Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sat. Oct 7, 2006

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

Rumpel did such an excellent job yesterday. There are many, many great articles posted. Please be sure to visit yesterday's thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=451985&mesg_id=451985

About today's thread, sorry, but it's going to be brief. Feelin' a bit under the weather today, so group participation is most definitely encouraged.

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



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

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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.

[livvy]

1. Democrat Ads Attack GOP Over Scandal

Associated Press
Democrat Ads Attack GOP Over Scandal
By ANDREW TAYLOR , 10.06.2006, 06:38 PM

More Democrats went on the attack Friday with campaign ads linking Republican candidates to the Mark Foley House page scandal while GOP candidates moved to distance themselves from embattled Speaker Dennis Hastert.

On Saturday, Democrat Patty Wetterling, a candidate for an open House seat in Minnesota, will continue the attack in the Democratic response to President Bush's weekly radio address as the party looks to reap political gains in coming midterm elections.

"Foley sent obvious predatory signals, received loud and clear by members of congressional leadership, who swept them under the rug to protect their political power," Wetterling said in the prerecorded address. "We must hold accountable all those complicit in allowing this victimization to happen."

Republican New Jersey Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. Friday became the first major GOP candidate to call for Hastert to resign, while additional campaign appearances by Hastert for House GOP candidates got canceled. Hastert has come under heavy attack within his party's rank and file for damage inflicted on the party just weeks before the Nov. 7 elections.

>more

http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/10/06/ap3073557.html

[livvy]

2. Poll Worker Recruitment Drive Attracts Volunteers With a Reform Agenda

Poll Worker Recruitment Drive Attracts Volunteers With a Reform Agenda

BY DRU SEFTON
c.2006 Newhouse News Service

An unprecedented recruitment effort for those ever-elusive election workers has produced pledges from 4,000 volunteers nationwide for the Nov. 7 voting.

The drive also may signal the advent of a new species of poll worker -- more activist than neutral guide or observer.

Many of the workers recruited so far by Pollworkers for Democracy through its Web site (pollworkersfordemocracy.org) are younger, technologically savvy and have signed up to "bring real solutions and transparency to the American election process" and "be in a unique position to identify and stop voter intimidation" at the polls.

Volunteers promise to complete a post-election worker survey, part of the nationwide Election Incident Reporting System, which supports election reform.

>more

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/sefton100606.html

[livvy]

3. Rove Aide Quits-She Took Gifts, Gave Abramoff Inside Informations

Rove aide quits -- she took gifts, gave Abramoff inside information

Peter Baker, James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post

Saturday, October 7, 2006

10-07) 04:00 PDT Washington -- A top aide to White House strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday after disclosures that she accepted gifts from and passed information to now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, becoming the first official in the West Wing to lose a job in the influence-peddling scandal.

Susan Ralston submitted her resignation to avoid causing political damage for President Bush a month before the midterm elections, officials said.

"She did not want to be a distraction to the White House at this important time," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

A congressional report showed last week that Ralston accepted sometimes-pricey tickets to nine sports and entertainment events from Abramoff while she provided him with inside White House information. The bipartisan report said there was no evidence that Rove knew of or approved of Ralston's actions, and sources said Friday that the White House was surprised by the report's revelations.

>more

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/07/MNGH9LKM2R1.DTL

[livvy]

4. AZ: 20,000 Voters Out in the Cold

Local News
20,000 voters out in the cold
By J. Craig Anderson, Tribune
October 7, 2006

More than 20,000 Maricopa County voter registration applications will remain in the reject pile despite a federal appeals court ruling that would require the county to approve them if they were submitted today.

Two 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges granted an injunction Thursday against enforcing provisions of the law known as Proposition 200, which require voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering and proof of identification at the polls.

Given that midnight Monday is the deadline for registration, plaintiffs’ attorney David Rosenbaum said county elections workers should retroactively approve all of the denied applications based on the court’s ruling.

“Since those registration forms are already in hand, it’s as if they met the deadline,” said Rosenbaum, who represents a group of Prop. 200 opponents that includes the Intertribal Council of Arizona, the League of Women Voters of Arizona, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Arizona Advocacy Network.

