Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA
The “DVN Top 5” is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The January 30 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!…
This week has been rather quiet. There hasn’t really been anything that could be categorized as being ‘earth-shattering’ so this week’s selections have been hard.
#5 – Questions about whether California should move toward using electronic voting systems that rely on “open source software” and how exactly voting systems are tested and certified for use will be the subject of two hearings scheduled today by Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), the chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee as announced in a Press Release and subsequent VoteTrustUSA article.
#4 – This week the state of Wisconsin approved the Vote-PAD Assistive Device for use by their counties and townships. The significance of this story, as related by The BradBlog is that the state conferred with the U.S. Dept. of Justice. According to the Vote-PAD press release and The BradBlog article, “Wisconsin State Elections Board executive director, Kevin Kennedy, announced the state’s approval of the Vote-PAD after “considerable time” spent conferring with U.S. Dept. of Justice attorneys. The response, he said, after examining the device, was that the DoJ saw nothing “that should stop Wisconsin from proceeding with approval” of Vote-PAD for use in the state.”
#3 – The Associated Press has reported that the state of Florida has ordered Leon County to return $564,421 in HAVA funds that were earmarked for new voting equipment. This move is an apparent attempt to pressure the Leon County Elections Director, Ion Sancho, into changing his mind about moving from Diebold optical-scan to another vendor’s machines.
#2 – A number of national and state legislative actions are taking place that are of interest to voting activists and others. An ‘Action Alert’ has been called in Washington where HB-2532 will fill the gap that presently exists due to a lack of any audit on ballots counted by optical-scan voting systems. This action joins others previously announced regarding national and local legislation. Nationally HR-4666 was introduced by Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) with co-sponsors including Congressman Holt (D-NJ) and others. This legislation will ensure that states and counties who are making honest attempts at meeting HAVA will have more time. In Maryland HB-244 would require voter verified paper records and mandatory audits of voting machines.
#1 – The number one story for this week is the seizure of ballots from the ’04 District 20 legislative race in Maricopa Co., AZ. After the county refused to honor a subpoena issued by a state senate committee the FBI stepped in with their own subpoena. The subpoena did not stop with just the ballots as it included the mail-in envelopes. It will be interesting to see what the FBI reports when they have completed their investigation.
Great work!
I’m interested in hearing whats going on in Kansas, Utah(really interested in this!) and also Ohio though and how people are dealing with this.
Florida is just so foregone with neocon corruption it almost matches Ohio and they need to get special prosecutors in there.
Doug E
FYI–
Senate judiciary committee hearings on the NSA spy program are scheduled to begin tomorrow.
Starting at 9:30 a.m. ET on CSPAN.
Looking forward to the day when we’re watching the hearings on rampant election fraud.
Thank you, John.
There is a petition on election fraud currently, asking Senator Boxer to
"…stand up on the Senate floor and speak the truth to the American people and do everything you can to force this issue into the public discourse…"
http://www.petitiononline.com/boxer123/
Please sign! Only 1322 signatures so far.
Thank you, Jim.
This story needs frontline attention
Diebold certification report done in Pennsylvania.
Experts need to do a demonstration on the touch-screens as well, Diebold should not be anywhere in Pennsylvania, Arizona at all. We need to make sure they are just stopped and get real secure voting….NOT iVotronic machines. Just scanners and random audits.
Doug E.
I watched This Week Sunday morning on ABC.
They discussed, among other things, the gerrymandering case in the Supreme Court. Even tho it was not a complete discussion, it brought out something the MSM is willing to talk about.
The MSM is not willing to talk about election fraud in 2000 or 2004, but gerrymandering is not taboo.
Cokie Roberts, who is not a democrat, talked about how gerrymandering has been set up since the republicans took power (link here). She intimated that the decision in the new Texas case recently taken on by the Supreme Court could have an effect on the upcoming election.
This issue is every bit as important as verifiable voting machines (link here). Notice what is said in these articles linked to:
This kind of gerrymandering can have dramatic — and pernicious — results. Consider three counties, each of which has a 50/50 split between Democrats and Republicans. What you have is true democracy: Candidates’ views will matter as to how the balance is tipped. The outcome is completely up for grabs. But now gerrymander these same counties so that one county has virtually 100 percent Democrats, and the other two each have 25 percent Democrats. The outcome is virtually pre-set: One Democrat Congressperson, and two Republicans.
Given possibilities like this one, it’s no surprise that in the end, the Republicans succeeded in a drawing a map that, at least until the next redistricting, was almost certain to guarantee that Republicans would control 12 or more of the state’s 19 congressional seats, even if, on a statewide basis, half of Pennsylvania’s voters cast ballots for Democratic candidates" (emphasis in original).
The RNC has orchestrated redistricting so much that it is very, very difficult to vote them out. Like Tom Feeney who runs unopposed. The reason for this, in large part, is due to gerrymandering.
So, even if the voting is totally legit, after all the defective voting machines are replaced, the gerrymandering will remain as the final wall thwarting accountability.
Accountability is the foundation of democracies that rely on voting by the people. The people express their opinion by voting.
If gerrymandering in its current form is allowed to continue as the status quo, then accountability is a thing of the past.
Democracy will be pro forma and elections will be meaningless.
Watch the gerrymandering cases, because if we are to be sophisticated and relevant in our election discussions, we must understand the impact that gerrymandering has had on American election results.
Voting machine fraud, even if completely eradicated, will not have any impact unless and until gerrymandering is made illegal by the Supreme Court.
Is anyone watching the Senate Judiciary spy hearings on CSAN? My cable is out…
*CSPAN*
Oh trust me, we’re going to make gerrymandering illegal too. Whether the corporate media is reporting it or not, they’re going to be out of a job!
We’ll take it through the courts, through the lawyers, and through war until all gerrymandering from both sides is ILLEGAL
Doug E