We've been dreading this. And you're not gonna like it either.

It's an entirely new can of worms in the Electronic Rape of American Electoral Democracy. The next wave --- beyond the electronic voting machines, and perhaps even more alarming --- in the arsenal of those out to game the system for partisan advantage.

No matter what we do, no matter how many successes, the Bad Guys --- those who hate Democracy and American Values --- are always one step ahead of us, it seems.

The horrifically written and, of course, ironically named "Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002" requires, as of January 1, 2006, each state to implement "a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list."

And guess who's writing the software for it, in California, Ohio and elsewhere? That's right...our old friends at Diebold, Inc.

While we've put off reporting on much of this until now --- as prompted by story out today (in the MSM of all places!) --- we've been working on an extremely disturbing part of this story for some time relating directly to all of this out in, you guessed it, Ohio. We've yet to run the story for a number of reasons. But we hope to have much more on it, in all its troubling detail, in the not-too-distant future.

For today, however, we'll stick to the report coming out of California in this morning's Los Angeles Times which says that, since the first of year, when California's new computerized Voter Registration Database has gone state-wide, Los Angeles County has "rejected 14,629 people --- 43% of those who registered from Jan. 1 to March 15."

The rejections occur, amongst other reasons, due to failures of exact matching between voter applications and the state's motor vehicle registration (DMV) database to which they are now auto-magically compared. So, if a voter registers (or re-registers after moving to a new location) as "Brad Friedman" but has "Bradley Friedman" on his driver's license, he'll be auto-kicked out of the voter registration system and may not find out until he shows up at the polls on Election Day! That is, if he even knows where to show up since he may no longer receive sample ballots and poll location information etc. in the mail!...

In case you missed it, AP recently lifted an article as researched and written by RAW STORY and published a version of it as their own. Along the way, they seem to have forgotten to give RAW the attribution they deserved for the many hours of research and work they put into the story in order to file the piece in the first place.

RAW's Larisa Alexandrovna originally discovered the gem after plowing through a bunch of Bush Administration policy statements on National Security Clearance policies and comparing the most recent version to previous versions of that same policy side-by-side. One of the RAW researchers confirmed her work and the subtle, but important changes she found, and then Larisa, along with RAW's Executive Editor John Byrne finally filed the piece at RawStory.com.

After all of that hard work, a human rights group shared RAW's story with AP who eventually filed their own very familiar story using the work as originally unearthed by RAW. They've since admitted to being given RAW's article and using it as the starting point for their own work, which walks a dangerously close line towards plagarism.

But even as they now admit that their story originated with RAW's reporting, they still refuse to give credit where credit's due. They've now given several lame and still-changing reasons for failing to acknowledge the "oversight" including "we do not credit blogs" and later, "we only credit blogs we know."

Larisa writes about the matter at Huff Po here and here, and John Byrne wrote an article covering AP's comments and comparing both articles directly for RAW here.

Setting aside the fact that RAW STORY is NOT EVEN A BLOG --- apparently any independent news source which originates on the Internet is now considered a "blog" by some in the MSM...all the easier to dismiss them by, we suppose --- The BRAD BLOG is a blog and yet we find the practice of failing to give us due credit equally objectionable for the many stories we have broken which were later picked up by the MSM as well.

Though most "blogs" do not do the sort of original reporting that we do here, it's certainly harder to argue that we're not one --- what with the word "BLOG" in our name and all. And yet, I'm forced to ask: What the hell does the word "blog" have to do with anything anyway?

Journalism is journalism is journalism. The quality of the reporting and the journalism therein is what matters no matter the name given to the media originating the work.

The reason that all of this matters is not so that Larisa or RAW or even myself or The BRAD BLOG receives some form of personal adulation or ego stroke for our hard work.

So if not for the good of our own personal self-esteem, why does proper credit to such sources really matter?...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart pokes fun at Bush's White House 'shake up' and exposes more ridicules Bush Administration deceptions in the process.

