Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday, March 12

[MelissaB]

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=416552&mesg_id=416552

All previous daily threads are available here:

http://www.independentmediasource.com/DU_archives/du_2004erd_el_ref_fr_thr_calenders.htm

[MelissaB]

1. CA: County seeks a new voting chief, system

County seeks a new voting chief, system
Public can comment at Monday meeting

FROM STAFF REPORTS

When Alameda County became the first large West Coast jurisdiction to buy Diebold's ATM-like touch-screen voting machines, some Democratic activists got the impression from the county's elections chief that no other voting company or technology could handle the county's vote.
Now, with more than $12 million spent on Diebold voting machinery and former voter registrar Brad Clark working for the California secretary of state, Alameda is looking for a new elections chief and new voting system.

On Monday the public can guide the county's choice for both, in the first public hearing on choosing someone to handle the mechanics of local democracy.

"It is unprecedented. We haven't really done it before," said Keith Carson, president of the county's governing Board of Supervisors.

For the June elections, acting Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold is lining up paper ballots, plus a single borrowed Diebold TSx touch-screen with a paper trail printer, for each polling place. But for the November general election and beyond, Alameda County has just more than $9 million in federal funds to purchase a new voting system that will meet the latest state and federal laws.

That's probably enough money if the county sticks with Diebold and can use some of the system that it already has. Going to a new voting-machine maker easily could cost more. So far, county officials plan on naming a new registrar between the June and November elections, arriving in time to set up and train workers for the new system.

Voting-reform activists thought Clark settled on Diebold prematurely, before its touch-screen voting machines were mature, then was overly rigid in his defense of them after several glitches, including the awarding of votes to the wrong candidates in the October 2003 gubernatorial recall.

"He kind of came on strongly saying it's Diebold and nobody else," Carson said. "People felt that that excluded them, and then when they tried to access his office to discuss that issue, they felt blocked." These reformists and allies such as the Monclair Democratic Club and the Wellstone Democratic Club have pushed for a registrar who was more receptive to public opinion and open to other voting systems.


More: http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_3594954

[MelissaB]

2. Stealth certification

Stealth certification

Bob Pinzler
March 11, 2006

One of the general rules of government is that if you want to make a controversial decision you don’t really want to explain, release it at 5pm on a Friday. Even better, do it on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

The Friday night before President’s Day weekend certification by California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson of the Diebold electronic voting system for use in the upcoming primary election causes even someone who has a positive view of this technology to be concerned. If the Secretary so firmly believes in the testing that he claims was done to determine whether the system was secure from tampering, why not present that information, just as did the call for the testing, in a formal news conference.

Diebold is the poster child for public concerns about the security of electronic voting. Much of the problem stems from a statement in 2003 by the, now former, Chairman of the company, Warren O’Dell, a long time, high stakes, Republican contributor. He was, he said, going to do “everything in his power to see that George W. Bush was reelected.”

Just this last week, the Republican Governor of Maryland, a “showcase state” for Diebold equipment, stated that he "no longer confidence in the State Board of Elections’ ability to conduct fair and accurate elections in 2006." Now, we have the stealth certification in California.


More: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=6219

[MelissaB]

3. discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416671

[MelissaB]

4. Cox Violated Voter Rights, Judge Declares

Cox Violated Voter Rights, Judge Declares
Resolution Reached, But Work Still Needs to be Done

By Sarah Epting, Staff Writer and Development Director, Atlanta Progressive News (March 10, 2006)

(APN) ATLANTA – A Senior US District Judge found that Georgia Secretary of State (SOS), Cathy Cox, violated voter rights by undermining voter registration drives, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. Cox, a Democrat who is currently running for Georgia Governor, is already under criticism for her stewardship of the state’s electronic voting contract with Diebold.

"The Court finds and hereby DECLARES that the rejection of voter registration applications on the ground that they were submitted in a bundle, or by someone who was not a registrar or deputy registrar, violated the NVRA ," the Consent Decree states.

Meanwhile, a new Georgia Senate Bill 590 introduced by Democratic Minority Leader Gloria Butler would further codify the rights of private groups to conduct voter registration throughout the state. However, private groups always had that right, the courts have recently found.

“These volunteers drive our voter registration in this state and we should make it easier, not harder, on them to help Georgia citizens complete the voter registration process,” Butler said during a Feburary 24, 2006, press conference on voter rights sponsored by US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA).

More: http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0034.html

[MelissaB]

5. Blackwell watch

[MelissaB]

6. GOP foes both did no-bid deals

GOP foes both did no-bid deals
Blackwell denied it, but he takes money he rips Petro for taking

Sunday, March 12, 2006
Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Despite one-sided charges, both Republican candidates for governor have taken campaign cash from those they awarded no-bid state contracts, records show.

J. Kenneth Blackwell has criticized rival Jim Petro repeatedly in recent weeks for using lawyers who received unbid specialcounsel work from the attorney general’s office as a "fundraising ATM."

But a Dispatch analysis shows Blackwell has taken thousands of dollars in contributions over time from vendors who got no-bid work from the secretary of state’s office under his control.

After saying Feb. 20 that he didn’t take such contributions, Blackwell said Friday they are "nominal" and pale in comparison to Petro’s — and that he hasn’t used the "strong-arm tactics" he accuses Petro of employing.

Blackwell also said he would return all of his contributions from vendors who got unbid work if Petro did the same, but a Petro spokesman said Blackwell is trying to avoid being labeled a hypocrite.

"His offer doesn’t change the facts: Ken Blackwell still says one thing and does another," said Bob Paduchik, Petro’s campaign manager.


More: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/03/12/20060312-A1-00.html

[MelissaB]

7. IRS overreach (Washington Times)

IRS overreach

TODAY'S EDITORIAL
March 12, 2006


The IRS wants to strike the fear of God into priests, ministers and rabbis who venture too far into politics and activism. In a Feb. 24 speech to the City Club of Cleveland, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson announced that nearly three-quarters of the 82 churches and charities that the IRS investigated recently for alleged political and electoral improprieties turned out, in the IRS' view, to be violators. Among the "offenses": Allowing candidates to speak on church premises, preachers delivering remarks from the pulpit interpreted to endorse candidates and the posting of Web links to the Web sites of candidates for office.

Interest is boiling over in Ohio: There, two ministers are accused of getting too close to Ken Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state and gubernatorial candidate, as well as letting their preaching get too political (the reverends deny the charges). At issue is whether the IRS should more actively sanction or even revoke the tax-exempt status of churches and charities it believes have gone too far. The IRS has done this before: In 1995 the Clinton IRS revoked tax exemptions for a Binghamton, N.Y.-area church that paid for anti-Clinton advertisements in a local newspaper.

The IRS should tread lightly. The 501(c)3 section of the tax code is deliberately vague about what is acceptable and what is not. Mr. Everson himself agrees. In his Feb. 24 speech, he said: "There are few bright lines for evaluating political intervention; our work requires a careful balancing of all the facts and circumstances." The reality is even murkier than Mr. Everson suggests. One tax-code passage prohibits any activity "that may be beneficial or detrimental to any particular candidate." Who knows what an overzealous regulator could do with that language. Urging congregants to vote pro-life is obviously more "beneficial" than not to the typical Republican candidate; urging a pro-choice stance does the reverse.

Equally obvious, clergymen and women should be allowed wide latitude to invite speakers to their houses of worship. They should have great discretion to say what their consciences compel them to in the pulpit. This is a lesson the IRS should take to heart. Far better to stick to the traditional hands-off interpretation.


More: http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060311-102354-7385r.htm

[MelissaB]

8. AP Enterprise: Blackwell schedule shows more contact with pastorsANDREW WE

AP Enterprise: Blackwell schedule shows more contact with pastors

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINSAssociated Press

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

While the complaint looked at nine publicly reported events sponsored by the pastors, a review of Blackwell's daily schedule found 18 other meetings or other contact with the pastors, including flights on a church-owned plane, meetings in Blackwell's office and attendance at church services.

Blackwell, a Republican and favorite of conservatives, had contact with pastors Russell Johnson and Rod Parsley or their churches 27 times from January 2004 through March of this year, according to AP research, including a review of Blackwell's confidential schedule obtained through a public records request.

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


More: http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/politics/14072098.htm

[MelissaB]

9. Whores & Queens

Whores & Queens
Behind enemy lines in the Battle of the Soulless.

By Pete Kotz
Article Published Mar 8, 2006

Thom Zahler

The first shot was fired in 2003. Jim Petro had just been elected attorney general. He was looking for enemies -- loosely defined as anyone who didn't give him money. He found them in the badlands of Akron.

Nefarious patent attorneys were being paid to protect the University of Akron's scientific achievements. Useful work, to be sure. But they hadn't paid Jimmy. He would teach them to show respect.

Friends called him Jimmy Danger, but never to his face. He had shellacked businessman hair that, if used in the fashion of a woodpecker, could pluck a man's eye out. This was the Suge Knight of the state legal-contracts racket.

You want in? You pay Jimmy.


...snip

It's now three years later. Jimmy Danger wants to be governor. That's where the real stealing's at. Problem is, he's gotta climb over Ken Blackwell to get there. This ain't gonna be easy.

Kenny's so close to God he knows where all His birthmarks are. Made a name for himself upholding church, family, and the right to smack around some homos whenever he needs headlines. He's more Judas than Jesus, but God loves all His children. Even the weird ones.

Of course, Kenny ain't supposed to be with Alex -- seeing as how Alex is queerer than an Olympic figure skater, and seeing as how Kenny's been known to say them faggots is worse than damn farm animals.

But Kenny made Alex his campaign chairman anyway. Remember them principles we were talking about? Well, the first principle is money. And since Alex can raise money, there ain't no other principles.

That's how Kenny sees it, because that's how God sees it.

Now if you're boned up on your Old Testament, you'll know that God had a gift for smiting His enemies. So Alex and Kenny figured they'd get Old Testament on Jimmy's ass.

More: http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-03-08/news/kotz.html

[MelissaB]

10. From the same website

...snip

Uncle Tom's campaign
Ohioans disoriented by the multiple voices spewing from Ken Blackwell's mouth will have a new resource for deciphering his message: his upcoming book, Rebuilding America: A Prescription for Creating Strong Families, Building the Wealth of Working People, and Redeveloping Our Cities (Lucifer & Co.; $24.95).

The book will serve as his gubernatorial campaign platform for those countless swing voters who prefer 352 pages of self-serving bullshit over 30-second TV commercials. It was co-written by Jerome Corsi, author of the book that slammed Swift Boat veterans and an outspoken critic of Muslims, the Pope, and elderly gardening clubs.

The most interesting chapters include "Negroes Scare Me" and "I'm the Second Coming. No, Really."

Though Rebuilding America doesn't land in bookstores for three weeks, pre-orders through Amazon have topped 260 billion, according to figures certified by Barbara Byrd-Bennett. (Blackwell's staff didn't return Punch's calls seeking comment.)

As for area retailers' plans to host book-signings with Blackwell? In the words of Borders' marketing manager Darlene Collins: "At this time, I . . . no."

We'll take that as a maybe, Darlene.

Link: http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-03-08/news/firstpunch.html

:rofl:

[MelissaB]

11. Success or failure will ride on facing the ugly reality of the USA dictato

Success or failure will ride on facing the ugly reality of the USA dictatorship

Link: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=50723


This is an interesting article from another country, and I can't decide what to snip. Skim for yourself. It does praise Gore and talk about our elections.

[MelissaB]

12. Lies, lies and more Damned lies.

Lies, lies and more Damned lies.

by Robert D. Daily (Driftwood)

http://www.opednews.com

Lies, Lies, and More Damned Lies.

We should be more than aware by now that we have a Maniac in office that believes in sacrificing any and everything for Greed and Power who has joined the Throng on Outsourcing our nation causing untold misery to the citizens of the United States.

We have a man who has knowingly and with forethought lied us into a war and occupation with a Sovereign Nation, where with his “Shock and Awe” he has literally murdered unknown thousands and maimed even more. This has to be the King of All Mass Murderers. He has completely destroyed an entire countries infrastructure then topped it off by using not only Depleted Uranium but Napalm and White Phosphorus, throwing said country into a Civil War as well as making it a training ground for terrorists.

...snip

We have seen our elections go from bad to worse and now they are but unnecessary to elect someone. The pencil and paper have given over to the machine with no paper trail. Machines that have a history of being tampered with and hacked into. Knowing what these machines are they still try to load them unto states that do not have them. This can only be for one reason. Election Tampering.

Here it is 2006 and we are still hearing the tales of disenfranchisement, voter fraud intimidation, and they are still finding ballots uncounted. We cannot believe in the ones that were and it seems we can no longer have faith in the voting system. We have seen three elections clouded in deceit and corruption.

We have a pResident who is literally hated worldwide who is going Hell Bent for Election in Outsourcing our resources as fast as he can. A Do Nothing Congress that barely shows up for work long enough to rubberstamp whatever Bush wants.


More: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_robert_d_060311_lies_2c_lies_and_more_.htm

[MelissaB]

13. LA: Clerk has worked against us all along

Clerk has worked against us all along

Sunday, March 12, 2006
Jarvis DeBerry
Here are some things Kimberly Williamson Butler and I have in common: We're both black. We're both Christians. We're both transplants to New Orleans and have lived here for about the same length of time.

...snip

The woman is proof, though, that an elected official can have everything in common with a voter and still disappoint. She is proof that a candidate can enjoy widespread public support -- e.g., win 57 percent of the vote in a clerk of criminal court race -- and then do nothing to advance the interests of those who put her in office.

Instead, Butler has worked against the public. On Sept. 18, 2004, she worked against me and many other people lined up at Lake Area Middle School who could not vote until the middle of the afternoon because Butler hadn't delivered the voting machines. I talked to a gentleman that afternoon who, because he was well into his adult years before black people were granted free access to the polls, assumed there were some cloak-and-dagger racists at work that day.

In July, Butler took to the radio to encourage listeners whose criminal convictions were keeping them from voting to come to her office and get expungements (at $325 per charge) so they could vote -- and especially vote for her. The truth is, an expungement is to voting in Louisiana what a pair of skates is to whipping a meringue. There is no correlation. No matter the crime committed, as long as a person is out of jail and isn't on probation, the law allows that person to register.

A woman called me in August to say that her middle-aged husband had done something uncharacteristically stupid as a young man. He had long ago served his time, she said, and the couple had often talked about how unfair it was that he couldn't vote.

He could have been voting all along. The fact that he didn't know that isn't Butler's fault. Still, it would have been nobody's fault but hers if that man had been convinced that he needed to show up to her office with money before he could step inside a booth to vote.

How offensive it is to hear someone who tried to sneak through a modern-day version of a poll tax claim, as Butler did Thursday, that she belongs to a pantheon that includes Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.


More: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/deberry/index.ssf?/base/News/1142147858104380.xml

[MelissaB]

14. Voting machines not secure

Voting machines not secure

Chico Enterprise-Record

There is one issue on which we can all agree -- liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat, independent, Green, all of us: We must never, ever use electronic voting machines.

The Catch-22 of these machines is that the software in them is proprietary. That is, for security purposes, only the manufacturer can know how they are programmed. But that also means that there is no way for anyone to verify their accuracy.

A paper receipt is meaningless because the machines can be programmed to print one thing but record another. On a more basic level, we all know that computers can crash. And it has been demonstrated that these particular machines can be hacked in less than 60 seconds.

There is nothing wrong with our good old optical scanners. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to use and provide for accurate recounts.

More: http://www.chicoer.com/letters/ci_3593662

[Algorem]

15. long business-section interview of new Diebold chief executive

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/114216816973460.xml&coll=2

(voting machine stuff is on last 2 pages)

On the Record
Inheriting a challenge
Sunday, March 12, 2006

...Q: We've been talking a lot about the biggest sector of your business. Now let's go to the smallest sector. It raises the obvious question. What the heck are you doing in electronic voting, when you look at its size compared to the rest of your expertise?

A: Let me step back in terms of how the decision was made to get into the business. We actually got into the business in Brazil first.

In Brazil, the federal government made a decision, we won the contract and then we manufactured 350,000 terminals used in every one of their states. So as the sea was changing here in the United States, you had a lot of people in Brazil up here in the United States meeting with government officials saying we just did this in Brazil. They had a paper-based system. It was very corrupt. They decided they needed to do some type of electronics. They actually piloted having a receipt printer.

So you fast forward to here. Up until the (Help America Vote Act in 2002), most folks making decisions in terms of the election system business were pretty local, community-based. So you had a local community making a decision, a pretty immature industry and small players doing that. When the HAVA Act was passed, the thought was this is going to fundamentally change what's happening here and the world is going to take notice. As the world takes notice, it's going to change this into a worldwide business...


Beyond the boardroom
http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/1142069853127180.xml&coll=2

video
http://www.cleveland.com/ontherecord

[Wilms]

17. Brad Offers an Unlikely Olive Branch... (to Swidarski)

Diebold's New CEO Continues to Fuel Speculation About the Sell-Off of Their Elections Division

Thomas Swidarski Reveals He is Still Out of Touch With the Company's Problems

Brad Offers an Unlikely Olive Branch...

snip

Until he begins to understand that, and directs his company to act accordingly, under a different set of rules and procedures and benchmarks than are used to guide their consumer ATM business, they will continue to be desperately out of touch, constantly under attack, and their little 5%-of-their-overall-business adventure will continue to be a liability to their company in numbers which far outweigh the overall investment and profitability their company has finds in that particular "business sector."

If this interview is any indication, Swidarski actually seems to be a nice guy. At least, he comes across that way in this setting.

And so, in all honesty, I'd like to put the offer out there and on the record, that I'd be happy to discuss this situation and offer some advise to Swidarski on all of this.

Believe it or not, I actually feel I can help him and his company find their way to the right footing in how they handle so much of the "business" that they are desperately mishandling at this time. And they continue to do so, even in the three months since Swidarski has become CEO.

I am quite serious about the offer, and invite Mr. Swidarksi to feel free to give me a call. In all honesty, I'm happy to discuss all of these matters, and perhaps even help him and his company get back on track -- even while helping our country (which both he and I each live in) to restore the lost integrity which threatens to undermine our very democracy.

snip

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002534.htm

[MelissaB]

16. Did the NSA help Bush hack the vote?

Bob Fitrakis asks a most pertinent question:

Did the NSA help Bush hack the vote?

January 9, 2006
Columns
Bob Fitrakis

What do we make of the President boldly proclaiming that he has “spy powers?” Does he have X-ray vision too?

When he and his cronies crawl up into Cheney’s bunker with the sign on the door “He-man Woman-haters Club. No Girls Allowed (except Condi),” do they synchronize their spy decoder rings and decide what new absurd folly to unleash on the world?

Illegal invasion of Iraq, suspending writs of habeus corpus, secret CIA torture dungeons, or election rigging? Most people outgrow such childish games and fantasies by the time they’re ten years old. And by age twelve, most understand that the President is not a king. Or a dictator. That U.S. citizens have inalienable rights.

That there are such things as search warrants. If the executive branch of government is going to conduct surveillance on the American people, they have to get a warrant from the judicial branch specifying what they’re looking for and the reasons for the search.

The Bush administration’s utter contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the specific information we now know about its use of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance network should further call into question Bush’ 2004 presidential “election.” In a recent revelation, we have learned that the NSA shared the fruits of its illegal spying on behalf of Bush with other government agencies.

What are e-voting machines and central tabulators that pass the voting results over electronic networks from the internet to phone lines? No more than data easily spied on and tapped into. The Franklin County Board of Elections, for example, tells us that it was a “transmission error” in Gahanna Ward 1B, where 638 people cast votes and Bush, the Wonder Boy, received 4258 votes. It’s not magic, nor is it an accident or an act of God. If the vote total wasn’t so hugely illogical, no one would have caught it.

CONTINUED...


More: http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2006/1294

[Wilms]

18. NY: First-hand account of voting machine demo

First-hand account of Rockland, NY voting machine demo

March 11, 2006

by Allegra Dengler, Citizens for Voting Integrity

The ES&S scanner was with the Automark demonstrator. That confused people because they don't know what the connection is, they think the Automark ballot marker is some kind of computer. Nobody tried out either device.

Suggestion for the Westchester demo-hand out flyers outside the event. Some balance is much needed. This was basically a demo of DREs, with the scanners there but ignored.

The Automark demonstrator was knowledgeable but it was a very noisy room and hard to hear anything. He said that right now New York is just looking for an ADA device like the Automark for HAVA compliance, and that the choice for the scanners or DREs is next year. (So don't bother looking at the scanner?) Said NY doesn't know what they want to do yet on "tabulation". "If not nationally certified, no state can certify". In response to a concern raised, said that you can't stack the ballot box with counterfeit ballots, because the ballots have marks on them that can't be counterfeited. He said 30% of the states voted on paper ballots/optical scan before HAVA, now 50%. Costs $5K per Automark and $5K per scanner, only one scanner per polling place, need a lot more DREs, which cost a lot more.

snip

I talked to a Rockland official. She was dead set against scanners. "They jam." I said, go look at the scanner the Automark guy has. Ask him how it works. The voter scans in the ballot, you don't feed in a lot of ballots at once, it doesn't jam. Just go look at it, talk to the guy that works for ES&S that is demonstrating it. She walked in the other direction. These people are determined to live in their alternate universe where facts don't matter. "Scanners jam, that's all there is to it." And "we don't have to deal with paper with the DREs." And "Saddam Hussein caused 9/11."

She also said the handicapped don't like the Automark, based on one person who has trouble with his hands who has come to all the demos (?) and likes the DREs.

snip

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_allegra__060311_first_hand_account_o.htm

[phoebe]

19. Diebold's "new" CEO Thomas Swidarski + PNC Bank + Riggs Bank +

Racketeering (prior to sale of Riggs to PNC)
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/business/s_196357.html

and Riggs money-laundering lawsuit (prior to sale to PNC)

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/03/03/pnc_settles_shareholders_lawsuit?mode=PF

FWIW - PNC has about 3,000 ATM machines in 30 states, McMahon said, making it the sixth-largest bank ATM network in the nation. (things that make you go hmmm..)



oh and by the way.. here's a recent article on PNC

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/timesleader/business/14073650.htm?source=rss&channel=timesleader_business

PNC and Citizens Bank customers get new cards and account numbers after breaches

snip

PNC took an added precaution and closed cards that were identified as “at risk for fraud,” Kimble said.

“We can’t say how we determine that because it is very sensitive information,” she said. (Where have we heard that before??) “At this point, anyone who had fraud on their card has been contacted.”

On Monday, National City, a Cleveland bank, confirmed it was reissuing an unspecified number of Visa cards after learning the account numbers had been stolen, leaving the accounts vulnerable to fraud. Other banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America and Washington Mutual, acknowledged a similar problem.


So let's just say that Diebold has NO fucking intention of doing business with the Republicans any other way than they already have..