Election Reform and Related News, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008

[livvy]

Election Reform and Related News
Saturday, February 23, 2008

Your participation is most warmly encouraged and welcomed. Please feel free to:


:redbox: Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

:redbox: Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

:redbox: Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

:redbox: Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.

Recommendations for the Greatest Page are always welcomed. It's the link below.

[livvy]

1. States n/t

[livvy]

2. GOP Complains About Brunner 'Rampage'

GOP complains about Brunner 'rampage'
Feb 23, 2008

Ohio Republicans are criticizing Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for an "undemocratic rampage."

The complaint relates to Brunner's decision this week not to reappoint three members to county boards of elections in the state for various reasons.

Kevin DeWine, deputy chairman of the Ohio GOP, complained that Brunner was "overzealous" and wrong to remove James L. Crates, a member of the Hardin County Board of Elections.

Brunner did not support the reappointment of Crates to a new term starting March 1 because he publicly refused to follow her directive that counties with touch-screen systems provide paper ballots for voters at the polls who request one in the March 4 primary.

more

http://blog.dispatch.com/dailybriefing/2008/02/gop_complains_about_brunner_ra.shtml

[livvy]

3. CO: Clerks Hold Out Hope For Optical Scanner

Clerks hold out hope for optical scanner

By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Daily Press Senior Writer

Published/Last Modified on Saturday, February 23, 2008 4:11 AM MST



DENVER — County clerks are crossing their fingers in hopes Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman will re-certify optical scanning equipment.

“Now we’re just waiting,” Montrose County Clerk and Recorder Fran Tipton Long said Friday, as she returned from a public hearing held in Denver Thursday.

At the hearing, Long and other county clerks asked Coffman to reconsider his decision to de-certify most electronic voting equipment used in the state, including Hart InterCivic equipment used in Montrose County.

Coffman de-certified some equipment from three of four vendors in December 2007. All four vendors were required to undergo re-certification after a lawsuit and court order from 2006, concerning electronic voting machines.

Long has already decided to hold a paper-ballot election for 2008.

more...

http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2008/02/23/news/doc47bfc407b9df1876683364.txt

[livvy]

4. CA: State Official Says Few Delays Resulted From Ballot Decision

State official says few delays resulted from ballot decision
Super Tuesday tally was on time despite some shifts to paper ballots, Secretary of State says
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
STAFF WRITER

Article Launched: 02/23/2008 03:05:23 AM PST


Predictions of widespread delays in posting results of the Feb. 5 presidential primary due to a shift to paper ballots in nearly two dozen counties failed to materialize, said California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

"In 57 of 58 counties, the election results came in roughly at the same time as they had in previous elections," Bowen told a crowd of several hundred people at the Lamorinda Democratic Club on Thursday night in Walnut Creek.

In front of a visibly supportive crowd, the secretary delivered a lively and humorous speech on a broad range of election topics including the presidential primary, unprecedented turnout, voting machine security and ways to attract pollworkers.

She outlined fixes to problems of the past election, such as the lack of a notification system in the event of a court order that extends poll hours.

more...

http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics/ci_8345102

[livvy]

5. WI: 53 Ballots Left Uncounted in Town of Algoma

Posted February 23, 2008

53 ballots left uncounted in town of Algoma

By Amanda M. Wimmer
of The Northwestern

Fifty-three ballots from the town of Algoma were not originally counted in Tuesday's primary election, which will force the Oshkosh school district's board of canvassers to reconvene early next week to make the new voting results official.


The same four of the original six candidates for Oshkosh school board will still go forward to the April general election: Michelle Monte, Ben Schneider II, Tom McDermott and John Lemberger. However, because of Tuesday's incident, each earned more votes than originally reported.


Winnebago County Clerk Sue Ertmer said a discrepancy was noticed after 2,058 voters were listed on the statement of votes cast, while voting machine records showed only 2,005 paper ballots had been counted.


Algoma town attorney Robert Wertsch said the ballots had been fed into the voting machine but were not recorded because a machine malfunctioned early in the day Tuesday.


Algoma Deputy Clerk Charlotte Nelson reported at that time that a printer and an optical scan roller were broken, but the uncounted ballots weren't discovered until Thursday.

more...

