Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 10/22/06-GOTV letter

[freedomfries]

Election Reform, Fraud, & News Sunday 10/22/06-GOTV Letter
(adapted from a letter posted on dkos)

Why should you vote on November 7?

When you vote, you matter.

When you vote, you decide the fate of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the end of the nightmare there.

When you vote, you decide if health care is a human right for all or the privilege of a few.

When you vote, you decide if social security is a right for your old age, for all the aged, or the privilege of a few.

When you vote you decide if quality education is a right for all children, or the privilege of a few.

When you vote, you decide how much of today's deficit will be paid by the children of tomorrow.

When you vote, you are building the future of New Orleans, and protecting our endangered planet.

When you vote you say that speech will remain free.

Your vote is your voice. Protect a precious right that others have wished for, fought for, died for.

So go out and vote. Vote for a change. Vote blue.

Straight Democratic ticket.




All members welcome and encouraged to participate.
Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

:argh:

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x371233
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.
Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page
:patriot:

[freedomfries]

1. NAT: NYTimes: Guardedly, Democrats Are Daring to Believe

Guardedly, Democrats Are Daring to Believe

Adam Nagourney & Robin Turner
The New York Times
October 22, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/us/politics/22dems.html?em&ex=1161576000&en=386c11e8a8fd7af7&ei=5087
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — There is something unusual bubbling in Democratic political waters these days: optimism.
With each new delivery of bad news for Republicans — another Republican congressman under investigation, another Republican district conceded, another poll showing support for the Republican-controlled Congress collapsing — a party that has become so used to losing is considering, disbelievingly and with the requisite worry, the possibility that it could actually win in November.

“I’ve moved from optimistic to giddy,” said Gordon R. Fischer, a former chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party. “I really have.”

Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who is in line to become chairman of the Financial Services Committee in a Democratic House, offered wry evidence of the changing perception of the race. His office, Mr. Frank said, has been contacted by a portrait-painting firm offering to talk about possibilities for the traditional committee chairman’s painting, one of those perks of power long absent from the lives of House Democrats.

“I’ve acquired a lot of new friends this year,” Mr. Frank said. “And I haven’t gotten any nicer.”

For Democrats these days, life is one measure glee, one measure dread and one measure hubris. If they are as confident as they have been in a decade about regaining at least one house of Congress — and they are — it is a confidence tempered by the searing memories of being outmaneuvered, for three elections straight, by superior Republican organizing and financial strength, and by continued wariness about the political skills of President Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove.
:evilgrin:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/us/politics/22dems.html?em&ex=1161576000&en=386c11e8a8fd7af7&ei=5087

[BillORightsMan]

25. NYT parrots MSM mainstays

"...confidence tempered by the searing memories of being outmaneuvered, for three elections straight, by superior Republican organizing and financial strength, and by continued wariness about the political skills of President Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove."

Outmaneuvered? By Diebold et. al. SCOTUS and a myriad of lies and deceptions?
Superior Republican organizing? To 'deliver Ohio's Electoral votes'?
And financial strength? By having the multi-million-dollar major networks kowtow to the BCF regime?

Heck, they forgot to mention all those "value voters" and Dems needing to "speak" to them.
/rant
:grr:

Now back to your regularly scheduled Election Reform news...

[freedomfries]

2. NAT: Madam Speaker? Pelosi likes the sound

Madam Speaker? Pelosi likes the sound

In line to lead the House if the Democrats win control, the Californian brings discipline, fundraising skill -- and a lightning-rod nature.

Faye Fiore, Times Staff Writer
KTLA5CW LA Live
October 21, 2006

http://ktla.trb.com/news/la-na-pelosi21oct21,0,1471367.story?coll=ktla-news-1
SEATTLE — It's only 9 a.m. and Nancy Pelosi has already had two breakfasts and a bowl of chocolate ice cream. The House minority leader has met with a couple of donors in a hotel dining room, run back up to her room for a live radio interview, down to the dining room again for a sit-down with the local newspapers, and up to her room for a phone strategy session.

She is, as ever, exquisitely dressed, in a stylish pale-green suit that she will wear three times in the next three days. Packing light saves time. Everything must fit into one carry-on and a garment bag, which she lugs herself, clacking across airports in her high heels.

With less than three weeks before an election that will decide control of Congress, the Democrats are within tantalizing reach of a House win that would almost certainly make Pelosi the first female speaker of the House — second in line to the presidency — and the first from California.

They need to gain 15 seats to take control, and Pelosi falls asleep at night crunching the numbers. It is her single burning obsession to lead her party to victory, and she devotes nearly every waking minute to it, coaching candidates, raising money and calculating in which districts to spend it.
...
http://ktla.trb.com/news/la-na-pelosi21oct21,0,1471367.story?coll=ktla-news-1
:toast:

[freedomfries]

3. UK: The American electorate hold power over withdrawal timetable

The American electorate hold the real power over any withdrawal timetable

James Cusick
The Sunday Herald, UK
October 22, 2006

http://www.sundayherald.com/58686
In 1968, despite the “great victory” reports of the US media , the American pub lic didn’t buy what they were being told about the Vietnam war. Some 38 years and another war on, they’re not buying again. Despite Tony Blair continuing to sell the “extraordinary achievement” of post-war Iraq, his sales pitch last week in the Commons hinted that Washington may have given him notice that their joint strategy was no longer going to fetch the top dollar it once did.
Anticipating what is likely to come out of the White House over the next few weeks, Blair said that over the next “12 to 18 months” Britain would begin withdrawing troops. He said that as the coalition was able to cede control to the Iraqis “we do so”. But, he added, there was going to be no premature withdrawal, because that would prove disastrous.

But there is nothing happening in Iraq that points to a withdrawal in the near future; and Bush or Blair being able to say “job done” is not on anyone’s radar . If no military objective is likely to be achieved, what points to a withdrawal beginning in the next 12 to 18 months?

The results of the US mid-term elections will influence what follows . The polls have already hinted at the outcome. Fifty-two per cent view Bush negatively. Approval of the Republican-led Congress is at 16%. While the Republicans push homeland security, the voters want their say over what they believe is a failing war. A big swing against Bush will see the Republicans lose control of Congress, with the Democrats taking both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Blair and Bush talk almost daily, so Bush’s anxieties will have been shared and appreciated by Blair, who knows his friend’s presidency may effectively be over in under three weeks.
...
http://www.sundayherald.com/58686

[freedomfries]

4. Political Cortex: Don't Let Them Scare You! Throw the Republicans Out!

Don't Let Them Scare You! Throw the Republicans Out!

Bill Hare
Political Cortex
October 21, 2006
http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/10/21/194026/90

In any democracy theoretically parties and their candidates run on their records with the results determined by analyzing those results alongside alternatives presented by the opposition. In the upcoming November 7 national election it is imperative to keep one's eyes on the ball, as a major league hitting instructor would implore, and avoid the many distractions hurled onto the paths of voters.
The Republican Party knows it cannot run on the most appalling record ever achieved in the United States extending from George Washington's first term of the presidency to the present. So what are brain trust Karl Rove and his loyal troops of foot soldiers doing? What is that final standby intended to produce eleventh hour magic when all else has failed, as, according to all respected measuring authorities has occurred?

If your response is "Scare the daylights out of voters!" you have kept your eyes on the ball. It is no coincidence that America's best publicized fright night, Halloween, occurs less than three days before the nation's voters march to the polls to cast votes on the composition of the next U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

A Washington Post front-page story of October 20 by Dan Balz and Jim VanderHei revealed Republican strategy as America moves into the home stretch of the current campaign season. Some of the most significant comments come at the end of the story, when Balz and VanderHei register the strategic sentiments of Mary Matalin, long-time Republican operative and recently one of Dick Cheney's majordomos.

Matalin responded to reported growing concerns of Republican campaign strategists that certain conservative Republicans have become so upset with the direction that the Cheney-Bush Ruling Junta has taken the country that they are planning to stay home November 7.
"Conservatives are cranky but not self-destructive," Matalin said. "A thing we could do, have time to do and will do in the remaining time will be to hammer home what a Pelosi-Rangel-Conyers House would really mean.... That hasn't reached penetration levels yet."

There you have it in a nutshell. In a showdown the Republicans know better than to run on the most appalling record in U.S. political history. Instead Matalin and others in the Rove propaganda machine, notably Fox News, where Sean Hannity last week has been expressing nightmarish fears about Representative Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, they fall back on their favorite tactic of fear.
...
http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/10/21/194026/90

[freedomfries]

5. NAT: UPI: Latest poll bad news for Republicans

Latest poll bad news for Republicans

United Press International
October 21, 2006

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061021-075034-2708r
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The Republican advantage among white evangelical Christians has dwindled to about 2-1, a Newsweek poll of likely U.S. voters says.

In 2004, evangelicals contributed to President Bush's victory, voting for him by a 3-1 margin. Now the desertion of a significant share of the group could cost the Republicans control of Congress, Newsweek said.

The survey found that overall 55 percent of likely voters say they would choose the Democratic candidate while only 37 percent would pick the Republican. White Catholics break 44-42 for the Democrats and Independents 44-34.

The poll did have a positive note for the Republican Party. Two weeks ago, in the immediate aftermath of Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley's resignation over allegedly improper behavior toward pages, many voters had stopped trusting the party on values. But the pendulum has swung back a bit, Newsweek said.

Democrats are more trusted on Iraq, the economy, federal spending and health care.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061021-075034-2708r

[freedomfries]

6. MIT Tech Review: Overhaul Computerized Voter Registration Databases

Computerized Voter Registration Databases Need a Major Overhaul
Political scientist Thad Hall says federal standards are required to prevent state electronic registration databases from disenfranchising people.

Katherine Bourzac
MIT Technology Review
October 16, 2006

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17616&ch=infotech

Voters can get purged from the rolls because there are no federal electronic standards for maintaining registration databases.
What Americans should be most worried about this November, say elections experts like Thad Hall, a political scientist at the University of Utah, is not that someone might hack the Diebold machine they're using to vote--but that their names might disappear from the rolls entirely. According to him, the greatest risks of fraud or disenfranchisement concern voter registration.

As Hall spells out in a report for the IBM Center for Business and Government, voter registration databases are difficult to maintain because there are no electronic standards for creating them. That makes it hard for elections officials to compare their databases with motor-vehicle registries and prison records--let alone other states' elections records.

Earlier this year, the state of Kentucky was sued by its attorney general for attempting to remove 8,000 voters from the rolls--without notifying them--based on a comparison of its database with those in Tennessee and South Carolina, in search of voters registered in multiple states.
...
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17616&ch=infotech

[freedomfries]

7. MD: NAACP Will Monitor November Elections

NAACP TO MONITOR NOVEMBER ELECTIONS: Large voter turnout encouraged in Maryland and other states

EurWeb.com
October 18, 2006
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur29238.cfm

Bruce S. Gordon, NAACP President & CEO, said the NAACP will monitor the November 7 elections in Maryland and other states to prevent some of the problems that occurred on primary Election Day September 12. The Maryland Election Protection Operation will operate from the NAACP Election Day Voter Command Center at the Baltimore headquarters on Mt. Hope Drive.

Gordon said: "While the NAACP will take steps to counter obstacles to voter participation, we are encouraging our communities to cast their votes, even if it requires extra effort. Civil rights activists went to extraordinary lengths to earn the right for black Americans to vote. Some lost their lives. We owe it to them and ourselves to honor their sacrifice by voting, no matter what challenges we face."

NAACP volunteers will observe targeted precincts in the Baltimore metropolitan area and Prince Georges and Montgomery counties. From the NAACP Election Day Voter Action Center, lawyers, volunteers and partnering organizations the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and People for the American Way will monitor complaints of voter irregularities and advise voters experiencing problems at the polls. If necessary, this information will be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice.
...
http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur29238.cfm

[freedomfries]

8. CA: Absentees may exceed voters at polls this year

Absentees may exceed voters at polls this year

Harrison Sheppard
Inside Bay Area
October 21, 2006
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4529115

SACRAMENTO — Surging demand to vote by mail could mean that for the first time more Californians will cast absentee ballots this November than will actually vote at the polls on Election Day.
Once the domain of overseas travelers and homebound seniors, absentee voting has been made easier by changes in state laws, and busy voters have jumped at the chance to save time and still have their voices heard.

As we all get more and more hectic lives, absentee is a very attractive way to vote, said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento. Two decades ago, only 9 percent of general election voting was by absentee. By last years special election, absentee voting was up to 40 percent, and in the June primary to nearly 47 percent.

We can expect the November general election will have even higher numbers requesting and subsequently casting absentee ballots throughout the state, Secretary of State Bruce McPherson wrote last week.

But experts warn the trend has made campaigns longer and more expensive and raised new concerns about privacy and security.

The old adage used to be just campaign in the last 10 days because nobody paid attention, said Allan Hoffenblum, a political analyst who publishes the California Target Book analyzing state elections. They now start well over 30 days out, because they know a lot of voters start (voting) at least a month before the election. Its changed the tactics.

And Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, said that while the boom in absentee ballots has made it more convenient to vote, and thereby may boost turnout, it also has an isolating effect.
...
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4529115

[Peace Patriot]

21. This article contains disinformation that has also appeared in the NYT

and the Sacramento Bee, to wit....

Absentee Ballot voting has ALWAYS been convenient in California. And Absentee Ballot voting has ALWAYS had easy qualification rules in California. These are NOT the reasons that Absentee Ballot voting has doubled, and tripled, over the last several years, with big surges recently.

People are voting by Absentee Ballot because THEY DON'T TRUST ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES RUN ON "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY PROGRAMMING CODE!

It could not be clearer. The rise in AB voting parallels the cancerous spread of these election theft machines.

Election reformers need to get on this indigenous citizen PROTEST AGAINST THE MACHINES, and start supporting, focusing and leading it, pushing media to correctly interpret it, and USING it as a club to force local/state election officials to reform this system, throw these machines out, and provide TRANSPARENT vote counting!

Even Kim Alexander is wrong! (She's often right.) She says AB voting "has an isolating effect." So we should go be friendly with a Diebold machine?! Come on, Kim! In California, you can DELIVER YOUR ABSENTEE BALLOT TO YOUR POLLING PLACE ON ELECTION DAY! You don't have to suffer "an isolating effect." You can fill your ballot out in the comfort of your home--and have plenty of time to do it--then go stick it in Diebold's eye!

------

In California, this huge surge in AB voting is a citizen "vote of no confidence" in Bruce McPherson, the Diebold shill who was APPOINTED Sec of State by Schwarzenegger. Election reformer DEBRA BOWEN is running against him. VOTE FOR DEBRA BOWEN!

Debra Bowen, GET ON THIS! There couldn't be a clearer REJECTION of McPherson's Diebold-friendly policies!

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

The California deadline for REQUESTING an Absentee Ballot is OCTOBER 31. Plenty of time. The CA deadline for registering to vote is Oct. 23, a week earlier--this Monday. Check local rules for other states.

If enough people vote by Absentee Ballot--and it's up to 50% to 60% in some places--we can get rid of these machines!

Bust the Machines--Vote by Absentee Ballot!

[freedomfries]

9. CA: State police raid home of California congressional candidate

State police raid home of California congressional candidate

Norberto Santana Jr.
The Orange County Register
October 21, 2006

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/15816985.htm

SANTA ANA, Calif. - News media converged on Tan Nguyen's campaign office Friday expecting to hear from the Republican congressional candidate about a mailer sent out this week warning immigrants against voting in the November election.

Instead, the media horde got a front-row seat to a half-dozen agents from the state Attorney General's Office serving search warrants and combing through Nguyen's office.

Officers confiscated three computer hard drives, checked for fingerprints, leafed through files and interviewed Nguyen's attorney. Agents also searched Nguyen's home and a campaign worker's home.

Despite burgeoning state and federal probes into the flier, Nguyen's attorney said Nguyen has no plans to withdraw as the Republican nominee for the 47th Congressional District race against incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez.

Dave Wiechert, an attorney representing Nguyen, said that "Mr. Nguyen has indicated that he did not authorize or approve the mailing" yet declined to discuss specifics because of the ongoing investigation. Wiechert added that misinformation was fueling what he called "a political firestorm."
...
The controversy was fueled Friday when county officials halted Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley from sending out a letter setting the record straight to the 14,000 households targeted by Nguyen's mailer. The state attorney general and the secretary of state had contacted Kelley as part of discussions about sending such a letter out.

Several Republican county supervisors argue that the Registrar of Voters Office should not get involved in correcting campaign mailers.

"The registrar of voters is not supposed to be the arbiter of truth in elections," Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Campbell said.

Campbell added that having the county elections office track and respond to such fliers would set a bad precedent.

Yet Supervisor Lou Correa, the board's lone Democrat, argued that "ignoring this type of letter is a precedent that I'm concerned about being set."

Correa has demanded that supervisors publicly debate the issue at their weekly meeting Tuesday. He wants a letter sent out.

"This, in my opinion - this is not like every other mailer," Correa said. "The issue here is voter suppression, especially given the history here in Orange County."
...
Santa Ana Councilman Jose Solorio indicated Friday that the voter-intimidation efforts may extend beyond the Nguyen campaign mailer. Solorio presented a copy of a sign he said was distributed throughout Delhi Park that read: "Are you a resident or illegal? If you vote, you'll get deported." The signs also carried the moniker of a group called Alizanda Pro-imigrados (Pro-Immigrants Alliance).

Solorio said he had forwarded the signs to the Attorney General's Office and has been assured that they would be investigated.

"It (the signs) shows that it's more widespread than this one single rogue incident (the letter). This stuff does not happen in a vacuum," Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro said.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/15816985.htm

[freedomfries]

10. DU Post: WaPo"Mystery Disks" a cover for the Real Story

Posted by Senator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453860
Cleverly slipped in with little fanfare:

WaPo:
In an unrelated development, Maryland state auditors said in a report yesterday that the State Board of Elections is not properly controlling access to a new statewide database of registered voters or verifying what changes are made to it. The report comes at a time of heightened concern over the security and effectiveness of electronic voting systems.

Legislative auditor Bruce Myers said it was unusual to allow "across-the-board access" by local election officials to a sensitive database, but Lamone defended the board's practices. In a letter released with the Office of Legislative Audits report, she wrote that the board "is unaware of any allegations of the falsification of additions or deletions to the system."


Oh, really ?!?

So as long as there are no "allegations," election thieves are free to add as many ghost voters as they like and remove as many valid voters as they think they can get away with.

We need real-world auditing, including in-person, witnessed signature verifications.

These crooks will go to any lengths to stop the electorate from getting their country back.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x453860

[freedomfries]

15. WaPo Repost: Officials Probing Possible Theft of Voting Software in Md.

Officials Probing Possible Theft of Voting Software in Md.
Ex-Delegate Says FBI Contacted Her About Disks She Received

Cameron W. Barr
Washington Post
October 20, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901818.html

The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said a former Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disks that apparently contain key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems.

Cheryl C. Kagan, a former Democratic delegate who has long questioned the security of electronic voting systems, said the disks were delivered anonymously to her office in Olney on Tuesday and that the FBI contacted her yesterday. The package contained an unsigned letter critical of Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone that said the disks were "right from SBE" and had been "accidentally picked up."
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901818.html

[freedomfries]

11. NV: Thousands of Nevadans cast ballots on first day of early voting

Thousands of Nevadans cast ballots on first day of early voting

Martin Griffith, AP
Las Vegas Sun
October 21, 2006
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/oct/21/102110579.html

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Thousands of Nevadans cast ballots in races for governor, U.S. senator and other offices as the first day of statewide early voting began Saturday.

Nearly 7,100 voters had cast votes at polling sites in Clark County as of 3 p.m. Saturday, said county spokesman Dan Kulin.

By comparison, the first day of early voting in the state's most populous county drew 14,204 people in the 2004 presidential election and 7,187 voters in the 2002 general election.

"It looks like we will do a little bit better than the last non-presidential election year," Kulin said. "Everything has been going smoothly from what I'm hearing."

To the north in Washoe County, no first-day figure was immediately available but officials estimated it would total in the thousands.

"It's been a wonderful turnout," said Lydia Van Diest, the county's senior deputy registrar of voters. "There has been some waiting in line, but the waits haven't been that bad."
...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/oct/21/102110579.html

[freedomfries]

12. OH: Strickland Votes Early as Blackwell Challenges His Residency

Strickland votes early as court fight looms.Lawyers try to block residency challenge

Aaron Marshall
Plain Dealer Bureau
October 21, 2006
http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/ispol/1161442574295830.xml&coll=2

Columbus - -- With a hearing looming Tuesday over a challenge to his eligibility to vote, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland took matters into his own hands. Literally.

Strickland, taking advantage of a new law that eases restrictions on early voting, voted absentee Friday morning at the Columbiana County Board of Elections, according to a voter log kept by the Lisbon-based elections board.

"He filled it out and handed it in about 8:40 this morning," said Strickland campaign spokesman Keith Dailey. "He was welcomed into the board of election with open arms."

http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/ispol/1161442574295830.xml&coll=2

:bounce:

[freedomfries]

13. NM: Problems Plague Election Administrators

Problems plague election administrators

Deborah Hastings, AP
White Rock Reviewer, NM
October 20, 2006

http://www.onelocalnews.com/whiterockreviewer/ViewArticle.aspx?id=18065&source=2

Wendy Noren had all the voting machines she needed. What she lacked was the stuff that made them work. So the elections supervisor of Boone County, Mo., didn‘t sleep Tuesday night.

"I was not going to be able to have an election with the machines," said Noren, "because I didn‘t have the ballots, and the supplies necessary to load the ballots. I had the machines and nothing else."

Hampered by last-minute deliveries and a confusing array of new voting rules, election officials said they can only hope they don‘t face a rerun of 2004 — long poll lines caused by malfunctioning machines, poll workers who didn‘t understand the machines or didn‘t show up, and recounts that in some cases took weeks to complete.

"It has to be right. I‘m not going to do something that isn‘t," she said.

But a study released last week by a coalition of voting-rights groups determined that much of the problem is caused by the failure of many states to mandate how many electronic voting machines must be available at each precinct.
...
http://www.onelocalnews.com/whiterockreviewer/ViewArticle.aspx?id=18065&source=2

[freedomfries]

14. CO: Rock the Vote — Question the Machine

Rock the vote — question the machine

Matthew Beaudin
Telluride Daily Planet, CO
October 18, 2006

Some locals contemplate voter fraud; not too late to snag absentee ballots
http://www.telluridegateway.com/articles/2006/10/19/news/news01.txt

On Nov. 7, millions of Americans will hit the polls. They’ll vote for governors, for ballot measures and local representatives. They will vote on policy-shapers and tax increases, on future presidents, perhaps.

But how many of those votes will be counted — and counted properly — still weighs heavily on the mind of the American electorate, including in San Miguel County, in the hangover of the 2000 election and subsequent lawsuits.

In some states — Colorado included — legal challenges assail the idea of electronic voting machines. Lawyers in Colorado have called the machines faulty and unreliable and said they could easily be tampered with and restored in a minute’s time. Should someone capable want to, they could wipe an election off the books and rewrite its outcome, some say.

A September Denver District court case, however, determined that Colorado’s voting machines, four brands in total, would be used in this fall’s elections but that the machines must be recertified after the elections.

The judge, Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares, ruled that the state had failed to certify properly the state’s electronic voting machines initially, but stopped short of tossing the machines — which cost counties millions of dollars — out of the elections.

Democratic groups have encouraged voters to vote absentee because the paper trail is just that: an actual paper trail, not numbers off a scroll or the innards of machines.

One Democratic candidate said the machines should be treated as suspects in a murder case: as if they were evidence.
...
http://www.telluridegateway.com/articles/2006/10/19/news/news01.txt

[Peace Patriot]

22. " the machines should be treated as suspects in a murder case..." --

Democratic candidate in Colorado.

Damn straight!

[freedomfries]

16. Yahoo OpEd: Will Any Dem Seats Fall in the House?

Will Any Dem Seats Fall in the House?

John McIntyre
Yahoo News
October 20, 2006

http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20061020/cm_rcp/will_any_dem_seats_fall_in_the

So much of the focus this cycle has been on Republican seats in play. On RCP's list of the most likely House seats to switch parties, the first Dem seat doesn't appear until #33 with Melissa Bean in Illinois 8. But there is a basket of five seats Republicans are looking at for possible pickups (IL-8, GA-8, GA-12, VT-AL, and IA-3) and the odds would suggest that the GOP may be able to pick up one of these five. The two seats in Georgia, helped by a strong Sonny Perdue at the top of the ticket, are generally thought to offer Republicans their best hope for a pickup.

Today the Indianapolis Star has a front page story which is extremely interesting given how much of a battleground Indiana has become because of the three Republican districts in play (IN-2, IN-8, and IN-9).

A new poll shows Democratic U.S. Rep. Julia Carson (news, bio, voting record) narrowly trailing Republican Eric Dickerson -- an outcome that, if it holds on Election Day, would be one of the biggest upsets in Indiana politics.

Dickerson led Carson 45 percent to 42 percent in the poll conducted for WTHR (Channel 13), The Indianapolis Star's news-gathering partner.....The WTHR poll -- conducted by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, and based on responses of 468 likely voters in the 7th Congressional District -- was startling, though, particularly in the wake of a poll of 400 likely voters, taken in September for WISH (Channel 8), that showed Carson with a lead of 20 percentage points. WTHR reported its poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20061020/cm_rcp/will_any_dem_seats_fall_in_the

[freedomfries]

17. IN: Veteran Democrat Carson faces tightening election race

Veteran Democrat Carson faces tightening election race

The Fort Wayne News Sentinel, AP
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/15807273.htm

INDIANAPOLIS — Democratic Rep. Julia Carson was in a close race three weeks before Election Day with an underfunded Republican challenger who has raised questions about her years of health problems, according to a new poll.

Carson, seeking her sixth term in the 7th District that includes most of Indianapolis, was the pick of 42 percent of those survey, but Republican Eric Dickerson had the support of 45 percent in the poll released Thursday by television station WTHR.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Carson, 68, has won more than two dozen consecutive elections at the local, state and national levels since 1972.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/15807273.htm
Make a difference! Please contribute:
http://www.juliacarson.org/

[freedomfries]

18. The Humanist: What Went Wrong in Mexico

What Went Wrong in Mexico: What the US Media Did Not Tell You

Kenneth Anderson
The Humanist
Nov-Dec 2006
Posted on bradblog
Thanks Brad!

http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/Anderson-NovDec06.pdf

[Peace Patriot]

24. Freedomfries, could you post the full URL for this article on Mexico, by

breaking the strand? I want to be able to send it to others.

What a heartbreaker! It just makes you weep!

As here, though, I think the people will win in the end. As Evo Morales has said: "The time of the people has come." And they can no more stop "the time of the people" and our worldwide rebellion against Global Corporate Predators than they can stop a mighty ocean wave.

[freedomfries]

26. here is the link to kpete's post on the same article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=454149&mesg_id=454149

[freedomfries]

19. Have a Great Day!

[freedomfries]

20. Have a Great Day!

[Peace Patriot]

23. Thank you, Freedomfries! n/t