to see real action to back up those words.

[mod mom]

2. PDA has also put out an announcement of this.

[emlev]

3. It will be very interesting to see what becomes of this! EOM

[kster]

4. The Repubs will put their foot down and

the DNC will say "OK we were just asking" :rofl:

[freedomfries]

5. k & r

[eridani]

7. According to Brad on the Thursday PDA conference call--

--a rightwing talk show host who is a big Bilbray supporter is also in favor of a manual recount.

[kster]

6. Kick.nt

[Wilms]

8. K & R n/t

[mopinko]

10. will call?

what are they waiting for? it looks like a spine, but i don't think i would count on it to hold me up.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. maybe they get it now - after all these years?

I had never heard of the Voting Rights Institute, although yes
I have read the report on the Ohio 04 election.

But I see that the voting rights institute has been around since 2001,
and I hope that they are now waking up.

Maybe they got the message from all of those returned donation envelopes with nothing in them,
except notes that say:

"I wont be giving one more penny to the democratic
party until they support verified voting".

DNC Launches Voting Rights Institute

McAuliffe Pledges All Out Effort to Ensure Democracy is Not Denied in Future Elections

Washington, D.C., May 1, 2001 -- Further emphasizing their commitment to election reform, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Terry McAuliffe and National Development Chair Maynard Jackson will host press conferences today, National Law Day, with community activists in Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA, to launch the DNC's Voting Rights Institute-an effort to highlight the critical importance of voting rights and the fact that democracy gets denied during every election cycle across the country.

The DNC Voting Rights Institute (VRI) is designed to highlight the flaws in our current voting system and to encourage reasonable solutions to voting irregularities. Today's announcement is designed to remind the nation of the building block of our democracy-the right to vote.

Additionally, as a permanent arm of the DNC, VRI will provide legal, political and technical support to state and local parties and Democratic candidates to ensure that all local, state and federal elections are conducted in compliance with civil rights laws, voting rights laws, and election laws. VRI will also advocate enforcement and enhancement of the Voting Rights Act and other laws to ensure and protect full and equal access to the franchise.

http://www.ucp.org/ucp_generaldoc.cfm/1/8/12056/12056-12056/1792