Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 'Toon Edition, 5/ 27/06

[livvy]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Saturday 'Toon Edition




"Budget Cuts."

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.


Be sure to check out yesterday's ERD, if you missed it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=429982&mesg_id=429982


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

[livvy]

1. ES&S Products Do Not Conform To The 2002 VVSG

ES&S Products Do Not Conform To The 2002 VVSG
By John Washburn, VoteTrustUSA Voting Technology Task Force
May 26, 2006

This article and the follow-up article (posted here as Part Two, below) appeared on Washburn's World. They are reposted here with permission of the author.

ES&S Equipment does not conform to the 2002 VVSG. This is the statement of Steven V. Freeman in an email to Bruce McDannold of the State of California on December 29, 2005 at 8:10 PM.

In a related email Paul Craft on December 30, 2005 at 5:38 am states the firmware on ES&S equipment are unique and created as a custom executable for each Election/Jurisdiction combination to which ES&S has sold equipment. Mr. Craft further states that because the system software is customized and intendended for single use in a single jurisdiction, it was not possible for him to determine with certainty if the system delivered to him for inspection was or was not the system tested by the ITA lab.

Who are Bruce McDannold, Paul Craft, Steven V. Freeman and why should you care?

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=3&Itemid=51

[livvy]

2. NASED Certifies V. Sys. They Know Must Be Modified & No Longer Be Cert.

NASED Certifies Voting Systems They Know Must Be Modified And No Longer Be Certified

By John Gideon, votersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA
May 26, 2006
This open letter was sent to the National Association of State Election directors and the Election Assistance Commission.

It has recently been made public that NASED has been certifying, and continues to certify, electronic voting systems, with the full knowledge that when those systems are used in an election, they will inevitably be running different software than the software NASED certified. Those who certify the systems admit that the ES&S software actually used in an election is unique to that election, and therefore has not been examined by any independent tester, and cannot have been certified either by NASED or by the state.

This information was obtained via Public Records Requests from the Secretary of State of California. The emails that reveal this information can be viewed here.

In an email to Bruce McDannold and Paul Craft dated December 29, 2005, Steven V. Freeman paraphrases what he has heard from Paul Craft that "...every election gets a new copy installed with slight differences in the actual executable code due to the active linking to the election definition tables."

In a response dated December 30, 2005, Paul Craft makes it clear that the problem exists, not just for ES&S optical scanners, but also for the DREs:

" are annoying because, as with the DRE's, you cannot really directly and easily validate the firmware once it is loaded on the chip with an election definition."

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1309&Itemid=26

[livvy]

3. Arkansas: Voting Mishaps To Trigger Review

Voting mishaps to trigger review

BY DANIEL NASAW

Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006

The consulting firm that helped the state buy new voting equipment will evaluate the performance of the company that sold the equipment used in troubled primary voting this month, Secretary of State Charlie Daniels said Thursday.

The announcement that InfoSentry Services of Raleigh, N. C., will analyze how Election Systems & Software fulfilled its end of a $ 15 million contract came as election officials in two counties worked to finish tallying the votes from Tuesday’s election.

The consultant’s report is due June 30.

While Phillips and Lonoke counties worked to finish their vote tallies Thursday, Pulaski County completed its count, ending for the moment the county’s month-long struggle with the company that sold election equipment to most of the state.

>more


http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/155762/

[livvy]

12. Arkansas: 2 Counties' Machine Wores Delaying Final Vote Tally

2 counties’ machine woes delaying final vote tally

BY DANIEL NASAW

Posted on Saturday, May 27, 2006

Three days after the election, Arkansas’ vote count remained incomplete Friday as officials in Phillips and Lonoke counties worked to tally votes from paper ballots and touch-screen voting machines.

In Pulaski County, the end of vote counting led a state House candidate to request a recount Friday. Also, officials planned to start early voting Tuesday for the June 13 run off using paper ballots because the touch-screen machines cannot be programmed in time.

