Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday Nov. 12, 2006

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Link to previous Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=457930&mesg_id=457930

[MelissaB]

1. FL: Supervisor Relents to Voting Paper Trail

Supervisor Relents to Voting Paper Trail

By PAUL QUINLAN & PATRICK WHITTLE
New York Times Regional Newspapers


SARASOTA COUNTY - Amid questions surrounding the touch-screen voting system that registered an 18,000-ballot undervote in Tuesday's congressional race, Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent now says she will comply with voters who want a new voting system - one that produces a paper trail.

Dent will encourage county commissioners to replace the touch-screen machines with a paper ballot system.

Her announcement Friday marks a reversal for the elections supervisor, who had promoted and adamantly defended the touch-screen system the county purchased for $4.5 million in 2001.

Although a ballot initiative that called for a paper trail and spot audits of election results won 55 percent approval Tuesday, the switch to paper still seemed uncertain, as Secretary of State Sue Cobb, Dent and the County Commission were slated to challenge its constitutionality in the appellate court.


More: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/NEWS/611120422/1004

[MelissaB]

2. AK: Mayoral candidate/bar owner puzzled after receiving 0 votes

Mayoral candidate/bar owner puzzled after receiving 0 votes

(11/12/06 - WALDENBURG, AK) - Poor Randy Wooten!

The Waldenburg, Arkansas, bar owner figured he'd get at least one vote in his bid to become mayor of the town of 80 people -- even if it was just his own. But he didn't.

According to the official tally, nobody voted for Wooten.

Along with himself, Wooten says there were "at least eight or nine people" who said they voted for him, so, as he puts it, "something is wrong with this picture."

Now, he has to decide whether to file a formal protest. Two other candidates, including the incumbent, received 18 votes.

More: http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=bizarre&id=4753645

[MelissaB]

3. Discussion

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x458231

[MelissaB]

5. Candidate: Zero Vote Tally Off - by 1

Candidate: Zero Vote Tally Off - by 1

The Associated Press

WALDENBURG, Ark. - Randy Wooten figured he'd get at least one vote in his bid for mayor of this town of 80 people - even if it was just his own.

He didn't. Now he has to decide whether to file a formal protest.

Wooten got the news from his wife, Roxanne, who went to City Hall on Wednesday to see the election results.

"She saw my name with zero votes by it. She came home and asked me if I had voted for myself or not. I told her I did," said Wooten, owner of a local bar.

However, Poinsett County results reported Wednesday showed incumbent William H. Wood with 18 votes, challenger Ronnie Chatman with 18 votes and Wooten with zero.


More: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/84-11112006-740443.html

[MelissaB]

4. FL: Vote machines spark uproar in Sarasota

Vote machines spark uproar in Sarasota
Without paper trail, recount may prove nothing about touch-screens

DUANE MARSTELLER
Herald Staff Writer
SARASOTA - Vote machines spark uproar in Sarasota

DUANE MARSTELLER

Herald Staff Writer

A razor-thin margin of victory. Allegations of malfunctioning touch-screen voting machines. No way to tell if the machines failed to record votes.

Two years ago, a congressman and two Palm Beach County commissioners feared such a post-election nightmare could happen again in Florida. Thus, they and a voter sued to force state action to prevent a repeat occurrence.

"We envisioned all kinds of potential ramifications," unless changes were made, said Tony Fransetta of Wellington, the voter who filed the lawsuit after being involved in such a race as a candidate.

They lost in court - and now the scenario he and others dreaded is unfolding yet again.

This time it's in Sarasota County, which recorded 18,382 blank votes or "undervotes" in a high-profile congressional race where a scant 373 votes separate the two candidates: Vern Buchanan, who has the lead, and Christine Jennings. The race is so close that a recount likely will be done Monday.


More: http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/15992077.htm

[freedomfries]

18. FL: Congressional contenders head to Washington as state audits vote

Congressional contenders head to Washington as state audits vote

Phil Davis AP
The Gainesville Sun
November 12. 2006 1:55PM
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/APP/611121902


Both candidates vying to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris will be learning the ropes in Washington on Monday as state auditors delve into complaints touch-screen voting machines did not count thousands of votes in the extremely close race.

Initial tallies give Republican Vern Buchanan a 373 vote lead over Democrat Christine Jennings in the race for District 13 - less than 0.2 percent. The vote will be recounted Monday.

Also on Monday, state officials will begin auditing Sarasota County touch-screen voting machines which reported more than 18,000 people did not cast a vote for Buchanan or Jennings, but did make choices in other races. That rate was much higher than what other counties in the district registered in the same congressional race.

County elections supervisor Kathy Dent has defended her staff and the accuracy of the voting machines. She did not immediately return phone messages left at her office Sunday.

The controversy has caught the attention of everyone from Gov. Jeb Bush to national organizations who are challenging the reliability of electronic voting machines.

Buchanan declared victory last Wednesday, but Jennings has not conceded.

"I am confident that both the recount and the audit will confirm that this election was fair and accurately reflected the will of the voters," Buchanan said in a written statement. "In the meantime, I hope that my opponent and outside groups allow the re-count and audit to take place without intentionally undermining our citizen's confidence in our election system."

Jennings too is confident she will be declared the victor, campaign spokeswoman Kathy Vermazen said Sunday. Jennings flew to Washington on Sunday.

"She felt strongly the voters need to have someone that can hit ground running once the recount is resolved and every vote has been counted and counted accurately," Vermazen said.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/APP/611121902

[freedomfries]

19. FL: PFAW calls for Re-Vote in Saratosa Ct

PFAW Foundation Urges Sarasota County Not to Certify Results of Disputed Race in Florida's 13th Congressional District

Press release
November 12, 2006
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23069

Asks County to Work with State Officials for a Re-Vote as Only Effective Remedy for 18,000 Voters who ‘Missed’ the Race

The nonpartisan People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) today urged Sarasota County Elections Supervisor Kathy Dent not to certify the results of the race for Florida's 13th congressional district. The massive under vote in the congressional race, combined with new reports and information from voters and poll workers, indicate that approximately one-sixth of those voting were disenfranchised in that race -- voters who either cast votes that were not counted, or who missed the opportunity to vote due to a faulty ballot display on new electronic equipment.

PFAWF Florida state Director Jorge Mursuli also called on Dent to work with state election officials to find a solution that will allow county residents who voted on November 7 to return to the polls for a revote of the congressional race. A recount will begin Monday, with a certification deadline of Nov. 18.

"It makes no sense that one-sixth of the voters who cast ballots in Sarasota County would simply ignore the congressional race. Once again, Florida is the state where the voices of thousands of voters were silenced. This has got to stop. We can't trust our votes to machines that your local bank wouldn't trust to give out cash," said Mursuli.

Mursuli also said a recount is no solution.

"You can't re-count votes that because of ballot design or machine error were never cast or were never captured by the machines in the first place,” he said. "That's the wrong solution to the wrong problem."

Currently, the vote count in the race to replace Katherine Harris, the failed GOP Senate candidate, has Republican Vern Buchanan ahead of Democrat Christine Jennings by just 363 votes. The 18,000 "undervotes" in the county are obviously substantial enough that they could affect the outcome of the race, Mursuli said.

"Eighteen thousand votes is greater than the combined margin of victory in the two closest U.S. Senate races. The Montana race was decided by about 3,000 votes, and Virginia was decided by about 7,000 votes." he said. "The irony is that one of the most controversial races of 2006 is the race to replace Katherine Harris, who played such a key role in the 2000 voting fiasco in Florida. Our state is thrust into the spotlight once again."

"We can't keep blaming voters for problems they didn't cause," said Mursuli. "We've had ballots that turned elderly Jewish voters into Pat Buchanan supporters, purges that wrongly knocked African American voters off the registration list, and now, Sarasota voters prevented from helping to choose their member of Congress. At what point do our state officials take full responsibility for making elections work in Florida?"

PFAWF has heard from dozens of voters and poll workers during the past two days about the irregularities in Sarasota County in early voting and on Election Day. Citizens report voting in the congressional race, but not seeing their choice in that race on the summary screen, while others report missing the race as they went through the ballot on the iVotronic machines . The Sarasota Herald Tribune has written extensively on the problem.
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23069

[MelissaB]

6. American Books Special: 'There is no republic any more' (Gore Vidal)

American Books Special: 'There is no republic any more'

It's been a great week for American legends. Stephen King, on a rare visit to London, meets massive fan Matt Thorne, while Ben Thompson strains his eyes over the infamous Courtney Love diaries. We extract Charles Frazier's follow-up to 'Cold Mountain', while Tom Rosenthal talks to his old friend Gore Vidal about the state of America and his brilliant new memoir

Published: 12 November 2006


...snip to the election related part

Inevitably Vidal has views on America's current problems. Ever since his collection of essays, Rocking the Boat, he has been savage about US imperialism. "Well, America's run out of gas. There's no money. It's run out because of so many crooked deals between Congress and the great corporations to give us all those technical advantages, and now the money's run out. Most of the population has no sense of the country at all; that's the poor; they're the ones sent out to Iraq and that's why there are these rapes and murders there. There's no proper army now. Today someone can become President by cheating, via electronic balloting machines which can be reversed. I was the first person, 10 years ago now, to point out that votes were being reversed. I wrote the preface to Congressman George Conyers's book on how he and other Congressmen and staffers went to Ohio in 2004 to investigate and prove conclusively that Bush's people stole the election with collusion between high officials and shadowy executives of electronic voting machine companies."

When I wondered why the book had had so little impact in America, Gore said it was because the principal influential media, including the New York Times and the Washington Post simply did not review it. "There is no Republic and that's why I have this general anger at the whole thing. The Vice-President, via his company Haliburton, is there to make money. It's all happened so quickly and I'm the last person to be prepared for the speed with which all this has happened."

[MelissaB]

7. Harper's IndexHarper's Magazine

Harper's IndexHarper's Magazine

8 Number of the 50 states still not in compliance with the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

15 Number that now use electronic voting machines with no recountable paper trail.

1 Minutes it took a Princeton researcher to hack into a Diebold voting machine in September.

30 Percentage of Americans who cannot say in which year the Sept. 11 attacks occurred.

39 Percentage who think that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special ID.


More: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/15988739.htm

[MelissaB]

8. The Thumb (Diebold)

The Thumb

Tribune Editorial
Article Last Updated:11/11/2006 12:43:02 PM MST


Machine politics: As they say about the results of the elections themselves, these results are preliminary and subject to the final canvass. But, especially compared to some of the horror stories envisioned before the election, it seems that the Diebold Elections Systems touch-screen voting machines that got their first real shake-down cruise in last week's elections did their job rather well. There was that embarrassing matter of all the folks who thought that hitting the Personal Choice button was the same as ³none of the above² on the straight-ticket page, not realizing that it was really a vote for a fringe party most people had never heard of, but it wasn't the machines' fault.

Expectations -- Diminished: A consultant's study of an advertising slogan and campaign put together by a different consultant to promote Utah tourism suggests that the more than $2 million of state money spent in trying to attract paying visitors from surrounding states has had, so far, only a fair to middlin impact. The Utah Office of Tourism flogged its "Utah -- Life Elevated" promotion to potential tourists in Denver, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and apparently boosted public interest in Utah as a destination by just 15 percent. The survey did establish that the state's striking scenery and landscapes are its prime selling point, and that's a good dollars-and-cents argument to make sure those vistas are preserved.


More: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4644148

[MelissaB]

9. KY: Write-in votes show stranger side of election

Write-in votes show stranger side of election

By JIM GAINES, The Daily News

Sunday, November 12, 2006 12:07 AM CST

Margaret Huddleston didn't expect such a tight race to retain her seat on Warren County Family Court.

She was an unopposed incumbent on Tuesday's official ballot. But when results slowly trickled in that night - by which time she'd already gone home - totals showed that write-in candidates had taken one vote for every 1,000 cast in her favor.

Still, Huddleston is upbeat about her close call.

“Seventeen out of 17,000 and some-hundred isn't too bad, I don't think,” she said. “It doesn't bother me one bit; people are welcome to vote however they want to vote.”

The votes against Huddleston probably weren't a unified challenge, however; the county's voting machine printout tapes don't preserve the names of last-minute candidates unless they're formally registered as write-in candidates with the Warren County Clerk's Office.


More: http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2006/11/12/local_news/news/news6.txt

[MelissaB]

10. E-voting worries focus on failures, not fraud

E-voting worries focus on failures, not fraud
Papering over the cracks

Page: 1 2 Next > By Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus → More by this author
Published Sunday 12th November 2006 06:39 GMT

Major electronic voting machine problems occurred in at least six US states during the country's midterm elections, underscoring that system failure, not fraud, is the biggest issue facing future races, voting-rights activists and technologists said this week.

Machine problems delayed voting in many precincts in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, and Ohio, requiring election officials to keep the polls open late. Problems in Montana delayed the final tally of the results in that state, and in New Jersey, about five per cent of machines had some sort of problem, though the issues were characterized as minor in news reports.

While the Democratic sweep of the elections may have quelled early partisan concerns regarding fraud, widespread machines failures are not any more acceptable, said Eugene Spafford, a professor of computer science at Purdue University and the chair of the US Public Policy Committee for the Association for Computing Machinery.

"From the standpoint of a technologist, we can and should do better," Spafford said. "As a country, we have to do better than machines that can fail and are impossible to audit."

The US midterm elections were the most recent test for electronic voting machines. Many critics warned of the danger of fraud prior to Tuesday's election. The Democrats sweeping win across the nation appears to be the best rebuttal to the worries of some partisan critics. For example, before the election, some Democrats -most notably U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)- seemed prepared to blame a loss on vote fraud.

"That is the only variable in this," Pelosi told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Will we have an honest count?''

However, the danger of a elections being hacked are less of a concern among nonpartisan critics than machine failure, said Courtenay Bhatia, president of election watchdog VerifiedVoting.org.


More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/12/us_mid-term_elections_e-voting_analysis/

[MelissaB]

11. Pursue more voting upgrades than just the 'Ding!'

Pursue more voting upgrades than just the 'Ding!'
Dings are nice, but a paper trail would be nicer

Montgomery County elections officials hope to bring back the 'Ding!' that old-style, mechanical polling booths emitted when a voter pulled the lever. Audible confirmation would be a welcome tweak. Once officials accomplish that, though, they should pursue more important improvements like adding an auditable paper trail.

Poll workers report that this year they had to chase down some departing voters who had not pressed the final button to submit their votes. Part of that, no doubt, can be attributed to people still getting used to the electronic voting machines. With no lever to pull and no accompanying ding, it is easy to miss the last step.

...snip

While Wertz is looking for smart changes, he should also address the lack of a voter-verified paper trail. Since the introduction of the new machines, he has pooh-poohed the idea that they are insecure or could cause problems.

Mounting evidence around the nation both during elections and from researchers suggests he is wrong. All it takes is a clever hacker or a system crash to affect the outcome of an election. Moreover, manufacturers of the machines keep their computer code secret, forcing the public to trust private companies to uphold voting rights.

A voter-verified receipt would solve some of the problems, if not all. The only reason -- and not a very good one -- to reject the upgrade is cost, upwards of $1,000 per machine. That would be a financial hit, but it would also be an investment in secure elections.

A cosmetic change like a ding is an excellent improvement to the user interface, but substantive changes are needed too.


More: http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-91166

[MelissaB]

12. Election Results Continue To Puzzle

Election Results Continue To Puzzle

This article was published on Friday, November 10, 2006 11:02 PM CST in News
By Michelle Burhenn
The Morning News

BENTONVILLE -- Unprecedented voter turnout in Benton County has again called into question the results of Tuesday's general election.

After the Election Commission reviewed the votes Wednesday, the turnout jumped from 49 percent to 83 percent. That catapulted Benton County to the top of the turnout heap, according to totals from Secretary of State's Web site on Friday. The county with the second-highest turnout was Madison County with 64 percent.

The observance of Veterans Day on Friday made it impossible to get many answers from county officials.

Robbyn Tumey, former chairwoman of the Benton County Democratic Party, went to the Election Commission office on Friday to speak with Jim McCarthy, election coordinator. Tumey worked on the media plan for Cheryl Murphy, District 2 justice of the peace candidate. Revised results released Thursday showed Murphy had lost her race to Republican Frank Winscott. Tuesday's results first showed she was winning and later showed she would face a runoff with Winscott.

Tumey said she is prepared to file an injunction to stop the Election Commission from certifying the election. She said she and McCarthy looked over the results together. Some, such as a Rogers precinct with more than 100 percent voter turnout, alarmed both of them. He then gathered the voting system's computer disks and flash drives and told her he was headed to the Election Systems & Software office in Little Rock, she said.

Election Systems & Software has a statewide contract to provide voting machines.

Calls to Jim McCarthy's cell phone went straight to voicemail, which was full. An employee who answered the telephone at the Election Systems & Software office in Little Rock said he could not speak to the media. Election Systems & Software media representatives in Omaha, Neb., where the company is based, said they were not aware of the situation and could not comment.

Murphy said the unprecedented turnout caused her and some others to question the latest election results.

In her district alone, a 92 percent turnout was recorded, she said. That just doesn't happen in District 2, which is rural, divided by Beaver Lake and generally has a lower turnout, she said.

"So to jump to an 80 percent turnout, I question," she said. "I heavily question."

A close analysis of Thursday's results show in two races, more people voted in a mayoral race than live in the town, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's July 2005 estimates. In Gateway, a town of 122 people, 199 votes were cast in an uncontested mayoral race. In the Pea Ridge, 3,997 votes were cast in a contested mayor's race for the city of 3,344 people.


More: http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/11/12/news/111106bzelectioncontinued.txt

[MelissaB]

13. Discussion

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x458249

[MelissaB]

14. Dems critical of Idaho election officials

Dems critical of Idaho election officials

By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press writer

BOISE, Idaho -- Problem pens, broken scanners, low supplies and long lines plagued some of Idaho's polling stations on Election Day, prompting some political candidates to compare the state's woes to a more infamous election in the south.

"This is like a Third World country. This is like Miami in 2000," said Democrat Jerry Brady, who lost the governor's seat to Republican C.L. "Butch" Otter on Tuesday. "We should make this more easy."

State election officials say final turnout figures won't be known until canvassing of votes takes place, but they were confident it would approach the predicted 63 percent, the highest in a non-presidential election since 1994.

The slowest vote counts came from eastern Idaho's Bannock County, where optical scan readers failed to recognize the ink used to mark ballots. The county was using the Bic pens recommended by the company that makes the scanner, Idaho Secretary of State Chief Deputy Tim Hurst said, but the machines still didn't work.

Once the problem was discovered, the thousands of unread ballots were handed over to a resolution board, which included a Republican and a Democratic representative, Hurst said. They marked over each ink spot with a blue highlighter -- allowing the voter's original mark to show through -- and fed it through the machines again, Hurst said.


More: http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2006/11/09/news/regional/3e8994cf740c1eee87257220007c89e1.txt

[MelissaB]

15. CO: The damage is done; time for an investigation

The damage is done; time for an investigation

Daily Press Editorial

Next week, Montrose County citizens may know the unofficial results of Tuesday’s election. The wreckage of last week’s voting process will reverberate. And it should. Citizens have every right to trust their ballot will be counted correctly. Like it or not, doubt lingers.

The city of Montrose announced Friday the call for an independent investigation of the county clerk’s office and how it manages elections. Tuesday’s election debacle — where machines malfunctioned, where voters frustrated by long waits walked away without voting, where ballots were printed on a copy machine — affects the city because of municipal tax issues that were voted upon. The Town of Olathe, too, had a dog in the fight with its 2A/town administrator vote. Ditto the Montrose Regional Library District (West End/Naturita) and West End Schools Re-2.

All of these governmental entities pushed issues before voters. Most of the races had clear winners, but that’s not the point. The point is trust and accountability and today, those virtues of government are damaged. We urge the county commissioners and county managers to accept the call for an independent investigation.


More: http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2006/11/12/opinion/op1.txt

[MelissaB]

16. Time to admit mistake By: PAUL JACOBS

Time to admit mistake

By: PAUL JACOBS - For The Californian

Last Tuesday was democracy in action ---- before it turned into democracy inaction.

Collectively, my wife and I observed a polling place in Murrieta for more than eight hours as part of the Save R Vote project. Then we headed off to a collection center where I videotaped voting cartridges from dozens of polling places being delivered by poll workers to registrar of voters staff and volunteers for transfer to the registrar's nearby office to be tabulated.


Much more: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/12/opinion/jacobs/17_06_2611_11_06.txt

[bleever]

17. !

Onward!