Archive for the 'Election Fraud' Category

House panel probes neocon phone jamming in New Hampshire election

By ANDREW MIGA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A House panel is probing the Election Day 2002 phone-jamming plot by GOP operatives against New Hampshire Democrats.

Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., wants the panel to focus on key “unanswered questions” about whether the White House played a role in the plot — and whether the Justice Department dragged its feet on the case for political reasons.

“I want to know what the connection was between the White House, the Republican National Committee and the conspiracy to jam phones,” said Hodes, who was scheduled to testify Wednesday before a joint panel of two Judiciary Committee subcommittees.

Hodes said the public deserves to know whether political interference delayed prosecution of the case until after the 2004 elections and President Bush’s re-election. The controversy over the alleged political firings of eight federal prosecutors underscores the need to hold the Justice Department accountable, he said.

The phone-jamming scandal has led to at least three criminal prosecutions and a lawsuit that was settled with Republicans paying the Democrats $135,000.

Allen Raymond, a Republican consultant who served three months in prison for his role organizing the jamming, will also testify. He wrote a book entitled “How to Rig an Election.”

Charles McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, pleaded guilty and served seven months in prison for his role in the scheme. More

Supreme Court upholds Indiana’s voter disenfranchisement law

From Bill Mears, CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday backed Indiana’s law requiring voters to show photo identification, despite concerns thousands of elderly, poor and minority voters could be locked out of their right to cast ballots.

The 6-3 vote allows Indiana to require the identification when it holds its statewide primary next week. It also will give most state legislatures time to revise their voter laws for the November elections.

This was perhaps the biggest voter rights case taken up by the justices since the 2000 dispute over Florida’s ballots, in which George W. Bush prevailed to gain the presidency.

At issue was whether state laws designed to stem voter fraud end up disenfranchising large numbers of Americans who might lack proper documents to prove their voting eligibility. The case raised important constitutional questions, but also involved race and partisan politics.

Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said any political issues considered by the state were mitigated by its desire to stop voter fraud.

“The state interests identified as justifications for [the law] are both neutral and sufficiently strong to require us to reject” the lawsuit, he wrote.

But in a toughly worded dissent, Justice David Souter said “Indiana has made no such justification” for the statute “and as to some aspects of its law, it hardly even tried.”

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita has conceded the state has never presented a case of “voter impersonation,” which the law was designed to safeguard against. The 2005 Indiana law requires that a valid photo identification be presented by a person casting a ballot at a polling stations. Previously, most citizens needed only to sign a poll book to vote.

For those lacking a driver’s license or other government-issued photo ID such as a passport, the state provides a free voter ID card, issued through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Even so, Souter said, such a law “threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting right of tens of thousands of the state’s citizens.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer also dissented.

Stevens candidly noted the “real-world impact” of a statute passed by a GOP-controlled state Legislature and signed by a Republican governor. More

Groundbreaking New Book Documents Widespread Election Fraud

by Jason Leopold

http://www.opednews.com

Earlier this month, at a conference in San Francisco, several renowned computer scientists warned that electronic voting machines remain vulnerable to computer hackers due to serious security flaws in the operating software, calling into question the integrity of a presidential election that is still seven months away, and all other elections in the U.S. where paper ballots have been replaced by these paperless electronic machines.

There wasn’t anything particularly new in the scientists’ revelations other than the fact that the magazine PC World covered the issue and several other mainstream news organizations.

Arguably, any mainstream coverage these days of election fraud, a topic of such national significance that it literally affects anyone who has ever cast a ballot, can be credited to a handful of hard core voting rights activists and muckraking citizen journalists who have made it their life’s mission to overhaul the way people vote and restore much needed integrity to the process.

The scientists’ warnings that this year’s historic presidential election can be tinkered with came on the heels of the publication of a groundbreaking new book, “Loser Take All,” click here a collection of eye-opening investigative reports into past issues of election fraud authored by voting rights experts, activists, and journalists, who used old-fashioned gumshoe reporting to expose the seedy side of the business of counting votes.

Unlike the reportage leading up the invasion of Iraq, which relied heavily on anonymous sources who spoon fed mainstream reporters wild tales of Iraq’s vast weapons cache, lapped up by Pulitzer Prize winning journalists and printed as fact, the reports about stolen elections, the massive purge of minorities and poor people from voter rolls, in “Loser Take All” is backed up by smoking gun evidence in the form of documents and on the record accounts from public officials and behind-the-scenes executives employed by e-voting companies.

Perhaps no one has been passionate about this issue or has worked as hard to attract mainstream attention to the cause than bestselling author Mark Crispin Miller and blogger Brad Friedman, who co-authored an essay for the book with voting rights advocate Michael Richardson.

Well before anyone understood what election fraud meant, Miller, also a professor at New York University, and Friedman, whose BradBlog website is the go-to place on the Internet for comprehensive coverage on voting issues, were sounding early warning alarms and educating the public about voting machines plagued with software bugs, the ease at which hackers can bust into the system and change the vote count for candidates, such as George W. Bush, and place him ahead of Democratic challenger John Kerry in states such as Ohio.

Miller, who wrote extensively in his book “Fooled Again” click here about the theft of countless votes cast during the 2004 presidential election–in Ohio and many other states– were stolen from Kerry and handed to Bush, said in an interview that the 2008 election can be stolen “through pre-emption of innumerable votes, as well as through the use of e-voting machines, both paperless touch-screen machines and op-scans.”

“It’s safe to say that the entire federal government, insofar as it’s controlled by BushCo’s appointees, has been diligently working to suppress all but those votes that will support the [Republican] party,” Miller said. “The [Veterans Administration], for example, has announced that it will not help badly injured veterans register to vote since those who’ve been thus damaged by Bush/Cheney’s war aren’t likely to be big McCain supporters.” MORE

Follow up: Voting safeguards measure fails in House

From Rawstory:

 TRENTON, N.J. - Legislation sponsored by a New Jersey congressman that would have reimbursed states wanting to adopt voting safeguards before the November presidential election failed to win approval Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

The bill, dubbed the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008, fell short of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass, even after clearing a House committee unanimously. The vote was 239-178 in favor, with all but two Democrats supporting it and all but 16 Republicans opposed.

 

The two Democrats who voted nay on H R 5036 were Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Nick Rahall. The 16 Republicans who voted in favor of the bill were Reps. Vern Buchanan, Steve Chabot, Tom Cole, Tom Davis, Charlie Dent, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Jim Gerlach, Dean Heller, Tim Murphy, Marilyn Musgrave, Jon Porter, Jim Ramstad, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chris Shays, and Chris Smith.

 

The bill would have allowed states and jurisdictions to be reimbursed by the federal government for converting to a paper ballot system, offering emergency paper ballots or conducting audits by hand counts.

 

Article Continues @ Sourced Site

“Secure Election Act” Coming Up For Vote

From Slashdot.org:

 ”The US House of Representatives is considering HR. 5036, the ‘Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008,’ as introduced by Representative Rush Holt. The bill is scheduled for a floor vote later today. It would provide for emergency paper ballots, money for the addition of voter verifiable paper ballots to existing systems, and post-election audits. Crucially, the change to paper is opt-in, making it possible for local jurisdictions to govern their own choices. Here are two summaries of the bill. It was reported out of committee with strong bipartisan support. As of this morning the White house has opposed the bill but not threatened a veto, and some previously supportive Republicans have now changed their tune. Calls may be made to yourhouse rep (click on ‘Find your representative’). Here’s a sample support letter.”

 

Article Continues @ Sourced Site

Siegelman on 60 Minutes: Karl Rove has Succeeded in Ruining Political Career

Via Rawstory:

 ”Politics for me…in terms of electoral politics–is over,” says former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, once considered the most successful Democrat in his state, to CBS’ 60 Minutes. “I think that’s what Karl Rove wanted; he has accomplished his goal.”

 

“Frankly,” he continues, “I’m about busted financially. I’ve spent my life savings…I’ve spent a lot of money on trying to muster my defense.”

 

Governor Siegelman, as RAW STORY has extensively reported in thePermanent Republican Majority series, was prosecuted and imprisoned with the help of US Attorneys, federal prosecutors and judges said to have been hand-picked operatives under the watch of former Bush advisor Karl Rove.

 

Siegelman has been released on appeal.

 

Nick Langewis and David Edwards

Published: Sunday April 6, 2008

Article including Video Continues @ Sourced Site

Will Rush Limbaugh Be Indicted for Voter Fraud?

From Alternet:

As the board of election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where Cleveland is located, launches an investigation into illegal crossover voting in the state’s 2008 presidential primary, a big open question remains unanswered: Will county officials go after the ringleaders of apparently illegal electioneering where thousands of Republican voters swore — under penalty of law — allegiance to the Democratic Party in order to vote for Hillary Clinton?

In case you missed it, Rush Limbaugh, the nation’s top-rated talk radio host, was urging Republicans in Texas and Ohio to skip their party’s primary on March 4 and instead cast a vote for Hillary Clinton in order to prolong the fight between her and Barack Obama. And that Tuesday, as media in both states reported, thousands of Republicans did just what Limbaugh and others had suggested — they changed parties to vote for Clinton.

