Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Sunday 01/13/07

Race for '08: Internet buzz decries Clinto victory in N.H.
Another week on the presidential campaign trail
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Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, January 13, 2008

The results weren't even in when the blogosphere started to hum with a theory that sharply divided Democrats online: Barack Obama lost to Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hampshire because the vote was rigged.

"Something stinks in New Hampshire," a commenter posted on the popular liberal site Americablog.com.

Curious about the "wildly inaccurate" polls that put Obama in a double-digit lead going into Tuesday's primary, blogger Brad Friedman, a Los Angeles-based election-fraud watchdog, questioned the results as soon as they arrived, and all day Wednesday.

"Other folks that I've spoken to, who follow this sort of thing, share my concern at this hour," he wrote on bradblog.com. "If I was Barack Obama, I'd certainly not have conceded this election this quickly. I'm not quite sure what he was thinking."

http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/630324.html


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New ideas may test voters

ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS STILL CONTROVERSIAL

After the contested presidential election of 2000, American taxpayers have spent $4 billion and eight years upgrading the nation's elections systems - mostly in an effort to get rid of the punch-card voting machines held out to be the culprit in Florida.

But the electronic voting machines that replaced them have turned out to be just as controversial. Security holes - real or theoretical - have caused Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to issue a directive to 57 of Ohio's 88 counties to cease using touch-screen voting and offer paper ballots instead.

Many voter-rights activists - especially those who believe a presidential election could be fixed - say that paper ballots provide a paper trail that can be inspected by independent auditors. But many studies show that voters prefer electronic machines, and paper seems to be a low-tech solution.
ADVERTISEMENT

Brunner, a Columbus Democrat, says touch-screen voting will return to Ohio, but only when voting machines meet higher standards for security.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080113/NEWS01/801130387

Electronic vs. paper: Choice of ballots will cost county money
By RENEE BROWN, T-R Staff Writer

Election Day means making choices. On March 4, Tuscarawas County voters will have one additional choice to make – how to cast their primary election ballots.

Voters can choose to use the electronic touch-screen voting machines that have graced neighborhood precincts for the past couple of years. Or they can choose to use a No. 2 pencil and fill in the circles on a paper optical scan ballot.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has mandated that election boards of the counties that use electronic voting machines also must provide paper ballots to any voter who requests one at the precincts. Tuscarawas County is one of 57 Ohio counties affected by this order.

Brunner’s latest directive has left elections officials hustling to make additional preparations for the primary election, now just six weeks away. County Elections Director Charles E. Miller said he spent Friday trying to figure out how many optical scan ballots to have printed.

http://timesreporter.com/index.php?ID=77946

Early voting in primary starts Monday at 12 sites
By JENNIFER SORENTRUE

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Palm Beach County residents who want to vote early for the Jan. 29 election can do so starting Monday.

Twelve sites scattered at libraries, city halls and elections offices across the county will be open over the next two weeks for those who want to cast their ballots.
More local news

The early voting sites will be open between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays and between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekends through Jan. 27.

Unlike election day, when voters must report to their assigned precinct, early voting allows residents to vote at any of the 12 sites.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/local_news/epaper/2008/01/13/s1c_EARLY_VOTING_0113.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=76

Paperless voting machines get last try

By Michelle Sheldone (Contact)
Sunday, January 13, 2008

Starting Monday, voters in Martin and Indian River counties should be voting for the final time with electronic touch-screen machines that leave no paper trail.

That makes Jeffrey Pedersen of Jensen Beach uneasy.

"I don't feel very good about it at all," said Pedersen, a technology salesman. "You could hack anything."

The Florida Legislature has mandated every county use new optical-scanning voting machines starting in July, well after the Jan. 29 presidential preference primary.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/jan/13/paperless-voting-machines-get-last-try/?partner=yahoo

Election offices get ready; early voting begins Jan. 28
Sunday, January 13, 2008

By Randall Higgins
Cleveland Bureau

Hundreds of Georgia and Tennessee area voters waited until nearly the deadline to register before the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday presidential preference primaries.

That may indicate an increased interest and a big turnout, area election officials say.

The number of last-minute registrations in Georgia won't be known for at least a week, said Matt Carrothers, spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel.

