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

Yesterday it was revealed in Indiana that MicroVote has installed uncertified software on voting machines in 47 counties. Just two days ago MicroVote sent that software for federal inspection and certification. They hope to have that complete by an ITA by Friday or next Monday. Some counties admit they knew the software was uncertified but they trusted MicroVote when they were told it was in the process. Allan County has announced that they will ignore the uncertified software and take a chance on lawsuits. In Oregon the SoS has announced he is suing ES&S for breach of contract. And Bucks County Pennsylvania has announced they will use their lever machines in the state primary....

How will the poor Fox "News" Bush dead-enders cover for their man now that their own poll is out showing Bush at all-time lows with just a 33% approval rating. That number includes a full 20% drop in Republican support from one year ago!

Just over a month ago, when CBS released their poll pegging Bush Approval at 34% the Fox Wingnuts bent over backwards to dismiss the poll as untrustworthy:

"This is not representative of the --- of the population of the country in any way, shape, manner, or form. Nor is the fact that Bush has 34 percent. ... You just know that's not possible. It simply isn't possible," Rush Limbaugh said on February 28th, when the poll was released.

Brit Hume on Special Report said, "[T]here's good reason to be skeptical of this CBS poll. It's wildly oversampled Democrats."

Sean Hannity spun with, "The first thing we find out that nearly two to one they polled Democrats."

And John Gibson joined the dead-enders-in-denial with, "Of course, it's weighted with more Democrats, so you've got to take that into account."

The CBS poll put Cheney's approval rating at 18% at the time, by the way. The Fox "News" poll, though it asks about the approval ratings of Condi Rice and Don Rumsfield, seems to have failed to poll on Cheney's approval rating for some odd reason. Go figure.

(Hat-tip to MediaMatters.org for tracking Fox "News" and their lack of touch with reality on this matter last February.)

In the latest amongst a spate of lawsuits being filed against Electronic Voting Machine Companies around the country, the Oregon Sec. of State has announced today that they have filed a complaint against Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) for breach of contract in failing to provide the state with disabled-accessible voting machines, as promised, in time to meet the January 1, 2006 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) deadline.

The complaint, filed yesterday on behalf of the state of Oregon in Marion County Circuit Court, is downloadable here in full [PDF, 8 pages].

In a statement just issued by the office of Bill Bradbury, Oregon's Sec. of State, he said, "I'm disappointed in ES&S. They agreed to provide us with voting machines, they didn't follow through on that agreement, and that failure directly punishes people with disabilities."

The press release goes on to explain the history of ES&S's broken commitment to provide disabled-accessible electronic AutoMark voting systems to the state in what seems to echo problems that ES&S and several of the other electronic voting machine vendors are now having in meeting contractual obligations all around the country. The problem in Oregon is just the latest to come to light, as the voting machine vendors have been snatching up any and all available agreements with states, in light of Election Officials' attempts to comply with various mandates set forth, and funded by federal tax dollars, in the disastrous HAVA legislation of 2002. John Gideon, has written several articles on the epidemic recently for BRAD BLOG; two them are here and here.

As the Oregon Secretary of State's release explains:

In addition to failures to meet such obligations as simply providing hardware and software as promised to states and counties, companies such as ES&S, Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic, have failed across the country to provide hardware and software that actually works and actually counts voters votes accurately as they intended to cast them.

HAVA was passed in 2002 by Congress after efforts led by Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) --- and funded by Diebold lobbyists including Ney's former chief of staff, David DiStefano --- convinced lawmakers that the bill would correct perceived problems revealed with voting systems during the 2000 Florida Election debacle.

The bill, which cleverly includes a provision requiring at least one disabled-accessable voting device in every American polling place as of 2006 --- a provision which has led jurisdictions to believe they must upgrade their voting equipment to use poorly designed, secretive and hackable electronic voting devices --- has been an unmitigated disaster so far.

The Oregon lawsuit is just the latest in a growing array of suits filed by voters and election officials around the country in light of HAVA implementation that has seen officials scrambling, apologizing, making excuses and, in many cases, left to come up with alternate plans to carry out impending primary elections in 2006. Voters, in the meantime, have been largely ignored, left hanging, and crossing their fingers in hoping that somehow their vote might be counted accurately this year --- or even counted at all. Unfortunately, given the way most of the new voting systems work, there is little or no way for those voters to have even the slightest clue whether or not their vote will be counted at all.

Amongst just some of the lawsuits and other legal proceedings now underway in light of HAVA implementation around the country...

In addition to the state and county suits, a class action Securities Fraud complaint has been filed by shareholders against Diebold for, amongst other reasons, failing to disclose known problems with their electronic voting systems. Additional legal proceedings are currently in the works in several other states as well, The BRAD BLOG has learned, and so far we've only had two of 50 state primaries in 2006, the first year that HAVA kicks in in full. Both primaries so far, in Texas and Illinois, revealed massive electile dysfunctions as machines failed, tabulations were found to be inaccurate, and final results were delayed due to numerous equipment problems.

Stay tuned to The BRAD BLOG for (unfortunately) virtually exclusive continuing coverage of America's 2006 E-Voting Meltdown...

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

ED NOTE: This "Daily Voting News" was posted yesterday, but due to a software "glitch", it was somehow overwritten by another post. We're reposting it here. Good thing we had a paper trail backup!

The Allegheny County Pennsylvania suit brought by voters and PFAW against the county, state and federal government will be heard beginning next Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Summit County, Ohio's election director has predicted failure of the voting machines in their primary on May 2. A recount of ballots in Kane and DuPage County Illinois has been asked for partially because some voting machines were shut-down early due to the polls running out of paper for the DRE vvpat printers. Sequoia is over two months behind in delivering Advantage machines to New Jersey counties. In Indiana, MicroVote has been given until May 2 to make their uncertified equipment meet all state requirements or counties will not be able to use it in the primary...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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"You're watching Fox News. America's Top News Source... for White People."

Bill O'Reilly takes us into the "No Spin Zone" for meaningless interviews of Seymour Hersh and Newt Gingrich. SNL's O'Reilly spits out almost as many incorrect facts as the real Bill.

The Progressive Patriots Fund, a Political Action Committee of Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), has released a new video ad, critical of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program.

The video, directed by Bob Newhart Show alum and former Friends director Peter Bonerz is in support of the Senator's Censure Resolution and features a twist ending.

-- The video can be viewed online here.

The organization has issued a press release touting the video's premier last night in Texas. That release follows in full...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

If you recall The BRAD BLOG has reported on the Summit County memory card failures in the recent past; most recently on April 4. Summit County's memory card (PCMCIA) failures have not gotten any better according to an article in this morning's Akron Beacon Journal...

This seems to be a complete melt-down of everything provided to the county by ES&S. The Beacon-Journal goes on to report the problems...

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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On this week's edition of PBS's Washington Week, L.A. Times political reporter Doyle McManus provided analysis of Bush's record low poll numbers.

Doyle relates talking points that were being pushed on him by a Republican operative. Putting a delirious spin on the Bush's low ratings, the GOP says that "those polls were actually good news because the President's popularity has bottomed out. It has stabilized..."

While rolling her eyes, Washington Week moderator Gwen Ifill replies, "I'm dizzy from that spin, I think."

It's been a looong day. Up at 7am in a strange city, meetings all morning, a drive across the state to do an hour of radio in Sacramento in studio with the delightful Christine Craft, another hundred or so miles down the road towards home with an hour and a half long conference call at 75mph, before a motel stop finally at 10:15pm and a phone-in radio appearance on Crane Durham's rather ironically named, "Nothing But Truth" radio program broadcast out of my old hometown of St. Louis.

Exhausted but ready to discuss matters of Election Reform and Integrity, which I can speak about, at this point, in my sleep (and sometimes do).

But Crane wanted to talk about something else --- the War on Iraq --- during my first appearance on his show. What I didn't know, was that apparently tonight was "Tuesday Night Fights" on Crane's show, when he invites a guest on who he perceives will disagree with him. Tonight, he found one in spades.

-- Have a listen [MP3] (We might suggest it'll be worth it.)

"I feel like Foreman after Ali," the host would say later after I'd left..and most of his usually supportive callers agreed he had lost. Except for the one who said Crane delivered a "coop de grace" (pronounced as spelled).

-- Follow-up callers after I left [MP3] (Also worth a listen. Broken link now fixed.)

To Crane's credit, he admitted defeat. "The decision's been made, and I lost that debate," he said graciously to the callers who hated to agree with him. He is, therewith, the first wingnut, perhaps in recorded history, to have admitted to defeat --- out loud. For his graciousness in that regard, we give him many props.

He invited me back after the show to return on another night, heavily promoted, for a full two hours. He'll need it.

In what appears to be the only known case of the Democratic Party itself (to our brain-addled knowledge anyway, since we've been on the road for the last several days for last minute super-secret meetings that have left us exhausted for the moment), the Alaska Dems and the DNC Alaska Communications Director have announced a lawsuit is being filed to demand the state release election records from 2004.

Yes, they are still trying to figure out what happened in 2004. And in America 2006, apparently such info can only be obtained (perhaps) by going to court!

The complete press release issued today is posted in full below, but here's a recap on this mind-numbing story up until now:

In December 2005, the Dems asked the state for the election data files from the '04 election. They were told that they couldn't have that information, because the state's contract with Alaska made that information a "company secret" of Diebold's!

After complaints to the state, and the state's consultation with Diebold, the state agreed to release the information, but only after informing the Dems they'd have to cover the cost of (and this is a direct quote from their letter), "manipulating the data" before releasing it!

Finally, before the data could be released --- "manipulated" or otherwise --- the state's top security official announced they would not release the information after all because it was a "security risk."

Oh, how I wish I was making this shit up. But I'm not.

So, now the Dems up there are showing a rare bit of spine and going to court to get at that highly secret and super dangerous information otherwise known as "how American citizens voted in an election two years ago."

Why are they so interested in this info in the first place? Here's a graf or two from the release (which you should read in full below for full impact!):

UPDATE 4/19/06: The entire complaint, filed as #3AN-06-7035 CI, is now available here [PDF]. Coverage from today's Alaska Daily News is here.

The entire press release from the Alaska Dems follows...

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

The folks in Marion County Indiana announced today that they had completed testing their iVotronic machines. They claim the machines are all ready to go. I think that is probably a bit of soothing for the voters. In fact, none of their iVotronics can be used for accessibility in the primary so they are announcing that disabled voters will be able to have someone assist them in the voting process. Also some ballots cannot be read by the op-scan machines and will have to be counted by hand. Kanawha County West Virginia is also having problems getting software for their AutoMarks so there will be no accessible voting in that county. Voters with disabilities are being told to bring a friend or ask for help. And, the Democrats in Alaska have gone to court, finally, in an attempt to get the records of the 2004 election from the state....

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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This morning while announcing staff changes, President Bush explained the inner-workings of presidential authority:

My article yesterday "The Approaching 2006 E-Voting 'Train Wreck' Continues On Course" seems to have hit a nerve in the Allegheny County Executive's Office. Apparently the County Executive's Spokesman, Kevin Evanto, does not like his remarks, as printed in The Daily News characterized as being "silly".

Evanto told The Daily News:

Yesteday afternoon Evanto sent me an email in which he defends his statement; well a part of it:

To which I responded:

Nice try, Kevin. I guess we will leave it to the readers to decide about "sweeping, incorrect statements".

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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I'm having a hard time understanding the logic of the Bush Administration on the appropriateness of retired military leaders speaking out about civilian leadership. On the one hand, they are saying that it is inappropriate for retired (and especially serving) military officers to criticize Rumsfeld. On the other hand, military officers who are retired or currently serving are encouraged to speak out in Rumsfeld's defense.

I just don't understand a policy that only allows the expression pro-Administration propaganda but deems all criticism - even by retired generals who are now private citizens - "inappropriate". On last night's edition of MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann posed this question to Howard Fine:

If anyone is interested, I'll be glad to post the clip from Countdown.

Anyway, Jon Stewart did a humorously "fair and balanced" report on the General's criticism of Rumsfeld. "It's not really very fair to attack Secretary Rumsfeld without giving the Secretary an opportunity to respond to thes charges that are being leveled", says Stewart. "So, here are some [video clips] of the general's criticisms of Rumsfeld and his replies which in no way have been manipulated to make Rumsfeld look foolish or out of touch."

UPDATE: Countdown Asks If Generals Can Only Express Approval of Rumsfeld

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Here's the video clip where Keith Olbermann asks Howard Fine, "Is this the response from the White House really that retired military personnel cannot comment on civilian leadership if they disagree with it but they are entitled to comment on leadership if they agree with it? I'm just thinking... Is there a hole in that logic somewhere?"

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com

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Colbert King, Deputy Editor of the Washington Post, appeared on this Sunday's edition of Inside Washington, a political show that's broadcast in the D.C. area. Mr. King was asked to defend an editorial recently published in the Washington Post which was titled "A Good Leak." The editorial supported President Bush's position that he participated in partial leaks of the National Intelligence Estimate for the good of the public.

From Mr. King's response it was clear that he had differences but attempted a defense of editorials flawed arguments:

An editorial with a different opinion of President Bush's leak called "A Bad Leak" appeared in Sunday's The New York Times.

This broadcast first aired on Sunday, April 17, 2006. The full transcript is available from the Inside Washington site. More details are available at The Raw Story.