Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Yesterday the Maryland legislature voted unanimously to ban the use of paperless voting machines by 2010. The legislation requires an optically scannable paper ballot marked by hand or with the help of a ballot marking device. This news leaves one questioning the demise of MD’s State Board of Elections head Linda Lamone who has sworn that the state would go to paper “over my dead body.”
“Newer isn’t always better. The Harrison County [Mississippi] Board of Supervisors has decided the new touch screen voting system isn’t worth the hassle, the expense, or the nightmare it would create in a contested election. The board voted Monday to revert back to scanning machines on the recommendation of Circuit Clerk Gayle Parker. There are several reasons why Parker is no fan of the touch screen system. She says she’d rather stick to what works well than sit on the cutting edge of technology under a flawed system.” Among those reasons are that the Diebold TSx DREs are not “user friendly” and the system is “a headache.”
Those, and the other notable voting news stories, all linked below…
**”Daily Voting News” is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in “Daily Voting News” may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or BradBlog.Com**
John, this is great news about MD dumping the Diebold TS machines in favor of an optical scan paper ballot system.
However, I’ve heard this quip before about what this might mean with respect to Lamone’s “over my dead body” statement. I’m no fan of Lamone, but you are not using this quote accurately.
She did say that but it was clearly in the context of adding “paper trails” to the Diebold TS DREs they have. She said, “I’m not going to put this paper on my voting machines… it’ll be over my dead body.” See it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpW8bqEIpdI
There were several proposals floating around about retrofitting the Diebold TS DREs (which were not designed to work with VVPAT or VVPB).
The current action has nothing to do with adding VVPAT or VVPB to the DREs, thus, no need to speculate about her dead body over this.
Alan Dechert
Another unanimous vote was done recently by a non-legislative branch of government.
It was the United States Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit. One of Bush’s political appointees, a US Attorney, had been pressured to bring prosecutions to help the republican running for governor.
Unlike the other republican US Attorneys that were fired, this one caved in to political pressure and brought a frivolous indictment for political purposes.
The Court was not amused:
(Newspaper, Court Order). Needless to say it is highly unusual for an appellate court to rule at the close of oral argument, order the defendant released forthwith, and order that acquittal be entered in the trial court.
The US Attorney investigation folks in congress became immediately concerned, and issued demands for documentation and explanations from the DOJ.
April 11, 2007
Panel Said to Alter Finding on Voter Fraud (nytimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/...gewanted=print
From the New York Times
quote
Panel Said to Alter Finding on Voter Fraud
By IAN URBINA
Published: April 11, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 10 “” A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.
Enlarge This Image
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Poll workers in Columbus, Ohio, last year for the first time recorded ID card information presented by voters.
Multimedia
Graphic
Voter Identification Requirements
Related
Voting Fraud and Voter Intimidation (Draft Report) (pdf)
Election Crimes: An Initial Review and Recommendations for Future Study (Final Report) (pdf)
Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate.
The revised version echoes complaints made by Republican politicians, who have long suggested that voter fraud is widespread and justifies the voter identification laws that have been passed in at least two dozen states.
Democrats say the threat is overstated and have opposed voter identification laws, which they say disenfranchise the poor, members of minority groups and the elderly, who are less likely to have photo IDs and are more likely to be Democrats.
end quote
Sorry–messed up the cut-n-paste: trying again without the embedded links to pictures and stuff–
quote
WASHINGTON, April 10 “” A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate.
The revised version echoes complaints made by Republican politicians, who have long suggested that voter fraud is widespread and justifies the voter identification laws that have been passed in at least two dozen states.
Democrats say the threat is overstated and have opposed voter identification laws, which they say disenfranchise the poor, members of minority groups and the elderly, who are less likely to have photo IDs and are more likely to be Democrats.
end quote
What’s infuriating about positive legislation like this one, is that it is not immediate. This one allows over 2 more years of water under the bridge to pollute election results before it takes effect! Just think which politicians they can sneak in meanwhile to undo the advances.
Even then, it is not so positive, since it still allows the use of electronics in our elections, and certainly opscan software can steal an election just as easily as the DRE’s.
Federal election panel hyped up voter fraud findings
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/F...oter_0411.html
“We were a small agency taking over a huge job,” said Donetta L. Davidson a 2005 Bush appointee, to the Times. “I think we may have tried to do more research than we were equipped to handle.”
But Democratic Members of Congress saw a partisan basis for the final release and its findings.
“By attempting to sweep this draft report under the rug, the E.A.C. is throwing out important work, wasting taxpayer dollars and creating a cloud of suspicion as to why it is acting this way,” Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY) told the Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/...38;oref=slogin
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/pa...aft_report.pdf
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/pa...nal_report.pdf
From this article, Donetta Davidson says, “Donetta Davidson, a member of the Election Assistance Commission, said only a few dozen of about 6,700 election jurisdictions in the United States reported voting problems on Election Day. She said local governments undertake exhaustive testing on their computer equipment before and after elections.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/.../743631-84.stm
………but THIS article illudes to more widespread vote machine problems:
http://www.voteraction.org/repo...06Mid-Term.pdf
Unless, by “a few dozen”, she meant “a coupla hundred dozen”……..
