Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, Oct 16

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Tuesday, Oct 16


I've been saying this for a while but the the NAACP made a headline for it on their their website.
Bring FIVE Friends to The Polls with you Nov 7th! Start Planning Now!
God Bless the NAACP! They are monitoring our elections in TEN States including Ohio and recruiting voters!
See post number 1 for details..

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.




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

[Melissa G]

1. NAACP to monitor elections following primary problems

NAACP to monitor elections following primary problems
ALEX DOMINGUEZ
Associated Press
BALTIMORE - The NAACP will monitor voting in Ohio and nine other states next month, sending observers to polling places, taking citizen complaints and notifying the Justice Department of any serious problems, the civil rights organization announced Monday.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People planned to have hundreds of volunteers monitoring the election in Ohio, Maryland, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Texas, said Bruce Gordon, president of the Baltimore-based organization.

The NAACP said the states were chosen because of pivotal elections, concentrations of black voters, or a history of polling problems.

Gordon said the organization intends to be proactive "to ensure that Nov. 7 comes and goes smoothly and that every citizen across this country, and particularly in the state of Maryland, who has an interest in voting, in fact is able to vote."

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/15774838.htm

[Melissa G]

2. Deja Vu: Many reasons why Americans don't like to vote

Here is an interesting history lesson about voter turnout in America...


Deja Vu: Many reasons why Americans don't like to vote


Monday, October 16, 2006

By Cynthia Crossen, The Wall Street Journal


If you're an American who is not planning to vote Nov. 7, join the crowd. In the past few decades, less than 40 percent of eligible voters in the U.S. have bothered to cast ballots in midterm elections.

Your forebears would be ashamed. In late-19th-century midterm elections, turnout ranged from 65 percent to 78 percent. For presidential elections, almost 80 percent of the nation's eligible -- rich and poor, educated and illiterate -- voted. In 1888, 10 states had turnouts of more than 90 percent. Eight years later, Indiana voters set a record with 97 percent casting ballots.

Then, in the early 20th century, turnout began falling precipitously. By 1920, less than half of the voting-age population made it to the polls on Election Day. "The drop in voting was nationwide, substantial and cumulative," wrote Mark Lawrence Kornbluh, author of "Why America Stopped Voting." It was also unprecedented, both in America and other Western democracies. Americans, it seemed, no longer prized their right to vote.

But the new nonvoters were only partly to blame for their disengagement. A century ago, a raft of new state laws, supported by leaders across the political spectrum from conservatives to progressives, transformed the idea and act of voting so radically that hundreds of thousands of people dropped out of the political system. Many of them -- and their children -- would never return.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06289/730460-103.stm

[Melissa G]

3. Mo. High Court Strikes Down Voter ID Law

Woo Hoo :woohoo: DU Discussion here... Thanks to Galloglas for the post!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453285




Mo. High Court Strikes Down Voter ID Law

By KELLY WIESE
The Associated Press
Monday, October 16, 2006; 3:38 PM

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court struck down the state's new voter identification law Monday that would have required voters to show a photo ID card at the polls starting this fall.

A lower judge ruled last month that the ID requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on the fundamental right to vote. The state Supreme Court agreed in a 6-1 unsigned opinion.


The new law would have required voters to show a photo identification card issued by Missouri or the federal government before they could cast a ballot. Voters lacking the ID would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot this fall, but after that, only the elderly, disabled and those with religious objections could vote without one, and only by provisional ballot.

The court found the requirement violated several provisions in the state constitution. The justices said requiring otherwise legitimate voters to obtain an appropriate ID imposed too great of a burden on their voting rights.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101600631.html

[Melissa G]

4. Computer expert Dan Wallach interview transcription..

Dan Wallach is a great resource and Election Reform witness from The Great State Of Texas. I have seen him testify and he is excellent!



Wallach interview transcription
Thanks to the infinite patience and indefatigable fingers of my friend Andrea, I can now present to you a transcription of the interview I did last week with Rice computer science professor and electronic voting machine expert Dan Wallach.
snip

Wallach Interview

Charles Kuffner: I'm talking today with Dan Wallach, professor of computer science at Rice University, who's been doing a lot of research on the effect and security of electronic voting machines. Dan, as you know, there was recently a study done by some Princeton professors about the Diebold voting machines and how one could compromise them and change or affect the votes that are recorded on them. Could you tell me a little more about that and kind of give me a bottom line as to how concerned people who use those machines should be about them?

Dan Wallach: So what the Princeton study did was they were able to get themselves an actual Diebold voting system--basically the same as the ones that are used in Maryland and Georgia and several other states--and what they figured out was that when poll workers are operating Diebold voting systems, there are memory cards that they move around to collect the results at the end of the day. And what they found was that they could actually create a virus that would spread from one machine to the next by virtue of that memory card moving around. This is analogous to the days before the Internet, when viruses could spread on floppies from one computer to another, and they basically figured out they could do that with Diebold voting systems. And the reason why that's significant is that you only need to infect one machine. So you compromise one machine, and then that infection can spread throughout the entire county.

CK: How does the infection spread? I mean, are these machines networked to each other?

DW: So the machines are not networked, like on the Internet, but the memory cards are moved from machine to machine to collect the results, to install the ballot definitions. Because there is no network, the data is copied back and forth on these memory cards. So because the memory cards move back and forth, the virus actually infects the memory card and uses the memory card to infect the machine.
http://blogs.chron.com/kuffsworld/2006/10/wallach_interview_transcriptio.html

[Melissa G]

5. A Voter's Guide: From Absentee Ballots to Photo IDs

Election 2006
A Voter's Guide: From Absentee Ballots to Photo IDs
by Adeline Goss



Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Florida is one of the states that allows voters to cast an early ballot in person. © 2006


NPR.org, October 17, 2006 · It’s Election Day, and you know which candidates you want to vote for. But do you know whether you'll be able to cast your ballot?

Voters could be turned away if they're not on the list of registered voters, or if they don't bring proper identification, says Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan Web site that provides information on election reform. Here’s a step-by-step guide to "voting education" -- how to find out local rules and regulations before heading to the polls.

Make sure you know where to vote. Polling places are listed state-by-state at CanIVote.org, a nonprofit Web site run by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Verify your voter registration information. Find out whether you are registered from CanIVote.org.

Make sure the name on your ID matches your voter registration. Some states require an exact match between a voter's photo ID and the name on their voter registration. If these names do not match, voters may have to cast a provisional ballot.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6279368

[Melissa G]

6. Dealing With Failure

Dealing With Failure
By Avi Rubin, Johns Hopkins University
October 16, 2006
This article appeared on Avi Rubin's Blog. It is reposted here with permission of the author.



An important sub-area of Computer Science is fault tolerance. In a nutshell, fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue to function in spite of a failure of one or more of its components. A system that can continue to work even if many parts fail in unexpected ways is said to be more fault tolerant than one that does not.



It seems to me that one of the unheralded problems with the Diebold system, and with DREs in general is that it is extremely fault in-tolerant. Consider a few simple examples from the September 12 Maryland primary:
• In Prince George's County memory cards were accidentally left in the voting machines, causing votes not to be counted initially, and at the very least losing track of the chain of custody of those votes.


• In Montgomery county, and in at least one precinct in Baltimore county, smatcards were not delivered to the precincts, causing long lines and people leaving the polls without voting

• The removal and reinsertion of a memory card in a Montgomery County precinct caused the voting machine not to tally votes on the memory card. The votes had to be recovered by Diebold off the internal flash memory in the machines, once again losing track of the chain of custody of those votes.
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1892&Itemid=113

[Melissa G]

7. Democrats In Congress Should Announce That Any Election Fraud Will ...

Democrats In Congress Should Announce That Any Election Fraud Will Be Investigated By a Democratic Congress

Democrats in Congress today should send a message loud, clear and powerful that this election will be conducted with integrity and fairness, and that if either House of Congress becomes Democratic there will be a full subpoena powered investigation of any form of election abuse this November.

Moreover, I would urge nationally important Democrats such as those who may run for

the Democratic nomination for president, Senators not running for reelection, some Congressmen and women from thoroughly safe seats, and nationally prominent lawyers to spend election day in key states, in key precincts, as super-poll watchers in those states and precincts most prone to abuse.
Lets make several things crystal clear:

1. There has been a recent history of voter intimidation, voter suppression, and attacks on voting rights that are in clear violation of law. This has been particularly true in African- American precincts and I predict it will be true this year, because of the immigration issue, in Hispanic precincts as well.

2. In state election after state election this year, there have been repeated problems in many precincts in various states. Many of the machines are new. Many of the formal election officials are untrained in these new machines. There should absolutely be major efforts to secure paper ballots and verification everywhere. There should absolutely be aggressive pre-emptive efforts assuming that there will be problem areas on election day, whatever we do.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brent-budowsky/democrats-in-congress-sho_b_31841.html

[Melissa G]

8. New,never-used Diebold technology to count Cuyahoga County 11/06

Thanks to Algorem for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453249

New,never-used Diebold technology to count Cuyahoga County 11/06
Edited on Mon Oct-16-06 09:53 AM by Algorem
http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf...

Out with new, in with newer:Latest vote-counters untried

Monday, October 16, 2006
Joan Mazzolini Plain Dealer Reporter

...To count the votes with technology so new that it has never been used in any election.

"They told us that," said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora(Democrat,Cuyahoga Democratic Party Chairman)."I'm concerned. I'm concerned about the whole election system that we've purchased."

Votes cast on electronic machines are recorded on memory cards, and plugging 6,000 cards into machine ports tocount the votes takes a long time. But Diebold Election Systems, which makes the county's voting machines, has created a device that can count votes on six memory cards at a time, in about a minute.

The board will buy 36 of the devices and wire them together to count rapidly...
http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isele/1160999722112810.xml&coll=2

[Melissa G]

9. Election Official Confidential: a scoop from Ohio

Thanks to kpete for the post and the DU discussion here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453266


Election Official Confidential: a scoop from Ohio
by histopresto
Mon Oct 16, 2006

After mobilizing in 2004 as an official (frustrated) observer for the Democratic Party, I decided that this time around, I would become a Precinct Election Official. That way, I could help ensure that voters got to cast a regular ballot, instead of being virtually disenfranchised into the hell of provisional ballots. This weekend, I attended the mandatory training session and ooohhh doggies, did I get an earful from the trainers. How did I miss hearing about how badly the May primary election went off the rails? Oh yeah, because it was never publicized.

In case you haven't noticed, the average age of a Precinct Election Official is 75, which means that a whole lot of our local septuagenarians are getting their very first exposure to computers this year. Of the 40 people who showed up for training with me, only a handful were under 60. One official was on an oxygen tank and kept asking the same question all day, one drove a cute lil Rascal Scooter over people's feet, and one guy in a wheelchair with only one leg kept freaking me out by standing up to reach stuff. More people in the group had buckeye shirts on for Ohio State gameday than had their own cellphones (I asked around). Several people said very loudly that the only reason they were coming back to work this election was because of its political importance, that because of the voting machines they would never work another election again.

The May primary was the first major election in Franklin County in which voters used the new ES&S Ivotronic I touchscreen machines. In public and on their website, the Franklin County Board of Elections sounds a lot like the old guy from "Are You Being Served?", telling all the local election workers and the voters that "You've all done very well!!" You can take a look at the official training video online https://www.franklincountyohio.gov/boe/content/election... >, if you're in the mood for an alternate version of reality.

In May, it was categorically proven that the Precinct Election Officials could not follow the directions shown on the screens of the voting machines, which help them open and close the polls. The acronyms used to identify memory cartridges, cords, and data ports were so counterintuitive that people were unable to figure out what steps they were to follow. The big message from the BOE trainer to prevent problems in November was "Follow the checklist and wait. Just wait, wait, wait until the machine tells you what to do."

Because of all the problems that were experienced with the first use of these machines, the manual used for the May and August elections has been thrown out and new manuals are being used to train officials for the November general election. The manual is 139 pages long and comes with a companion DVD (and how many 75 year olds have DVD players, do you think?)

Here's some of the highlights lowlights from the May primary:
read the rest at:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/16/121554/28

[Melissa G]

10. Full text of HR 6200 (Paper Ballot Act of 20__); it's short and sweet

Thanks to Land Shark for the post and the DU discussion here..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453186


Full text of HR 6200 (Paper Ballot Act of 20__); it's short and sweet
]b]Paper Ballot Act of 2006 (Introduced in House)

HR 6200 IH


109th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 6200
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to conduct Presidential elections using paper ballots and to count those ballots by hand, and for other purposes.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 27, 2006
Mr. KUCINICH (for himself, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. LEE, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mrs. MALONEY, Ms. SOLIS, Ms. WATERS, and Ms. WOOLSEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on Government Reform, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A BILL
To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to conduct Presidential elections using paper ballots and to count those ballots by hand, and for other purposes.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Paper Ballot Act of 2006'.

SEC. 2. REQUIRING USE OF HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.

Section 301(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 15481(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(7) SPECIAL RULES FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS- Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection, in the case of a regularly scheduled general election for the electors of President and Vice President (beginning with the election in November 2008), the following rules shall apply:

`(A) The State shall conduct the election using only paper ballots.

`(B) The State shall ensure that the number of ballots cast at a precinct or equivalent location which are placed inside a single box or similar container does not exceed 500.

`(C) The ballots cast at a precinct or equivalent location shall be counted by hand by election officials at the precinct, and a representative of each political party with a candidate on the ballot, as well as any interested member of the public, may observe the officials as they count the ballots. The previous sentence shall not apply with respect to provisional ballots cast under section 302(a).'.

SEC. 3. MOVING OBSERVATION OF WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY TO ELECTION DAY DURING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEARS.

Section 6103(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended--

(1) by inserting `the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in 2008 and every fourth year thereafter, and' after `Washington's Birthday,'; and

(2) by inserting `in any other year' after `February'.

[Melissa G]

11. Another election challenge:large number of absentees

://

Another election challenge:large number of absentees
Monday, October 16, 2006
Joan Mazzolini Plain Dealer Reporter
Quickly counting votes cast ontouch-screen machines is not the only challenge that CuyahogaCounty elections officials face Nov. 7.

They also will be tested by the number of absentee ballots they have to count.

In the May primary, misprinted absentee ballots prevented optical scanners from reading votes, resulting in a hand count that delayed results for a week.

About 17,000 absentee ballots were submitted in May. A hundred thousand or more are expectednext month as a result ofa change in state law.

Although the printing shouldn't be a problem, elections officials know that their optical scanners do not operate quickly enough to guarantee that the votes will be counted by the end of the night on Election Day.

http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isele/1160999722112810.xml&coll=2

[kster]

12. KICK-N-RECOMMENDED....nt

[Melissa G]

13. GOP's Nov. campaign gets another challenge

Excellent article outlining current republican congressional woes...



GOP's Nov. campaign gets another challenge
By Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Staff Writer
Three weeks from an election that will determine whether Republicans stay in power, this is not the montage of TV images party leaders wanted:

Rep. Bob Ney (R., Ohio) walking out of a courthouse after pleading guilty to corruption charges in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Closed doors, behind which the House ethics committee is grilling witnesses about dirty electronic messages former Rep. Mark Foley (R., Fla.) sent to teenage male pages.

FBI agents hauling away boxes as they investigate allegations that Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) steered business to his daughter's consulting firm.

Strategists in both parties and independent analysts said the string of scandals had reawakened ethics as an issue in the midterm campaign, stoking an anti-Congress mood. Since most of those in the spotlight are Republicans and the party controls Congress, the GOP stands to be hurt more.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15775793.htm

[Melissa G]

14. Chore of writing in Republican gives Democrats shot at DeLay seat

Just 'cuz it makes me happy to post something cheerful every week!




Chore of writing in Republican gives Democrats shot at DeLay seat
10/15/2006 2:16 PM
By: Associated Press

PEARLAND, Texas -- Voting Republican in the conservative 22nd Congressional District in the Houston suburbs was never difficult when Tom DeLay's name was on the ballot.

But DeLay's out of the race, and the GOP's unable by law to substitute a name on the ballot because DeLay was the party's nominee before he resigned from the U.S. House.

So voters must write in the Republican candidate, Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. That could prove to be such a chore that Democrats might walk away with a seat that has long been in the GOP's hands.

That's welcome news to Democrats. They see a real chance for capturing the former House majority leader's seat. That could help them wrest control of the U.S. House from the GOP. Democrats need to gain 15 seats to seize the majority.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=172580

[Melissa G]

15. New Voter ID Laws Could Cost Millions Their Right to Vote

Great article has stats about how voter fraud at the polls is minimal at the link..check it out...


Tuesday, October 17, 2006 :: infoZine Staff :: page views
New Voter ID Laws Could Cost Millions Their Right to Vote

Millions of eligible voters could lose their right to vote in coming years if new state and national photo identification and proof of citizenship requirements for voting are implemented, according to a new briefing paper published by Demos, a national public policy and research center.

New York, N.Y. - U.S. Newswire - infoZine - The paper, part of Demos' 2006 Challenges to Fair Elections Series, offers evidence that new and prospective voter ID requirements, in states and on the national level, have been advanced without adequate consideration of facts or the potential impact on voting rights


In recent years, states such as Georgia, Missouri and Indiana have enacted highly restrictive identification requirements for voting, and Arizona passed a statewide referendum that would require stringent ID and citizenship requirements at the polls. All of these laws have undergone recent challenges in court, and three --those in Mo., Ga. and Ariz. --have been legally enjoined and prevented from being enacted this year. Indiana's remains, and national debate, and further challenges to the court rulings in these states, will continue.

A Statement from Secretary of State Robin Carnahan Regarding Supreme Court Ruling on Photo ID Law

Jefferson City, Missouri - "Today's (10/17/06) ruling is a victory for Missouri voters. The Supreme Court's decision to uphold Judge Callahan's ruling provides absolute clarity that the photo ID law is unconstitutional and thus will not go into effect in Missouri.

http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/18398/

[Melissa G]

16. Vote Pad suing CA's SOS

Thanks to Stevepol for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453326

Original message
Vote Pad suing CA's SOS
Vote Pad for those who don't know is a non-electronic, inexpensive device designed by the handicapped for use in elections. It's apparently an ideal way to avoid the high cost and insecurity of the electronic voting machines. The ease of voting for handicapped people is maybe the biggest lever that is used by the vendors of DREs to get the machines into the voting process since the HAVA law mandates that the handicapped be provided for and almost requires the use of DREs, at least that is the way a lot of elections officials view it. The device is used in WI, evidently with little or no problem.



Vote-PAD Inc. Files Legal Claim Against California Secretary of State

10/16/2006 9:56:00 AM

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Vote-PAD Inc. today filed a formal claim with the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board Asserting that the Secretary of State violated a number of State and Federal protections during the Vote-PAD certification process: "a violation of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitutions of both the United States and the State of California, a breach of contract, a violation of the California Administrative Procedures Act, a violation of the Election Code provisions governing voting system certification and an abuse of discretion in the Secretary's authority to certify voting systems."

The Vote-PAD, recently used in the Wisconsin primary election, is a non-computerized device designed to help people with disabilities hand mark a paper ballot. Six California counties were hoping to use the Vote-PAD this November, but on Aug. 25, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson refused to certify it for use in California.

Ellen Theisen, President of Vote-PAD Inc., said, "With no guidelines or regulations to follow, the Secretary's staff just made everything up as they went along -- the joint application process with the counties, the test plan, the method of evaluation and even the criteria they used to recommend denial. What they came up with was unprecedented and contrary not only to usability testing principles but to common sense as well."

"Furthermore," Theisen added, "their ad hoc plan was administered by people unqualified to conduct usability testing, their record-keeping was haphazard, and their analysis of the data shows a lack of due diligence.

Link: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=74361
stevepol

[Melissa G]

17. NYT editorial: Will Blackwell disqualify Strickland, declare himself Gov.?

Thanks to DeepModem Mom for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2887985

Original message
NYT editorial: Will Blackwell disqualify Strickland, declare himself Gov.?
Editorial
And the Winner Is ... Me
Published: October 17, 2006

Voters in Ohio can be forgiven if they feel they have been beamed out of the Midwest and dropped into a third-world autocracy. The latest news from the state’s governor’s race is that the Republican nominee, Kenneth Blackwell, who is also the Ohio secretary of state, could rule that his opponent is ineligible to run because of a technicality. We’d like to think that his office would not ultimately do that, or that if it did, such a ruling would not be allowed to stand. But the mere fact that an elected official and political candidate has the authority to toss his opponent out of a race is further evidence of a serious flaw in our democracy.

Ted Strickland, the Democratic nominee, is leading Mr. Blackwell by as much as 28 points, according to one recent poll. In their panic, some Blackwell supporters have hit on the idea of trying to prevent the election from occurring. One of them filed a complaint alleging that Mr. Strickland, who is a member of Congress, does not live in the apartment where he is registered to vote. Mr. Strickland owns a condominium in another part of Ohio, and the complaint alleges that he actually lives there. If Mr. Strickland was not a qualified voter, he would be prohibited from running for governor.

The complaint itself is without merit. No one disputes that Mr. Strickland lives in Ohio, or that he is registered. The only issue is which of his two homes he chose to register from, and the law gives voters with multiple homes broad discretion in choosing among them.

What is more interesting, and troubling, is the way the complaint is proceeding. The county board that heard it broke down 2 to 2, on party lines, about whether to hold a hearing. In the case of a tie vote at the county level, complaints like these get forwarded to the secretary of state’s office to be resolved. Mr. Blackwell says he has designated his assistant secretary to handle duties that could conflict with his candidacy. But passing these matters on to a subordinate who is a political ally and owes his job to the candidate hardly removes the conflict....In 2004, Mr. Blackwell chose to become co-chairman of President Bush’s Ohio campaign, and then issued rulings that helped the campaign. Now we have the even more bizarre prospect of Mr. Blackwell, or his deputy, potentially participating in the baseless disqualification of his opponent....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17tues1.html
"The Founding Fathers gave the press Constitutional protection...because democracy

[Melissa G]

18. this is CRAZY -- Denver goes from 283 polling places to 55 vote centers???

Thanks to bobbieinok for the post and the DU discussion here..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x240633

Original message
this is CRAZY -- Denver goes from 283 polling places to 55 vote centers???
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/16/2159/0391

Denver Election Crisis: It's real and you can do something about it...
by dugrless
Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:05:09 PM PDT

I don't go much in for doomsday scenarios. I generally believe that the people who run elections are decent people who want every vote to count, and for elections to run smoothly, and that for the most part they do.
That's why when I heard that over 40,000 Colorado voters could be kept from voting in 2006, I had to run the numbers myself...

Last election cycle, Denver County had 283 polling places for about 350,000 registered voters. This November the number of registered voters is about the same, but instead of 283 places to vote, there will be 55 vote centers, with a grand total of only 1,100 voting machines.

Of course, not every registered voter will vote. The Denver Election Commission (the governing body which makes all these decisions) estimates that a total of 185,000 Denver County voters--about 53%--will vote in the 2006 mid-term elections. Of those, it expects 120,000 to vote at the polls on Election Day.

Assuming that it takes each voter 10 minutes to vote, the county will be able to handle around 6,600 voters per hour. If voters are kind enough to spread themselves out evenly throughout the day and among the vote centers, then Denver County will be able to handle 79,200 voters on Election Day--or 40,800 fewer than, by the Denver Election Commission's own estimates, will want to vote on that day.

....

October 28th is the new November 7th! If you really like going to the polls, Saturday October 28th (Super Vote Saturday) is the only weekend day for early voting. You can do it from 10am until 6pm. Or, if you can't make it to Super Vote Saturday, click here for a list of Early Vote Centers and their hours of operation.

You may not vote at your regular polling place; contrary to what Denver Election Commission's publications imply, if you vote on Election Day you must vote at one of the 55 available vote centers.

[yourout]

24. Have to make it easier to manipulate the election.

[Melissa G]

19. AFL-CIO Mounts Voter Protection Operation In Six States

Thanks to Omaha Steve for the post and the DU discussion here..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2565230

Original message
AFL-CIO Mounts Voter Protection Operation In Six States



http://208.185.252.177/laborradio/node/4430

AFL-CIO Mounts Voter Protection Operation In Six States

By Doug Cunningham

The AFL-CIO is working in six key states to protect voting rights. The labor federation is training union and voting rights activists on their state’s elections laws and will deploy them to monitor the polls on election day. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says it’s an effort to make sure every eligible voter has an opportunity to vote and have the vote counted. AFL-CIO poll monitors will also have a network of lawyers available to handle voting problems to try to prevent the kinds of violations that have happened in past elections. The AFL-CIO’s Voter Protection Program will target Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Washington.

[Melissa G]

20. Bush Disapproval Rating At 61 Percent, An All-Time High: CNN Poll

Thanks to cal04 for the post and the DU discussion here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2406908

Original message
Bush Disapproval Rating At 61 Percent, An All-Time High:Poll
A new CNN poll shows that public disapproval of President Bush has reached an all-time high. Sixty-one percent of Americans now disapprove of Bush’s handling of his job as President:



Some other highlights from the poll:

–64 percent disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq.

– 70 percent of women and 58 percent of men now oppose the war in Iraq.

– 60 percent of Americans believe the situation with North Korea can be resolved using only economic and diplomatic measures.

– More than 70 percent of Americans believe the war in Iraq is making it harder for the United States to deal with North Korea.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/16/cnn-poll-iraq/

[robinlynne]

21. Did anyone hear news about kevin shelley last night?

Last night I heard pieces of a story on the MSM news. I was in the other room and didn't hear the whole story, but it was about Kevin Shelley. They mentioned HAVA, McPherson, then kevin Shelley, then 3 million dollars. At the end there was a man from common cause saying "this shows that the system is working". It sounded as if they were going after Kevin Shelley again, but I can't find any information today. Does anyone here know what happened?

[tiptoe]

22. A demand for Shelley to repay voter funds

A demand for Shelley to repay voter funds

...A spokesman for Shelley, who practices law in San Francisco, criticized McPherson for misrepresenting Shelley's actions.

"Mr. Shelley was never found personally responsible for any wrongdoing related to the Help America Vote Act nor did he misuse these funds. McPherson's attempt to pin the bill on Mr. Shelley is a shameless election-year ploy and not deserving of further comment," said Sam Singer, Shelley's spokesman.

McPherson's letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer seeking a lawsuit against Shelley is unlikely to lead to legal action. Under state law, public officeholders are generally not personally liable if their actions fall within the scope of their normal job duties.

Prosecutors would have to prove Shelley engaged in fraud when dispensing federal voting dollars in order to make him personally liable -- a difficult legal threshold to reach. No charges of fraud have ever been leveled against Shelley.

"We're reviewing the secretary of state's letter," said Nathan Barankin, Lockyer's communications director, of McPherson's request for prosecution.

State Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina Del Rey (Los Angeles County), McPherson's Democratic opponent in November, labeled the news conference "political grandstanding," saying McPherson has known for months the money would have to be reimbursed...

California To Pay Back Misspent Election Funds

Former state secretary's misconduct to cost California millions

( http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D/c/a/2006/10/17/BAG7ULQJ741.DTL">Google News search results )

[Kurovski]

23. Kick to the top.

And a thank you. :hi:

I especially liked the Budowsky, and I'm happy to see the NAACP has taken Melissa G's advice! ;-)