Election Reform and Related News: Sunday, June 2, 2008

[livvy]

Election Reform and Related News
Sunday, June 2, 2008



Everyone is welcome to participate. Feel free to:

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

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

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

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

:graybox: 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 best way to share the news with members who don't frequent this forum. It's the link below.

[livvy]

1. OpEd, Opinion, Blog....n/t...but there is a 'toon!

[livvy]

2. What’s the matter with Los Angeles When It Comes to Elections?

What’s the matter with Los Angeles When It Comes to Elections?

By Zack Kaldveer, Sherry Reson, and Don Goldmacher

Recent events during and after the California Primary suggest Los Angeles is in the midst of an electoral crisis. And a crisis for Los Angeles is a crisis for California. With the largest concentration of voters in the State, 18 Congressional Districts are partly or wholly contained in the County, along with 14 State Senators and 26 Assembly-members. The votes cast and counted in Los Angeles County significantly affect the outcome of every state wide election and initiative.

So what’s the problem? Let’s begin with the now infamous “double bubble ballot” responsible for the initial disenfranchisement of over 60,000 “decline to state” (DTS) voters in the February primary. The ballot was designed by former County Registrar Conny McCormack – a woman with close ties to Diebold and an overt hostility to the electoral reforms advocated by Secretary of State Debra Bowen (recent recipient of the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” award).

Conny McCormack and her “Double Bubble Ballot”

How could a ballot (designed by the acting Registrar) disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters – in numerous recent elections - without being detected? McCormack has said it was just “an unfortunate, unanticipated result," which "no one could have predicted." Directly contradicting this assertion is the fact that a staggering 44% of “DTS” voters that used the same “double bubble ballot” in elections prior to the February Primary – and administered by Connie McCormack - never had their vote counted either!

Why didn’t McCormack rectify this problem as Registrar? And why quit her job one month before the largest primary in recent memory without sounding the alarm bells?

more...

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/06/whats_the_matte_1.html

[robinlynne]

21. Fanatstic little article! Thanks Livvy! Conny is in charge of the Puerto Rican primary

which is today... Expect disaster.

[livvy]

3. Florida Internet Voting Plan Is Illegal and Marred by Conflict of Interest Says Critic

By Kim Zetter
May 30, 2008 | 7:35:11 PM

A county in Florida has announced plans to conduct a pilot internet voting project this November for voters who live overseas. The only problem, a critic says, is that the plan is illegal and the voting system slated for the project hasn't been cleared yet with the secretary of state's office, which oversees the certification of voting systems for the state.

The county official behind the plan also has a conflict of interest the critic says -- pointing to the fact that she runs a non-profit foundation established to promote internet voting. According to the Florida Voters Coalition, a voting integrity group, the Florida official's role in the foundation gives her a vested interest in the success of the internet voting project and makes her a less-than-objective judge of the security of the voting system that will be used for the project.

Okaloosa County, Florida, home to thousands of military personnel, announced last December that it planned to conduct internet voting in the November presidential election for Okaloosa voters residing on or near three military bases in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Pat Hollarn, the county's election supervisor whose husband is a retired Air Force pilot, told Threat Level she wanted to launch the project because she'd grown frustrated with the federal government's failed attempts at establishing internet voting for overseas voters. In 2004 the Department of Defense scrapped a $22-million internet voting project known as SERVE after computer scientists tasked with examining the system determined that internet voting wasn't secure.

But Dan McCrea, president of the Florida Voters Coalition, says Hollarn's project violates a 2007 state law that requires all Florida voters, except disabled voters, to cast their votes on paper ballots. Although a 2005 ruling in Florida allows for votes to be transmitted electronically if the secretary of state's office determines the method for doing so is safe, McCrea says the 2007 law makes the previous ruling moot.

more...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/florida-interne.html

[livvy]

4. Secret Ballot = Election Fraud & Civil Rights Violations

May 31, 2008

Secret Ballot = Election Fraud & Civil Rights Violations

By Casey Reed

The secret ballot is a secret no longer. We have found out that when we use a secret ballot, corruption rules. We know from history that identification of the voter with their ballot corrupts the voter. Today, we are struggling with the dilemma of wanting to verify how our vote was really counted and identify the recording and tabulation of our vote in the totals and data base used to determine the election results, and our freedom from persecution by employers, coworkers, or any other public or personal individuals who do not like the way we voted.

