Tuesday 4/5 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=203x352325

[Botany]

1. Phone hacking by repugs!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1369059

[MelissaB]

2. Touch-screen vote machines to get test

Touch-screen vote machines to get test

By JAMES MILLER
Staff Writer

Last update: April 05, 2005

The machines arrived Monday. The curious, the outraged and the Volusia County Council can come today.
It's time for Volusia County's mock touch-screen election.

Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall hopes the demonstration, which runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Wednesday at the Department of Elections in DeLand will help clear the way for her to buy 210 touch-screen machines to meet state and federal requirements for disabled-accessible voting.

But getting to choose the "minister of comic relief" -- one of numerous imaginary races on the electronic ballots -- may not satisfy local activists who have already stalled the purchase once by lobbying the County Council in favor of a paper record the touch screens don't provide.

"I think it's great that they're testing the machines," said Susan Pynchon, executive director of the DeLand-based Florida Fair Elections Coalition. "But it's not really determining the will of the voter when you have only one choice (of machine)."

More: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Politics/Headlines/03PoliticsEAST01POLL040505.htm

[MelissaB]

3. Show & tell

Show & tell

By William Jackson
GCN Staff

The FOSE trade show gives the stage to new technologies for government. GCN previews five that could help your agency.

E-voting

Electronic voting has disappeared from the headlines since the 2004 elections. But with new elections coming up every year, the issue is certain to heat up again, and Comfidex Corp. of New York hopes to be in the middle of it. The company is unveiling its prototype VoteFiler at FOSE.

VoteFiler is a hybrid system that lets voters create ballots online in advance of an election and cast the paper ballots at the polling place on Election Day.

“This is not all-or-nothing,” said Comfidex president Bill Stratigos. “Our system is meant to coexist with existing systems.”

Comfidex seeks to avoid security concerns by minimizing VoteFiler’s footprint and working with off-the-shelf hardware and software as much as possible.

More: http://www.gcn.com/24_7/fosenews/35382-1.html

[MelissaB]

4. Janesville Gazette, WI : City tells voters to plan ahead to reach polls in

City tells voters to plan ahead to reach polls in time

By Marcia Nelesen
Gazette Staff

These days, four clocks in the same room-a wall clock, a cell phone clock, a computer clock and a microwave clock, for instance-can all show different times.

That's why Janesville's city clerk is warning people to give themselves plenty of time to vote.

Jean Ann Wulf was responding to a complaint by a couple who allege they were denied the right to vote when polls closed early during the February primary.

Goodrich Jack Gevaart and his wife, Carol, wrote a letter to city officials after the primary. They claimed they were in line at First Lutheran Church before 8 p.m., which is the deadline to vote.

The couple said the digital clock in their car showed 7:57 p.m.; the wall clock in the hall at the entrance to the polling place showed 7:57 p.m.; and the clock on the wall in the polling place showed 7:58 p.m. Gevaart said his wristwatch agreed with the polling clock.

But the voting machine had already been turned off, and the Gevaarts were not able to vote.

Wulf said the time on the voting machine shows the machine was turned off at 8:01 p.m.

More: http://www.gazetteextra.com/eln_timetovote040505.asp

[MelissaB]

5. King County election chief under fire

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

King County election chief under fire

Two Republican council members call on Logan to resign

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The top election official in King County should resign, two Republican members of the County Council said yesterday in reaction to the latest blunder to come to light in the troubled election department.

That problem -- the discovery during the last 10 days of 93 valid mail-in ballots mistakenly left out of the vote count in the November election -- triggered angry reactions from both Republican and Democratic council members.

But the performance of election director Dean Logan was endorsed yesterday by his boss, King County Executive Ron Sims, who appointed Logan in 2003 to straighten out earlier problems in the department.

>>>snip


The GOP in January filed suit to set aside the results of the governor's election, which gave Democrat Christine Gregoire a 129-vote victory after a hand recount of more than 2.8 million ballots cast statewide. Much of the Republican fire has been concentrated on King County, where Gregoire rolled up a 150,000-vote plurality. The trial of the lawsuit has not begun.

More: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/218836_elections05.html

[Wilms]

6. (IO, WI, AZ) Still More ID News

Equal Vote

Monday, April 4

Still More ID News

Who says Democrats are the only ones who care about election reform? The hot topic of the moment continues to be bills to require a photo ID, on which there's been movement in several states during the past few days, advanced mostly by Republicans:

-snip/more-

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2005/04/still-more-id-news.html