Tuesday 3/22 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[MelissaB]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.

Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x346873

[MelissaB]

1. Keith Olbermann blogs

>>>snip

But, first, the second assertion: that stories like mine are why “liberal network television news is dead and people only watch Fox News now.” I cannot count how many times something like this has been the cornerstone of the writer’s complaint - or the consequence predicted in their explicit threat. MSNBC itself is listed as one of the “liberal” transgressors, along with CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Now it is amazing how pervasive this assumption has gotten. Print journalists analyzing tv or politics or both invariably write of the dying days of the networks, and the ascent of FNC - even though the statistics just don’t bear it out.

Three quarters of the country has cable, and another much smaller figure has satellite television, so any cable network necessarily has something of a ratings disadvantage compared to stations carried over-the-air - but nothing like that which is imagined, and nothing which could explain the viewer totals for Monday, March 11th, 2005, between 6:30 PM and 7:00 PM EST:

ABC World News Tonight: 9,630,000
CBS Evening News: 8,110,000
NBC Nightly News: 9,810,000
Fox News (Brit Hume): 1,013,000

Now, remember, despite the many nuances among them, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC are all seen, from the far-right perspective, as left-wing hogwash, or worse. So let’s look at the ratings once again, and throw in the 394,000 who were watching CNN, the 169,000 watching MSNBC, and the 121,000 who were watching CNN Headline News.

Dying Network Newscasts: 28,234,000
Fox News (Brit Hume): 1,013,000

Looks like a 28:1 victory for the dying liberals over the ascendant conservatives.

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

[Wilms]

2. MSNBC: California university warns of data breach

California university warns of data breach

Hackers may have accessed information on 59,000 people

Reuters

Updated: 7:27 p.m. ET March 21, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - Hackers attacked computer servers of a California university and may have gained access to the personal information of 59,000 people affiliated with the school, a university spokesman said Monday.

California State University, Chico in northern California is alerting students, former students, prospective students and faculty that their personal information, including Social Security numbers, may have been compromised in the attack three weeks ago, said spokesman Joe Wills.

"It looked like it was illegal access to do some, perhaps, some downloading of files," Wills said. "In investigating it we realized the hackers had some access to a great deal of personal information."

-snip-

"We have no indication that the hackers used the information ... But we can't say for sure," Wills said. "My understanding is that to this point we haven't had any success in figuring out who did it."

-snip/a little more-

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7260406


RELATED STORY
Boston College warns alumni of data breach

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7221456

[MelissaB]

3. Social Security for sale on Ebay

from the description:

Due to the surprising failure of carefully staged "conversations" across America to convince the American Public that Privatizing Social Security is a good thing, we have decided to take matters into our own hands.

As a favor to President Bush and offered exclusively here to the winning bidder who meets our reserve, (must be a private Brokerage Firm, see details below) Billionaires For Bush can't wait to pull the switch on retirement security by circumventing Congress, the Will of the People, and good sense. Why not cut right to the chase?

Concurrent with White House Goals and the Cato Institute, we're


AUCTIONING OFF SOCIAL SECURITY!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5567661291

Thanks to UpInArms here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x114342

[L. Coyote]

16. eBay removed this item. n/t

[MelissaB]

20. Thanks! It was great while it lasted.

:(

[Wilms]

4. TownHall.com - GOP Disaster Warning (in Danger of Losing 25 Seats )

GOP disaster Warning

Robert Novak

March 19, 2005


WASHINGTON -- Analysts at the Republican National Committee (RNC) have sent this warning to the House of Representatives: the party is in danger of losing 25 seats in the 2006 election and, therefore, of losing control of the House for the first time since the 1994 election.

Although some Republicans on Capitol Hill believe the RNC is just trying to frighten them, concern about keeping the present 232 to 202 edge pervades GOP ranks. The second mid-term election of an eight-year presidency often produces heavy congressional losses for the party in power.

-snip-

Rep. Tom Feeney, a second-term congressman from Florida, celebrated Dan Rather's last night as "CBS Evening News" anchor by conducting a fund-raiser on his own behalf while the anchorman's finale was on the air.

-snip-

Feeney attracted national attention as speaker of the Florida House during his state's 2000 vote recount. In Congress, he served as assistant whip for his freshman class in 2003-2004.