Stewart is not impressed with Bush's pick for Chief of Staff:

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Jefferson Co. Texas had so many problems with their ES&S voting machines in their primary that they have asked for the system to be fixed. They are withholding final payment until that happens. They also have a runoff election to hold and now ES&S is refusing to program their machines for that election until they get final payment. Typical ES&S service with a smile. In Utah Emery County election chief, Bruce Funk, is threatening to resign rather than use the counties Diebold machines. Meanwhile in Illinois the cry to not pay any further funds to Sequoia and the questions about their Venezuelan ownership are getting louder....

Blogged by Brad on the road...

As The BRAD BLOG reported last week, a Conservative Republican former Texas Supreme Court Justice had been considering an Election Contest after electronic voting machine problems and inexplicable tallies plagued the first-in-the-nation March 7th primary in the Lone Star State.

Steve Smith --- who ran for election to the state Supreme Court, Place 2, in the Republican primary against an opponent backed by both Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry and the Bush family --- will be filing an official Election Contest this afternoon in Travis County District Court, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

Since our previous report, the Smith for Supreme Court campaign has been examining election tallies around the state and report that they continue to find anomolies in virtually every county they look into.

"The more research we do, the more irregularities we find," campaign manager David Rogers told The BRAD BLOG this morning.

The problems are being found on machines made by both Hart InterCivic and Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S) --- the two major Electronic Voting Machine vendors supplying the state of Texas.

Rogers says the campaign plans to file the Contest before 5pm (CT) today. The Contest (to be posted in full here when available) will outline some of the many problems they have found so far including counties "where there were more votes than voters."

They hope the Election Contest may allow, for the first time, a closer examination of both the Hart InterCivic and ES&S electronic voting machines used in Texas elections, as well as elsewhere around the country.

An earlier statement from the campaign had detailed a number of the campaign's initial findings including several mysterious totals in Smith's home county of Tarrant where officials admit some 100,000 votes were incorrectly added to the reported results on Election Night.

Smith had outperformed his statewide average in Tarrant County during the 2004 Election by 13%, but this year, his campaign reports, he underperformed the statewide results by 23%. One other such puzzling number reported previously by Smith's campaign:

Says Rogers, "We are contesting the state as a whole, but looking at specific larger counties where there are problems and a few of the smaller counties where the mistakes were absolutely egregious."

The BRAD BLOG has also previously reported on whistleblower William Singer who had worked at both Hart InterCivic and then as an "Election Programmer" in Tarrant County. Singer had attempted to alert the Texas and Ohio Secretaries of State and Attornies General about concerns, including possible criminal fraud by Hart, ES&S and Tarrant County, as long ago as July of 2004. His letters were all virtually ignored by officials in both states. The Texas Secretary of State was recently forced to shutdown a mandated recount in Tom Green County when it was discovered that recount numbers from the machines differed by some 20% from results reported on Election Night.

Up until now, many critics who have doubted or ignored the many concerns about the hackable hardware and secret software used in Electronic Voting, as expressed for some time by Election Integrity Advocates, have said that it is only Democrats who seem to be concerned about results as tallied on such machines which are now blanketing the country in the wake of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

That flawed law was written and sponsored in large part by Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) and passed in 2002 along with heavy lobbying by Voting Machine Vendor Diebold, Inc. of North Canton, OH and their top lobbyist, Ney's former chief of staff, David DiStefano. HAVA's full impact kicks in by statute for the first time this year. Ney recently stepped down from his chairmanship of the U.S. House Administration Committee after being named in one of the plea bargains by disgraced former Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Smith's election challenge, by a conservative Republican Supreme Court Justice from Texas, may well help to change the tenor of the debate over Electronic Voting, as is becoming apparent in several national mainstream publications of late including USA TODAY who published a front page story finally touching on these matters today.

