Election Reform-Fraud & Related News 7/19/06-We Must Decide Where We Stand

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud & Related News July 19, 2006-We Must Decide Where We Stand



And for those of us outside Mexico,
We must decide where we stand:
With democracy ... or quietly on the sidelines?


James K. Galbraith
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0718-32.htm




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.
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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).

[kpete]

1. We Do Not Concede To The Bush Election Team In Mexico Or Here In Ohio

We Do Not Concede To The Bush Election Team In Mexico Or Here In Ohio

More than a million people were in the streets in Mexico City in perhaps the largest demonstration in the history of the western hemisphere. What’s the difference between Columbus, Ohio and Mexico City? Both had a stolen election by the same people. When I saw, a week or so before the election, that the Bush team was headed down to Mexico, you could tell that the son of a CIA director was about to steal again. Bush, Rove and Blackwell are chronic kleptomaniacs. They steal because they think they can get away with it – but that only works in Ohio. In Mexico, the difference is that people believe in democracy and they are not brainwashed by a propagandistic corporate media into ignoring the obvious.

We didn’t have a million, but I want to acknowledge the hard core voting rights activists who did hit the streets after the 2004 election and continue to fight for a fair election in Ohio to this day. My campaign is the direct result of that movement – we will not concede.

We should do everything we can to support the nonviolent civil disobedience and massive demonstrations that are rocking Mexico. I’ve enclosed two recent articles Harvey Wasserman and I have written on the elections in Mexico. Let me know what you think.

http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2006/07/18/we-do-not-concede-to-the-bush-election-team-in-mexico-or-here-in-ohio/

[kpete]

5. We Must Reject Faith Based Voting

We Must Reject Faith Based Voting
Posted by Bob Fitrakis on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 .

Those private vote-switching, election-stealing electronic voting machines are at it again. Early in the day, Cynthia McKinney supporters began registering complaints that when they tried to register their vote for McKinney in Georgia’s primary election today, it registered a vote for her opponent. Just like in the Ohio election, the vote hopping with Diebold machines always goes for the conservative candidate: push for Kerry – votes hops to Bush.

Or, if you voted for McKinney it hopped to Hank Johnson or John Coyne. Thankfully McKinney had her team of lawyers on the spot taking affidavits from voters who swore the machines switched their votes to one of her opponents. With a majority of counties in Ohio using Diebold electronic machines, other problems present in Georgia’a primary today are bound to plague the Buckeye State in the fall.

For example, complaints were lodged against Diebold’s electronic pollbooks. Election staff were not properly trained to access the voter registration database. Also, complaints came in about machines breaking down in the middle of the voting process and machines malfunctioning.

As I prepare to sign off, McKinney is barely ahead of Hank Johnson by a little over 500 votes with 53% of the precincts reporting. Our democracy must be transparent. We must reject this bizarre, faith-based voting. Let’s pray for McKinney’s victory, and equally important, for a real democratic system based on hand counted paper ballots.

http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2006/07/19/we-must-reject-faith-based-voting/

[pberq]

16. Thank you for posting this - McKinney will be in a runoff August 8

[kpete]

2. Doing Maths In Mexico - by James K. Galbraith

Published on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
Doing Maths In Mexico
While Mexicans take to the streets over the presidential vote, democracy's fairweather friends are standing silent.
by James K. Galbraith

The election was stolen. It's not in doubt. Colin Powell admits it. The National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute both admit it. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana - a Republican - was emphatic: there had been "a concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse;" he "had heard" of employers telling their workers how to vote; yet he had also seen the fire of the resisting young, "not prepared to be intimidated."

In Washington, Zbigniew Brzezinski has demanded that the results be set aside and a new vote taken, under the eye - no less - of the United Nations. In the New York Times, Steven Lee Myers decried "the use of government resources on behalf of loyal candidates and the state's control over the media" - factors, he said, were akin to practices in "Putin's Russia."

I wrote those words two years ago, for Salon. They referred, of course, to the election in the Ukraine, where the presidential candidate favored by the powerful neighboring state (Russia) had claimed a tainted victory in a tight race. The thunder from America, citadel of democracy, was overwhelming. Nothing mattered more than to see the vote annulled, a new election held. The subsequent installation of Viktor Yuschenko as President of Ukraine was widely celebrated as a great triumph for democracy.

