Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, March 19

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=417494&mesg_id=417494

Luzerne stuck without voting machines

BY TOM LONG STAFF WRITER

WILKES-BARRE — Jilted by the company it chose to upgrade its voting machines, Luzerne County now finds itself in a $3 million bind.

County Director of Elections Leonard Piazza III told the county elections board Tuesday morning that Electronic Systems and Software had apparently backed out on an agreement to provide 750 electronic voting machines, along with the training to use them.

Negotiations with Omaha, Neb.-based ES&S have “broken down,” Mr. Piazza told the board. The blow puts the county in serious danger of failing to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, which is tied to a $3 million grant for buying new machines.

The company had consistently assured the county it would be able to provide machines, said Mr. Piazza. But on March 8, an ES&S representative abruptly said the company would be unable to provide training for the machines — a requirement under HAVA. Two days later, a Pittsburgh-based printing company that contracts with ES&S told Mr. Piazza it couldn’t provide the machines, either, and recommended the county look elsewhere.


More: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16306292&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

Memory card problem detected, fixed in new N.C. voting equipment

Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. - The only voting machine vendor approved to do business in North Carolina says it has recovered potentially faulty equipment that had been shipped to the state before the May 2 primary.

Election Systems & Software said the problem involved a bad batch of memory cards for optical scan voting machines, which count paper ballots. The problem, if not detected, could have resulted in some ballots not being counted.

The problem was first discovered in Ohio earlier this month. The possibly defective cards in North Carolina have been returned to the company and the memory cards are being replaced, Election Systems spokeswoman Jill Friedman-Wilson said.


All but three counties in North Carolina are using Election Systems equipment to count nearly all of their ballots for the primary. The three outstanding counties chose to count ballots by hand rather than purchase all new equipment at this time.

More: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/14125375.htm

Batteries trouble voting system

Memory cards fail during Summit testing ahead of May elections
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer

Dead batteries -- that's what Election Systems & Software officials are saying is to blame for the failure of dozens of computer memory cards in Summit County's new optical scan voting system.

``What we're dealing with is a portion of one batch of cards sent out in recent weeks have an issue with low batteries,'' ES&S spokeswoman Ellen Bogard said Friday.

ES&S made the new voting equipment, but the memory cards were made by Vikant Corp., a Long Grove, Ill., company. Company officials from Vikant did not return a call seeking comment.
Testing of the county's new voting system began Monday, when the memory cards failed to work as often as 30 percent of the time.

Bogard said there is a large battery and a smaller backup battery in each card. She said Vikant has agreed to replace the cards free of charge for ES&S and its customers.

More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/14074421.htm

Ohio's online privacy flap: Just fix it

Editorials
Two weeks after we learned that many Ohioans' Social Security numbers could be exposed to identity theft via a certain section of Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's Web site (www.sos.state.oh.us), it's surprising what we still don't know.

We don't know how many numbers are potentially at risk, although there may be thousands among the 1.4 million business records involved. We don't know when that information will be unearthed or removed; Blackwell's office says they could remain online for months. And we don't know why the General Assembly hasn't shown any particular urgency in addressing this problem.

Here's what we do know: Everyone should stop pointing fingers and start working together.


The situation regarding these online SSNs is more complex than it's been portrayed by much of the media, by Blackwell or by Attorney General Jim Petro, his rival for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. Blackwell couldn't simply have taken that part of his Web site down; aside from whether it would violate the law, it could do considerable financial harm to businesses, whereas as far as we know no harm has been done to individuals through compromised SSNs.


More: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/EDIT01/603150325/1090/EDIT

Ken Blackwell, Ohio politician owed an apology

Ken Blackwell, who holds the same positions as the Catholic Church on abortion and school vouchers, is being branded anti-Catholic by an organization which rejects the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion

Monday, February 27, 2006
by William Donohue

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican candidate for governor, has recently been labeled anti-Catholic by the Ohio Democratic Catholic Caucus.

The charge stems from the fact that Blackwell is co-authoring a book, Rebuilding America, with Jerry Corsi, the co-author of a book with John O’Neill about the swift boat veterans.

Corsi once made anti-Catholic jokes on the Internet, and later apologized for doing so.

This was sufficient grounds for the Catholic Democratic group to say, “The message from Blackwell to Ohio Catholics is clear. Mainstream and faithful Catholics need not apply.”

Follow the logic: Ken Blackwell, who holds the same positions as the Catholic Church on abortion and school vouchers, and who was vice president and a professor at a Catholic university (his alma mater, Xavier University), is being branded anti-Catholic by an organization which rejects the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion and school vouchers, simply because he is co-authoring a book with someone who once made anti-Catholic quips for which he has long apologized.


More: http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=34&idsub=127&id=2707

AP finds Blackwell, 2 pastors met more than complaint says

The IRS wants to know if churches violated federal law by engaging in politics.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has met with two conservative pastors more often than alleged in an IRS complaint accusing the pastors of improper support of his campaign for governor, according to a review of documents by The Associated Press.

Although the complaint looked at nine publicly reported events sponsored by the pastors, a review of Blackwell's daily schedule found 19 other meetings or other contact with the pastors, including flights on a church-owned plane, meetings in Blackwell's office and attendance at church services.

Blackwell, a Republican and favorite of conservatives, had contact with pastors Russell Johnson and Rod Parsley or their churches 28 times from January 2004 through March of this year, according to AP research, including a review of Blackwell's confidential schedule obtained through a public records request.

That's more than a third of the total number of events with a religious theme listed on Blackwell's schedule and represents the largest number of contacts with specific pastors.

More: http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/304446354718715.php

Common ground despite differences

Thursday, March 16, 2006
Sam Fulwood III
Plain Dealer Columnist

Ken Blackwell is on the verge of making history.