We are on the road for the bulk of today and this evening, but if one of our friendly Guest Bloggers can update this item with a copy of the full Election Contest as filed by Steve Smith later today --- once we receive it --- we will do so.

UPDATE 3:50pm PT: Campaign managaer David Rogers has contacted us to let us know the campaign has found additional information that they wish to investigate before filing their contest. Due to this new information they will be delaying the filing by 24 hours.

UPDATE 4/1/06: The complete Election Contest filing is now attached here. [PDF] We hope to have a new report on the details/specifics later.

Blogged by Brad on the road...

"Primary voting-machine troubles raise concerns for '06" is the headline on the front page of today's USA Today. The article even quotes regular BRAD BLOG Guest blogger John Gideon of VotersUnite.org.

Here's their lede...

The article is mostly stuff that regular BRAD BLOG readers are likely familiar with while the MSM is still busy playing catch-up on these matters. (Who could have forseen such troubles, after all?)

The Voting Machine Industry and Elections Officials, are, in general, still in denial mode --- blaming "human error" for the "glitches". That too will change over time as the MSM realizes they're being sold a bill of good when they report such things within that phony framework.

The story covers briefly, USA Today-style, the many troubles in the IL primaries (previously covered by BRAD BLOG here), including the 400+ missing Sequoia Memory Cards in IL (previously covered by BRAD BLOG here), the 100,000 extra votes added by Hart InterCivic and ES&S machines in Tarrant County, TX (previously covered by BRAD BLOG here and here), the TX Sec. of State's shutdown of a recount in Tom Green County, TX (previously covered by BRAD BLOG here) and the former Conservative Republican (they don't mention that part) Supreme Court Justice preparing to challenge the election in TX (previously covered by BRAD BLOG here --- with more to come very shortly on this, btw!)

From the 2 states to have disastrous primaries so far, USA Today also looks forward to the 48 more still ahead of us, noting that "10 states hold primaries in May, including Pennsylvania, which is scrambling to train voters and poll workers."

And our man Gideon, ever the eternal pessimist (can't image why) is then quoted as follows:

No worries. Plenty of Election Officials and Voting Machine Vendor spokesfolks are quoted in more detail to let us know that everything is perfectly under control.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Audio in MP3 format...

President Bush's Chief of Staff Andy Card will be replaced by Josh Bolton, the current Budget Director, who is also part of the President's "inner circle".

This clip begins with an introduction by CNN's American Morning. MSNBC's Imus provides some comic relief as the President begin's his Press Conference. Imus refuses to watch the entire press conference (calling it "insanity"). The video switches back to CNN for Andy Card's comments. In conclusion, NBC White House correspondent David Gregory provides some post-speech analysis.

Read more information about the White House shakeup from AP.

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...
Audio in MP3 format...

Prompted by a new report in The New York Times, MSNBC's Hardball takes a fresh look at a history of the Iraq war through the lens of a January 31, 2003 memo detailing a White House meeting between Bush and Blair.

This video begins with a report by David Shuster that weighs possible repercussions of The Memo against the increasing violence in Iraq and President Bush's low standing in the polls.

Chris Matthews interviews writer Phillippe Sands whose recent book, "Lawless World", exposes more pre-war lies. According to The Times, Mr. Sands "is a professor of international law at University College of London and the founding member of the Matrix law office in London, where the prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair, is a partner."

Matthews and Sands take the opportunity to pile on The President. Even Matthews' questions to Sands appear to be clear indictments of The Presidents actions:

The January 31, 2003 memo is consistent with the July 2002 "Downing Street" Memos where British officials expressed concern that Bush had already decided to go to invade Iraq and that "intelligence was being fixed around the policy" to meet that goal.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Today we learn that maybe we should worry about the ownership of Sequoia. Some of us have been talking about this for months; now the MSM may be interested. The folks in Chicago are worried and now threatening to withhold payment to Sequoia. We also learn that Michael Shamos is going to be evaluating the Sequoia Advantage for use in Pennsylvania and that Jim Dickson and the AAPD are actually against the use of the Advantage....

Blogged by Brad from the Road...

Yup, still on the road, and largely "off the grid" for another day or so (with much going on, sorry, I'll catch up soon, I hope! Not even able to check email!) --- but caught this in the carbon-based version of the NY Times this morning. No time for context other than to mention our previous report on Maryland's Republican Governor who wants to see Diebold's paperless touch-screens banned in the state along with the Democratic-majority House which voted a bi-partisan 137 to 0 to ban them recently, along with the Democratic Board of Elections Director, Linda Lamone, who has been fighting for them since Day 1, and still is. Search BRAD BLOG for the links to all of those stories.

Point is, as we've always said, this ain't an issue of Right and Left, it's an issues of Right and Wrong. That said, here's the letter printed in this morning's NY Times (who has been horrendously delinquent in reporting on any of these matters, and still buys into the Voting Machine Company's "it's just glitches" meme)...

Letters to the Editor --- especially from Elections Officials, but regular old Voters are just as good --- make a difference. Especially to papers like the Times who refuse to properly investigate and report on this stuff! Please write one today!

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

Video in Streaming Flash format...

Windows Media and QuickTime at Crooks and Liars.

CBS News reporter Lara Logan appeared live from Iraq on CNN Reliable Sources on Sunday morning. She issued a stern rejection of the notion that Iraq reporters are biased towards negative stories.

Lara Logan's genuine outrage makes this a must see clip!

From CNN's trancript:

Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 20 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

Blogged by Brad on the Road...

Still on the road and unable to cover anything as usual. So I'll leave it to you guys to comment on the notable details. Had an interesting day/night yesterday at the California Democratic Council Annual Convention, and hope to share some thoughts and perhaps pics with you as time allows in the not-too-distant future. But until then...

Both Washington Post today, and AP yesterday, cover the Ion Sancho story is a fair bit of detail with some interesting responses, as well, from both Diebold and Sequoia (ES&S seems to have refused comment for either story).

WaPo's story in today's A section (page A7) --- headlined "Election Whistle-Blower Stymied by Vendors: After Official's Criticism About Security, Three Firms Reject Bid for Voting Machines" --- focuses on all three companies certified to do business in Florida all now refusing to do business with Sancho.

That story reads nearly identically, to BRAD BLOG's March 8 story on same. Hey, better two-and-a-half-weeks late than never, we suppose. And no, not a nod nor hat tip to BRAD BLOG's coverage. And as our friend Larisa Alexandrovna from RAW STORY points out in her dead-on piece over at HuffPo yesterday, the Mainstream Media is far too good too recognize any lowly "bloggers" in their reporting.

On Saturday, AP covered the Sancho story in great detail as well. Though there's a few more details here, I think I prefer the WaPo story today. Both are worth a read however, particularly since I have no time to cover the deets.

Finally, today's WaPo story in the Sunday paper included a Tom Toles cartoon which, so far, I haven't been able to find online. A kind reader scanned it and sent it to me. It's posted below.

We continue to win this fight...despite the slow and seemingly endless struggle against some forces of evil with a lot of money to back their fight. We may be naive here, but with the truth on our side, we believe we believe David will eventually defeat Goliath.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The news was slow today. Two counties announced that they had ignored, or were unaware of, what has recently happened in Illinois as they get closer to having Sequoia voting machines. Another Pennsylvania county has switched from AVS to Diebold due to AVS's inability to provide voting machines on time. And the votes are still being counted in Texas....

Blogged by Brad on the Road...

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram picks up on our previous report about Hart InterCivic / Tarrant County, TX election software whistleblower William Singer.

Does the "Startlegram" give any love to The BRAD BLOG in their article? Despite an hour or two on the phone with them after they called for deets and a hook-up with our source last week? Not a jot.

But we're not in it for the love. We're in it for the big bucks.