Be careful of the difference between “problems with e-vote machines” and “voter fraud”, what the GOP is claiming. BIG difference!!! I’m noticing, no one is making a big distinction between the 2 VERY DIFFERENT things!!!
(ot, but…)
There’s a big story out there, that investigative journalists aren’t hopping on. Shill callers to Limbaugh and Hannity. Especially black callers to Sean Hannity.
Today, a guy called and lead off, “Sean, I’m going to get straight to the point…I’m a black man.” The only blacks that begin conversations with, “I’m black”, are callers to the Sean Hannity show! Have you ever spoken with someone, and they lead off with, “I’m black…”??? The WHITE callers don’t say, “Sean, I’m white…and…” The fact that only BLACK callers have to announce that they are “black”, proves how racist and fake their shows are! “Tyrone” was from South Florida. Nice name…from the 70’s… How about “Huggy Bear” next, Sean?
The only shows in existence, where “supposed” black callers ALWAYS ANNOUNCE THAT THEY ARE BLACK! Limbaugh and Hannity want to make sure their PAID SHILL black callers (if they’re even black) ANNOUNCE TO THEIR RACIST WHITE AUDIENCE, that EVEN BLACKS HATE SHARPTON AND JACKSON!!!!!!!!!! That can be the only reason supposed blacks always announce that they are black, before they begin to speak!
It’s a formula. If someone on Limbaugh or Hannity begins by announcing “I’m a woman…” or “I’m black” or “I’m gay”, you can be SURE it’s going to be “Sean, I’m a woman, and even I hate Hillary Clinton”, or “Sean, I’m a black, and even I hate Al Sharpton”, or “Sean, I’m gay, and even I am against gay marriage.”
Did you ever hear, “Sean, I’m black, and you are full of sh*t!”???????????
These are obvious paid shill callers, and this is one big fake infomercial. Is this illegal? How come no one is exposing this?
All day yesterday and today, Sean Hannity had fake black shill callers, calling in, “I’m black…”. When Imus blurted his infamous “nappy ho’s” comment, Limbaugh and Hannity used their formula, got all their shill black callers (if they are even black), and somehow twist it into black callers hating Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton! This is FURTHER proof that these are shill fake callers, because what does Imus’s racial statement have to do with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton?
It’s a FORMULA they use!!! Whenever something racial hits the news, they get black callers to say, “I’m black, and even I hate Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton.” Somehow, person “X” making a racial slur, gives birth to 2 days of “black conservative” callers, calling Sean Hannity, to tell him how “I’m black, and even I hate Sharpton/Jackson.”
…and Hannity always ends the call with, “Thanks for the call”. But when it’s a BLACK guy, it’s “Thanks for the call…..TYRONE!” Get the point across, that he’s supposedly black, right Sean? btw? Does anyone here know a black guy named “Tyrone”??????????
We have to remember, DREs are not the only problem. Optical Scans can be rigged too!! Optical Scan systems have secret software, serial ports, SRAM cards and a host of other issues. Remember the 2000 election in Florida? They used optical scans there.
If you use optical scans, make sure you have a heavy audit at the preceint level!
Comment from Raw Story:
As a black man and an Imus fan i will no longer watch MSNBC again and Barack my brother, you just lost my vote..
Junior | Email | Homepage | 04.12.07 – 8:03 am
Direct link to this comment
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How about, “As a black man, I am against Limbaugh and Hannity”. Gee! How come you never see that!
How come EVERYTIME someone begins with “I’m a black man…”, it’s NEVER TO SAY THEY HATE A CORPORATE RIGHTWING PERSONALITY!!!
Gee, what are the odds of that happening 100% of the time? Probably, the same odds that all e-vote anomolies 100% of the time favor Republicans!
…and he said “my brother”…yeah, right!
“I’m a black man….my brother”…maybe it’s TYRONE from the Sean Hannity show again!
big dan:
This Imus thing is really perplexing to me. Methinks EVERYBODY is going nuts. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and tons of others have been saying things that are much worse then Imus.
This is very similar to the Howard Stern episode. It wasn’t that Stern had, all of the sudden, started to talk about sex, it was that he was starting to step out of line and condemn Bush. Even Mike Malloy was saying he was starting to watch Imus because of some of the things that were being said on the show, but now Malloy is condemning Imus. I’m not, by any means saying I think Malloy has turned, but this is so out of control.
Every single broadcast on the left and the right are devoting the entire show to this! I’m afraid this is just going to turn into one more example of how the far right can get away with things the left can’t. Imus isn’t even FROM the left, but some of the right wingers are saying that. Damn liars.
Oh, and this is the kicker! Armstrong Williams was on “Hardball”, (yes, he still has a radio show), bitching about Imus after accepting $250,000 in illegal money from the white house to pimp the “No Child Left Behind” nonsense.