Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, SUNDAY June 11, 2006

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The Journal-Gazette

Posted on Sun, Jun. 11, 2006

By Niki Kelly and Benjamin Lanka
The Journal Gazette

INDIANAPOLIS – Call it a quirk or an oversight or just downright hilarious.

Republican Todd Rokita – Indiana’s secretary of state who travels around the nation touting the integrity and accuracy of Indiana’s election system – was listed in two Marion County poll books during May’s primary election.

That means he could have voted twice.

He didn’t, of course, but it’s still a curious development.

Joel Miller, Democratic member of the Marion County Board of Voter Registration, said the peculiarity was discovered on Election Day when a giddy Democratic poll worker in the 11th ward called to say Rokita was listed in the poll book and hadn’t voted either by absentee or in person.

When Miller checked, it became clear Rokita did vote in a Pike Township precinct, where he recently moved.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/14791513.htm

Arizona Daily Star

Guest Opinion: John R. Brakey
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.11.2006

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
Joseph Stalin

To an increasingly large extent, "those who count the votes" in the United States are privately owned corporations, not our election officials. In fact, Arizona law prevents election officials and workers from manually counting ballots or auditing elections results.

In New Mexico, the public-interest organization Voter Action documented that "undervotes" for president were as high as 37 percent in some Hispanic and American Indian precincts that used Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines. Similar precincts using optical-scanners with durable paper ballots had undervotes of less than 1 percent.
This result led Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico to order all DRE touch-screen voting machines dumped in favor of a return to durable paper ballots.
In a March 31 letter to officials in all 50 states, Richardson wrote: "Some believe that computer touch-screen machines are the future of electoral systems, but the technology simply fails to pass the test of reliability."

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/132967

The News-Press

Latest News - Posted 11:37 A.m.

By Brent Kallestad
associated Press
Originally posted on June 11, 2006

TALLAHASSEE- A proposed rule change that would prohibit counties from testing their voting equipment without state approval will be argued Monday, a measure that could create some discomfort among Florida's independently elected elections supervisors.

One of the more outspoken of Florida's 67 supervisors, Leon County's Ion Sancho, conducted a test last year where elections office workers hacked into a Diebold optical-scan voting system in an effort to show that it could be made to produce false results.

And it turned out, Sancho's experiment exposed problems that prompted the state as well as California to develop better security safeguards.

But now state officials want more influence in any future tests on voting equipment, hoping to require the supervisors to submit a plan to the Division of Elections and notify the manufacturer beforehand.

"Hutzpah is the word that comes to mind," Sancho said Friday. "The state should not be so concerned about protecting the voting companies from embarrassment when their equipment has security vulnerabilities."

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/NEWS01/60611009/1075

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x433153

I failed to change the two from yesterday. :cry:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x433153

OTOH, I guess having two daily threads on the greatest would be just fine. :)

:hi:

The Lowell Sun

By ERIK ARVIDSON

Statehouse Bureau

BOSTON -- Election poll workers are a graying population.

A study by the federal Election Assistance Commission found that the average age of a worker at election polling stations is 72.

State lawmakers are considering whether to add new blood by lowering the minimum age to be a poll worker from 18 to 16, allowing young people not old enough to vote to help out at polls.

The House approved the bill by a unanimous vote last week, and it now moves to the Senate for consideration.

While some town clerks are skeptical it will make a difference, proponents of the bill say 31 states allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work at election poll places, provided they meet certain requirements.

"We want to be very sure that we keep expanding the pool of poll workers," said Madhu Sridhar, president of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters' Massachusetts chapter, which is lobbying for the bill. "We should be concerned that the average age is 72."

http://www.lowellsun.com/front/ci_3924929

Channel 13

Many polling sites around Kansas and throughout the nation won't be used this year. They're out because of the Help America Vote Act, which requires that polling sites be handicap accessible. The law is forcing officials to close, move or reconfigure many voting locations.

And starting this year the act also requires that each polling site have at least one machine available for people with disabilities. The equipment is pricey, ranging from six-thousand dollars to $15,000 per polling site. Even with help from the federal government, some counties can't afford to buy enough gadgets to maintain all their polling sites.