>more

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=75995

[livvy]

5. KY: Prosecutor Candidate Accused of Vote Fraud

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Regional Briefs

PIKEVILLE, KY.
Prosecutor candidate accused of vote fraud

A federal grand jury has indicted a candidate for prosecutor in northeastern Kentucky on charges of vote fraud related to the May primary, authorities said yesterday.

Donald "Champ" Maze, 46, of Owingsville, who defeated incumbent Bath County Attorney Kim Price in the Democratic primary, was charged Thursday with soliciting vote buying and obstructing justice. Maze has no opposition in the November general election.

Maze could not be reached for comment, but Prestonsburg lawyer Janet Stumbo said in a statement that Maze will plead not guilty.

Federal prosecutors allege that Maze, husband of Circuit Judge Beth Maze, paid two women $100 each to add his name to a slate of candidates for whom they were paying people to vote. In addition, prosecutors claim that Donald Maze coached the women on how to avoid implicating him in their grand jury testimony.

>more

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061007/NEWS01/610070355/1008/NEWS01

[livvy]

6. Letters on Voter ID Confuse GA Voters

Letters on voter ID confuse Ga. voters
Staff and agencies
07 October, 2006


By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 6, 2:37 PM ET

ATLANTA - Tens of thousands of Georgia voters recently received letters telling them they must show a photo ID to cast a ballot Nov. 7 — a message some fear will create confusion on Election Day, since a judge recently struck down the requirement.

Board of Elections vice chairman Claud "Tex" McIver said he does not expect voter confusion will be a problem this fall.

For months, lawyers have been battling over the new photo ID law in state and federal court. Supporters of the law — primarily Republicans — have said it is needed to prevent voter fraud.

Last month, a state judge declared the law unconstitutional because it establishes a voting requirement not contained in the Georgia Constitution. After that ruling, state officials said voters will be able to cast a ballot merely by presenting something such as a utility bill or a Social Security card.

>more

http://www.localnewswatch.com/jordanfalls/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=12744

[livvy]

7. Dual Stamps Required For Absentee Ballots

Posted on Sat, Oct. 07, 2006


Dual stamps required for absentee ballots
BAY AREA: Insufficient postage is one of the tripwires that can prevent mail-in ballots from being counted
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Got stamps?

Contra Costa and Alameda counties' ballots are so heavy that for the first time, folks who vote by mail will need to place two first-class stamps on the envelope.

Election officials will begin sending vote-by-mail ballots, also called absentee ballots, on Tuesday.

Lack of postage is just one of several growing problems for election clerks as more voters use the U.S. mail as a ballot box. Six of every 10 Contra Costa voters voted by mail in the last election, the highest rate in the county's history.

"With the explosion in absentee voting, we are seeing an increase in the number of ballots that we cannot count," Contra Costa election chief Steve Weir said. "We want every vote to count and if you think about this happening all over the state, it adds up to thousands of uncounted ballots. We need to address the problem."

>more

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/15702866.htm

[JimDandy]

17. The perennial postage problem

would be eliminated if counties and not the voter would have to pay the postage.

Just say Yes to Voter Re-enfranchisement!

[livvy]

8. FL: Elections Chief Scrambles on Voting Queries

Elections chief scrambles on voting queries
McFall still doesn't have details
Denise-Marie Balona
Sentinel Staff Writer

October 7, 2006

DeLAND -- More than a month after Volusia County residents used controversial touch-screen voting equipment for the first time, Elections Supervisor Ann McFall still doesn't know how many people chose to use them and how many stuck with paper ballots during the primary election.

Several other Florida counties, including nearby Orange and Seminole, had such breakdowns available days after the election.

After weeks of public-records requests from touch-screen opponents and the media, McFall by late Friday had calculated only the number of votes cast on each system on Sept. 5.

The tallies she provided the Orlando Sentinel Friday afternoon don't include the thousands who voted during two weeks of early voting. And they don't include residents who voted with absentee or provisional ballots.

>more

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-velections0706oct07,0,2867844.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-volusia

[livvy]

9. Flaws Found in European Voting Machines

Flaws found in European voting machines


Zaterdag 7 oktober 2006, 10:34 - Dutch researchers have found flaws in electronic voting systems used in the Netherlands, Germany and France.