"Anecdotes we have heard from around the state suggest an uptick in registrations," Mr. Carrothers said.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/local.aspx?articleid=28269&zoneid=77

South Carolina officials see no problems with touch-screen voting machines

By David Williams (Contact)
Saturday, January 12, 2008

Upstate election officials said they do not expect any problems with the electronic voting machines that have been in use in South Carolina since the 2004 presidential election.

But at least one Upstate professor has said there are problems with the machines.

Officials in Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties said they anticipate a smooth voting process for both the Republican presidential preference primary on Jan. 19 and the Democratic primary on Jan. 26 in South Carolina. The officials also say tampering with voting machines is nonexistent.

“I would say it would be quite remarkable if anyone did attempt it,” said Ashley Harris, director of the Pickens County Registrations and Elections Commission. “There is security to prevent tampering in place, including the poll workers and poll watchers for the candidates and the parties.”

http://independentmail.com/news/2008/jan/12/south-carolina-officials-see-no-problems-touch-scr/?partner=yahoo

"Officials in Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties said they anticipate a smooth voting process for both the Republican presidential preference primary on Jan. 19 and the Democratic primary on Jan. 26 in South Carolina. The officials also say tampering with voting machines is nonexistent."--David Williams, the Independent (emphasis added)

These bought and paid for election officials make me want to vomit. Tampering non-existent? How would THEY--or any of us--know? IT'S A "TRADE SECRET"!!!

Election Integrity Challenged in New Hampshire
All ballots to be recounted
By Michelle Wolski
Epoch Times Florida Staff

UPDATED Jan. 12, 8:30 p.m.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William M. Gardner announced on Friday that two candidates in the New Hampshire primary have requested a recount of all ballots cast statewide.

The recount requests came from Republican presidential candidate Albert Howard and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. According to Gardner, the recounts will commence on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008. Both candidates will pay for the cost of the recount.

Kucinich issued a petition for recount because of "unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots," according to a press release issued by the Kucinich campaign on Thursday.

"I am not making this request in the expectation that a recount will significantly affect the number of votes that were cast on my behalf," said Kucinich in his letter to Secretary of State William M. Gardner. "Serious and credible reports, allegations, and rumors have surfaced in the past few days. … It is imperative that these questions be addressed in the interest of public confidence in the integrity of the election process and the election machinery—not just in New Hampshire, but in every other state that conducts a primary election."

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-1-12/63935.html

Kenya death toll tops 700 as protest rallies loom: police

by Bogonko Bosire 28 minutes ago

NAIROBI (AFP) - A prominent US-based rights group called on Kenyan authorities Sunday to lift a ban on political rallies ahead of new protests this week, as the death toll from post-election violence topped 700.

Police gave the fresh death toll from violence sparked by December 27 presidential polls after four people died in overnight clashes in the Rift Valley and 100 more bodies were discovered.

Human Rights Watch urged the government to allow rallies led by opposition leader Raila Odinga, which are due to start Wednesday to protest alleged vote-rigging that led to President Mwai Kibaki winning a second five-year term.

Police have outlawed any public meetings since bloody clashes erupted after Kibaki's victory was declared and many feared a showdown with protesters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080113/wl_africa_afp/kenyavoteunrest_080113222127

Opinion

Is a picture ID to vote too much to ask?

By PAUL PERRY
Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008 8:01 PM CST
Before the Supreme Court is a case on appeal from Indiana. The state of Indiana would like to require a simple photo identification of anyone who wishes to vote. The American Civil Liberties Union says that such a law is unfair to the poor and, I guess, to those who wish to vote illegally.

Who in their right mind would disagree with a law that requires someone to produce a photo ID in order to vote? Perhaps an individual or an organization that wishes to sway elections by allowing to vote those who by law are ineligible to vote, such as non-citizens.

http://www.waxahachiedailylight.com/articles/2008/01/13/opinion/doc4789689520bb8785443601.txt

Georgia's Opposition Supporters Protest, Demand Recount
By Stefan Bos
Budapest
13 January 2008

Bos report - Download MP3 (584k) audio clip
Listen to Bos report audio clip

Tens of thousands opposition supporters in Georgia took to the streets of the capital Tbilisi to protest what they call massive fraud in the election of pro-Western leader Mikhail Saakahsvili as president last week. Stefan Bos reports for VOA from Budapest.

