Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday, 4/11/2008

[Mnemosyne]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.







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Good afternoon! :hi:

[Mnemosyne]

1. National. n't

[Mnemosyne]

2. Why don't people vote?

Why don't people vote?

By Amy Longsdorf | Special to The Morning Call
April 11, 2008

When filmmaker Lulu Fries'dat rolled into the Lehigh Valley, the first thing that caught her attention were the flags.

''I'd never seen so many American flags in my entire life,'' she recalls. ''It felt very American. I've lived in big cities on the West Coast and the East Coast but Allentown had this all-American town feel to it. I knew instantly I was in the right place.''

A freelance editor and producer whose work has appeared on PBS, NBC and Fox, Fries'dat came to the Lehigh Valley in 2004 to shoot ''Holler Back: Voting in an American Town,'' a non-partisan documentary that probes the mysteries of voter apathy.

On Saturday ''Holler Back'' will have its Pennsylvania premiere at the Philadelphia Film Festival, hot on the heels of winning the best documentary prize at Florida's Sunscreen Film Festival in its first public showing.

http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/all-hollerback.6349559apr11,0,1665010.story?track=rss

[Mnemosyne]

3. U.S. Presidential Election Can Be Hacked

U.S. Presidential Election Can Be Hacked
This year, the U.S. will pick a new president using electronic voting machines that can be hacked, security experts said...

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
April 11, 2008

This year, the U.S. will pick a new president using electronic voting machines that can be hacked, security experts said Thursday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

As the November election approaches, the question before officials is not how to fix known bugs in their e-voting systems, but rather, how best to check them for fraud, said David Wagner, an associate professor with the University of California, Berkeley's computer science department.

Wagner was part of the team that audited California's voting systems during the state's review of electronic voting, and the problems his team found affect counties across the U.S. "The three systems we looked at are three of the most widely used around the nation," he said during an e-voting panel discussion at the show. "They're going to be using them in the 2008 elections; they're still going to have the same vulnerabilities we found."

With images of Florida's laborious 2000 presidential recount in their minds, county officials have spent billions over the past eight years on electronic voting systems. These systems are supposed to take the guesswork out of vote-counting. The problem is that they are insecure, and now states are being forced to make do with buggy equipment, panel members agreed. "We have spent billions of dollars on equipment," Wagner said. "We don't have another several billion dollars."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=4630624

[Mnemosyne]

23. Discussion started by swag here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3145069

[Mnemosyne]

4. Where were you when you learned e-voting was unreliable?

Where were you when you learned e-voting was unreliable?

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco

Published Friday 11th April 2008 08:56 GMT

Nail down your security priorities. Ask the experts and your peers at The Register Security Debate, September 24, 2008

RSA Applications security expert Hugh Thompson remembers his introduction to e-voting systems like it was yesterday. So do computer scientists David Wagner and Doug Jones. What made the experience stand out for all three was the machines' surprising lack of security.

For Thompson, the epiphany came after a conference a few years ago when someone asked him to inspect a widely used machine to see if it could be hacked.

"Things can't be as bad as I've heard rumors about them being," Thompson recalled thinking before he delved in.

In fact, he was wrong. He found two holes that were so gaping they could have allowed someone to secretly throw an election.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/11/evoting_panel/

[Mnemosyne]

5. Expert says flawed e-voting systems need constant audits

April 10, 2008 2:02 PM PDT

Expert says flawed e-voting systems need constant audits

Posted by Elinor Mills

Elections departments around the country have spent millions on electronic voting systems that are flawed and officials aren't about to throw them out and start all over. The only solution is to conduct audits to verify the count after every election, a researcher and expert on electronic voting said at RSA 2008 on Thursday.

David Wagner, computer science professor at University of California, Berkeley, led a state of California-commissioned study last year of the three major electronic voting systems. The study found serious vulnerabilities in each system that would allow someone with access to just one of the machines to spread a virus that would infect all the other machines in the system and essentially control the outcome, he said in a panel discussion electronic voting.

