Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed- 5/11/07 FBI Helps to Clear GOP Pundit Of Voter Fraud

[kpete]

FBI AGENT may have helped get Ann Coulter off voting fraud charge.Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed- 5/11/07


Kpete posting for Rumpel today - PLEASE EVERYONE HELP OUT

FBI agent steps into Coulter voting case

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 11, 2007

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has been cleared of allegations that she falsified her Palm Beach County voter's registration and voted illegally — this, after a high-level FBI agent made unsolicited phone calls to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office to vouch for Coulter.

The caller wasn't just any G-man. According to PBSO documents, he was Supervisory Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald, of the FBI Academy's Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Va. — the closest reality gets to the serial-killer catchers on CBS' Criminal Minds.

So why would an FBI profiler who went after the Unabomber take time from his busy day to even think about a municipal election snafu?

Fitzgerald is mum. But when the bureau heard about this from Page Two, it immediately launched an internal review of the agent's involvement.

"We're looking into it," bureau spokeswoman Ann Todd said.

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palmbeachpost.com%2Flocalnews%2Fcontent%2Flocal_news%2Fepaper%2F2007%2F05%2F11%2Fm2a_jose_col_0511.html


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[kpete]

1. Court Case Held as Candidate Banks on House Action in Disputed Florida 13 Race

Court Case Held as Candidate Banks on House Action in Disputed Florida 13 Race
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print By Rachel Kapochunas, CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY
Published: May 10, 2007

Bolstered by a House Administration Committee task force’s recent decision to investigate her protest of the 2006 election results in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, Democrat Christine Jennings has at least temporarily shelved her efforts to persuade the Florida courts to overturn the certified victory of Republican Vern Buchanan.

Capitol Hill Congressional Quarterly Free Newsletters Jennings on Wednesday filed a motion in the First District Court of Appeal in Florida to stay her appeal of a lower-court ruling against her, stating that “issues of practicality and timing weigh heavily in favor of deferring to the House investigation.” Jennings also noted that under the Constitution, Congress has the right to override the courts in determining the outcomes of elections.

Jennings and her staff have repeatedly expressed their frustrations with the Florida courts since filing an appeal in January requesting access to the source codes of electronic voting machines used in her November contest, for which the Florida secretary of state certified Buchanan as the winner by 369 votes.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/05/10/cq_2704.html

[kpete]

2. SEC subpoenas voting machine maker Diebold

SEC subpoenas voting machine maker Diebold
Diebold, in a formal SEC inquiry, is required to produce documents on how it recognizes revenue.
May 10 2007: 1:00 PM EDT


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Diebold Inc., one of the world's largest makers of electronic voting machines and automated teller machines, said Thursday it received a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena in March seeking documents related to how the company recognizes revenue.

The North Canton, Ohio, company said it is responding to the subpoena and continuing to cooperate with the SEC. It disclosed the subpoena in its quarterly report filed with the agency.

Rage against the machine
Diebold announced last May the SEC had opened an informal inquiry in the matter, and three months later said the agency upgraded the probe to formal status, which gives the SEC subpoena power.

In March 2006, Diebold (up $0.10 to $47.91, Charts) said it would reduce fourth-quarter 2005 revenue by $7 million and net income by $4.2 million, or 6 cents per share, to defer some election systems revenue into future periods. It said it would recognize the deferred revenue and associated earnings between 2007 and 2010.

more at:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/10/news/companies/diebold.reut/?postversion=2007051012

[kpete]

3. Voting integrity questioned

Voting integrity questioned

May 10, 2007
By John Byrne Post-Tribune staff writer


CROWN POINT -- Forty years after he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Gary, Richard Hatcher spent the early morning Wednesday sweating out his daughter's victory in the Democratic Gary City Council primary.
Computer problems at the Lake County Elections and Voter Registration Office delayed results from the municipal primaries until 1 a.m., seven hours after polls closed.

When the tallies finally rolled off the copier, Hatcher was jubilant. Ragen was comfortably in the third spot in at-large voting, where the top three go to the council.

Despite the good news, Hatcher questioned the lack of transparency in Lake County's voting system.

more at:
http://www.post-trib.com/news/379466,lccomputer.article

[kpete]

4. Bush Administration Pushed Partisan Claims of Voter Fraud

Bush Administration Pushed Partisan Claims of Voter Fraud
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 05/11/2007 - 11:30am. Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

DNC Press

Washington, DC - As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies before the House Judiciary Committee, news reports uncover a ninth United State's Attorney who was dismissed by the Justice Department. According to the Washington Post the federal prosecutor from Missouri, who bumped heads with the White House over his failure to prosecute unwarranted charges of voter fraud, was temporarily replaced by a Justice Department attorney who aggressively worked to criminalize activists for voter registration efforts.

This is the fourth known case of the Bush Administration attempting to use the Justice Department in a partisan effort to prosecute false voter fraud cases. Previous stories reported that the Washington and New Mexico prosecutors may have been dismissed for failing to prosecute the Administration's politically motivated voter fraud cases. And Bush officials complained to the Justice Department about the lack of prosecutions of voter fraud in Wisconsin. In addition, the Administration used the non-partisan Election Assistance Commission to revise a comprehensive report that found that there was little evidence of voter fraud.

"The Bush Administration's unrelenting focus on overhyping voter fraud, prosecuting legitimate voter registration efforts and politicizing of the Justice Department continues to become clearer," said Democratic National Committee Voting Rights Chair Donna Brazile. "And the continued trickling of news about the Administration's unprecedented efforts to pressure U.S. Attorneys to prosecute phony voter fraud cases is unacceptable. The American people deserve a Justice Department free from partisan taint that protects voters from harassment and intimidation when they head to the polls."

more at:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/243

[FogerRox]

5. PA: Watchdog group blasts county over touch-screen voting machines

Watchdog group blasts county over touch-screen voting machines
Coalition for Voting Integrity says savings have not been detailed.

By Scott Kraus Of the Morning Call

As voters prepare to cast ballots May 15, members of an electronic voting watchdog group assailed Bucks County officials Wednesday for refusing to detail how new Danaher touch-screen machines will save taxpayers $600,000 over the next 10 years compared with other technology.

Representatives of the Coalition for Voting Integrity have requested detailed cost estimates -- referred to in a 2006 report on the county's voting machine options -- at the last several county commissioner meetings.

On Wednesday, coalition member Sandra Schiff of Doylestown complained the county had denied the group the records.

''This seems to me to be quite an example of of lack of openness and transparency,'' said Schiff, whose group favors optical vote scanners that provide a voter-verified paper ballot.

But county officials said the detailed estimates simply don't exist.

More:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/quakertown/all-b1_2commish.5841376may10,0,5288987.story?coll=all-newslocalquakertown-hed

[FogerRox]

6. Ohio:

Justice: Trial Judge Can't Hear Election Worker's Retrial Request

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer
disqualified a judge from hearing requests for new trials from two
Cuyahoga County election workers sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan presided over the January trial of election workers Jacqueline Maiden and Kathleen Dreamer, who were convicted of rigging a recount during the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review of the votes.

Moyer's opinion, released Sunday, said a different judge should hear the workers' requests for new trials because of Corrigan's relationship with Charles Hannan Jr., an assistant county prosecutor who appeared in the women's original trial to argue against a defense request to have county prosecutor Bill Mason testify.

More:

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3179358&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[kpete]

7. Messing with elections cuts to the heart of a democracy

Messing with elections cuts to the heart of a democracy
by clammyc
Fri May 11, 2007 at 11:44:21 AM PDT

Yes, there has been much discussion over the past few years about the suddenly "way off base" exit polls (2004) and shady "recounts" (Ohio 2004), last minute massive shifts in polls (Georgia 2002), "irregularities" (2000, 2002 and 2004), general voter disenfranchisement, jamming of phone banks (New Hampshire) or destruction of voter registrations. But most of the country explains that away as something that happens every election (frequently citing Chicago, 1960 as one example) and something that, while pretty crappy, happens.


But what if the American public is presented with not just these statistics, general allegations, anecdotal stories of vote flipping or easily hackable voting machines and other first or second hand accounts of experiences by voters on election day, but also specific examples of a massive effort conducted by the highest levels of the Bush administration with tacit approval by the republican Congressional majority that the entire election system was being gamed from the inside?


Because, folks, this is the big enchilada – this is the most basic premise of a democracy – the ability of We the People to vote for our leaders (however flawed the nominating process is), to know that our votes will be counted and to not have the government working ACTIVELY against that premise. However, this is what we have here – the Bush administration, the Justice Department, its’ Voting Rights Section and the Republican National Committee (among others) using its power to subvert the electoral process.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/11/143814/739

[rumpel]

8. thank you, kpete

:kick: & r