-snip/more-

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20050319.shtml

Thanks to Raysr for posting this on GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3320026

[Wilms]

5. HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS: Ohio Governor's Race

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS

MSNBC
Tuesday, 7 p.m. ET

Chris is on the road from Columbus, Ohio and tonight he is putting two of the front runners from the governor's race in the Hardball hot-seat.

Thanks to flpoljunkie for posting:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347411

[Wilms]

6. Secretary of State clashes with Congresspeople at hearing on Ohio's 2004 v

Secretary of State clashes with Congresspeople at hearing on Ohio's 2004 vote

By Karen Kasler - March 21, 2005

A Congressional committee headed by Ohio Rep. Bob Ney (R-St. Clairsville) is investigating the 2004 presidential election. The committee held a hearing at the Statehouse Monday, and sparks flew when the state’s chief elections official took a seat before the panel. Ohio Public Radio’s Karen Kasler reports.

Audio Report:

http://63.135.96.170/media/2005/03/21/8215/7651.rm

Satehouse News:

http://statenews.org


Thanks to KaliTracy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347432#347459

[MelissaB]

23. Discussion

here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3326564

[Wilms]

7. (OH) Blackwell Tells Panel Election Went Smoothly

Blackwell tells panel election went smoothly

JOHN McCARTHY

Associated Press 21 March 2005

-snip-

The exchanges Monday became heated at times, especially between Blackwell and U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Cleveland Democrat who is not a committee member but sat in with the panel.

Tubbs Jones questioned Blackwell about a telephone message delivered to thousands of voters just before the election to make sure they voted in the correct precinct, especially if they had not changed their registration and needed a provisional ballot. Tubbs Jones wondered why he didn't say in the message that voters had the option to use provisional ballots at their local boards of elections.

Blackwell said, "It worked," several times, his voice rising as Tubbs Jones continued the question. Ohio ranked fourth nationwide in the number of provisional ballots that were validated. Ten days before the election, a judge upheld Blackwell's directive that voters must cast provisional ballots in the correct precinct.

Blackwell also said directives he issued on provisional ballots and voter registration cards that led to complaints about their timeliness were forced by court rulings made just weeks or days before the election.

-snip/more-

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1007889&tw=wn_wire_story

Toledo Blade Coverage:

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050322/NEWS09/503220405


DU Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347321

[Wilms]

10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Hearing on election turns heated

Hearing on election turns heated
Blackwell, Tubbs Jones spar over ads
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - A fiesty Secretary of State Ken Blackwell defended his handling of the presidential election at a sometimes heated congressional field hearing Monday.

Blackwell repeatedly interrupted a pair of Democratic questioners at a meeting of the Committee on House Administration to explain the controversial directives and divisive decisions that marked his administration of the 2004 contest.

His testimony culminated in a sparring match with Cleveland congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a vocal critic of his rulings, in which she told him to "haul butt" if he wouldn't answer her questions.

Blackwell, a Cincinnati Republican, retorted: "I refuse to sit here and be harangued by you."

-snip/more-

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1111487748160380.xml

[Wilms]

15. BRAD BLOG: Blackwell Testifies & New 'Voters Rights' Group Appears!

Blackwell Finally Testifies in OH as a New 'Voters Rights' Group Appears 'Talon News-style' out of Nowhere...

Director of 4-Day Old Group Called as Expert Witness along with Blackwell in U.S. House Hearings Yesterday.

Blogged by Brad
3/22/2005 @ 12:50pm PT

-snip-

As well, a Republican operative by the name of Mark F. (Thor) Hearne was also called as a "Witness" to discuss Election Reform issues despite fronting an organization, the so-called "American Center for Voting Rights" which suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the web just last Thursday.

-snip-

We hope to find more information on yesterday's hearings, of which we are highly dubious. If only because one of the "witnesses" scheduled to testify was to be a member of the American Center for Voting Rights, a Dallas TX group which seems to have sprung up out of nowhere -- just in time for the hearings -- and which is clearly tied to Republican Party operatives.

The ACVR established their website just last Thursday -- 4 days ago -- on March 17th, 2005.

The director of the supposedly non-partisan 501(c)3 organization scheduled to testify as a witness at yesterday's hearing was Mark F. (Thor) Hearne. Hearne is listed on the site as "National Election Counsel to Bush-Cheney ’04 and Missouri counsel to Bush-Cheney ‘00" amongst other very Republican credentials.