“I want Hillary to stay in this, Laura,” Limbaugh told Laura Ingraham on Feb. 29, near the start of his Hillary crusade. “This is too good a soap opera. We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically, and it’s obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it and don’t have the stomach for it, as you probably know.”And on Wednesday, the day after the Ohio primary, Fox News asked Clinton if she owed Limbaugh a thank you. “Be careful what you wish for, Rush,” she replied. Later that day, Limbaugh played the Fox tape on his show and said, “How do you interpret this, folks? She could have said thank you. She could have said thank you! In fact, I was expecting in her victory speech last night to be thanked.”I helped give Mrs. Clinton the biggest and happiest moment and night of the campaign season so far, maybe her life, and she tells me, “Be careful what you wish for, Rush”? Why, that sounds like a threat, does it not? I’ve got a Democrat presidential candidate threatening your host. Why, I am stunned! After all I did …”

While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party’s principles “under penalty of election falsification.”

On Thursday, March 20, the Cleveland Plain Dealerreported that the “Cuyahoga County Board of Election has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary.” According to the report, “One voter scribbled the following addendum to his pledge as a new Democrat: “For one day only.”

“Such an admission amounts to voter fraud,” the report continued, attributing that conclusion to BOE member Sandy McNair, a Democrat. The report said the four-member board — two Democrats and two Republicans — had yet to vote on whether it would issue subpoenas, although Ohio’s secretary of state, Democrat Jennifer Brunner, is empowered to cast tie-breaking votes when the BOE is deadlocked.

Story Continues @ Sourced Site.

Follow up: Plan for voting machine probe dropped after lawsuit threat

Thank you to Susan for first Reporting this story.

From nj.com:

by Diane C. Walsh/The Star-Ledger
Monday March 17, 2008, 7:01 PM

Union County has backed off a plan to let a Princeton University computer scientist examine voting machines where errors occurred in the presidential primary tallies, after the manufacturer of the machines threatened to sue, officials said today.

A Sequoia executive, Edwin Smith, put Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi on notice that an independent analysis would violate the licensing agreement between his firm and the county. In a terse two-page letter Smith also argued the voting machine software is a Sequoia trade secret and cannot be handed over to any third party.

Last week Rajoppi persuaded the statewide clerk’s association to have an independent study of the machines done by Edward Felten, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University. The Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey called for the independent review to ensure the integrity of the election process.

Sequoia maintains the errors, which were documented in at least five counties, occurred due to mistakes by poll workers. The firm, which is based in Colorado, examined machines in Middlesex Count, and concluded that poll workers had pushed the wrong buttons on the control panels, resulting in errors in the numbers of ballots cast.

But officials found it odd that such an error never occurred before and the clerk’s association wanted further testing.

On the advice of county’s attorneys, however, Rajoppi said today she must forego all plans for independent analysis.

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Ohio Investigating Possible Vote Machine Tampering Last Year

From Slashdot:

 ”The Columbus Dispatch is reporting on a criminal investigation currently being performed in Franklin County Ohio. It seems several voting machines listed a candidate as withdrawn from the race when in fact he wasn’t. By the time the investigations tracked down which machines had been affected, the candidate’s name was back on the ballot. Normally, we could dismiss this as confusion or a mistake on the part of the voter(s) who noticed it. In this case, the person who first noticed the discrepancy was Ohio Secretary of state Jennifer Brunner. Further compounding matters, the Franklin County Board of Elections had disabled virtually all logging on the machines to speed setup of the balot. Naturally, the county board remains sceptical of these accusations.”

Commentary @ Sourced Site.

Voting-Machine Maker to Princeton Researcher: ‘Hands Off’

From The Wall Street Journal

June Kronholz covers the presidential campaign.

Princeton Professor Edward Felten astonished Congress and increased doubts about electronic voting two years ago when he showed a House committee how easily he could open a Diebold touch-screen machine, insert new software and alter vote totals.

Now, Sequoia Voting Systems, the other large voting-machine maker, has sent Felten an email suggesting legal action if he tries the same thing on its equipment.

Felten, a computer scientist, said the Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey approached him after about 60 Sequoia voting machines across the state seemed to malfunction during the state’s Feb. 5 primary. In end-of-the-day audits of those machines, he said, the total number of ballots cast for one party or the other didn’t agree with the sum of the ballots cast for that party’s candidates. The numbers were typically off by one, he said: “Usually we saw one too many votes for one party and one too few for the other.”

The officers’ association offered him some of the machines for review by his lab, which studies voting-machine security, among other things. “We were going to study the machine and try to understand why the error happened,” he said.

On Friday night, however, Felton said he received an email from Sequoia warning that the counties would violate licensing agreements if they shared the equipment with him and that it had “retained counsel to stop any infringement of our intellectual properties, including any noncomplaint analysis.”

Voting equipment makers have frequently used proprietary-rights arguments to prevent researchers from testing the security of their equipment. MORE




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