Election Reform, Fraud & Related News May 17, 2006-Everything But Edition

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud & Related News May 17, 2006-Everything But Edition

stillcool47 has left me on my own for now - so you get everything but the kitchen sink from kpete.
I am not much of an organizer - so bare with me as I throw everything I can find at you...
still cool - this is for you and come back soon, because only you can stop me!

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
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4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.
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[kpete]

1. Voting Problems Reported

Voting Problems Reported

PHILADELPHIA-May 16, 2006 - The election has been marked by some significant problems with voting machines. And both voters and candidates have been trying to deal with the frustration. Sixty-two Pennsylvania counties are debuting new voting machines today. Philadelphia is not one of them, but that's where the problems are.

The city has about 3,600 voting machines in use for today's primary vote. The biggest problems have been at voting locations where multiple failures have been reported.

Ward 12, Division 20 in Germantown is one such location. Judge of Elections Bernard Bibbs followed the routine startup procedure, but neither machine would activate. In one case, the write-in paper tape just unrolled and then refused to roll back up. In the other case, the machine will only beep and do nothing else.

Bernard Bibbs/Judge of Elections: "We set them up the way they're supposed to be run electronically. They've been shut down all morning.... We're dead."

Similar problems have popped up across the city. Machines by the score have failed to operate. In most places, at least one machine is functioning. In those places where all the machines are down, voters can request a paper ballot.

Edward Schulgen/Deputy City Commissioner: "Give that voter a paper ballot, which is then sent to us after the election. We verify whether or not that person is registered in the right division. If that's correct, then we count that vote."

more at:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4177755

[kpete]

2. Oregon blazes mail trail

Oregon blazes mail trail
Nation looks to state for new election system model Post office has been the main polling place since 2000

By JIM REDDEN Issue date: Tue, May 16, 2006
The Tribune

Is vote-by-mail the solution to the election controversies that have gripped other parts of the country for much of the past six years?

A growing number of election reform advocates think so, including Dave Jackson, a member of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition, one of numerous grass-roots groups across the country worried that elections are rife with fraud and cheating.

“From what I know, Oregon’s vote-by-mail system is the most secure voting system in the country,” Jackson said, explaining that he first began worrying about elections after the 2000 Bush-Gore counting debacle.

The vote-by-mail system will be on full display in today’s primary election. The offices of the Multnomah County Elections Division will hum with activity as around 150 temporary workers process ballots that have been filled out and mailed in by county voters.

Signatures will be checked, ballots will be inspected and automated counting machines will tabulate the results that are scheduled to be released beginning at 8 p.m. Voters have until then to bring their ballots by the office, at 1040 S.E. Morrison St., for them to count.

more at:
http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=35284

[kpete]

3. Voting Machines for Disabled in New York City

Voting Machines for Disabled in New York City

By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: May 17, 2006
ALBANY, May 16 — New York City would provide voting machines that are accessible to the disabled at five locations in the city this fall as part of the state's plan for settling a federal lawsuit for failing to modernize its voting system.

The proposal falls far short of a goal of the federal Help America Vote Act — to have a voting system accessible to the disabled at each polling place in the state — but city and state officials say it is the best they can do with fall elections approaching.

The state was sued in March by the Department of Justice, which said that New York had fallen behind the rest of the nation in putting the Help America Vote Act into effect. The measure called on the states to overhaul their election systems.

But with the September primaries approaching fast, city and state officials said that there was not enough time to replace all the voting machines in the state without causing chaos in the elections. So late last month the state offered — and the Justice Department reluctantly agreed to support — a vastly scaled-back stopgap measure.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/nyregion/17vote.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1147871048-vH5UrDjCM3bFDNDAKRxRDg

[kpete]

4. New voting system brings its share of problems for Luzerne County primary

The Citizens Voice

New voting system brings its share of problems for Luzerne County primary

BY TIM GULLA STAFF WRITER 05/17/2006

WILKES-BARRE — Some tempers flared at the Luzerne County Courthouse on Tuesday night as poll workers bringing back election results were greeted with insufficient parking, gridlock, and a long wait in line.

Some election officials waited as long as an hour outside the courthouse, lugging their election supplies and results back to the courthouse for tabulation. County officials, like spokeswoman Kathy Bozinski, received an earful of complaints.

Minority Commissioner Steve Urban, who was greeting the returning poll workers throughout the night, shared their concerns.

“The effort at the polls was wonderful,” he said. The same couldn’t be said for the organization at the courthouse.

“It needs to be addressed,” Urban said.

more at:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16649239&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6

[kpete]

5. Suburbs slow in tabulating totals

Posted on Wed, May. 17, 2006

Suburbs slow in tabulating totals
Philadelphia had about 100 cases of its 3,500 voting devices malfunctioning early in the day.

By Nancy Petersen and Marc Schogol
Inquirer Staff Writers

A rash of problems with Philadelphia's five-year-old electronic voting machines had officials scrambling yesterday, while suburban communities reported few problems.

After the polls closed, however, it was a different story in the suburbs.

Montgomery and Chester Counties were unusually slow tabulating the day's vote. Few vote totals were posted on county Web sites late yesterday.

Montgomery County was faced with a delay because it did not use its normal tabulation software. Workers phoned in results from 407 precincts after a voters' advocate group insisted the software used to tally votes could not be trusted.

more at:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/montgomery_county/14595717.htm

[kpete]

6. Allegheny County Debuts New Voting Machines

WPXI.com News
Voters Find Problems At Polls
Allegheny County Debuts New Voting Machines

POSTED: 2:39 pm EDT May 16, 2006
UPDATED: 2:56 pm EDT May 16, 2006

BETHEL PARK, Pa. -- Heading out to the polls for Tuesday’s primary, voters are using new technology.

Electronic and optical-scan voting machines made their debut.

State election leaders said they are prepared for any problems that can arise.

Some local voters said they have already faced a few.

Just 10 minutes into using new electronic voting machines, neighbors in Allegheny County reported problems.

Many predicted that would happen and it looks like they were right.

Voters in Bethel Park used paper ballots after machines crashed.

In some cases elections officials did not know how to repair the machines.

Bob Hahnar said, “I just went on and voted. It didn't change my selections at all.”

Electronic voting problems were also reported in Greenfield and several other areas of the city.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/9225521/detail.html

[kpete]

7. Voters like e-voting; confusion reigns during tabulation

Voters like e-voting; confusion reigns during tabulation
Wednesday, 17 May 2006
By L.A. TARONE
The verdict on Luzerne County’s new iVotronic voting machines was a split decision. Voters liked them. There were no significant problems anywhere in the county.
And problems that popped up were minor. In some precincts there were reports of long lines, as voters took a tad longer than initially expected to use the machines. Some voters asked that curtains be put around the voting machines for the general election, as there were none this time.
But in general, voting itself went off without a hitch.
But tabulation resulted in a degree of chaos, though not mass confusion. County officials believe the problems can be cured by the general election.
The process was designed so that the results from all of Luzerne County’s 316 precincts were recorded on a disc. That disc was put into an official county bag, colored bright red. Also in the bag were the absentee ballots from that prescient and the paper ballots, which were read by an optical scanner (which will not be used in the fall).
That bag was to be delivered to the courthouse. There, Voters Services employees would break the lock on the bag, insert the disc into a “reader” and both the paper and absentee ballots into a scanner.
Results were to be shown on two screens – one inside the commissioners’ meeting room for the media, the other in the courthouse rotunda for the public.
The “readers” worked quite well – able to scan and compile the data from voting machine discs in just 20 seconds.
But there were numerous problems on the periphery.

more at:
http://www.standardspeaker.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1959&Itemid=2

[kpete]

8. Voting Machines Get A Bumpy Start

Voting Machines Get A Bumpy Start

POSTED: 6:22 pm EDT May 16, 2006
UPDATED: 8:06 pm EDT May 16, 2006

Voters in Westmont cast their ballots for the first time on the new electronic voting machines. While things were running smoothly by afternoon, Tuesday morning was a different story as several precincts were forced to turn voters away. The judge of elections in Westmont says they had one computer that wouldn't start up so another machine had to brought from Ebensburg. Other places, like Johnstown's East Side Elementary School, also saw problems. This time it was the machine's printer. Poll workers say calling Ebensburg for help took as much as an hour at times. A few voters had to be turned away at the school, and also at the Belmont Fire Hall, and in Westmont. As for the turnout in general...the numbers were lower than expected.

http://www.wjactv.com/news/9227607/detail.html

[kpete]

9. Paper shortage for electronic voting machines worries election commission

Paper shortage for electronic voting machines worries election commission
By Warren Watkins
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 6:06 PM CDT

It’s not miles and miles of red tape that concerns White County Election Coordinator John Nunnelly about the May 23 primary — it’s rolls and rolls of white tape that is crucial to the operation of the new iVotronic voting machines being used in White County for the first time.

Each machine prints out a copy of votes cast on the paper.

In the final meeting on Monday before next Tuesday’s primary, the White County Election Commission heard Nunnelly report there may be a problem with a shortage of the tape, which looks like calculator paper. The commission met to finalize plans to deliver and set up its 143 new machines at 32 polling sites.

Election Systems and Software (ES&S) is the only supplier of the paper, which costs the commission $8.50 a roll but comes with a take-up reel specific to the iVotronic machines. Nunnelly said the commission ordered 320 rolls and were only sent 80. Each machine comes with its own roll, but a new roll must be installed for about every 100 voters.

more at:
http://www.thedailycitizen.com/articles/2006/05/17/news/top_stories/top01.txt

[kpete]

10. Electronic Voting Machines Cause Some Problems

Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Electronic Voting Machines Cause Some Problems
The transition to electronic voting machines was not as smooth as officials had hoped.
Tuesday`s primary election saw problems all across Erie and Crawford Counties... and about half of the problems started before the polls even opened.
Erie County Clerk of Elections Doug Smith says judges encountered problems at between 25 and 30 polling places.
That means that voters were turned away.
About half of the delays were a result of a problem printing out the "zero print" sheet.
That sheet is posted on the wall of the polling place to prove that no one voted before the polls officially open at 7:00 a.m.
Later in the night, several electronic ballot counting cards were missing. They were soon found, with no further problems reported.

http://www.wjettv.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=6319

[kpete]

11. Pa. Voters Oust at Least 14 Lawmakers

Pa. Voters Oust at Least 14 Lawmakers
By PETER JACKSON, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA - Angry voters were passing out the pink slips in Pennsylvania, where state lawmakers voted themselves a huge pay raise in the dead of night last year.

More than a dozen legislative incumbents, including the state Senate's top two Republicans, lost in Tuesday's primary election. With retirements, it means at least one in every six seats in the 253-member Legislature will turn over.

Pennsylvania voters also set up one of the hottest races in the U.S. Senate, choosing conservative Democrat Bob Casey to challenge conservative Republican Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) this fall.

In other primary races, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski defeated two rivals for the Democratic nomination. An Iraq war was defeated in a congressional primary in Kentucky, while another veteran won the Democratic nomination for Congress in Pennsylvania.

A Pennsylvania congressman mired in a sex scandal also won his primary challenge: Republican Rep. Don Sherwood (news, bio, voting record) had acknowledged a five-year extramarital affair after his mistress accused him of choking her at his Capitol Hill apartment.

But voter anger at the Pennsylvania Legislature boiled over at the polls.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060517/ap_on_el_se/primaries_rdp;_ylt=Ao9BupSUmopS.qmyqjK04I.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

[kpete]

12. 'Earthquake in Pennsylvania'

'Earthquake in Pennsylvania'

By Brad Bumsted and Debra Erdley
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 17, 2006


Angry taxpayers on Tuesday tossed out the two Republican Senate leaders who helped engineer last year's legislative pay raise, an issue that apparently cost 15 House members their jobs, too.
Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer of Altoona, and Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill of Lebanon County conceded to their challengers, becoming the first lawmakers in major leadership posts to lose a primary election in 42 years. The House defeats would be the most since 1980.

"We have had a dramatic earthquake in Pennsylvania," said Jubelirer, a 32-year legislator.

The defeats of Jubelirer and Brightbill "will send shock waves throughout he political establishment for years to come," said Mike Young, a retired Penn State University political science professor.

more at:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_454252.html

[kpete]

13. NAACP Sues to Block Omaha Redistricting

NAACP Sues to Block Omaha Redistricting
By CHUCK BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 16, 6:52 PM ET

OMAHA, Neb. - The NAACP sued Nebraska's governor and a state committee Tuesday over a new law that divides Omaha Public Schools into three racially identifiable districts.


The law, passed by the Legislature at the end of its recent session, splits the Omaha district starting in 2008 into three districts: one mostly black, one largely Hispanic and one predominantly white.

It was aimed at solving a dispute over school boundaries in the state's largest city after Omaha Public Schools tried to take over some suburban schools.

The NAACP's federal lawsuit says the new law violates the constitutional principals embodied in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, which said separate but equal facilities have no place in public education.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060516/ap_on_re_us/schools_naacp_lawsuit

[kpete]

14. Clay County voters allege vote tampering

Clay County voters allege vote tampering
Associated Press
MANCHESTER, Ky. - About a dozen Clay County voters alleged their votes were changed on new electronic voting machines after they left the booth Tuesday, state and local officials said.

The voters in the eastern Kentucky county said they didn't know how to properly cast their ballots and were misled by poll workers, said Les Fugate, spokesman for Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

Fugate said the voters allegedly were told by poll workers that they wouldn't have to confirm their votes during the final step of the voting process - leaving room for someone to change their selections when they left.

"We've told various authorities to look into this," Fugate told The Associated Press.

more at:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/14594287.htm

[kpete]

15. Ethics concerns cloud purchase of voting carts

Ethics concerns cloud purchase of voting carts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS - A Franklin County commissioner wants to know whether it was necessary to spend $785,000 on voting machine storage carts, following questions over their purchase by the elections board.

Commissioner Paula Brooks said she wants proof that the storage carts were required and information on whether other counties also purchased such carts.

"We thought we better get the facts in light of the situation that's been raised," she said Monday.

The county purchased the carts last year from SST Systems in suburban New Albany, a company whose founders include the wife and a friend of then-deputy elections director Michael Hackett Jr.

more at:
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/NEWS01/605170361/1056

[kpete]

16. Jefferson County's electronic voting machines center of controversy

PAISD Board Members Question Integrity Of Electronic Voting
Reported by Angel San Juan
May 17, 2006 - 8:07AM
Texas

Jefferson County's electronic voting machines are once again the center of controversy...this time the equipment has arisen as an issue in the Port Arthur school board elections.

According to 2 Port Arthur school trustees, the school board's acceptance of Saturday's election results might be premature.

Lonnie Linden, who lost his seat this weekend, claims the ES&S electronic voting machines leased from Jefferson County might have malfunctioned and not have correctly registered ballots.

Linden says numerous voters have told him when they cast ballots on the school board race, which you could pick up to three candidates, if they chose only two...their ballot was invalidated.

Linden says, "Let us work to correct the system that may have failed us, or failed this community and maybe failing Jefferson County."

more at:
http://www.kfdm.com/engine.pl?station=kfdm&id=14794&template=breakoutlocal.html

[kpete]

17. Texas: Veribest district: Machines didn't count some votes

San Angelo Standard Times

Recount sought
Veribest district: Machines didn't count some votes

By PAUL A. ANTHONY, [e-mail] or 659-8237
May 17, 2006

The Veribest school district is seeking a recount of Saturday's school board election, claiming the Tom Green County Elections Office improperly left dozens of votes uncounted.

Nearly 300 votes were counted in the at-large race - in which the top three vote-getters win election - but as many as 45 ballots were not because they contained votes for fewer than three candidates, said Jeffrey Brasher, the school district's superintendent.

''If they voted for zero, one or two people, their votes were not looked at,'' Brasher said.

In an at-large election for three seats, voters can select a maximum of three candidates but may vote for only one or two. Language on the Veribest ballots told voters to select three candidates, leading employees in the elections office to incorrectly program electronic voting machines and disregard paper ballots with fewer than three votes, state and county officials said.

County Elections Administrator Mike Benton would say only, ''Veribest can tell you all you need to know, and that's it.''

more at:
http://www.sanangelostandardtimes.com/sast/news_local/article/0,1897,SAST_4956_4704676,00.html

[kpete]

18. GOP Official Faces Sentence in Phone-Jamming

GOP Official Faces Sentence in Phone-Jamming
Democratic Lines Were Blocked in 2002 as New Hampshire Elected U.S. Senator

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A10

In October 2002, Charles McGee, executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, was mailed a Democratic flier that offered Election Day rides to the polls. The circular listed telephone numbers of party offices in five cities and towns.

"I paused and thought to myself, I might find out -- I might think of an idea of disrupting those operations," McGee later testified. A Marine Corps veteran, McGee approached the situation like a combat operation: "Eventually the idea coalesced into disrupting their phone lines . . . military common sense that if you can't communicate, you can't plan and organize."

When voting began Nov. 5, McGee's plan worked like a charm. For two crucial hours, an Idaho telecommunications firm tied up Democratic and union phone lines, bringing their get-out-the-vote plans to a halt. The effort helped John E. Sununu (R) win his Senate seat by 51 to 47 percent, a 19,151-vote margin.

Well before Election Day ended, however, the scheme began to implode -- in ways that still echo nearly four years later.

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601712.html

[kpete]

19. Its Official - Jim Marcinkowski Filed Unopposed!

Its Official - Jim Marcinkowski Filed Unopposed!
by
Robert "Taters" Murray

Jim Marcinkowski, retired CIA officer, county prosecutor, FBI agent, dad and Navy veteran filed unopposed as a Democrat to run against Republican incumbent Rogers, Eighth Congessional District ( Brighton ) Michigan. Rogers has been on the receiving end of Tom DeLay's largesse, through ARMPAC. ( Americans For A Republican Majority ) Rogers voted with DeLay over 90% of the time and voted for the DeLay rule before he voted against it.

Jim is a great guy - ask Larry Johnson or Joe Wilson! Anybody who knows him will tell you - Jim's got what it takes, he's certainly more than qualified. He's got the smarts, the heart and the willingness to fight for what we value so dearly. This is a commitment from an American who truly loves his country. No one has defended the outing of his former colleague Valerie Plame more vigorously or eloquently than Mr. Marcinkowski.

more at:
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/05/byrobert_taters.html

[kpete]

20. The Keystone uprising

Wednesday, May 17, 2006
The Keystone uprising

So now we finally have solid empirical evidence that actual voters are in open revolt against the Republicans, also known as the incumbent governing party. I need look no further than the primary results last night in my own state.

Granted, the 12 fallen Republican incumbents were only state legislators, so maybe it's wrong to interpret these results as symptomatic of the national political mood. But Robert Jubelirer, the defeated state Senate President Pro Tempore, wasn't born yesterday, and he's the one who says "It is a historic year, my friends."

Jubelirer was ousted after 32 years in office, and Senate Majority leader David Brightbill, a 20-year veteran, suffered the same fate. Brightbill lost to a tire salesman whose ex-lover was suing him. This is the first time that top state legislative leaders have been ejected from their jobs since the year that the Philadelphia Phillies blew the pennant with 10 straight losses (that would be 1964).


more at:
http://dickpolman.blogspot.com/2006/05/keystone-uprising.html

[kpete]

21. Jensen ordered to prison - Campaign work on state time

Jensen ordered to prison

After 15-month sentence in corruption case, he will be banned from Capitol for almost 4 years
By STEVEN WALTERS and MEG JONES
Posted: May 16, 2006

Madison - Calling Scott Jensen's actions "common thievery elevated to a higher plane," a judge sentenced the former Assembly speaker Tuesday to 15 months in prison for his role in directing aides to do campaign work on state time.

Jensen, 45, was also fined 2,000, ordered to serve 45 months of probation after his prison sentence and banned from the Capitol while on probation.

The Capitol ban was sought by prosecutors because another convicted legislator, former Assembly Majority Leader Steve Foti (R-Oconomowoc), works as a lobbyist while serving a work-release sentence in the Waukesha County Huber Jail. Foti is serving a 60-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of ordering on-the-job campaigning by an aide.

more at:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=424356

[kpete]

22. More E-voting Concerns Surface with State Primaries Underway

More E-voting Concerns Surface with State Primaries Underway
by Catherine Komp

With another election season around the corner, activists are concerned that electronic voting machines supplied by a handful of American corporations are bug-ridden and easily tampered with, but the road to redress is rough and windy.

May 17 – From serious security flaws that could allow hackers easy access to electronic voting systems, to routine computer malfunctions and undelivered software, state and local officials are one-by-one joining voter-access groups and computer scientists in questioning the reliability of the three major suppliers of electronic voting machines.

The latest security flaw to be uncovered affects thousands of Diebold touch-screen voting machines across the country. Computer scientist Michael Shamos, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the examiners that tested several companies’ machines in Pennsylvania, described the defect as a "misfeature" originally designed by Diebold to let field technicians update machine software quickly.

But, he said, it also would permit someone to upload their own software onto a voting machine with the aim of tampering with election results. Shamos said the problem is the "biggest we’ve ever seen."

more at:
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3180/printmode/true

[kpete]

23. Cold Shoulder for E-voting Whistleblowers

Cold Shoulder for E-voting Whistleblowers
by Catherine Komp
Bruce Funk's efforts to investigate Diebold machines

This sidebar is associated with a full-length news article, More E-voting Concerns Surface with State Primaries Underway.

Some government employees have not been well-received for bringing problems with electronic voting machines to light. In Emery County, Utah, Bruce Funk, a county clerk of 23 years, was condemned by county and state officials and Diebold representatives for his scrutiny of touch-screen machines.

Earlier this year, in preliminary testing of the 40 Diebold devices purchased by the county, Funk found numerous problems, including faulty printers, broken doors and low backup-memory storage. Funk also suspected that some of the machines were not new, having found the results of previous elections still stored on them.

"And I'm thinking, 'I'm supposed to rely on these for upcoming elections for how many years?'" Funk said to The NewStandard. "Something's not right here.'"

Funk approached Black Box Voting (BBV), one of the leading advocacy groups working to expose problems with electronic machines, for advice on further machine testing, and BBV suggested that Finnish computer scientist Harri Hursti could inspect some of the machines. Hursti had successfully changed votes on optical-scan machines without leaving evidence of machine tampering during 2005 tests in Leon County, Florida, leading to the county's elections supervisor, Ion Sancho, to drop implementation of all Diebold machines.

more at:
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3181/printmode/true

[JimDandy]

24. kpete, you're doing good! Keep it up. This needs some love folks. KnR

[kpete]

25. Tobin sentenced to 10 months for phone-jam plot

Tobin sentenced to 10 months for phone-jam plot
By ANNE SAUNDERS
The Associated Press

Former Republican National Committee official James Tobin was sentenced to 10 months in prison Wednesday for his role in an Election Day phone-jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats.

Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, was found guilty in December on two felony telephone harassment charges. He also was fined $10,000, followed by two years probation. Prosecutors had asked for a two-year prison sentence.

Tobin, 45, was convicted of helping a top state GOP official find someone to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote lines on Election Day 2002. Republican John Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for the U.S. Senate that day in what had been considered a cliffhanger.

more at:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Tobin+sentenced+to+10+months+for+phone-jam+plot&articleId=b778e6e1-5255-4667-bece-c85cf93b5732

[kpete]

31. Rove to Rescue Phone Jamming GOPers

Rove to Rescue Phone Jamming GOPers
By Paul Kiel - May 17, 2006, 10:54 AM
I love it when scandals converge.

As reported in today's Washington Post, the New Hampshire Republican State Committee has been so financially drained by legal bills piling up from defending its phone jamming that they have only a total of $733.60 in their state and federal accounts. What to do?

Call Karl Rove. On June 12th, Rove will be the "special guest" at the NHRSC's annual dinner. For those in the area, it'll cost you $100 a head to get into the Radisson to hear the possibly-then-indicted-Rove. But if you want to get an especially good look, you'll have to pay $250.

Proceeds will go to a worthy cause: Devine Millimet & Branch, the law firm defending the NHRSC against the Democrats' ongoing lawsuit. The bill is $85,535 and climbing.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000670.php

[kpete]

26. CA-50: Sweet Fancy Moses

CA-50: Sweet Fancy Moses
Posted by jesselee
Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 4:31 PM

Panic time.

Hotline:

Run-Off Election Matchup

Busby 47%
Bilbray 40
Griffith 1
King 1
Other/undec 11

And let's be real clear here. A Busby win would be Earth-shattering, but she's already mopped the floor with the Republicans. The NRCC has already blown at least $2,711,565 in an overwhelmingly Republican district.
http://www.dccc.org/stakeholder/archives/004748.html

[kpete]

27. Activists call for Voting Rights Act renewal

Posted on Wed, May. 17, 2006
Activists call for Voting Rights Act renewal
JACK ELLIOTT JR.
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. - Renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act has bipartisan support in Congress, but supporters want the public to understand the value of a law enacted to prevent discrimination in voting.

Backers say the legislation is crucial to ensuring a voice for all, including those who have limited English skills.

The law was originally crafted four decades ago to end racist practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests in Southern states.

Despite significant progress since the law was last reauthorized by Congress in 1982, considerable problems remain, including barriers for non-English speakers, said Nancy Zirkin, deputy director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Democrats hope the measure can help them rally support from minorities, a core constituency. Republicans, meanwhile, will be able to cite their support for the voting rights measure to blunt charges that they oppose minorities on issues such as immigration reform.

more at:
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/14602678.htm

[kpete]

28. Latest Security Vulnerability in Paperless Electronic Voting

May 17, 2006
VERIFIED VOTING SPECIAL NEWSLETTER

Latest Security Vulnerability in Paperless Electronic Voting
Underscores Urgent Need for Paper Trail; Auditing

A critical security vulnerability has been brought to light in Diebold touch screen voting machines, just as several primaries are about to occur.

In a May 12th New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/us/12vote.html), Avi Rubin, a Professor at Johns Hopkins and Verified Voting advisory board member, said “I almost had a heart attack” when he understood the nature of the problem. Michael Shamos, a computer scientist and voting system examiner in Pennsylvania, was quoted in the same article, "It's the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a voting system." Indeed, several experts have urged that the technical details of the problem not be discussed because it is so easy to exploit. Such recommendations are extraordinary, coming from a community that values openness and transparency on computer security issues.

According to the report (available in redacted version at www.blackboxvoting.org) by computer expert Harri Hursti, the machines have insufficient protection to prevent malicious firmware from being installed. If bad firmware were installed, it would be difficult to detect, and it might be difficult to install new “clean” firmware. A wide variety of poll workers, shippers, technicians and so on, have physical access to voting machines at various times; any of these people might be able to use that access to install bad firmware.

Shockingly, news of the security flaw was topped off on Monday with news that both Diebold and the State of Maryland have been aware of the security vulnerability for at least two years.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_verified_060517_verified_voting_spec.htm

[kpete]

29. Voting Machines for Disabled in New York City

Voting Machines for Disabled in New York City
May 17, 2006
Michael Cooper
The New York Times


New York City would provide voting machines that are accessible to the disabled at five locations in the city this fall as part of the state's plan for settling a federal lawsuit for failing to modernize its voting system.

The proposal falls far short of a goal of the federal Help America Vote Act -- to have a voting system accessible to the disabled at each polling place in the state -- but city and state officials say it is the best they can do with fall elections approaching.

The state was sued in March by the Department of Justice, which said that New York had fallen behind the rest of the nation in putting the Help America Vote Act into effect. The measure called on the states to overhaul their election systems.

http://www.civilrights.org/issues/disability/details.cfm?id=43316

[kpete]

30. Gremlins prey on some old and new voting machines

Gremlins prey on some old and new voting machines

By Kevin Eigelbach
Post staff reporter

New, disabled-accessible voting machines gave poll workers in some precincts problems during Tuesday's primary election in Northern Kentucky.

But in others, the old-fashioned machines were more of a problem.

"We had a lot of bugs all day long," Kenton County Clerk Bill Aylor said. "It wasn't unexpected, and I think it will go a lot smoother in the future."

About 5,000 of the 13,130 people who voted in Kenton County used the new machines, which Congress mandated as part of the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

"That was a lot more than we expected," Aylor said. "We were pretty encouraged with that." He assigned 11 troubleshooters to watch 109 precincts.

more at:
http://news.kypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/NEWS02/605170354/1014

[kpete]

32. Hank Asher: Drugs, Spying and Voting

Hank Asher: Drugs, Spying and Voting
* Bill Robinson at Huffpo today

"Perhaps it's time to revisit a guy named Hank Asher.
In early 2005, Michael Shnayerson wondered, in his Vanity Fair piece, why no one was calling Asher a hero for inventing the ultimate surveillance program. I'm now wondering why no one's subpoenaed him.

In 2000, Hank's company, DBT, caused 57,000 innocent, mostly African Americans to lose their vote by naming them as felons in Florida, thereby fixing the presidential election. Three years later, the DEA would learn of Hank's smuggling planeloads of cocaine from the Bahamas in the 80's, and he would be forced out of his company. Friends in high places made sure he never faced charges.

Hank founded another personal data gathering venture, Choicepoint... Then he sold the company, pocketing about $148 million. The new owners hit him with a lawsuit alleging major theft of source codes and hardware. Hank, you see, was opening up a new company across the street: Seisint.

Although he was a Democrat, Hank suddenly started writing big checks to Governor Jeb Bush and the Republican party. Two days after 9/11, coincidentally, he was sipping a martini in his $8 million Boca Raton home, when he had the genius idea to use his massive database to see if he could create a "terrorist suspect list."

more at:
http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2006/05/hank-asher-drugs-spying-and-voting.html
via:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-robinson/theres-a-drug-smuggler-i_b_21155.html

[kpete]

33. Governor Dean on Voting Rights

Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Governor Dean on Voting Rights

Governor Dean spoke to the NY Chapter of the National Democratic Lawyers Council last evening about the DNC's efforts to fight to protect the voting rights of all Americans:

Voting ensures every American an opportunity to participate in our democracy. We should never impose obstacles to voting without a fair and compelling reason for doing so that actually enhances our democracy.

Yet, across the nation, Republicans have launched a campaign to impose extremely restrictive voter identification requirements. While they say they are seeking to prevent voter fraud, nothing could be further from the truth.

In Indiana, they passed a law that is virtually identical to one struck down by a federal district court in Georgia. In fact, Democratic governors in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania vetoed similar legislation.

We are committed to fighting these and other Republican efforts to suppress voter turnout anywhere and everywhere Republicans propose them.

Republicans believe that it is better for them if fewer people vote. Democrats understand that America is better when as many people as possible can vote.

So the DNC is stepping up to help fight GOP efforts across the country.

much more at:
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/05/governor_dean_o_17.php

[Kurovski]

34. Thanks for flying solo, kpete!

:thumbsup:

[autorank]

35. K&R. kpete rocks the house!

[mojowork_n]

36. Put the Voting Process on trial, NOW!!

I mean, there have already been reports on the fundamental design flaws that some of these electronic voting systems may have. One example was when Diebold set up a test to *prove* how "hack-proof" their units were. The company had to eat their words and choke back copious torrents of bile when the test-vote totals were output, spelling out the unmistakable message, "you were hacked."

http://www.democrats.com/diebold-hacked

Which sort of stands to reason. If your purpose in designing an electronic voting system is to create a mechanism for staging very public -- but completely empty and meaningless exercises -- in which voters have substantially reduced capacity to determine the actual outcome of elections; hey, that's like trying to build a boat and designing the right size "hole" to go below the waterline.

No wonder there have been so many reported problems, not only with Diebold and ES&S, but others. What a great idea -- for the Republicans. A one-two slam dunk. With conscience-less, corrupt, insanely partisan flacks like Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell in charge of the elections -- and in charge of creating as many obstacles to voting, in select, mostly minority, majority-Democratic districts -- and the Republican CEO-led election-machine outfits 'helping America vote'; our electoral processes are way past the yellow-caution-flag stage.

The irony is particularly galling when the blowhard (bought-paid-for-and-scripted by the RNC) talk radio squawkers get their unsophisticated, unsuspecting audiences to believe the reverse may be true. That Democrats are "disenfranchising" voters with vicious tire-SLASHING stunts, or going out to group homes for the half-a-bubble-off voting set, and trading chocolate chip cookies for marks on absentee ballots. Or that Democrats are trying to restrict our kids in uniform from casting absentee ballots, from overseas. I live in Milwaukee and that 'tire-slashing' mound of offal was completely misrepresented. The actual vans that had air let out of their tires hadn't been intended to carry anyone to a booth, to cast a vote. Those vans had been set up for party-designated "vote challengers", people who were going to go out and double and triple check voter-ID's, to harass and intimidate as many individual would-be voters, in as many low-income-area polling lines, as possible.

The Bushevik True-Believers apparently have no qualms about violating the spirit or intent of the election process, and they want YOU to forget you ever had any, either.

I don't want to go over the edge with too many conspiracy theories, but I think one place to start is Greg Palast's new book, "Armed Madhouse." It was discussed on this DU thread, and people were bringing up other links, as well:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1201044&mesg_id=1204945

Ultimately, I think we need to look past the isolated episodes, and scattered profile of irregularities.

Someone needs to issue a public indictiment, and bring it up before the Blogger Court of Due Process. Were our last two presidential elections stolen? Be prepared to give testimony, evaluate the charges and weigh both sides of the case fairly.