Mexico gets Parallel Govt! Election Reform News Tuesday, 11/21/06

[Melissa G]

Mexico gets Parallel Govt! Election Reform News Tuesday, 11/21/06


Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is sworn in as the "legitimate president" today at Mexico City's Zocalo square.
What a different world this would be had we done that with Gore or Kerry!

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.



Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

If you can:
1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.


2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

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).

[Melissa G]

1. Parallel government launched in Mexico

Parallel government launched in Mexico


By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador swore himself in as Mexico's "legitimate" president today, launching a parallel government he hopes will prevent President-elect Felipe Calderon from governing.

snip
Rosario Ibarra, a human rights activist and senator for Lopez Obrador's coalition, placed the presidential sash across his shoulders during today's ceremony. While the action lacks legal recognition, Lopez Obrador hopes to assume the moral leadership of millions of poor Mexicans.

snip
Speaking before about 100,000 supporters, he vowed to draw up a new constitution to oppose the building of U.S. border fences and limit the power of big corporations, the media and the "neo-fascist oligarchy" he claimed had taken over the government.

snip
Lopez Obrador said he plans to spend three days a week in Mexico City and spend the other four days touring Mexico "to create the most important citizens' organization in all our history." But his movement's first action will be to try to prevent Calderon's Dec. 1 inauguration ceremony.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4349479.html

[BlueCaliDem]

2. Lopez Obrador's got some serious GUTS! GOOD for him! K&R eom

[mom cat]

12. Viva Obrador! ... Viva Mexico! ... Viva Liberdad!

[Melissa G]

3. The GOP's dirty deeds of 2006

The GOP's dirty deeds of 2006
Salon's guide to robo-calls, push polls, vigilantes and other murky dealings from this year's elections.

By Alex Koppelman and Lauren Shell



Before the 2006 midterm election, you couldn't escape the predictions of Election Day disaster: voting machine meltdowns, interminable lines, endless recounts. But ultimately, none of that came to fruition -- or at least not on the scale imagined by some -- and so the issue has been all but dropped by the chattering classes, who seem to have declared election chicanery a dead issue in this country.

But while this year might not have included any repeats of Palm Beach County or Ohio, that doesn't mean dirt wasn't going down. This November there were some old-school dirty tricks that had nothing to do with voting machines or secretaries of state. An unscientific sample seems to show that most were the product of a party that was desperate for something, anything, that would help it protect its doomed congressional majorities. Most of this year's murky dealings took place in those tightly contested races -- from the battle for Virginia's Senate seat to House races in Illinois, New York and Connecticut -- that were crucial to control of Congress.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/11/21/cheat_sheet/index_np.html

[Melissa G]

4. Republican Buchanan declared winner in Florida House race; loser seeks new election

Winner Declared in Florida House Race
Republican Buchanan declared winner in Florida House race; loser seeks new election






TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Nov. 21, 2006
By BILL KACZOR Associated Press Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(AP)



(AP) State officials Monday certified Republican Vern Buchanan won the House seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, though the loser immediately sued for a new election, arguing that touch-screen voting machines had malfunctioned.

Democrat Christine Jennings contested her 369-vote loss in the 13th District, asking a judge to order a new election because of problems in Sarasota County, where more than 17,000 voters who cast ballots in other races Nov. 7 failed to vote in the congressional contest.

That rate is nearly six times higher than in the other counties in the congressional district or on Sarasota's paper absentee ballots, Jennings alleges in her legal challenge. Though she lost in the other four counties in the district, Jennings did well in Sarasota County, winning there by a 6 percentage point margin.

Jennings' lawyer, Kendall Coffey, said the "statistical evidence is based on numbers that cannot be seriously questioned." He said there were also eyewitness accounts of voting problems.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/21/ap/politics/mainD8LH6MHO2.shtml

[Melissa G]

13. Press Release PFAW:Sarasota Voters File Lawsuit for Revote in Congressional Race

Sarasota Voters File Lawsuit for Revote in Congressional Race
Press release

Voters from Sarasota County announced today that they are filing suit in state court in Tallahassee asking for a revote in Florida’s 13th congressional district. The suit alleges that thousands of citizens were disenfranchised when massive undervotes plagued the tight congressional race between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan. In a high-profile battle over former Rep. Katherine Harris' seat, the result was decided by 363 votes, yet over 18,000 ballots cast on Sarasota County's e-voting machines registered no vote in the race, an exceptional anomaly in the State.