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080223/OSH0101/802230412/1128/OSHnews

[livvy]

7. FL: Democrats Hot and Bothered Over Delegates

Democrats hot and bothered over delegates
Posted on Sat, Feb. 23, 2008

BY BETH REINHARD
[e-mail]
In one week, a few thousand Florida Democrats will trudge to their local high school, union hall or community center to cast ballots in a Saturday morning election most voters will never hear about.

The vote will select the political junkies who get to go to the presidential nominating convention. Typically the process merits little excitement.

Not this year.

With the Democratic National Committee refusing to seat Florida delegates because of the state's out-of-bounds presidential primary, activists are threatening to go to the barricades to get into the August convention in Denver.

''If we have to take fire axes, we will,'' declared Kristin Wipior, a board member of the Democrats of South Dade, her fighting words echoing off the mellow walls of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Miami at a meeting this week.

About 180 people from Miami-Dade applied to be delegates this year, more than ever before. Nearly 1,000 applied statewide.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/418/story/429789.html

[livvy]

8. VA: Chesterfield's Election Count OK, Officials Say

Chesterfield's election count OK, officials say

Saturday, Feb 23, 2008 - 12:09 AM

By WESLEY P. HESTER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Chesterfield County election officials said yesterday that they have accounted for all votes and voters in last week's presidential primary election. They say a state review panel incorrectly read the county's results.

The State Board of Elections had asked the Chesterfield Electoral Board to review its tabulation of the election results after the state review found that more votes had been cast in the Feb. 12 election than the number of voters who showed up at the polls.

Chesterfield Electoral Board Chairman John N. Clifford said yesterday that was not the case.

"When you look at all the details we have, in fact, the number of ballots counted would be the same as the number of voters," Clifford said.

Chesterfield's election process came under scrutiny after nine precincts ran out of Democratic ballots. Election officials allowed 299 voters to cast their ballots by writing their votes on blank pieces of paper. Officials said there was unprecedented turnout for the Democratic primary contest between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

more...

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/politics.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-02-23-0149.html

[livvy]

9. OH: Supreme Court to Decide on Paper Ballots

Supreme Court to decide on paper ballots
Friday, February 22, 2008 8:57 PM
By RANDY LUDLOW

COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The Ohio Supreme Court is being asked to set aside Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's order that counties make paper ballots available to primary voters on March 4.

The Union County commissioners today asked the justices to rule quickly on their appeal.

The court ordered that evidence and other paperwork be filed by Thursday, meaning a ruling could come only days before the primary.

The commissioners contend Brunner has no authority to order the county to spend $86,000 to offer and count optical-scan paper ballots cast by voters who don't want to use touch-screen voting machines.

Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Eric Brown dismissed the county's lawsuit on Tuesday, ruling that the commissioners had no authority to challenge Brunner's order.

more...

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/02/22/union_county.html

[livvy]

18. NJ: County Finds Vote Errors-Discrepancies Discovered in 5% of Machines

County finds vote errors
Discrepancies discovered in 5% of machines
Saturday, February 23, 2008
BY ROBERT STERN

Five percent of the 600 electronic voting machines used in Mercer County during the Feb. 5 presidential primary recorded inaccurate voter turnout totals, county officials said yesterday.

County officials said the miscues did not affect the election re sults but expressed renewed concerns over the reliability of the machines.

"I am deeply concerned about the discrepancies seen in the vot ing returns from the Sequoia vot ing machines in this month's New Jersey primary elections," Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes wrote in a letter yesterday to state Attorney General Anne Milgram.

"Although the discrepancies do not affect the outcome of the election, it certainly undermines the confidence in the voting public when they hear that the reliability of the electric voting machines is in question," Hughes wrote.

Problems with the numbers cropped up in 30 of Mercer Coun ty's 600 Sequoia Voting Systems machines, Hughes said.

more...



http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1203743162158020.xml&coll=5

[livvy]

19. TX: Democratic Race Attracts Early Voters in Record Numbers

Feb. 22, 2008, 11:33PM
Democratic race attracts early voters in record numbers
Turnout of early ballots has already exceeded entire voting turnout in 2004 primary


By MATT STILES
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Harris County residents have cast a record number of early ballots this week, propelled largely by a fiercely competitive Democratic presidential contest, elections and political observers say.

After just four days of early voting, which began Tuesday and ends Feb. 29, the number of in-person votes has surpassed the total cast in early voting in the 2004 presidential primary.

As of the end of voting Friday, 50,997 voters — 38,214 Democrats and 12,783 Republicans — had been to the polls. A total of 35,381 voters cast ballots in person during the entire 2004 early voting period.

Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, who can track electronic voting in real time, said she was surprised to see the first-day turnout was nearly three times that of the 2004 primary.

"I've never seen anything like it. I really haven't," she said. "When I looked at 10:30 a.m., and we've already voted 3,000 people, I said, 'Holy cow. We're going to have some turnout.' "

more...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5563949.html

[sonias]

27. Yes we matter

We love being Texans this year. What a catalyst to change in Texas.


:woohoo:


Sonia

[livvy]

29. Hat's off to Texas...

and to "good peoples" everywhere!

[livvy]

22. AK: Lawyer Advised Young's Silence

Lawyer advised Young's silence
EXPENSES: Dowd's firm has been paid from campaign funds.

By SEAN COCKERHAM
[e-mail] | [e-mail]

Published: February 23rd, 2008 12:32 AM
Last Modified: February 23rd, 2008 05:26 AM

A heavy-hitting Washington, D.C., lawyer emerged Friday to publicly defend Alaska Congressman Don Young from criticism that he's not coming clean on his legal bills.

Young is running for re-election and has repeatedly refused to say how he spent $854,045 in campaign funds on legal fees last year. John Dowd, an attorney who specializes in representing high-profile politicians in legal trouble, told the Daily News on Friday that Young is doing what he told him to.

Young himself still wasn't talking Friday. He was scheduled to have a news conference in Wasilla but canceled it after his staffers tried to ban Daily News reporters from attending and the reporters refused to leave.

Young has been under investigation for his ties to Veco Corp., for fundraising activities and for his role in specific congressional earmarks, according to various media reports. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday that Young owes the public an explanation for why he's spending people's campaign contributions on legal expenses.

more...

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/323257.html

[livvy]

24. IN: Delaware County Election Board Investigates Ballot Difference

Delaware County Election Board investigates ballot difference
For unknown reasons, a ballot count certified by the election board after the November election and a ballot count certified by the recount commission in December are different.

By NICK WERNER
[e-mail]
Saturday, February 23, 2008

MUNCIE -- Thirty-seven absentee ballots in the November general election were unaccounted for in the December recount and the Delaware County Election Board wants to know why.

The election board certified 12,458 ballots during its Nov. 16 hearing, 10 days after the general election.


The recount commission filed a certificate with Delaware Circuit Court 3 on Dec. 20 that it had counted 12,421 ballots.

"Something is not adding up," said Mike White, a Democrat who brought the difference to the attention of the election board.
The total ballot count is an inventory of all ballots presented to the recount commission and should match the number of ballots certified after the election.

more...

http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080223/NEWS01/802230358/1002

[livvy]

26. LA: 3rd-Party Disclosure Bills Pass House

3rd-party disclosure bills pass House
Groups' election fliers would need clear ID
Saturday, February 23, 2008
By Jan Moller

BATON ROUGE -- Key parts of Gov. Bobby Jindal's ethics agenda moved closer to final passage Friday as the House signed off on a pair of bills designed to force greater disclosure by third-party groups that seek to influence elections.

Other bills pushed by the governor are on their way to his desk for his signature, as legislators also signed off on bills requiring all public servants to undergo yearly training on ethics, to change the makeup of the Board of Ethics and to bar political candidates from filing for re-election if they owe outstanding ethics fines to the board.

The third-party bills by Sen. Rob Marionneaux Jr., D-Livonia, are designed to require more transparency by independent groups that send out mailers or air "issue" ads that often are thinly disguised commercials supporting or opposing a candidate.

Senate Bill 14 would require third-party groups to identify themselves clearly on any mailers or other advertisements they produce and disclose whether they have any ties to a candidate or political committee. The bill passed, 100-1, with the lone dissenting vote coming from Rep. Walker Hines, D-New Orleans, who questioned whether it can pass constitutional muster and said the state could rack up large legal bills if the measure is challenged.

more...

