Sarasota Disinfo - Nailed it - NIST Flips Out , Breaks with Reality on E-Voting

[autorank]

…a review of Election Reform, Fraud and Related News from the week of December 4, 2006.

--FLORIDA DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN A REPEAT OF 2000 DUVAL COUNTY LIES
--National Institute of Science and Technology Now Managed by McKenzie Bros.
--Et tu Rush (Holt)!!! He loving those touchy, feely screen things...

When you’re done here, go to Electoin Fraud News for a complet set of links on the top election stories of the week.

THIS LINK-“The Long Road to Democracy USA for a list of links and comment on the major stories of the week from the Elections Forum news team. I’m trying a new format that combines a summary of the week with my perspective as John Q Citizen, well as autorank actually, and with a fully detailed exposition of link in real HTML on my web site, www.ElectionFraudNews.com (which does not make money to be clear on any latent interests here…sounds sinister doesn’t it).

FLORIDA FRUAD … a redundancy

The latest Disinformation Campaign

Short and sweet. 15-16 thousand people didn’t vote for contress in the former district of Katherine Harris. That’s not a surprise since everything Harris touches turns to a disaster area (which fortunately includes her campaign against Democratic Senator Nelson in Florida who retired the proud show horse of Republican election fraud).

People know what they’re voting for in big elections, particularly when they are hot local elections. Many don’t like Harris much in Sarasota.

But now we are to believe that the problems there were due to “ballot” and “human error.” Some MIT guy went down there and said, Oh the ballot is confusing. Look at the ballots. He should transfer to Liberty U. And why is someone from MIT qualified to talk about look and feel issues? Then the Florida Secretary of State floated the idea. And now the idea is rampant.

Folks, this is a replay of the lies told about the undervotes in Duval County in 2000. They blamed the loss of 20 thousand votes there on Democratic instructions to the voters. They were wrong.

Now they’re telling the same lies. Shame on them.

Quesiton: How stupid does National Institute
of Science and Technology think we are?
Answer: Well, maybe we look something like this to them...


VERY STUPID!!!

On December 1, 2006, the NIST Staff Report was released and it was a stunner. Look at this: Fact Sheet from NIST Staff 12.01.06

A software-dependent approach such as the DRE provides no independent capability to detect whether fraud has not caused errors in the records. In principle, a single clever, dishonest programmer in a voting machine company could rig an entire statewide election if the state uses mainly one kind of system (only 4 voting system vendors have a significant US market share).

“a single clever, dishonest programmer…rig an entire state side election.”

Now that’s frightening because there are lots of clever programmers around and there’s lots of money to buy influence in Washington. Why not with a few programmers.

But it gets much worse. The staffers, bless their hearts, went on to make the intellectually and technically honest statement: “If a software-dependent voting system such as the DRE cannot be tested to determine whether malicious code exists on the DRE or whether fraud has occurred, then one can't make the argument that it hasn't occurred and that election procedures are effective at preventing it.” In otherwords, it’s the “uneriviability” standard – if you can’t prove something is false, then you can’t prove it’s correct. Good lord. These guys are well schooled given this is a reference to a sophisticated scientific and logical principal.

The staffers then drop the hammer:

This leaves more approximate estimates of whether fraud has occurred, such as pre- and post-election polling compared with election results. But what if the results differ? If there is no recourse but to recount the electronic records of the DRE, there simply is no recourse. However, elections should not have to rely on approximate estimates of accuracy such as these.

But then “management” intervened and straightened things out.

We are to believe that the Staff report was issued on 12/01/06 and that the management report was written on 12/01/06. Please, that’s a little hard to believe unless you look at the quality of the “management” report. It’s pathetic.

It’s done in question and answer style:

Fact Sheet from the NIST

Does the draft software independence report conclude that there is no audit capability whatsoever in DREs?

The draft report says that DREs are auditable but not independently auditable. In other words, the DRE audits itself which is less preferable than an independent audit capability.

(NB=>Well, actually the staffers correctly pointed out that there is no independent “audit capability” since Voter Verified Paper Ballots are basically useless.)

Did the draft software independence report conclude that current DREs are highly vulnerable and a single programmer could “rig” an election?

Some statements in the report have been misinterpreted. The draft report includes statements from election officials, voting system vendors, computer scientists and other experts in the field about what is potentially possible in terms of attacks on DREs. However, these statements are not report conclusions.

What a total joke. Staffers 1, “Management Disqualified by TKO...

”Thou shalt not lie.” Do you know what a Cardinal Sin is? Those are the sins that get your “chestnuts roasted over an open fire.” Have they hired former Pravda writers for to produce this garbage? What part of the Staff statement didn’t they understand: “If there is no recourse but to recount the electronic records of the DRE, there simply is no recourse. However, elections should not have to rely on approximate estimates of accuracy such as these.

This is a “bait & switch” operation run by the Keystone cops. NIST Staffers are true heroes of democracy. They knew what they were doing from a systems evaluation standpoint and they certainly knew what they were doing politically. This is a new form of whistle blowing…tell the truth publicly, boldly, and then dare “management” to look stupid. NIST management took the dare but will face some real oversight. Can they spell CHAIRMAN WAXMAN?

ET TU RUSH

Rush Hold, D, NJ and sponsor of HR 550 Says Hang on to those Touch Screens for a While, Why don’t you.

I strongly support two of the three bills Rush Hold has before the House of Representatives. They concern intimidation and election fraud through deception and misleading practices. However, I simply can’t understand why Hold insists on these loser Voter Verified Paper Ballots. The NIST staff staid it so well, I don’t need to repeat why these are a simply awful idea.

Democracy is on the line in the next election. If we think that the republicans are going to hide out for long, we’re wrong. Therefore, we have just a little time to get to real, verifiable voting systems which means paper ballots. That’s the best option right now and that’s what the public wants.
What does Holt do? According to http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3895">Brad Friedman (as only Brad can tell it) and also NorthJersey.Com (Herald News, 12/02/06). Hold was very clear:

As for the Ocean County situation, Shafer said it was an isolated incident. Sequoia audited its machines in the county to assure officials' confidence in the results.
"They got the results that they expected to get," she said.

To Stuart Hutchison of Wayne, who was in the audience, there was an easy solution to all of the digital complications.

"We ought to look at doing away with the machines and have paper-only balloting," Hutchinson said.

But Holt said that now was "not a time to switch to paper balloting" due to the millions of dollars counties had already spent on electronic voting systems.

This is typical. Those who have sincerely sought a solution for digital distruption of our elections system are so into the “bits and bytes” they can’t climb out. The audience members know – dump the lousy machines. The cost of converting to paper is a lot cheaper than another Katrina or Iraq War.
Why don’t the polititians know that?

Never forget the pursuit of Truth.
Only the deluded & complicit accept election results on blind faith.

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News December 11, 2006

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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

"Recommend"

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



Left to Right: my mother in law, Mrs. Rank, and … well, me. Holiday Cheer!!!

Check www.electionfraudnews.com every now and then.

[autorank]

1. TX: Latino Vote – Democrats Have Shot in Texas Runoff Tuesda

Texas runoff highlights Latino voting rigts

SUZANNE GAMBOA 12.08.06
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The congressional runoff election Tuesday between two Hispanics with vastly different outlooks is being seen by Latino groups as a test of the power of the Hispanic vote in the country and as an example of coming battles to protect minority voting strength.

Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla faces Democratic former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez in the second round of balloting for the newly redrawn 23rd Congressional District, which spans from San Antonio nearly to El Paso and along the Texas-Mexico border. Neither man received 50 percent of the vote in an eight-way race on Nov. 7.

The district was redrawn this summer after the Supreme Court ruled that the district lines unfairly diluted Hispanic voting strength.
The district is nearly evenly split in party identity, with about 51 percent Democrats and 49 percent Republicans, according to the Texas Legislative Council. The voting age population is 61.2 percent Hispanic and 54.7 percent of registered voters have Spanish surnames. But Hispanic voters in west and south Texas don't always vote Democratic.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[autorank]

2. The BradBlog: Holt Favors DRE’s for Now – too expansive to dump

EXCLUSIVE: REP. HOLT SAYS HIS ELECTION REFORM LEGISLATION WILL REQUIRE 'VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS'

Congressman, Author of Leading U.S. House Election Reform Bill, Replies in BRAD BLOG Comments to Our Article Critical of His Quoted Statement Suggesting Touch-Screen Systems Should Not Be Replaced Due to Cost Factors...

In a posted comment here at The BRAD BLOG, Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) has responded to an article we filed earlier this week in which we expressed concern about a recently quoted comment of his. Our original piece discussed his statement at an Election Reform symposium at Rutgers University, as quoted on Tuesday in by New Jersey's Herald News, about the financial cost of moving away from Electronic Voting Machines in light of recent purchases made by jurisdictions across the country.

The Congressman's comments are, indeed, quite notable as we read them, and they deserve to be highlighted here --- as the piece from last Tuesday has now scrolled far down the main page and his reply posted today would otherwise likely go unnoticed by many...

As we reported originally, an audience member at the Rutgers panel discussion was quoted as saying in regard to electronic voting, "We ought to look at doing away with the machines and have paper-only balloting."

Holt, the author and lead sponsor of HR550 --- an Election Reform bill in the U.S. House, which enjoys a great deal of bipartisan support and mandates a number of much-needed reforms --- was on the panel and was quoted as follows by the NJ paper:

Holt said that now was "not a time to switch to paper balloting" due to the millions of dollars counties had already spent on electronic voting systems.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[BradBlog]

26. A correction to your headline about BRAD BLOG and Holt, Autorank...

Please note: The article you've pointed to in the above posting (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3895) actually signals a SHIFT in Holt's position. From the previous requirement of "voter verified paper records" to "voter verified paper BALLOTS"

That is a significant shift.

Devil, as always, will be in the details here. So we'll have to see what his final language ends up being in the new bill, but my sources confirm that Holt is definitely moving *away* finally from the paper Record/Trail language to the paper BALLOT language which -- in and of itself -- would arguably result in the banning of the use of DRE's.

Hope that clarifies a bit, since your headline for the above posting seemed to indicate the OPPOSITE of that point.

I believe the article at BRAD BLOG that you point to, then, is ultimately of FAR more note than the various goings of of NIST, EAC (and the reporting of that by NYTimes, etc.) over the past week. Even if NYTimes, and friends have yet to catch up with that reality.

Brad

[autorank]

37. Hi Brad. The headline in the OP was not about BradBlog.

It was my headline reacting to the quotation your blog article lead me to in Jersey. In
addition to my headline, all I said about The Bradblog was:

What does Holt do? According to Brad Friedman (as only Brad can tell it) and also
NorthJersey.Com (Herald News, 12/02/06). Hold was very clear:"

I was less than thrilled with the casual acceptance of much of what is wrong with our election system.
Touch screens are an absurdity. The NIST staff report is both clear, elegant, and sophisticated. Lets
concentrate on the that. They say that touch screens are inherently unverifiable and that
so-called voter verifiable paper ballots only confound the issue.

Proving the point that "no good deed goes unpunished," their masters came out with the silly Q & A
document also cited above.

On a broader issue, I'm hoping that our new faction of the much larger voting rights movement will
get on board with the OTHER TWO HOLD BILLS. I wrote about this a few days ago.

The Other Two Holt Bills: More than bits and bytes

These are very good bills and they deserve our scrutiny and support, as deemed appropriate by the
various folks involved.

I appreciated guest blogging on the Mexican election at The BradBlog and it drew a nice crowd, a
couple of professional trolls too: Why Mexico Matters There
is more to all of this, as you know,
than DRE's etc. It is about a broad social movement with the underlying assumption - the people are
capable of deciding and stating their preferences and will do so in larger numbers (to everyones'
benefit) if the system is a) a sound process; b) does not discriminate and attempt to contract the
franchise; and c) flows from open candidacies enabled by public only funding.

Cheers. Keep up the great work.


On Edit: When I wrote this, I thought you were referring to the OP. I saw the headline pointing
to The BradBlog in the messages I attached to the OP. I don't see it as misleading but, at the same
time, can't read your mind. It is cocnsistent with statement ABOUT DRE'S BEING TOO EXPENSIVE TO JUST
DUMP. I disagree and my headline projects that. We may or may not quote the headline of an article
cited directly and we may or may not comment on the headline or the article. In this case, I was
commenting in both the OP and the reply to the OP.

[truedelphi]

43. We spend millions of dollars on something that sane people

Say does not work - and then we have to keep the systems even though
they won't work because of the millions spent

Aaaaar gh - gh- gh- gh!

[autorank]

49. Isn't that just the dumbest thing you've ever heard...

...these are obsolete machines by any real computing standards. Produced by 4th tier tech companies, markeded in a low rent sort of way, and just plain ugly, these mahines - DREs AND Optical Scans should be recycled...we could make a statue out of it and then feature it at "Burning Man" this summer (not that I've ever been;)

Some one pointed out that the cost of these state of the art 80's technology is below what the Iraq war costs for a few minutes..or maybe I said that but the point is clear.

I'm watching Hoyer on this one. He went into a very intense full court press to get election contest rules changed just before the election. Pelosi did the emergency paper ballot initiative. Both acted at the same time. they probably wanted a "legislation hedge fund" in case things blew up entirely but I think that it's more. We'll see.

[Joe Chi Minh]

54. I don't mean to be pedantic, truedelphi, but it's not just a matter of sane

people, but of sane experts; particularly bearing in mind that experts, by their dedicated nature, tend to play up the objects of their own expertise, rather than downplay their usefulness in any situation.

Consequently, their unequivocal conclusion to the detriment of the use of DREs for voting purposes is the more noteworthy.

[truedelphi]

59. I am totally GLAD the experts are on our side But

What is confusing to non-experts like me is how the same election officials that want
electronic OptiScan, DRE's et al would NEVER ever put their money into a bank account that did not offer a receipt for deposits, and where the customer can check their balance only after they pay
$ 13,000 upfront, and of course they'd never consider banking somewhere where the computer techs all had passwords and pin numbers for the account.

These officials expect us election activists to TRUST them - but in today's society, trust is not necessarily prudent

[Joe Chi Minh]

60. I did say sane experts, truedelphi, as I too thought better of simply putting "expert"!

[truedelphi]

63. Remember we must demand that experts be quite sane

But we activists should be allowed as much insanity as will get us through the night!

[Joe Chi Minh]

64. I can't publicly buy into that! Don't want to give ammunition to the forces

of darkness.

[autorank]

3. CA: Fresno Appellate Court Upholds CA Voting Rights Act-Benefits Latinos

Fresno appellate court upholds California Voting Rights Act

Associated Press

AP 12.07.06

FRESNO, Calif. - A California appeals court unanimously upheld a 1991 law that made it easier for advocates to push for district elections if they can show that electing officials at-large dilutes the power of minority voters.

Reversing the decision of a Stanislaus County judge, a three-judge panel of Fresno's 5th District Court of Appeal held that the California Voting Rights Act did not create a system of reverse discrimination because it "does not favor any race over others."

"The reality in California is that no racial group forms a majority. As a result, any racial group can experience the kind of vote dilution the (act) was designed to combat, including whites," Justice Rebecca A. Wiseman wrote.

The case decided Wednesday was brought in 2004 on behalf of Hispanic voters in Modesto who charged that electing City Council members to at-large seats instead of from districts diminished the strength of their votes. Only one Hispanic has been elected to Modesto's five-member City Council since 1911, even though the city is one-quarter Hispanic.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[autorank]

4. The BradBlog - Debunking the Exaggeration/Myth of "Voter" Fraud

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3891">Where’s the Voter Fraud

The BradBlog: Where's that Republican Contrivance - "Vote Fraud" - nowhere!
Where's the Voter Fraud?
A Democracy Fellow and EAC Commissioned Researcher Says the Right is 'Propagating a Myth' in Order to Pass Disenfranchising Laws Said to Combat the Phony Perception They've Created

Not One Case of Voter Fraud Found by RNC in 2006...
The BradBlog: Desperately Seeking that Republican Vote Fraud – and finding none.

Guest Blogged by Tova Andrea Wang, a Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation.
ED NOTE: Ms. Wang was chosen by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) to provide research and analysis for a report on "voter fraud." That report --- about which an early "status report" version leaked out after the EAC, apparently unhappy with the findings, failed to release it publicly --- showed little or no actual evidence of "voter fraud" in America. The EAC finally released their "final version" of the report on December 7th, retitled with a freshly coined phrase: "Election Crimes."

Over the past month, the silence has been deafening.

For the past few years, many on the Right have been vociferously propagating the myth that voter fraud at the polling place is a rampant problem of crisis proportions. But we haven’t heard from them lately. In fact, as far as my research can discover (Nexis and Google news searches of multiple relevant terms), there has not been one confirmed report of any of these types of incidents in the 2006 election. Not one. Even the Republican National Committee’s vote fraud watch operation in their list of complaints from the 2006 election could not come up with one such case.

If you’ve been listening to the likes of John Fund, Thor Hearne, Ken Mehlman, and John Lott, you would think non-citizens are lining up to vote at the polls, mischievous partisans are voting multiple times by impersonating other voters, and dead people are voting in polling places across the country. In order to justify their argument that we need all voters to present government issued photo identification at the polls, they claim that this type of fraud is the biggest problem our electoral system confronts. They have been building and building this argument, hammering and hammering away at it to the point that it has now become the prevailing belief of the American public.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[Joe Chi Minh]

55. As expert statisticians (I believe at Berkeley, though I'm not sure), pointed

out (I think their observation was cited by Eric Partridge, too, in The Crisis Papers), such claims are pure conjecture.

Now, it seems, any conjectured basis for their hypothesis was always entirely mythical; Republican wishful thinking, pure and simple.

[autorank]

5. TOP TEN WORST PLACES TO VOTE in the USA

http://www.vcreporter.com/article.php?id=3961&IssueNum=97

Top TEN Worst Places to Vote

Just try voting here
Ten of America’s worst places to cast a ballot
~ By SASHA ABRAMSKY

#1 Machine Meltdowns: Beaufort, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (tie)
#2 Line Forms Here: Franklin County, Ohio
#3 Incompetence: Cuyahoga County, Ohio
#4 Foul Play: New Hampshire
#5 Gerrymandering: Travis County, Texas
#6 No Felons Allowed: Mississippi Delta
#7 Voting While Black: Charleston, South Carolina
#8 Suspect Students: Waller County, Texas
#9 Failing to Register: Florida
#10 Politicos in Charge: Ohio

Sasha Abramsky is the author of Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[autorank]

6. Nation: Felon Disenfranhisement, a KKK original, still has supporters.

FACING SOUTH. Blogging for a Progressive South

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/
The right to vote and felon disenfranchisement

As we've noted on this blog before, one issue rarely discussed in major political debates -- but one which has had a huge impact on politics in the South -- is felon disenfranchisement.

Vestiges of the Jim Crow era, these laws that bar those convicted of a felony from voting -- in same states, for the rest of their lives -- have taken millions of voters out of the political equation in the South, especially African-American voters.

Blogger Spencer Overton recently posted a thoughtful analysis of felon disenfranchisement laws at MyDD, which clearly lays out the consequences:

Over 2 million people in the United States have completed their sentences but cannot vote (that's more people than the voting-age population Delaware, Wyoming, Alaska, and Vermont combined). Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia are alone with Armenia in being the only democratic governments in the world that permanently revoke voting rights from all citizens who have completed their sentences. A few other states--Alabama, Arizona, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, and Wyoming-- disenfranchise many but not all people who have served their time. As a result, U.S. citizens account for only 4.6% of the world's population but make up almost half of the people on the planet who cannot vote due to a criminal offense. In states like Florida and Virginia, 25-30% of black men cannot vote due to a felony conviction.

As Overton emphasizes, resistance to changing felon disenfranchisement laws is bipartisan. Over at BlackProf.com, Overton offers a telling chronology of attempts to convince Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) to sign an executive order that would have restored voting rights to over 243,000 Americans who had served their time. He didn't do it -- and tens of thousands of largely African-American citizens remain locked out of the democratic process.


DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[autorank]

7. RI: Felon Disenfranchisement – Restoring the Right to Vote

Unlocking the Vote

Activists and disenfranchised former felons restore voting rights in Rhode Island.
By Daniel Schleifer
Thursday November 30, 2006

On the evening of Nov. 7, a crowd of 150 students, faith leaders, former prisoners, and community organizers gathered to watch election returns at a Dominican nightclub on the South Side of Providence, R.I. By 10:30, all the races were proceeding as predicted, and the TV reporters had no problem maintaining their dispassionate air—until one of them noticed that with more than 70 percent of precincts reporting, half of Rhode Island had voted to approve Question 2, a proposal to restore voting rights to felons on probation and parole. The reporter broke character. “Um, is anyone surprised about this? Felons voting? How is this question doing this well?”

His incredulousness was not shared by the crowd that was huddled before the televisions. Most in attendance had spent the past four days and nights working to assure approval for Question 2; some had spent the past four months working on it, and a few, like myself, had been working for two years to restore voting rights to 15,000 Rhode Island citizens. The final results revealed that Question 2 had passed with 51.52% of the vote. Rhode Island became the first state to reform a felon disenfranchisement law through a popular vote. A wave of relief, joy and exhaustion swept over us, but we weren’t surprised.

Although activists have fought the practice of denying voting rights to felons and ex-felons since the inception of such laws in the mid to late 1800s, our generation first took a hard look at felony disenfranchisement in 2000 when George W. Bush won, by just 537 votes, the deciding state of Florida, which permanently disfranchises all felons and ex-felons. Jeff Uggen and Chris Manza estimate in
Locked Out: Felon Disfranchisement and American Democracy that over 1 million Florida citizens cannot vote, and thousands more have been scrubbed from the voting rolls because they happen to have the same name as a felon.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[autorank]

8. Nation: People for American Way – Making Election Reform Top Priority

Making Election Reform a Top Prioritry

Our 2007 Agenda

1. Right-wing bills hostile to voting rights have lost traction, and progressive reform is at hand. Despite encouraging results on Election Day, the fact remains that tens of thousands of eligible voters were disenfranchised this year. These problems must be addressed, not only to restore voter confidence, but to protect the fundamental right of every voter to have his or her vote accurately counted. Help make election reform part of the new Congress’s 100-hour plan. Read our five-point agenda for 2007 and sign our petition!

2. Resolve problems with electronic voting machines. Recurring machine errors, like those in Florida, inadequate poll worker training, and serious security flaws with both the machines and their vote-tabulating software are enormous threats to the integrity of American elections. Unaccountable, unverifiable, unauditable voting must end.

3. Stop intimidation and deceptive practices by passing federal and state legislation to prohibit and punish dirty tricks, deliberate misinformation, and other misleading measures that keep people away from the ballot box (like the misleading robocalls you may have seen news reports about).

4. Repeal or overturn restrictive voter ID requirements that disenfranchise eligible voters without improving the integrity of elections. The imposition of restrictive voter ID laws is the most widespread voter suppression tactic of our time.

5. Eliminate restrictions on voter registration that disenfranchise entire communities. Restrictions like burdensome proof of citizenship and ID requirements can cripple critical voter registration drives, and faulty database practices can disenfranchise thousands.

6. Continue to protect minority voting rights and important legislation like the Voting Rights Act. Racial minorities, students, the poor, and senior citizens are bearing the brunt of new rules and regulations that discourage and limit voting.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[Contrite]

71. #2 is all wet.

You can't "resolve problems with electronic voting machines". It should read "eliminate electronic voting machines".

[autorank]

9. Nation Magazine: Van Den Heuvel Rocks out on Voting Rights

Only a Rainbow Win
NATION MAGAZINE-Katrina Van Den Heuvel

This past Election Day, Netta Young-Hughes attempted to become the first African-American to represent Pennsylvania's 70th district in the state House. She lost by just over 100 votes in a district that is 60 percent white Republican.

Young-Hughes' margin of defeat is testament to her strength as a candidate – even more so when one considers that she confronted some of the worst race-baiting and intimidation tactics on the national scene. Death threats to both her and her staff; widespread reports of voter suppression; and the physical assault of a white, female volunteer who had signed a sworn statement saying that she heard Young-Hughes' opponent tell voters at the polls, "Netta is just a nigger. She doesn't deserve to win."

Progressive Majority – an organization dedicated exclusively to electing progressives at the state and local level – worked closely with Young-Hughes as part of its Racial Justice Campaign. The Racial Justice Campaign recruits and trains progressive candidates of color to run in key races nationwide. It works with its candidates on everything from speechwriting to staffing to GOTV efforts. Pennsylvania State Director for Progressive Majority – Lewis Thomas, III – said that Young-Hughes' opponent used race as a wedge issue from the start.

DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[autorank]

10. AK: Alaska Democrats Get It!!! They’re Giving Montana Dems a Run on Smartest in Party

Think globally, protect the vote locally

December 7th, 2006

By Paul Rogat Loeb - Just as local cities have adopted environmental and wage laws that exceed federal standards, maybe it's time for local initiatives protecting the sanctity of the vote. We've been seeing electoral abuses and manipulations since the Bush administration took power. So we need to ensure the Democrats make national electoral protection a priority. But we can also act on a local level.

Though the Democratic surge took back the Senate and House, some ugly actions quite likely shifted several close Congressional races. The poster race for this election's abuses, appropriately, is Katherine Harris's old Congressional district in Sarasota, FL. Whether through manipulation or error, electronic voting machines in that district logged 18,000 fewer votes in this neck-and-neck congressional race than for governor or senator, and fewer than wholly uncontroversial down-ballot races like the Sarasota Public Hospital Board. Whatever the causes, these votes disappeared in a county that Democrat Christine Jennings carried by 53 percent, and would have likely allowed her to defeat Republican Vern Buchanan.

Harris's district saw more than just voting machine problems. In the Jennings/Buchanan election as in over 50 key races throughout the country, Republicans called voters again and again with automated robocalls that led with the name of the Democratic candidate, and then followed with scurrilous attacks. Because voters tend to hang up on these harassing calls as soon as they begin, or delete them from answering systems, many assumed they were coming from the Democrats, so switched their votes in anger. Volunteers all over the country heard people say they'd never vote for Democratic candidates, they were so furious at the presumed source of this harassment. As a Venice, Florida, man wrote to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, "So Christine Jennings lost by 368 votes. I think I can tell her why. She should sit at home and have the telephone ring twice a day, at lunch and dinner time, for two or three weeks, and then decide if she should vote for the person doing the calling."


DON'T FOGET - http://electionfraudnews.com/Resources/DemocracyWeek.htm">THE LINKS ARE COLLECTED HERE AND AVAILABLE
ON A WEEKLIY BASIS ALONG WITH ADDITIONAL NEWS ITEMS]

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Nice compilation of must read news. By the way, my handle is for sale cheap

;-)

[autorank]

14. You've got laser eyes....

...you note I corrected my self there so I don't owe you that $50.00 royalty payment.

Thanks for sending Tester back here!!! He'll probably insist that the Senate work farmers'
hours - :rofl: - and shovel some...oh, they do that already.

We're 1/3rd around the track, having been "Thank" ful...get ready to be "Merry" and "Happy"...

[ellenfl]

12. gee, auto, you look a lot like robert patrick. k&r eom

[autorank]

13. Really?

You're not the first person to tell me that......and probably not the last;)

Good eye and you clearly have a taste for really good "bad" horror.

Uplifting film, inn't it?

[ellenfl]

20. yes, i do have a taste for good bad horror . . . altho' not the really gory kind. eom

[autorank]

70. Same here....

...but Night of the Living Dead was fine. I searched my memory and that's the only gore movie, well, wait, Dawn of the Dead was just a classic ("Why do they keep coming here?" "They come here because they think there's something here that they want"). Black and white gore, ridiculous color gore by George Romero (e.g. Dawn). That recent one about about the youth hostel, OMf'ingG! - I walked out.

Exorcist (original), The Shining, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls...the Holy Trinity;)

[cascadiance]

16. Wow, I just said the same thing to myself before seeing this comment too...

You really do look alike. I guess if the last two-three years of DU and the actions of its entities are ever brought to the Hollywood screen, we know who'd play you then! :)

Hmm... Maybe they'll bring him back in the X-Files: Next Generation, with him working undercover as autorank in DU! :)

[autorank]

17. Tha'ts a great role fo Patrick. He'll have to ease up a bit...

...he plays some fairly intense people. My favorite scene from this film, well cheap B movie, "The Faculty," was a non speaking part - he just stood in the middle of the football field and let the automatic sprinklers water him. Being a true alien - from a planet somewhere - he was always parched.

It's a fun movie for the holidays...Joe Bob Briggs is big on this film.

[elehhhhna]

15. REC this thread!

k&r

[autorank]

19. ;Merry Retail Shopping Festival to YOU!!!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

24. And Merry Record Liquor Sales to you all.

:hi:

[flyarm]

18. I was in court in the Ocean County NJ case..and i was at the machine

audit at the warehouse in Ocean County..

i wrote about it here at the time..needing help..

i will not disclose all my notes they went to the appropriate people...

but let me just say this..

The Assistant Attorney General was in charge of the case for the state..the Attorney General is a dem..

This woman The Assistant Attorney General was not onthe side of finding out if all votes were counted.

She pow wowed with the Republican Lawyers..to the exclusion of the democrats Lawyers...she was a pitt bull..

..and it was I , who pointed out to the first attorney for the candidates..what i observed in the initial Court order that we got extra days to get a machine audit..and a delay getting the machines opened..to get a lawyer there to protect the voters and candidates...that was more up to par in the case.

The initial lawyer was brought in on the run..and he had no clue to what was happening..infact it was his first day back after vacation nd had this thrown in his lap with no review of the case.
, and was in court Monday morning after the election..at 10 am...

The State wanted to open the machines that morning after court...by the Assistant Attorney General..with no possibility of the candidates having representation.

And the Democrats attorney ..well lets just say ..he showed up in court...he may have marched into the warehouse where the machines were opened for an audit..but he did not observe the machines being opened..as I was there and i know who was there..he was not..

It was the candidates, one candidates husband, one campaign worker for one of the candidates, the Atlantic City newspaper writer ..a League of Womens voters representive and myself ..over seeing the opening of the machines...and the supervisor of elections employees and of course the supervisor of elections for Ocean County NJ..( they use different names then we use in Fla..so i may not be stating their exact official titles as used in NJ ..but they are the same equivilant)...

And a Rabbi who is on the Board of elections..


the first court day..we were told the state Dem party may not want the candidates to contest the election..i do not know if that is true..but the Dem party conceeded to "let the candidates" contest the election..

but i will say this..the State Attorney gneneral is in charge in NJ of elections...

and if this assistant attorney general is any reflection of NJ's dems..we are in big trouble..

she is much more alligned with the republicans..from what i observed in the court and in the hallways of the court...

i took very detailed notes..of the court proceedings and the opening of the machines...and all approriate people in the state election reform and activist groups have my notes..

As does Rush Holt's people, they were kept informed during the entire process.

oh and i live in two states..Fla and NJ...i have worked very hard in Fla to mentor activists and people now running some of activist groups in fla..that are helping out in Sarasota...and Andy Stephenson helped train the people i mentored doing the work now in SW fla!

I vote in Fla...but i knew the people here in NJ needed help and i was still here during the election..so i helped every way i could, those here in Ocean County ( where i live in the summer)..who had no background in what to do.

and VoteTrustUSA was a great help to the candidates and the process...as were the League of Women Voters..they were all there throughout the whole process..in court and at the voting machine warehouse.

fly

[formercia]

21. Nice work

Until I read your caption, I thought the pic of you and your family was a cast for a new forensic adventure series.

In a nice way. :)

[autorank]

22. ...."forensic adventure series"... rofl...& thanks!

Those are actually visitors from another planet who have borrowed the shell of humans. They're
pretty rough in the clinches. THE FACULTY ... a little arty but fine for the season;)

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

23. Regarding DRE's - Holt-A-Dolt

Fuck how much money has been spent. That money was ill-spent and it is gone.

It's like sayiing we have to continue the war in Iraq because we've had casualties.

[FogerRox]

25. I have a friend who organized

the forum in NJ, where Holt was quoted. My friend says Holt clarified his statement more towards it would be a shame if we wasted all that money. For what it is worth.

[BeFree]

36. It is a shame

And Holt oughtta be ashamed for wanting to throw good money after bad money.

Time to cut our losses. And sue diebold, es&s et al, for the lemons they sold us.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

53. Sorry for premature condemnation. In any case, DRE's have to go

If there is no paper, then there can be no audit trails and no recounts that have any meaning.

OTOH, the Republicans in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 did not want a real recount and managed to prevent one. The laws have to change to force hand recounts or all the paper in the world is useless.

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. There seems little doubt that the purchases were unjustifiably rushed

for precisely that purpose.

Consequently, to seek to justify their retention on the grounds that so much had already been spent on the new machines, would be to allow malefactors to profit from their misdeeds.

[Cocoa]

27. posts in this forum are often very difficult to read

a lot of different sized fonts, varying colors, very long posts, a lot of inflammatory language, a multitude of links, a rambling line of argument.

I imagine that no one really reads and/or follows any such posts. Most if not all responses are essentially "kick and recommend."

I believe that's intentional. Don't think, just follow.

[Joe Chi Minh]

57. You don't like what Autorank exposed in his thread header, do you?

Never mind, it'll all come out in the wash.

[Cocoa]

65. I don't understand it

do you?

[Joe Chi Minh]

68. Yes, I sometimes don't, but in this case, I do. what it boils down to

is that the computer experts are clearly stating that machine voting is a no-no, and inimical to democracy.

On the other hand, the miscreants resposnible for it are misintepreting this clear condemnation in as comprehensive and shameless way as they can. In fact, saying that it means the opposite to what it does.

[lillilbigone]

28. What does this diary say?

it sounded interesting from the title, but it is so polemical I can't make head or tails of it. Could someone translate for me?

[autorank]

30. Three things... (& welcome to du)

1) Florida's election system was corrupt and a disaster for Democrats and it remains so symbolized by the loss of 17000 votes in Sarasota which would have won the election for the Democrat (to fill Katherine Harri's former seat).

2) The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), an emminent authority in our government and elsewhere, had staff evaluate voting machines. They found them unacceptable across the board. Their bosses came along a day later and reversed the findings and, in fact, misrepresented what is there in plain print. Wonder why? is the rhetorical ?

3) A long time supporter of paper trails on touch screen machines (DRE's) is not syaing the touch screens (which NIST and everyone else distrust and want gone) should be around for a while since we have a "sunk investment" in the technology; an objectionable opinion on it's face but who knows.

4) My family.

[truedelphi]

61. Your post finally got rid of my headache

You said:
2) The National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), an emminent authority in our government and elsewhere, had staff evaluate voting machines. They found them unacceptable across the board. Their bosses came along a day later and reversed the findings and, in fact, misrepresented what is there in plain print. Wonder why? is the rhetorical ?

That clears it up then. I remember reading that NIST did a good thing and many on DU were applauding that - but then a few days later I got emails from a computer tech group saying NIST is BAD! Thought the computer techs didn't understand what NIST had done... Now I get it - there was a reversal.

Oh Holy F%^king Barf.

I feel like Scrooge went over to the dark side at the end of Dickens' tale and Tiny Tim went very very hungry on Christmas Day!

[lillilbigone]

66. Thank you nt

[Gelliebeans]

29. Great post as always Autorank

Haven't seen the Mackenzie brothers in a while. Take off eh.

[autorank]

31. I'll take off...you take off...but nice topic eh;)

[Me.]

32. Great Pics Holiday Cheer

K & R

[autorank]

39. All I ever needed to know, I learned from the MacKenzie Brothers!!!

Dontchaknow;)

:hi:

[Me.]

46. A Little Holiday

:kick:

[Independent_Liberal]

33. Needed a good kick in the pants and a recommendation!

You go Mike!

:yourock:

[autorank]

40. El Liberal!!!

Gracias Sennor...:patriot:

[livvy]

34. Good to have you back!

I took a cruise around the web site. Nice!

Now that you're all rested up....back to work!

[autorank]

41. That's a nice welcome back picture too...

I'll get back to work even sooner than predicted given the incentive of avoiding what
we'll call "livvMo." Very glad you liked the web page.

:hi:

[livvy]

51. Not to worry....

I'm undergoing treatment by a well-respected authority....

[Roland99]

35. When will we have democratic elections here in the US?!?!??!

[BeFree]

38. When?

When we get private companies totally eliminated from elections.

Mixing private companies seeking a profit into democracy has infected our democracy. We need to be rid of the damned private companies. They have cost us billions of dollars and made it easy for bushco to grab power.

[autorank]

42. When the Wizard gives me a brain...

...sometime in that viacinity Bt until then (go to the page and check the right hand column "One more Reason ..." Its inspired by your post of a few weeks ago. Thanks again.

[Roland99]

44. I get a message that the video is not available. ??

I can't believe that news documentary hasn't become as widespread as the Abu Ghraib photos.


Then again, knowing our beloved fourth estate, I can. :(

[autorank]

47. No...or at least not tha tI know of but the tee shirt is at Cafe Presse

TeeVote

[puebloknot]

45. We've invested so much money in these machines to steal your votes...

...that we can't be expected to scrap it all just for the integrity of *elections*!

And anyway, elections are the opiate of the people, and we don't want to encourage drug use!

And...we're so ecology-minded that we wouldn't want to cut down all those trees to produce *paper* ballots. The planet might not survive it.

Trust us!

[autorank]

48. I am truly humbled...

Each line is a gem but my goodness, you're revealing state secrets with this one:

"And anyway, elections are the opiate of the people, and we don't want to encourage drug use!"

[Joe Chi Minh]

58. Trust me. I'm an alumnus of Wally O'Dell.

[truedelphi]

62. Heh Heh Followed by huge belly laugh

And I guess it's now fair to say - election activists are thus the
equivalent of drug pushers

[puebloknot]

67. Well, duh! :) nt

[nicknameless]

50. R'ed earlier; here's a K... Plus some interesting tidbits on MIT.

MIT professors funded by reich-wing "thinktanks"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=420067&mesg_id=420081

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=420067&mesg_id=420089

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=420067&mesg_id=420213

[autorank]

72. Bookmarked!!!! MIT que pasa..."Say it ain't so champ!" n/t

[OnTheOtherHand]

73. oh, man, not this again

No doubt that Hoover and Olin are conservative foundations -- or, rather, Olin was a conservative foundation. (There is more than one Olin Foundation, but I think the one that funded the Olin Fellows dissolved itself.) They didn't impose an ideological test on those fellowships. You might think of it as an investment in their reputations for intellectual seriousness.

It's just damn weird that the first link points out darkly that Charles Stewart was a Hoover fellow, while the last link approvingly notes that he called for continued investigation into the Florida returns studied by Hout et al. Good guy? bad guy? hey, whatever.

If one wanted to argue that these scholars have a sneaky right-wing bias in their work, and that the bias can be explained by fellowships they held years ago, it would take a lot more research than this. Argument by enemies list is a bad practice.

[file83]

52. I loved how you used a picture of two Canadians for the 'stupid' photo...

:rofl: The McKenzie brothers were a couple of hosers, eh?

[autorank]

69. Hosers is way to kind but they did have their shining moment...

Which can be found here, a national treasure; which nation I don't know, maybe Andora:

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/9134/ (there's a nice meat 'wall paper' here...:silly:

But here's a pic from one of the strangest scenes in any film at any time, pure DADA...