Doug Ladner, who unofficially lost the District 41 Republican primary to businessman Ed Garner, filed a petition to recount the 1, 319 votes cast in that election during the May 23 primary and non-partisan judicial election. Ladner lost by nine votes, and 10 military and overseas ballots in that district have until June 2 to be received and counted.

The recount will cost Ladner’s campaign roughly $ 330 — 25 cents per vote to be recounted — but the Pulaski County Election Commission will refund the fee if the initial result is overturned.

>more

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/155849/

[livvy]

4. KY: Recanvass Brings No Major Changes

LOCAL NEWS | Friday, May, 26, 2006

Recanvass brings no major changes

By DAVID E. MALLOY
The Herald-Dispatch

CATLETTSBURG, Ky. -- A recanvass Thursday of the votes cast in the primary election last week did turn up one small discrepancy in that the totals cast on the new voting machines in Cannonsburg precinct weren't counted.

A number of candidates had asked for the recanvass, But the recheck of the vote totals resulted in no major changes in any of the countywide offices up for election.

The closest race was the Democratic primary for Boyd County circuit clerk. Linda Baker had a 48 vote lead going into the recanvass, but only a 22 vote lead by the end of the day over Jan Spears Michael. The recanvass started at 9 a.m., but it wasn't completed at the Boyd County clerk's office until about 3 p.m. No Republican filed in that race.

>snip

Spears said she hasn't yet made a decision about whether to file for a recount, a process that could cost $1,000 or more. The process requires the filing of a lawsuit in circuit court within 10 days after the election, said Boyd County Attorney Phil Hedrick.

"I had some concerns ... problems with the new computers," Michael said. "I saw room for error ... room for questions."

>more

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060526/NEWS01/605260338/1001/NEWS

[livvy]

5. Brad Blog: Internet Ad Seeking Temp Workers....Taken Down

Blogged by Brad on 5/26/2006 @ 3:19pm PT...

Internet Ad Seeking Temp Workers to Transport Hackable Election Machines Taken Down
Ad Removed in Wake of BRAD BLOG Report Earlier this Week...

We reported earlier this week about an ad placed on the Internet by Kelly Services seeking temporary workers for the upcoming California primary elections in San Francisco.

The ad sought workers to "assist in dropping off election voting machines and picking these machines up when voting is complete." (See our full story and the complete text here.)

That ad has now been removed from Monster.com. We'll try and offer some updates if we can gather any additional information about the removal of the ad.

As we noted in our original story on Tuesday, the ad was notable given CA Sec. of State Bruce McPherson's recent approval of Diebold voting machines shortly after it was revealed, and then confirmed by his own independent analysis , that those machines were vulnerable to hackers. After the revelations, McPherson implemented what he described as increased physical security procedures to protect such machines from tampering -- procedures which would seem to be out the window by allowing $11.99/hour temporary workers hired from the Internet to shuttle California's electronic voting machines, unsupervised, before and after the election.

>more

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002877.htm

[livvy]

6. FL: Glitch Leaves Some Broward Residents With Wrong Voting ID Card

Glitch Leaves Some Broward Residents With Wrong Voting ID Card

POSTED: 11:07 pm EDT May 25, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Elections officials said a mailroom glitch has left up to 1,000 people in Broward County with the wrong voter identification cards.

For some, the mistake is raising fears of identity theft and bringing back memories of the 2000 presidential recount, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Broward County is in the process of mailing voters new cards before this fall's election season. The new cards are needed because the state took over the voter rolls and assigned new ID numbers.

Officials said a problem with mailroom equipment resulted in some voters in Coral Springs and Parkland receiving the ID cards for the next person alphabetically on the county's voter list. Those affected have last names beginning with the letters A or B.

>more

http://www.nbc6.net/news/9277625/detail.html

[FogerRox]

15. FL: A consultant from Sequoia passed along some computer code to the tech

County's vote counts are called correct
A computer glitch stirred concern when votes were counted March 7 for elections in Largo, Pinellas Park and Palm Harbor.
By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published May 26, 2006

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


A state audit of Pinellas County's March 7 elections determined that the outcomes were accurate, though the report noted areas where the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office could strengthen its procedures.

>snip<

"Everybody, since the 2000 election, has had questions and there are always conspiracy theories and questions about outside influence," Gerard said Thursday. "It was a very smart thing for her (Clark) to do with the November election coming. ... But no doubt, there will be questions and conspiracy theories then, too."

At issue was whether the votes were accurately counted and handled when a computer server froze for two hours.

Vote-counting stopped on election night because a technician set aside too little hard drive space on the server to handle the vote tabulation. A consultant from Sequoia Voting Systems, Pinellas' voting technology provider, passed along some computer code to the technician while he was fixing the problem.

More-

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/26/Northpinellas/County_s_vote_counts_.shtml

[Kip Humphrey]

24. Would that 2 hours be to rebuild the tabulation database like the Ohio

2004 so-called recount? I wonder...

[livvy]

7. GA: Voting Rights Activists Call for Sec. of State Cox to Step Down

Georgia:Voting Rights Activists Call for Secretary of State Cox to Step Down
By Defenders of Democracy
May 26, 2006

Citing concerns over conflict of interest, voting rights activists today called upon Secretary of State Cathy Cox (pictured at right) to step down from her position as chief overseer of elections during her run for Governor.

"This is no ordinary conflict of interest," stated Mark Sawyer, co-founder of Defenders of Democracy, a state voting rights group. "We have an unprecedented situation in, where a sitting Secretary of State will be counting votes in her race for Governor on electronic voting machines she has personally fought hard to keep insecure. This is a conflict of interest of colossal proportions."


Georgia’s current, paperless electronic voting system was implemented by Secretary of State Cox in 2002, a system she continues to insist is secure because it is tested at both the national and state levels.


However, a longstanding, nationwide consensus of computer scientists, engineers and auditing experts disagree with her. To cite but one example, William Arbaugh, computer scientist with the RABA Technologies team that inspected the same Diebold voting machines in Maryland, says in the New York Times, "I can say with confidence that nobody looked at the system with an eye to security who understands security."

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1308&Itemid=113

[livvy]

8. PA: Zimmerlink Vows Voting Improvments

05/26/2006
Zimmerlink vows voting improvments
By Amy Zalar , Herald-Standard

While the premiere election with Fayette County's electronic voting machines went well, at least one member of the Fayette County Election Board is vowing to continue to improve the process.
Speaking at the conclusion of Thursday's Fayette County commissioners meeting, Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink said the new voting systems used in the May 16 primary met all expectations, but policies and procedures have to be implemented to further improve the process. She pointed out that in the past couple years the county has had to comply with the Help America Vote Act requirements for electronic machines and handicapped accessibility and the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors system.

SURE is a software program that shares information between the counties to make it easier for counties to cross check and update their voter registration if voters move to different counties in the state. Zimmerlink said a New York-based company was hired to implement the system for the primary of 2004.

"We need to make sure all polling places are up to grade. There will be continued training between now and the November election," Zimmerlink said.

Zimmerlink, who is on the election board along with Commissioner Joseph A. Hardy III and Thomas Frankhouser, said she would also like to do a voter purge, which is more complicated than simply looking at a list and marking off the names of people who are deceased or who have moved away.

>more

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16696153&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

Voter purge, huh?

[livvy]

9. OP/ED: Don't Trust Computer Voting Machines, Verify Ballots

May 26, 2006
From The Morning Call
OP/ED: Don't trust computer voting machines, verify ballots
James J. Klinikowski is a resident and voter in Whitehall Township.

On Primary Election day, I voted in Lehigh County on one of the new ''touch-screen'' electronic voting machines. I immediately felt that I might as well have cast my vote in the sewer. They contain a glaring flaw that must be corrected before they are used in the general election in November.

The old lever-type machines were easy to understand. They were simple mechanical counters where you could verify your vote before you pull the master lever to close the booth; and they could be checked out by a polling-place staff with minimum education. Those machines could be trusted.

These new touch-screen voting machines are really computers and at present, there is no way of verifying what the electorate voted for! This is dangerous for democracy.

Big problem! How to explain, by simple example, this flaw to the average person who knows nothing about computers. I have been wracking my brain over this problem ever since the Pennsylvania primary election. I think I have the solution.