-snip/more-

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001275.htm


Discussion Thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1678865

[Wilms]

8. NYT: Diebold president misleads about cost of touchscreens (updated)

Diebold president misleads about cost of touchscreens (updated)

The New York Times published an editorial on March 9 in support of optical-scan (fill-in-the-oval) ballots, accurately noting that they're less expensive than touchscreen machines and inherently provide paper records checked by the voters. The editorial recommended optical scan-ballots for New York State.

The president of Diebold, a company which makes touchscreen voting machines, responded in a letter to the New York Times ("For Voting Machines We Can Trust," Mar. 14, 2005):

The president of Diebold, a manufacturer of touchscreens, is intentionally trying to mislead the public.

More...and thanks to Eric J in MN, Discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347391

[skids]

9. 23 HOUSE MEMBERS SIGN WATERS/CONYERS LETTER TO VOTING MACHINE COMPANIES!

DU thread with links (GDP):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1677571

[understandinglife]

11. Brad Blog: "Blackwell Finally Testifies.....'Talon News-style' ...."

Blackwell Finally Testifies in OH as a New 'Voters Rights' Group Appears 'Talon News-style' out of Nowhere...

Director of 4-Day Old Group Called as Expert Witness along with Blackwell in U.S. House Hearings Yesterday.

Yesterday, in Columbus, OH, the U.S. House Committee on House Administration held a hearing on the mess otherwise known as the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio. Unlike the previous hearings...



http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001275.htm

[Wilms]

12. Independent News and Media: Politically Incorrect (British Election Fraud)

Politically incorrect
Postmen threatened with death? Stolen votes? Bribery? The sort of mass ballot rigging usually seen in dodgy Third World regimes is taking hold in Britain. And the outcome of the General Election could be at stake.

Malcolm Macalister Hall investigates

21 March 2005

-snip-

It's a startling claim - but he is not the only person making such charges. In fact, his complaints are part of what could be the biggest ballot-rigging scandal in Britain in a century. Over the past four weeks, a specially-convened election court in Birmingham has heard shocking allegations that, here in Bordesley Green and also in Aston, another inner-city ward, last year's council elections were rigged - on a grand scale.

The court has heard that the elections were subverted by threats, intimidation and the wholesale theft of postal votes, with thousands of others being diverted to "safe houses" where the ballots were allegedly filled in on an "industrial scale". Bags full of voting papers are alleged to have changed hands in the streets; a postman is said to have been threatened with death. Two days before the poll, it's alleged, police found Labour candidates for Aston and supporters in a warehouse at midnight, with nearly 300 unsealed postal votes on a table.

-snip-

Two petitions being heard before Deputy High Court Judge Richard Mawrey QC, sitting as the Election Commissioner, are asking for the city council results in Aston and Bordesley Green to be declared void. Depending on the judge's decision, expected at the end of this month, one or both results could be overturned. In that case, the postal voting system itself will be in the dock and serious questions will be asked about the looming general election, in which - barring emergency measures - the same postal vote system is due to be used. For the first time since 1872 - when the Ballot Act was passed to allow votes to be cast in private - there is now real concern about electoral fraud in a general election.

-snip-

Meanwhile, the commission is working with the Association of Chief Police Officers to produce a guide for local police forces in time for the general election. "Because it's quite rare, the police often don't know how to investigate electoral fraud," Sullivan says. "If you go into a station and say, 'Someone's stolen my car,' they know what to do. If you go in and say, 'Someone's stolen my vote,' they probably don't."

-snip/more-

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=622071

Thanks to Dancing Dave for posting the Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347498

[Wilms]

13. Vanity Fair: CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS - OHIO’S ODD NUMBERS

Vanity Fair
March 2005

OHIO’S ODD NUMBERS

No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry’s, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines

by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

If it were not for Kenyon College, I might have missed, or skipped, the whole controversy. The place is a visiting lecturer’s dream, or the ideal of a campus-movie director in search of a setting. It is situated in wooded Ohio hills, in the small town of Gambier, about an hour’s drive from Columbus. its literary magazine, The Kenyon Review, was founded by John Crowe Ransom in 1939. Its alumni include Paul Newman, E. L. Doctorow, Jonathan Winters; Robert Lowell, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and President Rutherford B. Hayes. The college’s origins are Episcopalian, its students well mannered and well off and predominantly white, but it is by no means Bush-Cheney territory. Arriving to speak there a few days after the presidential election, I found that the place was still buzzing. Here’s what happened in Gambier, Ohio, on decision day 2004.