He's African-American, he's a very conservative Republican, he's running for governor and he's got a solid chance of winning. This club is so small its members could hold meetings in a Porta-Potty.

So why was Blackwell glad-handing and breaking bread with more than 100 black preachers in the fellowship hall of Antioch Baptist Church?

After all, don't Cleveland's black preachers blindly support Democrats - even yellow dogs - over Republicans?

I sat in the back, quiet as a church mouse, during the start of the luncheon. I expected to witness an exorcism, since the United Pastors in Mission had allowed a representative from the Dark Side into their temple.

The Rev. Marvin McMickle, Antioch's pastor and a well-known Democrat, explained that the group only wanted to meet the candidate, not to render an endorsement.

"This is a historic moment because we have an African-American man running for governor of Ohio," McMickle said in opening remarks. "I'm going to do all in my power to make sure that he gets a chance to be heard."

This wasn't what I expected. Where was the fire-and-brimstone railing against the evils of Republican government? I pulled out my pad and pen to get the scoop letter-perfect.

That's when one of the GOP suits tapped me on the shoulder and - oh, so politely - invited me to leave. The meat of this luncheon couldn't be shared publicly.


More: http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1142501495100950.xml?ocful&coll=2

(Conservative link)

Blackwell Buys Lunch for African-American Pastors

By: Matt Lewis
Posted 03/16/06
03:53 PM

Here's a good article about conservative Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell's meeting with African-American pastors from Cleveland (a traditionally Democrat group). The part I like about this story is that it happened because the Blackwell campaign requested it:

"The Blackwell campaign called us and asked if they could provide a festive occasion for us to get to know them better," McMickle said. "It was a well-orchestrated event and they paid for the lunch."

The key here is that people like to be asked. Building coalitions doesn't just happen naturally. You've got to work at it. Kudos to the Blackwell campaign for requesting the meeting.

As the title of this article implies, there's something about being in a room together -- and respecting each other -- that allows us to build "common ground despite differences."

Link: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/blog-detail.php?id=13303

Blackwell mailing is political front, attorney says
Civic character material brings objection

Friday, March 17, 2006
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus -- In January, Massillon attorney Perry Stergios registered a new business with Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, whose office then mailed him a receipt and certificate.

A week later, Blackwell's office sent Stergios a second 30-cent mailing -- one that raised his hackles.

It contained another copy of the certificate and a document that promoted the Republican gubernatorial candidate's Ohio Center for Civic Character.

Blackwell's spokesman, Carlo LoParo, said the second mailing was a one-time mistake, that Blackwell's office typically mails the civic character document with the receipt, costing taxpayers no extra postage.

Even if that's true, Stergios said, the material is still a campaign piece, promoting what he considers to be Blackwell's messianic agenda even though it espouses secular principles such as honesty, integrity and ethical leadership.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1142588615170140.xml&coll=2

Blackwell courts votes of black ministers

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell
hopes to lure away blacks who traditionally
vote Democratic.


CLEVELAND — Continuing his quest to court religious leaders, Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell bought lunch for more than 70 black pastors in Cleveland yesterday, hoping to match his success with mostly white leaders of evangelical Christian churches.

In a private, 90-minute luncheon at the inner-city Antioch Baptist Church, Blackwell appealed to the black ministers — whose flocks are overwhelmingly Democratic — with a message of economic opportunity. He left the obvious unsaid: If he wins the May 2 primary, he will become Ohio’s first black nominee for governor.

Blackwell, the secretary of state, is locked in a battle with Republican Attorney General Jim Petro. He has predicted that he will win up to half the state’s black votes if he is the GOP standard-bearer. That would seriously undermine the support that U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the presumptive Democratic nominee, would need to be elected governor.

The Rev. Marvin McMickle, pastor of the host church and a former Democratic candidate for Congress, said after the luncheon that Blackwell’s blackvote projection is achievable.

...snip

Among Blackwell’s 75 meetings with religious groups since January 2004 are 28 visits with Parsley, Johnson or their churches. Blackwell made no apology yesterday for his association with religious leaders: "I don’t have to hang up my faith hat when I enter the public square."


More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/03/15/20060315-A1-05.html

2nd Opinion:

Partisan churches will feel IRS heat

By Melissa Rogers

...snip

In this same vein, it seems significant that the service chose to release these materials in Ohio. Several Ohio churches and other religious organizations recently have been accused of intervening in the 2006 gubernatorial race in favor of Republican candidate Ken Blackwell by repeatedly featuring Blackwell at their events, among other things.


The IRS report concludes by recommending increased use of tax-exempt status revocation in appropriate future cases, believing an adequate foundation for such action is being laid.


Given the current climate, the IRS is right to increase its educational and enforcement efforts. Moreover, Congress made the right call when it instituted the electioneering ban. It’s a sensible quid pro quo for this tax-exempt status, and it has the salutary effect of helping to ensure that churches and charities aren’t converted into campaign precincts.


Religious organizations and individuals should do the right thing, too, both for legal and nonlegal reasons. People of faith should resist every attempt to drag houses of worship into partisan politics, whether those attempts come from outside or inside the congregation. Contrary to recent suggestions by the North Carolina Republican National Committee, which has asked individuals to forward their church directories, churches aren’t part of any political “base.” They are houses of prayer for all peoples.


Heaven help us if we forget that.

Melissa Rogers is visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School. Her column was distributed by Religion News Service.

Charges fly in campaigns for governor

Inside Columbus
BY JON CRAIG | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
COLUMBUS - Finger-pointing was a recurring theme last week in the campaign for governor.

Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell of Cincinnati accused Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland of stealing his ideas. Blackwell's campaign said the universal broadband cable access that Strickland proposed Monday is "a tardy, borrowed and more costly version" of Blackwell's earlier idea.

Strickland called for the creation of the Ohio NextGen Network to connect schools, universities and government in a high-speed Internet network to improve research and education while creating new jobs.

In January, Blackwell proposed using some of the expected $4 billion received from leasing the Ohio Turnpike to pay for universal broadband access programs. Blackwell previously accused Attorney General Jim Petro, who he faces in the May 2 GOP primary election, of stealing his ideas about placing constitutional limits on state government spending.

...snip

Franklin County's Democratic Party chairman and Blackwell's campaign, meanwhile, exchanged potshots over the 2004 presidential election.

In a press statement titled, "Blackwell Breaks the Ten Commandments,'' William A. Anthony Jr., the party chairman and former chairman of the county Board of Elections, said, "Ken Blackwell is not telling the truth. He should be ashamed of himself for misrepresenting facts and impugning my integrity in order to deflect criticism away from his questionable activities as Secretary of State."

Blackwell told members of the United Pastors in Mission, during a Tuesday lunch, that Anthony was to blame for unconscionably long lines at polling places during the 2004 election.


More: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060319/NEWS01/603190394/1077

Blackwell defends way funds were raised

Contributions came via party accounts
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Sandy Theis and Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - Secretary of State Ken Blackwell preaches the need for transparent fund-raising in his campaign for governor, but in his 2001 race for state treasurer, much of the money he received could not be directly traced to specific donors.

Instead, more than half the $294,175 he raised from bankers, brokers and others dependent on the state treasurer came from obscure accounts operated by county Republican parties.

The money began to flow rapidly in the spring of 2001, shortly after Blackwell announced he would seek his old job of state treasurer.

Secretaries of state don't have many contracts to award; state treasurers have them in abundance.

Brokers and others who could benefit from contracts with the treasurer's office began filling Blackwell's campaign coffers.

Some of the donations from the investment community - about $124,175 - went directly into his campaign. An additional $170,000 made brief stops along the way in county party accounts called state candidate funds.

Although the practice was legal at the time, candidates used the accounts to circumvent contribution limits. Once donors gave the maximum allowed to candidates, they still could give at higher levels to the county accounts, which then shipped the money to the candidates.


More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1142761069120930.xml&coll=2

Blackwell insists he is the real Republican

Sunday, March 19, 2006
Joe Hallett
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

...snip

Standing in his way for the GOP nomination is Attorney General Jim Petro. Blackwell contrasts his "career of consistent conservatism" and Petro’s "career of convenient conversions" to anti-abortion and pro-gun stands.

Critics, however, say Blackwell has gone too far right. If a middle still exists in the Republican Party, they say, he could be in trouble against Petro or, later, U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Blackwell’s opposition to abortion in any circumstance and same-sex marriage made him a hero of Christian conservatives, whose evangelical leaders he has publicly courted.

"That’s his Achilles’ heel — he goes too far and usually makes mistakes," said former Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, a Democrat who narrowly defeated Blackwell for Congress in 1990.

"His almost-marriage to the religious right will harm him in the long run."

Not so, said Phil Burress, president of Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, which helped Blackwell win a 2004 constitutional ban against same-sex marriage.

More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/03/19/20060319-A1-05.html

Associated Press joins protest of closed-door

The Associated Press has joined the Tallahassee Democrat in objecting to a closed meeting earlier this week in the office of Secretary of State Sue Cobb, as well as her efforts to have police remove those she barred from the meeting.

Both news organizations sent letters to Attorney General Charlie Crist and State Attorney Willie Meggs expressing outrage that a county commissioner and reporters were barred from the meeting Monday. Cobb, Leon County Commission Chairman Bill Proctor and Leon Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho were discussing a looming deadline on getting voting equipment for people with disabilities.


"I've always said I have no objection to the press, but we do make faster progress without people having to look at cameras - that's a fact," Cobb said Monday.

The county had given notice of the public meeting; Cobb also maintained since the notice didn't come from her office, it wasn't a public meeting.


More: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060318/NEWS01/603180322/1010/NEWS01

Closed meeting can't be tolerated

By Bob Gabordi
EXECUTIVE EDITOR


Last week, news gatherers found ourselves in the middle of a story we believe has important implications, not just for the media but also the public.

A reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat, Political Editor Bill Cotterell, was among those who showed up Monday at a meeting of Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb, Leon County Commission Chairman Bill Proctor, Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho and other state and local officials in the secretary's office.

The newspaper had received a legally required notification of the meeting from Leon County because Commissioner Bob Rackleff also planned to attend. State law requires open meetings when two or more commissioners from the same board attend.

In truth, we would have gone anyway, whether we were allowed into the actual meeting or just to wait in the outer office for reaction. The discussion inside Secretary Cobb's office had important public interests, including the potential for state officials to initiate actions to remove county officials from office. Some believe that has been the plan all along. We believe the public should hear such discussions.

An editorial Wednesday explained the Democrat's position well. We think the meeting should have been open even without Rackleff there. Case law and rulings by the Attorney General's Office provide logical backing for our position, since Commissioner Proctor was there acting on behalf of the commission.

Secretary Cobb explained that such complex discussions go better outside of the glare of the media's watch. She said she felt she was on solid legal ground in keeping the media out.

But she went a step further: Her office called Capitol Police to have the media removed.

More: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060319/COLUMNIST18/603190314/1006/OPINION

Proposed State Voter ID targets fraud
A county official shares her insight on the bill's suggestions

Sen. Delbert Scott’s voter identification bill might be well intentioned, but good intentions sometimes “get made into bad laws,” Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren said.

Scott, R-Lowry City, introduced the Missouri Voter Protection Act, SB 1014, in February, citing widespread voter fraud. Scott said the voter registration of 29 rural counties exceeds the number of people over age 18 in those counties.

“I think it’s very well intentioned,” Noren said. “They really believe there are roaming bands of people out there doing this, but those of us who have spent our lives studying this know it’s not true.”

Scott admits it is difficult to track voter fraud at the polls, but added that it is easy to track voter registration fraud. “Why would someone go through the trouble of getting a fraudulent registration if they weren’t going to use it?” he asked.

...snip

“The bill has been very positively received from the general public who realizes that there is cheating going on,” Scott said. “Most county clerks do an excellent job of having a fair election. This is certainly not a reflection of the clerks, but the Democratic Party particularly has opposed this. The folks on the street are very supportive. The general public has high expectations that this is going to solve a lot of voter problems.”

If approved by the Republican-controlled Senate and signed by Gov. Matt Blunt, the bill will be effective Aug. 28.


More: http://columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=18949

KELLY WIESE
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Legislation requiring voters to show a photo ID to cast a ballot is being hailed as a priority by Republicans - and vilified as a hassle by Democrats.

But, as frequently happens in the Capitol, the problem it's trying to address - and the harm it could cause - may be exaggerated. And the strident support or opposition from both sides may have a lot more to do with politics than policy.

Lawmakers worked late into the night last week on the bill that would require voters to show a government-issued photo identification at the polls. Republicans say it's necessary to ensure people have confidence in the election system.

"That prevents dogs from voting; that prevents dead people from voting," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Delbert Scott of Lowry City.

St. Louis in particular has been plagued with voting problems over the years. In 2001, investigators turned up thousands of fraudulent registration cards, including cards for a dog and a dead alderman.

During Senate debate on the bill, Democrats offered their own hypothetical scenarios - including how to hold a proper election after a natural disaster like a volcano eruption (an unlikely occurrence in Missouri) or how to accommodate someone whose wallet was stolen the night before Election Day.

Democrats say the requirement is a burden that will discourage tens of thousands of people from voting - especially the poor, elderly and disabled who don't have a driver's license.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14138253.htm

Mala Brooks indicted

By David Lush / davidlush@ddtonline.com

LELAND - Alderwoman Mala Brooks of Leland was indicted last week by a Washington County grand jury on 17 counts of voter fraud.

The case was presented to the grand jury by the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, alleging voter fraud in a variety of instances related to last year's city elections.

Brooks is in her second term as an alderwoman.

Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston said on Saturday that he received the indictment and went to arrest Brooks on Friday.

“When the indictment came out, we served it,” said Gaston. “She turned herself in on Friday. She was released on her own recognizance on an O.R. bond. She will be in Circuit Court for arraignment on April 7 at 9 a.m.”

Brooks being released on her own recognizance was “because she is an elected official and lives in Leland. She's not going anywhere,” he said.


More: http://www.ddtonline.com/articles/2006/03/19/news/news1.txt

...

2004 vote to be discussed

CHAPEL HILL -- If you believe that the election results giving George W. Bush the presidency were not accurate, come to a discussion at Carroll Hall on the UNC campus Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Mark Crispin Miller, journalist and author of "Fooled Again -- How the right stole the 2004 election & why they¹ll steal the next one to if we let them" will be one of the speakers. Ferrell Guillory, founder of the UNC program on southern politics, and Carolyn Cates, director of the Orange County Board of Elections, also will take part in the discussion.

Contact Tom Henkel (thenkel@solargenix.com) or Katrina Ryan (katrinaryan@earthlink.net) for more information.


Link: http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-714441.html

Defending Democracy
Will the Legislature remedy the sins of the past and make Florida elections more accountable?

Florida's high-stakes 2006 elections may well come down to one question: Which political party will the hackers favor?

In the fall elections, all 67 counties will use touch-screen machines to register votes for some voters. Thanks to the state's refusal to certify a paper-ballot system for them, all handicapped voters will use touch screens to meet the requirements of the federal Help America Vote Act. In most counties -- including Volusia -- early voting will take place on touch screens as well. (Every Flagler voter who goes to the polls will vote on a touch-screen machine. All we can say is: Good luck with that.)

It's been proven time and again that these machines are not secure -- and in a close election, rigging one or two terminals could tilt the entire election. Without a paper trail, there is no way to verify voting accuracy.

Much of the blame for that lies with the Florida Legislature. It might surprise many voters to learn that hand recounts of paper ballots are no longer considered valid in Florida. The Legislature wrote standards for the handicapped-accessible machines that all but eliminated the possibility that the state elections department could certify a paper-ballot system that met the letter of the law. Even so, counties such as Volusia scrambled to find a system -- only to be stymied by the foot-dragging of the state elections department.

Pending legislation would change that, requiring a permanent, voter-produced paper record of votes cast. But legislative leaders don't seem to be interested. The House version of the legislation, sponsored by a handful of Democratic representatives, has yet to be assigned to a committee. The Senate version, SB 1910, would also make the paper ballot the final, definitive indication of a voter's wishes. That bill hasn't been scheduled for a hearing.


More: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/opnOPN13031906.htm

Boston Globe

Translating ballot into Khmer eyed
By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff | March 19, 2006
The US Department of Justice is conducting an investigation into voting problems in the city of Lowell, as advocates called for an increase in voting assistance to growing immigrant populations in the Bay State.

The Lowell investigation, confirmed by a Justice Department spokesman this past week, is the fourth recent probe into alleged voting rights violations in Massachusetts city elections. Other cities targeted by the Justice Department are Springfield, Lawrence, and Boston, which entered into a consent decree to print ballots in multiple languages, including Vietnamese, Chinese, and Spanish.
In Lowell, an advocacy group has reported that Cambodian-American voters faced difficulties at the polls last fall and has recommended that the city print more election materials in Khmer, a language spoken by Cambodians, who constitute up to a quarter of city residents.
The federal Voting Rights Act requires election materials to be printed in another language when more than 10,000 voting-age citizens or 5 percent of all voting-age citizens speak that language and have difficulty speaking English. But state election officials say that only Spanish-speaking citizens reach that threshold in Massachusetts cities. Six communities are required to print ballots in Spanish -- Boston, Chelsea, Holyoke, Lawrence, Southbridge, and Springfield.