The rally was organized by Georgia's opposition coalition of nine political parties. It reflects a widespread disillusionment with Mr. Saakashvili's performance during his first term.

The protesters, some carrying musical instruments and shouting and singing anti-government slogans, took to the streets after the Central Election Committee announced that Mikhail Saakashvili has been re-elected as president in the January 5 poll with more than 53 percent of the vote.

This was enough to avoid a run-off election round, but far less than the 40-year-old US-educated lawyer received in 2004 when he won by a landslide after a peaceful revolution ousted his predecessor.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-01-13-voa27.cfm

Minority Vote Moves Center Stage

Last Updated:
01-13-08 at 10:51AM

With nomination contests in lily-white Iowa and New Hampshire settled, minority voting power now moves into the spotlight.

Historical realities suggest that blacks and Hispanics won't play much of a role in determining the Republican Party presidential nominee. But this year's Democratic primary and caucus schedule was designed specifically to give increased influence to minorities, particularly Latinos.

Voters in both groups are energized: Blacks by the early successes of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, Latinos by the intense, sometimes xenophobic debate over immigration. But it's far from clear how those influences will play off each other.

Nevada's caucuses on Jan. 19 will give an early showcase of Hispanic voting. However, observers say the true impact of Latino influence might not be felt until the general election, notably in Western states like Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada - places where George Bush's margin of victory in 2004 was razor-thin.

http://www.cbs8.com/stories/story.114510.html

Voting machine debate growing

Watchdog group has eye on Vallejo's controversial mayoral race and recount.
By Sarah Rohrs/Times-Herald, Vallejo
Article Launched: 01/12/2008 07:32:35 AM PST

With a legal contest looming over Vallejo's mayoral race, a San Francisco election watchdog group says the controversy is illustrative of problems with election machines and manual ballot counts.

Founded in 2006, the San Francisco Election Integrity League has taken an interest in the razor-thin Vallejo balloting and subsequent disputes over a manual recount.

Former two-term City Councilman Gary Cloutier won the Election Day count by five votes and was sworn in as mayor on Dec. 4.

But after requesting a manual recount, second-place finisher Osby Davis was certified as the winner with a two-vote lead. He was sworn in Dec. 11.

http://www.thereporter.com/ci_7954088?source=rss

Diebold Voting Machine Failures Found Across State During New Hampshire Primary

Election Officials Confrim that Employees from LHS Associates, Diebold's Sole Programmer, Vendor, and Service Provider in NH, Were Allowed to Access Vulnerable Optical-Scan Systems Throughout Election Day

Attorney General's Office Offers Conflicting Information...

Special to The BRAD BLOG by Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio

Early research into New Hampshire wards and towns which used Diebold's AccuVote Optical-Scan voting machines during last week's Primary reveals that chronic problems continue with the company's infamous paper-ballot voting machines.

As well, the preliminary investigation reveals a great deal of confusion and conflicting information from local election clerks and a high-ranking official in the state Attorney General's office regarding protocols and security procedures for voting systems and memory cards, and how they are to be handled during Election Day failures.

All four counties I contacted on January 10th that had used Diebold's electronic machines last week reported problems during the election with the machines. Two other calls that same day turned out to have been to areas where electronic voting is not in use, where hand counts are done instead. If the small sampling is any indication, a statewide study would likely reveal that voting machines failed many times during the 2008 Presidential Primary across the entire state.

Problems with the systems were quickly revealed during all of my calls to officials who had used the optical-scan systems in Hanover, Exeter, Nashua, and Manchester.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5553

January 11, 2008

Will Jose Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President?

By Greg Palast

Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary
Published January 10th, 2008 in Articles
http://www.gregpalast.com/space-invaders-five-million-aliens-for-hillary/

Will José Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President?

by Greg Palast
Thursday, January 10, 2008

State Representative Russell Pearce of Mesa Arizona has warned us:

“There is a massive effort under way to register illegal aliens in this country.”

How many? According to the Congressman’s office, there are five million: Democrats, he says, who are not good Americans - they’re Mexicans!

Really?! Holy Cow! The Senator has uncovered a conspiracy to flood the voter rolls with Brown Hordes who’ve swum the Rio Grande just for a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton?!

Thank the Lord for vigilant citizens like Senator Pearce. His efforts, along with the work of other patriotic (Republican)politicians successfully stopped 300,000 voters from obtaining ballots in 2004 - because these voters had brought the wrong ID to the polls. New ID laws in Arizona and half a dozen states blocked these voters at the polling-house door. Others with “wrong” ID’s were handed what are called ‘provisional’ ballots - which were then not counted.

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court indicated it would vote to uphold these new voter ID requirements.

And just in time. If not for these new ID laws, warns Senator Pearce and other Republicans across the nation, a dark wave of illegal aliens would vote again in our upcoming Presidential election.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_greg_pal_080111_will_jose_crow_voter.htm

Journalist DORI SMITH investigates: Who counts in NH?

www.KPFT.org
January 13, 2008

KPFT - Pacifica Radio
listen online at www.kpft.org, or listen later (see archives, at bottom)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x493602#top

Thankee, Beth.

http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2008/01/05/nyt-to-blast-e-voting-tacir-urges-verifiable-votes-in-tennessee/

NYT to blast e-voting; TACIR urges verifiable votes in Tennessee
By Christine Anne Piesyk | January 5, 2008 |

“A long way from where we started…”

With those words activist Bernie Ellis, a staunch advocate for traceable, verifiable voting records, cited a BRAD BLOG report announcing the publication of a major New York Times article on the issues surrounding electronic voting.

According to The BRAD BLOG, the NYT article includes a graphic of an exploding voting booth and a warning that your vote may be “lost, destroyed, miscounted, wrongly attributed or hacked.” The story is reportedly titled “The Bugs in the Machine.” The story claims that electronic voting machines may create far greater problems than hanging chads and cites a ten percent failure of electronic voting machines. http://www.bradblog.com

Just over a month ago, Ellis appeared at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship for a screening of the David Earnhardt film, UnCounted, which offered a scathing indictment of electronic voting machines and the disenfranchising of entire blocks of voters.

The film premiered in Nashville in November and was virtually ignored by mass media with the exception of Clarksville Online. The second Tennessee screening of this film was held in Clarksville and sponsored in part by Clarksville Online.

Since then, Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) has issued a statement urging a paper trail of votes statewide.

Today the Associated Press reported that only two of Tennessee’s 95 counties maintain a paper trail of ballots and urged all 95 counties to adopt the practice of backing e-voting with a paper trail. Tennessee is one of only 12 states that do not require some form of verifiable voting documentation.

As Tennessee voters head to the polls for a February 5 Presidential Primary, all eyes will be scrutinizing the voters, the machines, and the tallies. The TACIR report, which will be completed this month, calls for verifiable voter records within a “reasonable” period of time. “Reasonable” is as yet undefined, but proponents of a paper trail urge that it be completed before the 2008 election.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5089#more-5089

MELTDOWN '07: Diebold Touch-Screens Flipping in Memphis Mayoral Election
Tight Three-Way Race Falling Victim to Crappy Voting Technology - Who Could Have Predicted It?

RELATED: Federal Bill That Wouldn't Have Corrected the Problem - Rush Holt's HR 811 - Back 'In the Freezer' in the House, According to Roll Call...

We were in Nashville a couple of months ago, at a meeting of the Davidson County Board of Elections. We tried to warn them that they would run into trouble with their ES&S touch-screen voting machines, probably sooner, rather than later. But the Kool-Aid drunk Republicans on the board would have none of it. "Paper ballots are the biggest scam ever perpetrated on America," one of them told us. To our astonishment, he actually seemed to believe himself.

That GOP blend must be some very tasty Kool-Aid. Meanwhile, the nice Democrats who were in the majority on the board sat there and said and did nothing. They were very very nice. And completely clueless. And now, next door in Memphis (Shelby County), where they use equally bad Diebold touch-screen machines, Mayor Willie Herenton is calling for an end to Early Voting, which began this week, as reports of votes flipping began coming into his office just after polls opened.

As John Gideon noted, in awarding her his "Enemy of Democracy" prize yesterday, the clueless County Commission Chair, Myra Stiles (don't know her party affiliation, don't care), told the local ABC affiliate: "We're comfortable with the fact that we tested those machines and there is nothing wrong with the way the machines are recording the votes. Apparently it's an issue of public education. If people press in the wrong area they're going to get the wrong result."

Stiles either hates democracy, has been living in a cave for the past three years, or, more likely, realizes that it's her ass if she admits what everyone knows: The voting system she approved for her county isn't worthy of a Banana Republic, much less American democracy, and she --- not the mayor --- should be run out of town for it.
Memphis citizens ought to start lighting their torches and grabbing their pitchforks out of their garages, as early voting numbers are apparently huge so far, and someone is gonna be screwed here. Some 15,000 citizens have reportedly already cast(away) their votes on the Diebold TSx machines.

Local schizophrenic pollster Berje Yacoubian seems to understand the problem in one breath, but dismisses it in the next. "Is he (Mayor Herenton) sounding an undue alarm? Probably overblown right now," Yacoubian reportedly said, before acknowledging that the issue could easily undermine the results of a "really close" three-way race for Mayor.

Yacoubian says the Diebold voting machines currently being used across the country are known to have up to a 5% error rate. He say that small margin could make a big difference on October 4th. He adds, "The only time you really have a problem is if it's a really close race. Guess what? This is going to be a really close race."
Herenton's two opponents believe the Mayor's concerns that voters should have their vote recorded accurately are ridiculous. We guess they each must believe they are going to win.

2008 is going to be a fucking nightmare.

But the good related-ish news is that Rush Holt's Election Reform Bill (HR 811) --- which would have made the situation worse by offering a false sense of security and the institutionalization of touch-screen voting machines --- is once again "stalled" in the House, according to Roll Call today:

House Democratic leaders continued to keep the controversial paper ballot bill in the freezer this week in the face of continued opposition from local elections officials, and they have demanded that proponents get firm commitments backing the bill before bringing it to the floor.
We take no comfort in siding with "local elections officials" on this one, and oppose the bill for entirely different reasons than they do. But perhaps the stall will allow a real solution to emerge for this nightmare before the real meltdown hits us next year.

http://www.southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2007/12/state-election-systems-study-calls-for.asp


The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) is conducting an ongoing study of voting and election systems in Tennessee. The first report on voting machine systems was presented to TACIR in June.

<heavily snipped>

The 12 states that still have no paper record requirements are Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia."

Other measures are being looked at to bolster voter confidence such as post-election audits and enhanced voter registration and verification. The study is also looking at ways better manage the cost of elections. TACIR also surveyed county election administrators across the state to find out their concerns and concerns of voters in their district.

Here are some highlights from the June report on Tennessee election systems, entitled Trust but Verify:

• Nationally, 16 states use optical scan, 13 states a combination of optical scan and DRE ("direct recording electronic") voting machines with VVPAT ("voter verified paper audit trail"), three states use DRE with VVPAT, and one state (Oregon) votes by mail.

• Concerns with DRE systems include: voters cannot verify their votes are recorded correctly, publicly viewable counting and independent recounts are impossible, proprietary software not available for public or regulatory review, closed and proprietary federal testing standards, design and programming errors that can affect election outcomes.

• VVPAT paper trail options include optical scan systems, add-on VVPAT printers for DRE systems, and voting by mail. Punch card and centrally tabulated optical scan systems are also discussed.

• Advantages of optical scan include: easy to understand, human-readable ballots for audit and recounts, under and over vote protection, HAVA disability compliance, many people can vote at once. Disadvantages: proprietary software, requires replacement of DREs in 92 Tennessee counties, ballot printing costs.

• Advantages of DRE with VVPAT include: utilize existing DRE equipment, no pre-printed ballot required, under and over vote protection. Disadvantages include: audit and recounts more difficult and time-consuming, exposure to malicious or negligent programming at both the voting and counting stages, confusing to voters, long ballots mean long lines at the polls.

• Advantages of voting by mail include: increased voter turnout, more time for voters to consider their choices, automatically keeps voter rolls updated. Disadvantages include: more opportunity for voter coercion and vote buying, prohibitive cost (although Oregon reports savings), and voters who prefer the tradition of voting at a local polling place.