Motel Blogged from the road by Brad...

In addition to the previous article mentioned in Florida, more Voting Machine 'Sleepover' coverage today, this time from Marc Songini in ComputerWorld...

Blogged hastily by Brad from the road...(I think I'm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa...though not actually running for anything)...

From an article in today's Daytona Beach News-Journal...

Blogged by Brad on the long, hot road...

The DNC Media Office released information on their planned "Expanded National Voter Protection Effort" today. I'll avoid my knee-jerk reaction to say "Expanded" from what?! Their full media release is posted below.

As I've got to get in the car and head up to St. Paul for a PBS TV show taping (Mental Engineering) over the weekend, I don't have much time to comment on the strategy and release for now. As you may guess, I have some feelings on both. You'll simply have to guess at those feelings for now. Suffice to say, we need more than paper "trails" and attorneys on Election Day... I applaud the tireless efforts of Greg Moore, heading up the DNC Voting Rights Institute. He "gets it" --- but the rest of the DNC still seems to be burying their head in the sand about the seriousness of the problem.

To that end, and by way of example, we could also use their help in dealing with issues like the Busby/Bilbray U.S. House special election in CA50 now if they are serious about protecting the ballot box in November everwhere! (An essay I posted some weeks ago describing how what happens now in CA50 affects the vote everywhere this November is right here: "A Line in the Sand")

The full release from the DNC as issued within the past hour follows...

An Exclusive Interview for The BRAD BLOG as Guest Blogged by Joy and Tom Williams"¦

Mike Papantonio and Bobby Kennedy co-host Ring of Fire on Air America. The two attorneys have filed qui tam lawsuits against the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) companies for defrauding the government. We previously posted an exclusive interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. about this case.

Papantonio is a Florida attorney who has already gone after a number of big corporations for the American people. He is named partner and head of the Mass Tort Department at his firm. He has handled many famous cases throughout the nation, including asbestos, breast implants, Dalkon Shield, Fen-Phen, hemophiliac-AIDS, L-Tryptophan, railroad disasters and the Florida Tobacco litigation. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Leading American Attorney. He is also the author of In Search of Atticus Finch, A Motivational Book for Lawyers; Clarence Darrow, The Journeyman; Resurrecting AESOP, Fables Lawyers Should Remember and a co-author of Closing Arguments --- The Last Battle. In addition to all this, he is a popular lecturer in the legal field.

We would like to say something about what a dynamic and articulate man he is, and how much we think he's doing for our country, but, really, res ipsa loquitur, the thing speaks for itself, and this is no accident. Mike Papantonio is a hard-working, extremely generous, friendly and personable --- and dedicated --- man. One would be hard-pressed to find a better duo for the difficult job ahead. The Kennedy/Papantonio alliance is a particularly brilliant one. Mike took the time to talk to us about aspects of the qui tam cases they have set in motion already...

"More evidence tonight that the security of our elections, the integrity of our democracy are at risk from electronic voting machines. A county in Iowa has just come close to putting the wrong candidate in office because of a massive programming error."

This Dobbs report underscores the problems in the Busby/Bilbray CA50 election fiasco, as the candidates shown as losing the election based on the optical-scan count in Iowa were later found to be winners --- but only after the ballots were actually counted by hand to determine if they were counted accurately by the machine! They were not.

By way of ironic side note, the Iowa Republican primary election in question, as we've noted here many time before, took place on June 6th --- the same day as the flawed Busby/Bilbray election...in which nobody has yet bothered to count the op-scan votes in order to find out if the results were reported accurately. Election integrity, it seems, is more important in some states than in others, we guess.

Says Dobbs in his closing remarks to Kitty Pilgrim: "If this message is not getting through that's emanating from every corner of the country using these voting machines, I don't know what it will take."

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

(Hat tip David Edwards for the video, John Gideon for the transcript and tracking, etc.)

The complete text transcript of the Lou Dobbs/Kitty Pilgrim report follows...

Blogged by Brad on the road...

The case to challenge the announced results of the Busby/Bilbray election was filed today in San Diego County's California Superior Court as reported earlier this morning in some detail. The case number is: GIC870044 and may be downloaded here...

-- Busby/Bilbray Election Contest complaint, [PDF]

There's some extraordinary and fresh stuff in the suit that you'll want to read, since I'm still on the road and unable to cover as thoroughly as usual.

The local media covered the press conference held and attorney Paul Lehto appeared on Ed Schultz. Coverage of both follows...

Blogged by Brad from the road...

I was able to listen in via cell phone to the Press Conference just held outside the San Diego courthouse where Attorney Paul Lehto has filed a lawsuit to contest the results of the Busby/Bilbray election.

I wasn't able to hear everything...but here are a few quotes as transcribed as best as I could from speakers Lehto, Judy Hess, Barbara Gail Jacobson and Mimi Kennedy...

Blogged by Brad on the road...

RAW STORY's Miriam Raftery offers more details on today's filing of an Election Contest in the Busby/Bilbray race (covered by The BRAD BLOG late last night). Her excellent coverage includes an exclusive interview with attorney Paul Lehto who is speeding to the courthouse in San Diego even as I write this, with a press conference to follow at 10:30am PT as reported previously.

He's also now scheduled to appear on the nationally syndicated Ed Schultz radio program to discuss the lawsuit with Big Ed at 5:30pm ET (2:30pm PT). [UPDATE: Audio from Big Ed appearance now available for download here.]

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

[UPDATE: RAW STORY covers the filing here along with an exclusive interview with attorney Paul Lehto. Details from the press conference held earlier today here. Lehto to appear on Ed Schultz radio show at 2:30pm ET to discuss the case.]

[FURTHER UPDATE: The full complaint is now available to download here.]

For all advocates of election integity, and especially for those in San Diego, Monday is going to be a big day. Attorney Paul Lehto is on the scene and Monday morning he will be filing a contest to the U.S. House special election held on June 6th in California's 50th congressional district to replace disgraced Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

According to a press release issued by a group of Election Integrity advocates organizing themselves as the CA-50 Action Group, a press release will be held on the steps of the Court House in San Diego at 10:30am, just after the filing. (The BRAD BLOG has received an advance copy of the press release. It is posted in full at the bottom of this article.)

Four great letters to the Union-Tribune editor, as published today in reply to their horrendous, irresponsible, factually incorrect and unsigned editorial posted a few days ago (which Emily Levy angrily and adeptly blogged about here a few days ago.)

One of the letters published comes from San Diego County Democractic Party Chair, Jess Durfee, who the original editorial smugly referred to as "the local Democratic Party boss." Biased much, Union-Tribune?

Want an extra laugh? This rightwing rag has been calling themselves a "watchdog" for the people in a series of recent TV ads. No, seriously. That's what they tell people. As laughable: Their published Mission Statement says: "Journalistic excellence is our commitment to readers. Above all, integrity." Apparently, they were just kidding.

Mimi Kennedy of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and Emily Levy of California Election Protection Network (CPEN) appeared smartly today in my usual weekly Friday slot on The Peter B. Collins Show. Somehow, from somewhere, off to the side of a blistering hot stretch of highway in the middle of the Great Plains, I found a computer and net access from which I could secretly listen in (don't tell them.)

A busman's holiday.

They were all three tremendous on the topic mess that is the Busby/Bilbray CA50 election fiasco and on the anti-American, democracy-hating, truth-averse San Diego County Registrar Mikel Haas and his facilitating partner-in-crime CA Sec. of State Bruce McPherson. They offer a few hints as well about what's to come on those topics within the next few days (and what it is that's been keeping me from getting fully off the grid for the last week or so.)

Give 'em a listen...

-- Mimi and Emily on the Peter B. Collins Show, 7/28/06 [MP3]

And one quick personal word about Peter B... He has, nearly single-handedly, devoted more air time time to the issue of Electoral Integrity over the past year or so than just about anybody else across the entire media spectrum. Not just with my weekly appearances, but with many other guests and discussions on the same issues. For that, this country owes him an enormous debt of gratitude. Especially while the bulk of the media still fails to deal with this issue head on. PBC's willingness to use his platform for the public good, instead of distraction, is not to be "misunderestimated". Thank you, Peter. I'll be back. Though hopefully not too soon.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

We've been reading some very interesting news today from John Stanton at Roll Call.

The full text is available to Roll Call subscribers only, but we have a few more excerpts after the fold.

Regular BRAD BLOG readers will have have seen this coming a long time ago.

So here's a big hat tip to Brad for being way-ahead-of-the-curve on this...

and now back to our story:

Blogged on the road by Brad...

Mimi Kennedy, chair of Progressive Democrats of America, makes some noise re: the Busby/Bilbray election fiasco over at Huffington Post yesterday...

Lawless Elections: Sleepovers, Voter Vault and San Diego

Please note that PDA has been on top of this issue from Day 1, proving to be the only large national organization (along with VelvetRevolution.us, of course) to meet this issue with the seriousness that it deserves. For that, they deserve mountains of credit and support in return. Mimi has spoken at most of the CA50 Busby/Bilbray related Townhall Meetings and Press Conferences and has been organizing nationally to fight for accountability on this matter as well as to ensure the same mess won't happen around the country this November.

In other words, they're fighting for electoral integrity now rather than waiting until November. Their efforts should be a model for all groups, nationally and locally, who take election integrity seriously. As I've tried to stress many times, fighting for accountability in Busby/Bilbray now is about accountability across the nation prior to the election.

If there's one thing Busby/Bilbray teaches us, it's how difficult it is to fight for accountability after an election has been held when irresponsible, appointed elections officials like San Diego County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas are given credibility by the media simply because they have a title before their name. No matter how little they deserve such credibility and no matter how illegally and irresponsibly they administer an election against the best interests of the very voters they are supposed to be serving.

And now...I'm back off the grid. Don't bother me. I'm trying to notice trees and mountains and the sky. (When the phone's not ringing...urgh...)

Guest blogged by Emily Levy of the California Election Protection Network and the CA-50 Action Committee

As I said in my response to the ridiculous article in the North County Times over the weekend, "The most important thing is not that voters have full confidence, but that there be a basis for confidence. Public confidence can be manufactured by government disinformation such as has become Mikel Haas's hobby of late and media disinformation such as Schultz's article. But a disinformed yet confident public does not a democracy make. We deserve and demand transparent, verifiable elections."

And as to "unfounded insinuations," read any of the BRAD BLOG entries on the CA-50 debacle and you'll see plenty of documentation.

Guest blogged by Emily Levy of the California Election Protection Network and the CA-50 Action Committee

Attorney Paul Lehto, who specializes in cases involving election law, business fraud and consumer law, has been retained for work on the issues surrounding the illegal election conditions in San Diego County.

Lehto came to the attention of BRAD BLOG readers when he filed a lawsuit in Washington state against Sequoia Voting Systems Inc.

He has also appeared as a guest on The BRAD SHOW of April 23, 2005. To listen to that interview, click here.

More details will be posted when they become available.

(DISCLOSURE: Paul Lehto is also a legal advisor for VelvetRevolution.us, a Voting Rights and Election Reform organization co-founded by BRAD BLOG's Brad Friedman.)