''We have complied with the federal law with regard to printing in English and Spanish," said Secretary of State William F. Galvin. ''The new effort seems to be getting municipalities to print in languages other than English and Spanish even though it's not triggered by the census."
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division launched a major initiative to ensure that communities are complying with the Voting Rights Act last year. Last fall, the Justice Department announced it would send federal observers to monitor the November elections in Boston, Lowell, and 14 other communities across the country.
Eric W. Holland, a Justice spokesman, confirmed that the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division is conducting an investigation in Lowell, but he refused to provide additional details on the probe.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/03/19/lowell_voting_problems_probed/

Fair, accurate elections part of Volusia's mission

By ANN McFALL
COMMUNITY VOICE
The mission statement of the Volusia County Department of Elections is to provide all eligible citizens of Volusia County access to register to vote, accessible polling locations and accessible voting equipment as well as to promote fair, equitable and accurate elections. We take pride in our service to Volusia County.

Even though some may think that the purchase of accessible voting equipment is the most important event occurring this year in the department, it is not. To give a fuller understanding of what we do in services to the voters of Volusia County, the following is an overview of all that is required of the department to meet state and federal statutes over the course of an election cycle.

I have 36 full-time employees, 1 part time employee, 20 to 30 seasonal interns and 1,800 election team members. The Voter Registration Division will make more than 100,000 changes to our registered voter database as well as check approximately 150,000 petition signatures. As of Jan. 1, we became part of the statewide Florida Voter Registration database. Because of the switch, we will be mailing 320,000 new voter information cards. Every card that the postal service returns must be researched and voters' addresses corrected.

The Election Management Division is responsible for all elections, including recruiting and training of election team members, defining ballot layout, programming the election-management database, processing more than 45,000 absentee ballot requests in a major election year, maintaining a database of polling places so as to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.


More: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Editorials/opnOPN14031906.htm

Ballot, tally errors reveal better vote system still has some kinks

By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006

Punch-card voting lives on in Palm Beach County, at least for one Delray Beach voter.

Disdaining instructions to mark an absentee ballot by drawing a line to connect two segments of an arrow, the voter in last week's municipal election instead punched holes next to the names of city commission candidates Nick Loeb and Brenda Montague.

It was one of many flubs by voters and poll workers that emerged from a review of ballots and precinct reports from last week's municipal elections in 16 cities and towns, four years after the county dumped punch cards.

The votes on the improvised punch card ended up getting counted.

Although the punctured ballot couldn't be read by an electronic optical scanner at the county elections office, elections workers figured the voter's intent was clear and made up a duplicate ballot with properly marked votes for Loeb and Montague to feed through the scanning machine.

Similar duplicates were made for 32 other mismarked absentee ballots and for 20 provisional ballots that were rejected by optical scanners. The problem ballots accounted for 2.6 percent of the 2,017 paper ballots cast in last week's municipal elections.

More than 31,000 ballots were cast electronically in the elections amid a smattering of complaints about faulty activator cards, machines that didn't work and some poll-worker reports that showed discrepancies between the number of voters who signed in and the number of ballots cast.


More: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/03/19/m1a_VOTING_0319.html

Morial adds his voice to election protests
Outcome likely to be contested, he says
Sunday, March 19, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
Staff writer

Echoing concerns of other civil rights leaders about the fairness of New Orleans' upcoming elections, National Urban League president and former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial announced a plan Saturday for out-of-town mayoral forums and outreach programs to help the city's displaced voters.

The National Coalition for Black Civic Participation plans to file a letter of objection to the U.S. Justice Department's approval Thursday of the plans for the April 22 and May 20 elections, said Morial, who was in New Orleans to attend a funeral.

The department gave advance clearance to the plans under the terms of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which requires the Justice Department to review proposed changes in voting procedures in Louisiana and other Southern states to ensure the changes don't discriminate against black voters.

The department's action drew immediate fire from several civil rights groups, which have contended for weeks that too little is being done to ensure that tens of thousands of black voters displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be able to participate in one of the most crucial elections in the city's history.

"What New Orleans and Louisiana do not need right now is another black eye because of a marred election process," Morial said. "With 30 days to go, there's ample opportunity for the plan to be corrected."

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1142754928289760.xml

Actors support election reform
Richard Halstead

Actors Ed Asner and Peter Coyote were the main attractions Saturday night at a San Rafael fund-raiser for public funding of election campaigns.
"It's the one reform that makes all other reforms possible," said Asner, who besides an Emmy-winning career on television has distinguished himself as a political activist.

"If you're interested in improving health care, fight for clean money," Asner said. "If you're interested in preserving the environment, fight for clean money. If you're interested in improving transportation, or education or energy policy, or the state's fiscal mess, fight for clean money."

About 80 people paid $100 each to attend the event. Jonathan Frieman, who narrowly missed winning a seat on the Marin Healthcare District board in November, hosted the event at his home. The money raised will go to the California Clean Money Campaign, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to build statewide support for public funding.

Attendees included: Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma; Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley; Marin Supervisor Susan Adams; Fairfax Councilwoman Mary Ann Maggiore and three of the candidates for the 6th District Assembly seat: Pam Torliatt, John Alden and Jared Huffman.

A bill that would provide public financing for elections, sponsored by Hancock, passed the California Assembly on Jan. 30. The legislation, AB 583, is modeled after clean money laws that were enacted in Maine and Arizona in the late 1990s.

http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_3618843

Post Independent

Donna Gray
Post Independent Staff
March 19, 2006


Garfield County voters will have a new voting system to learn come November. The Secretary of State has required all counties to adopt electronic voting machines in time for the August primaries.

Garfield County Clerk and Recorder Mildred Alsdorf and her election staff got a close look Thursday at Hart Intercivic voting machines, which may be the ones voters will see at election time.

The state office has also committed approximately $183,000 to cover the voting machines and software, Alsdorf said, to meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act.

The Hart machines, called "eSlate" or direct recording equipment, will make vote counting easier but may prove a challenge for some voters.

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20060319/VALLEYNEWS/103190002

"I won't have anything to do with (a system) that doesn't have a paper trail," (Mildred) Alsdorf said.


This past week, elections officers across the country have taken action to keep our U.S. elections system more open, transparent and secure.

How they accomplished that was as varied as their geographical locations:

---Garfield Co., CO Clerk, Mildred Alsdorf, insisted on a paper trail for her county's voting system;

---Humboldt Co., CA Clerk, Carolyn Crnich, is studying the possibility of purchasing 'VotePad', a transparent voting system for the disabled;

---Carbon Co., PA Election Director, Kenneth Leffler, recommended that his county hire an independent contractor to ensure that the county's voting system was independently tested; and

---Emery Co., UT Clerk, Bruce Funk, allowed independent testing and scrutiny of his county's new Diebold TSx voting machines.

Although Florida's Sec. of State, Sue Cobb, spit in the face of "Sunshine Week," we take hope and celebrate the actions of these clerks (and undoubtedly others,) who acted with integrity and were serious and selfless about their public duties as stewards of America's elections.

Big heros like Ion Sanchez have helped propel the election integrity movement forward, but it's going to take hundreds of these small heros to finally get us "there".

We need to support them and show our appreciation for their every step forward -- no matter how tiny the step is.

JD

New technology awaits voters, poll judges Tuesday
Joe Leicht
Of the Suburban Journals
Clarion Journal
03/19/2006

A few days before an election, Monroe County Clerk Dennis Knobloch's courthouse office is usually a little cluttered.

But the lead up to the 2006 Primary Election is without precedent: New touch-screen voting machines crowd the small lobby and Knobloch's personal office floor is strewn with Palm Pilots and electrical cords.

This won't be your grandfather's election. In fact, it's the grandfathers—and grandmothers—who historically have made county elections possible that have Knobloch concerned about Tuesday.

"Quite honestly, a lot of them don't like it," Knobloch said of the election judges who will be charged with keeping the precincts running smoothly and helping voters who are still not familiar with optical scan and touch-screen voting.

"It's nothing against the older people. They do whatever they have to because they know the importance of elections. But many people of all ages don't like having to stop and try to figure out something that has always been pretty simple.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/neighborhoods/stories.nsf/news/story/D41CEAA998F295C0862571340059E2F1?OpenDocument

Monterey Herald

Posted on Sun, Mar. 19, 2006
Election watchdog faces theft charges
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 43-year-old actor has become a hero to digital rights and political activists who they claim is a whistle-blower who helped exposed a threat to the election system.

But Stephen Heller also is alleged to be a thief.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles last month charged him with three felonies for allegedly stealing damaging documents about voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems.

''My wife would never describe me as someone on the front lines of anything, and I wouldn't either,'' Heller said. ''I'm not politically active except I've voted since I was 18.''

Prosecutors say Heller, of Van Nuys, took more than 500 pages of Diebold-related documents, including memos from the company's lawyers at the Jones Day law firm. The memos suggested that Diebold may have broken state law by providing Alameda County with voting machines that had not been certified by the state.

''This case is not about whistle-blowing. It's about theft of attorney-client privileged material from an attorney's office,'' said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The California Voter Foundation, Black Box Voting, an electronic voting group, and others believe Heller is a whistle-blower who helped spur a state crackdown on Diebold.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/14136708.htm

Thanks!

The Saramento Bee

Police agency's rulings on DMV sites coincide with political events.
By John Hill -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, March 19, 2006
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee

As the petition drive to recall Gov. Gray Davis gained steam in the spring of 2003, the California Highway Patrol responded by shutting down signature gathering at Department of Motor Vehicle offices across the state, a Bee investigation has found.
"This decision was made during the recall campaign and was designed to limit political activity at state facilities," Dennis Lobenberg, a CHP deputy chief who has since retired, wrote in an e-mail last year to CHP divisions across the state.

The move reversed a long-standing CHP practice of allowing local offices to routinely grant permits for activities such as gathering signatures. It ran counter to court precedent that government restrictions on free speech in public places must be narrow and serve a legitimate government interest like crowd control, experts say.
And it occurred on the morning after supporters of Davis, a champion of the CHP, met to discuss how to defuse the growing threat of a recall election.

Only a year ago, as supporters of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to qualify initiatives for the ballot, did the CHP relent. It once again started approving most permits to engage in activities such as signature gathering at DMV offices. The CHP - responsible for issuing permits to people or groups that want to use state facilities, a function it took over from the State Police in the mid-1990s - says its action last year was meant to streamline operations and had nothing to do with the governor's petition drives.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14232354p-15054527c.html

Published on March 19, 2006
By Clifford G. Cumber
News-Post Staff

FREDERICK -- The race for the Maryland state Senate seat occupied by Alex Mooney is already starting to heat up with one challenger accusing the latest candidate to join the GOP primary of running to split votes.
Local Republican Central committee member Tim Brooks, who announced his bid in December, has claimed Feagaville Army veteran and flag vendor Hugh Warner was recruited by Mr. Mooney to draw away dissatisfied voters and give him a better chance to win the primary.

"It's a common strategy -- if the incumbent's in trouble, you recruit someone to get in the race to peel off those disgruntled voters," Mr. Brooks said.