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-5/120374880251080.xml&coll=1

[livvy]

6. National n/t

[livvy]

21. Congressman Renzi Indicted on Extortion, Other Charges....

Congressman Renzi indicted on extortion, other charges; land deal in Cochise County tied to some charges

By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX — Rick Renzi has been charged with extortion and other crimes after he allegedly used his position as a member of Congress — and specifically the House Natural Resources Committee — to engineer a land sale that ultimately would put money into his pocket.

The 35-count indictment, unveiled Friday, also contends that Renzi, in the year before first being elected to Congress in 2002, embezzled more than $400,000 from clients of his insurance agency. Some of that cash, the charges state, ultimately was used for his successful campaign to represent Congressional District 1 which stretches from the state’s northern border through Flagstaff and eastern Arizona down to the Pima-Pinal county line.

snip...

The indictment also caps an investigation that has taken years and may have played a role in the 2006 firing of Paul Charlton, who had been the U.S. Attorney for Arizona. Questions had been raised about whether Charlton was forced out by the Department of Justice.

Charlton himself told House investigators last year that his office had received a call from Brian Murray, Renzi’s chief of staff, about the investigation. That followed a raid by the FBI on the offices of an insurance company in Sonoita owned by Renzi’s wife — a company that Renzi put in her name in early 2004, after the alleged embezzlement had taken place.

more...

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/02/23/news/doc47bfc126b2269094193255.txt

[livvy]

23. McCain's Campaign Finance Trap

McCain's Campaign Finance Trap
Will Federal Funding Stymie McCain While Other Candidates Keep Spending Big?

By LIZ MARLANTES, BEN KROLOWITZ and OLIVIA STERNS
Feb. 23, 2008

Now flush with cash, Sen. John McCain wants to forego public financing, but after requesting it last year he may now not be allowed to opt out.

Last fall, when John McCain's campaign was almost broke and struggling to raise the type of money his competitors were, he asked the Federal Election Commission for public money. Now that he's the Republican front-runner, rapdily raising money, the Arizona Senator is in a bind.

On Thursday the Federal Election Commission sent McCain a letter saying that he may be required to use the public funding, and thereby abide by campaign spending limits.

"Now he wants to withdraw from public financing. The Federal Election Commission said, 'not so fast'," said Lawrence Norton, former General Council of the FEC.

more...

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/story?id=4333948&page=1

[livvy]

25. Complaint Filed Against Pro-Clinton Special Interest Group

(See...there's fighting going on outside of GD-P!)

Complaint filed against pro-Clinton special interest group
Posted by Mark [e-mail] February 23, 2008 10:10AM

Attorney and Barack Obama supporter Subodh Chandra has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commissions against a new special interest group that plans to promote Hillary Clinton in the Buckeye State.

Chandra charges that the group, the American Leadership Project, is violating campaign finance and reporting laws because it plans to exclusively run "sham issue ads" promoting Clinton, violating elections law that prohibits independent groups from directly promoting a candidate.

The California-based group, made up of a handful of consultants and ad makers, has said it does not violate the law will comply with FEC reporting requirements.

Chandra, citing the looming March 4 primary, has asked FEC to investigate immediately.

(That's the whole piece.)

http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/02/complaint_filed_against_procli.html

[livvy]

10. Opinion, Blog, Editorial n/t

[livvy]

11. Five Things to Keep an Eye on in Ohio

Five Things to Keep an Eye on in Ohio

By Edward Foley, Election Law @ Moritz

Posted on February 22, 2008, Printed on February 23, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/77540/

It is widely believed that Ohio's primary on March 4 will play a pivotal role in determining the Democratic candidate for President. If Obama wins the statewide popular vote, the pundits proclaim, his victory likely would propel him to similar success in Pennsylvania (on April 22), and the party's "superdelegates" -- who by all accounts will control the outcome of the party's national convention in Denver -- will fall in line. Conversely, if Clinton prevails in the Ohio primary's popular vote, then she would be expected to do the same in Pennsylvania, and these two victories in states that will be major battlegrounds in the general election campaign will cause the superdelegates to favor her.

Consequently, the conduct of Ohio's election officials in administering the primary vote is now important, not only as a "test run" of technologies and procedures to be used again in November, but also in its own right. While it is the prerogative of the Democratic Party to make what use of the Ohio primary vote as it wishes -- including any significance the superdelegates may find in the results about the electability of these two candidates in the fall -- it remains the responsibility of the state's election officials to manage the casting and counting of primary ballots properly, so that its results are accurate.