Kansas has been cutting the number of polling sites for some time, dropping for just over 2,400 in 2000 to a little more than two-thousand four yesrs later. The scretary of state's office says it doesn't have a number on this year yet, but it's sure it will be down.

http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/3014676.html

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=432938&mesg_id=432938

State May Limit Tests Of Voting Machines

By BRENT KALLESTAD
The Associated Press


TALLAHASSEE -- A proposed rule change that would prohibit counties from testing their voting equipment without state approval will be argued Monday, a measure that could create some discomfort among Florida's independently elected elections supervisors.

One of the more outspoken of Florida's 67 supervisors, Leon County's Ion Sancho, conducted a test last year where elections office workers hacked into a Diebold optical-scan voting system in an effort to show that it could be made to produce false results.

And it turned out, Sancho's experiment exposed problems that prompted the state as well as California to develop better security safeguards.

But now state officials want more influence in any future tests on voting equipment, hoping to require the supervisors to submit a plan to the Division of Elections and notify the manufacturer beforehand.

"Hutzpah is the word that comes to mind," Sancho said Friday. "The state should not be so concerned about protecting the voting companies from embarrassment when their equipment has security vulnerabilities."

More: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/NEWS/606110371/1004

Test and verify
Voting rule would reduce trust

Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho has become something of a national hero among advocates of voting integrity for his leadership role after the state's embarrassing 2000 general election, and subsequently his drive to ensure the most foolproof voting equipment possible.

This has not, as we have noted before, caused Mr. Sancho to be looked upon with pride and joy by Florida's Division of Elections, which has been embarrassed and put on the spot for decisions and systems that it has endorsed, and which Mr. Sancho openly and frankly questioned.

The division is now considering implementation of a new agency rule that would play "gotcha" with Mr. Sancho.

It would, if approved by Secretary of State Sue Cobb, stop any county elections supervisor from running a test of voting equipment that his or her county is using, or considering purchasing, without first getting clearance from the state.

"Really, does it make any sense for the supervisors of elections . . . to not be able to test the equipment unless the Division of Elections approves of the test and the testers ahead of time?" Mr. Sancho said last week. "I'm charged with conducting elections, not the Division of Elections and not the secretary of state."


More: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/OPINION01/606110303/1021

Sancho says he will fight rule changes

Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho doesn't mind letting the state know when he's testing voting machines, but he doesn't think the Secretary of State's office should tell him how - or whether - he can do it.

Sancho said he will attend a public hearing in the R.A. Gray Building at 1:30 p.m. Monday to discuss a pending rule change. He said the new rule would require a representative of the Department of State to be present whenever a county runs a test on voting machines.

"I don't, for the life of me, understand why they want to do something like this," Sancho said Saturday. "I have no problem with notifying them, but I don't think I need their approval."

Sancho has had long-running disputes with big national companies that make elections equipment. He contends that county elections offices should be allowed to test their balloting machinery anytime they think there might be bugs.

Sancho said the hearing Monday is only the first step in the rule-making process, but he intends to fight it all the way.
- Bill Cotterell

Link: http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/NEWS01/606110330/1010

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2332500

Voting: A Touchy Subject

...snip

Trust me

Demma, of the lieutenant governor's office, also made the case that electronic voting machines are difficult to subvert.

Practically speaking, Demma said, a saboteur would have to get through physical security barriers such as security seals and locks, which would show the machine had been tampered with, and a matching memory card encoded by Diebold and the clerk's office would be needed.

"You'd have an easier time hacking into a punchcard system than getting into these puppies," he said. "There isn't a clerk or a poll worker or a ballot official who would give you that kind of access."

Even with a "perfect storm of corruption," he added, there's still the paper records of votes that are verified by the voter.


More: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/182019/3/

Electronic ballots are unreliable, not secure

Guest Opinion: John R. Brakey
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.11.2006

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
Joseph Stalin

To an increasingly large extent, "those who count the votes" in the United States are privately owned corporations, not our election officials. In fact, Arizona law prevents election officials and workers from manually counting ballots or auditing elections results.

In New Mexico, the public-interest organization Voter Action documented that "undervotes" for president were as high as 37 percent in some Hispanic and American Indian precincts that used Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines. Similar precincts using optical-scanners with durable paper ballots had undervotes of less than 1 percent.

This result led Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico to order all DRE touch-screen voting machines dumped in favor of a return to durable paper ballots.