I propose we make our society of women and men of all races and cultures who also suffer from various incidents of sexism, racism, and rejection because of their race or gender part of our election reform fight. Civil rights are keyed to the protections of our individual Constitutional rights. The right to vote privately is not a protection of our privacy or identity, but a reaction to our fear of having our Constitutional rights violated. The secret ballot is the choice to protect the offender who would violate the voter’s right to verify how their vote cast was counted. Now, as in the sense of justice and liberty are always an immediate and present right, now as much in the past and in currently in the present, is the need we have now to have our rights protected with clear consequences for violation of our Civil Rights and our right to govern ourselves through elections, as stipulated in the Constitution.

Instead of giving rights to the offender and criminals who prey on voters-individuals or the people, we should criminalize any offender who shows bias and discriminates against a voter for their cast vote. This is an egalitarian tone for family members to mature and treat each other as equals, as we do with other cultures and genders socially, but a criminal action when an employer discriminates against a voter for the way they have voted, just as racist or sexist discrimination laws have matured our society. Selling or buying votes should also be a crime and a violation of all voter’s Civil Rights. Elections are the transfer of power from the people to the government. Today party loyalty is publicly listed with party registration and party activity from bumper stickers, lapel pins, to vocal support. What is the problem with being honest about the way you voted and defending your right to vote that way?

We need to give the right to the voter to verify how their vote was counted in an open and verifiable election based on our social security number or other personalized identifying number. We need to be able to check our elections, as voters, as we verify what our banks have done with our money, checks, or check card charges. We have to be able to verify by identification of our votes on the published data base recorded that is used to determine election results, and verify if our vote cast was counted as cast, without fear of retaliation, intimidation, or discrimination in any way. To protect individuals from unfair discrimination you do not remove the rights of the individual, instead you prosecute the offender.

more...


http://www.opednews.com/articles/Secret-Ballot---Election-F-by-Casey-Reed-080531-919.html

[livvy]

5. Editorial: Vets and Votes

Editorial: Vets and votes
-
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, June 1, 2008

The right of citizens to vote is a fundamental right. It is a duty of federal, state and local governments to promote the exercise of that right.

At least that's what the National Voter Registration Act says.

But there's a big gap between the words on paper and action on the ground – especially when it comes to the voter registration of those who have served this country in the armed forces.

Wounded veterans returning from Iraq, living in a hospital or rehab center, ought to be welcomed home as voting members of our democracy. And older veterans, living in a VA assisted-living facility or nursing home, also ought to be embraced as full voting members of our republic – not isolated from politics.

more...

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/978021.html

[livvy]

15. Playing the Geography Card

Sunday, June 01, 2008

opinion
Playing the geography card

By Ed Quillen
Article Last Updated: 05/30/2008 11:48:59 AM MDT


Republicans often complain about the U.S. Postal Service as yet another inefficient government bureaucracy, so it is somewhat surprising to see a GOP campaign point to the Postal Service as the deciding authority when it's time to play the geography card in a statewide election.

Rep. Mark Udall is the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Wayne Allard, who is retiring. Bob Schaffer is the Republican candidate; his campaign is being managed by Dick Wadhams, who managed Allard's two successful campaigns against Tom Strickland.

The Wadhams trick in 1996 and 2002 was to say "lawyer-lobbyist Tom Strickland" at least twice every paragraph, thereby defining the opposition in a way that helped Allard. Most of us, after all, aren't real fond of lawyers and lobbyists.

This time around, the Wadhams pet phrase is "Boulder liberal Mark Udall."

more...

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_9420244

[livvy]

16. Voter ID: The Thing That Won't Go Away

Voter ID: The thing that won't go away
Sid Salter • [e-mail] • June 1, 2008

In Mississippi politics, the voter identification issue has become the political Thing That Won't Go Away.

For Democrats, it's like an ant at a picnic, fly in the ointment or that word one can't write in a newspaper in the punch bowl. Voter ID for Democrats is like Michael Corleone in The Godfather: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

But for Republicans, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Democrats believe that the entire issue of voter identification is a solution looking for a problem. They challenge their Republican tormentors to document widespread voter fraud abuses that the GOP claims a voter identification law will stop.

more...