But that, of course, was in another country. Two weeks have now passed since the presidential vote in Mexico, pitting Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the party for a Democratic Revolution (PRD) against Felipe Calderón of the ruling National Action party (PAN). The candidate who trailed, López Obrador, has explicitly charged that the count was cooked. He has challenged the result in court. No final resolution is due before September.

more at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0718-32.htm

[kpete]

3. Human or Machine Error: What's The Truth?

Human or Machine Error: What's The Truth?
By John Gideon, VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA
July 18, 2006

Some elections officials constantly invoke "voter trust and confidence" as the most important part of their jobs. In that invocation they cite disinformation about there being no incidents of voting machine problems as they blame all problems on the human factor. It's a strange defense of voting machines because it is completely false and there are stacks of evidence of failures to prove that it is a false defense. That is unless they go back to humans designing and building the systems; the failures are certainly all human if you go back that far.

On June 15, the Elections Assistance Commission held their monthly meeting, in Washington DC, with the intent of getting a report on a project they are funding that will provide a set of guidelines for election management and that will be available for use by every county in the country. Even in the atmosphere of a meeting that probably had few people in the audience and that was conducted with the typical sugary sweet politeness of a publicly held federal committee meeting the commissioners, and at least one of their 'insider' speakers, practiced delivering their misinformation. Perhaps they are trying to convince themselves that they must 'trust and have confidence' by repeating the false premise that voting machines do not fail, humans fail?

Tom Wilkey is the Executive Director of the EAC. In the meeting he had this to say about the status of voting machines in the 2006 primaries, "There have been some issues, but none appear to be systematic issues related to the operation of the voting equipment."

In his testimony Dr. Brit Williams, who was one of the two people to report on the election management manual, made this stunningly ill-informed statement, "It is difficult to find a single incident where an election anomaly was a direct result of the voting system." He then followed that statement with another, "……election anomalies are rarely caused by the voting system. They are caused by human mistakes, not by people intent upon malicious mischief or fraud, but by honest, well-meaning people making perfectly normal human mistakes."

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1545&Itemid=26

[kpete]

4. New Scientific Method to Ensure Honest and Accurate Election Outcomes!

July 18, 2006 at 15:06:07
New Scientific Method to Ensure Honest and Accurate Election Outcomes!
by Kathy Dopp, NEDA

http://www.opednews.com

Hello Everyone,

It is a Good Day in our great democracy. :-)

We now have a new scientific method to ensure that election outcomes
in every race are honest and accurate!

The National Election Data Archive (NEDA)'s paper on vote count audits
has been updated and will be updated again soon:
http://electionarchive.org/ucvanalysis/us/paper-audits/paper_audits.pdf

and NEDA's Spreadsheet AuditCalculator.xls for
Determining Audit Percentages that would Detect Outcome-Altering Vote
Miscounts has been updated:
http://electionarchive.org/ucvanalysis/us/paper-audits/

----------------------------------
CHANGES TO AuditCalculator.xls:

1. Added an Estimator to help determine more quickly, the number of
vote counts to audit. This will assist users with the currently
trial-and-error process for determining the exact number of vote
counts that should be audited to be sure to detect any miscounts that
alter outcomes.

(I used the estimated function that the Brennan Center recommended but
I adjusted the calculation to take into account "Candidate Margins" so
that the audit will detect the amount of corruption that would alter
outcomes - not just some arbitrary amount of corruption. When I took
a closer look at the Brennan Center appendix G, I noticed that the
Brennan Center made errors in calculating just a couple of the
probabilities and that, contrary to my first glance, they used a
different function than the function that NEDA recommended for
calculating audits over a year ago. The Brennan Center method
conservatively over-estimates the number of counts that need to be
audited to detect an assumed rate of corruption, especially in small
counties with fewer total counts to audit. The reason the Brennan
Center used an estimation is that it provides an easier equation to
solve so that election officials can have an easy way to calculate the
number of machines to parallel test or audit, given the desired
probability for detecting an assumed rate of corruption. However, I
am sure that taxpayers and election officials alike will appreciate a
more exact calculation of audit percentages required to detect
outcome-altering vote miscounts.)