Mr. Warner denied the claim. He knows Mr. Mooney and Mr. Brooks, he said.

"I have no idea where he's coming from," Mr. Warner said. "He's been misinformed by someone, because I'm running to win in this district."

Mr. Mooney denied Mr. Brooks' claim.

"I have never spoken to Mr. Warner about his candidacy," Mr. Mooney said.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyid=47477

be re-elected

The Louisiana Weekly

By Christopher Tidmore, Political Columnist
March 20, 2006

The fuel of the large influx of white candidates into the New Orleans Mayor's race, and the other down ticket contests, was a perception that African-Americans had permanently fled the city in numbers proportionately larger than whites. Eager Republicans and white Democrats reasoned that Caucasians would hold a permanent majority in the city, affecting the politics of New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole.

According to Professor Jeff Sadow of LSU-Shreveport, this is wishful thinking. His new study suggests that African-Americans have and will return faster than previously estimated, strengthening the campaigns of Democrats in the short term, and eventually returning the Crescent City to black majority status by the end of the year.

As Sadow explained to The Louisiana Weekly, "Using a voting model based upon past elections shows, with so many blacks registered as Democrats and historically voting for such candidates that Democrat candidates should have little trouble in winning city/parish elections. We have to remember that New Orleans was 68 percent black in population prior to Katrina, with over 165,000 more blacks than all other racial group numbers combined. About half of all registered voters were black Democrats. Even if blacks are not returning to the city in the proportion, 73 percent, that comprised the evacuees, it appears a majority, about 57 percent, of the returnees are black.

"As the city continues to repopulate, blacks have regained their numerical dominance, a trend that will continue until New Orleans reaches its "carrying capacity" of just over 300,000 around the end of the year. Then the city will grow slowly if at all for some time. But there will be an estimated 115,242 blacks present in New Orleans by Apr. 22, as opposed to about 103,000 non-blacks."

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060320b

Des Moines Register

JULI PROBASCO-SOWERS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

March 19, 2006


Adel, Ia. — The Dallas County auditor said that space is so tight in his temporary office that he's worried about how to protect the integrity of future elections.

"I don't think the supervisors or the operations manager knows the needs for elections," said Auditor Gene Krumm, who also serves as commissioner of elections.

The need for more space to securely store voting machines, documents and absentee ballots, as well as to count ballots and allow the public to view the process, was a problem even before he took office in 2004, said Krumm, whose operations are now split between two temporary offices.

During the last 11 years, voter registration has nearly doubled in Dallas County, the fastest-growing county in the state and the 52nd -fastest-growing county in the nation. Earlier this month, Krumm said there were now 37,153 voters in the county.

Making matters worse, Krumm said, is the growth of absentee ballot use, which has more than doubled since 2000. In the 2004 general election, voters cast 10,000 absentee ballots, up from 5,019 in the 2002 general election and 4,973 in the 2000 general election.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060319/NEWS05/603190338/1001/NEWS

Sunday, March 19, 2006
Grant Segall
Plain Dealer Reporter
Ohio isn't quite as popular now as in 2004.

This time, swarms of volunteers from other states and countries aren't scouring our streets for eligible but unregistered voters.

For one thing, there are a lot fewer of those voters left. The sweeps before the '04 presidential election piled up record levels of Buckeye registrants.

But 2006 is another year with important, partisan races, including elections for governor and U.S. senator. And activists say they are scouring Ohio again for people who need to file new or updated registrations.

The deadline is April 3 to register for the May 2 primary election.

"Even though you did a massive, intensive drive in 2004, there are always new people that need to be registered," said Judy Gallo of the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition.

Volunteers say they seldom find eligible people who admit to being unregistered. But they have found many who need to update their names or addresses.

Jason Wofford updated his registration at the coalition's table one Saturday this month at Dave's Supermarket in Shaker Square.

"I've voted every time," said Wofford, 26, who had recently moved within Cleveland. "I have to get my voice heard."

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1142761004120930.xml&coll=2

As this article indicates, Katrina 'evacu-voters' may be voting absentee for a long time. How the U.S. ensures the long-term, full enfranchisement of such a large, dispersed population of American voters displaced from a small geographical area will be very telling.

Hopefuls Speak to Katrina Exiles

The New Orleans mayor and six of his challengers go to Atlanta for an evacuees forum.

By Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writer
March 19, 2006


ATLANTA — At times, the New Orleans mayoral forum held here Saturday felt less like a political event than a family reunion, bringing Hurricane Katrina's exiles face to face with the colorful menagerie of established politicians, wannabes, grousers and do-gooders who are promising to put their broken city back together again.

>snip<

Similarly grave questions are being asked in far-flung states that continue to house Katrina evacuees, making this mayor's race one of the most unusual in American history. With about a third of New Orleans' nearly half a million residents back in town, the major candidates — and a few minor ones — are hitting such cities as Atlanta, Houston and Memphis, Tenn., to make their pitches.

The candidates' swing through Atlanta may have been more important as an expression of solidarity than as a strategic culling of votes. Greg Rigamer, a New Orleans political consultant, has analyzed the diaspora and determined that 5,050 registered New Orleans voters have indicated on change-of-address forms that they live in Georgia. About 1,100 of them appear to be living in and around Atlanta.

Nearly 44,000 registered voters are known to be living out of state. But Rigamer said the race would probably be won locally, because the bulk of the city's voters — about 240,000 of them — are back in New Orleans or one of seven surrounding parishes.

>snip<

It was a common enough sentiment, but Harper's circumstances betrayed how strange this race will be: She said she might not move back to New Orleans for 10 more years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-nagin19mar19,1,139217.story?coll=la-headlines-politics&ctrack=1&cset=true

This is the second article about potential poll watching problems in the Chicago area in as many days. Where are any reports on how the Diebold TSx and ES&S voting machines fared? Early voting with these new systems just concluded on Thursday and not a peep about any 'glitches'?