-snip-

However, for any of that last category of anomaly to be explained, one would need either a voter-verified paper trail of ballots that could be tested against the performance of the machines or a court order that would allow inspection of the machines themselves. The first of these does not exist, and the second has not yet been granted.

I don’t know who it was who shouted idiotically to voters not to trust the paper ballots in Gambier, but I do know a lot of people who are convinced that there was dirty work at the crossroads in the Ohio vote. Some of these people are known to me as nutbags and paranoids of the first water, people whose grassy-knoll minds can simply cancel or deny any objective reasons for a high Republican turnout. (Here’s how I know some of these people: In November 1999, I wrote a column calling for international observers to monitor the then upcoming presidential election. I was concerned about restrictive ballot-access laws, illegal slush funds, denial of access to media for independents, and abuse of the state laws that banned “felons” from voting. At the end, I managed to mention the official disenfranchisement of voters in my hometown of Washington, D.C., and the questionable “reliability or integrity’ of the new voting- machine technology. I’ve had all these wacko friends ever since.) But here are some of the non-wacko reasons to revisit the Ohio election.

-snip-

Whichever way you shake it, or hold it to the light, there is something about the Ohio election that refuses to add up. The sheer number of irregularities compelled a formal recount, which was completed in late December and which came out much the same as the original one, with 176 fewer votes for George Bush. But this was a meaningless exercise in reassurance, since there is simply no means of checking, for example, how many “vote hops” the computerized machines might have performed unnoticed.

-snip/more-

http://makethemaccountable.com/articles/Ohio_s_Odd_Numbers.htm


Thanks to BamaLefty for posting the Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347499

[Wilms]

14. LAT: City Clerk Defends Over-Marking of Mayoral Ballots

City Clerk Defends Over-Marking of Mayoral Ballots

But his report concedes he should have told candidates in advance of the planned procedures.

By Patrick McGreevy
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

22 March 2005

City Clerk Frank Martinez told the Los Angeles City Council on Monday that he acted with justifiable prudence on election night, inspecting every ballot by hand and over-marking ballots where the voter's ink mark might not have been read by vote-counting machines.

In a seven-page report responding to council concerns about election-night delays, Martinez acknowledged that he should have notified the candidates about the unusual procedures so they could have sent observers, and he said he should have told the California secretary of state's office about a change of software meant to guarantee an accurate vote count.

-snip-

In defending the decision, Martinez cited testimony to a state voting panel in which a representative of the secretary of state said the review of every ballot and over-marking is a critical procedure used by other jurisdictions.

Martinez said the Los Angeles County registrar over-marks ballots after election night in cases where it appears the inked votes may not be machine-readable.

-snip/more-

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=5044

[Wilms]

17. (TN) Voting centers could replace rural precincts

Voting centers could replace rural precincts

Tullahoma News

March 22, 2005

A contingency of election officials statewide have voiced opposition to a bill making its way through the legislature that would give counties the option of switching to a "voting center" system, eliminating most rural precincts.

-snip-

The new bill calling for a "voting center" system would eliminate most precincts and open a handful of "voting centers" throughout the county. All of the "voting centers" would be open for a period leading up to election day and actually on election day.

-snip-

Pruett says he is opposed to the cost of the new electronic voting systems and claims Tennessee could be the focus of an embarrassing election mishap similar to Florida's in 2000.

-snip-

"Creating fewer locations is based upon the concept, 'Bigger is better'," Pruett said. "This discriminates against the smaller rural community precincts. Tennessee does not need systematic discrimination against any group of voters ... those that will have the longest distance to drive will vote less often; it is a matter of convenience or inconvenience. Eliminating election day precincts will change voter turnout percentages across counties and will impact many races for county-wide office."

-snip/more-

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14191495&BRD=1614&PAG=461&dept_id=516594&rfi=6

[Wilms]

18. (MT) High Court: Lake County officials violated rules in judging ballots

High Court: Lake County officials violated rules in judging ballots

Associated Press

March 21, 2005

HELENA -- Lake County election officials did not follow the rules when they presumed the wishes of five voters who marked their ballots for two candidates in the same legislative race, the Montana Supreme Court said Monday.

A 31-page court ruling explains the justices' 6-1 decision in late December that resolved a tied contest in favor of Democrat Jeanne Windham and left the House evenly divided between the two major political parties.

Local election administrators were wrong to assume the double-marked ballots were votes for Constitution Party candidate Rick Jore of Ronan, rather than votes for Republican Jack Cross, the court said. The ballots were overvotes and should not have been counted, it said.

"In truth, determining voter intent from ballots as mismarked as the ones at issue here turns the process of interpretation into little more than a guessing game," Justice James Nelson wrote for the court.

-snip/more-

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&tts=1&display=rednews/2005/03/21/build/state/30-supco-recount.inc

[slw]

19. Blackwell on Hardball

Just in case anyone is interested....Blackwell is on Hardball right now.

[MelissaB]

21. An Immoral And Illegal War: Speech By Representative Cynthia McKinney

Destroying Iraq Isn't Enough for Bush
An Immoral and Illegal War

By Rep. CYNTHIA McKINNEY

Remarks at Chicago Anti-War Rally, March 19, 2005

Two years ago we gathered all across America to say no to war.

We were joined by people all over the planet who know that there is an alternative to war.

But war is about the only option available when the real motive is to steal natural resources that belong to someone else.

Or to restack the deck in the Middle East with today's generation of coups and assassinations, following the likes of the US 1949 ouster of Syria's elected government, the US 1953 ouster of Iran's elected government; US 1958 landing of Marines in Lebanon; and its 1963 support for a coup in Iraq after an assassination attempt against its leader failed.

The militarism we see today is nothing new.

Even though some 14 countries have withdrawn their troops since March 2003, Bush tells the American people that he has no idea when US troops can expect to come home.

Sadly, many of them are being forced to take matters into their own hands. With filings for conscientious objector status, forced pregnancies, disappearances, seeking asylum in Canada, and leading rallies like this today all over America.

The American people, and our children over there fighting, still haven't been told the real reason the US is at war with the Iraqi people.

And against the people the US war machine has turned.

Thousands of Iraqis, especially children, have been killed by our sanctions and our bombs.

This is an immoral and illegal war and we need to bring our troops home now.

Instead, they lay the groundwork to expand the war and destabilize Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.

Destroying Iraq isn't enough for them.

Nor are the million men and women in our Armed Services enough for them.

The George Bush war machine wants you, too. And your children.

Everywhere you turn the Pentagon is denying it wants a draft while at the same time lamenting that recruitment is way down.

Mercenaries will increasingly be used to fight their wars with your tax dollars.

While reinstating the draft only feeds the war machine.

In fact, we need to get the military recruiters out of our high schools; they need to stop harassing our children, and the 1 billion dollars they spend on slick radio and tv spots and friendly neighborhood offices, ought to be put in the education budget so our kids can go to college without having to go to war first.

They tell us we're at war for democracy.

But that's a joke; George Bush came to power by stopping democracy at home--denying the opportunity to vote to blacks and Latinos in Florida.

They built on that fine record last year with hackable voting machines that don't accurately tally our votes.

And in countries like Haiti where democracy was thriving, they arrested President Aristide at gunpoint and forced him out of his own country.

While they purport to cherish democracy, they really have a disdain for it.

Democracy in Venezuela, India, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay has produced proud people willing to stand up to US imperialism, coup attempts, and destabilization of their countries. And the good news is that this resistance will spread.

The worse they are, the stronger we become.

And worse they will become because they've aimed their sights on Russia and China after they've balkanized the Middle East.

But one thing I guarantee to you and to them: we won't be fooled!

We know the truth. And we won't stop.

Stay strong, my brothers and sisters, we have a lot of work to do.

Thanks to Itsthetruth here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3324143#3326201

[Wilms]

22. (OH) Lawmaker asks more time on voting machines

Lawmaker asks more time on voting machines

By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

Ohio Sec. of State Ken Blackwell testifies Monday in front of the U.S. Committee on House Administration.
The Associated Press/Jay LaPrete

COLUMBUS - As state lawmakers remain divided over what Ohio's new voting machines should look like, one House member Monday asked federal officials to extend the deadline for when those machines must be in place.

Rep. Kevin DeWine, R-Fairborn, sponsor of the legislature's latest election reform bill, asked the U.S. Committee on House Administration to give Ohio until 2008 to pick new voting machines, instead of the current May 2006 deadline.

The committee and its chairman, Rep. Bob Ney, R-St. Clairsville, were in Columbus to talk about the 2004 election and Ohio's progress implementing Help America Vote Act requirements.

