Blogged by Brad from the road...

As is too often the case, the proverbial shit seems most likely to hit the erstwhile fan whenever we're on the road and unable to cover the splatter sufficiently. This week has been no exception.

There is much movement in Ohio today as Michael Vu, the Election Director for Cuyahoga County, where two Election Officials were convicted two weeks ago of having rigged the 2004 Presidential recount, has now finally resigned from the Board of Elections after what is hopefully his last failed election.

The official BoE statement generously says: "Michael Vu has chosen to pursue future career growth and will resign as director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections March 1 of this year."

In related news --- and speaking of failed elections and "future career growth" --- the office of the new Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has now officially requested an audit of the SoS's office over the last two years as it was led by the corrupt former SoS and democracy-hater J. Kenneth Blackwell.

In addition to the $80,000 in bonuses given to employees on the way out the door, and the $250,000 settlement Blackwell agreed to concerning the 2004 Election last December (as we reported two weeks ago), Brunner expressed a new concern in her hand-delivered letter to the Republican State Auditor Mary Taylor: Shredded documents.

As reported today by the Columbus Dispatch:

Blackwell shredding documents?! We're shocked! Shocked!

Blogged by Brad from the road...

Congressman Rush Holt's (D-NJ) new, re-written Election Reform legislation --- now known as HR811, previously known as HR550 in the last Congress --- has been introduced today. It's now available here [PDF].

Holt's bill is the first of several competing Election Reform bills which will be introduced in the House and Senate by various members. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) is to hold hearings tomorrow (Wednesday) on "The Hazards of Electronic Voting: Focus on the Machinery of Democracy" in the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which she now chairs.

We continue to be on the road, and are thus not able to sit and focus as long as we'd usually like on any one thing. But we will have much to say on Holt's legislation and other bills in the coming days and weeks.

While groups such as VoteTrustUSA, People for the American Way (PFAW) and CommonCause are urging their members to endorse this legislation, for now we'd encourage you to actually read it before making any such decisions.

CommonCause, for example, urged members to endorse this legislation with a campaign begun weeks ago, before the final version was even introduced (the bill has been changed substantially in the ensuing weeks and recent drafts). As of this morning, PFAW had offered several misleading and down-right incorrect bullet points in support of the legislation on their petition page, calling on members to support the bill. We contacted them about that, and at least they've now removed the misleading bullet points, even if they still urge members to support the legislation. More on all of that in the near future as well.

Holt's bill, as proposed, does indeed offer many good and much-needed provisions. However, it also includes several troubling and dangerous loopholes, in our opinion.

By way of full disclosure, we consulted with Holt's office on this bill, having been allowed access to several drafts over the last month or two, about which we were able to offer input. Much of that input was included in subsequent drafts and remains now in the far-better final version. However, other input was not included, and thus we still have concerns about some of the existing loopholes in the bill.

For the moment though, we'd ask you to simply read it and share your thoughts. More on all of this soon...

(We would also ask you again to sign the Open Letter to Congress from more than 40 non-partisan Election Integrity organizations demanding a paper BALLOT --- one that must actually be counted --- for every vote cast, along with a complete ban on disenfranchising DRE/Touch-screen voting machines, which must never again be used in an American election!)

Blogged by Brad Friedman from Phoenix, AZ...

In a conference call with several bloggers concluded moments ago, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) had a number of harsh words concerning today's procedural bickering and fillibustering by Republicans in the Senate, which stifled both votes on his own legislation to end the Iraq War as well as amendments offered by other lawmakers to several non-binding resolutions that also failed to come to the floor for a full vote.

Feingold's remarks were highly critical not just of the Republicans, but even moreso of his own Democratic caucus colleagues, "Washington insider consultants," and even former Senatorial colleague-turned-presidential candidate John Edwards, for failing to take a tough stand to end the war in Iraq.

In a passionate, thirty-minute call, Feingold stressed, "This is an important moment to see if we're gonna try and end this war. Frankly, I'm disappointed that Democrats are playing it safe on this one."

"We need to play hardball on this. We're gonna have to take the lead on this issue and we're gonna need to tie this place up as long as it takes," he said in describing what he sees as a fear and timidity in his colleagues who now hold a slight majority in the Senate...

Blogged by Brad Friedman from Phoenix, AZ...

While Florida's new Republican Governor Charlie Crist deserves credit, perhaps even a rarely-bestowed BRAD BLOG "Intellectually Honest Conservative" Award --- for his recent announcement alongside Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) that he would propose some $32 million to replace the Sunshine State's failed touch-screen voting machines with paper-based optical scan systems, it seems that the old state guard is still lying and covering up for their failed e-voting systems which undermined democracy last November.

An article on the Crist/Wexler initiative from last Friday's New York Times offered this refreshing quote from the Florida Republican on concerns about the cost of tossing the state's recently purchased touch-screen systems: "The price of freedom is not cheap. The importance of a democratic system of voting that we can trust, that we can have confidence in, is incredibly important."

To that, we say, right on. But apparently the folks in Crist's Department of State (DOS) have yet to get the memo that it's time to stop covering up the massive electoral system failures in Florida.

In a blog item today by Princeton University's computer science Professor Ed Felten, he reveals that the state's "independent audit" of the contested 13th Congressional District election between Democrat Christine Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan --- in which some 18,000 votes disappeared on Sarasota County's paperless touch-screen machines in a race decided by just 369 votes --- is built on more lies than previously realized.

The Princeton University professor who led the team that revealed Diebold touch-screen systems could be hacked in less than 60 seconds and implanted with a vote-stealing virus which could undetectedly flip an entire election has exposed yet another lie from the state-convened team of scientists supposedly investigating the FL-13 incident.

The audit team, convened by state officials at the FL Department of State, has been appropriately criticized for its partisan make-up, lack of transparency, and apparent conflicts of interest in demonstrating that they were not to blame for having certified the very voting systems they have charged themselves with "investigating."

Felten, however, has revealed the case is even worse than that. Apparently they have lied about who is actually on the team, listing Felten in official documents as one of the team members despite his early refusal to take part in the state-run investigation...

Blogged by Brad from Phoenix, AZ...

All the archives from this week's guest hosting stints on PBC and Malloy are below. But before that...In case you weren't able to play along at home, here's what happened....

I was scheduled to Guest Host the Peter B. Collins Show last Thursday and Friday. We came to Phoenix to do it with the assistance of 1480 KPHX, Phoenix's Air America affiliate and Nova M Radio Network flagship station. Thursday went well enough with three hours of the PBC show as smartly broadcast from the studio. Friday, however, was another story.

Despite (hasty if) best-laid plans to hold a live AZ Election Integrity townhall forum Bradcast from the Plumbers & Pipefitters Union Hall here in Phoenix, we were unable to establish contact from the remote location up to PBC's network hub in San Rafael. While a big house of eager folks waited patiently in the hall throughout the technical snafus, and as "Best of PBC" shows played in the meantime, we received a call from Mike Malloy that he was not feeling well and would be unable to do his show on Friday night which airs right after PBC's on KPHX/NovaM and on Sirius Radio, etc.

He asked if we could fill in for him and the answer, making lemonade outta lemons was; "Sure! If we can get back to the studio in time!" After which we invited everyone in the hall who wished to join us back to hang with us at the studio as we then hightailed it back and did the final hour of PBC live over there instead followed by three hours filling in for Malloy.

And so it was. We picked up a bit of our planned AZ Election Integrity forum for the last hour of PBC and the first hour or so of Malloy as many folks hung around throughout the entire night. Got to hang throughout with several BRAD BLOG commenters as well, including RAM, Mike Shelby and others. A great time was had by all (I think) and a bunch of radio fun ensued.

The archives for all of the above follow below. Including some great wingnut calls during Malloy's show. I always enjoy a bit of good troll-stomping as I'm sure you will as well. If I had the time, I'd pull out some of the great callers who were both very kind to me along with the wingnut calls and their ensuing stompage. (Any audiophiles out there who are so inclined to do so, and send me such a collection, I'll be happy to post it.)

Thanks to ALL of the great folks in Phoenix who made all of it possible. You are an inspiration. Listen up to all below...

Blogged by Brad from the road...

See RAW STORY for their excerpts from Frank Rich's analysis about what's going on at the White House and in Dick Cheney's brain right now. We happily associate ourselves with Rich's take on things. Particularly the part about most of the DC insiders "misunderestimating" all that is likely at stake --- and on display --- vis-a-vis the Libby trial.

Blogged by Brad from the road...

Shop talk. From a new article "investigative blogging" at NewAssignment.net, a site dedicated to "open-source reporting." Yours truly quoted liberally...

For my comments on that and more wise-crackery, see the full story...

LATE UPDATE: All the audio archives of my Guest Host stints last week on the Malloy and PBC shows are now available here for your listening pleasure...

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Today's special live Townhall BradCast from AZ is sponsored by AuditAZ.org, Arizona Advocacy Network, VelvetRevolution.us and 1480 KPHX Phoenix's Air America/Nova M affiliate!

A great show lined up! Tune in to find out if I'm telling the truth or not and feel free to use this item as an Open Thread while we trash Peter B. Collins's good reputation! (While the mouse is away!)

If your local affiliate doesn't carry the PBC show, Listen online here or here

Call in at 1-888-5-PeterB! More details back here on today's show!

If you're in the Phoenix area, join us at the Plumbers & Pipefitters Union Hall, 24th St. & Earl (1 block N. of Thomas) from 4pm-7pm AZ time!

Are the wheels finally beginning to come off this thing?

TruthOut's Jason Leopold and Marc Ash get a great scoop from the Libby/CIA Leak Trial as George W. Bush appears to be dragged into protecting the identity of the CIA leak via a hand-written note from Dick Cheney...

From TruthOut:

LATE UPDATE: All the audio archives of my Guest Host stints last week on both the Malloy and PBC shows are now available here for your listening pleasure...

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Please join me this Thursday and Friday 3p-6p PT (6p-9p ET) as I'll be sitting in as Guest Host on the Peter B. Collins Show.

The good PBC is on a much-deserved vacation this week, and I'm delighted that he's been foolish enough to hand the keys over to me to ruin his otherwise excellent reputation.

I'm in Phoenix where I'll be "Bradcasting" from the studios of affiliate station 1480 KPHX (Phoenix's Air America affiliate and the flagship station for the Nova M Radio Network). If you don't pick up PBC on a local affiliate, you can listen online via either of the links above and, of course feel free to call in at 1-888-5PeterB.

Thursday's scheduled guest include... Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) on Fairness Doctrine, David Swanson on yesterday's House Judiciary Signing Statement hearing and Impeachment, John Soltz of VoteVets.org on Iraq Escalation and other troop issues from troops perspective, John Bonifaz on the FL-13 Congressional Election Challenge and Election Reform, Margie Burns from the courtroom after today's Libby/CIA Leak Trial, John Gideon with a Daily Voting News update, AmericaBLOG's John Aravosis, plus your calls at 1-888-5PeterB!

Friday's show will feature a very special remote LIVE Townhall Forum on Election Integrity issues here in Arizona. If you're in the Phoenix area, please joins us for the LIVE broadcast beginning at 4pm AZ time. We'll be at the Plumbers & Pipefitters Union Hall at 24th Street & Earl, just north of Thomas. All are welcome! We'd love to see ya there!

That show is being sponsored by, and will feature many of the good folks from, the non-partisan Election Integrity group AuditAZ, the Arizona Advocacy Network, VelvetRevolution.us and, of course, KPHX who is making all of the impossible possible.

Here's a 45-second Audio Promo for the special shows as currently running during PBC's national feed this week as well as on KPHX throughout the day and night....

-- Audio Promo for Special PBC "Bradcasts" from Phoenix! [MP3, :45 seconds]

I'll try and post some of our expected guests tomorrow!

Blogged by Brad --- with elan --- from the road...

This is huge. Though it was buried in today's Daily Voting News, as it broke late, it is most decidedly siren-worthy! Big time!

Florida's new Republican Governor Charlie Crist, working with Democratic U.S. House Member Robert Wexler, will reportedly be recommending millions of dollars to replace every one of Florida's horrendous touch-screen voting machines with optical-scan systems featuring: A PAPER BALLOT FOR EVERY VOTE CAST!

Palm Beach Post confirms. So does AP.

Don't be confused by the references to "paper trails" in the linked articles. Optical scan systems use a paper BALLOT, not a "paper trail".

Free at last? Free at last? Thank God Almighty the Sunshine State may be free at last!?

We shall see. But this could be the best news to come down the pike for democracy fans since Woman's Suffrage. We'll be watching. And then, of course, we've got to make certain there are appropriate audits and other measures to ensure the op-scan systems aren't hacked as they were in Leon County, Florida, last December.

But a path is built one stone at a time. And this could be a very big stone. So for tonight, we'll go to sleep, for a change, with a smile on our face...God Bless America.

Blogged by Brad Friedman from on the road...

To be clear, despite the headline, we don't mean to call Princeton's computer science professor Ed Felten "stupid" by any means. We do, however, mean to make clear --- in no uncertain terms --- that the oft-floated idea that adding so-called "paper trails" to failed, paperless ES&S touch-screen voting machines, such as those used in last November's U.S. House race in Sarasota between Christine Jennings (D) and Vern Buchanan (R), would not have avoided the situation we're now in. In fact, such "Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails" (VVPAT) added to Direct Recording Electronic (DRE/touch-screen) systems would likely make our current crisis of democracy worse instead of better.

As we've said before, DREs with or without a VVPAT are a threat to democracy. VVPATs are little more than a band-aid at best, and more likely serve only as a panacea to offer a false sense of security.

Adding a "paper trail" to a DRE/touch-screen system is like requiring a seat belt in a Ford Pinto; what good will the seat belts do when the Pinto explodes?

Today then, Princeton's Felten (he of the infamous Diebold Touch-Screen Virus Hack) has posted an article on his blog looking at what may have happened in the contested U.S. House race in Florida's 13th Congressional District between Jennings and Buchanan, in which some 18,000 votes seem to have disappeared completely on the paperless ES&S touch-screen voting machines. Just 369 votes separate the two candidates in the flawed state-certified final results.

In his essay, the first of a promised series to come this week, Felten correctly points out that the situation can only be attributed to problems with the ES&S voting machines themselves, since the undervote rate for the very same race in the very same county was a reasonable 2.5% on the paper absentee ballots, but jumped nearly 15% as recorded on the ES&S touch-screen machines.

Even ES&S's only expert witness so far to take the stand --- Dartmouth College's political (not computer) scientist, Michael Herron --- in the election contest down in Florida admitted that were it not for problems voters encountered in using those voting machines, Jennings likely would have been named the winner. That point was reported by Sarasota Herald Tribune who reported on the testimony this way: "Had those ballots been cast without problems, Jennings would have won by as many as 3,000 votes, according to the ES&S expert's statistical 'best guess.'" Reporting from both Wired News and our own discussions just after the testimony with Lowell Finley, the attorney for VoterAction.org, one of several non-partisan groups who argued the case on behalf of the Florida voter plaintiffs who joined Christine Jennings in filing an election contest, confirmed that point as well.

So the question --- for those legitimately trying to figure out what went wrong, as opposed to Buchanan and his supporters who simply want to claim the House seat as their own, even if it's an aberration of democracy --- is whether the problem was due to bad ballot design, machine malfunction, or, most likely, some combination of both. With just 369 votes between the two candidates in the state-certified final result (which is being challenged in both Florida courts and the U.S. House), virtually every analysis has determined that even a minor machine malfunction would likely have thrown the race to the Republican in the Democrat's strongest areas in Sarasota. That's where the largest undervote rates occured.

Felten's thesis, however, as he begins to discuss today in his first article on the topic, would seem to suggest --- incorrectly, in our view --- that a "paper trail" on those paperless touch-screens would have avoided this problem. We'll answer by suggesting it would only have made it worse.

In the meantime, an as-yet under-reported affidavit obtained by The BRAD BLOG from a poll worker, which accompanied a complaint filed by a Republican (yep, you read that right) in Sarasota who believes machine malfunction was clearly the culprit, seems to demonstrate clearly that a problem with the ES&S iVotronic system, not a problem finding the race on the ballot, was to blame for the massive undervote rate.

Couple that with two excellent reports from Daniel Hopsicker as filed last week (one here, the second here) analyzing, in crystal-clear detail, a number of contemporaneous news reports from Sarasota before, during, and after the election, it becomes very clear that machine failure was the problem in the FL-13 election and not "bad ballot design" --- the favored theory of folks hoping to keep the "provisionally seated" Buchanan in power.

Hopsicker's excellent review of those news reports, both as the problem was first emerging and just after the election, when voters' and poll workers' recollections were still fresh, reveals that voter and poll worker complaints at that time overwhelmingly focused on problems voters had casting their votes in particular races and not on problems finding particular races on the ballots!

We'll take a look at the complaint filed by the Republican mentioned above, along with the poll-worker affidavit, in a future report this week. But for now, we'll look at Felten's "Paper Trails Would Have Avoided the Problem" theory.

As Felten averred today...

Blogged by Brad from on the road...

Melinda Henneberg at HuffPo reports Air America Radio, currently under bankruptcy protection, will be bailed out by a new investor. As well, she reports that Al Franken is officially leaving to explore a bid for the U.S. Senate up in Minnesota. (But who is funnier? Franken or his expected Republican opponent, Sen. Norm Coleman? Tough call.0 UPDATE: Since asking the aforementioned question, as if the gods wished to underscore it, see this just-in hilarious Coleman-related story.)

Perhaps without the need to cover Franken's large salary --- his noon-3pm ET show slot is expected to be filled by our friend, the good Thom Hartmann --- AAR's top-down business model, which has crippled them from the beginning, may be eased a bit and bring a chance for profitability to the only large non-Rightwing media outlet of note.

Of course, with media monster Clear Channel putting AAR onto stations with some of the weakest signals in many of the major markets --- in our estimation, in order to limit their feasibility in such markets and keep other stations with stronger signals from carrying AAR programming --- it could still be an uphill climb.

On a related note: We're currently in Phoenix where we'll be Guest Hosting The Peter B. Collins Show later this week. The indie-owned Air America affiliate station out here, 1480 KPHX (flagship station for the new Nova M Radio network), is very difficult to pick up cleanly after sundown, even just on the outskirts of the city.

If the Fairness Doctrine ever returns --- as may be introduced soon in the Congress --- perhaps such stations and non-Rightwing programming will be given a legitimate shot to compete on a level playing field with their Republican-owned counterparts. They've not been allowed such a fair and balanced shot since Reagan dissolved the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 in order to make way for the Republican-owned media take-over of our public airwaves.

The disastrous decision --- along with subsequent vetoes by both Reagan and Bush I of Congressionally-passed legislation to restore fairness and balance to the publicly-owned airwaves --- has had an inestimably negative impact on America and our once-respected position of leadership in the world.

Blogged by Brad from on the road...

There were a number of notable updates added, in the subsequent 24 to 48 hours after we published our piece on the idiots at Diebold who gave away the keys to the kingdom (literally).

The story, btw, shot to the top of a bunch of sites --- no easy feat for an Election Integrity-related story which doesn't feature Ann Coulter --- and was even picked up by the rightwing "news" site, WorldNetDaily who (unlike CNet's coverage, tsk tsk) gave us the appropriate attribution. Should I be pleased or horrified?

Anyway...As we reported initially, Diebold --- incredibly --- posted a picture of the actual key which --- incredibly --- opens all Diebold touch-screen voting systems on their website. Not so incredibly, the photo was subsequently used to hack the key and create working duplicates by an IT expert. Just the latest jaw-dropping chapter in the incredible series of blunders by one of America's largest, and most irresponsible, voting machine companies...the same ones who are --- incredibly --- contracted to protect the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence at the National Archives and who, in early January, --- incredibly --- received certification from George W. Bush's U.S. Homeland Security department for high-security contracts.

As the notable updates to the original story came after you may have read it, but they deserve to be noticed, we re-run them here in full just to make sure everyone is able to play along at home and that Diebold enjoys the maximum amount of shame that they've worked so hard to earn.

Read on. Watch Diebold run. Be amused or horrified as you see fit...