Whether we care about the performance of Ohio's election system for one or both of these reasons, what should we look for on March 4 to evaluate whether or not it worked satisfactorily?

Here are five things to keep an eye on. While this short list is inevitably incomplete -- indeed, one important truth about election administration is the need to maintain flexibility given the good chance that something unexpected will occur -- this is a reasonable set of priorities as we come within two weeks of the primary date.

1. Cuyahoga County. Ohio's most populous county has been the source of its biggest electoral problems in recent years, including what was supposed to be an easily administered election just last November. But from officials who fudged a 2004 recount to save time and money, to precincts that were so poorly managed that over 10,000 ballots were cast by voters who never signed in, to misplaced vote tallies from 14% of precincts, to mutilated "paper trails" for a fifth of all votes -- the list of recent failings is so long and so serious that major improvement in Cuyahoga County has been "job one" for Ohio's new Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, who took office last year.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/77540/

[livvy]

12. American Gangsters- Brad Friedman

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 2/22/2008 2:39PM
American Gangsters
-- by Brad Friedman

The U.S. Attorney Purge scandal still ranks, in my estimation, as the key to unlocking almost every other unprecedented domestic (and perhaps even foreign) criminal abuse of power by the White House. The matter strikes at the very heart of the dirty dealings by all of the President's men and, if it were to ever be fully cracked open, would likely display the totality of the blood and guts of the Administration's highly illegal, fully politicized takeover and wholesale abuse of the U.S. criminal justice system.

Little wonder then that the White House has determined to go to the mattresses when it comes to fighting off both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees' investigations into the matter. They've determined they are better off playing chicken with Congress and risking criminal contempt charges (which they believe they can either refuse to enforce via the DoJ, or otherwise pardon the players whenever necessary) by refusing to turn over requested documents to Congress and ordering the refusal to testify by top officials such as Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten.

In order to guard the castle gates, after consigliere Alberto Gonzales could no longer effectively hold off the investigation, they found a man who would play ball for them in AG Michael Mukasey, betting --- correctly --- that Democrats in congress would fold rather than refuse to confirm a man who was, even during Senate hearings, so obviously in the pocket of the White House crime syndicate.

Two stories breaking today each serve as fresh reminders of how much is at stake, and how much is being hidden by the WH stonewalling of the scandal's full investigation. Each of them --- the indictment today of AZ's Republican Rep. Rick Renzi on charges of extortion, wire fraud, and money laundering, and this Sunday's long-awaited 60 Minutes exposé on the Rove/DoJ/WH gang-bang frame-up of Alabama's now-imprisoned Democratic former Governor Don Seigelman --- merely offer salacious clues as to how bad, how corrupt, and how historically unprecedented (in this country, anyway) the illegal machinations at the heart of this scandal really are.

more...

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5729

[livvy]

13. Speak Up If Something Goes Wrong in the Voting Booth

Speak up if something goes wrong in the voting booth
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 3:26pm. Be-Elected


A lot of people have crazy stories when voting. Hard to imagine topping this one, though. -- Chad

You may have missed this story in the hype of voting on Super Tuesday. Given where we are, we couldn't avoid it.

On Super Tuesday, 20 voters in Chicago were given what looked like pens to use on paper ballots. When the voters complained that their responses couldn't be seen and were not recorded, election judges told them it was okay since the "pens" had invisible ink.

They weren't pens; they were plastic styluses meant for touchscreens.

Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader is one of the best reporters in this city, known for corruption, in exposing injustice. And even he couldn't find exactly why judges so grossly misinformed the constituents.

Here are a couple of excerpts from his piece:


An election judge gave her a ballot and a pen, but when (Angela) Burkhardt tried to use it the pen made no mark. When she asked him for another, he told her she didn't need one. And then he uttered the words that will live on in infamy. As Burkhardt recalls it: "He said, 'It's a magic pen' -- his words exactly -- 'that uses invisible ink.'"

No one knows why he said this.


more...

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/election08/086

[livvy]

14. Open, Accurate Electronic Voting? It Can Be Done

(An older article, but interesting)

Open, Accurate Electronic Voting? It Can Be Done.

By Alan Dechert, AlterNet. Posted February 10, 2008.

A Democratic Party election using open-source software proves that honest, verifiable electronic elections are possible.

They said it couldn't be done. That it was impossible to hold an election on electronic voting machines that was open, accountable and accurate. But that was exactly what happened in San Luis Obisbo County, California, where the local Democratic Party held party elections in January using open-source software, meaning there was nothing secret inside the voting machines.

Here's how it happened. The non-profit Open Voting Consortium wanted to avoid the potential threat to honest, verifiable elections that is possible when proprietary, secret software and hardware is used. So it developed a simple, tamper-proof, auditable voting system, using only a PC, a mouse, paper ballot -- and open-source software, which is publicly available software that anyone can get, use or download to check for defects.

The Consortium's volunteers developed the software for the PC based Ubuntu (or Linux) operating system. Ubuntu is free and open-source and, most importantly, is publicly available. On January 12th of this year the software was successfully used in connection with an election.

A mixture of senior citizens and college students cast their votes on printed, bar-coded ballots that were deposited in a carefully guarded voting box and counted as County Clerk-Recorder Julie Rodewald watched. Two hundred and four people signed-in to vote and when the polls closed and the ballot box opened, there were 204 ballots to be tallied. Media representatives from newspaper and television witnessed the entire process from voting to tabulating to public scrutiny of the results.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/77487/

[livvy]

15. World n/t

[livvy]

16. Zimbabwe: Massive Chaos Ahead of Elections

Zimbabwe: Massive Chaos ahead of elections

MASSIVE administrative chaos has marred the run up to March 29 polls raising questions as to whether the elections would be free and fair. Five weeks ahead of the election date, the average voter still in Zimbabwe has to plough through a maze of confused messages coming from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), the state body in charge of elections in Zimbabwe.


Saturday 23 February 2008, by Bruce Sibanda

from our correspondent in Harare

This will be the first time Zimbabweans vote in four different elections at the same time and the sheer scale of the exercise has caused massive administrative bottlenecks that could lead to chaos at the polls on March 29. Each voter will get four different ballots, each a different colour, for elections for local government, the two houses of parliament and president. And with a new localised voters’ roll, voters will be required to vote at prescribed voting stations. But the ZEC has yet to publish a full list of the polling stations.

ZEC spokesperson Mr Utoile Silaigwana says the commission is struggling torecruit enough staff to deploy as voter educators countrywide. “We had planned to use civil servants as voter educators but they are not forthcoming in taking up the post. So our task has been complicated” Mr Silaigwana says they need about 10 000 voter educators. Also to date there are still no accredited election observers on the ground to blow the whistle.

Rules for Obervers and Journalists

The government announced tough rules for foreign observer groups and journalists. Foreign observers and journalists will be allowed into the country, but they will need an “invitation letter” from the ministry of foreign affairs. The government did not say how such a letter could be obtained.

In addition, journalists will need accreditation from the Media and Information Commission — which still regulates the media despite new legislation replacing it with a new body — before the ZEC will authorise them to cover the elections. Journalists and observers from outside Africa will be required to pay US$300 per individual, while the fee for observers and journalists from the region has been set at US$100.

more...

http://en.afrik.com/article12643.html

[livvy]

17. Armenian Opposition Protest Enters Fourth Day

Armenian opposition protest enters fourth day
1 hour ago

YEREVAN (AFP) — Tens of thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated for a fourth day in Armenia's capital Yerevan on Saturday demanding the result of a presidential election be overturned.

Some 35,000 supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian gathered under a sunny sky in the central Freedom Square, waving Armenian flags and chanting "Levon!" "Fight to the End!" and "Unite!"

It was the fourth day of what have been mostly good-tempered protests against the official result of a presidential poll in the ex-Soviet republic last Tuesday, officially won by Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

Later demonstrators planned to march to the headquarters of national public television to protest what they allege has been a lack of coverage of their campaign.

"We're here to fight for our freedom. We will stay and fight until the end. We are already not far from victory. Look how many people are here," one of the protesters, 45-year-old Artur Khachatrian, told AFP.

more...

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwSCEWcsllrMzYI-RQHtzH6KHMFA

[Wilms]

20. Armenia: Planned Presidential Election Exit Poll Creates Controversy, or...Who is the IRI?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=488796

[livvy]

28. Have a great Saturday, everyone!

[Kurovski]

30. Thanks, livvy!

K&R.