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kathy_do_060718_new_scientific_metho.htm

[kpete]

6. CA:Voters’ Suit to Block Elec Voting Machines Remanded Back to State Court

California Voters’ Suit to Block Electronic Voting Machines Remanded Back to State Court
New from States - California
By VoterAction
July 18, 2006

As a first-step to victory in a California voters’ lawsuit against Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (pictured at right) to block the State’s use of Diebold touch-screen electronic voting systems – which have a well-documented history of security, reliability, and verifiability problems -- the United States District Court in Oakland today entered an order remanding the voter plaintiffs’ lawsuit to the California Superior Court in San Francisco, where it was originally filed on March 21, 2006. The Court’s decision in Holder v. McPherson, et al. rejected an effort by California Attorney Bill Lockyer, Secretary of State McPherson’s attorney, to transfer the case from state to federal court.

The Court’s decision was announced today by the law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin in San Francisco and the Law Offices of Lowell Finley in Berkeley, co-counsels for the California voter plaintiffs, and Voter Action, which is supporting the legal action in California. Voter Action is also supporting similar cases in Colorado, Arizona, and New York. In response to the California voters’ lawsuit, elections officials in seven California counties have signed affidavits that they will not use Diebold touch screens for the November elections. Twelve California counties remain in the suit, as well as Secretary of State McPherson.

In her written order granting the plaintiffs’ motion to remand their lawsuit to California Superior Court in San Francisco, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the US District Court for Northern California concluded that the Attorney General’s attempt to move the case to federal court was "legally improper."

"The Court’s decision is a victory for California voters, who need to know if their right to have their votes recorded and counted accurately will be protected, and local elections officials who will need time to make alternative arrangements if the Court agrees that the only way to protect those rights is to prohibit use of Diebold touch-screen voting machines," said Jason Takenouchi, an attorney for the plaintiffs and an associate at of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1546&Itemid=113

[kpete]

7. AL: Feds threaten to take over voter registration

Feds threaten to take over voter registration
Justice Dept. may appoint someone to oversee compliance
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
By TAYLOR BRIGHT

Times Montgomery Bureau [e-mail]

MONTGOMERY - A frustrated U.S. Department of Justice has proposed taking responsibility out of the hands of Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley if she does not come up with another plan to comply with a federal election law.

In a filing last Thursday, the Justice Department proposed appointing a special master to make sure Alabama complies with the Help America Vote Act if Worley does not submit a different plan.

"The indications that defendants have learned from their failures are not promising," the department wrote in the filing. "Defendants' submission evinces a willingness to continue to fail to comply with pertinent court orders."

more at:
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1153214253163630.xml&coll=1

[kpete]

8. CA: State Senator Calls For Feedback About Election

State Senator Calls For Feedback About Election

POSTED: 9:43 am PDT July 18, 2006
UPDATED: 12:10 pm PDT July 18, 2006

SACRAMENTO -- If you had a problem voting on June 6, California Sen. Debra Bowen wants to hear from you.

Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, said in a statement released on Tuesday that a Senate committee will review problems that arose within the election, including a problem involving information cards that weren't properly encoded, preventing some people from voting for the first few hours of the election.

Diebold, who makes Kern County's electronic voting machines, took the blame for the mistake. But state Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, who is also on the committee, called for a review of the election after the mistake.

"These are the types of logistical problems we need to begin addressing now to ensure they don't repeat themselves in November," Bowen said in the statement.

The committee will be available for testimony on Monday, July 31, at the Board of Supervisors Chambers at 1115 Truxtun Ave. in Bakersfield. Anyone who can't make the event can e-mail their concerns to [e-mail] or send a letter to the committee in care of Bowen at the State Capitol, Room 4040, Sacramento, Calif., 95814

http://www.turnto23.com/news/9535176/detail.html

[kpete]

9. CA: DID YOU HAVE A PROBLEM ON ELECTION DAY?

DID YOU HAVE A PROBLEM ON ELECTION DAY?
California Political Desk

The California Political Desk provides information, news releases, and announcements obtained from communication and public relations offices throughout the state.