Robert McMillan

A paper published Friday describes flaws in the Nedap / Groenendaal ES3B voting machine, used by 90 percent of voters in the Netherlands. It was written by a team of e-voting researchers, led by Rop Gonggrijp and Willem-Jan Hengeveld, and can be found here: http://www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/images/9/91/Es3b-en.pdf
The paper is hosted on the Web site of the group "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" (or "We don't trust voting computers") which bills itself as a "coalition of citizens concerned about the use of voting computers during Dutch elections." The report, based on a month-long investigation into machines that were obtained from municipalities in the Netherlands, describes some serious vulnerabilities in the systems, which are also used in Germany and France, according to the report's authors.

"Anyone, when given brief access to the devices at any time before the election, can gain complete and virtually undetectable control over the election results," the report states.

The ES3B is jointly developed by NV Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Nedap) and software developer Groenendaal. The report uncovered flaws that are "strikingly similar" to those discovered in Diebold Election Systems Inc.'s touch-screen voting machine, said Edward Felten, the director of Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy, in a blog posting. "The N/G machines all seem to be opened by the same key, which is easily bought on the Internet -- just like the Diebold machines." Felten's posting can be found here: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1072 The Dutch researchers also describe how the ES3B's radio emanations could be monitored to find out how voters were casting their electronic ballots.Felten and other Princeton researchers released a similar report last month on Diebold's AccuVote-TS, in which they claimed to be able to install vote-altering software on Diebold's machines in less than a minute.

Diebold disputes the Princeton findings, but Felten said this latest research further underscores the idea that the technical challenges behind e-voting are "very difficult or even infeasible to address."

>more


http://www.webwereld.nl/articles/43217/flaws-found-in-european-voting-machines.html

[livvy]

10. Right Touch? Voting Screens Draw Doubts

Right touch? Voting screens draw doubts

But local officials have confidence in systems here

By Larry Hannan

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Confidence can be a funny thing.

After complaints about voting irregularities during the 2000 presidential election, Florida completely revamped its election equipment from a punch card system to a touch screen system.

The move was seen as necessary to ease concerns about votes not being counted.

Now, six years later, election officials are finding voter confidence at an all-time low with the touch screen system they installed.

Election officials in Lee and Collier counties express enormous confidence in their touch screen systems. But that confidence is in short supply in other parts of the state and country.

>more

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/oct/07/voters_not_confident_about_touch_screens/?local_news

[livvy]

11. Suit Challenges Voting System: Sec. and Acc. of Votes Questioned inAlameda

Suit challenges voting system
Security and accuracy of votes questioned in Alameda County
By Chris Metinko, MEDIANEWS
Article Last Updated:10/06/2006 02:57:03 AM PDT

Three Alameda County voters filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Wednesday afternoon against the county and its registrar of voters office over concerns about security and accuracy of the countys new voting system.

The group of voters — being coordinated by the nonprofit Voter Action organization — claims Alameda County has not performed independent, expert security vulnerability testing on its new Sequoia voting equipment. The group claims such testing was a prerequisite stipulated by county supervisors before the county would issue payment for the system.

Dave Macdonald, the countys acting registrar, said the county did in fact hire an independent third party to perform vulnerability tests, and those test results will be shown to the board of supervisors during a public meeting Tuesday. He called the results very positive.

I would challenge anyone to find another county that is going to the lengths we are to ensure the security of our voting system, said Macdonald, adding the county also has yet to start payment for the new system.

>more

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_4450158

[mod mom]

12. OH: rec'd by RFK Jr email:

Posted on Fri, Oct. 06, 2006



Voting troubles raise stakes in Cuyahoga County
JOE MILICIA
Associated Press

A look at recommended fixes for election problems
Ups, downs in Cuyahoga County
CLEVELAND - Election results were held up for six days in Cuyahoga County last May, testing the patience of voters and damaging their confidence.

The stakes are even higher this fall. The 1 million registered voters in the county named for a crooked river will help pick a new governor and decide whether to send Democrat Sherrod Brown to the U.S. Senate or return Republican Mike DeWine.

"Control of the Senate could hinge on a single seat," said Justin Buchler, political science professor at Case Western Reserve University. "If there's a delay in the DeWine-Brown race, there may be a delay in who controls the Senate."

Democrats need to gain 15 GOP-held seats in the House and six in the Senate to win control of Congress. Besides the DeWine-Brown contest, Cuyahoga will cast ballots in the key race in the House district Brown is leaving.