Poll watchers accused of steering voters

March 19, 2006
By Dave Newbart


Cook County officials said Saturday that two poll watchers at nursing homes in the south suburbs allegedly tried to steer elderly residents into voting for certain candidates and threatened an election judge who tried to stop them.

Cook County Clerk David Orr said two poll watchers working for Robert Shaw allegedly urged elderly residents of a Burnham nursing home to vote for Shaw, a candidate for the Illinois general assembly running in Tuesday's Democratic primary, and for Cook County Board President John Stroger.

Poll watchers are not allowed to interfere with the voting process or campaign at polling sites, officials said.

One of the poll watchers allegedly threatened an election judge after being told to stop passing out literature urging the residents to punch certain numbers on the ballot, Orr said.

>snip<

Sean Howard, a spokesman for Robert Shaw's campaign, acknowledged the
watchers worked for Shaw's campaign but denied they did any
"electioneering."

>snip<

He suggested the election judge was working for political opponents of Shaw and said Orr is "getting bad information."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-polling19.html

Star Gazette

Chemung County voting machine display lets public have a look and a say.
March 19, 2006

This Wednesday, voters in Chemung County can vote, in a way, for the kind of machine they would like to see replace the old lever types that have been around for at least 50 years in New York state.

Their vote won't be counted, per se, but the feedback they provide on a survey will help the Chemung County Board of Elections gauge how well people like the different machines that will be on display for the public from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the lobby of the Clemens Center. The board's decision to let the public give the machines a test drive is sound and fair.

After more than a year of controversy in New York about which equipment is better, the voters themselves deserve a chance to get their hands on each machine and to ask manufacturing representatives about the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Editorially, we have sided with groups such as New Yorkers for Verified Voting in backing the optical-scan devices because of their features, such as a readily available paper trail of ballots and their mechanical reliability.

But not everyone shares that perspective. Advocates of the touch-screen machines - equipment that works like an ATM-type of device - like their efficiency, speed and reliability. The debate over the two machines has been so polarizing that the state Board of Elections has left the decision up to each board of elections.

http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060319/OPINION01/603190304

3/19/2006
By AARON HINTZ

Eagle Staff Writer

McDonough County Clerk Florine Miller and her staff at the courthouse have been gearing up for Tuesday’s 2006 primary election in preparation for the real deal in November.

They have been testing each of the 28 new TSX Diebold touch-screen voting machines for accuracy and educating voting judges on election day protocol compared with the AccuVote scanning machines used in the recent past. Each McDonough County polling place will have one of these new machines, and if they are popular Miller will consider going after more federal grant money for additional machines.

The touch screens have accessories for the visually impaired. A number pad similar to an ATM can be connected along with a set of earphones that directs the voter through pushing the correct number for each candidate.

Other changes include an additional polling place for students besides Wesley United Methodist Church. Students can now go to the Lamoine Room in the University Union and cast a ballot between classes. In the future, Miller said, Western Hall will be the permanent location.

While the McDonough County primaries are fairly tame, there are some real races: one the state and one on the federal level.

http://www.eaglepublications.com/article.jhtml?DB=articles&DO=display&ID=1142805392_11175

Government Technology

March 2006 By News Staff
The state of Utah announced last week that it has successfully completed all of its data migration/conversion work under an agreement with Aradyme.

The Utah project included collecting and converting data for all 29 of the state's counties, as well as working with a diverse mix of systems including ES&S systems running on Oracle and FoxPro, PMSI systems running on UNIX, and several custom-built systems.


Because Aradyme was able to complete the data migration/conversion work on-time and within budget, and the State of Utah was able to make rapid progress on the development of its voter registration application -- known as VISTA -- the State was able to have a fully compliant, single statewide voter registration system in place before the January 1, 2006 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) deadline.

Utah was also able to have its statewide system up and running in time for 25 of its 29 counties to conduct the November 2005 election using the system. The remaining four counties, which opted to wait until the election was over to transition to VISTA, were then brought online in December.

"The data conversion went very well, better than we would have ever hoped for really. We are very happy with it. And, we have been very, very happy that not only has it gone well, but that we haven't had to spend a lot of time or expertise managing the project," said Ray Palmer, information systems manager in the Office of Planning & Budget for the State of Utah. "I don't know what we would've done if Aradyme hadn't helped us. There were other possibilities, obviously, when we started the project, but it really made a difference having Aradyme handling the migration. By using their services, we have been able to focus on building our application instead of performing the data migration."

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/98818

Thanks

scoop nz

Utah Testing Of Diebold Finds New Problems
Monday, 20 March 2006, 12:10 pm
Press Release: www.blackboxvoting.org
Utah Testing Of The Diebold Touch-Screen Reveals New Problems

http://www.blackboxvoting.org
Emery County Clerk Bruce Funk has been running elections for 23 years. He was quite content with his optical scan system. The state of Utah thought otherwise: On Dec. 27, Funk took delivery on 40 Diebold TSx touch-screen machines, part of a statewide directive.

"I had concerns about Diebold," says Funk, "but I thought, 'If the state is going to mandate it, then I guess they'll assume responsibility if anything goes wrong.'"

Not so. He soon learned that he will be responsible but the state will decide what election system will count the votes.

"YOU'RE GOING TO HATE MY GUTS ON ELECTION DAY"

Funk's concerns escalated when he heard a particularly unusual statement by Diebold sales rep Dana LaTour.
"Some of you are going to hate my guts on Election Day," she said to the assembly of elections officials. Later, another Diebold representative named Drew was asked what LaTour meant when she said "Some of you are going to hate my guts..."

"We're going to have problems on Election Day, and we're just going to have to work through them," he said.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0603/S00366.htm