SACRAMENTO – Kern County voters who had problems on Election Day and want to share their stories with the newly-formed Senate Select Committee on the Integrity of Elections are encouraged to contact the committee about testifying at its first hearing at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, July 31st, in the Kern County Board of Supervisors chambers located at 1115 Truxtun Avenue in Bakersfield.


“During the June primary, we had polling places that didn’t open until several hours after they were supposed to, voting machines that didn’t work at all, and hundreds of voters around the state who were told to ‘come back later’ once the problems had been sorted out,” said Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), the chairwoman of the committee. “Ensuring the integrity of our electoral process isn’t solely about making sure electronic voting machines are secure and accurately recording people’s votes. It also involves taking care of some basic, fundamental issues that many people just take for granted. These are the types of logistical problems we need to begin addressing now to ensure they don’t repeat themselves in November.”

People who want to testify before the committee, or simply want to provide information to lawmakers, are encouraged to e-mail the committee at [e-mail]. They can also send a letter to the committee in care of Senator Debra Bowen at the State Capitol, Room 4040, Sacramento, California, 95814. The three-member select committee – which includes Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) and Senator Joe Dunn (D-Garden Grove) – intends to hold hearings over the next two months to look at problems that arose during the June 2006 primary election and what can be done to prevent them from recurring in November.

more at:
http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=11620

[kpete]

11. CA: Security & Relibility of County's Elec Voting System Questioned

By Leslie Wolf Branscomb
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 19, 2006

The security and reliability of the county's electronic voting system was questioned yesterday by protesters, who are calling for county hearings into possible voting irregularities.

Their request, however, is likely to go unheeded. The majority of county supervisors said yesterday that hearings are unnecessary because the voting machines have been certified by the California secretary of state. Some dismissed the protest as election-year grandstanding.

Jess Durfee, chairman of the San Diego County Democratic Party, yesterday called on the supervisors to air the issue publicly.

Practices such as allowing poll workers to take the voting machines home have been widely criticized, Durfee said. “The growing crisis of confidence will continue to undermine the election process,” he said. “We risk everything if we risk the integrity of our electoral system.”

more at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060719-9999-7m19diebold.html

[kpete]

13. CA: Protesters call for elections investigation

Protesters call for elections investigation

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO -- Saying they distrusted electronic voting machines and the way the county handled them, dozens of protesters called on county supervisors Tuesday to hold an investigation and public hearing on their concerns "about the integrity" of local elections.

Supervisors made no immediate comment Tuesday, but chairman Bill Horn said he was not inclined to ask for any investigation after the board meeting.

The protesters were led by Jess Durfee, chair of the San Diego County Democratic party, and included people who identified themselves as poll workers, political candidates, members of the League of Women Voters, activists and academics.

Speakers who testified at the county board meeting said:

They remain convinced that the electronic voting machines that the county plans to use en masse in November could be tampered with ---- resulting in fraudulent, stolen elections.

That they seriously question County Registrar Mikel Haas' decision to let polling officers bring the Diebold Systems, Inc. electronic voting machines home with them before the June elections ---- sometimes for as long as two weeks. The county used the machines in a limited manner in the June 6 primary elections. Protesters said poll workers or others could rig the machines while they are outside of the county's control.

more at:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07/19/news/top_stories/12_05_187_18_06.txt

[kpete]

10. GA: Reed Concedes Defeat

Reed Concedes, Cagle Accepts Nod

State Sen. Casey Cagle said he expected a nail-biter in his attempt to defeat Ralph Reed for the GOP race for Georgia's lieutenant governor.

"It was amazing, I will tell you. We really were concerned early because the turnout was low and we never thought a low turnout would favor us," Cagle told 11Alive's Jennifer Leslie.

"It was just a tidal wave. It was the most amazing thing we could have ever hoped for and it just speaks that Georgians want an experienced leader they can trust."

Cagle said he had a phone conversation with Reed, the former Christian Coalition president, in which Reed promised his support during the campaign for the general election in November.