-snip

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/15696778.htm

[livvy]

13. Ohio County Hopes for Glitch-Free Voting

October 06, 2006 02:34 PM ET
Ohio County Hopes for Glitch-Free Voting

CLEVELAND (AP) - Election results were held up for six days in Cuyahoga County last May, testing the patience of voters and damaging their confidence.

The stakes are even higher this fall. The 1 million registered voters in the county named for a crooked river will help pick a new governor and decide whether to send Democrat Sherrod Brown to the U.S. Senate or return Republican Mike DeWine.

"Control of the Senate could hinge on a single seat," said Justin Buchler, political science professor at Case Western Reserve University. "If there's a delay in the DeWine-Brown race, there may be a delay in who controls the Senate."

Democrats need to gain 15 GOP-held seats in the House and six in the Senate to win control of Congress. Besides the DeWine-Brown contest, Cuyahoga will cast ballots in the key race in the House district Brown is leaving.

>more

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=AP&Date=20061006&ID=6084483

[livvy]

14. NJ: Legislator Gives Away Money From Lynch

Legislator gives away money from Lynch
Saturday, October 07, 2006
BY DARRYL R. ISHERWOOD


Good-government advocate Phyllis Salowe-Kaye said she hopes all legislators will follow the lead of Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, D-Mercer, in donating campaign money from former state senator and power broker John Lynch.

Salowe-Kaye, executive director of clean government group New Jersey Citizen Action, said Greenstein's donation to the organization of $2,000 she received from Lynch's political action committee in 2003 and 2004 was an "admirable thing." The money will go to help fund the organization's Fair and Clean Elections initiative, which provides public campaign funding for qualified candidates.

"What Linda did, besides giving back money that perhaps had a taint to it, is she is also giving it to a cause that will perhaps help to take the taint out," Salowe-Kaye said. "Linda was the first (recipient of Lynch's money) to come forward."

Through his PAC, New Directions for Responsible Leadership, Lynch, a former state senator and New Brunswick mayor who pleaded guilty last month to charges of political corruption, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats in the state.

>more

http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1160223864283830.xml&coll=5

[livvy]

15. Opinion: Let's Admit We Made a Mess and Clean It Up

Posted on Sat, Oct. 07, 2006
GEORGE STEGER COMMENTARY
MIDWEST VOICES | War in IraqCOMMENTARY
Let’s admit we made a mess and clean it up

By GEORGE STEGER Midwest Voices



“To cut and run or not to cut and run.” That is the question as the November elections bear down upon us. But is it really a valid question? Or just another throwaway slogan designed to relieve voters of the necessity to think?

It’s about as helpful as that other slogan constantly foisted upon us: “Stay the course.” What course? Is there a plan at all? We’ve been given one snow job after the other in this fruitless and counterproductive war in Iraq. Each one has simply made the situation worse there.

The big question as we approach November is not whether we should stay or not; it’s how we can best fix the ever-expanding mess we’ve made in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. Even the war we fight legitimately in Afghanistan has become more difficult and costly.

So what is the fix? That’s the real question before the voters. Neither U.S. political party has dared to look much beyond the status quo. Here’s a potential “new course,” rough and painful, but at least a place to begin:

>more

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/15698795.htm

[livvy]

16. AZ: Judge: Clean Elections Act Results in "Funding Imbalance"

Tucson Region
Judge: Clean Elections Act results in 'funding imbalance'
Leaves it up to Legislature to fix inequities
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.07.2006

PHOENIX — A judge declined to void a state law that gives some publicly financed candidates a financial advantage over those who raise campaign funds from private sources.

Judge Kenneth Fields of Maricopa County Superior Court acknowledged that provisions in the eight-year-old Citizens Clean Elections Act create a "funding imbalance." But Fields said if there is a problem it is up to the Legislature to fix.

Five Republican candidates who have chosen not to accept public funding filed the lawsuit.

State treasurer contender Dean Martin, one of the plaintiffs, said the ruling sets a precedent that it's OK for the state to discriminate against candidates who refuse to live within the voluntary system of public financing and spending limits.

>more



http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/150049

[Melissa G]

18. K&R! Hope you feel better Livvy! Thank you! n/t

[Kurovski]

19. I command you to feel better.

Heal!

And a kick to the top.:kick: