In case you haven't heard of them, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is a "trade association" who set up the Electronic Technology Council (ETC) as an "astroturf" group at the behest of Electronic Voting Machine companies. Harris Miller was President of the ITAA and instrumental in convincing the Voting Machine Vendors to band together and give the ITAA money to create the ETC to spread the "good word" about Electronic Voting to Americans and Boards of Elections everywhere. Now Miller is reportedly about to announce his run as a Democratic(!) challenger for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia currently occupied by Republican George Allen.

Greg Priddy, over at TPM Café, appropriately calls him on the carpet as precisely the type of Democrat the Democrats don't need in office...Big time...

Priddy goes on to quote a report about Miller as saying "Introducing paper into the mix, he says, defeats the improved efficiency and reliability e-voting promises."

No, seriously, that's what he said.

Priddy's full post is here. An alternative for the VA Senate seat Democratic nominee, who Priddy recommends to Miller, is James Webb. We don't know anything about Webb, but we'll risk it and say he'd be more appropriate than Miller. So would a turnip. The link to the Webb site above allows you to sign a Draft Webb Petition. Given Priddy's post, we'd recommend that you sign it!

(Hat-tip David Edwards for the link!)

CORRECTION: We originally had identified the ITAA as the "astroturf" group created the Voting Machine Vendors. In fact, the ITAA had been created in 1964. It was the ETC, in fact, which was set up by the ITAA as the official "astroturf" group for the Voting Machine Vendors. We regret the original confusion.

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 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!...

From Wall Street Journal...

Wackos.

Not my term, mind you. That's Jack Abramoff's Republican partner (who's also plead guilty to a host of charges) Mark Scanlon's term for the "Christians" that the GOP has been playing for years. As revealed by his emails recently read at a congressional hearing. Thought this just might be a good time to remind the Christians out there (the real ones) how they've been used by the Republicans and BushCo for so long.

Mark Crispin Miller and I --- he of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), I of begging for dollars --- will be appearing back-to-back today in a two-hour Election Reform Sunday edition of the M & M Show on Air America Phoenix (1010am KXXT). Tune in, call in, say hello! 5:15p ET, 4:15p CT, 3:15p MT, 2:15p PT. Mark's up first, I join for the second hour, beginning at 6:15p ET, 5:15p CT, 4:15p MT, 3:15p PT. Call-in# is 888-294-4321. All anarchists and conspiracy theorists welcome. Got it? Listen up online here.

UPDATE: These guys, Steve and Fred McChesney, are doing a great job with their show out in Phoenix, and are right on point on the topic of Election Reform. As well, they're willing to hit the bricks to put their money where their mouth is and make some noise on the ground about the issue (only to be disparaged as "brown shirts" in the bargain!) What they're doing is exactly what's needed by the citizenry of this country right now to get things done on these matters! Give 'em a listen. Here's the MP3's from today's show with myself and Mark for your podcasting pleasure...

-- Mark Crispin Miller's segments [MP3]
-- Brad's segments [MP3]

...ALSO...speaking of Phoenix, I was recently on conservative Jay Lawrence's show on Newsradio 620 KTAR on New Years Day to discuss some of the same dirty business. In this case, about the "case against Diebold" as discussed with an intellectually honest Republican. The good John Brakey (tireless and intrepid fightin' Election Reform patriot in AZ) requested I post the audio from that show as well, so I am happy to honor the request. Consider it done, John...

-- Brad on the Jay Lawrence Show [MP3]

Back from a brief "working vacation," the esteemable Joseph Cannon is back with a few worthy thoughts on "conspiracy theories" as the GOP's dismissive political tool of choice these days...whenever their back is against the wall.

His thoughts were spurred, in part, by Arizona Sec. of State Jan Brewer's foolhardy shot at Election Reform advocates who loudly exercised their First Amendment Rights last week and dang near spoiled her precious re-election campaign announcement. She labeled these constituents as "anarchists" and "conspiracy theorists" as we reported that evening.

