Pew Center-Awards $2.5 Million to Improve US Elections-Election Reform-Fraud & Related News 1/16/08

[kpete]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Tuesday 01/16/08

The Pew Center on the States and the JEHT Foundation
Award $2.5 Million to Improve U.S. Elections

Release Type: Pew Press Release

Pew Contact: Jessica Riordan, 215.575.4886



Washington, DC - 01/16/2008 - The Pew Center on the States’ Make Voting Work initiative and the JEHT Foundation today are joining with election experts and state and local officials across the country to address the most pressing problems facing voters during the 2008 elections. In partnership with the JEHT Foundation, Pew is awarding $2.5 million in funding to 16 projects that advance innovative solutions to critical flaws in our elections system and improve accuracy, convenience, efficiency and security for voters. An additional $1 million in funding will be awarded over the next six months. The projects were selected from 183 proposals submitted to Pew in 2007 from state and local governments and election experts.

“Elections should be a time to celebrate the strength of our democracy, but despite increased federal and state efforts, the 2008 elections find the rules of the game in flux with policies, practices and technologies being instituted and discarded without an adequate base of evidence. As a result the integrity of our elections is relentlessly questioned,” said Michael Caudell-Feagan, director of Make Voting Work.

In April 2007, Pew’s Make Voting Work initiative and the JEHT Foundation released a joint invitation calling for proposals for funding that sought to identify new ways to measure the health and performance of elections and to develop and evaluate pilot projects offering innovative approaches to improve the election process. The goal was to draw on the expertise of election officials and academics currently studying elections issues—while also seeking to identify new partners from private-sector companies and diverse academic disciplines. The winning projects focus on evaluating strategies for improving voter registration systems, polling place access, and poll worker training and on election audits and performance assessment.

“We are pleased this unprecedented effort has already yielded such strong partnerships. The involvement of state and local election officials across the country in these projects is crucial since they have the knowledge, experience and opportunity to improve the nuts and bolts of voting. Make Voting Work addresses the lack of empirical evidence and examines on-the-ground experience to yield real solutions. The ultimate goal is a more successful process for citizens participating in democracy through the fundamental act of voting,” said Rachel Leon, senior manager for fair and participatory elections at the JEHT Foundation.

Make Voting Work selected the 16 projects, which focus their work on five distinct areas where major failings have been identified and improvements are being debated and implemented by election officials, but where additional expertise is desired and necessary to shape and evaluate these efforts. These areas include:

read the rest at:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid33582.aspx

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[Stevepol]

1. US Elections Still in Snafu Mode

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0801/S00132.htm

From: John Gideon

Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 11:06 am
Column: Bernard Weiner

But, on the basis of what happened last week in New Hampshire and from other accounts around the country, we would be remiss as citizens if we didn't admit that eight years after the disaster that was the 2000 election process, we still don't have a reliable, secure voting system:

* Republicans in various key states are still getting away with knocking hundreds of thousands of likely Democratic voters off the rolls. And they're counting on the Supreme Court, as it probably will do, to OK their strict voter-I.D. bills that might well suppress voter turnout of poor and minority citizens. ( www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/epps )

* And, given the lack of adequate public oversight, it's still possible for the corporations that tabulate the ballots to alter the numbers in secret to fit any result they wish, with nobody able to prove the manipulation.

Did vote-tampering happen in New Hampshire? Maybe not. Could it have? Yes. The "irregularities" in the announced election results cry out for further investigation and perhaps even a full recount.


Link: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0801/S00132.htm

[Stevepol]

2. CA: The Fictional crime of voter fraud

From: John Gideon

THE FICTIONAL CRIME OF VOTER FRAUD

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Bush Justice Department, especially under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, used the pretext of voter fraud as a political attempt to disenfranchise minorities who tended to vote Democratic.

Like other useful tools, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, this ideological fiction must be defended at all costs.

The Supreme Court is now considering the Indiana voter ID law to combat, by onerous conditions, a crime the legislature cannot show to exist.

Meanwhile, the FDA has approved a drug to treat the agony of fibromyalgia. But wait. There is no evidence that fibromyalgia is a real physical condition. Perhaps a psychosomatic symptom, but not a real world condition. Isn't this exactly like approving a voter ID law to combat voter fraud that isn't happening?

BOB HAYDEN

San Francisco

Proud to be a dinosaur
Editor - With Iowa and New Hampshire in the rearview mirror, all eyes are starting to look west to California and the Feb. 5 primary.

