Election Reform, Fraud & Related News 6/28/06 "Courage to Change" Edition

Election Reform, Fraud & Related News June 28,2006 "Courage to Change" Edition



COURAGE IS NOT FREEDOM FROM FEAR. IT IS BEING AFRAID AND GOING ON




WAPO: A Single Person Could Swing an Election
Electronic Systems' Weaknesses May Be Countered With Audits, Report Suggests
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062701451.html


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Report: Many e-voting systems flawed
Staff and agencies
27 June, 2006

By ANICK JESDANUN, Associated Press

NEW YORK - The most widely used electronic-voting systems all have flaws that can be addressed relatively easily, but few states and counties have actually implemented recommended security measures, researchers concluded Tuesday.

The report, based on interviews with elections officials and analyses of voting systems, came from the Task Force on Voting System Security convened by New York University‘s Brennan Center for Justice. Task force members were from government, universities, security companies and nonprofit advocacy groups.

Otherwise, paper records do little to improve security, said Larry Norden, the task force‘s chairman and Brennan‘s associate counsel.

Voters, researchers say, should be encouraged to check the paper.

"We‘re not talking about dramatic restructuring of the architecture," Norden said. "We‘re talking about straightforward things, most of which could be in place for the 2006 elections."

more at:
http://www.newsone.ca/piercelandherald/stories/news-00198492.html

Holt: Brennan Center Report Highlights Need For Auditable Voting Machines
New from National Issues - Federal Legislation
By Pat Eddington
June 28, 2006
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) today said that the most recent report on the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines should be a wake up call for the Congress and the nation.

"This nonpartisan report by the Brennan Center confirms what many of us have believed for years: electronic machines are all vulnerable to error or manipulation that could change the outcome of elections," said Holt. "We
ignore this possibility at our peril."

The Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security (an initiative of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law), surveyed hundreds of election officials around the country; categorized over 120 security threats; and evaluated countermeasures for repelling attacks on voting systems. The study examined each of the three most commonly purchased electronic voting systems: electronic machines ("DREs") with a voter verified paper trail, DREs without a voter-verified paper trail, and optical scan systems ("PCOS"). The report, The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World, is the first-ever systematic analysis of security vulnerabilities in each of these systems.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1440&Itemid=26

Brennan Center Task Force Says Software Attacks Pose Real Danger To All Electronic Voting Machines
By Brennan Center Press Release
June 27, 2006
Threat of Hacking Can Be Reduced by Simple Countermeasures -- Random Audits of Paper Records; Ban on Wireless Systems

Top Scientists from Government and Private Sector Unanimous in Assessment

• The Machinery of Democracy- Executive Summary (June 27, 2006)
http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Executive%20Summary.pdf
The Machinery of Democracy- Full Report (June 27, 2006)
http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Full%20Report.pdf
The Brennan Center Task Force on Voting System Security, an initiative of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, today released a report and policy proposals concluding that all three of the nation’s most commonly purchased electronic voting systems are vulnerable to software attacks that could threaten the integrity of a state or national election.

“As electronic voting machines become the norm on Election Day, voters are more and more concerned that these machines are susceptible to fraud,” said Michael Waldman, the Brennan Center’s Executive Director. “In fact, we’ve learned a lot from our study. These machines are vulnerable to attack. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we know how to reduce the risks and the solutions are within reach.”

“I hope that election officials and lawmakers around the country read this report and take a hard look at adopting these policies in time for the 2006 elections,” said Howard A. Schmidt, former White House Cyber Security Advisor and former Chief Security Officer of Microsoft and eBay.

The government and private sector scientists, voting machine experts, and security professionals on the Task Force worked together for more than a year. The members of the non-partisan panel were drawn from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”), the Election Assistance Commission (“EAC”), the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, leading research universities, and include many of the nation’s foremost security experts.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1439&Itemid=26

Departments
National Issues

A line in the sand: why the Busby/Bilbray election and their voting machine "sleepovers" matter (or should) to the entire nation
by Brad Friedman
June 27, 2006

(HINT: It's not about Busby or Bilbray or San Diego or even California!)

My reporting and the concerns expressed about the Busby/Bilbray election results as announced, have little or nothing to do with Francine Busby or Brian Bilbray or even, in particular, the June 6th U.S. House special run-off election in California's 50th congressional district.

It has only a tiny bit more to do with San Diego. And only slightly more than that to do with California.

It has everything, however, to do with democracy. Across the entire country. As opposed to any one race in any one area.

If I've not been clear on that until now, please allow me to set the record straight.

The concerns I've reported — and will continue to report — over the blatant disregard for the rule of law and clear illegalities endorsed and encouraged by the SD County Registrar of Voters, Mikel Haas and allowed and apparently-approved at this point by California's Secretary of State Bruce McPherson have everything to do with the future viability of democracy in this country in general and a perhaps-naive hope that there's a chance in hell that acting now will help to salvage a shred of legitimacy for this coming November's election.

more at:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2006/2047

The Brennan Center website has a list with ALL media coverage about its report "The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World" - it also includes links to the pdf files:

About the Task Force (June 27, 2006)
The Machinery of Democracy- Executive Summary (June 27, 2006)
The Machinery of Democracy- Full Report (June 27, 2006)

http://www.brennancenter.org/presscenter/releases_2006/pressrelease_2006_0627.html

Press

• Washington Post (USA)- A Single Person Could Swing an Election (June 28, 2006)
  
• The Beacon Journal (OH)- Report Cites Flaws in Electronic Voting (June 28, 2006)
  
• The Globe and Mail (UK)- Many e-Voting Systems Flawed: Report (June 28, 2006)
  
• WWMT (MI)- E-voting Gets Thumbs Down from Report (June 28, 2006)
  
• Free Internet Press (USA)- Cybersecurity Experts Say Voting Machines Have Security Flaws (June 28, 2006)
  
• Reuters (USA)- Study Shows US Electronic Voting Machines Vulnerable (June 27, 2006)
  
• USA Today (USA)- Analysis Finds e-Voting Machines Vulnerable (June 27, 2006)
  
• Fox News (USA)- Report: Many E-Voting Systems Flawed (June 27, 2006)
  
• Boston Herald (MA)- Report: Many e-voting Systems Flawed (June 27, 2006)
  
• Guardian Unlimited (UK)- Report: Many E-Voting Systems Flawed (June 27, 2006)
  
• Business Week (USA)- Report: Many E-Voting Systems Flawed (June 27, 2006)
  
• Fox News (USA- Study: E-Voting Systems All Flawed, but Also Easy to Fix (June 27, 2006)
  
• ABC News (NY)- Report: Many E-Voting Systems Flawed (June 27, 2006)
  
• Computer World (USA)- Studies question e-voting security (June 27, 2006)
  
• Canton Rep (OH)- Report Rips Security of Electronic Voting System (June 27, 2006)
  
• Newsfactor Magazine (USA)- Report: E-Voting Machines Are Vulnerable (June 27, 2006)
  
• Playsful Magazine (Romania)- Study Says E-voting Machines Pose Problems (June 27, 2006)
  
• The Washington Times (DC)-Study Says e-Voting Machines Pose Problems (June 27, 2006)
  
• Pierceland Herald (Canada)- Report: Many e-Voting Systems Flawed (June 27, 2006)
  
• Short News (Germany)- Electronic Voting Flawed, Report Finds (June 27, 2006)
  
• ZD Net (USA)- E-voting Gear at Risk of Hacking, Study Says (June 27, 2006)
  
• Monsters & Critics (USA)- Study Says e-Voting Machines Pose Problems (June 27, 2006)
  
• The Post Chronicle (USA)- Study Says E-Voting Machines Pose Problems (June 27, 2006)

STEVEN F. FREEMAN AND JOEL BLEIFUSS
A call to investigate the 2004 election
By Steven F. Freeman and Joel Bleifuss | June 26, 2006

WE'VE ALL heard the story. Nov. 2, 2004, was shaping up as a day of celebration for Democrats. The exit polls were predicting a victory for Senator John Kerry. Many Americans, including most political observers, sat down to watch the evening television coverage convinced that Kerry would be the next president.

But the counts that were being reported on TV bore little resemblance to the exit poll projections. In key state after state, tallies differed significantly from the projections. In every case, that shift favored President George W. Bush. Nationwide, exit polls projected a 51 to 48 percent Kerry victory, the mirror image of Bush's 51 to 48 percent win. But the exit poll discrepancy is not the only cause for concern.

In Ohio, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio co-chairman of the 2004 Bush/Cheney Campaign, borrowed a chapter from Secretary of State Katharine Harris's Florida 2000 playbook. Like Harris, he used the power of his office to affect turnout and thwart voters in heavily Democratic areas. Vote suppression and electoral irregularities in Ohio have been documented, first in January 2005 by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, and in June 2005 by the Democratic National Committee, which found, in the words of DNC Chairman Howard Dean: ``More than a quarter of all Ohio voters reported problems with their voting experience."

more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/06/26/a_call_to_investigate_the_2004_election/

Should We Advocate an Election Boycott in the United States?
by Jon Flanders
Here in the purported paragon of electoral democracy, the United States of America, we have now suffered through presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 that were widely regarded as questionable. I am referring of course to the fiasco's of Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

Even before the Supreme Court made Bush President by a vote of 5 to 4, the state government in Florida went out of its way to keep African-Americans from voting by vetting the registrations for "felons."

According to Greg Palast, "in the 2004 presidential race, the GOP ran a massive, multi-state, multimillion-dollar operation to challenge the legitimacy of black, Hispanic and Native American voters." Palast now says that a similar effort will be made in 2008 if the Voting Rights Act is allowed to expire in 2007.

Elections in the USA are now, and have been for decades, dominated by big money interests. Politicians, even in small states like Vermont, must raise hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions, of dollars just to be competitive. The overwhelming majority of that money comes from corporations and wealthy individuals. Labor unions and average voters run a poor second and third in the money marathon.

The two major parties have so gerrymandered electoral districts that, in the upcoming 2006 congressional races, for example, only 20 or 30 of more than 400 seats in the House of Representatives are considered in play. A Wall Street Journal article pointed out that "in Michigan, which Al Gore carried by five percentage points, a GOP gerrymander has stuffed six Democratic incumbents into only three seats. The likely result is that a nine-to-seven Democratic majority delegation will become a nine-to-six GOP majority. In a burst of candor, one of the stuffed Democrats, Representative Jim Barcia, admitted that 'If the shoe were on the other foot, we would be doing the same thing.'"

more at:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/flanders270606.html

A Single Person Could Swing an Election
Electronic Systems' Weaknesses May Be Countered With Audits, Report Suggests

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Page A07

To determine what it would take to hack a U.S. election, a team of cybersecurity experts turned to a fictional battleground state called Pennasota and a fictional gubernatorial race between Tom Jefferson and Johnny Adams. It's the year 2007, and the state uses electronic voting machines.

Jefferson was forecast to win the race by about 80,000 votes, or 2.3 percent of the vote. Adams's conspirators thought, "How easily can we manipulate the election results?"

The experts thought about all the ways to do it. And they concluded in a report issued yesterday that it would take only one person, with a sophisticated technical knowledge and timely access to the software that runs the voting machines, to change the outcome.

The report, which was unveiled at a Capitol Hill news conference by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice and billed as the most authoritative to date, tackles some of the most contentious questions about the security of electronic voting.

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062701451.html

Wednesday :: Jun 28, 2006
Even GOP Now Admits Electronic Voting Allows Election Theft

by Steve Soto
Something significant happened yesterday in the Congress. No, I don’t mean the flag-burning amendment vote in the Senate, where the Bill Frist cabal spent more time on wedge issues in June than they did in debating solutions to Iraq or health care. What happened yesterday is that even Republicans in Congress now admit that electronic voting systems are insecure and it is too easy for someone to steal an election.

That’s right, even Republicans now admit this.



Great. So if the GOP is ready to disregard the “nothing to see here; move on” blather from Diebold and others, then Democrats will need to fast-track this through each house this year so that any changes can be implemented in 2007 in time for the 2008 election. And if the GOP balks, we can point to how fast they rammed the Help America Vote Act through after Florida so that the 2004 election would be affected, and point out that the integrity of the 2008 election is at risk from any GOP delays. And if Bush does us the favor of vetoing the bill, all the better.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/008064.php

Blackwell’s changes to voter registration upheld
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Efforts to register new voters in Ohio will be undermined by rules written by Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and upheld yesterday by a state panel, critics said after a contentious hearing.

The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review voted along party lines not to invalidate the rules submitted by Blackwell, the Republican nominee for governor. Outvoted Democrats accused Blackwell of using the narrowest interpretation possible to suppress voter registration — especially among minority and poor residents.

"It’s just another example in a long laundry list of what Secretary Blackwell will do to trample voting rights," said Senate Democratic Leader C.J. Prentiss, of Cleveland.

more at:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/?story=dispatch/2006/06/27/20060627-B1-04.html

Published: June 27, 2006 12:56 am
Case closed on election fraud

By Tasha Kates / katest@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

An investigation into election fraud among several local Democrats has ended after a fourth guilty plea.

Matthew Bova, 22, 251 Lexington Ave., lower, Buffalo, pleaded guilty Monday to attempted misconduct in relation to campaign petitions.

Bova, who was charged Monday morning, is the final person to face consequences in an election fraud investigation headed up by District Attorney Matthew Murphy. The investigation centered around petitions collected by Democrats to get candidates’ names on primary election ballots.

Bova signed his name as a witness Aug. 11 on one of William Boulden’s Independence Party nomination petitions for last fall’s Niagara County Legislature race. However, he didn’t witness the signatures being scrawled onto the page.

The young politico is no stranger to petitions. In 2002, Bova ran for mayor of North Tonawanda on the Independence line.

more at:
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/local_story_178005659.html

J. Kenneth Blackwell – The J. Is For Jim Crow
Posted by Bob Fitrakis on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

Unlike most western democracies, the United States only became a democracy some 40 years ago with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Our country hired federal registrars, who were allowed to pack sidearms to break the tyranny of racist white Dixiecrats.

Now we have the new Jim Crow. You get a black man to do what Bull Connor and George Wallace did forty years ago. J. Kenneth is shrinking the electorate. He’s targeting minority and poor voters. He’s making it a crime to register people to vote. He’s doing the bidding of objectively racist white politicians like Republican Senator Jeff Jacobson of Vandalia, Ohio. The Secretary of State has come up with his interpretation of new registration rules. If you register new voters, you must deliver each voter’s new registration form in person within ten days to the Board of Elections in each person’s county of residence or face fifth degree felony charges.

This is the same Blackwell who threw out 356 votes in Franklin County because voters were in the right precinct, but pollworkers gave them a provisional ballot. This is the same hater of poor and minorities and ass-kisser to the rich, who returned voters’ registration forms because they weren’t on 80-lb. unwaxed white paper. This is J. Kenneth Blackwell, a black face on a red neck.

Posted by Bob Fitrakis on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006 at 3:42 am.
more at:
http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2006/06/28/j-kenneth-blackwell-%e2%80%93-the-j-is-for-jim-crow/

Justices Back Most G.O.P. Changes to Texas Districts

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 28, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld most of the Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay but threw out part, saying some of the new boundaries failed to protect minority voting rights.

The fractured decision was a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democratic incumbents out of office.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Hispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosing under the plan.

Republicans picked up six Texas congressional seats two years ago, and the court's ruling does not seriously threaten those gains. Lawmakers, however, will have to adjust boundary lines to address the court's concerns.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/washington/28cnd-scotus.html?hp&ex=1151553600&en=14d5618a3d44b0e1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

New York: Last in HAVA Compliance or First in Election Integrity?
By Howard Stanislevic, VoteTrustUSA E-Voter Education Project
June 27, 2006

You've read about it in the press, seen it on the Internet, perhaps even blogged about it yourself, but what's really behind New York's reported tardiness in complying with the Help America Vote Act? Perhaps it's the State's preoccupation with election integrity.

The history of New York's purported non-compliance with Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is a long one. Much has been made of HAVA's lack of requirements for voter-verified paper audit records (VVPARs) or paper ballots that can be used to allow independent verification of e-voting system tallies produced by Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) and Optical Scan (OS) systems (paper ballots provide this capability inherently of course). But bills in the New York State legislature from both sides of the aisle have required VVPARs with random audits since at least 2004. New Yorkers may be stubborn but they're not stupid.

It would be patently absurd to replace a transparent, statewide, non-proprietary, low-tech mechanical lever voting system that even prevents write-in overvotes and can only be corrupted the old fashioned way -- one machine at a time -- with opaque, proprietary, computerized e-voting systems, programmed en masse by as few as a single insider, with no means of independent verification whatsoever. And contrary to popular belief the potential for programming error or malfeasance applies equally to DRE and Optical Scan technologies. Fortunately, the independent verification issue was resolved here years ago; the legislature declared, "There shall be paper." So too was the issue of source code escrow, which recently prompted at least one major e-voting vendor (Diebold Election Systems) not to compete in the state of North Carolina. As in the Tarheel State, the escrow of vendors' proprietary software has been a requirement in New York's legislation for years.

New York law also requires the testing of every e-voting machine or system in the state approved after 1986 with at least 800 votes per year. While some may consider this excessive it's not burdensome to do with optical scanners. However, it should be noted that a typical ballot can have literally trillions of valid vote combinations, all of which cannot be tested. This is one reason why New York law also provides for party representatives and others to audit the ballot definition programming generated by election management systems. The significance of this statute is something that even some in the election integrity community do not yet fully appreciate.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1436&Itemid=113

Group files for injunction to halt evoting in Colorado, California

RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday June 28, 2006

A group is asking courts in Colorado and California to grant injunctions halting the use of certain electronic voting systems, RAW STORY has learned.

Voter Action will file a motion for a preliminary injunction today to halt the use of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems in Colorado's November elections. This comes on the heels of a complaint filed by the nonprofit on June 1 against the use of DRE's made by Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, ES&S, and Hart InterCivic in upcoming state elections.

In the filings, a number of academics and voting technology experts provided sworn declarations that the DRE's present unprecedented and unacceptable security and operational risks. Some will also testify at an evidentiary hearing to be scheduled before Judge Lawrence Manzanares of the Denver District Court.

In the coming days, Voter Action will also file for a motion for preliminary injunction in California to block the use of Diebold DRE's in the November 2006 elections. The case relating to this injunction was filed in March. The complaint in the California case, which led several counties to return to paper ballots, is directed at the counties intending to use Diebold touch screen computers.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Group_files_for_injunction_to_halt_0628.html

Democrats More Eager to Vote, But Unhappy with Party
Gay Marriage, Inheritance Tax Among the Lowest Public Priorities

Summary of Findings

With less than five months to go before Election Day, Democrats hold two distinct advantages in the midterm campaign that they have not enjoyed for some time. First, Americans continue to say they favor the Democratic candidate in their district, by a 51% to 39% margin. Second, the level of enthusiasm about voting among Democrats is unusually high, and is atypically low among Republicans. In fact, Democrats now hold a voter enthusiasm advantage that is the mirror image of the GOP's edge in voter zeal leading up to the 1994 midterm election.

Public anger with Congress continues to rise, and anti-incumbent sentiment has reached new highs, according to the latest survey of 1,501 Americans conducted June 14-19 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The sour public mood currently favors the minority party, as 46% of Democratic voters say they are more enthusiastic about voting than usual, compared with just 30% of Republicans. In October 1994, Republicans held a comparable advantage on this measure (by 45%-30%).



more at:
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=279

The California Election Protection Network today faxed to San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas the following letter, along with their Voters' Resolution of No Confidence, issued June 15, 2006 and announced by press release on June 19.


June 28, 2006

Mikel Haas, Registrar of Voters
San Diego County
5201 Ruffin Road, Suite I
San Diego, CA. 92123

Dear Mr. Haas:

The California Election Protection Network, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 25 election integrity organizations throughout California, hereby declares the reported results of the June 6, 2006 primary and runoff elections in San Diego County to be illegitimate. Our reasons are set forth in the accompanying resolution.

As the Registrar of Voters of San Diego County you have been entrusted with one of democracy’s most precious resources: our elections. As an employee of the people of California you are personally responsible to fulfill your duties in a way that preserves and protects the sanctity of our elections. Elections provide the only means by which the “Consent of the Governed” can be determined. As the Declaration of Independence states, it is this consent from which the “just Power” of the government is derived. If the consent of the governed cannot be duly determined, the government’s power is rendered unjust and must be rejected...

Here's the thread with the full text of the letter and the resolution, plus links:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x436984

posted June 28, 2006 (July 17, 2006 issue)
The Coming Ballot Meltdown
Andrew Gumbel

Anyone wondering where America's next electoral meltdown will take place--and it can only be a matter of time--might do well to turn back to the scene of the last one. Ohio was, of course, ground zero of the 2004 presidential election, and now it's the battleground of one of the most hotly contested governor's races in the country. The Republican candidate this November is none other than Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, a man vilified by voting rights activists for a string of baffling and, to all appearances, nakedly partisan rulings in the 2004 presidential race, when he also doubled as co-chair of George Bush's state re-election campaign. Now he's at it again--issuing draconian guidelines on voter registration that carry the threat of felony prosecutions against grassroots get-out-the-vote groups, especially in Democratic-leaning urban areas, for even the slightest procedural irregularity. Despite denials from Blackwell's office of any malicious political intent, the guidelines have had an immediate chilling effect on groups like the activist community organization ACORN, which has suspended registration efforts pending urgent consultations with its lawyers. Several leading Democrats have urged Blackwell to step aside from all election-supervising responsibilities, a proposal his staff has greeted with near-derision.

It would be bad enough if Blackwell were acting merely to benefit his party, as he did in 2004. But in this case he's taking advantage of his office to act on behalf of his own ambitions. Unless something changes between now and November, he will remain in charge of counting the votes--his own and everyone else's. In a pivotal election in a pivotal state, this is far from reassuring. As Peg Rosenfield, an elections specialist with the League of Women Voters of Ohio who spent twelve years working in the secretary of state's office in the pre-Blackwell era, put it, "If you think '04 was a mess, just wait. I anticipate a debacle."

Much more at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060717/gumbel

Posted on Wed, Jun. 28, 2006
Justice Department clears Georgia's voter ID rules
By Shannon McCaffrey
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA - The U.S. Department of Justice has signed off on rules governing the issuance of photo IDs to voters in Georgia, clearing the way for the State Election Board to decide whether to require them for the July 18 primary.

The rules establish what kinds of documents must be presented to obtain one of the free IDs, as well as where and when they will be distributed. Critics of the law - which mandates that all voters must have a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot - are expected to respond with a legal challenge.

Members of the State Election Board said last week that once they received approval from Washington they would then decide whether the law could be implemented for the primary, which is now less than three weeks away.

Lawyers in the Justice Department have already cleared Georgia's amended voter ID law. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia must have changes in its elections approved by the federal government.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/14922338.htm

Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Escaping from the Armed Madhouse

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War.

Don't kid yourselves. If you think Bush's lower-than-my-laces ratings portend victory for Democrats, that's what Rove wants you to think. Bush shoplifted Ohio (and New Mexico and Iowa and...) see, he doesn't need your vote. And he doesn't count your vote, either. The Rove-bots are preparing next year's model (probably Good Doctor Frist) and will load the bad vibes on to the lame duck and the lame Dick. Frist will run on a platform of stopping homosexual flag-burnings by enforced readings of the Ten Commandments in courthouses.

What to do?

I wrote ARMED MADHOUSE for just such a contingency. We can't do a damn thing to stop the dangerous inmates running this asylum unless we know HOW they're doing.

Lots and lots of topics. Let's begin with two: votes and war.

Counting all the votes: why not? In America we don't and that's not much of an issue for any politician elected under the current system. THREE-MILLION, SIX-HUNDRED THOUSAND THREE-HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ballots were cast in the last election AND NEVER COUNTED: "spoiled" ballots, "provisional" ballots and "deficient" absentee ballots. And—ready for this—88% of the ballots not counted were cast by voters of color.

more at:
http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/008030.html

Posted on Wed, Jun. 28, 2006
VOTING MACHINES

Critic: Paper vote records vital

A California computer expert discussed with two local groups the importance of having a paper record attached to electronic voting machines.

BY EVAN S. BENN
ebenn@MiamiHerald.com
States that use electronic voting machines must also have a system of paper records to verify votes, a leading critic of touch-screen voting said Tuesday night at a lecture in Coral Gables.

David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor, talked with about 40 people, most members of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition and the Human Services Coalition at the home of Daniella Levine, executive director of the human services group.

Dill has worked since 2003 to expose flaws in electronic voting systems, which he said are open to fraud and manipulation.

`LESS CONFIDENCE'

''A lot of us believed, prior to the Florida 2000 debacle, that we were in good shape with our elections,'' Dill said. ``But then people saw that the more you looked, the more problems you found and the less confidence you had in the process.''

He helped create the Verified Voting Foundation, to which some of Tuesday night's attendees gave donations after the lecture.

MORE AT:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14918419.htm

Voting machines

By Susan Montgomery, City Editor 06/28/2006

Leflore County election commissioners want their own technician to service the new touch-screen voting machines.
They asked as much Monday in a formal written request to the Leflore Board of Supervisors.

The board is considering the request. The board tabled a decision on the proposal Monday, planning to take up the issue in July.

Diebold Election Systems, as part of its contract, will offer assistance to the county for five years.

But the county's difficulties during the June 6 primary were due to improper programming by a Diebold technician. These problems prompted the commission's request.

more at:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16858105&BRD=1838&PAG=461&dept_id=104621&rfi=6

As e-vendors undoubtedly know by now, New Yorkers are a tough audience.

New Fix, But Voting Woes Linger

One Long Island election official labeled it the start of "HAVA hell."

June 25, 2006

by Rick Brand

snip

Among the worries about the new systems are security, the amount of space needed, and whether counties will have to buy more machines because the capacity of computerized voting machines are far smaller than lever machines. The final question is whether Nassau and Suffolk can get delivery of 3,800 machines in time for next year's vote.

"The new systems are going to create more problems than they are going to solve," warned Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, fearing the $14 million in federal aid to Suffolk will not fully cover putting a new system in place. "The $14-million is the tip of the iceberg," Levy said.

Beyond hardware, local election officials also worry that the new machines will require extensive training of election workers and a large number of new hires to replace inspectors, who may not want to learn the new system.

Others say the new systems may not do much for the handicapped for whom the machines are being made more accessible. William Biamonte, Nassau's Democratic elections commissioner, said a survey of 6,000 voters who use absentee ballots because of age or infirmity, showed little interest in new voting machines. "Their biggest response was lower my taxes," he said.

snip

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-lipol264795520jun25,0,6192644.column?coll=ny-news-columnists


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