While I'm somewhat waylaid while working on several things at once of late, be sure to check in on the various anarchic trouble-makings of the conspiracy-theorist Cannon.

(In a related thought: At some point, following one Republican indictment after another on charges of conspiracy, one would think the wingnuts might want to find a fresh epithet to hurl against those of us who continue to point out their crimes long before the official indictments inevitably show up. It's up to them, of course, but I'm just sayin'...)

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

There is not a lot of news today but the content is important. Alameda Co., CA announces they are looking at going to 'vote-by-mail'. Voting activists, and a state senator, have filed a lawsuit in Westmoreland County, PA to get the choice of voting system to be a voter's choice and not a boards choice. And a non-descript article today may portend something going on in 'Diebold-world'. Marion Co., IL is concerned that they may not get delivery on their Diebold voting machines through Fiddler Elections Co. Is Diebold having a problem delivering what they have sold? In the meantime, those of who have responded to the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA have been making a lot of great noise! Keep it up! 12,272 Emails and 1620 letters sent so far!...

Guest blogged by David Edwards

DeLay's spokesman has informed the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he will not seek to reclaim his old post as Majority Leader.

Due to pressure from the Abramoff scandal and other corruptions scandals, this may the beginning of a Republican shake-up in the House.

GOP leaders hope that removing DeLay from the Majority Leader post and dirty tricks will put them on track to maintain control of the House in the upcoming 2006 elections.

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

Hundreds of people who came out on a cold January evening to hear Congressman and Marine Corps veteran Jack Murtha speak on the war in Iraq were turned away last night from an overflowing town hall meeting in Arlington, Virginia, that was organized by my congressman, Jim Moran, who supports Murtha's position that it's time to pull the plug on Bush's excellent adventure. But among the 600 or so who did get in were several Iraq War veterans, all of whom criticized the war. One young man, who had served a year in Iraq as a sniper, finished up his statement with the following question:

That got applause from the crowd, although little in the way of an answer from the two congressmen. C-SPAN has video of all two-and-a-half hours of it here.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

As BRAD BLO reported when this story broke earlier this week, US air strikes north of Baghdad destroyed a house and killed an Iraqi family as they prepared for bed.

US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said that three suspicious men were seen by an unmanned drone. US Forces used precision guided munitions to destroy a nearby building.

Descriptions of the situation by local police and witnesses do not agree with the official version offered by the US military. Reuters quoted police chief Colonel Sufyan Mustafa: "I absolutely confirm there were no terrorists in this house."

Some believe that the US intends to increase the use of air strikes in coming months. Air strikes increased during the course of 2005 from 20 per month to 120 per month. In the December 5th edition of The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh writes:

This translated Syrian TV report is the only significant video coverage we could find detailing the deadly air strikes reported by BRAD BLOG earlier this week.

Video in Streaming Flash format...

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

According to a January 3 article on VoteTrustUSA, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron delayed the purchase of 800 Sequoia Edge touch screen voting machines that some New Mexico counties had chosen to meet federal accessibility requirements.

On January 5 Voter Action amplified and corrected the statements of the Secretary. In their press release, Voter Action said:

NOTE: There is presently NO Sequoia voting system that meets the presently in force voting systems standards. The best that Sequoia can do is to meet standards that are 15 years old. Today this reporter called the Election Assistance Commission and I was told that Sequoia has nothing close to federal qualification at this time. This means that counties who have purchased their voting machines on the promise of being compliant by January 1, 2006 cannot meet the Help America Vote Act of 2002 accessibility mandates.

Guest blogged by David Edwards

Yesterday, TV evangelist Pat Robertson said that God may be punishing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for "dividing God's land". Sharon is in intensive care recovering from a serious stroke.

This is not the first time that Robertson has made controversial statements. Not long ago, Robertson was in the news for suggesting that the US should assassinate Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

In November, Robertson said that Dover Pennsylvania should not expect help from God when disaster strikes their city. The voters of Dover had rejected teaching "intelligent design" in public schools.

Robertson has also angered Muslims by calling Islam "a scam".

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

What with all this talk of Abramoff, DeLay, corruption in DC, we have a strange feeling our old friend, Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL), may soon be finding his way into the news more and more in the coming weeks and months. For those reasons (and more to come), now may be a good time to remind BRAD BLOG readers who may not have been around during the Clint Curtis affair, just how dirty this guy is!

Of course, you can read the summary of Feeney's involvement with a computer programmer in Florida who was allegedly asked by the one-time Florida House Speaker, one-time Jeb Bush running mate, now-U.S. Congressman on the House Judiciary Committee, to create Vote-Rigging Software. That summary will also give you an idea of the confirmed Chinese Spies who worked at the same firm where Feeney was a registred lobbyist (even while he was Speaker of Florida's House) and how the computer programmer, Curtis, has passed given a sworn affidavit, sworn video-taped testimony before members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and how he has passed a polygraph test concerning all of the above. All of the key articles in that series are also indexed here for convenience.

Then you can flashback to our coverage revealing that Tom Feeney was one of indicted former-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's #1 supporters! And vice versa! The two lovely Tom's are just like two peas in a corrupt pod!

So inseperable, in fact, that (in case you didn't know, we'll remind you) Tom Feeney took some of those very same Foreign Agent-funded overseas trips that DeLay did! Yup, Feeney loves his St. Andrews Golf as much as the next Tom. And trips to Asia? Don't even get us started! Here's a lovely breakdown of Feeney's trips as he was most recently listed as amongst the Top 13 "Ethically Challenged Members of Congress!"

Way to go, Tom! And we have a feeling we'll be talking much more about you in the not-too-distant future!

Perhaps it's a step up from "dissidents" as the AP once called them, but Election Transparency Advocates who turned out today at Arizona's Sec. of State Jan Brewer's speech to announce her re-election bid were labeled "anarchists" and "conspiracy theorists" by the woman who recently approved Diebold's flawed "AccuVote" touch-screen voting machines for use in virtually every precinct in the state.

During her speech today, according to the Arizona Star, "which boasted of the state getting rid of the last punch card ballots as part of her accomplishments since being elected in 2002 but one that never mentioned the Diebold contract" the Republican official in charge of ensuring free, fair and accurate elections in the state was repeatedly interrupted by advocates for transparent election who objected to the use of Diebold's failed machinery in the state.

Diebold's election equipment was recently shown to be hackable in a mock election test in Leon County, Florida, where the final results were completely flipped by computer security specialists. Over the summer, 20% of the same AccuVote touch-screen systems that Brewer approved on Friday, were found to have failed during a massive mock election test in California.

According to the Star, Brewer apparently dismissed the adamant concerns of the very voters she is (theoretically) in charge of serving:

In December of 2004, while members of several political parties had joined in challenging the results of Ohio's disastrously run Presidential Election, the Associated Press referred to those challengers who dared seek transparency in an utterly gamed election as "dissidents" which prompted one dubious American to reportedly ask at the time, "Great! So now we're dissidents?! What's next --- 'insurgents'?!"

No. Apparently "what's next" is that those who wish transparency and oversight and accountability in American democratic elections are now "anarchists." At least according to Arizona's shameful --- and hopefully out-going --- Secretary of State, Jan Brewer.

A useful thought for those considering running for the office of Secretary of State around the country: "It's the voters, stupid."

...CONTACT...
AZ SoS Email Contact Page: http://www.azsos.gov/info/contact_us.htm
AZ SoS Office: 602-542-4285

Campaign Website: JanBrewer.com
Campaign Email: info@janbrewer.com
Campaign Office: 602-439-3425

UPDATE 1/8/05: Brad was on Air America Phoenix today to discuss, amongst other things, the incident above on the M&M Show. The hosts, Fred and Steve McChesney, were amongst the "anarchists" and "conspiracy" --- and later called "brownshirts"! --- who made poor Jan Brewer's life so difficult. Audio available here.