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080601/COL0412/806010325/1171/OPINION

[livvy]

6. National n/t....but yet, another 'toon!

[livvy]

7. Future Uncertain For Florida's Bush-Gore Ballots From 2000 Race

Posted on Sun, Jun. 01, 2008

Future uncertain for Florida's Bush-Gore ballots from 2000 race
BY GARY FINEOUT

In the final seconds of the new HBO movie Recount, a box labeled ''Palm Beach County ballots'' is shown sitting inside a gigantic warehouse. As the camera pulls slowly back, it reveals row after row of boxes stacked to the ceiling.
While the image is a pure Hollywood creation, the truth is the ballots from the chaotic 2000 presidential election are still around.

Five years ago, the state of Florida gathered up boxes of ballots from 65 of the 67 counties and stashed them inside the cramped, air-conditioned confines of the state archives in Tallahassee.

After much hand-wringing and debate, state officials decided in 2003 that they should hold onto the more than six million votes cast in the historic election between Al Gore and George W. Bush that Bush ultimately won by just 537 votes. Normally, ballots are destroyed after 22 months.

But now Secretary of State Kurt Browning says he would just as soon junk them and free up the space in his archives that hold the ballots -- more than 4,000 cubic feet.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/553741.html

[livvy]

8. World n/t but, yes, another 'toon!

[livvy]

9. Voting in Several Macedonian Polling Stations Suspended....

Voting in several Macedonian polling stations suspended because of breaches

1 June 2008 | 16:22 | FOCUS News Agency

Skopje. At the second press conference for the election day it became clear that the voting in several polling stations has been suspended because of breaches, FOCUS News Agency’s special correspondents informed.

The State Electoral Commission has checked many signals for incidents. Voting was suspended in two polling stations in the village of Bukovic. 30 armed people took the election materials, while municipal electoral commission members ran away.

There was a shooting outside the polling stations in the village of Lastarci in Saraj municipality, and the electoral commission members ran away.

In other places the ballot boxes were full and voting was ceased.

Armed people attacked polling stations in several municipalities in the country.
The State Electoral Commission Chairman expressed regret and concern about the incidents. He reminded that in 2006 Macedonia held the best and fairest elections, which was recognized by the international community, while today when the country had to show conscience and maturity to the world, in some regions the election day started with many breaches.

Still, the voting runs smoothly in most Macedonian regions, but the incidents registered are many.
Denka KATSARSKA
Zoran TALEVSKI



http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n142210

[livvy]

10. Macedonia: One Dead in Election Violence

One dead in election violence
1 hour ago

Shootings that led to at least one death and allegations of ballot fraud forced elections officials to suspend voting in at least 17 polling stations, marring the start of Macedonia's early parliamentary election.

The election could prove crucial to the Balkan country's hopes to join Nato and the European Union. But even before the polls opened, the campaign was tainted by violence among rival ethnic Albanian parties and claims of fraud, with international monitors recording more than a dozen pre-election attacks.

The most serious election day violence began within hours of polls opening in the former ethnic Albanian rebel stronghold of Aracinovo, a village near Skopje, where two separate shootings left one person dead and three wounded.

Ermira Mehmeti, spokeswoman for the main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, said in one incident, two party supporters were seriously wounded in a shootout with special police unit members near the village. She said one later died in hospital.

more...

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvYC4Mp5P6uhcI83waROMiqwZB2w

[livvy]

13. 'The Orange Chronicles' Screening in Staten Island Film Festival June 6 - 7

'The Orange Chronicles' Screening in Staten Island Film Festival June 6 - 7

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Collingswood, NJ, United States, 06/01/2008 - Award Winning Political Documentary "The Orange Chronicles," Produced by Damian Kolodiy, DK Productions, New York, will be Screening Two Times in the Staten Island Film Festival.


The 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine was a massive demonstration of people for democracy and against electoral fraud. Millions braved freezing weather conditions to fight against stolen elections. THE ORANGE CHRONICLES is a powerfully moving and unique examination of Ukraine's Orange Revolution from the perspective of an intrepid Ukrainian-American filmmaker. Director Damian Kolodiy, criss-crossed the country in the weeks before the remarkable events of 2004 as a volunteer International Election Observer, recording the build-up to what turned out to be one of the most astonishing bloodless political turnarounds in recent history.

THE ORANGE CHRONICLES focuses on the passionate people who filled the streets of Kyiv during the Presidential Elections of 2004 to protest the poisoning of their candidate Viktor Yushchenko, an unjust election and the corrupt government that created it. Narrated by the filmmaker, THE ORANGE CHRONICLES documents operations and sentiments on the ground during the lead up to the elections, and provides a clear understanding of the dramatic confrontations and high stakes of that time. It also explores what motivated the people to activate, as well as the emotional conflicts among a bitterly divided populace. Lessons about the power of organized activism can be applied the world over to successful opposition against electoral corruption.

Traveling through the Ukrainian landscape, director Kolody sees firsthand the continuation of his grandparent's struggle for a free and independent country. His video diary highlights the erection of Tent City, the blockading of government buildings and the warehouses and homes providing refuge for the diverse network of revolutionaries. Kolodiy interviews senior citizens, teachers, workers, doctors, homemakers and members of the activist youth group, Pora. He is there, in Kyiv, on the Day of Voting and on the Maidan, Kyiv's "Independence Square", when Yulia Tymoshenko electrifies the Ukrainian people with her impassioned call for them to defend their rights and instills hope in a democratic future for Ukraine.

Featuring rare insider coverage, the film follows Kolodiy as he joins a colorful caravan, dubbed the "Friendship Train," traveling through censored Ukrainian regions delivering news of the Orange Revolution in hostile territory. Along the way he documents the interactions between opposition (pro- Yushchenko) and government (pro- Yanukovych) supporters, culminating with a free and fair presidential election.


more...

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/34994/

[livvy]

11. States...'toon, but n/t

[livvy]

12. SD: The Hyperion Project: Auditor Says Plenty of Ballots On Hand

The Hyperion project: Auditor says plenty of ballots on hand
By Michele Linck Journal staff writer

ELK POINT, S.D. -- South Dakota's upcoming primary has caused a spike in voter registration in Union County, much of it likely inspired by the ballot question on zoning which will decide whether a $10 billion, 400,000-barrel-per-day, oil refinery proposed for the county by Dallas, Texas-based Hyperion Resources will proceed.

Union County Auditor Carol Klumper says she's ready for Election Day.

"I ordered plenty of ballots," she said, noting she had printed nearly 10,000 ballots, enough to provide for 100 percent voter turnout. Klumper said the training school she ran Thursday for election workers also went well.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson's office said 10,000 ballots should be enough. Election specialist Kea Warne said even if some are damaged, the law allows for people to vote on sample ballots.

more...


http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/06/01/news/local/465a3f51c2370d398625745a007e4db4.txt

[livvy]

14. Puerto Rico's Primary Importance

Sunday, June 1, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Puerto Rico's primary importance
By Larry Eichel

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Three primaries remain in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination and the next one, the biggest, comes in Puerto Rico.

Never mind that the island isn't a state and that residents of the commonwealth can't vote in November's election, although Puerto Ricans living on the mainland can.

Island residents get to have their say in the competition between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in today's primary, which polls suggest Clinton is likely to win and which offers more delegates — 55 — than 27 states and the District of Columbia.

How come Puerto Rico has more convention clout than states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Oklahoma and Oregon?

The short answer is that the commonwealth has more people (about 4 million) and that the Democratic Party treats Puerto Rico like a state.

more...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004450603_camppuerto01.html

[Mnemosyne]

17. Happy to give first rec!

Hi Livvy! :hi:

[rosesaylavee]

18. K & R

Thanks for doing this work for all of us!

[babylonsister]

19. Rec'd! nt

[tbyg52]

20. Tooooooooooooooooooonz!

:yourock:

[livvy]

22. Thanks, all....and especially Vickiss for the assist! ('toon and pic alert)

Happy Sunday to you, and here's one more 'toon...




For those who recall the snake fiasco of a while back, I never did find my Maizie, but here is my new guy, Cobb. He's a corn snake, too, non-venomous, and very friendly. I haven't given up on Maizie, and there'll be a place for her should she return from her adventure on the loose.

[flashl]

23. K&R