Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wed 11/15/06 We The People Are Still Fighting

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wed 11/15/06 Still Fighting

We won the Senate - We won The House

BUT We Still HAVE NOT WON

The Right To Have ALL OF OUR VOTES COUNT!!!

LAND SHARK

"There are no gods of democracy except We the People,
and We never intended this electronic bullshit."

kpete: "I'll be damned if you're going to treat my paper ballot as a second class ballot just because I refuse to cast invisible ballots on worthless touch screen voting systems where we're all forced to pretend the results are correct when nobody actually has ever seen or counted the touchscreen votes at any time. I consider this deliberate policy of slow counting paper ballots to be retaliation against those who choose real democracy over virtual democracy, which is the last thing an official should be instituting who is sworn to uphold the law of one person one vote and equal protection."








George W. Bush"Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world
by holding elections even in a time of war.”
http://daoureport.salon.com/synopsis.aspx?synopsisId=fb268fc5-fd62-4f57-8d80-760df1edf23d





All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.
2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...
3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.
4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.
Please

"Recommend"

for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[stellanoir]

1. 1st rec

Great graphics and quotations.

Do you know where that theater is located?

[kpete]

12. hey stella-

thanks, I am not sure where the theater is - except the graphic is from Salon Magazine (few years ago).

As far as the quotes go - I know you agree Land Shark is an inspiration...I wish I could write down everything he says...kp

[stellanoir]

14. LOL

We'll perhaps have to organize all of his "election fraud" groupies to take turns running around after him with feathered quills or somethin'. That would be a riot.

Enjoyed your statement as well and all your efforts.

Hope you two keep it up and know you will.

[robinlynne]

16. Count me in as an election fraud groupie. Not sure about the feathered quills,

but I do enjoy spreading the word....

[rumpel]

26. me, too

yes feathered quills :)

[robinlynne]

28. Hi Rumpel!

We're gathering up all our evidence, and will probably have public hearings in january.

[kpete]

2. Rahm Emanuel: Did he cost Democrats an even larger House victory?

November 14, 2006 at 07:24:55

Election Post-Mortem; We Could Have Done Better, Much Better

by Wayne Madsen


Rahm Emanuel: Did he cost Democrats an even larger House victory? Unsuccessful candidates say yes.

There were a few exceptions to Emanuel's attempt to put pro-business shills in the House. One was California's 11th district where pro-environment Jerry McNerney trumped Emanuel's handpicked puppet Steve Filson in the primary. and went on to defeat the anti-environment Republican Richard Pombo in the general election. Lack of support from Emanuel and his cohorts also helped bury the candidacies of former FBI agent Coleen Rowley in Minnesota, John Laesch (running against pederast enabler Dennis Hastert) in Illinois, and Larry Kissell in North Carolina. Bush's unpopularity meant that Karl Rove and his operatives were forced to concentrate on race they deemed in the pocket -- including races in formerly "deep red" states like Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, and Indiana. However, the Emanuel group did not seize on the opportunity to pump much-needed funds into these competitive races.

It is clear that the DLC did not want certain issues brought to the Democratic House caucus, including 911 Truth (Bowman), pre-911 screw ups (Rowley), voting machine fraud (Curtis), and congressional pederasty (Patty Wetterling, 6th Minnesota district). One can only wonder why the DLC would want to eschew candidates who the Bush administration would find extremely uncomfortable. The answer is simple -- the Republicans and DLC are basically one and the same. Similar foreign and domestic policy goals put them in bed with one another. Its no more complicated than that.

Dean's 50-state winning strategy deep-sixed by DLC Democratic Party moles Rahm Emanuel and James Carville.

A source who knows Emanuel from past campaigns told WMR that the former Clinton White House aide is a complete "asshole" when it comes to playing favorites with candidates -- a trait that put the Illinois congressman at odds with Dean, who wanted to support candidates in every state and congressional district.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_wayne_ma_061114_election_post_mortem.htm

[kpete]

6. With Some Electronic Voting Systems, Not All Votes Count

With Some Electronic Voting Systems, Not All Votes Count

By Electronic Privacy Information Center
November 14, 2006
This study was posted at epic.org. It is reposted here with permission of the authors.



EPIC's "Spotlight on Surveillance" project scrutinizes federal government programs that affect individual privacy. For more information, see previous Spotlights on Surveillance. This month, Spotlight shines on electronic voting systems, many of which will be used for the first time during mid-term elections on November 7.1 There are myriad problems associated with the use of electronic voting systems, but though there are safeguards, most of the local election jurisdictions have not put these in place. About $3.8 billion has been budgeted for these electronic voting systems.2


Source: Diebold Election Systems

With a direct recording electronic (DRE) system, which has also been called "touch screen voting," a voter makes her choices by pressing buttons on or near the screen. Digital images of ballot selections are saved onto memory drives in the machine, but a voter-verified paper record is not created, unless the DRE is attached to a printer.


In the 2000 presidential election, there were questions about which candidate, Al Gore or George W. Bush, garnered the most votes in Florida. The resulting confusion concerning “hanging chads” (some punchcard ballots were not completely punched through, leaving part of the paper still attached to the ballot) and other ballot problems led Congress to pass the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).3 The Act established a process to create voluntary standards for voting and voter-registration systems. HAVA established the Election Assistance Commission to oversee the process, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology assists in developing technical guidelines and standards.4 HAVA also sought to provide accessible and independent voting for people with disabilities, and requires each polling location to have one accessible machine.5

HAVA provided about $3.8 billion in federal funding to update or replace old voting systems, improve poll worker training, and voter education. Many local election jurisdictions have used the funds to buy either optical scan or direct recording electronic (DRE) systems to replace paper ballot, punchcard and lever systems. About 87% of voters will use either optical scan or DRE systems in November 2006, according to a study by Election Data Services, a consulting firm that tracks election information.6 With an optical scan system, a voter fills in the oval or connects an arrow next to the name of the candidate on the ballot, then the voter feeds the ballot into the ballot box, which records the vote.7 The paper copy of the ballot can be kept to ensure the accuracy of the vote. With a DRE system, which has also been called “touch screen voting,” a voter makes her choices by pressing buttons on or near the screen.8 The system “creates digital records of voter ballot selections and saves them on memory drive(s) stored within the voting system. No permanent record is produced at the time a voter casts a ballot.”9

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2034&Itemid=26

[kpete]

3. Why Elect Majority Leader by 'Secret Ballot'?

Why Elect Majority Leader by 'Secret Ballot'?

by Lynn Landes

http://www.opednews.com



Why Elect Majority Leader By 'Secret Ballot'?
In brief by Lynn Landes 11/14/06

Have the Democrats learned nothing? Electing a majority leader by 'secret ballot'? Or, is this particular nonsense in sync with other inexplicable strategies, particularly the Dem's decision to use Internet voting in the presidential primaries of 2000, 2004 and 2008?

With all the problems the electorate has faced with a voting system that is completely non-transparent (i.e., "secret"), it defies imagination why House Democrats would resort to a "secret ballot" to elect their majority leader. So much for demonstrating the courage of their convictions.

A 'secret ballot" election is the perfect set-up for those who want to rig an election. See: Vote Fraud 101 - "When elections are conducted by secret ballot, there exists no hard evidence of how people voted. "Voters hand over to election officials a pile of anonymous ballots. For those with the appropriate incentive, substituting ballots is duck soup." Source: me

The secret ballot was created in Australia in 1856. It came to America in the 1880's. And ever since then, in elections here and around the world, nobody really knows anything for sure.

So, what's a candidate to do? Collect hard evidence. How? Get voters to 'go public' with their votes AFTER they've voted. This will serve as a check against the official results.

Of course, nagging questions remain. Have the Democrats learned nothing? Or, do they know the scam, all-too-well?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_lynn_lan_061114_why_elect_majority_l.htm

[kpete]

4. A Post-Election E-Conversation with Ion Sancho

November 14, 2006 at 16:33:39

A Post-Election E-Conversation with Ion Sancho

by Joan Brunwasser

http://www.opednews.com



Dear Mr. Sancho:
I am the Voting Integrity Editor for OpEdNews. We have been in
contact in the past. I sent you a copy of the documentary "Invisible
Ballots" a number of months ago.

I'm writing to you about the voting debacle we have just witnessed.
What happened in Sarasota County is just the tip of the iceberg.
Anyone reading the corporate media would be unaware, but there were tens of thousands of voting complaints to Common Cause and other hotlines. There were meltdowns across the country.

I'm in Cook County, IL, and we voted on Sequoia machines which were just revealed (a few days before the election) to have a button which flips the program to manual mode and will allow unlimited voting. While this was reported on BradBlog, http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3714 it was not covered locally very much. When asked, the supervisor of elections assured that their poll workers would be on top of it. That was not my experience at my polling place.

My question has to do with the Sarasota County experience with the
wildly high undervote. Now, your counterpart is saying that she will
favor paper ballots. But this will involve using the optical
scanners. Does everyone have such a short memory? Does no one
remember the Harri Hursti/Black Box Voting authorized hack that took place almost a year ago in your county? That was on an optical scanner.
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/boardauth.cgi?file=/1954/15595.html

Why do people not 'get' that electronic voting is not a friend to
voters and can't guarantee accuracy, security or transparency? I'm
afraid that people will judge the results of 2006 a success and the
election reform movement will lose its momentum.

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joan_bru_061114_a__post_election_e_c.htm

[kpete]

5. DNC Sees Six Undecided U.S. House Elections Still to be 'Winnable,' Planning Challenges

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3790

SOURCE: DNC Sees Six Undecided U.S. House Elections Still to be 'Winnable,' Planning Challenges
Legal Resources Being Gathered by National Party to Challenge Close Elections Where Dems Currently Trail
Other Candidates, Citing Concerns About Voting Machine Failures, Also Refusing to Concede Until All Votes Can Be Verified…
Just off the phone from a DNC insider — very much in a position to know — who says the following races are being considered, as of this afternoon, to still be very much in play by the DNC (* = Incumbent, Results shown latest reported by state websites as available):

NC-8: Larry Kissel (D) 60,016 / Robin Hayes (R)* 60,481
CT-2: Joe Courtney (D) 121,321 / Rob Simmons (R)* 121,151
FL-13: Christine Jennings (D) 118,739 / Vern Buchanan (R) 119,116
NM-1: Patricia A. Madrid (D) 103,376 / Heather Wilson (R)* 104,863
OH-15: Mary Jo Kilroy (D) 98,100 / Deborah Pryce (R)* 101,636
OH-2: Victoria Wulson (D) 112,952 / Jean Schmidt (R)* 115,817

The source believes that all of the above races, each of them currently very, very close, are winnable and the feeling is that they "could easily win three of those six."

In each — except for CT-2, where Courtney is leading — the Democratic candidate is currently trailing in the reported results as absentee, provisional, and paper ballots are still be canvassed. As well, challenges and recounts are underway in some of those races (we hope to have more detail shortly here on a couple of those races).

(UPDATE: Several readers have written to ask if other races beyond those mentioned above — such as the U.S. House race in Washington state's 8th Congressional district between Democrat Darcy Burner and Republican Dave Reichert — are now off the table as far as the DNC is concerned. The races reported above are the only ones named explicitly to us by the DNC sources. However, two different sources there have confirmed that they are largely driven by the folks on the ground in the states, and would urge that noise be made locally — and loudly enough that higher-ups might hear it at the DNC — in order to gain more attention from the national party to other such races still of concern.)

more at:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3790

[kpete]

7. Was the 2006 Election A Success from the Perspective of Election Administration?

November 14, 2006
Was the 2006 Election A Success from the Perspective of Election Administration?

I think the answer to that question is no. We have lowered our standards for election administration so much in this country that averting a national meltdown is equated with success. But just imagine for a moment if control of the House turned on legal actions in FL-13 or in any of the other congressional races that are too close to call and potentially subject to litigation. Consider the math error in the CT-2 race, for example. (It would be even worse if the margin in the Senate would have been in play, for example, if Sen. Burns received just 500-700 more votes.)

Ned Foley's must-read weekly comment reaches the conclusion that things were not a success when meaured using a reasonable standard of election administration. He thinks things might have been worse in 2006 than 2004.

Jonah Goldman and Tova Wang chronicle the issues that will need to be fixed by 2008.

I don't expect many of the problems to be fixed, so we can look forward to more biannual anxiety over whether we are headed for another election meltdown.

more links at:
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/007220.html

[kpete]

8. ES&S – the Midas Touch in Reverse

ES&S – the Midas Touch in Reverse

Toward the end of the twentieth century, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), which now supplies election equipment to 39 states, was born into a world enamored of technology — a perfect opportunity in the wide-open business of making and selling computerized election equipment. Voting integrity activists were few and far between, and election officials had no reason to resist the digitizing of election results. The field was a gold mine to be harvested.

But from the beginning, whatever opportunity ES&S touched turned into a disaster. When their M100 ballot scanners debuted in Hawaii in 1998, the machines failed so badly, ES&S had to pay over half a million dollars to settle contract disputes and recount the ballots. Simultaneously in Dallas, software bugs in their ES&S election equipment lost 41,015 ballots — one out of every eight.

Two years later, flaws in the ES&S tabulating equipment caused Venezuela to postpone "the biggest election in Venezuelan history."

Undaunted, ES&S continued selling its wares and leaving a trail of election problems in its wake — flipping votes on the screens in Arkansas; counting more votes than voters in San Francisco; giving votes to the wrong candidates in Florida, Kansas, Texas; and irretrievably losing entire ballots. In September 2002, Miami's new paperless touch screen machines, the ES&S iVotronics, lost 8.2% of the ballots in the 31 precincts that the ACLU examined — losing as many as 21% in some precincts.

Two months later, in the mid-term elections in Raleigh, North Carolina, the election director stopped using the iVotronics for early voting when they failed to record 436 ballots cast on the machines — in a single day.


much more at:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?opedpg=http://www.votersunite.org/info/ESSMidasinreverse.asp&opedid=26145

[kpete]

9. Electronic voting: the silent catastrophe

Electronic voting: the silent catastrophe
11/14/2006 3:55:45 PM, by Jon Stokes

Though you wouldn't know it from watching the election night and post-election coverage on the Cable news shows, preliminary reports from local papers and from a host of electronic voting activist groups and researchers indicate that there were widespread and significant problems with the new electronic voting machines used in the November 7th mid-terms. The many groups who're working on collecting and summarizing the information gleaned from nationwide hotlines and poll watching efforts have a ton of data to sort through, but a few of the broader outlines are clear already. In a nutshell, the kinds of problems highlighted by the two post-mortems done on Cuyahoga County, Ohio's May 2nd primaries proved exemplary—in terms of the types of problems and their relative frequencies—of what the nation as a whole faced on November 7th.

Many activist groups kept logs, like this one, of problems that cropped up on election day. Among the most publicized collections of problems is the database run by Common Cause. Common Cause logged 16,000 calls on the 1-866-MYVOTE1 hotline. The calls registered all sorts of problems, with registration problems being the most common. The biggest change from their 2004 hotline was the percentage of calls reporting mechanical failures, up from 3 percent to almost 17 percent. Poll access was also a big problem, and one that was greatly exacerbated by the mechanical failures. There were reports of people waiting in line for three and four hours, due to issues like poor machine allocation and voting machines that didn't work.

Most of the House and Senate races on Nov. 7th were very, very close, with many being decided by a few thousand (or in some cases, a few hundred) votes. With margins of victory so narrow, the kinds of problems I'll describe below are simply unacceptable, and in some instances these problems could've decided the race. (Whether they actually did decide a race or not is impossible to determine, which is the problem.)

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?opedpg=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061114-8223.html&opedid=26147

[kpete]

10. Denver: City Clerk Vaden resigns

election 2006
City Clerk Vaden resigns
By The Denver Post
Article Last Updated:11/14/2006 08:23:15 PM MST


Wayne Vaden, Denver's clerk and recorder, at an emergency meeting of the Denver Election Commission on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006. (Post / Lyn Alweis)Denver Clerk and Recorder Wayne Vaden resigned today amid chaos in the Denver Election Commission which he oversees.

Citing his belief "that accountability is the underpinning of honorable public service," Vaden said he was resigning from a "personal disappointment over my efforts" with the commission.

"Serving as one of three Denver Election Commissioners has proven to be a difficult and frustrating experience, which has led me to agree with the administration that a thoughtful and thorough re-examination of the entire organizational structure of the Denver Election Commission is essential."

His resignation is effective Dec. 31, 2006, or until a replacement can be appointed. Vaden, a former assistant city attorney and assistant attorney general, was appointed by Hickenlooper three years ago.

more at:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4657280

[Wilms]

25. CO: Mayor and City Council Launch Investigation into Election Troubles

Colorado: Mayor and City Council Launch Investigation into Election Troubles

By Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper Press Release

November 15, 2006

This Wednesday, November 15, 2006, at 3:00 p.m., Mayor John Hickenlooper (pictured at right) and City Council President Michael Hancock will convene the short-term, action-oriented investigative panel announced last week to quickly analyze Denver’s election problems and develop actionable solutions that are expected to form the foundation of a proposed charter reform amendment. The hour-and-a-half meeting will take place in the Mayor’s Office (City and County Building, 1437 Bannock, Suite 350), and will be the first of five weekly meetings for the panel. This quick timeline will provide ample time for City Council to consider any Charter change recommendations for the May 2007 municipal ballot.

The broad-based panel of community leaders will review feedback and hear testimony from groups affected by or with perspective on the November 7 election including technology experts, FairVote Colorado, the disabled community, and the political parties. Summaries of feedback from election judges and voters will be provided to the panel, whose members will also have the opportunity to hear public input at City Council’s December 2, 2006, public hearing on the election. More details on the investigative panel’s meeting schedule are included below.

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2040&Itemid=113

[kpete]

11. For you election numbers geeks, cool interactive graph in the NYT.

For you election numbers geeks, cool interactive graph in the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/politics/08RESULTS_HOUANALYSIS.html

[kpete]

13. In Riverside County, 31 percent of ballots remain uncounted

In Riverside County, 31 percent of ballots remain uncounted

By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer

RIVERSIDE -- Riverside County elections officials said Tuesday they have yet to count an estimated 120,000 ballots, nearly double an earlier estimate and about one-third of the total votes cast in the Nov. 7 election.

The new estimate includes about 100,000 absentee ballots, about 15,000 provisional ballots and about 6,000 paper ballots that were cast at polling places by voters who were uncomfortable with electronic voting machines or who preferred not to deal with the long waits that built up as large numbers of commuters returned home to vote.

Most of those 100,000 ballots arrived by mail Nov. 6 and 7 or were dropped off at polling places on Election Day, Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore said Tuesday. About 61,000 absentee ballots had been counted before or on Election Day and were included in the tally posted after the polls closed, according to a report she filed with the California secretary of state's office.


Dunmore said she and her staff revised the initial estimate of uncounted absentee ballot after checking signatures on about half of the remaining absentee ballots. That process involves counting individual ballots, in contrast to the initial, eyeballed estimate.

more at:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/15/news/californian/12_00_4311_14_06.txt

[kpete]

15. For Trustworthy Elections; Dump ALL the Machines, Require Paper

November 15, 2006 at 09:02:07

For Trustworthy Elections; Dump ALL the Machines, Require Paper

by Rob Kall

http://www.opednews.com


It is time to face the fact that HAVA was either a mistake or a malignantly intentional effort to create a corrupt, massively profitable boondoggle for voting machine companies. Every member of congress who agressively lobbied for it should be put out of office.

There are no 100% trustworthy electronic voting systems.

We must throw out the electronic machines and go to a paper only model, like they have in Canada and Switzerland. Nothing less will do for making the vote 100% voter verifiable, recountable and trustworthy.

Period!!

Yes, this will mean throwing away billions of dollars worth of equipment. Ironically, it will probably have zero re-sale value. There are no businesses that would invest a penny in these worthless hunks of hardware.

Once they are thrown away, the advocates of these machines should be exposed for what they are-- either betrayers of democracy, dupes or fools. And they should all be voted out of office or, if appointed, as in secretaries of state, then fired.

I've based my position on conversations with leaders in the field of voting integrity. There are computer experts who still support the idea of "safe" electronic voting. Some of them make their livings consulting or designing in the electronic voting business.

But I've spoken with enough experts to believe that there is no way, absolutely no way to be sure, to be 100% confident in electronic voting results, even when a paper record is produced.

The answer is simple. Throw out all the machines and go to paper ballots.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_061115_for_trustworthy_elec.htm

[robinlynne]

17. Hacking Democracy on HBo brought volunteers to election protection

not news, but one really positive thing happened recently. I was signing up volunteer poll monitors, and on november 4th, 2 new energetic EPers were born, because they saw Hacking Democracy on HBO. I can't overestimate the importance of getting real information through in the mainstream news. It really makes a difference.

[kpete]

18. Telemarketer pleads guilty in phone-jam

Telemarketer pleads guilty in phone-jam 51 minutes ago

CONCORD, N.H. - A former telemarketer has agreed to plead guilty in a Republican phone-jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats four years ago.

Shaun Hansen faces two federal counts of conspiracy to commit interstate telephone harassment in a deal with prosecutors. No sentencing date was posted.

In 2002, Hansen owned Mylo Enterprises, an Idaho telemarketing company prosecutors say received $2,500 to place hundreds of hang-up telephone calls to Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks and a ride-to-the-polls line run by Manchester's firefighters union.

Three former Republican officials were convicted in the phone-jamming plot. Former state Republican Committee Executive Director Chuck McGee served seven months in federal prison after admitting to devising the scheme.

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fs%2Fap%2F20061115%2Fap_on_el_ge%2Fgop_phone_jamming

[kpete]

19. Revote of Florida's 13th Congressional District Election Called For

Revote of Florida's 13th Congressional District Election Called For by National Voting Rights Groups
By National Voting Rights Institute and Demos
November 15, 2006

More than 18,000 votes are estimated to have been lost in Florida's 13th Congressional District, the Sarasota County district with a closely contested House race where fewer that 400 votes currently separate the candidates. Today, the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) and Demos, affiliated national voting rights and election reform organizations, issued the following statement calling for a revote in that district:


"Public confidence in the vote-counting process is a bedrock principle of any democracy. In Florida's 13th Congressional District, it is clear that only a revote with the option of hand- recorded paper ballots will ensure that voters in that district can trust that their votes will be properly counted.



"Paperless touchscreen voting machines used in Sarasota County, Florida, recorded more than 18,000 undervotes in this election, meaning that nearly 13 percent of voters in that county either made the unlikely choice not to vote in this race, or that the machines did not record their votes. Less than 400 votes separate Republican candidate Vern Buchanan and Democratic candidate Christine Jennings in this closely-watched U.S. House contest to replace Representative Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record), the former Secretary of State of Florida.

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2038&Itemid=113

[kpete]

20. It's a toss up - and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer will pick the winner.

HD 58 raced declared a tie


BY LARRY TANGLEN Outlook Staff
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 10:23 AM MST



It's a toss up - and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer will pick the winner.

With all the votes in - after counting regular ballots, absentee ballots, resolution ballots and provisional ballots, the Yellowstone County Election Administrator Duane Winslow has called the race between Democratic Rep. Emelie Eaton and Republican challenger Krayton Kerns a dead-heat tie, 1,971 to 1,971, based on official Yellowstone County election canvas results.

The 1997 Session of the Legislature changed the way legislative ties are resolved, giving the Governor the duty of selecting the winner. An effort to repeal that change during the last Legislative Session failed, according to Bowen Greenwood, elections specialist with the Secretary of State.

The “final” outcome of the HD 58 race won't be determined until completion of the statewide election canvass on Nov. 27, and a subsequent manual ballot-by-ballot recount tentatively set for Friday, Dec. 1.

http://www.laureloutlook.com/articles/2006/11/15/news/01hd.txt

[kpete]

21. The Vote Protectors

November 15, 2006 at 14:08:07

The Vote Protectors

by Bob Koehler

http://www.opednews.com


"After the first challenge, this one big guy stood over me and pointed his finger," Anne Schultz e-mailed me. "Shaking a bit with anger, he said that he could throw me out in a minute for disrupting the election. The woman was on her way out of the polling place, and I asked her to stay until this was resolved, which she was glad to do. I reminded him that I wasn't disrupting the election, I was simply doing what was within my rights, but after that the cozy relationship I thought I'd established with the judges, with the help of bringing donuts, went rather to hell."

This is democracy raw, warts exposed. It's not the kind you see on TV - all sanitized numbers and gleeful winners - but the real deal, one vote at a time, a power struggle in every precinct, as fair as it has to be (and no fairer).

Our vaunted, flawed system - loose from its moorings, adrift in cyberspace, sealed off from real scrutiny for so long by media smugness - had a lot more eyes on it than usual last week. This is the untold story of Election '06. "The real winner in the Nov. 7 election is the grassroots voter protection movement," wrote Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman at FreePress.org. "That the well-oiled, well-funded Rove/Bush theft machine lost control of (Congress) says just one thing: Somebody was watching."

This doesn't mean the election was fair or even reasonably accurate. Electronic and other horror stories abound. The touchscreen machines in Sarasota County, Fla., for instance, seemingly lost more than 18,000 votes in a congressional race in which 373 votes separate the Republican and Democratic candidates.

But in the midst of the chaos, dirty tricks and possible fraud, a principle emerged from this election that will be our salvation: The fairness of the election is more important than the results.

Say again?

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_bob_koeh_061115_the_vote_protectors.htm

[kpete]

22. Post Election Comments from Coalition for Visible Ballots

November 15, 2006 at 07:45:36

Post Election Comments from Coalition for Visible Ballots

by Vickie Karp & G. Edward Griffin

http://www.opednews.com



Post Election Comments from Coalition Founder G. Edward Griffin & Nat'l Chair Vickie Karp
G. Edward Griffin

The fact that many activists for honest elections now appear to be placated by a Democratic victory in the recent elections demonstrates that they really never understood the problem. It shows that their primary concern was, not over honest elections, but over who wins those elections. They really don't care if elections can be rigged through programmed voting machines so long as they are rigged to get THEIR team into office. Unfortunately, we find this attitude in both major political parties. The last election may have been a victory for the Democrat Party but it was not a victory for America, because the corrupt system of electronic voting remains solidly in place.

Pointing this out may be offensive to some, but we have an obligation to say it like it is. This is our last chance to do so. The truth is that the leaders of both major parties are content to have the electorate jump back and forth between their camps, because that gives the masses the false impression of "democracy at work." In reality, both parties are essentially the same team. They are very happy with programmable elections and will do nothing to change that in the future. It is the Holy Grail of collectivism. They are content to take turns.

The proposal for a mandatory 2% audit is not acceptable for two reasons. First, 2% is too small a sampling. It should be at least 5% or, preferably 10%. More important, however, is that it tricks everyone into accepting the premise that voting machines are acceptable in the first place. It defines the debate as "What safeguards shall we add to voting machines" when the debate really should be "Do we want to use voting machines at all?" That's not reform. It's a clever device for directing the debate away from a real solution.

Just say NO to voting machines – ANY kind. Paper ballots all the way are the only safeguard. Too time consuming to count, they say? Well, maybe they would find it more convenient and less time consuming to fight a bloody revolution in the streets! If we lose our votes, that's the only recourse we will have to restore representative government. Take your choice, America.

Who needs an instant count anyway? The newscasters can wait like everyone else. Honest elections are worth the effort.

Ed Griffin

more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_vickie_k_061115_post_election_commen.htm

[kpete]

23. House member wants e-voting paper trail

House member wants e-voting paper trail
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Citing the disputed vote in a Florida congressional district, a Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday urged Congress to approve his measure requiring a paper trail for electronic voting.

Rep. Rush Holt (news, bio, voting record), sponsor of the bill, said the inaccuracy of electronic touch-screen voting machines "poses a direct threat to the integrity of our electoral system." The New Jersey congressman argued the Florida district, in which more than 18,000 votes have gone uncounted, has exposed the system's flaws.

Florida law requires a recount in all five southwest Florida counties in the 13th Congressional District. But scrutiny is focused on Sarasota County, where touch-screen voting machines recorded that 18,382 people — 13 percent of voters in the Nov. 7 election — did not vote for either Republican Vern Buchanan or Democrat Christine Jennings, despite casting ballots in other races on the ballot. That rate was much higher than other counties in the district.

Rep. Robert Wexler (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., said he found it "unfathomable" that more than 18,000 people would cast votes in other races but not in the congressional race. He added there's a host of theories that could explain what happened to those votes, but without a paper trail no one knows the truth.

more at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061115/ap_on_go_co/electronic_voting

[kpete]

24. Fixing The 2008 Election

Fixing The 2008 Election
Jonah Goldman and Tova Wang
November 14, 2006


Tova Andrea Wang is Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation . Jonah Goldman is the director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections .

The mainstream media in its instant analysis has proclaimed the election system worked surprisingly well in 2006. While it is true that no single catastrophe of election administration grabbed headlines this year, it is quite dangerous to suggest that the problems voters encountered on Election Day were not serious. As over 25,000 callers from across the country to the 866-OUR-VOTE voter information and protection hotline confirm, these problems led to thousands of eligible Americans being denied the opportunity to cast a ballot.

There’s a sense that the book is already closed on the 2006 election. But despite the nation’s attention now turning to the seismic political shift in Washington, several House races remain undecided. In Ohio, two of the races hinge on thousands of provisional ballots that likely were cast by legitimate voters but because of misguided and confusing election rules, will be thrown out, clearly affecting who wins the race. In Florida, it is likely that a problems with electronic voting machines caused far more votes to be lost than the current margin of victory.

While the case should not be overstated, it is critical that as we immediately enter the 2008 presidential election cycle, we undertake a more honest assessment of what happened in this election so we can concentrate on ensuring real, meaningful reform before the next federal election cycle. Only if we understand the problems that voters reported in 2006 can we enact real solutions that will move us toward a more fair and accurate system of elections.

more at:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/14/fixing_the_2008_election.php

[Algorem]

27. Ohio- Tom Noe booking and verdict video

Ohio- Tom Noe booking and verdict video

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061115/NEWS24/61115017/-1/NEWS

• View the VIDEO of Tom Noe's booking.

http://toledoblade.com/assets/noe2_booking.wmv

• View the VIDEO of the Tom Noe verdict.

http://www.toledoblade.com/assets/wmv/TO103661113.WMV

• View the TIMELINE of Noe's rise and fall.

• View the SLIDESHOW of the Noe verdict.

• View the THE VERDICTS, count by count



Taft urges stiff penalty in Noe rare-coin funds case

NEW - NOE BOOKING VIDEO

Governor says he won’t grant Coingate pardons


By MIKE WILKINSON and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


...The issue of a pardon has been raised by many — in the Lucas County courthouse and beyond — who wondered if Mr. Taft would let one of his former political patrons and best fund-raisers off the hook for the 10 or more years he faces in prison.

In Ohio, the sitting governor can grant pardons to individuals who are convicted of crimes in state courts.

Noe was convicted Monday of 29 felony counts related to charges that he stole more than $2 million from the rare-coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

...The governor was found guilty of ethics violations linked to Noe and others, and a number of his former aides faced similar fates for their connections to the former Maumee coin dealer...