In a March 31 letter to officials in all 50 states, Richardson wrote: "Some believe that computer touch-screen machines are the future of electoral systems, but the technology simply fails to pass the test of reliability."

With voter confidence in elections at historic lows, citizens in Pima County and around the country are questioning the security, accuracy and reliability of DRE touch-screen voting machines.


More: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/132967

Electronic voting requires paper records

By JACK CARROLL

The recent primary elections gave Pennsylvania voters a preview of new voting machine technology – touch-screen and optical-scan ballot machines – that could be available for the midterm elections in November. News accounts have suggested that voters and some local election officials appeared to endorse the technology: The voting machines were perceived as easy-to-use and, as some county officials say, “the way of the future.”

New voting technologies offer approaches to known risks. We need alternatives to error-prone punch-card ballots and hanging chads. But new technologies always entail new risks. We need to understand those risks in order to protect both the voter’s privacy and the voter’s vote.

All information systems are susceptible to tampering, whether from outsider hacking or insider data fraud.

Reports of tampering are in the news more or less every week. As with Microsoft’s unending security problems, electronic voting systems won’t be immune to tampering.

...snip

With the specter of the Florida voting irregularities still so vivid in our minds and so threatening to our democracy, we should approach decisions about the next generation of voting technologies very carefully. To protect our interests, local election officials should engage information technology advisers to help them act in the public’s best interests. Good intentions are not enough.

Jack Carroll is the Edward M. Frymoyer Professor of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State.


More: http://www.tribune-democrat.com/editorials/local_story_160131231.html

Letter From America

This week, America entered the election season, to be sure. Karl Rove, who has set the tone for the last six years, has been busy at his now familiar themes: organizing the anti-gay marriage debate in the Senate (to be followed shortly by another on flag-burning), new tax cuts for the top few thousand families of the Republic, and the sudden convenient presentation of a dead Zarqawi.

This not only signaled the start of the 2006 campaign but also managed to displace the embarrassing headlines about the EU condemnation of the Bush regime's policies of rendition, and secret torture prisons. Karl knows that the media always fall for the trick, and fall for the trick they always do. Twenty-first century America is a highly predictable place.

...snip

The other big political question that hovers in the air but seldom makes a landing, is whether America will ever again have an open election, or whether 2006 will see the consolidation of Black Box vote theft. The most interesting thing about this issue is that those who stand most to lose by computerized vote theft, the Democrats, seem to have least to say on the matter. No major Democrat candidate for the Presidency in 2008, with the possible exception of Russ Feingold, (the only consistent liberal left in the Senate) mentions the problem. Somehow, the topic is taboo. You don't talk about it. You just get ready to concede defeat. In a few odd corners of the country, groups of activists test Diebold voting machines and expose how readily hackable they are. A handful of liberal blogs and one or two progressive radio talk-show hosts, including Robert Kennedy Junior, strive to educate the electorate about the dangers of their votes being stolen in November. Their warnings fall on deaf ears. Most Americans won't vote anyway, so it doesn't really matter. And those who will, don't have much to vote about. No one really seems to expect much change. That is how it's become. When a President can dispense with the constitution, and there is no one on the streets protesting, why should a mid-term election make any difference. America is asleep, while dark forces are plotting to remove democracy from the Republic.


More: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=297817&rel_no=1

An experiment to improve voting

A possible to-do list for a mall shopper in 2007: Shop for jeans, try on shoes, browse bookstore, buy a greeting card, vote.

The Tippecanoe County Election Board is volunteering to participate in an experiment that might give voters more opportunities to cast a ballot.

The concept is to set up voting centers at places that people already frequent, such as a mall or library, and possibly have the centers open up to a month before Election Day. Although there would be fewer voting centers than current polling places, voters could choose where they want to cast a ballot.

What this could mean: No more showing up at the wrong polling site and driving across town to the right one. Long line at one voting center? Try another.

...snip


Such a system of voting must preserve the integrity of the election. One way to prevent fraud is to give voting center workers access an electronic database to ensure that the voters had not already cast ballots.



More: http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/OPINION01/606110308

Don't leave elections to politicians

By Randy Schultz
Palm Beach Post Editorial Page Editor
Sunday, June 11, 2006

Oh, dear. Katherine and Theresa are splitsville. But you knew it couldn't last.

Three days after President Bush's first inauguration, the two women who helped him win Florida and thus the White House praised each other at an elections meeting in Orlando. Katherine Harris and Theresa LePore agreed that both had done their jobs splendidly.

Now, though, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris is running for the Senate. Last week, at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, Rep. Harris said that while she had "obeyed the law," Ms. LePore had failed to get Palm Beach County's election results to Tallahassee by 5 p.m. the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2000 to meet a Florida Supreme Court recount deadline. Ms. LePore disagreed, accusing Rep. Harris of "selective memory." Actually, they're both mostly wrong, as they were in Orlando.

During testimony before a civil rights commission investigating the election, Rep. Harris showed that she hadn't understood the law she claims to have followed. Also, the court allowed her to accept results Monday morning. She set her own earlier deadline of Sunday.

As for Ms. LePore, the famous non-delegator decided that sending results by 7 p.m. would be acceptable, but she didn't send complete results after that painstaking hand-counting. The state couldn't figure out the jumbled database that the county sent. Forgetting that is Ms. LePore's own "selective memory."

Relive 2000? It happens every day

Only reluctantly, Ms. LePore said, did she attend Rep. Harris' Forum Club drop-by, for fear of having to relive the 2000 election. Again, Ms. LePore displays her sense of unreality. That election changed history. The other reason to relive it is that Florida still hasn't done enough to make the system credible and make every vote count.


More: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/06/11/a1e_schultzcol_0611.html

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x433164

Letters: New Winnebago voting machines bad news


Advocates for a quick yes vote in the Winnebago County Board on whether to accept a grant to purchase a Diebold voting machine for each precinct could just as well adopt the slogan: "Give your vote to Diebold!"


This vote is being rushed to meet deadlines to provide independent voting for people with disabilities and to get grants to buy the machines, but at great risk to our Winnebago County democracy and the very people who should be the beneficiaries of the legislation.


Voter beware: the accuracy, reliability and security of our votes are being jeopardized by the Diebold voting machines. See www.votersunite.org.


According to David Albrecht, chair of the Winnebago County Board, the vote by the county to authorize the acceptance of the Diebold voting machine and the federal grant was a "pass through," enabling the action without the deliberation of all the municipalities in the county. This procedure avoids the required democratic process and the informed consent of the public.


So, in fact, a county board decision would move directly (except in the case of Nekimi) to implement a decision by the municipal or town clerks (for which there is no public record).


I call upon the Winnebago County Board to create an independent citizens' commission to study the current voting procedures in the county.


The citizens' commission would be made up of people from all the municipalities, with emphasis on including new citizens and people with disabilities. It should include anyone who is willing to do the hard work.


We should not jeopardize the votes of people with disabilities or anyone for a quick fix.


We can make lemonade but we can't count votes with a lemon.


Ann Frisch, Oshkosh


Link: http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/APC0601/606110359/1036

Blackwell's dual roles draw fire
Candidate is also top elections official

Thursday, June 08, 2006
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus -- Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's dual roles as Republican nominee for governor and the man responsible for ensuring a fair and impartial election in November have subjected him to an avalanche of criticism this week.

Pilloried by voter-registration groups for drafting new rules that they say are intended to suppress the poor-, black- and Democratic vote, Blackwell also is being threatened with a lawsuit for Ohio's failure to enforce the national "motor voter" law.

Viewing the battle from afar, the New York Times weighed in Wednesday with a lead edit orial titled "Block the Vote, Ohio Remix." The Times labeled Ohio's election system "corrupt" and called for Blackwell to relinquish all duties pertaining to this fall's election.

That's not going to happen, Carlo LoParo, Blackwell's spokesman, angrily replied. He ripped the Times and said Democrats and left-leaning voter-registration groups were hypocrites.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1149755496195350.xml&coll=2

Strickland campaign fund tops Blackwell's
Candidates release fund-raising reports

Saturday, June 10, 2006
Aaron Marshall
Plain Dealer Reporter

Columbus- In the race to become Ohio's next governor, Democrat Ted Strickland has double the campaign bank balance of Republican Ken Blackwell, new reports filed Friday show.

Strickland, a congressman from Lisbon, has $2.6 million on hand, compared with $1.3 million for Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state.

