Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday Feb 22, 2006

[stillcool]

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

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[stillcool]

1. Florida....Orange plans touch-screens for early voting

Volusia, Osceola and Seminole elections chiefs say they are still unsure what machines to use.

Kevin P. Connolly
Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 22 2006

Election Supervisor Bill Cowles said he has full confidence in the machines despite fears by some that vote counts can be skewed by malfunctions or tampering, with no paper record to ensure accuracy

In Volusia, County Chairman Frank Bruno, a foe of paperless voting, has pledged to call for a boycott of early voting if only touch-screens are used in Volusia County.

The voting-equipment debate is set to come to a head again in Volusia on Thursday, when County Council members are expected to consider a disputed contract for 210 handicapped-accessible touch-screen voting machines from Diebold Election Systems. A majority of council members have resisted buying the machines for about a year because they don't use paper ballots.

Election supervisors in Central Florida have expressed confidence in the security, accuracy and reliability of the machines.
"There are checks and balances built in there,'' Cowles said.
Seminole County Elections Supervisor Michael Ertel said "firewalls" and "fail-safes" ensure the integrity of the machines.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-vvote2206feb22,0,6021493.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

[stillcool]

2. California...Voting machines OK'd in county

Nick Juliano
Tracy Press
In San Joaquin County elections, paper ballots are officially passé.

Starting with this year’s June primary, votes at polling places around the county will be cast on electronic touch-screen machines manufactured by Diebold Elections Systems Inc., which Secretary of State Bruce McPherson approved last week.

“Overall, we’re just thrilled that we’re back in business with the touch-screens,” said Deborah Hench, San Joaquin County’s registrar of voters.
http://www.tracypress.com/local/2006-02-22-Voting.php
To contact reporter Nick Juliano, call 830-4274 or e-mail [e-mail].

[stillcool]

3. Pennsylvania...Onorato settles on an electronic voting machine

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said yesterday that he wants the county to buy 2,800 electronic voting machines from California-based Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. to meet a looming federal deadline.

Mr. Onorato said he was confident the machine would be certified. If that doesn't happen, the county could withdraw from its contract with Sequoia, he said. His office is developing a backup plan.

During the public meeting, some voting activists expressed satisfaction that the county was moving away from Diebold, but they still warned that all computerized systems, including the Advantage, pose security concerns.

They called on Mr. Onorato to consider buying optical scanners, which use fill-in-the-blank ballots.

County officials said those ballots can be too expensive to print.

/b]
Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at [e-mail] or 412-263-1183.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06053/659003.stm

[stillcool]

4. California...Diebold Whistleblower arraigned...

Man Pleads Not Guilty in Voting Device Case
By Hemmy So, Times Staff Writer

A word processor accused of stealing damaging documents about electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems was arraigned Tuesday on three felony counts.
It's a devastating allegation for a whistle-blower," said Blair Berk, Heller's attorney. "Certainly, someone who saw those documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming elections

The documents also revealed that Diebold's attorneys were exploring whether the California secretary of state had the authority to investigate the company for alleged election law violations.

A subsequent report by the secretary of state's office found that Diebold had marketed and sold its systems before gaining federal qualification and had installed uncertified software on election machines in 17 counties.

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, refused to call Heller a "whistle-blower." "We call him a defendant," she said. "He's accused of breaking the law….If we feel that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt in our minds that a crime has been committed, it's our job as a criminal prosecutor to file a case."

Heller's preliminary hearing date will be set at a trial conference April 24.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/socal/la-me-diebold22feb22,0,33600.story?coll=la-news-politics-local

[stillcool]

5. New Mexico For this election, it’s still electronic

By Julie Ann Grimm The New Mexican
February 22, 2006

People voting early for the March 7 city election are steadily trickling into the City Clerk’s Office to cast ballots on electronic-voting machines. If Gov. Bill Richardson signs a measure that calls for the use of paper ballots in all counties, this could be the last time the machines are used in Santa Fe.

The bill, and its accompanying funding, have not made it to the governor’s office for his signature, and the current election code does not allow municipalities of Santa Fe’s size to use paper ballots except in emergencies, state Elections Bureau Chief Ernest Marquez said.

The only way for a city voter to have a paper ballot in this election is to request an absentee-by-mail ballot from the city clerk, but time is running out on that option.
About 475 people have already requested paper ballots or have voted early at her office, she said.

Contact the city clerk at 955-6521 . In-person early voting is Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through March 3.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican .com.

[BillORightsMan]

6. Washington....Conservatives want complete re-registration

Another effort by the regressives...

Seattle PI
By RACHEL LA CORTE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 · Last updated 7:25 p.m. PT

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Voters would have to prove they are U.S. citizens and reregister to vote under an initiative that supporters said they will file this week.

Conservative think-tank Evergreen Freedom Foundation has formed Grassroots Washington, which is backing the initiative that was expected to be announced Wednesday afternoon.

~Similar measures introduced by Republican lawmakers have not gone anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Grassroots Washington must collect nearly 225,000 valid voter signatures by July 7 to qualify for the November ballot.

~Secretary of State Steve Excell said it's a wrong move. "Just because we don't happen to think that every voter record is perfect we can't wholesale disenfranchise everybody."

~...more than 27,000 registrations are still being investigated by county elections officials who are comparing signatures, names, birth dates and most recently cast ballots to determine whether duplicated registrations belong to the same or different people.

~The state's database, paid for by federal money, replaces 39 separate county lists. Counties will now be able to review their portion of the state's voters in the database, which was developed by software experts from the state and Microsoft Corp.
(Hmmmm. Didn't Diebold say they couldn't disclose their software in the NC case because they run Windows and was not licensed to disclose microsoft source code? Hmmmmmmmm....-Ed.)
Felon checks, to be conducted four times a year, will start in March. Death-and-duplicate checks will be done monthly.

:patriot:
Get busy Washington...

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