The lawsuit is being filed by a group of Sarasota County voters, both Republican and Democratic. The voters are represented by election advocacy groups, including Voter Action, People For the American Way Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida.

"Election officials have shown remarkable disregard for the ability of voters to actually cast a ballot," said Ralph Neas, President of People For the American Way Foundation. "Casting a vote is one of our most fundamental rights, and that right was violated for thousands of Sarasota County voters. At this point holding a new election is the only appropriate option." Neas also called for statewide election reform, saying, "Florida can no longer afford to certify election results that no one trusts."

ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon noted: "For years, Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration, including various Secretaries of State, has dismissed reports of problems with electronic voting machines and resisted mandating audits and other methods of ensuring that electronic voting machines are capable of performing a genuine re-count. We even had to go to court to overturn an Administrative Rule issued by the Secretary of State banning recounts in DRE Counties. Now we have mass disenfranchisement and a crisis in voter confidence in the integrity of the elections. It is likely that the faulty machines, not the voters, decided this election."

Voter Action, a national nonpartisan advocacy group focused on election integrity has been leading legal efforts nationally to address the problems with electronic voting. "The problems in Sarasota are not unique," said election law attorney Lowell Finley, co-director of the organization. "Across the country we have seen how these systems lose large numbers of votes, switch voters’ selections on the screen, cause high undervote rates, add votes or even count votes backwards. Our democracy is too important to continue using unreliable and untrustworthy voting equipment. The people of Sarasota are standing up for their most fundamental right no matter their political affiliation. This is about protecting democracy."

The suit is being filed under provisions of Florida law that permit voters to contest an election based on misconduct by election officials or on evidence that legal votes were rejected in sufficient numbers to place in doubt the outcome of the election.

The voters’ lawsuit cites misconduct of election officials, including the failure of Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent to adequately investigate, identify or report equipment malfunctions, software malfunctions or ballot layout errors in the ES&S iVotronic touch screen voting machines, even after she received numerous complaints about the machines from voters and pollworkers during the two week period of early voting.

The lawsuit also alleges that the iVotronic voting machines were improperly certified by the Florida Secretary of State in disregard of early warnings concerning the reliability and trustworthiness of e-voting systems made by ES&S systems.

On Monday, the Florida Elections Canvassing Commission certified Vern Buchanan as the winner of the Congressional District 13 race by 363 votes, despite the fact that electronic ballots cast by more than 18,000 people in Sarasota County showed no vote for either candidate in a high profile congressional race. This is an undervote rate of more than 16%, compared to an undervote rate of 2.5% in the paper absentee ballots and 1% in the U.S. Senate race on the same electronic ballot.

At a public hearing hosted last Thursday by PFAWF, ACLU of Florida, Voter Action, Common Cause, and Fair Vote Florida, numerous voters in Sarasota County reported that when the summary screen appeared on the ES&S voting machines they were assigned to use, their vote had not been recorded. Some voters were able to go back and record a vote, but others believe they were never given a meaningful opportunity to cast a vote in that race.

The lawsuit notes that absentee ballots, which are cast on paper instead of the computerized touch screen voting machine, did not reflect a similar lack of votes in the congressional race in Sarasota, and that other counties in the same congressional district—which used different voting equipment—did not experience the same massive undercount in the congressional race.

"The voters of the 13th Congressional District deserve to know for sure who they elected," said Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "Voters should not have to take the word of vendors and election officials when serious problems emerge that call into question the accuracy of the results. This suit is designed to help voters find out what really happened."

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=23142

[Melissa G]

5. No more excuses for Legislature

No more excuses for Legislature
A Wisconsin State Journal editorial
If the Wisconsin Legislature fails again to clean up its act -- look out.

Angry voters will throw more of the bums out.

That happened on Election Day to many incumbents once thought to be entrenched and unbeatable.

It can and will happen again if lawmakers bury meaningful and needed reforms.



First on the Legislature's to-do list is Senate Bill 1, a bipartisan reform measure that would significantly beef up the enforcement of ethics, elections, campaign finance and lobby laws.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/opinion/index.php?ntid=108195&ntpid=1

[Melissa G]

6. Bad Election reform....machines used as excuse to cut voting locations

Argh!!!! the reforms that aren't good reforms!!!



Clerk-elect promises election reform

Nov 20, 2006 05:24 PM CST

Clerk-elect promises election reform

Kevin Rader/Eyewitness News

Marion County - Almost two weeks after Election Day, Marion County has finally finished counting the votes. New electronic machines and polling workers added up to headaches again for the Marion County Election Board. Now they have a new leader.

Marion County Clerk-Elect Beth White says she will be spending a lot of time at the legislature in the upcoming session asking for a change in state law "so that all absentee ballots received by the clerk's office by Election Day can be counted."

snip
"Clearly something needs to be done differently. We can't have all these machine breakdowns, confusion, no vote totals on election night and all that. That is not the way it used to be and that is not the way it should be," said Mayor Bart Peterson.

Two prior attempts to cut back on the number of precincts in Marion County have failed. "It didn't happen in 2005. I am not about finding out why. I want to look forward to try to get it done now or in 2007," White said.
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=5707983

[Melissa G]

7. Belmont County Counts the Votes

Belmont County Counts the Votes

By JOSELYN KING



Meg Bizzarri, left, watches as Debbie Myser feeds a paper optical scan ballot into a ballot reader at the Belmont County Board of Elections Monday. Doing the official count of more than 5,000 optical scan ballots took elections officials most of the day Monday.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE — More than 5,000 paper ballots were cast in Belmont County during the general election, and elections officials got to count them all over again Monday.

The task still wasn’t completed late Monday afternoon.

The Belmont County Board of Elections conducted its official count of votes from the Nov. 7 election, tallying all votes cast on touchscreen machines as well as on paper optical scan ballots.

County Elections Director William Shubat said 4,802 absentee ballots cast on paper were counted, as well as 366 provisional votes cast on paper ballots at polling places on Election Day.

The number of provisional ballots was higher than usual for this election because of new voting laws in Ohio, he said.

http://www.theintelligencer.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=13044

[Melissa G]

8. Black picks up 1 vote in recount; Jordan declines to concede race

Fayetteville Observer

Black picks up 1 vote in recount; Jordan declines to concede race


The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
A recount Monday slightly boosted House Speaker Jim Black's slim lead in his re-election bid against political rookie Hal Jordan, who declined to concede the race to the powerful Democrat.

The retabulation of ballots cast in Black's Mecklenburg County district took one vote away from Jordan, lifting Black's margin to 30 _ 5,340 votes for the incumbent to 5,310 for his Republican challenger.

"We didn't expect the recount to change much of anything," Jordan told The Associated Press. "There's not any big surprise there."

Jordan said he planned to wait for the State Board of Elections to meet Nov. 28, when the board is expected to resolve an issue that has further complicated the already tight race. Election officials have said 446 voters who cast ballots in the race did so by mistake. They should have received a ballot for an adjoining state House district.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article_ap?id=95160

[Melissa G]

9. From Nigeria...The Bush Nightmare Ends

The Bush Nightmare Ends

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Victor Ogundipe

They say patience is a virtue and that God will come to the rescue of his people if only they persevere - and it is true. However, it seemed like for ever that the whole world had to tolerate the senseless governance that held sway in the United States under George Bush and the Republicans. Fortunately, it seems that era is coming to an end, and possibly, we may be able to anticipate a more balanced American response in handling global issues, and global conflict. There are however many lessons to learn from the past.

The results of the congressional elections in the United States only managed to ratify what had become common knowledge for quite some time - that the people of the United States were thoroughly disgusted with the directions in which their leader was taking them. It had been so for quite some time, but the Americans are a proud people, and they had been loathe to concede that that they had made a terrible mistake by re-electing George Bush for a second term - a case of misguided nationalism.

Those Nigerian commentators who saw the Congressional elections as a manifestation of how smoothly elections can be held are basically misguided in their interpretation of the real significance of the results of the elections. By way of clarification, American elections are marred by all sorts of problems - many of them a clear manifestation of fraud at the local level.

The introduction of electronic voting machines in recent years is viewed with suspicion by many Americans, because they are all too aware that this is a method subject to manipulation since the final tallies are ratified by a private company. Indeed, many Americans (especially the older generation) are more comfortable with the ballot system, where they are at least certain that they are personally casting a vote individually for the candidate of their choice. On another level, regardless of jurisdiction, the party which controls at the state level will usually have sufficient control of the state machinery to manipulate certain outcomes in favour of the party. It is not a perfect system, and in reality, no human system ever really is. This should be noted by many of our Nigerian commentators who somehow seem to make the naïve assumption that things should always work out perfectly in any situation.

snip
Bad leadership will never be vindicated:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/columns/Ogundipe/vt21112006.html

[Melissa G]

10. Democracy For Westchester Examines New Voting Systems

Westchester County, New York News And Information

Democracy For Westchester Examines New Voting Systems
Written by Westchester.com
Tuesday, 21 November 2006
White Plains, NY - On December 7, 2006, Democracy for Westchester will present a program on the new voting technology which New York is considering adopting.

A 45 minute film “Bought and Sold”, examining the evidence on the risks to democracy that come with equipment under consideration, will be followed by a discussion with County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz and other legislators on the status of these new systems being considered for Westchester and elsewhere in New York.

Reports from around the country have indicated that some electronic voting systems had failed, or produced dubious results. In one Florida Congressional District this year, the new system apparently “lost” 18,000 votes in a single race, leading to litigation over whether a new election will be required. Independent experts have reported that leading electronic systems are insecure and easily “hackable”.

Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has already voiced concern for the reliability of electronic voting, and its potential for election fraud. In a statement released in September, Attorney General Spitzer asked the state to implement "a vigorous testing regime" (which it has not yet done) before adopting any electronic system, and to consider instead a proven, less expensive and more secure alternative to electronic machines called 'Paper Ballot with Precinct Based Optical Scan', also known as PB/OS.

Democracy for Westchester Chairman Alan Goldston said, “Our democracy requires fair and honest elections, with results that are trusted by the public. Like it or not, election officials are going to purchase new voting systems to replace our familiar lever machines. The least we can expect is that they not waste our money on any system that is either unreasonably expensive or unreasonably prone to fraud and error. This program will help demystify the choices available, so that residents of Westchester can knowledgeably participate in public debate, and hold their public officials accountable.”

http://westchester.com/Westchester_News/Westchester_Government_and_Politics/Democracy_For_Westchester_Examines_New_Voting_Systems_200611217158.html

[Melissa G]

11. Better living through vote-by-mail

Better living through vote-by-mail
in the news
Oregon's Secretary of State Bill Bradbury takes the vote-by-mail cause national, with an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post. In particular, he takes note of the 70% turnout in Tillamook County - despite a state of emergency:

One episode that highlights its success occurred in Tillamook County, where 13 inches of rain on Election Day sent many citizens scrambling to the safety of shelters under a declared state of emergency. Despite the fact that many roads were impassable and parts of the county were inaccessible -- conditions that would have crippled turnout in a state that relied on conventional polling places -- 70 percent of the voters cast ballots. Only voting by mail could have led to this outcome.
And what about fraud - the hobby-horse of the nattering nabobs?

The system has proven to be fraud-free. Oregon is one of only two states in the nation to verify every single voter signature against the signature on that voter's registration card. Our process is transparent and open to observation. Finally, the returned paper ballots, which are the official record of the election, can be recounted by hand. ... Under Oregon law, mailed ballots are not forwarded if a voter has moved, and those returned ballots have allowed us to maintain one of the cleanest and most up-to-date registration lists in the country.
And the cost to voters - in time and money?

With voting by mail, Oregon's turnout is consistently among the highest of any state without same-day voter registration. We don't suffer with long lines at polling places, with voter harassment or intimidation, with fears about malfunctioning or easily hacked voting machines, or from lack of a paper trail. Even floodwaters don't keep voters from participating. ...
Voting by mail is also a cost-effective way to run elections, costing taxpayers about 30 percent less than polling-place elections.

A University of Oregon study conducted five years after the adoption of voting by mail statewide showed that 80 percent of voters across the political spectrum prefer it to voting at polling places. It's a system that answers the needs of Americans who lead increasingly busy, complex lives, balancing many work and family responsibilities.


http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/11/better_living_t.html

[Melissa G]

14. Fred Grimm: Tiny town could be Waterloo for vote machines

Thanks to eomer for the post and the DU discussion here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x459861

Fred Grimm: Tiny town could be Waterloo for vote machines
BY FRED GRIMM

-snip-

Randy Wooten, owner of Randy's Karaoke Bar out on Highway 14 and one of three mayoral candidates, received no votes. Not even his own.

''He voted for himself. I watched him,'' said Roxanne Wooten, the candidate's wife. ''I was standing right behind him. And then I voted for him,'' she told me Monday.

Neither vote registered on the ES&S machine. Poinsett County election official insisted that their touch-screen machines were working just fine, that Waldenburg's improbable undervote was due to ``operator error.''

Not hardly, said Roxanne Wooten. She said, ``I noticed that the machine was acting jumpy.''

But she made sure she voted for her husband. It was the one vote that mattered.

Randy's two opponents split 36 votes. He came up empty.

-snip-
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/fred_grimm/16062940.htm

[Melissa G]

15. Stephen Heller's public statement on his plea deal

Thanks to garybeck for the post and the DU discussion here....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x459870

Original message
Stephen Heller's public statement on his plea deal
if you have no idea who Stephen Heller is, click here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x459817--

forwarded from MCM:


Hello to all my family, friends and supporters. This is Steve Heller, aka the Diebold Whistleblower. Today, November 20, 2006, my case was resolved in Los Angeles Superior Court. My wife and I are very happy it is over. The deal will protect me and my wife and our assets (we have no assets left, other than our house, but whatever we are able to accumulate in the future cannot be taken away from us in civil court). My attorneys and I think this is the best deal I could get based on the circumstances.



Please know this: I am proud of what I did. I was surprised to find within myself the courage to stand up and risk jail and financial ruin in the name of American democracy and clean elections. I am proud that I exposed, at great risk to myself, the criminal activity of Diebold, the company hired to run our elections. I am now a convicted felon, but my head is held high. I am a patriot, an American, and a man. No one - not Diebold, not Jones Day, not the District Attorney - can take that away from me.



Here is the deal:



I plead guilty to one felony count of Unauthorized Access to a Computer. I paid a restitution fee of $10,000 (ten thousand) to the Jones Day law firm and signed an apology to the firm and its client. The felony is what my attorneys call a "felony wobbler" which means that in one year, if I stay out of trouble (and believe me, I'll be staying WAY out of trouble!), the felony will be reduced to a misdemeanor. Then, my attorneys will petition the court to have the misdemeanor expunged from my record. My attorneys have told me that if I stay out of trouble during the coming year, the reduction from felony to misdemeanor will be automatic, and getting the misdemeanor expunged will only be a matter of filing the proper documents with the court. Once the misdemeanor is expunged, I will have no criminal record, and if anyone should run a background check on me it would come back clean with no arrests and no convictions. There is no jail time, no community service, and I am on informal probation, meaning I don't have to report to a probation officer or jump through any other hoops.



In exchange for this, Jones Day has signed a release that prevents them from suing me in civil court. Thus, any assets which Michele and I are able to accumulate will be protected from Jones Day. Also, there is no agreement of confidentiality, so I am free to talk about this case, write about it, even sell my story should someone here in Hollywood be interested in buying the rights to it (and there has been some interest expressed in that regard). And talk about it and write about it I shall! I am writing down the entire story and will post that on the defense fund website in a few days.



Regarding the defense fund: naturally we are no longer accepting donations. Those who donated in the last couple of weeks will probably be getting their donations back, once we pay my attorney's final bills. Some donors have already told me to keep the donations for my personal use, but I won't do that because the rules of the defense fund are clear:



"If by chance the legal situation is resolved and all costs are paid and there are still donations in the account, those donations will be returned; credit/debit card donations would be refunded with a credit to the individual's card via paypal, and check donations will be returned via check."



So if you donated in the last couple of weeks you'll probably be getting your donation back. If you'd like to pass your returned donation on to a worthy cause, please let me recommend in the strongest possible terms that you give your returned donation to Black Box Voting. Bev Harris, the founder of Black Box Voting and the recent subject of the HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy," is the person to whom I gave the documents I stole. It was Bev who got the documents to the Secretary of State, who then decertified Diebold in California. Bev was also extremely helpful with my legal defense, and her organization donated $10,000 to my legal defense fund. Most importantly, she has done and is doing great work in t! he area of election security and integrity. I'd like to see the bread she cast upon the waters come back to her, so please give generously to Black Box Voting. They're a great organization, they're doing important work that protects our votes and our democracy, and they deserve your help and support. www.blackboxvoting.com




Thank you, a thousand million times, for all your support, encouragement, donations and help. I can never repay the great debt I owe all those who have stood by me or helped in any way. I am humbled by the help my wife and I received, often from total strangers. Thank you again.



More details and the entire story of what happened will be posted soon. I'll send out another email letting you know when the entire story is posted on the website, probably after Thanksgiving.



Thank you again, my family, my friends, my fellow citizens. Have a happy Thanksgiving, I know my wife and I will!



Steve Heller

[rumpel]

16. kicking

:)