Lawmakers said extending the deadline likely would leave old punch-card voting machines in place in 69 counties for at least two more years of elections, including the 2006 governor's race.

-snip/more-

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050322/NEWS01/503220386/1056


Thanks to Rosebud 57 for posting the discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x347429

[Melissa G]

24. Britain catches election fraud flu

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1332635&mesg_id=1333563
Thanks to Dancing Dave!
Mass ballot rigging taking hold in Britain


"Postmen threatened with death? Stolen votes? Bribery? The sort of mass ballot rigging usually seen in dodgy Third World regimes is taking hold in Britain. And the outcome of the General Election could be at stake. Malcolm Macalister Hall investigates
21 March 2005


It's a miserable, drizzling fag-end of a day as Mohammed Saeed drives around the streets of Bordesley Green, on Birmingham's east side, to show me the area that used to be his manor. Staring bleakly through the windscreen, he mutters darkly about being cheated.

It's pretty much like any inner city here - terraced houses, corner shops, a mosque, Somali restaurants, streets jammed with cars. Much of Birmingham's Kashmiri, Pakistani and Somali population live in this ward. Saeed, 40, used to be one of its councillors - until he lost his seat in last June's city council elections. "It was a very hard door-to-door campaign," Saeed says morosely. "And then the votes were stolen."

It's a startling claim - but he is not the only person making such charges. In fact, his complaints are part of what could be the biggest ballot-rigging scandal in Britain in a century. Over the past four weeks, a specially-convened election court in Birmingham has heard shocking allegations that, here in Bordesley Green and also in Aston, another inner-city ward, last year's council elections were rigged - on a grand scale."

Read all about it at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?sto...

[MelissaB]

25. BRAD BLOG: 'Non-Partisan' 'Voting Rights' Org Little More than GOP Front!

New 'Non-Partisan' 'Voting Rights' Org Appears to be Little More than Republican Front Group!

6-Day Old Tax-Exempt Group Run by High Level GOP Operatives!
(GOPUSA/Talon News, Anyone?)

Setup just last Thursday, the "American Center for Voting Rights", a new tax-exempt 501(c)3 "Voting Rights" group, was called to testify at yesterday's U.S. House Administrative Committee hearings in Columbus, OH on problems in the 2004 Election.

But as we've seen too many times of late, this group appears to be little more than a GOP front group hastily created to stave off Electoral Reform and "Voter Rights".

Early BRAD BLOG investigation shows that both the group's leader attorney Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, II and their communications director, Jim Dyke, are long-time high-level Republican operatives employeed by Bush/Cheney and the national Republican Party...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001276.htm

Thanks to BradBlog here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1679666

[Wilms]

26. The Center for Public Integrity: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Commentary

March 22, 2005

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
The Center responds to its poorly informed critics

By Bill Allison

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2005 — Columnists and editorial writers stirring the teapot-sized tempest about foundations that have supported (nefariously, they seem to claim) campaign finance research have also been maligning the Center for Public Integrity—no doubt for our "Orwellian name," as one of them put it—as well. Though the Center seems to be a peripheral target of their ire, and while the best response to much of the nonsense would be no response, there is enough wildly inaccurate information floating around that we decided to set the record straight.

-snip-

We do put out factual information about a number of issues that interest us, one of which is campaign finance. And at least some of the public is interested in reading what we report. The Buying of the President 2004 was a New York Times bestselling book, and our 1996 report "Fat Cat Hotel," showing that the Clinton White House was renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to campaign contributors, became a topic in the press, on Sunday morning talk shows, even in the monologues of late night comedians. The Center's founder and former executive director, Charles Lewis, also got to appear twice on the Comedy Central program The Daily Show. But that's the closest we've come to any sort of popularity; and how any of that could hoodwink anyone is a bit of a mystery.

-snip-

Over the years, the Post has seen fit to use Center reports on then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush lodging his political supporters and some big donors in the Texas gubernatorial mansion; that a donor to Rudy Giuliani's campaigns had ties to the Russian mob; that Wesley Clark was still an active lobbyist when he announced his presidential campaign; and that a lobbying firm that employed John Kerry's brother was the presidential hopeful's top lifetime campaign contributor.

Either these sorts of things are worthy of public attention or not. But if they are not, then why did the Post see fit to write about so many of them? And were we aptly named when they used us to comment on Theresa Heinz's tax returns during the 2004 campaign? If so, at what point did we become inaptly named? The Post doesn't say; but we expect it may have something to do with what amounts to a clever advertising campaign that plays fast and loose with the truth.