Although the reports show Blackwell has raised a total of $6.6 million to Strickland's $6.15 million since the campaign began, Blackwell's expensive primary against Attorney General Jim Petro shrank his coffers.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1149928349191950.xml&coll=2

Democrats use King in attack on Blackwell
By William Hershey

Staff Writer

COLUMBUS | — Location. Location. Location.

Those are the three big things in real estate.

Maybe it's true for press conferences, as well.

Democrats tried to make a point last week when they met reporters at the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing & Cultural Arts Complex in Columbus.

They, not Republicans and especially not J. Kenneth Blackwell, are on King's side, the Democrats wanted to say.

King, the Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968, led the struggle that defied attack dogs, night riders and lynchings to win black Americans the right to vote.

"I am old enough to remember when black people could not vote," declared Dayton native Joyce Beatty, 58, Democratic leader in the Ohio House. Beatty spoke against the backdrop of a silhouette of King.

Beatty, who is black, and others charged that Blackwell, also black, wants to suppress voter turnout Nov. 7.

More: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/columns/daily/0611hersheyX.html

Official Expects Voter ID Requirement To Complicate Fall Election

Reported by: A.P.
Web produced by: Neil Relyea

CLEVELAND -- Cuyahoga County's top elections official anticipates that a law requiring voters to show ID before being allowed to cast a ballot will cause problems in November.

Elections director Michael Vu says Democrats and Republicans will descend on elections boards on election night.

He says they'll be fighting over provisional votes, which will be cast if voters don't have proper ID.

A spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says the state will educate voters about the ID requirement over the next few months.

Voters will need to show a driver's license, state photo ID, military ID, utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, government check or other government document showing the voter's name and address.


Link: http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/06/10/oh_voterids.html

A steady line of attack

...snip

Cincinnati's own J. Kenneth Blackwell got hit with another round in what promises to be a steady line of attack over his dual role as Ohio's chief elections officer and as the Republican Party's nominee for the top job up for grabs in the November general election.

The New York Times, which usually contents itself with writing editorials about national and international topics or those involving its own back yard, saw fit this week to go after Blackwell for what it views as his effort to shut down voter registration drives in Ohio. The Times complained that Blackwell's interpretation of a new state law improperly threatens voter registration workers with criminal penalties for "perfectly legitimate registration practices.''

Blackwell's camp said he is merely following the law as the Ohio General Assembly intended.

The Times, with plenty of company, is still steaming over what it views as Blackwell's role in delivering Ohio to George Bush in the 2004 presidential election. At the time, he was serving as co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Ohio while holding down his current daytime job as Ohio secretary of state.

It was bad form, and - as with his gubernatorial campaign this year - invites criticism. But, Robert Kennedy's recent missive in Rolling Stone notwithstanding, the more legitimate criticism of the 2004 election supervision isn't that he stole the election, but that Blackwell was whipsawed throughout the process and that his directives to local election officials were often late and not infrequently wound up being contradicted. Still, if only for his own self-interest, Blackwell ought to heed the call made by his opponent, Democratic congressman Ted Strickland, and delegate his election supervision authority and avoid participating in any decisions involving his own race.


More: http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060610/EDIT/606100321/1003

Republicans flock to Blackwell campaign

JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican heavy-hitters have been flocking to Republican Kenneth Blackwell's campaign since he won the May 2 primary for governor, but he trails Democratic nominee Ted Strickland 2-1 in cash available for the November election, finance reports filed Friday showed.

Strickland, with no major challenger in last month's primary for governor, raised $2 million during the April 12 to June 2 reporting period and had $2.6 million on hand.

Blackwell, who spent more than $1.2 million late in his primary fight against Jim Petro, raised $2.2 million and had $1.3 million in his account with five months to go in the campaign. Petro raised $255,000 and spent $572,000 down the stretch.

Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state, got $430,000 from the Ohio Republican Party on the day of the primary. Ohio GOP chairman Bob Bennett, who didn't take sides in the primary, said he held back until he was certain Blackwell would win. The last-minute donation also means the party can give a similar amount for the general election, Bennett said.

Forty-nine of the 85 people who this year have given Blackwell the maximum $10,000 allowed an individual donor have done so since May 2. Members of Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner's family led the way by combining for $90,000.

