Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Saturday, April 21, 2007

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News

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).

[livvy]

1. AZ: Voter ID appeal fails

April 21, 2007
Arizona: Voter ID Survives a Test
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A federal appeals court rejected an effort to halt carrying out Arizona’s requirement that residents prove they are American citizens when they register to vote. The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a trial judge’s refusal last year to block the requirement while a full trial in federal court in Phoenix is pending. A three-judge panel of the appeals court, based in San Francisco, said the law did not appear to severely burden the right to vote, violate a federal law on voter registration, place a disproportionate burden on naturalized citizens or require what would be an unconstitutional poll tax.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/us/21brfs-VOTERIDSURVI_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin




April 21, 2007
Judges' ruling requires ID to register to vote
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services


Arizonans are going to continue to have to present proof of citizenship to register to vote - at least for the time being. Without dissent, a federal appellate court ruled Friday that a three-year-old requirement for Arizonans to produce identification to register to vote is not the same as an illegal "poll tax."

The three-judge panel rejected arguments that people will have to spend money to obtain certain forms of ID to meet the legal mandate that they prove U.S. citizenship. That, attorneys argued, effectively made that a tax on voting, something the U.S. Supreme Court ruled illegal.

But Mary Schroeder, chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, said that isn't the case here.

"Voters do not have to choose between paying a poll tax and providing proof of citizenship when they register to vote," she wrote for the court.

>more
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/88243

[livvy]

2. Voter Fraud and Fired U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton

Voter Fraud and Fired U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton
by Cho
Sat Apr 21, 2007 at 10:35:09 AM EST
in collaboration with eagle eye Avahome, Roxy and Standingup

While political junkies and media everywhere have been fixated on "I don't Recall" Gonzales and his testimony last week, a late Friday (4-20-07) A.P. story Court Rejects Blocking Ariz. Voter Law, reports interesting developments in fired U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton's Arizona District...and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Friday's ruling adds to ePluribus Media's earlier rumblings about the Politicization of the Civil Rights Division and the two engines of subverting its original agenda and mandate.

The ruling is one more in a growing body of circumstantial evidence that supports what 35-year veteran and once head of the Voting Rights Section Joe Rich alleges is a well-orchestrated partisan program to disenfranchise minority voters, who, as a general rule, tend to vote Democratic.

And indeed, A.P. reporter Paul Davenport tells us that, with the recent ruling, Arizona can now proceed with refusing voting rights to anyone who doesn't produce government-issued picture ID or two pieces of other non-photo identification as specified by the new law -- the very legislation recently struck down in Georgia. According to Davenport:

Critics said that the law would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort.

A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appeals court said the law doesn't appear at first blush to severely burden the right to vote, violate a federal law on voter registration, place a disproportionate burden on naturalized citizens or require what would be an unconstitutional poll tax.

>more

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/4/21/10359/8263

[livvy]

3. MI: They Got The Wrong Guy

They Got The Wrong Guy
Click Name for Bio of Jayne Lyn Stahl
Saturday, 21 April 2007
by Jayne Lyn Stahl

No, it's not Alberto Gonzales, not Karl Rove, but a widely respected, and highly principled community leader, in a small town in western Michigan, the Reverend Edward Pinkney who was recently tried, and convicted of election "irregularities," or voter fraud, and who now finds himself under house arrest, facing up to twenty years in prison when he is sentenced on May 14th.

Pinkney, an African-American preacher, was acquitted in his first trial, but forced to stand trial again, last month, as those who prosecuted him contend that he got off because there were too many blacks on the jury, two. They prevailed, and Rev. Pinkney stood trial a second time, last month, only this time all the jurors were white, and this time he was convicted. The alleged election irregularities pertain to the recall election of Benton Harbor's powerful commissioner, Glen Yarbrough, a name that is synonymous with largescale corporate development, and construction of 500 acres of a marina residential golf course, and complex. Rev. Pinkney, on the other hand, is renowned for his efforts on behalf of the environment, improved education and access to affordable health care.