...............

t was a stunning turnaround for Reed, who was making his first bid for elective office after working for years as a behind-the-scenes campaign strategist and leading the Christian Coalition and the state Republican Party. He vied with Cagle for the GOP nomination in a primary race that appeared closer than expected in recent months because of Reed's work with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud and corruption earlier this year.

In attack ads and televised debates, Cagle hammered away at Reed's connections to Abramoff, and asked whether Reed could face criminal charges for accepting more than $5.3 million from two Indian tribes. Reed has not been charged with a crime and has said repeatedly that he regrets the work he did with Abramoff. Reed said he was vindicated by a two-year Senate probe.

more at:
http://www.11alive.com/specials/local/decision2006/decision_article.aspx?storyid=82155

[kpete]

12. Mexico Kicks against Election Fraud

Mexico Kicks against Election Fraud

Mexico, Jul 19 (Prensa Latina) The first actions by the civil resistance of the For the Good of All coalition on the electoral fraud in the July 2 presidential elections began Wednesday in Mexico City, spokespeople of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) said.

Led by the alliance runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the peaceful activities include nationwide rallies, roadblocks, sit-ins and hunger strikes.

Likewise, they jacked up watch at the camps set at the 300 electoral districts to avoid illegal opening of ballot packages while the PRD keeps demanding a recount of every vote at polling booths.

From those places, the coalition holds rallies, discussions and seeks solutions, and will inform and promote actions of civil resistance such as the march convoked for July 30.

The opposition force announced it will give the Electoral Court of the Judicial Power of the Federation new evidence to be included in the demand over election results.

According Lopez Obrador, irregularities to favor pro-government Felipe Calderon were detected in more than 60 percent of the votes counted and there is a remaining million and a half votes.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B1A32907C-BE0F-42C8-BB9D-9C0D32F7A0F4%7D&language=EN

[kpete]

14. How many electronic voting machines can dance on the head of a pin?

Protecting The 2006 Vote
Art Levine
July 19, 2006

Art Levine is a contributing editor for The Washington Monthly and has written for The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications.

How many electronic voting machines can dance on the head of a pin?

That’s nearly how arcane today’s raging, almost theological, arguments among progressives have become over the lost 2004 election. The debates continue over such admittedly worthy issues as whether the GOP’s evil minions literally stole the election in Ohio from John Kerry in 2004, and if the blame for Kerry’s loss was due mostly to his bungled campaign, rigged voting machines or voting suppression efforts that targeted black and low-income voters.

But these internal debates don’t do anything to fight flaws in our nation’s patchwork election system that threaten to rob millions of Americans of the right to vote in the upcoming November election—and weren’t remedied by last week’s House passage of the Voting Rights Act. Fortunately, we don’t have to limit ourselves to wringing our hands, filing lawsuits against voting-machine companies, hoping for sweeping federal reforms or, as author Mark Crispin Miller says, “Going Ukraine” if the Republicans hold on to Congress.

Instead, there are a host of concrete steps you can take up through Election Day to keep votes from being robbed—and admirable national and local groups (see resources here) you can join to help prevent the sort of meltdowns that happened in Ohio in 2004.

more at:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/19/protecting_the_2006_vote.php

[kpete]

15. WE MUST STAND READY TO FIGHT!

In a Nutshell
by Norla Antinoro

Count the Votes!
Vote by Vote!
18 July 2006

This time we must stand ready to do exactly that. In every race across the country, we must stand ready to fight if the exit polls do not match the votes reported by the machines. There can be no lazy, apathetic response this time. This nation, this world, cannot afford any more apathy.

Perhaps demonstrations will not do what we need to do but they are a start. Across the nation we must be prepared to take to the streets in unprecedented numbers to demand our rights as citizens in these elections. From town councilors to state reps to senators and governors, we must demand that our elections reflect the votes and the will of the people. Every precinct that is predominantly democratic had better show a democratic outcome in November or it must be challenged. “Count the votes!” needs to be our watch word and our rallying cry.