Call me a true believer, but I have voted in every presidential election since Nixon vs. McGovern (1972 for those who don't know or can't remember). Back then, we were asked to darken in a box or punch a hole in a ballot.

Voting is not a quaint throwback to the 18th century, it is the acting out of this nation's deepest ideals. With this thought in mind, I am happy to call myself a political dinosaur. As President Harry Truman was fond of saying, "The most valuable real estate in America is the voting booth."

snip . . .

lINK: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/15/EDGRUDSL9.DTL

[sonias]

11. Great LTTEs

Thanks for the links.

Sonia

[Stevepol]

3. CO: Lawmaker sounds death knell for electronic voting

From John Gideon

Lawmaker sounds death knell for electronic voting
By John Ingold
The Denver Post

Officials trying to figure out how to hold elections this year in Colorado have all but decided not to use the troubled electronic voting terminals that threw the elections into turmoil, a state senator told his colleagues today.

Sen. Ken Gordon, the co-chairman of a task force looking at the election issues, said instead, legislators and county clerks have decided to use paper ballots.

"The decision that has pretty much been made is it's going to be paper, and it's going to be the same in every county," Gordon said today, after a lunchtime meeting with the Senate's Democratic caucus, where he updated his colleagues on the election issues.

snip . . .

Link: http://origin.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_7978228

[Stevepol]

4. CO: Hart Intercivic counts votes incorrectly

From: John Gideon

MAYO FOILS VOTING MACHINES
Boulder County Clerk begins to dig through ballots used to test voting equipment
By Laura Snider (Contact)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Ballots smeared with lipstick, blotted with mayonnaise or clamped with a paper clip -- among other abnormalities -- were at least partially responsible for flunking Boulder County's voting equipment, Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall said Monday.

Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified the county's vote-counting machines, manufactured by Hart InterCivic, last month because they "failed to count ballots correctly" in tests.

snip . . .

Link: http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/jan/15/mayo-foils-machines/

[Stevepol]

5. KS: Where's the Evidence of Voter Fraud?

The Wichita Eagle Editorial Department Blog



From: John Gideon

Blogged by Randy Scholfield

Where is evidence for voter fraud?State GOP leaders are putting a new voter ID requirement at the top of their legislative priorities, saying they fear that illegal immigrants are being registered to vote.

House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, pointed to “potentially thousands of those registrations out there, so it is important that we protect the integrity of this next election,” he said.

But there’s no evidence of illegal immigrant voters undermining the polls in Kansas — not one documented case.

Of far greater concern is the certainty that new photo ID requirements actually would dampen turnout by legitimate U.S. citizens. The fact is, many elderly who don’t drive and low-income residents have trouble producing or locating the right kind of identification.

Shouldn’t the goal be to help more people vote, not make it more difficult for them?

snip . . .

Link: http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2008/01/where-is-evidence-for-voter-fraud/

[Stevepol]

6. MO: Study Prompts Concern Over Voting Machines

http://adsys.townnews.com/10808855/creative/missoulian.com/ads+leader/99140-1200506002.jpg

From John Gideon

Study prompts concern over voting machines
By KEILA SZPALLER of the Missoulian

Problems with machines and software used to count votes in Missoula have prompted the League of Women Voters of Montana to ask the secretary of state to decertify the suspect election equipment.

“Trustworthy elections cannot be assured as long as the machines themselves are untrustworthy,” said the organization in a Jan. 6 letter to Secretary of State Brad Johnson.

The flaws came to light in a two-year, $1.9 million study released last month in Ohio. The matter arose Monday during a Missoula League of Women Voters meeting.

snip . . .

Montana uses ES&S products because the company makes machines that count paper ballots, which Montana uses, said Bowen Greenwood, a spokesman in the secretary of state's office.

Missoula County uses anywhere from 50 to 70 precinct counters, two central counters and some 39 AutoMARK machines, which people with disabilities can use to mark ballots. The system cost around $600,000.

Zeier said safeguards are in place to protect the integrity of elections and Missoula intends to add even more security checks this year. A poll book, a true record of how many people voted, is reconciled with the machine count when votes are canvassed.

And she said vigilant workers at polling places keep close tabs on a machine tally of ballots cast. That means any attempt to zero out a machine would not go unnoticed. She said the idea to update software raised a dilemma. She said she believes even new antivirus software must first be certified by the state before being loaded into a machine.

snip . . .

“We use paper ballots, which means that even in the worst-possible-case scenario - if every machine in Montana were hacked and taken over - we would still have an accurate count of the votes,” Greenwood said.

snip . . .

Link: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/15/news/mtregional/news10.txt

[Stevepol]

7. NY: FBI Looking Into Huntington Election

From: John Gideon

FBI looking into Huntington election
BY RICK BRAND | [e-mail]
2:24 PM EST, January 15, 2008

The FBI has subpoenaed election records in the disputed Huntington Town board race to investigate possible tampering after one voting machine recorded 40 more votes than the total cast.

FBI Special Agent Michael S. Craft sent the grand jury subpoena Friday to Republican Commissioner Cathy L. Richter Geier at the Suffolk Board of Elections in Yaphank seeking "any an all documents, records correspondence and e-mails regarding the election machine ... used in district #33."

The subpoena comes after a recount and an intense court battle in which state Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines last month declared Democratic incumbent Glenda Jackson the winner over Republican challenger William Dowler. That recount showed Jackson leading by 23 votes, not counting the machine that produced more votes than voters. That machine also had Jackson leading 107 to 88. Pines ruled that even if all 40 extra votes were removed from Jackson, she would have still won by two votes.

snip . . .

(Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it looks like we'll have some real investigations of election fraud)

The subpoena comes two weeks after Suffolk elections officials certified Jackson's (a Democrat) re-election, after a unanimous Appellate Division ruling rejected the appeal of Huntington Republicans to throw out the election and order a new vote. The local GOP has now requested special permission of the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, to hear the case, but has not received a response.

(Wouldn't it be wonderful if Dems were as mindful of election fraud as Republicans?)

Link: http://www.newsday.com/community/news/northshoresuffolk/huntington/ny-hlfbi0116,0,7976229.story

[Stevepol]

8. OH: Brunner Defends Touch Screen Ban

From: John Gideon

Brunner defends touch-screen ban
Hearing on decision to scrap voting machines statewide set for next week
BY JON CRAIG | [e-mail]

COLUMBUS - Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will host a public hearing next Tuesday for citizens and scientists to react to her recommendation to scrap touch-screen voting machines in Ohio before the Nov. 4 election.

During a Statehouse news conference Monday, the Democrat held fast to her decision that 57 counties in Ohio - including Adams, Butler and Highland - should replace electronic touch-screen voting machines, which a study found susceptible to hacking and technical failures.

"I don't believe that we can continue to use (touch-screen voting machines) into the November election," she said.

snip . . .

Link: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS01/801150348/1056/COL02

[Melissa G]

9. Thanks stevepol! n/t

[sonias]

12. Great women - Secretary of State - CA & OH

Debra Bowen and Jennifer Brunner. Bless them both!

Sonia

[yourout]

10. I hope they purchased a big ass 2.5 million dollar grinder to throw the machines in.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

14. Their Vote Center Idea will incentivize DRE/touch screens

so unfortunately, they are potentially creating more chaos to combat.

Pew doesn't seem to be on the same page as us in some things.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. Pew to fund Vote Center study - be forwarned

"Vote Centers ($568,000)
States are increasingly grappling with the problem of overcrowded, inconveniently located
and poorly designed polling places. In response, some states are experimenting with vote centers
that replace neighborhood precincts and allow voters to cast ballots at large, centralized
polling places anywhere in their city or county­near their work, school, shopping center
or other destination. The innovation is in its infancy and important questions have been raised,
including how to determine where vote centers should be located and what their impact is on
voter turnout and the cost of running elections.

Make Voting Work has awarded three contracts for a combined total of $568,000 to
Ball State University, which is working with local election officials in Tippecanoe and Wayne counties in Indiana; Rice University, which is working with local election officials throughout Colorado and two Texas jurisdictions, Fort Bend and Lubbock; and the University of Tennessee, which is working with local election officials in Knox, Anderson and Loudon counties."

http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid33582.aspx>http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid33582.aspx

Some questions:

1. How can Vote Centers be implemented without disenfranchising the poor, disabled and elderly voters?
2. How can Vote Centers be implemented without incentivizing direct record electronic voting machines?
3. Are these Counties mentioned going to be "beta tests" for Vote Centers?
4. Can I get a grant for $568,000 to study the impact of voter verified paper ballots and audits on public confidence in elections? :)

[Wilms]

15. That's the one that bothered me in particular. n/t