ALERT! GOP Seizes PA House - big move to again stall VVPB Bills likely in PA!

[demodonkey]

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

A turncoat Dem from Berks County PA apparently will vote to hand the Speakership of the PA State House to the Republican Party, even though Democrats hold a one-vote majority!

This is something that will very much affect our chances for VVPB legislation at the state level in Pennsylvania, so you should pay attention to this if you care about voter-verified paper ballots and accurate elections.

With the Republicans in control, no VVPB legislation was moved to the PA House (or Senate) Floor; indeed we couldn't even get them to hold the hearings recommended by the Governor's Task Force on Election Reform. If the GOP retains control of the House State Government Committee chairmanship (especially if Paul Clymer stays) I personally believe there will be more of the same. The Dems may not do much better; for example Babette Josephs (who is a possible Chair for the State Government committee if the Dems control it) hasn't exactly been a fan of voting on paper. But the Dems at least have a national policy of supporting VVPB now, and they haven't had a crack at being in control and getting this moving in our Legislature yet. (OTOH, the Republicans might be coming around after all the vote flipping they saw on paperless DREs in November, lol!)

Anyway, this bears watching -- and perhaps action. If you are so inclined, Rep. Thomas Caltagirone's home office in Reading is at 610-376-1529 Fax: [phone] and his Harrisburg office is 717-787-3525, Fax: [phone]. His E-Mail: [e-mail] There is a New Year’s Day rally planed on Monday at 3:00 outside of Caltagirone’s District Office, 645 Penn St. in Reading.


The PA Young Democrats have sent out an action alert as well.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=175x12310


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=175x12302

[bahrbearian]

1. Watch all the Repugnant moles pop up this year.

[TheDebbieDee]

6. Stealth repukes!

Or, maybe this turncoat was being blackmailed............

Either way, he still deserves to be %itch-slapped!

[annabanana]

2. Every Democrat in Pa. should be on his doorstep

tomorrow afternoon. Never mind his office.. go visit his neighborhood!

[crikkett]

3. VVPB??

Care to elaborate?

[Tunkamerica]

5. i think its verified voting paper ballots

...there are so many abbreviations these days it's hard to keep track. I propose that if you're going to use an abbreviation you should try to have used the term unabbreviated once in the post.

[tbyg52]

8. I believe it's Voter Verified Paper Ballots

It used to be Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) back when people thought maybe they could trust the machines if only there were paper involved. It seems like the movement is toward hand-counted ballots, with some support for scanners (although those are hackable also). Heck, *anything's* hackable--it's just *so* easy with those DRE's (Direct Recording Electronic machines).

[Peggy Day]

15. I agree

[rosesaylavee]

4. What's the reason for his decision? n/t

[Bill Bored]

7. Nominated! What's the latest on keeping those lever machines?

Did that quack judge Pelligrini ever explain his ruling, or actually make one? Are there any other suits in progress?

[demodonkey]

12. The Levers are in the scrap metal pile already. PA has mostly paperless DREs.

:cry:

http://www.dos.state.pa.us/voting/cwp/view.asp?a=1218&Q=446365

And it was Pellegrini who ruled FOR us -- IN FAVOR of the voters' right to a referendum to decide whether or not to have electronic voting. Here is a timeline up to that ruling:
http://www.votepa.us/newsarchive/westmoreland-suit-timeline.html

The PA State Supreme Court ruled against us after less than 24 hours deliberation and THEY finally issued a rather long and stupid opinion IN JULY:
http://www.courts.state.pa.us/OpPosting/Supreme/out/J-79-2006pco.pdf

The PA Governor Ed Rendell asked for, then later commended them for, the quick decision:
http://www.state.pa.us/papower/cwp/view.asp?Q=450264&A=11&papowerNav=|29888|&pp=3
http://www.state.pa.us/papower/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=450474&papowerNav=|30600|&pp=12&n=1

And demodonkey was so PO'ed about this that she ran for Democratic State Committee to hold his and the rest of the Dems feet to the fire:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=175&topic_id=9987
http://www.votekuznik.com
She won a seat with 14,688 votes -- on ES&S iVotronics!

:rofl:

[Bill Bored]

13. Thanks for the update. How did I miss all this?

Last I heard, Pelligrini had not given his decision and you were still waiting for it. That was around Primary time I guess. Sorry about the supremes and apologies to Judge Pellegrini. (I'm sure he reads DU and will not be too upset once he sees both posts.) ;)

Congratulations on winning your election!

[Melissa G]

9. K&R! maybe this should be cross posted in the PA forum?

[Peace Patriot]

10. Republicans can only get elected these days if they run as Democrats?!!

That's one meme to get started.

Here's another: Republicans can only get elected when Bushite corporations own the TRADE SECRET CODE by which the votes are counted, and they are especially "electable" if there is no paper record of the "vote."

[OregonBlue]

11. Needs a call from Chris Van Hollen and other Dem leaders. Does this

guy hope to be re-elected? K & R and get those emails, phone calls happening!!

[Junkdrawer]

14. Penndems posted a great link to a blog that investigates the money links:

http://voicepa.blogspot.com/2007/01/representative-caltagirone-and-speaker.html

Basically Caltagirone, Republican Speaker Perzel, and Gov. Rendell are helping a bank's directors from being replaced by the stockholders.

Originally posted here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3013626&mesg_id=3013933

[Junkdrawer]

16. Dems to rally against lawmaker's 'treason'

State Democrats, still hung over from Republican maneuvering that may continue Rep. John Perzel's hold on the House speaker's chair, will hold rallies today in Reading and tomorrow in Harrisburg to highlight what they're calling the "political treason" of one of their own.

The rallies are billed as a show of "support for the will of the voters" by state Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney, who called on Rep. Tom Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat, to vote for Greene County Democrat H. William DeWeese as speaker or resign.

Mr. Caltagirone announced over the weekend that he will support Mr. Perzel, a Republican who has held the speaker's gavel since March 2003, instead of Mr. DeWeese, whom he characterized as "petty" and "vindictive" in a letter he sent to fellow House Democrats.

"Caltagirone sold out to Perzel and the House Republicans," Mr. Rooney said. "He now has two options: He should remain in the Democratic fold, or resign his seat immediately and switch his political affiliation to Republican -- which he in essence has done with this decision -- and run for the seat during a special election."

...

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/07001/750447-85.stm