The momentum is building against the Bush League. Now is the time to work harder and smarter than ever before, not the time to ride the waves and assume that the popularity polls are right. If there is chicanery at the ballot boxes and voting machines, only a landslide for the democrats will assure us of a win. The only places that the elections have been successfully stolen so far have been in states where the race was close. They could not have done what they did if we had managed a landslide victory.

Every candidate should be prepared for a fight this time. Election night will not be, must not be, the end of the battle in this election year. Every candidate should be prepared to demand a recount in every single close race. Every polling place should have watchdogs standing by to carry out exit polls and record what should have been the result for that precinct. When there are discrepancies, we should not grumble and fade into the woodwork, we should immediately file a demand for a recount.

http://mytown.ca/nutshell/

[kpete]

17. Growing number of voters ignore primary elections

Growing number of voters ignore primary elections
Updated 7/17/2006

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Halfway through this year's primary season, voters are showing little interest in picking candidates for the Nov. 7 elections that will determine control of Congress and elect more than one-third of the nation's governors.
Twenty-five states held primaries through June 27. Sixteen of the 22 states that have certified figures or provided estimates to USA TODAY recorded voter turnout lower than 2002, the last national election that wasn't in a presidential year.

STORY: Fewer voters 'define range of choices'

Some experts worry that a voter boycott of primaries could result in politics being dominated by single-issue special-interest groups.

"The higher the turnout, the more representative an election is," says Rhodes Cook, publisher of a non-partisan political newsletter. "The lower the turnout, the more the election is likely to reflect a wing of a party or an ideology."

more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-16-primary-turnouts_x.htm

[kpete]

18. New Zealand: No ‘trade secrets’ if electronic voting to succeed

No ‘trade secrets’ if electronic voting to succeed
News

Software often written without taking into account its effects, says professor
By Stephen Bell, Wellington | Wednesday, 19 July, 2006

A designer would never get away with building a bridge without considering how it would affect nearby roads, houses and the local community, yet software is often written without taking into account its effect on the various “stakeholders”, says Professor Don Gotterbarn.

Gotterbarn was speaking at a recent Wellington meeting of the Computer Society. The East Tennessee State University academic is currently Visiting Professor of Software Ethics at the Auckland University of Technology.

Gotterbarn used electronic voting as a prime example of such failure. He told horror stories about US counties returning eight times as many votes as there were people, and of voting terminals seemingly designed with no thought as to whether or not they were actually usable.

more at:
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/BA40E9ABAD9BED91CC2571AB0003AEBF

[Algorem]

19. OH- Party On, Uncle Tom- Blackwell continues to shill for the devil.

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-07-19/news/firstpunch.html

Article Published Jul 19, 2006

...Last week, Blackwell asked the state controlling board to pony up an additional $1 million to buy more Diebold voting machines in time for the November election -- in which he just happens to be running for governor.

The move was especially brazen considering that Blackwell recently cashed out $10,000 worth of Diebold stock that was planted in his portfolio. To which his spokesman said, in essence: "Oops, our bad."

Controlling board member Senator Ray Miller (D-Columbus) voted against dishing out the bribe -- ahem! state contracts -- but failed to gain the majority vote needed to stop the deal from going through.

"As far as I'm concerned, Diebold should be disqualified from doing any business with the state of Ohio," Miller says...


THE D. BOLD VIRUS SPREADS

http://www.freetimes.com/story/457

...He's got Diebold, bitches, and that's plenty. Just ask Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting, a nationwide nonprofit based out of Seattle that spearheaded a California lawsuit against the company for false claims of tamper-proof security. Diebold settled with that state's voters last year for $2.6 million.

But now, Harris says, it will be even harder to prove Diebold is up to no good. The company just purchased Actcom Inc., an ID security firm tied closely to the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security.

Diebold says it's just trying to get a bigger slice of the wartime pie; Harris sees a private company with openly partisan aims that's secured even greater acceptance at the highest reaches of government.

"We don't want to put all our personal data into the hands of a company that has lied to the American public," she says. "Now, they're saying we'd like to help the Department of Homeland Security with their national ID program? A company that permits fraud and lies? It's amazing."...


http://clevescene.com/php/comics/derf/2006-07-20.html

[Kurovski]

20. Kick to the top.

:kick: