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.

Peg C. is right; the most recent open thread is in danger of getting buried. So let's have a new one!

OK. I've said my bit. Now it's your turn.

Guest blogged by Steve Huff

Introduction {by Winter Patriot}: The BRAD BLOG is pleased to introduce Steve Huff, of HuffCrimeBlog.com. Steve is not only a blogger; he's also a part of the investigative team for Court TV's Crime Library, crimelibrary.com.

Ripples of shock spread from the little Village of Green Oaks, IL, through the Illinois political establishment on Monday as the news spread: Mayor Tom Adams, age 68, had been arrested at his home on Anderson Drive, and charged with distributing kiddie porn over the internet.

If convicted, Tom Adams could face 15 years in prison for each person who received child porn from him via the web.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Yesterday, OpEdNews published an astonishing article by David Dill, Doug Jones and Barbara Simons, an article which blows the lid off the shenanigans that have been going on between Diebold and the State of Maryland.

Wise men say "Consider the source." That's always a good idea. In this case, all three authors have very impressive credentials:

Turning to the article itself, here are the first few paragraphs:

So manipulating an election is against the law? Who'da thunk it?

Sorry! I couldn't help myself.

The remainder of the article, unaccompanied by smart remarks, follows:

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.)

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

One result of the exorbitant cost of purchasing and maintaining DRE voting machines is that counties must now find ways to save money. Texas will have a pilot project in Lubbock Co. that will allow voters to vote in any of 35 super precincts within the county in November. This is already being done in states across the nation and it may open up a new set of, as yet unforeseen, problems. / "Most computer scientists have long viewed Diebold as the poster child for all that is wrong with touch screen voting machines. But we never imagined that Diebold would be as irresponsible and incompetent as they have turned out to be." From "The Diebold Bombshell"...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

The following shocking information just came in to "Train Wreck Central" from Brad who is on the road, lord knows where. A special hat tip to Thom Hartmann and Rich McClear of KUDO1080, the Air America Radio affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska.

As readers of The BRAD BLOG know, Diebold and the State of Alaska have been doing all they can to keep the State Democratic Party from looking at the data from the machines used by the voters to register their choices and by the local officials to tally the votes. The BRAD BLOG has reported that questions began to arise about results from the 2004 election, including the reported revelation that "district-by-district vote totals add up to 292,267 votes for President Bush, but his official total was only 190,889." The Democrats asked for election data from the Diebold machines and the state has 'flip-flopped' on whether they would release it or not. This resulted in claims by the state that any data they released would be proprietary and would belong to Diebold Elections Systems Inc. (DESI).

The above led the state Democratic party to file a lawsuit to get the data they have been requesting.

The following is from an email from Rich McClear:

So the state and Diebold have stalled, flip-flopped, obfuscated and misled while they kept the Democrats from proving that there were huge problems with the election results in 2004. One can only hope that the court will decide that the stall needs to stop now, but it might be best not to hold your breath.

UPDATE 11/28/06: Alaska is at it again. They're refusing to release the 2006 election database despite a court order to do so. Details now here...

Blogged by Brad from the road and on the fly!...

Just a quick post to say thanks to all who have been covering for me here, in particular Winter Patriot who has been thawed out and called up for duty to allow me some much needed time away.

I'm traveling across the country, and not getting as much down time as I'd like for the moment, as I'm in touch with folks in re: the Busby/Bilbray election fiasco and their plans for announcing several new initiatives to call for accountability there shortly. As well, working on several related issues via the phones etc.

I've not been online at all since last Thursday night, and only on briefly today. So forgive me if I've not been able to answer your email, or otherwise report on so much of what is going on right now. We'll see more and more Guest Bloggers here in the coming days and weeks to cover much of that in my absense, which I hope you continue to understand. I really need to find some time away, even if I'm unable to get away 100% in the bargain for now.

Thanks also to John Gideon and David Edwards for keeping up the battle here, and I hope you'll welcome some of the new names (like Emily Levy, etc.) that you'll be seeing here over the next several weeks. Please offer them all the support you can!

If you haven't noticed, the disinfo campaign down in San Diego by Registrar Mikel Haas and his compatriots in the media is now in full swing. Haas is lying left and right, and his friends at the Union-Tribune and elsewhere are all too happy to help! Please feel free to let such media outlets know the truth about what's going on where you can in my absence.

This unsigned editorial today in the U-T was simply incredible! According to them, we're "Internet conspiratorialists" again. Someone please let them know that if we are, so is CA Sec. of State Bruce McPherson whose own office confirmed dozens of ways that Diebold voting machines could be hacked, along with NYU's Brennan Center for Justice who detailed more than 120 security threats to E-voting security, and even the Washington Post who declared that a "Single Personal Could Reverse an Election".)

So much disinfo from the liars and scoundrels in San Diego who are entrusted to run the people's elections, so little online time (for me at least) to counter it all. Thanks in advance to those of you who can continue to do so in my absence! And thanks for your understanding over the next several weeks while I continue to be gone!

(Note to Winter Patriot or John Gideon: Feel free to add links to any of the above text as you are able or inclined!)

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Not for nothing is Chris Floyd one of my favorite journalists. He's one of my favorite bloggers too.

Why? Because he cares so much, because he writes so well, because he pays such close attention. And because he never fails to mention things like this:

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

David “None of the Above” Gatchell is challenging the Tennessee Election Commission in court to get his middle name listed on ballots. He is running for governor and US Senate. / Concerned voters in 15 Florida counties are closely watching Sarasota Co.'s paper-ballot referendum this fall before considering similar initiatives....

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

While San Diego's North County Times could have been reporting on Friday's protest outside the Registrar of Voters' office, instead the NCTimes donated its column-inches to the noble cause of further misinforming the public about the June 6 election debacle and the people's fight for democracy.

In Recount fee goes unpaid: San Diego Registrar says no recount happening in 50th District race, staff writer Erin Schultz appears satisfied to report Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas's lies as fact:

The poor woman went to all the trouble of filing for a hand count under the recount provision and then didn't bother to pay the fee, eh? Not so fast. It just might be relevant to mention that it was an improperly required fee. The only fees the Registrar of Voters' office is allowed to charge are the actual costs of a recount. The exorbitant $6,000 demanded by the RoV's office as a deposit for the first day’s counting should have been reduced significantly when the voter requesting the recount advised the RoV that no counting panel would be needed on the first day, as she was still awaiting documents needed in order to proceed with the recount. Haas has failed to provide these documents despite Barbara Gail Jacobsen’s being legally entitled to have them and despite—or perhaps because of—their significance to the recount.

And why weren't the documents provided? What is Haas trying to hide?

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Brad has been too busy lately to remind us that his investigations, his blog, and everything else he does nowadays are funded by a few ads and a few donations. Too few donations, if the truth be known.

He's usually too modest to say what this means to him personally, but I'm not.

Brad used to have a career in which he made money. But that is no longer the case.

Clearly, Brad believes the work he does now is even more important than the work he used to do; I agree with him about that, and evidently so do you. It's just a tad inconvenient that his current work does very little to help him pay the rent.

If you appreciate the work Brad does, if you like reading (and maybe even commenting) on his blog, if you would like to see his investigative work continue, if you care about the future of our country, if you care about the truth and want to see more of it ... these are all good reasons to consider making a contribution.

It's easy to do --- see the blue box in the right-hand sidebar. And even if you can't contribute very much, please remember that every little bit helps.

How much does it matter? That's for you to decide. In my opinion, there is nothing at stake here except our future.

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

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has released their written opinion explaining the seven justices' March ruling that allowed electronic voting statewide last spring despite a local group's contention that voters should have decided for themselves. / Meanwhile in Ohio the 6th Appeals Court has given approval, at the request of the state, for rehearing a case that found that voters who used punch-card did not have the same rights as voters who used other voting systems. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

According to an article in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer the recent Cuyahoga County primary fiasco was the result of widespread dysfunction in the county's election offices, where officials ignored specific warnings of the looming calamity, according to a report also released today that blames election chief Michael Vu and deputy chief Gwen Dillingham.

According to the paper:

In a companion article the Plain Dealer reports on the 13 warnings and gives some examples:

Tonight's "Democracy At Risk" featured a discussion of Wednesday's congressional hearings on electronic voting.

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