The charges for which this preacher, and community leader who has been active in trying to improve living conditions, employment, housing, and education in his hometown of Benton Harbor, a city of fewer than 15,000 residents, which is more than 90% black, and largely impoverished, has been convicted are strictly little league in proportion to this administration's ongoing attempts at polling place purge, and the systematic disenfranchisement of thousands of minority, indigent, and largely Democratic, voters as disclosed by former Justice Department lawyers. As you know, several of those fired U.S. attorneys were terminated for refusing to participate in election "irregularity" cases, like that of Rev. Pinkney's, in key Republican battleground states, Michigan being among them.

Ostensibly, departmental records indicate that, over the past six years, Bush, Cheney and Co. have actively, and aggressively tried to keep people from voting in "key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates." (Baltimore Sun) Indeed, administration efforts to claim "widespread election fraud" despite strong evidence that little, if any, national voter fraud existed, according to its own federal panel (New York Times) speaks to its urgent need to establish an infrastructure, i.e. federal voter identification laws whereby those who are indigent, socio-economically and racially segregated, those who traditionally have voted for liberal Democrats, may be kept from voting.

>more

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/1423/81/

[Peace Patriot]

16. Send donations to Rev. Pinkney's legal fund to:

BANCO (Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizations)
1940 Union St.
Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022
Tel.: [phone]

Info:

http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2006/03/statewide-meeting-supports-rev-pinkney.html
http://www.mediamouse.org/features/032407banco.php
http://www.chlorophyll.us/node/469

-------------------

Pinkney has been fighting the Whirlpool Corporation and plans for the gentrification of Benton Harbor by Whirlpool and the local, highly corrupt political establishment, which will displace thousands of poor blacks. He has been fighting various forms of injustice for many years. The local judge and prosecutor removed every black juror and convicted him with an all white jury on extremely questionable evidence of "voter fraud." From all reliable reports, it was a "kangaroo court." The PanAfrica report above is especially inspiring regarding who supports Rev. Pinkney and what they are saying about him and about the pervasive injustice against black voters and against the poor that is being seen nationwide.

[livvy]

4. NY: 12 And Out: A New Call For Term Limits

04/21/2007
12 and out: A new call for term limits - Camara says a dozen years is enough time for elected officials to get it done
By Stephen Witt

He may not win many friends in Albany, but Assemblymember Karim Camara plans to introduce a resolution next week that would put term limits on all state elected officials.

Under the proposal, state lawmakers – including the Senate, Assembly, Governor, Attorney General and Comptroller – would be limited to 12 years in office.

“Most critics of term limits say with term limits you lose people with political experience and institutional memory, but with 12 years there’s a sufficient amount of time to gain experience and to do something valuable for the people you serve,” said Camara.

“The country’s founders understood the terrifying power that incumbency would have in elections. They envisioned a citizen legislature composed of concerned citizens that would leave their private career for a short period of time to represent the will of their neighbors,” he added.

>more

http://www.baynewsbrooklyn.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=18243613&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=552847&rfi=6

[livvy]

5. Canada Editorial:Election Reform Needs Discussion

Election reform needs discussion
Editorial - Saturday, April 21, 2007 @ 10:00

When Ontario voters go to the polls in October, they will be casting a ballot for more than just their member of provincial parliament. The election will also include a referendum question about a new electoral system.

The current "first-past-the-post" system - single-member plurality (SMP), to use the high-falutin' term - elects a winner in each riding. Whoever has the most votes wins the seat, whether they won by 20,000 votes or by two votes. It's a system we inherited from England, and most of the older Commonwealth countries, like Australia, use it. So does the United States.

First-past-the-post has a number of advantages - most importantly, it usually creates majority governments. It exaggerates voting patterns. More votes land a big victory, and parties with fewer votes tend to have their numbers decrease. That's why the NDP often has a significantly smaller number of seats than whichever party came in second.


This system also has one obvious flaw: Governments elected via SMP often don't reflect the will of the people.

>more

http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=496370&catname=Editorial&classif=

[livvy]

6. France: Presidential Election Campaign in France Ends, Poll Due Sun.

Presidential election campaign in France ends, poll due Sun

21.04.2007, 03.32

PARIS, April 21 (Itar-Tass) -- France’s presidential election campaign drew to a close at midnight on Friday. From this moment on any electioneering or publication of opinion polls is prohibited. The French have a chance to take a deep breath to calmly go over the offered choices once again. The polling day is Sunday.