The systems have architectural weaknesses, implementation flaws, and defects, similar to problems in commercial software that isn't designed with security in mind, according to Wagner.

"This puts our election officials in a terrible position," he said, adding that officials are stuck using the machines. As a result, audits are the only solution.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9916426-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

[Mnemosyne]

6. States. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

7. Something is rotten in the state of New Jersey

New Jersey voting machines are subpoenaed for testing

Something is rotten in the state of New Jersey

By Egan Orion: Thursday, 10 April 2008, 11:51 AM

YESTERDAY a court subpoenaed electronic voting machines in six New Jersey counties that had exhibited discrepancies during the recent primary election.

Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg ordered the counties' elections officials to produce the machines no later than next Tuesday for testing by an independent computer expert.

Elections clerks had discovered vote tabulation discrepancies in 60 machines when they checked vote tallies following New Jersey's presidential primary held on February 5th. The counts of Democratic and Republican voters recorded on cartridge printouts didn't match the paper tape backups inside the machines.

Voting activists opposed to "black box" touch screen electronic voting machines then sought to have the machines examined. Representing them, Penny Venetis of the Rutgers University law clinic argued, "We're entitled to this. In order to succeed in our case and show Sequoia machines are insecure and can be hacked into, we need to look at these machines."

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/jersey-voting-machines

[Mnemosyne]

8. OH: David Stucki asks that election complaint against Dixie Park be dismissed by Ohio Elections

David Stucki asks that election complaint against Dixie Park be dismissed by Ohio Elections board

Nancy Whitaker
11 hours ago

By NANCY WHITAKER

The Review

A lawyer for David Stucki, senior judge of Stark County Family Court, has filed a request with the Ohio Elections Commission requesting Stucki's election complaint against Dixie Park, Stark County Probate Court judge, be dismissed.

The request was filed Tuesday by Donald J. McTigue of the McTigue Law Group in Columbus.

Phil Richter, executive director of the Ohio Elections Commission, said he will present the request when the commission meets at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Richter had previously recommended dismissal of the complaint to the commission. Commission members decided not to dismiss the complaint at that time. A hearing date had been set for June 26.

http://www.the-review.com/news/article/3614951

[Mnemosyne]

9. PA: Electronic Voting Machines to Get Tested Before Shipment

Posted: Friday, 11 April 2008 6:47AM

Electronic Voting Machines to Get Tested Before Shipment

by KYW's Mike DeNardo

Philadelphia's electronic voting machines will be inspected Friday morning before they're shipped out for the April 22nd primary.

Voting machines at the city's Wissahickon Avenue warehouse will be tested Friday to be sure they're working properly. The city has 3,500 electronic voting machines, and after they're given the once-over, they'll be trucked out to nearly 1,700 voting divisions by primary day, says deputy city commissioner Fred Voigt:

"It takes ten days to actually deliver all of the machines. They go to schools, public buildings, recreation centers, private dwellings. So it's a complicated process."

Only a fraction of the machines will actually be inspected, though. Representatives of the city Board of Elections and volunteers from the Committee of seventy will examine two machines from each of the city's 66 wards.

http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/1986842.php?contentType=4&contentId=1870841

[Mnemosyne]

10. The Youth Vote. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

11. John Baer: In Dem primary, will youth vote make the difference?

Posted on Fri, Apr. 11, 2008


John Baer: In Dem primary, will youth vote make the difference?

By John Baer
Philadelphia Daily News

Daily News Political Columnist


THAT "YOUTH VOTE" you hear so much about?

I wonder if it's here and if it makes a difference.

Seems pretty clear that Campaign '08 overall has been marked by a surge of younger voters.

But here? And impacting the state's April 22 primary?

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080411_John_Baer__In_Dem_primary__will_youth_vote_make_the_difference_.html

[Mnemosyne]

12. OPED/BLOGS/LTTE. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

13. Foreign. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

14. GB: Four charged with election fraud

Four charged with election fraud

Four people have been charged after a police investigation into suspected election fraud.