>more

http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-klinikowski5-26may26,0,477533.story?coll=all-newsopinionanotherview-hed




on edit: I had to find a toon!

[livvy]

10. WA: Advocates File Voting Rights Lawsuit in WA ....

Advocates File Voting Rights Lawsuit in Washington Challenging Database "Matching" Requirements
By Project Vote
May 26, 2006

Washington Breaks From National Standards For Voter Registration

Download the Complaint (PDF)

Project Vote's continuing work to eliminate barriers to voter registration took another step forward when community organizations and advocates filed suit today challenging a 4-month old Washington law that improperly implements the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

The lawsuit, the product of an on-going collaboration between Project Vote and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, takes aim at a law, RCW 29A.08.107 which requires the Secretary of State to match identifying information on a voter registration application--usually a drivers' license number, state ID card number, or Social Security number--to the corresponding government database. If a match cannot be made, and an applicant doesn't correct the situation within 45 days, the applicant is not registered.

Matching records between two large databases is an inherently flawed operation for a number of reasons, including:

* human error by government election workers, including misspelling of names, omitting or adding letters in a name, and transposing numbers in a Social Security or driver's license ID.
* Asian-Americans, American Indians, and Alaska Natives with names that are especially prone to multiple English spellings, or flipping of first and last names;
* married women who have taken hyphenated names or their husbands' inconsistent punctuation of names containing apostrophes or hyphens;



* computer errors caused by file corruption from computer viruses; and absence of uniformity in maintaining, storing, and transferring computer data.

Several reliable studies have found database matching error rates of approximately 20-32%.

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1307&Itemid=113

[livvy]

11. NJ: Update on Rutgers Lawsuit

New Jersey: Update on Rutgers Lawsuit
By Beth Feehan, VoteTrustUSA
May 26, 2006

Once again, Attorney Penny Venetis (pictured at right), from the Rutgers Constitutional Law Clinic in Newark, New Jersey, did a spectacular job in her argument “Supporting the Immediate De-Commissioning of all Electronic Voting Machines in NJ that cannot produce Voter Verified Paper Ballot” case to the Appeals Court.

Judges Fall, Stern, and Parker were all engaged, interested, and seemingly sympathetic to our case. Their focus was on the feasibility of the technology to retrofit the Sequoia Advantage machines, and the cost, but Ms. Venetis broadened the argument as to the constitutionality of voting on insecure machines in all elections up to Jan. 1, 2008 when the 2005 New Jersey law becomes effective. They wanted to know if there was a precedent for a court to enter an injunction against the use of the machines, but they seemed reluctant to act on what would seem to be a legislative or executive issue, due to the separation of powers.

However, Ms. Venetis concluded with a stirring argument that it is the duty of the judiciary to protect our constitutional rights. The issue of certification arose and they were amazed that a year had elapsed since the legislation passed and the AG still has not published criteria for meeting the legislative mandate of law. They seemed surprised at the inadequacy of the certification process and at the bidding process.

They said that they would give the case a “thorough review as expeditiously as possible” and did not fix a date for the verdict. The best outcome would be for them to agree with us and order that all voters have a voter verified paper ballot immediately (and let the counties figure out how to implement this, be it with an Avante machine or paper ballots and optical scan). Or they could remand it to the Superior Court once again, this time asking for a hearing on the constitutional issues.

>more



http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=8&Itemid=113

[livvy]

13. CA: Mayor Race Going Strong (but computer glitches made report tricky)

Article Launched: 5/27/2006 12:00 AM
Mayor race going strong
By Jenny Marder, Staff writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
LONG BEACH — Computer glitches made viewing the latest campaign finance reports for the June 6 mayor's election tricky for most of the day Friday, making it difficult to tell which candidate had the upper hand in the money race.

City Councilman Frank Colonna appears to be keeping pace with his opponent Bob Foster, thanks in large part to his own money, according to reports viewed before a computer error removed them from the city's Web site.

Foster, former president of Southern California Edison, has raised $231,961 since the April 11 primary election, according to a statement provided by his campaign.

Colonna reported $225,363, including $150,000 in contributions to himself, according to a version of his campaign statement that briefly appeared on the city's Web site.

The reports, which were due Thursday, were posted on the city's Web site early Friday, but could not be accessed by the afternoon, due to technical problems, said Elections Bureau Manager Becky Burleson.

>more

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_3870307

[livvy]

14. Opinion: Why Not Dial-In Democracy, Too?

Why Not Dial-In Democracy, Too?

By Ethan J. Leib
Sunday, May 28, 2006; B02

The people have spoken: Taylor Hicks is our newest democratically elected American Idol. Americans cast 63.4 million votes in last week's election -- nearly as many as were cast in the 2002 congressional elections, and more votes than George W. Bush got in 2004. Judging from the level of participation it inspires, "American Idol" isn't just a wildly successful television program -- it's also a successful democracy.

>snip

But the show still inspires more water-cooler conversation than this year's hotly contested House races in Colorado or Connecticut. Moreover, 35 percent of the show's voters believe that casting a vote for a contestant on this juggernaut of a television program counts "more than or as much as" voting in a presidential election, according to a recent survey.

So if we look at how "American Idol" works, we might pick up a few cues for a better way to run our real elections and inspire some passion for politics. Consider these four lessons of American Idol democracy:

Technology makes voting easy. Nothing could be more convenient than American Idol voting. You don't have to get in your car and burn $3-per-gallon gas to get to a polling place; you don't need to wait in line; you don't need to interact with any clumsy bureaucracy or fill out provisional ballots that may or may not get counted. American Idol democrats simply pick up the phone or send a text message to vote. No hanging chads here. American Idol democracy is so easy that it repeatedly racks up high levels of participation -- as the vote totals in the tens of millions from week to week attest.

>more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/26/AR2006052601711.html

Ok, so here's your choices...and remember this is not an 800 number.
or

Might be an improvement, eh?

[livvy]

16. Mass: Galvin May Face PrimaryBattle( better title:Galvin picks on Bonifaz)

Galvin may face primary battle
Tries to link rival to Green Party

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | May 27, 2006

He's been in office for 11 years, has $1.7 million in his campaign account, and is one of the best known Democrats in the state. But Secretary of State William F. Galvin is battling furiously to avoid a primary fight.

Galvin, the only statewide incumbent with a challenger from his own party, is telling delegates to next week's Democratic Party convention that his opponent, voting rights lawyer John C. Bonifaz, should be denied a spot on the September primary because he isn't really a Democrat.

``He has a long history of involvement with the Greens," asserts Galvin, referring to the Green Party, which lost its designation as an official political party in 2004 and is now called the Green-Rainbow party. ``He has failed to support Democratic candidates. Democrats have to scrutinize his candidacy. Is it real or a Green Trojan horse?"

But Bonifaz, a nationally known lawyer, says he's in the campaign to win -- as a Democrat.

``I am a Democrat," said the 39-year-old Jamaica Plain resident. ``I am raising basic questions about his record and the state of the democracy in Massachusetts. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with giving voters a choice? The idea there is a broad conspiracy here is funny. It's crazy. This is beginning to sound paranoid. What is he afraid of?"

>more

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/27/galvin_may_face_primary_battle/



http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/Pictures/Persons/029309/029309-187209.jpg

Support John Bonifaz!

[livvy]

17. Opinion: Crony Capitalism (Can we say time for campaign finance reform?)

Crony capitalism

May 27, 2006

There is a sense of satisfaction in the verdict of guilty for the two top Enron executives, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, whose trial ended on Thursday. The Enron saga involved crimes that robbed thousands of people of millions of dollars, and it is good to know that the chief culprits didn't get away with it.

But the Enron verdict is not just about two corporate criminals. The criminality of Enron says something about how business and politics can form a dangerous partnership. The public interest is what suffers.

Kenneth Lay was a supporter of George Bush as Bush made his way in Texas politics, and he was a lavish supporter of the Republican Party. He sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush's campaign, to the party, and to Bush's recount battle in Florida. In the process he earned a nickname. "Kenny Boy" ranks in the pantheon of Bush nicknames along with "Brownie," who did a "heckuva job" after Katrina in New Orleans.

Bush's association with Enron raises the same question raised by many of his other associations, and that is: Has he no judgment of character? It has been asked how Bush manages to choose so many mediocrities for important posts in government. It might also be asked what kind of politics are served by financial dependence on high-flying wheeler-dealers. The answers to those two questions are probably related.

>more

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060527/NEWS/605270307/1038

I posted this cartoon a couple of weeks ago, but being a dog lover and a firm believer in the need for some serious campaign finance reform, it is one of my favorites.

[livvy]

18. IL: Baar Topinka, Blagojevich in Debate Slugfest

Baar Topinka, Blagojevich in debate slugfest

BY MIKE RAMSEY
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

Saturday, May 27, 2006

CHICAGO - Finger-pointing over corruption dominated the first gubernatorial debate between Republican candidate Judy Baar Topinka and incumbent Rod Blagojevich, who also clashed Friday on gun control, a proposal to lease the state lottery for education and other issues.

Topinka suggested an indictment is in the Blagojevich administration's future, and the Chicago Democrat fired back that the third-term state treasurer should not be throwing stones, considering her past tolerance of former Gov. George Ryan, a Republican convicted in April of racketeering and fraud.

>snip

She also called Blagojevich "Public Official A" - an allusion to a state pension scandal involving one of his appointees. In a plea agreement last year, a defendant in the federal case said he understood associates of the unnamed Official A sought campaign contributions in exchange for steering pension investments. Media outlets identified Blagojevich as Official A, but he has denied any knowledge of such a scheme and has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Still, Topinka told him, "I still have a name - you're Public Official A."
She suggested "it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when" an indictment will hit the Blagojevich administration, but Topinka later backed off when pressed by reporters to clarify her statement.

Blagojevich countered that Topinka's office was under investigation for using employees in political campaigns and does business with banks that have made campaign contributions to her. Topinka, who has hammered Blagojevich for getting political money from state vendors, said all of her contracts are bid, unlike those in the incumbent's office.

>more

http://www.lincolncourier.com/story.asp?SID=1573&SEC=8

[livvy]

19. Columbia: Uribe Rebuts Voting Irregularities Claims

Uribe Rebuts Voting Irregularities Claims
May 27th - 4:01am

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press writer

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - President Alvaro Uribe has taken to the airwaves to assure Colombians that Sunday's elections would be the fairest and most transparent in decades, rebutting claims by his far-behind challengers of last-minute irregularities.

A close U.S. ally who backs liberalized trade and emphasizes law and order, Uribe led his closest challenger by more than 30 points in the final pre-election poll last week.

"The guarantees are real, not rhetorical, for the opposition and everyone else in this election," Uribe told RCN radio Friday, responding to complaints about election preparations and procedures from two main challengers.

The Alternative Democratic Pole party, or PDA, said authorities arbitrarily ordered the transfer of at least 200 polling stations from rural areas to urban centers, arguing the move could affect hundreds of thousands of voters.

>more

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=105&sid=724194

And...a totally unrelated cowtoon...sorry, I'm a sucker for bad puns.

[livvy]

20. IL: Underdog Laesch Sees Opening in ABC News Report, Abramoff Scandal

Underdog Laesch sees opening in ABC News report, Abramoff scandal
By Chris Rickert - City Editor

SYCAMORE - The man hoping to defeat Dennis Hastert in November's election was in Sycamore on Friday looking to capitalize on a recent, disputed news report linking the four-term House Speaker to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

With the DeKalb County Courthouse behind him, Democrat John Laesch made clear at the outset of the hastily called press conference that he was there to talk up Hastert's alleged involvement in a “culture of corruption” in Congress.

He referred to an ABC News report on Wednesday that quoted unnamed sources as saying Hastert was “in the mix” of an ongoing investigation into influence peddling by Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in January to fraud and corruption charges.

Hastert has denied there is an investigation and threatened to sue ABC News, and the Justice Department has issued statements saying the speaker is not the subject of such an investigation. As of Friday evening, ABC News continued to stand by its story.

Whether or not the investigation exists, Laesch told about 20 supporters, “There should be an investigation.”

>more

http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2006/05/27/news/anews03.txt

[livvy]

21. Snippets about film at Cannes: America: Freedom to Fascism

Cannes Diary: Premieres & charity
Vandana Anand
CNN-IBN

New Delhi: Films, premieres and then some charities, Cannes has it all.

>snip

Another film to hold its international premier at Cannes was America: Freedom to Fascism.

Aaron Russo's hard-hitting political documentary connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, and the implementation of Radio Frequency Identification technology to track citizens.

Taking no sides, the film hints at the US government taking on the characteristics of a police state.

>more but this is the only related part related to topic.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/cannes-diary--premiers--charity/11567-8.html

Related article:


'FREEDOM TO FASCISM' FILM GETS CANNES OVATION
Friday, May 26, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com

The controversial film by Aaron Russo, "America: Freedom to Fascism," received a standing ovation and considerable media buzz, both during and after its presentation at the Cannes Film Festival this week, according to a press release from Russo.

The film reportedly deals with the history of America, regarding the many governmental organizations and entities that have abridged the freedoms of U.S.citizens. Using interviews with U.S. Congressmen, the former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents, tax attorneys and authors, says the release, Russo "proves conclusively that there is no law requiring citizens to pay a direct tax on their labor. His film connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, voter fraud, the national identity card - which becomes law in May 2008 - and the implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to track citizens."

During the Cannes showing, actor Nick Nolte joined Russo and strongly endorsed the film, stating that, "The information in this film is something everybody has to know." Nolte was the lead actor in "Teachers," a film produced by Russo. The film has already been previewed in over twenty-five cities, reportedly to sold out audiences and standing ovations. The website, www.freedomtofascism.com has had over 500,000 streaming hits of the video trailer, while over $100,000 in non-deductible donations has been collected to help with the theatrical release. It is scheduled to open across America on July 28. - ST

staff reports - Free-Market News Network

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=13811

[livvy]

22. Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2649736

[livvy]

23. CA: Touchscreen Voting Machines Await Election Test

First posted by Kadie in GD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1297209
Discussion started there.



Article published May 27, 2006
Ready or not
Touchscreen voting machines await election test

STOCKTON - Lined up like little electronic soldiers, rows of Diebold voting machines sit in a warehouse waiting for deployment next month.

In the weeks leading up to the June 6 primary, San Joaquin County election workers have been busy inspecting electronic voting machines to ensure vulnerabilities identified in Diebold's software don't affect voters at the polls.

All 1,625 of the county's Diebold TSx touchscreen machines have been hand-checked to ensure no malicious software snuck onto their motherboards or memory cards, said Deborah Hench, the county's registrar of voters. Memory cards have been loaded into the ATM-like machines and covered with a piece of tamper-proof tape.
Hench, like dozens of other election officials who will be overseeing the use of Diebold machines, received a letter earlier this month informing her that the company had identified a potentially devastating flaw, which could let someone with access to the machine insert a virus into the system.

>more

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060527/NEWS01/605270339/1001

[EFerrari]

25. ***CA: (L.A.) County in Need of More Poll Workers***

County in Need of More Poll Workers
By Jill Leovy, Times Staff Writer
May 26, 2006

Volunteer poll workers are in short supply this year, and with the primary election less than two weeks away, Los Angeles County officials said Thursday they are anxiously trying to recruit more.

"We are in a crunch," said Marcia Ventura, spokeswoman for the county registrar-recorder.

The registrar issued a call for new volunteers this week, saying that the county remains about 1,000 workers short of the 25,000 needed on election day to manage hundreds of polling places throughout the county.

Despite an increase in the stipend — from $55 for the day to $80 — volunteer ranks are particularly threadbare this year due to a number of factors, including the retirement of many longtime poll monitors, Ventura said.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pollworkers26may26,1,386563.story?coll=la-headlines-california