In the meantime, voting in France’s presidential election will be held as early as Saturday in the country’s overseas departments – Guadeloupe, the Martinique, French Guiana, Saint Pierre, Miquelon and in French Polynesia. All radio and television broadcasts from continental France were interrupted there a day earlier.

This is the first time France’s presidential election in the overseas territories is to be held one day earlier than on the mainland. The measure is expected to rule out a situation in which local residents, due to the time difference, go to the polls when the results of the voting in the mother country are already known.

A total of 882,000 voters in the overseas territories in the Western Hemisphere will be electing France’s new head of state.

>more

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11456734&PageNum=0

[livvy]

8. A Look At Questions In French Election

Posted on Sat, Apr. 21, 2007
A look at questions in French election
By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press Writer

The French have had it rough of late.

They proved powerless to prevent war in Iraq - tough for a nation that thinks its opinion should count.

They're worried about globalization, global warming and the Chinese economic juggernaut. And their aspirations of being a leader of Europe - and of making Europe a counterweight to the United States - took a beating when they opted against greater European integration in 2005.

All this forms a weighty backdrop for France's first presidential elections in five years. Here, in question-and-answer form, is a look at the issues, personalities and possible outcomes.

Q: Can France, Europe and the United States expect anything new from this vote?

A: Yes. For starters, incumbent Jacques Chirac decided after 12 years in power not to run, so a new era is starting. With British Prime Minister Tony Blair retiring this year, too, Europe will get new management for two of its biggest economic, military and diplomatic powers.

>more

http://www.kentucky.com/524/story/49105.html

[livvy]

7. Schmoozing in Iowa

April 21, 2007
Schmoozing in Iowa
By Barry Casselman

DES MOINES, Iowa. -- The presidential campaign usually begins in Iowa at the Straw Poll in Ames in August of the year before the election. This event is only for the Republican candidates, but it normally marks the beginning of the action in this, the first state to hold a caucus or primary.

This year, with its national front-loading compulsions, the beginning was four months early at the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines on April 14. All 10 of the major announced candidates signed up to come, plus two minor candidates who were not on the program, and all of them showed up except for Rep. Duncan Hunter whose plane connection was unexpectedly cancelled.

It was neither a debate nor a dialogue. It was a promenade, that is, a stately parade of the aspirants, one after the other, at the dinner with hospitality dessert bashes afterward for dinner attendees so that they could speak one on one, if only very briefly, with the candidates in person.

I think that Iowans, albeit proud and jealous of their-first-in-the-nation role in the presidential role, were not quite ready for the hoopla this early, and for sitting through all of the speeches, I could not help but notice a certain reserve.

>more

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/schmoozing_in_iowa.html

[livvy]

9. Violence, Fraud Undermine Nigerian Vote

Violence, fraud undermine Nigerian vote
April 21, 2007
Tom Ashby
reuters

ABUJA–Troops shot dead three boys during a protest, thugs stole ballot boxes and millions of voting slips went missing in Nigeria's election today, dashing hopes of a smooth democratic transition.

The vote will seal the first handover from one civilian president to another in Africa's most populous nation, scarred by three decades of corrupt military rule.

But hopes the election would be a beacon for African democracy were lost in a catalogue of abuses and confusion.

As polling stations closed European Union observer Max van den Berg said he was unsure there would be any improvement over regional polls last week, when there was widespread fraud and 50 people were killed.

"For the moment I am worried," he told Reuters, but said it was too early to come to a final conclusion.

>more

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/205819

[livvy]

10. The Amnesia General

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The Amnesia General

One by one, senators at a hearing Thursday denounced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"Incompetently." "Most of this is a stretch." "Why is your story changing?" "At variance with the facts." "Really deplorable." "Communication was atrocious." "I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."

And those judgments, culled by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, are all from Republican senators. Democrats, of course, were happy to jump in, but their goals likely are quite different. Republicans want the Gonzales nightmare to end; Democrats presumably would love for it to go on indefinitely.

There is, however, one prominent Republican who was reportedly pleased with the Attorney General's testimony on the bungled dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. That would be President Bush. White House spokesman Dana Perino said Mr. Gonzales "has the full confidence of the President."

If more evidence is needed of how alarmingly out of touch with reality the President has become, this is it.

>more

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/OPINION01/704210400

[livvy]

11. Editorial: On the Hot Seat Gonzales Fails To Help His Cause

If you haven't seen all or any of the hearings, it will be re-broadcast on C-Span 1 tomorrow starting at 10:30 AM (EST). You can view it online here, if you don't get C-Span:
http://www.c-span.org/watch/index.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS



Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, April 21, 2007
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B6

Editorial: On the hot seat
Gonzales fails to help his cause
-
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, April 21, 2007

It was painful to watch Attorney General Alberto Gonzales undergo grilling Thursday from the Senate Judiciary Committee, both for him and the nation.

With camera bulbs flashing and protesters yelling "liar" from the audience, Gonzales dodged questions for five hours. In so doing, he carried out his role as the fall guy for the administration's political machinations and confirmed our worst fears about why he helped fire eight U.S. attorneys last year.

It was hard not to feel sympathy for the attorney general when Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, called for him to resign, and other GOP senators refused to come to his defense. It seemed as though Gonzales was being buried alive, with Gonzales at times grabbing the shovel and assisting in his own interment.

Gonzales' challenge was to convince the Judiciary Committee that his dismissals of the U.S. attorneys was not part of a purge aimed at advancing the administration's political agendas. To do this, he needed to plausibly explain why he dismissed several respected prosecutors just as they were preparing to pursue -- or not pursue -- cases in which the administration had an interest.

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/158637.html

[livvy]

12. Similarities Are Adding Up Between Doolittle, Ney

Posted on Sat, Apr. 21, 2007


Similarities are adding up between Doolittle, Ney

By David Whitney
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The similarities are adding up.

When Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., stepped down from his position last week on the House Appropriations Committee because of the unfolding Abramoff investigation, he added yet another ominous similarity between himself and Rep. Bob Ney, the Ohio Republican who is the only member of Congress so far to have been brought down by the scandal.

Ney pleaded guilty to conspiracy in October and is serving a 30-month prison sentence for accepting gambling chips, luxury travel and other benefits in exchange for taking official actions that helped GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients.

Doolittle has not been charged. But FBI agents raided the suburban Virginia home he shares with his wife, acting on a search warrant that can only be issued by a judge based on agents asserting there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed.

Consider:

Ney's plea deal had been preceded by months of denials of wrongdoing. Like Doolittle, Ney blamed the press for distorting facts and maligning his character. Doolittle said Friday that he would fight charges if the government brought a case against him.

>more

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17115462.htm

DU discussion started by babylonsister
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3228034

[livvy]

15. Rep. John doolittle Says He Will Not resign His Seat

Posted on Fri, Apr. 20, 2007
CONGRESS

Rep. John Doolittle says he will not resign his seat

By David Whitney
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Doolittle, in measured but defiant terms, said Friday that he won't resign his House of Representatives seat and will battle the federal government if it brings charges of political corruption in connection with his and his wife's relationship with convicted super lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"If there is anything we should have learned from the Duke (University) lacrosse case, it is that the destruction of the reputations of innocent people can occur when the government, the press and the public jump to unfounded conclusions," Doolittle, R-Calif., said in prepared remarks opening a telephone news conference.

"I ask everyone to withhold judgment until all the facts are known and the truth can prevail," he said.

>snip

Exactly where the government is headed in its investigation is unclear, but Doolittle gave some hints in his prepared statement on where he and his lawyers think it is leading.

Doolittle implied that the search is part of a probe into whether Julie Doolittle has been paid for doing work for Abramoff and perhaps the congressman's campaign committee, or whether the pay was a way to illicitly steer money into the family's pockets for work she didn't perform.

>more

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17110700.htm

[livvy]

13. Lamone/CALTECH/MIT- Discuss Internet Voting in D.C. 4/23-link to DU thread

Lamone/CALTECH/MIT- Discuss Internet Voting in D.C. 4/23

Discussion thread posted by WillYourVoteBCounted
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x471271

[livvy]

14. Video: Must watch...."I don't recall" YouTube

The expressions on the Senators' faces are priceless.

Posted by madfloridian

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x23898

[Kurovski]

17. Remarkable!

Impeach him and his employer.