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

Additional Reporting by Brad Friedman

The voting activist and election reform advocacy community was excited yesterday upon release of news about the signing of a new bill in Wisconsin, AB267, that originally included wording that would allow munipalities to "provide to any person, upon request, at the expense of the municipality, the coding for the software that the municipality uses to operate the system and to tally the votes cast". Indeed, The BRAD BLOG received many email reports last night about the "good news" concerning this bill.

The bill, as understood and reported by many, would have been the first time that voting activists would have been afforded the opportunity to actually "look under the hood" of voting machines by examining the source code used in the software in order to see what was really being done on the equipment supplied by Voting Machine Companies. So far, those companies have managed keep such source code secret and proprietary and away from the 'prying eyes' of the pesky public who has been forced --- by the corporate privatization of America's public elections --- to rely on such secret
software to accurately record and count their votes.

The apparent "good news," however, was incorrect, as The BRAD BLOG has learned. The language from the original bill was changed during the amendment process to strip it of the provisions that would have allowed the public inspection of the secret code!

The good news still left to report is that the bill, signed yesterday by WI Gov. Jim Doyle, will at least require a voter verified paper "record" for every vote cast. In theory, the measure would allow for a manual count or recount of votes in cases where the state determines such a count would be necessary.

Unfortunately, the version of the bill widely cited by election reform advocates was to the original language as introduced on August 24, 2005.

On November 3, 2005 a committee gutted the "disclosed source code" requirement with an Assembly Substitute Amendment 1. That amended deleted AB627 as introduced and replaced it with ASA1.

On November 10, that version was replaced in toto by Assembly Substitution Amendment 2 which is the version eventually signed by the Governor yesterday.

So, we are now going to have to wait for another day to "look under that hood"... Though that day may be coming soon...

The U.S. Senate convenes two weeks from now. George W. Bush could not wait and had to "recess appoint" the three latest additions to the Federal Elections Commission. You know how he is about those things. Hates to wait. And hates that whole annoying "Congressional oversight", "check and balances", blah, blah, blah stuff.

Amongst Bush's 17 recess appointments made today:

We had more previously on these characters when they were first nominated last month, including details on Bush crony von Spakovsky as well as Lenhard, who happens to be the husband of Vivica Novak (she, not just coincidentally, of TIME Mag/RoveGate fame). Novak will likely be testifying in some fashion concerning crimes surrounding the Bush Administration's alleged outting of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. Now, it seems, Novak will have to decide whether or not to give damaging testimony against her husband's boss.

Aside from being a key player in the 2000 Florida Election Boondoggle, a member of the extremist Federalist Society and a former Republican Party Chairman in Georgia, von Spakovsky was Bush's political appointee at the DoJ who recently made the papers as well. He was revealed to be behind the overriding of opinions given by career DoJ attorneys in the Voting Rights division concerning the Georgia Photo ID requirement laws and the Texas redistricting pet project of indicted former House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay. 4 out of 5 attorneys said the Georgia law would disenfranchise minority voters. While 8 out of 8 unaminously found the new Texas congressional map to be in violation of the law for similar reasons. Both of those decisions were overriden with the help of von Spakovsky and resulted in an effective gutting of the very heart of the 40 year-old Voting Rights Act of 1965 as we reported in early December. Who better to sit on the Federal Elections Commission?!

The Georgia law has since been found unconstitutional by two Federal courts and the Texas law is headed to the Supreme Court where still more Bush appointees will likely be sitting in judgement.

One party rule. America rocks! Except for this whole "Decade of Shame" thing we seem to be in the middle of...Lady Liberty weeps...More encouraging news on other matters tomorrow...