Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Thursday 1/25/07

[EFerrari]

Election Reform, Fraud and Related News. Thursday 1/25/07

LEAVIN' ON A JET PLANE AND COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!

Assemble on the National Mall

between 3rd and 7th Streets, at 11 am.
Rally 11am-1pm.
March will kick off at 1pm.
Links to transportation, meet ups and nation - wide solidarity events:

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.

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


1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" 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.

[kster]

1. --

:yourock: KNR

[EFerrari]

2. National: House Restores Some Voting Rights to Congressional Delegates

House Restores Some Voting Rights to Congressional Delegates

By CARL HULSE
Published: January 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — The Democratic majority in the House restored limited floor voting rights to the Congressional delegates from the District of Columbia and four territories on Wednesday after a rancorous debate with echoes of the days before the Republicans won the majority in 1994.

The change approved on a party-line vote of 226 to 191 was mostly symbolic because the five delegates will be allowed to vote just on floor amendments, not on final approval of bills.

If their votes influence the outcome on amendments, a new vote will be taken without their participation.

The return of the privileges, first allowed by Democrats in 1993 and rescinded by Republicans in 1995, resulted in Republicans’ pouring out their frustration about their treatment by Democrats in the first weeks of Congress. The sour mood threatened efforts at forging a more cooperative relationship between the parties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25delegates.html

[autorank]

3. "Brother - Sister" act help state election directors endorse now banned Ciber

EAC’s “New York Brother” and “Sis” responsible for
NASED's certification of banned test lab Ciber, Inc.

By Michael Richardson

http://www.electionfraudnews.com/News/Richardson.htm

n 2002, the Help America Vote Act transferred testing responsibility from NASED to the EAC, which took over the duties in July 2006. When it came time to issue interim accreditation to the test labs, EAC technical specialists found that Ciber, Inc. had failed to adequately document security testing while under NASED’s certification. Serving “ex officio” on the Voting Systems Board, headed by Wilkey, was Shawn Southworth of Ciber.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has since recommended to the EAC that two other test labs perform the work formerly done by Ciber. Davidson, who twice testified before Congressional hearings last year on voting machine certification failed to disclose the problems with the Ciber test labs to members of Congress. Senator Diane Feinstein has since asked Wilkey to explain why Ciber was not issued interim accreditation and why the public and election officials around the country were not notified before the November 2006 elections.

During the six months of secrecy from the EAC about the test lab ban, Ciber founder Bobby Stevenson sold $1.6 million worth of stock in the company. Ciber CEO Mac Slinglend also did some insider trading unloading $115,000 worth of the stock while the public was unaware of the EAC action against the company.

[EFerrari]

4. Other Voices - We urgently need to fix our voting system

Other Voices - We urgently need to fix our voting system
By: Lee Hamilton

As the 110th Congress convened January 4, its members had only to look around them to be reminded of an issue they should be addressing this session. Indeed, they could look this reminder right in the face.

His name is Vern Buchanan, and he was sworn in as the duly elected representative of Florida's 13th District. He won his seat by 369 votes, but his opponent has called into question why some 18,000 people in the district who voted for other races on the ballot seem not to have cast votes in the House contest.

The questions over whether the computerized voting machines in Sarasota County operated properly are yet another reminder of a serious problem that our representative government faces and that Congress needs to address: Our voting system is fragile and desperately in need of shoring up.

Ever since the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, Americans have been aware that the systems by which we record, tally, and verify votes don't always work. Yet there seems no great sense of urgency, either among the public or in Congress, about making sure we fix things right now. This puzzles me. If elections are defective, our entire system is at risk.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=326&dept_id=449009&newsid=17745779&PAG=461&rfi=9

[autorank]

5. Insider trading stock sell-off by Ciber execs while EAC silent about Ciber ban

Insider trading stock sell-off by Ciber execs during
EAC secrecy over voting machine test lab ban

By Michael Richardson 23 Jan. 2007

http://www.electionfraudnews.com/News/Richardson.htm#Insider_

Although the public was not informed by the Election Assistance Commission about its decision to not issue interim accreditation to Ciber, Inc., one of the nation’s three previously certified test laboratories for electronic voting machines, the company executives were very aware they had lost a hold on the lucrative testing business.

While unknowing election officials around America continued to incorrectly claim their voting machines were properly tested and certified in the months leading up to the November 2006 elections several Ciber honchos quietly began a stock sell-off.

The EAC took over testing responsibilities for electronic voting machines from the National Association of State Election Directors in July 2006 and issued interim accreditation to two of the NASED certified test labs on August 15, 2006. The Ciber laboratory was left off the approved list for inadequate quality assurance testing and failure to document tests were performed.

[EFerrari]

6. FL: Voting Paper Trail Needed, Senate Committee Told

Voting Paper Trail Needed, Senate Committee Told

(CBS) TALLAHASSEE As Miami voters went to the polls Tuesday, using electronic voting to decide if the County should be governed by a strong mayor, a renewed call was made at the other end of the state for a paper trail backing up a voter’s choice. A parade of witnesses told a Senate committee that legislation that would require a paper trail is needed to restore voters' confidence in Florida.

As Kindra Muntz put it: "We have a travesty of democracy." Muntz is president of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections. She told the Senate's Ethics and Elections Committee that voters of all political parties have been disenfranchised.

And it's right in Muntz's backyard where Florida's latest controversy has surfaced.

Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan was seated earlier this month in the US House after his 369-vote margin was certified by the state despite more than 18-thousand voters apparently didn't cast ballots in his race against Democrat Christine Jennings.


http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_023182432.html

[EFerrari]

7. CO: Post office, voting firm at odds over mail-in ballot problems

Post office, voting firm at odds over mail-in ballot problems

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 24, 2007


DENVER - The company contracted by the Denver Election Commission is coming under fire again after thousands of ballots for an upcoming election were incorrectly mailed.

A U.S. Postal Service official, in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Coffman, blasted Sequoia Voting Systems, saying envelopes the company used for the Jan. 30 election could not be automatically sorted. Post office officials called the Oakland, Calif.-based company a "low-cost, low-quality, out-of-state election mail vendor."

About 3,500 mail-in ballots, including Mayor John Hickenlooper's, were sent to the wrong places, and about 1,200 voters who live outside of Denver did not get their ballots.

"Our locally documented cases over the last two years show that every mailing prepared by Sequoia had mail design, sortation, or preparation issues, regardless of the amount of prework and information the Postal Service provided them," U.S. post office district manager Dean Granholm wrote in the letter.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070124/NEWS/101240060

[EFerrari]

8. CO: Denver's voter registration list in question

Denver's voter registration list in question
The election commission cites rushed mail-in voting and inactive names on rolls after November woes.
By George Merritt
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 01/23/2007 06:09:05 AM MST

The United States Postal Service has chastised Denver for its handling of this month's mail- ballot election.

Secretary of State Mike Coffman's office Monday received a letter ripping Denver and its election vendor Sequoia Voting Systems for poor design, addressing issues and sorting errors.

Post office district manager Dean Granholm said that as of Jan. 17, the addressing problems had resulted in $11,000 in extra cost for the city of Denver because of ballots being returned to sender.

"Denver City and County did not provide the communication needed to achieve success," he wrote.

http://test.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5064577

[EFerrari]

9. VA: Touch-screen voting machines would be phased out

Voting Machines RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Touch-screen voting machines would be phased out under legislation headed to the Senate floor.

The bill prohibits localities from buying new touch-screen machines after July first, opting instead for optical scan devices.

Those devices require voters to mark a paper ballot and enter it into a machine that then records the vote.

Localities could use the touch-screen machines they have, but couldn't buy new ones.

http://www.wvva.com/News/index.php?ID=10501

[EFerrari]

10. National: Death Knell May Be Near for Public Election Funds

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 — The public financing system for presidential campaigns, a post-Watergate initiative hailed for decades as the best way to rid politics of the corrupting influence of money, may have quietly died over the weekend.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York became the first candidate since the program began in 1976 to forgo public financing for both the primary and the general election because of the spending limits that come with the federal money. By declaring her confidence that she could raise far more than the roughly $150 million the system would provide for the 2008 presidential primaries and general election, Mrs. Clinton makes it difficult for other serious candidates to participate in the system without putting themselves at a significant disadvantage.

Officials of the Federal Election Commission and advisers to several campaigns say they expect the two candidates who reach Election Day 2008 will raise more than $500 million apiece. Including money raised by other primary candidates, the total spent on the presidential election could easily exceed $1 billion.

People involved in the Republican primary campaign of Senator John McCain of Arizona say he, too, is beginning to seek private donations for the primary and general elections, albeit with the option of returning them. A longtime proponent of campaign finance change, Mr. McCain has recently removed his name as a co-sponsor of a bill to expand the presidential public financing program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/us/politics/23donate.html?bl&ex=1169874000&en=9c6e35eeef2524cf&ei=5087%0A

[EFerrari]

11. Election Attorneys Amplify Importance of Convictions for Recount Rigging in Ohio 2004 Pres Race

Election Attorneys Amplify Importance of Convictions for Recount Rigging in Ohio 2004 Pres Race

a news analysis
by Paul Lehto, Attorney at Law


THE BASIC NEWS:

The verdict is in on whether the November 2004 presidential election recount in Ohio was "illegally rigged {by election officials} in what was supposed to be a random sample recount in {order} to avoid a time-consuming hand count of all votes." http://wcpo.com/news/2007/local/01/23/oh_elections.html

Verdict: Two officials found Guilty of felony level negligent misconduct in elections. The lowest level manager of the three officials charged was acquitted on all counts.

The two convicted Election officials face terms of 6 to 18 months in prison. A third assistant manager was acquitted on all counts. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/165362...

The recount was originally requested by the Green and Libertarian presidential candidates, David Cobb of the Green Party and Michael Badnarik for the Libertarians as a statewide recount. The felony convictions represented misconduct only in Democratic-vote-rich Cuyahoga County, located in and around Cleveland. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/165362...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_paul_leh_070124_election_attorneys_a.htm

[EFerrari]

12. AP: Election Workers Rigged '04 Ohio Recount

Election Workers Rigged '04 Ohio Recount

(AP) CLEVELAND Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio's most populous county.

Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Roger Synenberg has said the workers were following procedures as they understood them.

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_025014656.html

(Yeah, just like Lindy England brought those leashes with her to Abu Graib. I get it!)

[EFerrari]

13. DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINE KEY COPIED FROM PHOTO AT COMPANY'S OWN ONLINE STORE!

DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINE KEY COPIED FROM PHOTO AT COMPANY'S OWN ONLINE STORE!

Submitted by Joan Brunwasser

(YIKES!)This is the once-great American security company that helped kick off this entire disaster after it was discovered they left their "secure" source code for their unsecure voting machines sitting out on the net for anyone to download from a public FTP site in 2003.And if you couldn't figure out how to hack one of their systems from that alone,now they've given you the model to build your own key at home! Have fun,kids!

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.php?id=29755

[EFerrari]

14. Jennings campaign to tout study discounting ballot design theory

Jennings campaign to tout study discounting ballot design theory
By Aaron Blake

A new academic study of voting in Florida’s 13th district congressional race refutes the prevailing opinion of experts that the large undervote in the race in November was likely due to poor ballot design.

Democrat Christine Jennings lost by 369 votes out of 240,000 cast, and has contended that the undervote — more than 18,000 Sarasota County ballots didn’t include a vote in the congressional race — could be attributed to malfunctioning electronic voting machines.

The new study points to an error message that the experts say correlates with the undervotes, as well as to voting patterns that show unusually high undervote rates for Democratic voters. The study’s authors say more information, specifically the secret software used by the voting machines, is required to draw any real conclusions.

The Jennings campaign plans to tout the study, which was researched independently by Stanford University computer science professor David Dill and Cornell University government professor Walter Mebane, as support for its appeal in a Florida court.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/012407/jennings.html

[autorank]

15. I think it's a bad bet although I support the Jennings challenge 100%

Here's what co-investigator Melbane said in the DNC's "Democracy at Risk" report on Ohio 2004
(taking up about 1/2 the report arguing that Kerry clealry lost Ohio):

Report:

http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/06/democracy_at_ri.php

Chapter:

http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/www.democrats.org/pdfs/ohvrireport/section06.pdf

Here's the little gem:

[livvy]

16. Well done! K&R

Now, get packing. You've got traveling to do! See you at the Hawk and Dove!

[Kurovski]

17. You and sfexpat2000 be sure to drink a toast to the ER now, ya hear?

:toast: thank you for going to DC, and have a great time!

I understand Beth is making it an inter-generational event, now THAT'S what I call "family values"!

My love to all.

[livvy]

18. Just one?

Hey, us reform people have values galore! Thanks, we will have fun I'm sure. When I get close to the Capitol Building, I'll yell something especially insulting for you. If you have something specific in mind, just let me know!

I think this guy is saying, "NO MORE WAR!" At least he has the bounce right.

[Kurovski]

19. You pick the number!

Yell something refined, like "Is that a flagpole, or is Mark Foley waving to the pages?"

Safe journey to all. :hi::loveya:

[rumpel]

20. Have fun!

send report :)


add - "resign" to the vocab, please bon voyage :hi: