As The BRAD BLOG expands into new territory, we bring you our first, important, hard-hitting nature documentary...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, VotersUnite

As set up by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) receives some advice from a Board of Advisors. The Board is made up of a set number of people representing groups like the National Association of Secretaries of State; National Governors Association; International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers; congressional leaders; and even two members of The Election Center, a vendor-sponsored group that promotes electronic voting. There are no voters groups and no one from the election integrity community on the Board. But then, who cares what the voters think?

The Board of Advisors is advising [PDF, pg 7] the EAC, via resolution, that they need to speed-up the certification process for voting systems. They want the system to be what it was under the old, rubber-stamp system headed by the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED). They want the same system of testing and certification that has resulted in our voting systems failing in many elections and not even being compliant with federal standards.

Incredibly, the Board's recommendation to the EAC goes so far as to admit that a failed "common practice" of the past should, apparently, be re-instituted under the newer certification system. "The common practice since the introduction of electronic voting systems," they wrote, "has been to make hardware and software upgrades based on issues found in the most recent election in sufficient time to improve the voting systems for the next general election."

That is a stunning admission. That that is a system they'd like to return to is even more stunning.

The EAC is holding a public meeting in Phoenix later this month and the Board of Advisors' resolution is to be discussed by the commissioners. I sent the following email to the commissioners and staff of the EAC to voice my concerns about the resolution.

My letter to them follows in full below...

In this evening’s “Featured Article”, Kim Zetter of “Threat Level Blog” at Wired reports about the failure of new Sequoia voting machines to get through state and local testing. So far about 50 percent of the voting machines delivered to the state have problems. Doug Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, is quoted as saying something that the Election Integrity community has known for a long time. He said, “There's no way the vendor could be adequately reviewing the machines and having so many problems. What it tells us is that the vendor just throws this stuff over the transom and does not do any alpha- or beta-testing of their own before they apply for certification testing. Then they expect that we'll identify technical glitches and then they'll correct those glitches. But correction of those glitches is an extraordinarily time-consuming process. And it’s very disappointing that this equipment is not ready for prime time.” The vendors have used real elections to beta test their products without regards for the voters and this has been an ongoing process for years....

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

The McCain campaign's Alabama chairman, Attorney General Troy King, the virulent homophobe who is the subject of rumors that his wife discovered him having sex with another man, was a client of Strategum USA, the consulting firm of Ralph Gonzalez, a closeted gay GOP political operative who was killed last summer in a double murder-suicide in his home in Orlando.

Gonzalez was also the one-time campaign manager/consultant for Florida's hard-right, scandal-plagued 24th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney whose close ties to disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and involvement in an alleged electronic vote-rigging conspiracy have been reported extensively for years by The BRAD BLOG.

Last Friday, the McCain campaign quickly scrubbed all references to King from its website without offering a public reason.

The August 27, 2007 Birmingham News report of the murder-suicide which took Gonzalez' life, discussed the consultant's work for King in Alabama...

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

It has been a couple weeks since we reminded all of our subscribers that voter registrations and voter registration data bases have been a huge problem during the primary elections. There is no reason to believe that they will not be a huge problem in November. One of the only ways to ensure a voter is registered is for that voter to check their registration. We recommend every voter check now and then check again just before the voter’s state registration closes before November. You can find out the date that your state is closing registration and who to check to ensure your registration is still HERE...

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

Click graphic to see full screen capture

The John McCain campaign scrubbed its website today to remove all references to its Alabama campaign chairman, Attorney General Troy King.

King, who is known for extremist views on religion and who has frequently made homophobic statements, including calling gays the "downfall of society," is the subject of rumors that his wife recently discovered him having sex with another man.

The story about King had been published at Wonkette and on numerous gay news websites, but none of them had reported King's connection with the McCain campaign before we published the story, "McCain’s Alabama Chairman Reportedly Outed - Attorney General Troy King Has a Record of Homophobic Rhetoric," at Pensito Review on Friday.

We happened upon the scrubbing of the campaign website as we did fact-checking for the article. At about 2:30 p.m PDT, when we checked the McCain campaign website, we found a news release from January on this now-blank page announcing the Alabama politicians who had joined McCain's "leadership team." The list included King, who was indeed named state campaign chairman.

A few minutes after we published the article, a reader left a comment alerting us that the link to the McCain website led to the blank page that is there now.

A search on the campaign site for "Troy King" returned no results, however a Google search for "Troy King" and "John McCain" still produced a link to the now-blank McCain campaign webpage near the top of the results as of 4 p.m. Friday.

We happened to have the webpage open and so made the screen capture of it and grabbed the text:

Blogged by Brad from the road...

More at ars technica...

The findings of the French study are hardly surprising to those of us who haven't been ignoring the exact same problems for years here in the U.S.. The difference, of course, will likely come in the way that France --- like other European countries, and decidedly unlike the U.S. --- responds to the findings...

Yesterday members of Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) filed papers in US District Court in Ohio asking a judge to begin criminal contempt proceedings for the destruction of ballots, against his orders, from the Nov. 2004 election. In King Lincoln, et al. v. Brunner, et al., Civ. No. C2 06 745 (S.D. Ohio), the judge had ordered all 88 counties to preserve all ballots from the election until a decision was rendered in the case. At least 56 counties decided that they did not need to follow the court order and destroyed a portion of the ballots they had. Seven counties assert they have destroyed all ballots. The complaint also asks the judge to impanel a special grand jury to investigate the destruction of the ballots....

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

Video: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) gets nowhere as he attempts to grill Attorney General Michael Mukasey on the investigation into Karl Rove's influence in the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Update (from Brad): Wow. Remarkable exchange. Made either more or less astounding by the reminder that it was Schumer himself who, with Diane Feinstein, sealed the confirmation of Mukasey. Regretting that one yet, Senator?

(P.S. Good catch, Jon! Don't let me stop you from posting an update that includes the answer to Sheldon Whitehouse's question at the end there! )

Got it! See below --- Jon

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

When the Democrats regained control of the House in 2006, the new Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, famously took the impeachment of George Bush "off the table." This puzzled and disappointed millions of people who rightly wondered why a president could be impeached over a sex lie in 1999 but not over a lie just four years later that sent hundreds of thousands of innocent people to their deaths in Iraq while draining the U.S. Treasury of billions upon billions of dollars.

In parliamentary proceedings, however, any item that can be taken off the table can be put back on it, if conditions change and the leadership wills it so. As we reported yesterday, Speaker Pelosi has signaled that an Article of Impeachment charging Bush with lying to Congress about his pretexts for invading Iraq might at least get a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.

There's no way to know what, if any, changes in conditions may have prompted her to rethink impeachment, but it may have something to do with a new Rasmussen poll released on Tuesday that found approval of Congress at 9 percent, which is essentially a statistical zero.

Pundits have long speculated that Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the other leaders have been averse to impeaching Bush because the impeachment of Pres. Bill Clinton put the Republican-controlled Congress in such bad odor with the public.

Let's assume that Pelosi and company are not so blind that they can't see the difference in severity of Clinton's misdemeanor and Bush's high crimes --- or that they're such bad politicians that they can't judge the difference in the voters' view of Clinton, whose approval rating remained in the mid-60s throughout the ordeal, and its disregard for Bush, whose approval is in the low 30s. Nor can they be unaware of the corollary fact that disapproval of Bush's misadventure in Iraq is in the upper 60s.

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

The Los Angeles Times published a story today --- on the front page above the fold --- about the adultery of a presidential candidate that, if it had been about the Democrat, would likely have changed the dynamics of the 2008 presidential campaign --- possibly even throwing the election to the other party.

Instead, the story is about John McCain, the Republican, and is therefore bound to be ignored by the rest of the mainstream press.

The only possible interest the story might generate in the corporate media --- and in conservative circles, where McCain is already not particularly well-liked --- stems from the fact that McCain's extramarital affair with his current wife, Cindy, permanently ended his friendship with Ronald Reagan and, especially, his wife, Nancy, around the same time Reagan was running for president 30 years ago.

The Times article opens with the strained moments around Nancy Reagan's tepid endorsement of McCain earlier this year:

Today Senator Akaka (D-HI) called on the federal Department of Veteran’s Affairs to lift their ban on voter registration drives on Veteran’s Administration property. He pointed out that the VA's policy is unnecessary and insulting to veterans who have made enormous sacrifices for our country. He was joined by Sen.s Kerry and Feinstein. Also late today Connecticut Secretary of State Bysiewicz and Washington Secretary of State Reed joined in a bi-partisan campaign to overturn the VA ban, along with the Secretaries of State from Ohio, Montana, Vermont, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Maine, to the DVA. ...

Blogged by Brad from the road...

Perhaps impeachment won't die in the House Judiciary Committee after all, as Pelosi gently --- if tepidly --- seemed to put the topic back on the table, according to Politico today, (via RAW STORY):

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) filed 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush in June. Those articles, like the ones before them against Dick Cheney, were referred to House Judiciary where action has yet to be taken on them. Yesterday, Kucinich announced that he will introduce yet another Article today, on Bush lying the country into war, in a privileged resolution on the House floor.

This morning, his office announced the new article will be filed between 3:30 and 4:00pm ET today. They are asking the public to sign their petition calling on Congress to take action on the matter.

DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG was consulted by Kucinich concerning the Bush Articles of Impeachment. The information submitted was included in Article 28, "Tampering with Free and Fair Elections" and Article 29, "Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965" of the original 35 Articles filed last month against Bush.

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

L.F. Eason III, the director of the state of North Carolina's Standards Laboratory in Raleigh, was forced to resign this week because he refused to follow an order to lower the laboratory's flags in honor of former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, who died late last week. Eason, 51, had worked for the state for 29 years, the entirety of his career.

In email explaining his position, Eason wrote...