Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, FRI. 11/10/06 Here we go

[rumpel]

In the shadows of the jubilation and celebration of victory towards change in government the work continues.
I believe, discontent in the country was large.
Very large, in fact, that it probably trumped the voter suppression, disenfranchisement and votes vaporized into the electronic ether.
But I also think, all the attention we finally garnered, did in fact make some of those, who intended manipulation think twice - at least I hope.
However let us not be fooled into complacency.
We are not done until every vote is counted.


Our Snap Turtle "Henry"

Weaknesses in FDA's Food Safety System

Democratic Medicare Drug Reforms Could Save Seniors Billions of Dollars

Abramoff Ties to White House More Extensive Than Previously Known

Bush Cabinet Secretaries Have Frequently Traveled on Private Jets at Taxpayer Expense

Senior Democrats Reject Superficial Bush Counterterrorism Plan Before Elections

Waxman Asks Mehlman about Abramoff U2 Tickets

Report Finds Data Breaches Throughout Federal Government

Homeland Security Contracts Waste Hundreds of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars

Federal Prosecutors Are Underfunded and Understaffed

FDA Scientists Disclose Political Interference within the Agency

Waxman Requests Information About Possible Cruise Ship Contracts

New Documents Reveal Problems with Alaska Native Contracts

Dollars, Not Sense: Government Contracting Under the Bush Administration

GAO Finds Improper Conversions of Political Appointees to Career Government Posts

Reps. Waxman and Frank Renew Document Request After HUD Chief’s Comments about Political Test for Contracts

Rep. Waxman Decries Republicans' Sham Lobby 'Reform' Bill on House Floor

http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/investigations.asp?Issue=Administration+Oversight
:applause:

Cheers All, for the sweep!

and to those who had problems, hang in there - we will not abandon you.


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[rumpel]

1. IL: Court: Kane's late ballots do not count yet

The Courier News

• Justices to decide: Did judge overstep bounds in keeping all polls open late?

November 10, 2006
By STEVE LORD STAFF WRITER
GENEVA -- The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon ruled that any votes cast in Kane County after 7 p.m. Tuesday don't count yet.

The court issued a stay of 16th Circuit Court Judge Keith Brown's order that kept polls in all 223 of Kane County's precincts open until 8:30 p.m. on Election Day. The stay affects 1,124 votes, which should not change the outcome of any countywide or local races.

Brown made the ruling Tuesday afternoon at the request of the Kane County State's Attorney's Office on behalf of County Clerk John Cunningham because some precincts had trouble with the eSlate voting machines, causing those polling places to open late.

Although the late openings took place in only 62 precincts, Brown ordered that all precincts be kept open later because it would be hard to know as of Tuesday afternoon exactly where all voters were turned away during the morning.

He also ordered that all votes cast after 7 p.m. be considered provisional votes, which means they are subject to later scrutiny.


Court's discretion at issue
Attorneys for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights argued that not all the polls should have been allowed to stay open later, only the ones that actually opened late.
"We think the court abused its discretion in the way it did it, that all of the polls stayed open," said attorney William Quinlan, of Quinlan & Carroll in Chicago.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/131648,3_1_EL10_A1COURT_S1.article

[rumpel]

2. AZ: Last-minute ballots put state behind

Arizona Central

Chris Ramirez
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 10, 2006 12:00 AM
State and county election officials attributed the large number of uncounted votes from Tuesday's election to a crush of voters who waited until the last minute to mail in or deliver their early ballots.

Authorities said it takes significantly longer to count mail-in ballots than those cast in person on Election Day. They said the system was designed for voters to mail in their ballots early, rather than waiting until just before the election.

The same situation occurred during the statewide election in 2002, when it took five days beyond Election Day to count hundreds of thousands of last-minute ballots.

The outcome of the 2002 gubernatorial election, won narrowly by Janet Napolitano, wasn't determined until the Sunday after the election.

Since Tuesday, officials have been wading through more than 250,000 previously uncounted ballots to determine a winner in the congressional race between U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth and former state Sen. Harry Mitchell.

The outcomes of Proposition 107, the marriage initiative, and Proposition 106, the state trust lands initiative, also remain in doubt.

Hayworth gained some votes Tuesday but remained behind Mitchell, 73,762 to 67,830.

Propositions 107 and 106 were being rejected, with little change in the margin.

County and state officials plan to count ballots over the Veterans Day holiday into next week.

Why it keeps happening

So why does the late vote count keep happening here?

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1110vote1110.html

[rumpel]

3. DC: Pelosi May Move D.C. Closer to Voting Rights

Washington Post

By Allan Lengel and Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 10, 2006; Page B06


U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that she hopes to swiftly bring the District a step closer to full voting rights in the House, a measure D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton called a move in the right direction.

Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is poised to become the speaker of the House in January, said she wants to change House rules Jan. 3, the first day of the new session, so that Norton can vote on proposed changes to legislation on the House floor. Under the planned move, she would not be able to vote on final passage.

"We are still putting the rules package together, but I think there's a good chance that will be in there," Pelosi said of the changes Democrats plan to introduce when the party takes control of the House.

Norton, just elected to a ninth term, currently can vote in committee but not on the floor.

Beyond the proposed rule changes, Pelosi supports full voting rights in the House for the District. But she opposes pending legislation introduced last spring by Norton and U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) that would achieve that goal because of a trade-off provision supported by Republicans. That provision would give Utah, a Republican stronghold, another seat in the House.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/09/AR2006110902417.html

[texpatriot2004]

4. K & R nm

[rumpel]

5. NY: Elections board mum on voting problems

UticaOD.com

Friday, Nov 10, 2006

By Stephanie Veale
Observer-Dispatch
[e-mail]

The Oneida County Board of Elections did not release additional information Thursday regarding problems encountered in 15 voting districts in Whitestown and New Hartford on Election Day.

One poll worker said she hoped no one was blaming the people who spend all day running the polling stations.

"This was not the fault of the people who work at the polls," said Nancy Waldron of Whitesboro.

Acting County Attorney Larry Sardelli said the commissioners were at work Thursday afternoon to recheck the vote tallies taken from affected machines the day before.

The commissioners said Wednesday the vote-counting problem was a result of misaligned ballots, not widespread machine malfunctions.

http://www.uticaod.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS/611100320

[Patsy Stone]

6. FL: State closely eyes Sarasota recount, voting machines

Florida officials planned to monitor the recount in one of the nation's most disputed congressional elections.

BY MARC CAPUTO AND JACK DOLAN
[e-mail]

SARASOTA - With 18,382 votes either not cast or not recorded in one of the nation's most closely contested congressional races, Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb announced Thursday that she will send a team to observe an upcoming recount and review Sarasota County's voting procedures.

Cobb's letter to Sarasota's election supervisor, Kathy Dent, signaled her concern with the unusually high number of nonvotes -- called "undervotes" -- in citing a new state law that gives her broad authority to inspect any election records, machines or premises. Dent had asked Cobb's office to observe the recount examining Republican Vern Buchanan's 368-vote lead over Democrat Christine Jennings.

Regardless of the recount result, the case will likely end up in court and will have ramifications not just in Congress but throughout Florida. Activist groups from Sarasota to Miami-Dade County have voiced concerns over the soundness and accuracy of the ATM-style touch-screen voting machines in use, and for the process of reviewing votes.

<snip>

In all, 11 precincts showed undervoting rates of 20 percent or greater. Two of the precincts were predominantly black, while in the nine others, the population was more than 85 percent white.

[rumpel]

7. CO: On Point: Sequoia facing ax?

Rocky Mountain News

Vincent Carroll

November 10, 2006
Anthony Rainey's patience with Sequoia Voting Systems surpasses all understanding. "There's no perfect software out there," proclaimed the Denver Election Commission's technology chief after Tuesday's fiasco of horrendous voter lines and numbing delays.
Talk about tone deaf. There's no perfect medication, either, but you don't expect to hear that excuse after the recall, say, of thalidomide.

But just in case someone missed the point, Rainey said it again: "There's an unfortunate expectation that the Denver Election Commission is going to have perfect software. Right now, I'm getting hate mail from folks who don't even know what's going on."

Poor fellow. Imagine having to put up with cranks who expect to be able to vote in less than half a day. What were they wanting to do with that time anyway? Waste it on something like work?

Let's hope someone at the Denver Election Commission is a little less understanding of Sequoia's performance during the recent election - which was also marred by the company printing a transposed "yes" and "no" on absentee ballots and the wrong figure for return postage.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5132266,00.html

[rumpel]

8. CO: Johnson: Time to start over again on voting system

Rocky Mountain News

Bill Johnson

November 10, 2006
It still sticks with me, the sight of the people who just walked away.
They had arrived focused, almost overly excited to vote, whether it was for change in this country or a continuation of the status quo.

There were young people and elderly - some standing unsteadily for hours behind walkers. Each of them, though, simply wanted to vote.

This is the point Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has been hearing, and he needs to. He is mayor and bears ultimate responsibility for Tuesday's fiasco.

Those who walked away are furious. I've been hearing from them for two days now.

Some had children waiting at home who needed tending to, mothers and fathers who did not have the baby-sitting money to wait two hours or longer in line to cast a vote.

Others were on lunch break, and the gut-level debate between really wanting to vote and keeping their jobs was not even close.

Steve Hutchins, a good friend, called me at 8 p.m. Tuesday. He had just finished voting. He had been in line since 4:30 that afternoon.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_5133491,00.html

[rumpel]

9. CO: Charter change in vote system proposed

Rocky Mountain News

By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News
November 10, 2006
In response to Denver's election debacle, the city auditor and a key council member renewed proposals Thursday to put a charter amendment on next May's ballot to overhaul the troubled voting system.
"If we don't fix it this time, we're going to lose voter confidence once and for all," said City Council member Rosemary Rodriguez.

"And in a democracy, you cannot allow that to happen."

Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher filed papers with the city clerk Thursday to gather about 15,000 voter signatures needed to place the proposed City Charter amendment on the May ballot.

Gallagher formed a campaign committee, Denver Voters for Election Reform, that will be chaired by former state Sen. Paul Sandoval, with community leader Harvey Swan serving as treasurer.

If approved by voters, the measure would replace Denver's three- member Denver Election Commission with an elected clerk and recorder charged with overseeing elections.

That's the system used by most Colorado counties.

Gallagher, whose warnings to city leaders of a looming election disaster in June were ignored, is seeking the charter change because he believes the commission's current structure - the mayor's appointed clerk and recorder and two elected commissioners - is dysfunctional, said auditor spokesman Denis Berckefeldt .

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_5133134,00.html

[rumpel]

10. OpEd: IL: How I Spent Election Day

November 9, 2006 at 23:23:01

by Joan Brunwasser

http://www.opednews.com



How I spent Election Day
by Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity Editor, OpEdNews November 9, 2006

It's old news already, fit only for wrapping fish. But I need to tell my story. Then, I'll be able to move on. Please humor me.

I took the day off. I knew that I would be spending a lot of time online posting articles and charting election reports and progress for OpEdNews I had a horrific nightmare the night before about getting to the polls and being told that I wasn't registered, rendering me one of the 'disappeared'. I was so unnerved, I couldn't go back to sleep. I was filled with dread about the election, anyway; this just pushed me over the edge. I delayed going to vote, fearing that my dream would come true.

My dream and aborted sleep led to my writing an OpEd piece early in the morning. While I was putting the finishing touches on it, I got a call from Bob Wilson, an election judge in Evanston. He reported having no provisional ballot affidavits (form 501) as well as a shortage of the special pens with archival ink needed for paper ballots. His frustration trying to get through to the repair center (eighteen calls yielding busy signals and one ten minute hold to reach help) was a harbinger of things to come, locally and across the country. Official news sources stressed how smoothly everything went, but if you scratched beneath the surface, it was a different story entirely. BradBlog, Daily Voting News and OpEdNews carried regular updates. Everyone went ahead and voted here (Cook County, Illinois) on Sequoia machines very recently in the news. On November 2nd, less than a week before the elections, http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3714 it was revealed that the touch-screen version has a special button which can be used to flip to 'manual mode' allowing unlimited votes. When election officials were cornered on this subject, they assured voters that the machines would be closely monitored to catch any improper behavior. Where I voted, the machines were at least fifty feet from the poll workers' table. There's absolutely no way the machines could have been properly supervised unless the poll workers got up and looked over the voters' shoulders. They weren't doing that when I was there. So much for quality control. Anyone spot a potential problem here?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joan_bru_061109_how_i_spent_election.htm

[rumpel]

11. Voting problems widespread

Desert News, UT

By Diana Marrero and Deborah Berry
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — Trouble with electronic voting machines and confusion over identification rules frustrated voters across the country Tuesday, creating delays in Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

At dozens of precincts, delays were so long that some voters left without casting a ballot. Problems with voting machines in Delaware County, Ind., prompted a local judge to rule that polls there could remain open nearly three hours past the regular closing time to make up for late openings.
In Ohio, several precincts failed to open on time because of technical glitches. At least one precinct in Broward County, Fla., opened more than three hours late because of machine-related problems.
A U.S. District judge in Cleveland ordered polling places there to remain open for extended hours, amid complaints that late openings and long lines had forced voters away earlier in the day. A request for similar extensions was denied by a district judge in Denver, where computer failures and heavy voter turnout overwhelmed polling stations throughout the day and led to two-hour waits in some voter lines.
Election experts say the problems scattered across the country illustrate the major flaws in the nation's voting systems despite federal and state efforts to improve them.
"It's not just glitches," said Tova Wang, a fellow at the Century Foundation, which recently released a report on election problems. "There are major problems with poll workers across the country not knowing how to use the machines, incidents of voter intimidation and people being asked for ID when they shouldn't."
And voters in many states reported confusion because of identification requirements, registration problems, voter intimidation and poll workers failing to show up at precincts. Many of the reported problems are in states with hotly contested races.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650205323,00.html

[rumpel]

12. AR: County election results revised; number of votes cast rise significantly, outcome of some races

NWA News

By Jennifer Turner / Staff Writer / [e-mail]
Posted on Thursday, November 9, 2006

NOTE: This story was posted as a Breaking News story on Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 4:54 p.m. See the Friday, November 10th, 2006 Benton County Daily Record for more on this story.

BENTONVILLE — Corrected election results released by the Benton County Election Commission Thursday afternoon showed voter turnout dramatically increased from original results, but the outcome of most races didn't change.

Results released early Wednesday morning showed 47,134 of the approximately 95,900 registered voters in the county cast a ballot. That is a 49 percent turnout.

Results released Thursday showed 79,331 ballots were cast — for an 83 percent voter turnout.

The difference in results was caused by errors that occurred election night, when election data was transferred from the Election Commission computer system to a system used to show results during the watch party at the Clarion Hotel in Bentonville.

The Commission attempted to simultaneously feed results from the two voting methods — electronic ballots and paper ballots — so precinct totals would be complete.

http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/41937/

[rumpel]

13. Results revised; some races change

By Jennifer Turner Staff Writer #$ [e-mail]
Posted on Friday, November 10, 2006

BENTONVILLE — Corrected election results released by the Benton County Election Commission on Thursday afternoon showed voter turnout dramatically increased from original results, but the outcome of most races didn’t change.

Results released early Wednesday morning showed that 47, 134 of the approximately 95, 900 registered voters in the county cast a ballot. That is a 49 percent turnout.

Results released Thursday showed that 79, 331 ballots were cast — for an 83 percent voter turnout.

The difference in results was caused by errors that occurred election night, when election data was transferred from the Election Commission computer system to a system used to show results during the watch party at the Clarion Hotel and Convention Center in Bentonville.

The commission attempted to simultaneously feed results from the two voting methods — electronic ballots and paper ballots — so that precinct totals would be complete.

“ What we didn’t know was the fact that it skewed the numbers, ” Election Coordinator Jim McCarthy said at a news conference Thursday. “ We didn’t find that out until the next morning. ”

http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/41939/

[rumpel]

14. FL: Voting problems hit 4 counties

Orlando Sentinel

State will probe complaints in Sarasota race

Jim Stratton | Mark K. Matthews and Roger Roy, Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted November 10, 2006

Touch-screen-voting machines in at least four Florida counties recorded unusually high percentages of ballots with no votes in Tuesday's election -- a sign that new electronic-ballot machines may not be as foolproof as hoped.

Most of the post-election attention Thursday remained focused on Sarasota County, where more than 18,000 blank ballots -- representing 13 percent of the 142,284 ballots cast -- could have affected the outcome of one of the most hotly contested congressional races in the country.

In that race, Republican Vern Buchanan defeated Democrat Christine Jennings by only 373 votes -- triggering a likely recount.

But an Orlando Sentinel review of results among the 24 other counties that use the same electronic-voting machines as Sarasota found three other instances -- in Sumter, Lee and Charlotte counties -- where an even higher percentage of ballots failed to show any vote cast in the race for state attorney general.

In Sumter, ballots with no recorded votes -- known as "undervotes" -- accounted for 22 percent of all ballots in the attorney general's race. In Lee, 18 percent of ballots in that race were unvoted, and in Charlotte, 21 percent were blank.

By comparison, undervotes in those same counties in the U.S. Senate race were no higher than 1.5 percent.

The attorney-general undervotes in Sumter, Lee and Charlotte, representing about 45,000 blank ballots, presumably would not have affected the outcome of that race, in which Republican Bill McCollum defeated Democrat Walter "Skip" Campbell. McCollum won handily in all three counties.

In Sarasota, however, the story was much different in the race for House District 13.

Amid the uproar over those results, Florida's Department of State announced Thursday that it would audit Sarasota County's election system. A spokeswoman from the state office said the county requested the review, only the second in Florida in four years.

Jennings' campaign, meanwhile, kept up the pressure.

"This is disenfranchisement on a massive scale in Sarasota County," said Kendall Coffey, an attorney for Jennings.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-voteprobs1006nov10,0,4814311.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

[rumpel]

15. RI: Secretary of State to check voter rolls

Nov 10, 2006 04:42 AM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The Secretary of State's office is checking its voter rolls after a newspaper report that five thousand dead people are registered to vote in Rhode Island.

Peter Kerwin, a spokesman for Secretary of State Matt Brown, says the office is cross-checking its voter list against the Social Security Administration's Death Master File.

http://www.eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5660844&nav=F2DO

[rumpel]

16. SF: BTL:Electronic Voting Fatally Flawed

Indymedia

by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus ( betweenthelines snet.net )
Friday Nov 10th, 2006 5:07 AM
Interview with Pokey Anderson, independent journalist, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
Electronic Voting Fatally Flawed

Interview with Pokey Anderson, independent journalist, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

This election season marks the first time many states have used electronic voting machines. Their use was encouraged by the 2002 Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, and was intended to reduce the problems caused by hanging chads and other flaws in older voting systems. But many individuals and organizations who have investigated how the various new machines work -- using a variety of electronic technologies -- have criticized them as vulnerable to malfunction and intentional hacking. In the last several elections some major flaws have been uncovered, such as thousands of ballots going to the wrong candidates, counting phantom votes or the loss of large numbers of ballots. But while the big errors are easier to uncover and correct, it's the smaller shifts in vote counts that may never be detected.

The New York Times reports that in the 2006 congressional election, half of the 45 most competitive races were conducted on electronic machines with no independent verification, such as a paper printout.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Pokey Anderson, a Houston-based independent journalist who has spent the past 3-1/2 years researching the promises and pitfalls of electronic voting. She describes the changes wrought since the Help America Vote Act, and proposes a method to protect the integrity of America's elections.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/10/18328596.php

[rumpel]

17. CO: Auditor launches bid for election changes

Denver Post

By George Merritt
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated:11/09/2006 11:47:03 PM MST

City Auditor Dennis Gallagher officially began his effort Thursday to do away with the commission responsible for this week's election debacle.
Gallagher filed the paperwork necessary to put a charter change on the May ballot to replace the Denver Election Commission with a single, elected clerk and recorder.
He will have to collect about 14,000 signatures to put the proposal to voters in May.
Meanwhile, City Council members, apoplectic over Election Day troubles, held an emergency meeting on the failed launch of vote centers in Denver.
Tuesday's vote was the first general election in which the city used 55 centers instead of traditional neighborhood precincts, prompting long delays as poll workers trying to check in voters had problems accessing the city's voter-registration database.
Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth said she wanted to see the city do away with the vote centers and go back to the system of voting in precincts.
"People trust the precinct system, and maybe we should stick with that," she said.
Election Commissioner Susan Rogers told the City Council that commission members wanted to switch to an all-mail ballot.
But some council members took issue with that idea.

snip

System-backup woes
Delays in backing up a voter-registration database early Tuesday morning may have contributed to long lines early in the morning of Election Day, according to Sandy Adams, a Denver election commissioner, and Jenny Rose Flanagan, executive director of Colorado Common Cause.
Election officials wanted to update the database as late as possible before Election Day, Adams said, to be sure it noted as many absentee voters as possible. But the process didn't finish by the 7 a.m. opening of polls in Denver.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4634347

[rumpel]

18. MA: Report: Boston election officials have little training

Boston.com

November 10, 2006

BOSTON --Top officials at the Boston Elections Department had little or no experience running elections and haven't had much training since taking jobs at the department, according to a published report.

The report in The Boston Globe followed election problems in Boston on Tuesday when some precincts ran out of ballots during Tuesday's election, forcing voters to wait as police cruisers rushed to bring more. In September's primary, ballots in eight Boston precincts were inadvertently uncounted.

The Globe reported that Election Commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer's career before being appointed to the committee in 2004 was spent running the city's 24-hour hotline. Her supervisor, Chief of Public Property Michael Galvin, managed a telephone company for 24 years before he was appointed to the Cabinet position by Mayor Thomas Menino, a childhood friend. He oversees several departments, including the Elections Department.
Although officials have had occasional training sessions, their lack of specialized background knowledge and formal outside training was bound to lead to mistakes, said R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center and National Association of Election Officials, based in Houston.

"There are so many failure points in elections, when things can go wrong, and you need to know what others are doing about it," Lewis said. "But people in elections, if they don't have this kind of training, tend to do what they've always done."
Menino and other city officials acknowledged problems -- including a policy of only distributing half as many ballots as registered voters to precincts -- that led to the ballot shortage Tuesday.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/10/report_boston_election_officials_have_little_training/

[rumpel]

19. Look Back in Anger

The Democrats won, but they shouldn't for a second let victory cause them to forget the Republicans' dirty tricks operation.
By Rick Perlstein
Web Exclusive: 11.10.06

Print Friendly | Email Article

Democrats have their majority in the House, and that's cause for celebration. But as of this writing several House races are still listed as "too close to call." The Senate has also changed hands -- after the Virginia race narrowly escaped a recount, and Republicans came close to challenging the results in Montana and Missouri. Whether Democrats possess enough of a congressional majority to truly put fear into Republicans, and add backbone to Democrats nervous about challenging the president, is still very much in the air.

Meanwhile, we are forced to reckon with an uncomfortable question. Republicans cheat. To what extend did their cheating on Election Day keep the will of the people from being fully registered? Just how close did it come to keeping the new majority from arriving? And what does the kind of cheating we saw Tuesday -- and its antecedents in the past and its likely echoes in the future -- portend for the project of turning liberalism once again into the dominant force in American politics?

Consider the robocalls. In the week before the election, voters in at least 50 different races began receiving calls in which recorded voices beckoned them by saying, "Hi, I'm calling with information about …" The intention was obvious: get people thinking they were receiving a call from the Democratic Party. Maybe you didn't want to hear a message from the Democratic Party. Maybe you were in the middle of dinner. You hang up on the robot. But the robot called back -- a dozen, two dozen times. Those who listened all the way through were greeted with a litany of smears about the Democrat -- and then, at the very end, a legal disclaimer stating that the call came from the National Republican Campaign Committee. In Missouri, an email to radio host Diane Rehm related, every call "pound home the idea that one or the other Democratic candidate in Missouri … is in favor of killing babies."

In California's 50th District -- where Democrat Francine Busby had hoped to win a rematch against incumbent Brian Bilbray in Republican felon Duke Cunningham's former seat -- Busby staffers shut down their phone banks because they were reaching so many callers enraged at the "Hi-I'm-calling-with-information-about-Francine-Busby" deluge. The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported receiving a tearful call from someone in Ohio explaining that she could no longer keep an open phone line to the hospice where her mother was dying on account of the calls. As for the calls' political effect, a spokesman for Lois Murphy -- who ended up going down to a narrow defeat against GOP incumbent Jim Gerlach in Pennsylvania's 6th District -- relayed, "Some of our biggest supporters have said, 'If you call me again, I'm not voting for Lois.'"

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12205

[rumpel]

20. TechNews: Electronic Voting Machine Headaches

Submitted by Technology News... on Fri, 2006-11-10 13:19.
Problems with electronic voting machine failures kept some polls from opening, created long lines, and left many voters puzzled about whether their votes were counted in Tuesday's high stakes election.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined a nationwide team of technology lawyers and other experts staffing nationwide call centers and legal command posts on Election Day. The volunteers chronicled election problems, assisted voters, and worked with election officials to pull malfunctioning machines wherever possible. By 8:00 pm ET on Tuesday, over 17,000 incidents, including machine-related problems, had been reported to the Election Protection Coalition's 866-OUR-VOTE hotline.

The types of machine problems reported to EFF volunteers were wide-ranging in both size and scope. Polls opened late for machine-related reasons in polling places throughout the country, including Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Utah, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and California. In Broward County, Florida, voting machines failed to start up at one polling place, leaving some citizens unable to cast votes for hours. EFF and the Election Protection Coalition sought to keep the polling place open late to accommodate voters frustrated by the delays, but the officials refused. In Utah County, Utah, more than 100 precincts opened one to two hours late on Tuesday due to problems with machines. Both county and state election officials refused to keep polling stations open longer to make up for the lost time, and a judge also turned down a voter's plea for extended hours brought by EFF.

"If election officials insist on depending on this unreliable technology, they should be prepared to react appropriately when things go wrong," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Voters should not have to bear the brunt of this poor planning. We are very disappointed that the court did not recognize that."

"Jumping vote" problems -- touchscreen machines displaying selections not intended by voters -- once again appeared across the country and across machine models. Some voters again encountered difficulty making or changing selections on touchscreen machines, resulting in long lines and frustrated voters leaving polling places. Optical scan machines also broke down in many places, most prominently in Cook County, Illinois, but also in Los Angeles, California, also leading to long delays for voters.

http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/5144

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21. MT: Provisional ballots could sway House

Great Falls Tribune
Originally published November 10, 2006

By KARL PUCKETT
Tribune Staff Writer

So-called provisional ballots made up a fraction of the more than 400,000 votes cast in the Tuesday election in Montana, but the tiny total could cast a shadow reaching the Capitol in Helena.

The Secretary of State's Office estimates there are 2,000 or so provisional ballots statewide that are not yet counted. The ballots were issued — but not immediately counted — when questions arose about eligibility or identification.

Counties have been busy checking the questions, and will tabulate the provisional ballots Monday. Republicans and Democrats will be watching closely.

Which ovals are filled could tip the balance in three extremely tight House races, and perhaps who controls the House, party leaders say.

Outstanding provisional ballots also could affect the fate of a Public Service Commission contest.

With some races very likely headed toward recount, Republicans eyed the possibility of taking control of the House 50-49 with one seat going to a conservative Constitution Party candidate. The House was split 50-50 heading into the election.

The Senate appeared very likely to finish in a 25-25 tie, with Republicans picking up two seats. Democrats will retain control, though, because organizational leadership goes to the party of the governor.

One high profile race in the Senate had yet to be called Thursday, where former House Republican leader Roy Brown of Billings was barely leading Schweitzer ally Margie MacDonald.

Over in the House, six races remained too close to call until provisional votes were counted and the secretary of state canvasses votes. Three races where Republicans led were separated by less than 20 votes, and possibly could switch as final counts are made or under requested recounts.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS01/611100306/1002

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22. MI: From the Daily: Making voting fairer

The Michigan Daily

11/10/06

The passage of Proposal 2 and the dramatic resurgence of the Democrats may have grabbed the most attention this week, but another story was overlooked - and no, it wasn't Britney Spears's divorce. Reports found intermittent voting problems across the country, despite the many changes in America's voting process, mainly stemming from the disaster in Florida in the 2000 election. There are still far too many inconsistencies nationwide and sorting out these problems is a pressing need.

The biggest problems occurred in areas that neglected to prepare for large voter turnouts. In Cedar Hill, Mo., for example, the Los Angeles Times reported that a voter "left her injured daughter in a hospital (to go vote) only to be told to come back later because her polling place had run out of ballots." The Associated Press interviewed a Riverside, Calif. registrar who admitted that she would rate the performance of voting systems in the state as "needing improvement." In Riverside County, the poll technicians couldn't replace their printer cartridges efficiently, causing some voters to give up and leave. Additionally, reports that three men - one of them armed - questioned Hispanic voters outside a polling place in Tucson bring to mind the brand of voter intimidation used to suppress blacks in the time of Jim Crow.

http://www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2006/11/10/Editorials/From-The.Daily.Making.Voting.Fairer-2452478.shtml?norewrite200611101318&sourcedomain=www.michigandaily.com

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23. GA: Puckett: I’ll wait for certification

11/10/06
From Staff Reports

Bob Puckett said he will wait until after the votes are certified before deciding if he’ll ask for a recount in the state House District 13 race. The certification will be done Monday.

Provisional ballots were still being processed Thursday.

Republican Katie Dempsey beat Puckett, a Democrat, 4,514 to 4,349 during Tuesday’s election in Floyd County.

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news761980.html

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24. CO: Musings of a Mountain Man

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

The Telluride Watch

Jack Pera

First, a warning: This is not your ordinary election evaluation.

1) Voting is an exercise in futility.

So the Democrats won big. Thrilled? The gutless, worthless and hopeless political party whose symbol is aptly a jackass has already solidly demonstrated its incompetence, so now we’re stuck with a government of increased ineptitude offset by a tad less corruption. Whoopee.

Will the Dems initiate impeachment and war criminal proceedings against the Bushites (this goes very deep) for destroying an innocent country? No. Will they pull out of Iraq? No. Why not? Because they think by trying to outdo GOP incompetence and criminality, they’ll put MORE troops in Iraq to “win” the war? Sorry, I’m not impressed. The Democratic Party is what it is – a bunch of worthless and gutless incompetents. Is this a radical statement? Wouldn’t it be great if pigs grew wings?

http://www.telluridewatch.com/111006/pera.htm

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25. Alternet: Election '06: Great Outcome, Flawed Votes

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted November 10, 2006.

It's a tricky issue to bring up the possibility of voter fraud in 2006 because most election protection activists are liberals who have waited six years for the Bush administration to be stopped

Don't confuse a good political outcome with a bad electoral process.

Election integrity activists face a quandary this week. After an Election Day where new voting machines failed from coast to coast, and GOP-favoring voter suppression tactics unfolded in state after state, this largely liberal-leaning community knows all too well that the machinery used to slam the breaks on the dreadful Bush administration is deeply flawed, that Tuesday night's vote counts shouldn't fully be trusted.

But will they say so? Will they stand with, gag, the apparently dethroned Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and demand the electronic machines in 27 counties be impounded and examined for vote-count problems? That could reveal, once and for all, why new electronic machines need to be junked. Or will political victory throw a wet blanket on a fired-up election integrity movement?

Election integrity activists were true model citizens on Tuesday. As people turned out in droves to vote, activists helped citizens in state after state document failing voting systems. They noted voting system breakdowns that went beyond the nasty partisan mailings, robo-calls, registration challenges and other tactics that largely were GOP ploys to suppress Democratic turnout.

http://www.alternet.org/story/44122/

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26. PA: Starting to wonder

Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Friday, November 10, 2006

Did my vote count? I don't know, literally, because I don't believe the voting machines in my precinct worked correctly.
There was a large poster on the wall, as well as a smaller one on each machine. The message said something to the effect of "Your ballot has been confirmed. Thank you for voting."

The poster stated, in large capital letters, that "your ballot does not count unless you receive this message." I never got that message. After I touched the "confirm" button, the screen went blue and said "Westmoreland County." After waiting 20 to 30 seconds for the confirmation message to appear, I asked a poll worker if there was a problem.

She glanced at the screen and said, "Oh, you're done." I repeated that I did not get the confirmation screen and was told "the machines here don't do that."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/letters/send/s_479041.html

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27. Memorandum to Editors and Reporters: Re-Cap of Election Day Problems and Solutions for

Future Presidential Elections

Note: Since it is a Press release I will copy the entire thing - hope it's ok



11/10/2006 12:56:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Robert Brandon of Robert M. Brandon & Associates, 202-331-1550

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As expected, voters casting ballots in the mid-term elections were confronted with significant obstacles to voting, including ID requirements, inadequate poll worker training, deceptive practices, problems with voting equipment and database/registration problems. Unlike past elections, there was no single "meltdown" confined to a particular state. Instead, nationwide, there were widespread systemic problems in our voting system that, in the aggregate, disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters and impacted many more.

Below, is a list of the most common problems that voters across the country faced on Election Day, some of the states where they most commonly occurred and solutions to these problems. The level of Election Day dysfunction requires the attention of state and local election officials now so these problems can be solved or minimized prior to the 2008 Presidential elections.

-----

Voter ID Requirements

While there is little evidence of voter impersonation, many states have implemented new voter ID requirements, creating a new obstacle to voting. New voter ID requirements plagued citizens across the country, especially in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Florida.

Strict voter ID requirements in Indiana and Arizona disenfranchised large numbers of eligible voters, many of whom had been voting their entire adult lives but found that they were unable to meet stringent new rules. In the past, these voters, like the rest of us, confirmed our identities by signing our names at the polling place, where poll workers compared the signature to the one on file to verify identity.

In Arizona poll workers were uncertain about the requirements they were actually enforcing, leading to inconsistent results. For example, many voters in Maricopa county who had proper ID were turned away or told to vote by provisional ballot while other who lacked proper ID were allowed to vote.

Despite the fact that voter ID requirements were found unconstitutional by courts in Georgia, Missouri and Ohio, poor poll worker training and public confusion about what forms of ID were acceptable resulted in large numbers of eligible voters being forced to vote by provisional ballot or being turned away from the polling place altogether. Even in states where expansive forms of identification are accepted, including Ohio, Colorado Michigan, Florida, Missouri, and South Carolina, confusion reigned among voters and poll workers alike as to what kind of ID would suffice. This lack of clarity resulted in the large numbers of eligible voters being improperly required to vote by provisional, as opposed to regular ballots. Other problems included poll workers in states like Maryland and Wisconsin improperly requesting ID, even though an ID from people who have voted in previous elections is not required.

--

Inadequate Pollworker Training

Inadequate poll worker training significantly contributed to the breakdown of the election process in many jurisdictions and across a number of states, especially Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The breakdowns felt in virtually every area of election administration, including ID requirements, equipment, voter rolls and use of provisional ballots, exacerbated problems voters faced on Tuesday.

In Pennsylvania voters in Philadelphia indiscriminately distributed provisional ballots to persons who were eligible to vote by regular ballot while in other parts of the state poll workers refused to provide provisional ballots to voters who were clearly entitled to them. Similarly, in Ohio poll workers mistakenly told voters that they lacked required ID when in fact the IDs presented were sufficient; these voters were instructed to return with proper ID. Having already been turned away despite having the proper identification, returning with other ID would have simply barred them from voting by regular ballot. In other parts of the country, poll workers who determined that voters were not at the correct precinct were erroneously told to vote by provisional ballot, instead of being redirected to the correct precinct.

Human error resulting from poor training caused equipment problems in Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Indiana that resulted in delayed polling place openings.

--

Equipment Problems

A wide range of problems with voting machines in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other parts of the country resulted in an unprecedented number of complaints to election officials and voter protection organizations.

Problems with machines delayed poll openings in Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Indiana. Other significant problems included inadequate numbers of machines assigned to polling places around the country including Florida. Improper screen alignment in some states, including Missouri, resulted in improper recording of votes or requiring the voter to vote multiple times. Other problems included confusing ballot screens, machines failing to record votes as cast, lack of disabled access and periodic inoperability and machine failures.

Colorado experienced periodic equipment shutdowns due to the fact that traditional precincts, merged into large vote centers, were all linked to one server, which could not handle all the traffic. As a result, voters were required to wait in lines for as long as three hours, leading to many people not voting at all, including those who could only take a limited amount of time off from work to vote, were disabled or elderly, had pressing family or other obligations that prevented them from waiting for lengthy periods of time. Colorado also experienced problems with ballot scanners which delayed the counting of absentee ballots in the state.

In Indianapolis, paper ballots were used to record votes for part of the day because poll workers were unable to attach cables linking optical scan voting machines to touch-screen equipment for physically impaired voters.

--

Registration/Purge Issues

A number of voter registration problems linked to state implementation of voter databases mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 surfaced on Election Day. For example, in Texas and California, people who registered to vote discovered at the polls that their names were not on the rolls for reasons including human error in entering registration data and compiling databases. Many of these problems also resulted from the failure of state DMVs to properly forward registration to election officials. In many parts of the country newly married voters whose names on their drivers license did not match the names on the registration form were told they could not vote by regular ballot.

In Arizona, the state issued new voter registration cards that contained confusing information, resulting in large numbers of voters in Maricopa County going to the wrong precinct to vote.

--

Provisional Ballots

As expected, poorly trained poll workers, confusion about ID requirements, registration problems and database issues resulted in large numbers of eligible voters being forced to vote by provisional ballot. Problems were particularly acute in Ohio, Arizona, Georgia and Maryland. In addition to poor poll worker training about when provisional ballots should be used, the circumstances under which they are counted is often unclear. For example, in 2004, of the 2 million provisional ballots cast, only one-third were counted.

--

Absentee Ballots

Voters in a number of jurisdictions experienced significant problems with absentee ballots. Thousands of voters in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania who had requested absentee ballots never received those ballots. When they arrived at their polling place to vote poll workers instructed them they could not vote by regular ballot.

--

Deceptive Practices/Voter Intimidation

Voters in numerous jurisdictions encountered instances of deceptive or intimidating conduct, most notably in Virginia, but also in many other states, including New Hampshire. In Virginia, voters received computer generated phone calls, or "robocalls," that improperly told them that they would be arrested if they showed up to vote because they were not properly registered; other voters were threatened with arrest if they showed up at the wrong polling place. Similar practices occurred elsewhere in the country In Georgia voters were improperly instructed at the polling place that a photo ID was required to vote, even though that state's photo ID law had been invalidated earlier in the year.

-----

Solutions

Many of these problems could be minimized, or eliminated altogether by 2008 if the following steps are undertaken by officials:

--

Election Day Registration (EDR)

Permitting eligible voters to register at the polling place on Election Day would minimize or eliminate many problems that occur. EDR eliminates confusion about voter identity, whether a person is properly registered to vote or was inadvertently removed from the rolls, virtually eliminating the need for provisional ballots. This year Montana implemented EDR, which, when combined with its expansive voter ID laws could serve as a model for other states.

--

Improved Standards for Poll Workers and Training

The vast majority of poll workers undertake this important civic task intending to carry out their obligations to the best of their ability. Their intent should not be undermined by inadequate training. Training should be improved so there is less likelihood of error or misinformation. Poll workers should receive uniform, consistent training about voting equipment and any legal requirements for voting, including ID and the use of provisional ballots. This training must be updated. In addition, election officials should adopt minimum, uniform standards for poll workers, employ them in greater numbers and increase their compensation.

--

Voting Machines that Meet Demand

Widespread problems in many jurisdictions due to inadequate numbers of fully operational machines at each polling place resulted in long lines and waits of up to three hours. Such waits disenfranchise significant numbers of voters who cannot wait. Officials must adopt appropriate formulas for purchasing and assigning voting machines. Better testing and maintenance of equipment, along with policies that encourage competitive bidding and discourage close relationships between election workers and equipment and software manufacturers are also necessary.

--

Appropriate Use of Statewide Voter Databases

Officials should adopt sensible, flexible matching criteria so these databases are not used to keep eligible voters off the rolls. Voters who are flagged as potentially ineligible should be given adequate notice to allow them to provide additional information in a timely manner in order to be included on the roll.

--

Adopt Measures Targeting Deceptive Practices

State and federal officials should adopt strong measures prohibiting deceptive practices, including intimidation and the dissemination of misinformation through telecommunications devices or the mail. Until then, existing consumer protection laws should be enforced, and persons responsible for such conduct should be prosecuted under new and existing laws.

-----

Experts and Resources

--Dr. DeForest Blake Soaries Jr., former chair, U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Soaries is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. He chaired the U.S. Election Assistance Commission from 2004 to 2005 under the appointment of President Bush and served as New Jersey's Secy. of State under Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

--Mary G. Wilson, president, League of Women Voters

Wilson is the 17th president of the League of Women Voters and an attorney with 30 years of experience in diverse fields of practice.

--Ray Martinez III, former vice chair, U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Martinez serves as a policy advisor on election issues to the Pew Center on States. He was a commissioner and vice chair of the U.S. EAC under the recommendation of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the nomination of President Bush.

--Miles S. Rapoport, former Secretary of State, Connecticut

Rapoport served as Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1995 to 1999. From 1985-1994, he served in the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he chaired the Government Administration and Elections Committee, leading efforts for election reform.

--Tova Andrea Wang, democracy fellow, Century Foundation

Wang is the executive director of The Century Foundation's Post-2004 Election Reform Working Group. She staffed the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by Presidents Carter and Ford and is a member of the New York City Bar Assoc. election law committee.

--Gracia Hillman, commissioner, U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Hillman was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate to serve on the U.S. EAC. Hillman chaired the EAC in 2005 and serving as its first vice chair in 2004. She also directed the League of Women Voters, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation.

-----

NOTE: Media representatives interested in scheduling an interview should contact Robert Brandon at 202-331-1550 for more information.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=76136

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28. FL: DIST. 13 RECOUNT: STATE STEPS IN

Centre Daily

Posted on Fri, Nov. 10, 2006

DUANE MARSTELLER
Herald Staff Writer
SARASOTA - The state will audit Sarasota County's voting system and monitor a recount of Vern Buchanan's narrow victory over Christine Jennings, citing concerns about more than 18,300 votes that either were not cast or not recorded in the congressional race.

While those "undervotes" occurred countywide, they were more prevalent at precincts in minority areas, those with more registered Democrats than Republicans and those in the southern portion of the county, according to a Bradenton Herald analysis of election results.

As Jennings' attorney and a national liberal group called for an independent investigation, Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb sent a team to the county's elections office Thursday. The four-member team will audit election procedures and inspect the touch-screen voting machines used in Tuesday's election.

Those machines recorded 65,377 votes for Jennings and 58,534 for Buchanan, who won the district's other four counties to declare a tenuous overall victory. But the Sarasota County machines also reported 18,328 ballots - 12.9 percent of all those cast in the county - that had no one chosen in the Buchanan-Jennings race, throwing the overall results into doubt.

"This is disenfranchisement on a massive scale in Sarasota County," said Jennings' attorney, Kendall Coffey, who represented Al Gore's campaign during the 2000 presidential recount in Florida. "There is nothing like this in any other place in Florida, in any other election. . . . It's very clear there was a failure of the voting equipment on Election Day."

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/15975831.htm

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29. IN: Marion County Election Woes Drag On

The Indy Channel

POSTED: 11:57 am EST November 10, 2006
UPDATED: 12:13 pm EST November 10, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS -- An election mess continues in Marion County, where many ballots have still not been counted after Tuesday's election.
Several races, including an Indiana House seat remain in the balance, 6News' Derrik Thomas reported.
Votes inside about 500 voting machines are still not counted. The machines in question are the ones used by disabled voters. The Marion County Election Board said it wants to follow the law to get those votes counted so that the outcome of four close races in the county can be determined.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/10290856/detail.html

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30. Early voting suspended (runoff)

Daily Leader

Published: Friday, November 10, 2006 10:55 AM CST

Hobbs requests recount, stalls Monday’s early voting

By Leigh Hahn

Stuttgart Daily Leader

Monday was supposed to be the start of early voting in Stuttgart for the run-off elections, but now that will be suspended due to a recount in the mayoral race filed by candidate Wade Hobbs.

“Early voting is going to be suspended until after Monday,” Arkansas County Election Commission Chairman Janie Long said. “All courthouses will be closed today. I need to have a meeting with the commissioners.”

Hobbs filed yesterday for the recount process to begin, according to Long.

“He didn’t state a reason,” Long said. “He has to pay for it, and a letter had to be in the office by 4:30 p.m. today.”

The recount will cost approximately $.25 for every vote that is recounted.

http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/articles/2006/11/10/news/news01.txt

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31. Must Be the Joke of the DaY: Historic Victory for Diebold! (Coulter)

The SUnday Paper

11/12/06 Ann Coulter
History was made this week! For the first time in four election cycles, Democrats are not attacking the Diebold Corp. the day after the election, accusing it of rigging its voting machines. I guess Diebold has finally been vindicated.

So the left won the House and also Nicaragua. They've had a good week. At least they don't have their finger on the atom bomb yet.

Democrats support surrender in Iraq, higher taxes and the impeachment of President Bush. They just won an election by pretending to be against all three.

Jon Tester, Bob Casey Jr., Heath Shuler, possibly Jim Webb—I've never seen so much raw testosterone in my life. The smell of sweaty jockstraps from the "new Democrats" is overwhelming.

http://www.sundaypaper.com/LEFTRIGHT/AnnCoulter/AnnCoulterArchives/tabid/253/ctl/ArticleView/mid/563/articleId/2073/111206-Ann-Coulter.aspx


Wrong, again!

:rofl:

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32. Same Paper: An Election About Something (Jesse Jackson)

11/12/06 Jesse Jackson

The negative ads were an unrelenting barrage. The smarmy push polls, the dishonest "nonpartisan" robo calls, and the calls from volunteers kept the phones ringing. The political mail that filled mailboxes will keep coming for days after the election.
Every congressional and Senate race had its own local twist. Personal character and corruption made huge differences. But despite this, we already knew what this race was about.

First, voters were looking for change. Large majorities didn’t like where the country was headed. Incumbents in both parties had the advantage of money, of gerrymandered districts, of machinery. But challengers had the advantage of representing a change.

snip

Now another story will emerge—just how broken our election system is. The president champions democracy abroad, but he does nothing to strengthen it at home.

And this system is broken. Across the country, states are passing new restrictions on voting—requiring official forms of identification, purging voter lists, intimidating new citizens and poor citizens. Republicans have developed systematic ways of suppressing the minority vote. And they are shameless about it. The press, which knows better, covers their claim that they are concerned about ineligible voters—when in fact, they are concerned about too many minority votes.

The press is weaker now, and more partisan. So there really isn't anyone authoritative to police the campaigns. The Republican National Committee pays an intermediary to do the infamous "Call me, Harold" racist ad in the Tennessee Senate race. The head of the RNC, Ken Mehlman, says he has no control over the contractor. The Republican candidate, Bob Corker, who benefits from the racial slur, can act outraged and call for the ad to be taken down. The ad's developer—Terry Nelson—gets fired by Wal-Mart, but remains on John McCain's payroll.

The systemic inequities of the broken system get worse. Money talks louder than ever. Many of the electronic voting machines—easily skewed as computer scientists have shown—still have no verifiable paper record. In too many states, minorities are disenfranchised disproportionately as those charged with crimes who have paid their debt to society remain barred from voting.

http://www.sundaypaper.com/LEFTRIGHT/JesseJackson/JesseJacksonArchives/tabid/211/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2056/111206-Jesse-Jackson.aspx

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33. KY: Blending of voting machines slows tally process

Richmond Register

Published: November 09, 2006 10:43 pm

By Ronica Shannon
Register News Writer
When official election results began to surface Tuesday night, many people waiting at the Madison County Courthouse were shocked to find that neighboring Fayette County had election totals before they were released in Madison County.

The tallying time for Madison and Fayette counties were close. Madison’s results started being distributed by County Clerk Billy Gabbard about 8:30 p.m. and those in Fayette County were released at 8:45 p.m.

Madison has 56 voting precincts, compared with 250 in Fayette County.

So how is it possible that results for 250 precincts could be tallied in relatively the same amount of time it takes to tally 56? The answer lies in technology, said Madison County Clerk Billy Gabbard.

Each precinct in Madison County included an old electronic voting machine, as well as one of the new machines that come equipped with a computer screen and a dial for making selections.

The new machines are a result of the Help America Vote Act, which was geared toward making voting machines more accessible to the handicapped population.

“We have to tally the results from the old machines and file them, then we have to do the same for the new machines,” Gabbard said. “It’s twice the amount of work we’ve been doing in the past.”

http://www.richmondregister.com/localnews/local_story_313224316.html?keyword=secondarystory

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34. Flori-Duh?

Palm Beach Post
blogs

By Andrew Marra | Friday, November 10, 2006, 11:04 AM


A Flori-Duh encore is taking center stage in low-key Sarasota County, where the race to replace Katherine Harris in Congress has channeled all the familiar ghosts of Palm Beach County’s election past.

Think lawyers and state auditors, dumb Florida jokes, cries of voter injustice and government incompetence.

And, yes, think recount.

After a scathing partisan battle to fill Harris’ vacated U.S. House seat, Republican Vern Buchanan emerged with a tiny 373-vote victory when polls closed Tuesday.

It was good enough for him. But his Democratic opponent, Christine Jennings, hasn’t conceded.

Why? She wants to know why records indicate more than 18,000 people who cast electronic ballots in Sarasota County did not make a selection in the 13th Congressional District race.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/entries/2006/11/10/floriduh.html

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35. PA: York County 4th in voting hotline calls

The York Dispatch

CARL LINDQUIST The York Dispatch
Article Last Updated:11/10/2006 10:51:30 AM EST

York County ranked fourth statewide in the number of phone calls to the national MyVote1 voting problem and question hotline, but it's unclear if people were simply looking for information or if they experienced serious voting difficulties.
York countians made 229 calls to the hotline by the end of Tuesday, lagging behind only Lancaster, Montgomery and Allegheny counties.

Pennsylvania ranked first nationwide in total calls, with 2,429 by the end of Election Day, according to a news release from Common Cause/PA, one of the hotline collaborators. The hotline is one of several across the country.

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/local/ci_4637407

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36. WV: Mercer voters keep legislative team intact

Published: November 10, 2006 10:36 am

By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times
PRINCETON — Mercer County incumbents stood their ground and held onto their seats in Tuesday’s midterm election.

Del. Marshall Long said it was a sign that the voters believed the local lawmakers were stronger united than divided.

“I think we must have done the right things over the last four years,” Long, D-Mercer, said, as he captured 33 percent of the vote in Delegate District 25. “We’ve tried to make West Virginia a better place to do business and to live.”

When the votes from all 61 precincts were tallied around midnight at the Mercer County Courthouse, Long, and incumbent Dels. Mike Porter and Eustace Frederick garnered enough votes to go back to the state’s House of Delegates in January. In a race that crossed county lines, state Sen. Jesse Guills also prevailed in District 10. District 6 Sen. Truman Chafin was unopposed in the general election.

Porter, R-Mercer, won the second District 25 seat with 29 percent of the votes. Democrat challenger Paige Flanigan and Republican Jonathan Hall finished in third and fourth places behind the two incumbents.

This will mark Long’s third term in the Legislature, while Porter will return for his second.

In District 6, Guills outpaced his Democrat challenger Fred Parker, with 52 percent of the vote Tuesday. The district includes portions of Mercer, Greenbrier, Summers and Monroe counties.

snip HUH?

Overall, election officials said the electronic voting processes worked well.

Statewide, turnout was slightly more than 40 percent of the 1.1 million registered voters in the Mountain State. Mercer County was slightly below the state level, with 38.81 percent of 33,532 voters casting ballots in the mid-term election, according to West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland’s office.

The counting progressed relatively smoothly at the courthouse. While officials had planned to wrap up the counting by 10 p.m., the final results were not in until just before midnight.

A few precincts returned iVotronic electronic voting machines without closing out the machines first, and that meant courthouse workers were forced to locate the machines and shut them down after the fact.
emphasis mine

http://www.bdtonline.com/princeton/local_story_314103627.html?keyword=secondarystory

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37. IL: "Thank God for smiling on us"

Sugar Grove's Perez captures Kane Sheriff's seat; Williams concedes



by Eric W. Walter
The air of serious anticipation gave way to jubilation as vote totals for the Kane County Sheriff's race began rolling in at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Hall in Aurora, where Democratic candidate Pat Perez awaited results.
An excited crowd had gathered around a table where Perez campaign workers monitored both Kane County and Aurora Election Commission websites to compile the numbers and announced that Perez, 49, of Sugar Grove, held a commanding lead over Republican Kevin Williams of Geneva.
“I want to thank God for smiling on us,” Perez said after vote totals showed he held a 3,600-vote lead over his competitor at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. “I want to thank Mom for praying Rosary for us, and I want to thank my father who set it all up.”
Perez also thanked his wife, Terrie, whom he credited with encouraging him to run for the sheriff's post again after suffering defeat to former Kane County Sheriff Ken Ramsey in 2002.

snip

Williams could not be reached for comment after the unofficial election results were received, but he did call Perez to concede the election.
A Kane County judge extended voting hours to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday after reports that some polling places opened as much as two hours late and a number of sites encountered problems with the electronic-voting machines. The Kane County State's Attorney's Office had requested keeping polls open until 9:30 p.m., but Judge F. Keith Brown refused to allow voting to continue that late.
Perez is scheduled to be sworn into office on Friday, Dec. 1. The time and location of the ceremony will be announced at a later date.

http://www.elburnherald.com/kanecounty2006/kc1024.asp

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38. FL: Recount likely in the race for Harris' seat in U.S. House

Gainesville.com

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 10. 2006 6:01AM

SARASOTA - The touchscreen voting machines Katherine Harris championed as secretary of state after the 2000 presidential recount may have botched this year's election to replace her in the U.S. House, and it's likely going to mean another Florida recount.

More than 18,000 Sarasota County voters who marked other races didn't have a vote register in the House race, a rate much higher than the rest of the district, elections results show.

Florida Secretary of State Sue Cobb sent a team to Sarasota County on Thursday to observe the expected recount and audit the county's touchscreen voting machines. The county's elections supervisor, Kathy Dent, had requested the team after one of the candidates reported complaints about voting machines malfunctioning.

Earlier, Dent defended her staff and the machines, arguing that the thousands of voters must have either overlooked the race - which was pushed to a second screen by a glut of minor U.S. Senate candidates on the ballot - or simply decided not to vote for either candidate in a race marked by mudslinging.

"My machines have recorded accurately for 40 elections," Dent said.

But she couldn't explain why the undervote rate in her county was so much higher than in the four other counties in the district.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/WIRE/211100325/1117/news

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39. OH: Wulsin waits, Schmidt declares victory

Community Press, Cincinnati

BY ROB DOWDY | COMMUNITY PRESS STAFF WRITER
Voters in the 2nd Congressional District still don't know who they put in office Nov. 7, Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt or Democratic challenger Victoria Wulsin.

The unofficial final vote count shows Schmidt with 2,323 more votes than her opponent, but Wulsin refuses to concede the race until all absentee and provisional votes are counted.

While voters may be confused, Wulsin is saying the fight continues while Schmidt is getting back to her regular routine, assuming victory.

"We're very happy. It's a great win," Schmidt spokesman Matt Perin said.

"This election is by no means over," Wulsin said.

Results: According to the unofficial final vote count, Schmidt has 51 percent of the vote, or 113,932 votes. Wulsin received 111,609 votes for 49 percent.

Reaction: Perin said Schmidt got back to work Nov. 8, and even went for a run in the days after the election.

Wulsin, meanwhile, is weighing her options and waiting for the final vote to be tallied.

What's next?: Wulsin has sent a letter to each of the boards of election in the 2nd District requesting the number of provisional ballots cast as well as the absentee ballots still uncounted.

http://news.communitypress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS01/611100402/1085/Local

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40. CT: Courtney lead back to 167 votes after morning recounts

Norwich Bulletin

Democratic challenger Joe Courtney picked up another vote this morning after Columbia conducted its 2nd Congressional District recount.

Courtney lost a vote to Republican Incumbent Rob Simmons when Hebron recounted votes Thursday and discovered an absentee vote for Simmons.

Franklin, Vernon, North Stonington and Pomfret are reporting their votes remain as they were on Tuesday after recounts this morning.

Each town in the 2nd District will conduct recounts in the next seven days, verifying the outcome of the election, which appears to favors Courtney.

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS03/61110022

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41. Outcome Uncertain in 8 House Races

NC Times

By PHILIP ELLIOTT
WASHINGTON - Eight House races remain without winners after Tuesday's election, with Republican incumbents in tight contests to keep their seats and state officials not rushing to end the dispute.

Rep. Deborah Pryce, a member of the House Republican leadership, is ahead in her central Ohio race by 3,536 votes. In the Columbus, Ohio-area, elections officials are delaying the count of more than 9,000 provisional ballots by one day so it doesn't disrupt the much-vaulted Ohio State-Michigan football game on Nov. 18.
Elections officials in that district will start counting Nov. 19.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt, who called Democratic Rep. John Murtha a coward, is ahead of her challenger by 2,862 votes. Rep. Barbara Cubin, who threatened to slap her wheelchair-bound Libertarian opponent after a debate, is ahead by fewer than a thousand votes in her Wyoming contest.

Of the eight uncalled races, only one _ Joe Courtney's challenge to Republican Rep. Rob Simmons in Connecticut _ gives a Democratic challenger the lead. In that race, Courtney is ahead by a scant 166 votes. Almost a quarter of a million votes were cast.

A Thursday recount in Hebron, Conn., gave Simmons one more vote. Recounts were scheduled in 74 other towns through the weekend.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/10/ap/headlines/d8labe2o0.txt

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42. NM: Wilson declares victory in tight House race

Las Cruces-Sun Times New Mexico

Article Launched:11/10/2006 11:26:49 AM MST

The Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE — Heather Wilson raised a toast of orange juice with her husband and children, confident that re-election was secure after a 36-hour delay.

The incumbent Republican declared victory late Thursday in her bid for a fifth term in the U.S. House, squeaking out an apparent win over Democrat Patricia Madrid after a razor-thin vote count in one of New Mexico's most caustic campaigns ever.

"My children expected to be celebrating with orange juice on Wednesday morning. It's taken a while, but I'm glad they're here with me to celebrate. Josh and Cait, we won," she told her 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.

Democrats refused to concede, saying the race — too close to call on election night — was far from over. Wilson led by 1,607 votes of more than 207,000 that were cast, with about 4,400 provisional and in-lieu of ballots remaining to be counted.

Madrid spokeswoman Heather Brewer said it doesn't matter which candidate declares victory because every vote must be counted. State Democratic Party chairman John Wertheim suggested a recount was likely.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_4638021

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43. WI: County election commissions make final vote counts

(Columbia-AP) November 10, 2006 - Election commissions in South Carolina's 46 counties were looking at provisional ballots Friday as undecided races for lieutenant governor and education superintendent headed closer to an expected statewide recount next week.

State Election Commission lawyer Gary Baum says counties could finish those counts and report their final numbers to the state the end of the day.

This is not the first time two statewide contests have headed into the uncertainty of a recount after voters left results within the one percent range that triggers a mandatory second tally.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5662343

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44. Washington’s 8th District still too close to call

Blogger News Network

By Shaun Moore

Washington’s 8th District remains one of a little more than a handful of House seats still up in the air, following Tuesday’s election. Incumbent (R) Dave Reichert still holds a slim lead on Democratic newcomer Darcy Burner with more than 60 percent of the ballots counted. As the ballot counting continues, Burner is beginning to look into the feasibility of a recount.

The most recent numbers show that Reichert holds a small, 2-percent, lead in the race. In order for an automatic recount to occur, Burner would need to make up a lot of ground in a short amount of time. Washington law allows for a recount if the margin is within a half a percentage point and 2,000 votes of each other. That looks like a tall task for Burner.

Nevertheless, her campaign is reviewing their options. One of those options is to pay for a full scale recount in the district. That might run as high a $100,000 and drag the race into December.

http://www.bloggernews.net/11934

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45. CO: Dacono's Mayor's Race Could Be Decided By Luck

cbs4denver.com

Nov 10, 2006 10:31 am US/Mountain

Mike Hooker
Reporting

(CBS4) DACONO, Colo. The two candidates for mayor in the Weld County town of Dacono were tied after Tuesday's election. Each had a total of 366 votes. The winner may be picked by flipping a coin or some other game of chance.

Mayor Wade Carlson said he thinks if it is still tied after a recount, there should be another vote. Larry Johnson, his Carlson's opponent, agreed. Both said that it is unbelievable the campaign over serious growth issues could come down to pure luck.

Dacono's city clerk said there were still three provisional ballots and one signed absentee ballot that had to be resolved. If it is still tied after those are counted and a recount is conducted, then state law requires the race be determined by lot, a game of chance.

The options included using a deck of cards, roll of dice, flipping a coin or drawing straws.

http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_314123246.html

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46. SC: County election commissions make final vote counts

The State.com

Posted on Fri, Nov. 10, 2006

JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Election commissions in the state's 46 counties looked at provisional ballots Friday as undecided races for lieutenant governor and education superintendent head closer to an expected statewide recount next week.

State Election Commission spokesman Garry Baum said counties could finish those counts and report their final numbers to the state by early Friday afternoon.

It's not the first time two statewide contests have headed into the uncertainty of a recount after voters left results within the 1 percent range that triggers a mandatory second tally. In 1998, races for treasurer and comptroller general were too close to call and headed to a recount.

State Sen. John Courson recalls his 1998 race for comptroller general with Democrat Jim Lander. Lander, at the time Republican Courson's colleague in the senate, thought he had lost, Courson said.

But Courson got a call from the state's election commission chairman at 10 a.m. the next morning. Courson recalls him saying "the good news is it is the closest election in the history of South Carolina." But the bad news was "you lost by four-tenths of a percent," Courson said.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/breaking_news/15973295.htm

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47. OH: Election delays seen elsewhere, too

Friday, November 10, 2006
— Time: 8:47:44 AM EST

State weighs in on problems encountered in Washington County elections



By Sam Shawver

The Marietta Times

[e-mail]

In addition to Washington County, 11 Ohio election boards were slow in reporting unofficial results from Tuesday’s general election.

“Washington County was among those, but this was an unusual election,” said James Lee with the Ohio secretary of state’s office in Columbus.

“It was a learning experience for many boards in dealing with large numbers of absentee ballots. After this election the local boards should have a better idea of what to expect,” he said.

Asked whether the ES&S M100 voting machines used by Washington County were slower than the Diebold touch-screen machines used in some other counties, Lee said the ES&S equipment is considered faster.

“This will probably become an issue among Ohio counties over the next few months,” he said.

“Overall Washington County did a good job, considering what the board and director has been through this year,” Lee said.

http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/new22_1110200684744.asp

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48. OH: Winners, losers and postelection musings

The Times-Gazette

11/10/2006 10:02:00 AM

By RORY RYAN
Publisher & Editor

First, an extension of congratulations to all those candidates who won voters' approval on Nov. 7; and, lest we forget, a word of appreciation to each and every candidate for doing his best to make a difference.

In two local races of note, voters chose one Democrat challenger over a Republican incumbent and selected another Republican incumbent over a Democrat challenger. For Gary Heaton, the third time was the charm; for Bill Horne, it was not. Heaton prevailed in a tight commissioner's race against Russ Newman; and Rep. David Daniels prevailed over Horne.

Both Heaton and Daniels will continue their history of public service based on the election results. The good news is that Russ Newman and Bill Horne will continue their respective service to our community as well.

Each of these four Highland County residents have decades of public service commitment under their belts. The election may change some things, but it surely will not change this. We thank you all for your willingness to serve.

Now, on to a few other postelection musings...

‰ One can't help but wonder about the possible outrage had the media declared Ken Blackwell a winner over Ted Strickland before all the polls closed on Tuesday night. The media did declare Strickland a winner before all the polls closed.

At 7:59 p.m., a story was posted across the wire service with this lead paragraph: "A Democrat won the Ohio governorship for the first time since 1986 as Rep. Ted Strickland easily defeated Republican Ken Blackwell in one of 36 races for states' top elected office."

That seems a bit early to declare a landslide in a statewide race. But a landslide it was.

Despite those conspiracy theorists who believed Diebold had already secured the vote for Blackwell and other Republicans, voters made their voices heard - on all levels. (And no one clamors for recounts when Republicans lose.)

http://www.timesgazette.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=141207

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49. MD: What Vote-Theft Conspiracy?

COMMENTARY:

by DAVE LINDORFF
Systematic tampering with voting machines that some warned would happen—and that people have claimed happened in 2004 and 2000—seems not to have occurred in 2006.

The big losers on Election Day were of course President Bush and the Republican Party, but there was another loser too: the conspiracy theory that had it that a slick operation run out of Karl Rove’s office, and working in cahoots with the makers of the electronic voting machines increasingly being installed by voting districts around the country would steal the key elections electronically.

I always felt that this conspiracy theory was over the top, and that it moreover was having the pernicious effect of creating massive cynicism about elections that would keep many people from voting who otherwise might have.

There's no way to know how many people didn't go to the polls because they decided that it would be a waste of time, but I sure have heard plenty of people saying, over the past year, "What's the point? The Republicans are going to steal the election anyway."

Well, if they were ever going to steal an election, this would have been the one to do it to. The last thing a criminal president whose popularity is in the cellar needs is a Congress armed with subpoena power in the hands of the opposition party. Surely, if Karl Rove could have tinkered with the numbers on those voting machines in just a few dozen districts, or in states like Montana or Virginia where the margin was a few thousand votes, and where the key voter registrar officials were fellow Republicans, he would have done it.

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/111006Lindorff.shtml

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50. SD: Polling place move blasted

Rapid City Journal

By Scott Aust, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY — Three state legislators — angered about Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson’s decision to close a polling place only four days before Tuesday’s general election — asked the county commission Thursday to take steps to prevent such situations in the future.

Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, challenged Pearson’s authority to change polling places, saying state law gives the county commission sole authority to determine polling places.

“You have the final word. There is no mention of the auditor, in state law, changing the polling place,” he said.

Sen. Jerry Apa, R-Lead, said Pearson overstepped her bounds and “tried to usurp your power as county commissioners.” He added, “If I was a county commissioner and it happened on my watch, I would be putting forth a resolution of condemnation and would move forward with an active investigation.”

Pearson ordered Open Bible Christian Center on East St. Patrick Street closed Nov. 2 after county election officials failed to get assurances from the church that a campaign sign supporting Referred Law 6, the proposed abortion ban, would be removed by Election Day.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/11/10/news/top/news01a.txt

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51. AZ: Dems shave GOP lead in House

Arizona Capitol Times

November 10, 2006
Top Stories
Dems shave GOP lead in House, hope for greater voice in budget, policy
By Jim Small, [e-mail]

Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives by eight seats coming into the night, but that lead has significantly decreased.

Democrat candidates appear to have wrested at least four seats from Republican control, though that number could increase to as many as seven as early ballots are counted.

Republican candidates in two districts, including one East Valley incumbent, trailed their Democrat opponents at press time. Another West Valley Republican lawmaker seeking re-election was narrowly leading a Democrat.

“We’re crossing our fingers to make sure it holds up, but we feel good,” Bill Scheel, legislative campaign director for the Arizona Democratic Party, said.

With four more seats, the Democrats have narrowed the membership advantage of Republicans to 35-25, putting Democrats in a position to have more influence over policy and the budget.

House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-27, is confident his caucus will pick up at least one of the three seats still undecided and said the Republicans will have to work with his members more.

“I think they’re smart enough to know that us picking up five seats, and perhaps as many as seven, is not an accident,” he said. “There’s some real concern in the voters about the direction of the Republican Party in the House.”

http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?id=4444

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52. NM: Dems wonder if vote count will add up

The Alburquerque Tribune

By Michael Gisick (Contact)
Originally published 08:41 a.m., November 10, 2006
Updated 12:15 p.m., November 10, 2006

Democrats' hopes that Patricia Madrid could still pull out her congressional race with U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson rest in two corners.

Democrats say they are optimistic the 4,400 ballots that remain to be counted could overcome Wilson's 1,607-vote lead, though Madrid would need more than 70 percent of those ballots to draw even.

If those ballots don't put Madrid over the top, Democrats hope they would at least close the margin enough that a recount could push Madrid to victory.

Counters will work through the weekend.

Madrid spokeswoman Heather Brewer today said the campaign isn't yet thinking about a recount.

"There's no need to even start talking about a recount because the count is still going on," Brewer said.

Democratic Party Chairman John Wertheim offered a more detailed assessment of Madrid's prospects today.

He said a recount remains a possibility but acknowledged Democrats probably wouldn't seek one if the final vote counts don't provide Madrid a boost.

"If those ballots put Patricia Madrid in the lead, I think you'll see Heather Wilson asking for a recount," he said.

Wilson's spokesman, Enrique Carlos Knell, said Wilson appears to have won a decisive victory.

Either candidate can ask for a recount but would have to pay for it.

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/nov/10/madrids-hopes-rest-votes-be-counted/

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53. US expats wanted for post-election survey

9 November 2006

AMSTERDAM — The Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) is holding a 2006 Post Election Survey for the millions of US citizens and active duty military who live outside the country.

The aim of the survey is to capture the personal voting experiences of those who voted or wanted to vote and couldn't.

OVF is committed to a non-partisan programme of research and development in the areas of overseas and military voter registration and balloting.

It will use the feedback to understand key issues affecting overseas and military voters, to inform policy makers and to improve OVF's outreach and technical development efforts.

This year's survey is conducted in collaboration with the Election Administration Research Center.

OVF (www.overseasvotefoundation.org) is inviting US citizens and active duty military to sign up now and receive an invitation to participate in the OVF 2006 Post Election Survey.

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=34278

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54. CA: Apply some math to figure the winner

Modesto Bee

District 4 prediction goes by the numbers

By TIM MORAN
BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: November 10, 2006, 05:25:48 AM PST

Watching a tight election race and waiting for those late ballots to be counted?
Wondering how much of the remaining vote your candidate needs to win?

Here's a bit of math you can do to while away the hours, courtesy of Stanislaus County Republican Party Chairman Jim DeMartini:

You need to start with the number of votes remaining to be counted. That's an imprecise number in Stanislaus County, but it's at least 22,800, so figure it's 23,000.

Pick a race, say, the Stanislaus Supervisor's District 4 election, where Janice Keating trails Dick Monteith by 111 votes.

The five supervisorial districts are evenly divided by population, but we don't really know if the voter registration or the uncounted ballots are evenly divided. For the sake of argument, we will assume they are, and divide 23,000 by 5, which gives us 4,600.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12992876p-13642636c.html

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55. WY: Trauner in a waiting mode (970 votes difference)

Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle on Friday, November 10, 2006 12:16 AM MST

Barbara Cubin appears to have narrowly won re-election Tuesday.

By Jessica Lowell

[e-mail]

CHEYENNE - Gary Trauner, the Democrat who challenged U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., for her seat in Congress, is not ending his bid just yet.

On Thursday, at a news conference in Jackson, Trauner said he will wait until the State Canvassing Board meets next week to certify the vote before he takes any action.

"There is a process here, and there's a reason it was put in place," he said. "I trust the people who are in charge of the process. We need to let it play out. When it does, may the best person win, and we will accept that."

In the meantime, he said, provisional ballots are still being counted, and county canvasses are now under way.

On Thursday, Cubin's campaign office released this statement on her behalf: "For Wyoming's representation in Congress to be most effective, it's essential that every vote is counted fairly. That is why it is critical to respect the pre-existing process and Wyoming's election officials who are diligently working to confirm these results.

"Ultimately the voters have spoken, and I was re-elected Tuesday night to continue my work to keep taxes low, protect gun rights and grow our economy."

The results of Tuesday's general election show that Trauner and Cubin essentially split the vote in the state, each receiving about 48 percent. But the critical difference was the 970 votes that separated them.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2006/11/10/news/local_news/03local_11-10-06.txt

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56. Chicago Tribune: Time to try a new way to vote

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)

Mohamed F. Mustafa
Published November 10, 2006

Lake Villa -- The solution to all election problems is sitting on your desk or lap or is in your hand, and it costs nothing to little to implement. Any device that can put you on the Internet can be used to vote (laptops, desktops, Palm Pilots, BlackBerrys, etc.). You could vote in libraries, at work or at polling places that would consist of just computers with Internet access (access would be free to all while polls are open or people could just go to their normal polling places).

Security would consist of voters' Social Security numbers and a voter registration code. No more absentee ballots that get lost or delivered too late.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0611100335nov10,1,4804778.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

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57. SC: Conway schedules mayoral runoff Nov. 21

Myrtle Beach Online
Posted on Fri, Nov. 10, 2006

By Tonya Root
The Sun News
CONWAY - The votes were certified Thursday and incumbent Greg Martin will still face former City Councilman Leslie McIver in a runoff Nov. 21 for the mayor's seat.

Residents who did not vote in Tuesday's general election can vote in the runoff and absentee ballots are available, said Linda Boyd, Conway's election commission chairwoman. The absentee ballots will be available beginning today at the Voter Registration office at 103 Elm St., Conway, she said.

Election commission officials spent more than four hours Thursday morning reviewing absentee ballots, fail-safe and curbside ballots for correct addresses and checking addresses to ensure they were inside city limits. Curbside ballots allow disabled voters to vote without leaving vehicles, while a fail-safe ballot is used when the person has moved to another precinct and failed to change their address before voting.

Officials also doubled-checked some addresses with Horry County's Election Commission because some areas were annexed recently into the city and not listed on election books. There were no challenges to the results, City Clerk Cindi Gore said.

After all the counting and tallying was complete, the results did not change much.

For the three open City Council positions, Tom Anderson will replace incumbent Ivory Wilson on the City Council in January, while Vivian Chestnut and Alys Lawson will return for another term. There will be no runoff for those positions.

Officials added 83 votes to the mayoral race and 207 votes to the City Council race in the nonpartisan, at-large election. A total of 2,870 votes were cast in the mayoral election, while 7,131 votes were cast in the City Council race.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/15978846.htm

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58. VA: Voter Fraud

WCYB Channel 5 (NBC)

Date 10 November 2006
Attorneys say a former mayor accused in a
vote-rigging and corruption case in southwest Virginia has signed an agreement to plead guilty to 243 felonies.
Ben Cooper resigned as Appalachia`s mayor after he was indicted last March. A Wise County Circuit Judge will consider his plea agreement November 28th.
During a trial for one of Cooper`s 13 co-defendants last month, witnesses said the ex-mayor controlled a plot to gain control of
the town by rigging an election. The scheme included buying votes with beer, cigarettes and even pork rinds.

http://www.wcyb.tv/newsread.asp?newsid=7625

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59. VIDEO THE VOTE -

http://www.videothevote.org/

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60. Verified Voting: We need you, RIGHT NOW

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x457625

:hi:

[livvy]

61. Whew! Well done! K&R

[kpete]

62. Wow!!!!

Wow and Wow!!!