All four men were charged with an offence of conspiracy to defraud under common law, and offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

They are Altaf Khan, 30, of Knolton Way, Arshad Raja, 52, of Broadmark Road and Mohammed Khan, 45, of Mirador Crescent, all from Slough.

Yasar Mumtaz, 19 of Wellesley Road, Slough, was also charged.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/7341406.stm

[Mnemosyne]

15. Police 'rigged ballot' in Zimbabwe election

Police 'rigged ballot' in Zimbabwe election

Peta Thornycroft
April 12, 2008

THE first solid evidence of ballot rigging in Zimbabwe's presidential election has emerged as a senior policeman claimed that officers marked extra votes for President Robert Mugabe.

Almost two weeks after polling day, with the official result still not revealed, independent monitors say that Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, came first. But the regime's critics believe that the Electoral Commission — chaired by George Chiweshe, a judge and close ally of the President — will announce that Mr Mugabe is leading, although probably falling below the 50% margin needed to avoid a second round.

As tensions ran high, authorities banned all political rallies in the capital, Harare.

The MDC said on Thursday that it would boycott a run-off in the presidential poll if one was declared, adding that Mr Tsvangirai won with a share "much higher" than the 50.3% it claimed last week. The police officer, who cannot be identified for fear of reprisals, said he saw a number of ballot boxes carried into a room at police headquarters in Harare last weekend, seven days after the election.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/police-rigged-ballot-in-zimbabwe-election/2008/04/11/1207856835491.html?s_cid=rss_world

[Mnemosyne]

16. Italy probes possible mafia-linked election fraud

Italy probes possible mafia-linked election fraud

Reuters - Saturday, April 12

ROME - Magistrates have opened an investigation into possible vote rigging by a mafia clan, suspected of tampering with ballots for this weekend's election cast by Italians living abroad, investigators said on Friday.

Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said he had been alerted by investigators in Reggio Calabria, capital of the southern Calabria region which is home to one of Italy's three crime syndicates. He added that controls had been tightened.

Roughly 3 million Italian expatriates are registered to vote for the April 13-14 election. Thursday was the deadline for them to return their ballots by mail to embassies and consular offices.

"I hope consuls never lose sight of those ballots, that they keep them under their beds until they are flown back to Italy on special flights," Amato told reporters on Friday.

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080411/twl-uk-italy-election-fraud-bd5ae06.html

[Mnemosyne]

17. Violence Can't Keep Nepalis From Polls

Violence Can't Keep Nepalis From Polls

posted 4:28 am Thu April 10, 2008 - KATMANDU, Nepal

Nepalis voted Thursday in a historic election that was intended to bring communist insurgents into the country's democratic mainstream and will likely end a monarchy that has ruled for centuries. But violence marred the days preceding the country's first vote in nine years, leaving eight dead, and there were reports of fresh attacks on a candidate and polling stations after voting began.

Voters across the country were undeterred, however, lining up before dawn to cast ballots.

"I came to vote here today believing this process will settle political instability for good," said Mukunda Maraseni, a 40-year-old banker who was waiting to cast his ballot in Katmandu.

The voting is to elect a 601-seat Constituent Assembly, which will govern Nepal and rewrite the country's constitution. It has been touted as the cornerstone of a peace deal struck in 2006 with the Maoists, as the former rebels who fought a decade-long insurgency are known. The deal came after weeks of unrest that forced Nepal's king to end his royal dictatorship.

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0408/510264.html

[Mnemosyne]

18. Nigeria: Will the Court Ever Void a Presidential Election in Nigeria?

Nigeria: Will the Court Ever Void a Presidential Election in Nigeria?

Vanguard (Lagos)

OPINION
11 April 2008
Posted to the web 11 April 2008

Jiti Ogunye
Lagos

By the unprecedented live telecast of the delivery by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, of the judgment in the consolidated petitions of General Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, respectively of the ANPP and AC, against the election of President Umar Musa Yar' Adua, on Tuesday 26th of February 2008, and the extensive reportage of the judgment in the print media, the general public has been able to grasp the details of the judgment.

However, from a case review angle, it may be too early to do a thorough "finding by finding, and holding by holding" analysis of the judgment. This is because the judgment (both the lead and concurring) is not yet available in the law reports for a careful and punctilious digestion. All the same, given what is known of the judgment, from the broadcast and print media report, it is safe to do its concise review, pending a more elaborate review when the judgment is published in the law reports.

Overall, it is our considered view that the judgment of the Court of Appeal, acting as the Tribunal, as erudite as it certainly is, and as obvious as the industry that went into its preparation is, is an unfortunate reversal of the modest progress that has been recorded in recent time in election petition cases under Nigerian law.

The judgment is dogmatically legalistic. It merely followed in the footsteps of the Awolowo v Shagari, Falae v Obasanjo and Buhari v Obasanjo precedents, without heeding the age long adjudicatory admonition that in the application of judicial precedents and principles of law, facts of cases, which are distinguishable, should not be treated as one and the same. In Buhari v Obasanjo( 2005), 13 NWLR. Pt. 941, 1 at Pp 308-309, paras G-C; 311,and paras. D-E, the Supreme Court had held that "an order of cancellation or nullification of the Presidential election should not be made by a tribunal or court without clear, positive credible and overwhelming evidence led to the effect that the entire election was totally flawed nationwide; and that the conduct of the election was in breach of major and very fundamental provisions of the Electoral Act. In the instant case, although the appellants sought the setting aside of the entire election on the grounds inter alia of violence, intimidation and breach as of the Electoral Act, they failed to show who was responsible for the violence and intimidation, or how the alleged breach as of the Electoral Act affected the entire outcome of the election, including the result accredited to the 1st Appellant"

http://allafrica.com/stories/200804110547.html

[Mnemosyne]

19. Thai Vote Agency Proceeds With Poll Fraud Cases Vs 2 Parties

Thai Vote Agency Proceeds With Poll Fraud Cases Vs 2 Parties


BANGKOK -(Dow Jones)- Thailand's Election Commission decided Friday to proceed with vote fraud cases against two medium-sized coalition parties, which could result in their dissolution, an official at the agency said.

The EC's decision is likely to be viewed as a precedent for a poll fraud case involving the People Power Party, which is the biggest party in the coalition and packed with allies of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The commission will forward the cases to the Office of the Attorney General, who has 30 days to file them with the Constitutional Court, the official told Dow Jones Newswires.

Investigations by the commission have found that executives from the Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya parties committed election fraud during campaigning for the December 2007 national elections.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20080411%5cACQDJON200804110647DOWJONESDJONLINE000558.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=Thai%20Vote%20Agency%20Proceeds%20With%20Poll%20Fraud%20Cases%20Vs%202%20Parties

[Mnemosyne]

20. Thai body rules parties guilty of violating election law

Thai body rules parties guilty of violating election law

The Associated Press
Published: April 11, 2008

BANGKOK, Thailand: Thailand's state Election Commission ruled Friday that two parties in the country's ruling coalition violated electoral law, and will seek to have them disbanded.

The decision is a potentially serious blow against the six party coalition government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, which took office in February.

The commission announced that it had voted that executives of the Chart Thai and Matchima Thiptaya parties had committed electoral fraud in connection with last December's general election.

It will seek to have the Constitutional Court rule on whether to disband the parties, said its spokesman, Ruangrote Jomsueb. He said the election commissioners voted 4-1 to seek to have the parties disbanded. They will forward their decision to the attorney general's office, which has 30 days to file the case in court.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/11/asia/AS-POL-Thailand-Political-Parties.php

[Mnemosyne]

21. Back later! n/t

[EFerrari]

22. Thanks, vickiss!

:kick:

[Kurovski]

24. JUST ONE MORE RECOMMENDATION to go!

Thanks, mighty vickiss! :bounce:

[CelticWinter]

25. Off to the greatest K&R

:hi:

[Kurovski]

26. Thank you!

:-)