The maximum-donor list also includes Mitch Given, who is a registered lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems, one of the vendors of voting machines for election boards in Ohio. Blackwell's office approved Diebold's selection as a vendor and negotiated the price for the machines, although the counties chose the machines.


More: http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/14783837.htm

Fighting for a Fair Vote

John Nichols
Thu Jun 8, 1:02 PM ET


The Nation -- No one who paid close attention to the last two presidential elections can doubt that, come election time, secretaries of state play pivotal, sometimes defining, roles. Though most Americans would be hard-pressed to name the holder of the office that manages elections in their home state, after 2000 everyone knew that Secretary of State Katherine Harris was in charge of deciding who voted and whose votes counted in Florida. And after 2004 everyone knew that Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was doing similar duty in Ohio. These two "down ballot" officials served as co-chairs for George W. Bush's campaign in their respective states, but the real "service" they performed for the Republican cause came in what critics have identified as their aggressive manipulation of voting registration standards, unequal distribution of voting machines, intimidation of prospective voters and meddling with recount procedures to favor Bush.


The Ohio voting and vote-counting debacles of 2004 so unsettled Mark Ritchie, who coordinated that year's nonpartisan National Voice voter-registration and -mobilization campaign, that the veteran activist decided to leave the sidelines and jump into the electoral fray. Ritchie left his job as president of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the country promoting sustainable development and rural communities, and announced he would mount a Democratic challenge to Mary Kiffmeyer, Minnesota's Republican secretary of state, with whom he had sparred over voter registration and access to polling places. Recalling the work he'd done as head of the 2004 coalition that registered 5 million new voters, Ritchie said, "Although we were very successful, we had to overcome obstacles created by the secretary of state's offices in Ohio, Florida and right here in Minnesota. Through this experience it became clear to me that we could not have fully free and fair elections under our current secretary of state."

Ritchie is not the only prominent figure to make a career change in order to run for a post on a platform that promises to manage voting and elections--a task that in most of the country falls to elected secretaries of state--in a manner that helps rather than hinders democracy. Debra Bowen, a California state senator who as chair of the elections committee led the fight to force firms that produce high-tech voting machines--especially the controversial Diebold Corporation--to guarantee that their equipment is reliable and accurate, just won the Democratic nod for secretary of state. As the progressive San Francisco Bay Guardian observed in its endorsement of Bowen. "She's saying what few in politics want to openly admit: It's possible to rig elections with this gear, and there aren't enough safeguards to prevent fraud." In Ohio, Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Jennifer Brunner resigned her position to mount a campaign that pledges to end the politicization of the secretary of state's office that has characterized Blackwell's tenure. Brunner says she'll work to assure that vote counts can be audited and verified, to enforce laws against voter intimidation and to distribute new voting machines equally in order to break the pattern of favoring GOP-leaning suburbs while saddling cities and rural areas with inferior equipment.

In Massachusetts, National Voting Rights Institute founder John Bonifaz, who led the legal fight for a full recount in Ohio two years ago, surprised political insiders by winning enough votes at this month's state Democratic convention to earn a place on the ballot for his against-the-odds Democratic primary challenge to veteran Secretary of State William Galvin. Urging voters to "elect a voting rights leader," Bonifaz accuses Galvin of failing to fight for common-sense election reforms, such as same-day voter registration and practices that encourage participation by citizens for whom English is not their first language. He says he wants to "create a model for free and fair elections for Massachusetts and for the nation."


More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060608/cm_thenation/20060626nichols

Bob Cesca: Republicans Agree: Our Elections Aren't Stolen! Bob Cesca

Sat Jun 10, 9:32 PM ET

As predicted, since writing The Help Republicans Vote Act last week, I've received piles of e-mails and comments accusing me of being a conspiratorial moonbat. One of the more colorful comments led with the announcement, "Liberal denial alert! Liberal denial alert!" Clever.


See, it's been made clear to me that Republicans have complete faith in the veracity of our electoral system and that anyone who believes elections can be stolen in America are drooling mental patients in denial of the media- and government-endorsed outcome.

To recap, my thesis held that the blade of election theft can cut both ways and it's in our collective best interest to reform the system now. In other words, while Al Gore, Senator Kerry, and other Democrats (along with the true will of the people) have been the most recent victims of stolen elections, the same kinds of fraud can be turned on Republican candidates unless there are thorough and immediate investigations in depth by the FBI -- starting right now.

But Republicans won't call for investigations. Republicans and the mainstream media refuse to give this issue, most recently brought to light by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mark Crispin Miller, Greg Palast, Thom Hartmann and others, the gravity it deserves.

Only those of us on the so-called moonbat fringes of the progressive movement believe that election theft has occurred en masse in the last several general elections.

publican Sean Hannity, 11/12/00. "Almost every Republican I talk to thinks they're trying to steal this election." Republican Robert Novak.

"The Gore campaign is trying to steal this election." Republican Congressman Nick Smith, 11/13/00.

"I am increasingly alarmed at what appears to be a blatant attempt by Vice President Gore to steal this election." Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, 11/14/00.

"This is the only way Gore can win: lie, cheat, and steal!" Republican Mary Matalin, 11/17/00.

"It should be obvious to all by now that Mr. Gore is trying to steal a victory..." Republican Richard Lessner, 11/28/00.

"I think Al Gore is trying to steal this election." Republican Bill Bennett to Republican Bill O'Reilly.

"It's the Gore people who are trying to steal this election." Republican Robert Novak (again), 12/12/00

"He did try to steal this election." Republican Sean Hannity (again).

"How Al Gore Tried To Steal the Election." Headline from a Washington Times expose by Bill Sammon.

"Al Gore, as far as I'm concerned, tried to steal an election." Republican Sean Hannity (yet again), 9/30/02.

"Democrats steal 2 percent to 3 percent of the vote in a typical election." David Horowitz on Richard Mellon Scaife's NewsMax.com, 11/07/02.

"I think there are plans underway by the Democrats to steal this election in Florida." Republican Robert Novak, 7/31/04.

"Why are they trying to steal this election by cheating?" Republican Alan Keyes, 8/30/04.

"Is it not enough that registering dead people in Ohio and Illinois?" convicted Republican drug addict Rush Limbaugh, 9/27/04.

"Despite Kerry's lagging polls, the Democrats still plan to win this November. How? Perhaps by the old fashioned way: stealing the election." NewsMax.com, 9/27/04.

"The Democrats want to steal this election." Republican Bush/Cheney lawyer Mark Weaver on MSNBC, 11/01/04.

"Someone out there is trying to steal this election!" Republican Bush/Cheney lawyer Mark Weaver on CNN, 11/01/04.

All of the above quotes were compiled by author Mark Crispin Miller in his latest book: Fooled Again.

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060611/cm_huffpost/022717

Sorry, everybody!

And the date is wrong, too! :cry:

Hey, you put so much effort into posting so many of them - you deserve a vote on both threads.


:yourock:

When I voted this morning, I didn't even notice. When I came back on a bit ago, I thought I'd lost it. The good news is, I got to vote twice today!:-)

Toledo Blade

Article published Sunday, June 11, 2006

Democrat's fund-raising contrasts with call for reform

By STEVE EDER
and JAMES DREW
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

COLUMBUS - Ohio Democrats, hoping to break the GOP's 16-year control over the governor's office, have pledged to crack down on "pay-to-play" - the trading of contracts for campaign contributions that Democrats say now permeates state government under Republican rule.

"There's a clear contrast between the Ohio Democratic Party and Ohio Republican Party in how we raise money, how we spend money, and the pay-to-play culture in Columbus," Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern told reporters on the day that Tom Noe pleaded guilty to federal campaign-finance violations.
But a Blade investigation of campaign contributions shows that Democrat Ted Strickland's campaign for governor is collecting money from many of the same individuals, political action committees, and employees of companies who have funded Republicans since the 1990s.
Mr. Strickland, a congressman who represents eastern and southeast Ohio, has accepted nearly $1 million in contributions from supporters of Gov. Bob Taft's first gubernatorial campaign in 1998 - the last time an incumbent wasn't in the race for governor, The Blade's review of campaign finance records shows.
The donors who supported Mr. Taft and now Mr. Strickland include government contractors, vendors, and lawyers seeking state legal work. The former Taft contributors have helped Mr. Strickland raise more than $6 million and gain a fund-raising advantage over Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican nominee for governor.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/NEWS09/606110369

Who wins office matters to would-be higher-ed leaders
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Reginald Fields
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus- Ohio could elect a new governor before it gets another higher-education leader, says the chairman of the state Board of Regents.

With future state support im possible to predict and the dispute between the legislature and colleges over rising tuition and fees not likely to go away, strong candidates might first want to be sure they have an ally in the governor's office.

"When we test the waters, I think we'll find out whether there are any factors on the political side this year that might be inhibiting our search," said Regents Chairman Ed Adams. "I wouldn't expect to fill it until this fall or later in 2006."

State Sen. Randy Gardner, a higher-education advocate in the legislature, was more direct.

"In this climate, it's going to be complicated," said Gardner, a suburban Toledo Republican. "It's going to be Gov. Strickland or Gov. Blackwell by the time the next chancellor gets on board."

Both Democrat Ted Strickland and Republican Ken Blackwell have said the affordability and accessibility of a college education in Ohio must improve.

The candidates have competing thoughts on how it should be done.

The nine members of the Regents board are appointed by the governor and oversee Ohio's public universities and colleges. They appoint a chancellor to lead their efforts in providing legislative policy ideas, advocating for state funding and promoting higher education.

http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/ispol/1150030510205770.xml&coll=2

June 11, 2006

For more than 40 years, the Voting Rights Act has protected and upheld the most fundamental building block of our great democracy: the right to vote and have one's vote counted.

Yet key provisions of the Voting Rights Act will expire next year unless the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives renew them now.

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/OPINION02/606110309/1009/OPINION

Saturday, June 10, 2006 · Last updated 9:12 p.m. PT

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENVER -- Records containing personal information on more than 150,000 voters are missing at city election offices, and officials are trying to determine if the files were lost, moved or stolen.

The Denver Election Commission is also trying to figure out why officials didn't learn the records were missing until June 1, even though they are believed to have disappeared nearly four months earlier.

"We will get to the bottom of it," commission spokesman Alton Dillard told the Rocky Mountain News in Saturday's editions.

Police were notified about the missing records Saturday. The microfilmed voter registration files from 1989 to 1998 were in a 500-pound cabinet that disappeared when the commission moved to new offices in February. The files contain voters' Social Security numbers, addresses and other personal information.

Dillard said election staffers are scouring the commission's new and old offices and its warehouse. He said employees of the moving company, which was bonded, are also being questioned.

Also missing was a box with cards signed by voters who cast early ballots. The cards contain names, birth dates, addresses, signatures and partial Social Security numbers.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Voter_Records_Missing.html

Increase in Grass-Roots Support Buoys Party as GOP Efforts Falter
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 11, 2006; Page A01

A surge in small, individual contributions is lifting Democratic campaigns this year and is helping close a Republican fundraising advantage that has existed for years in national politics, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Democratic House and Senate candidates and their two major campaign committees are enjoying stronger grass-roots support than at any time since the GOP took over both chambers of Congress in the 1994 elections, according to strategists from both parties who have reviewed the most recent FEC data released this spring.

At the same time, Republican campaign committees are stumbling. The Republican National Committee is lagging behind its totals from two years ago, though it continues to have a financial lead over the Democratic National Committee. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, headed by Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), has raised more than $50 million this election cycle -- $6 million less than its Democratic counterpart.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/10/AR2006061001039.html

The Pro/Con Foundation has set up a brand new website that explores whether DRE machines improve the voting process:

www.votingmachinesprocon.org

(On "this website, the term 'electronic voting machines' refers to direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines and not optical-scan machines. Although optical-scan machines use an electronic reader to tabulate the vote totals, voters mark their selections on a paper ballot and are not directly recording their votes into the machine.")




The Pros/Cons of these last nine questions are answered on their website:

2. Are electronic voting machines more susceptible to fraud than non-electronic voting machines?

3. Do electronic voting machines accurately capture the intent of the voter?

4. Are votes cast on electronic voting machines stored securely?

5. Are electronic voting machines vulnerable to hacking?

6. Could electronic voting machine software be programmed to alter the outcome of an election?

7. Are there sufficient procedures in place to guard against physical tampering with electronic voting machines?

8. Is it possible for one person to vote multiple times in the same election on an electronic voting machine?

9. Should source code for electronic voting machines be publicly available?

10. Should electronic voting machines have voter verified paper audit trails?

"DIMS Voter Registration System?"

"Election Management System?"

Diebold sure is full of itself!