-snip/more-

http://www.publicintegrity.org/report.aspx?aid=672&sid=200

[Wilms]

27. McCain, Feingold, Shays and Meehan FEC Internet Letter

McCain, Feingold, Shays and Meehan Send Letter to FEC on Internet Regulation


March 22, 2005

Scott Thomas
Chairman
Federal Election Commission
999 E. Street NW
Washington, D.C., 20463

Dear Chairman Thomas:

As the principal congressional sponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”), we write to comment on the recent controversy raised by the question of how BCRA applies to regulation of activity conducted on the Internet.

As you know, the undersigned House members were plaintiffs in a lawsuit, supported by the undersigned Senate members, that successfully invalidated a Commission regulation that created a per se exemption from the definition of “public communication” for any communications over the Internet. 11 C.F.R. § 100.26. We understand that the Commission will shortly be undertaking a rulemaking to revise its rules relating to how BCRA applies to communications over the Internet.

We believe that the growth of communications on the Internet about issues and politics is a positive and healthy development in our society. We are also encouraged by the fundraising conducted over the Internet by parties and candidates in the 2004 election which stimulated a huge increase in small dollar individual donors, a trend that we think is healthy for our political system and fully consistent with the provisions and goals of BCRA.

On the other hand, as the District Court ruled in the Shays and Meehan v. FEC case, the Commission’s per se exclusion of all communications over the Internet from BCRA’s statutory definition of “public communication” was wrong, and served to seriously undermine the law. This exclusion would exempt from regulation, for instance, large expenditures of corporate or union funds to buy paid advertising for a candidate on Internet web sites, even where those expenditures were fully coordinated with the candidate. It would also permit state parties to spend unlimited soft money funds to buy advertising on the Internet that promote or attack federal candidates.

In both cases, these same communications would be illegal if made through any other media – broadcast, cable, newspaper, magazine, etc. The across-the-board Internet exemption opens huge loopholes in BCRA’s ban on the spending of soft money to influence federal campaigns. That is precisely why the court found the per se exclusion of the Internet from the definition of “public communications” to be contrary to law.

We are confident that the Commission can find a way in its rulemaking to allow unregulated and robust political debate on the Internet, such as that seen on independent blogs, to continue, without creating loopholes for soft money to once again flow into federal campaigns. We look forward to working with you to achieve this goal.

Sincerely,

John McCain
United States Senate

Russell D. Feingold
United States Senate

Christopher Shays
Member of Congress

Marty Meehan
Member of Congress

Link:

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/FEC%20Internet%20letter.doc

[Wilms]

28. (AL) Commissioners want more information on voting standards

Commissioners want more information on voting standards

By Sebastian Kitchen
Montgomery Advertiser

Montgomery County Commissioners know the deadline is approaching for them to comply with federal voting standards, but they want more information before they elect to spend $1.1 million on new machines.

The county and other local municipalities must be in compliance with the Help America Vote Act by Jan. 1, 2006.

-snip-

County officials see two problems as the federal deadline approaches. The federal government has not specified all of the standards and there is question about how local entities will be reimbursed.

-snip-

The county is considering the option of leasing the machines. Strange said this may be financially beneficial for the county, especially as technology continues to improve.

-snip/more-

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5commiss22w.htm

[Wilms]

29. (GA) House panel OKs photo ID at polls

House panel OKs photo ID at polls

Posted on Tue, Mar. 22, 2005

By Mike Billips
Telegraph Staff Writer

A House committee approved a Senate bill Monday to require voters to present photo identification at the polls.

The governmental affairs committee amended Senate Bill 84 slightly to allow voters to cast a provisional ballot if they inadvertently forget their ID. The amended bill would still require a voter to show photo ID at the county elections office within 48 hours for their vote to count.

-snip-

State and local elections officials presented conflicting evidence about whether voter impersonation fraud actually exists. Cox said a much larger problem exists with fraudulent absentee ballots. Most fraud that is prosecuted deals with illegal handling of absentee ballots and vote-buying.

-snip-

Opponents of the bill, including the AARP, the ACLU and the League of Women Voters, said it might not pass Justice Department scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act, and would likely generate lawsuits even if it passes that test.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/11197385.htm

[Wilms]

30. kick n/t