U.S. National

The Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) of Humboldt County, California, an election reform and watchdog group, announced today it will not accept as conclusive any results from the special statewide election called for Nov. 8 by Governor Schwarzenegger. Citing the election reform platform of the Voter Confidence Resolution, the VCC maintains that this election will be held under conditions that do not ensure an outcome that is conclusive beyond all question and indicative of the will of California voters.

"Until corporate money is removed from elections, voting systems are no longer privatized, and vote counting is not done in secret, election results in America can't be seen as beyond question," said VCC principal Dave Berman. "And until these deficiencies are remedied in California, how can we possibly have a basis for confidence in election results?"

Voters across the country are concerned about electronic touch-screen voting machines.  At last count, citizens in almost every state have formed more than seventy non-partisan grassroots organizations to ensure that a voter-verified, manually auditable paper record of every vote is required at both the state and federal levels.  More than 200 of these electronic voting reform activists, representing 25 states,  are meeting in Washington DC on June 9 and 10 to lobby for the passage of H.R. 550 The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act Introduced by Rep. Holt of New Jersey. 

The following article is an interview with Joshua Frank, the author of "Left Out! How Liberals Helped Elect George W. Bush." The book is an analysis of the 2004 presidential campaign. Frank's writings appear regularly on the Internet and he is a contributor to "Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils." In this interview we examine what the anti-war movement can learn from the 2004 presidential election and how the movement should be approaching the 2006 election.

Kevin Zeese: First, tell me about your new book “Left Out!.” What did you learn about the 2004 campaign while writing it?

Tallahassee, FL: "Are we having fun yet?"

This is the message that appeared in the window of a county optical scan machine, startling Leon County Information Systems Officer Thomas James. Visibly shaken, he immediately turned the machine off.

Diebold's opti-scan (paper ballot) voting system uses a curious memory card design, offering penetration by a lone programmer such that standard canvassing procedures cannot detect election manipulation.

The Diebold optical scan system was used in about 800 jurisdictions in 2004. Among them were several hotbeds of controversy: Volusia County (FL); King County (WA); and the New Hampshire primary election, where machine results differed markedly from hand-counted localities.

New regs: Counting paper ballots forbidden

Elections Systems and Software (ES&S) has a marketing agreement with AutoMARK Technical Services (ATS) to be the sole purveyor of the AutoMARK voting machine. ATS can market the system, but pricing and contracts are all handled by ES&S. In March of 2004, when ES&S announced the agreement, Aldo Tesi, ES&S president and CEO said, "we recognize the incredible responsibility we have in supporting the democratic process and ensuring it is open and accessible to all voters."[1]

A few months later, when ES&S representative Mike Devereaux praised the AutoMARK over touch screens, it appeared that ES&S had partnered with ATS in order to take advantage of the growing demand for paper ballots.[2] The company's subsequent business decisions seem to say otherwise.

Of the movie series of our time, "Star Wars" is among the best and most celebrated. Millions across America waited in line Wednesday, May 18 to celebrate the final installment in the series that evolved into a religious following. Nearly 30 years after the premiere of "Star Wars: A New Hope," director George Lucas has brought the saga to an end (or beginning) with a bang.

In "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," Lucas succeeded where both Episode I and II fell short. In contrast to the child geared "Phantom Menace" and the plot heavy "Attack of the Clones," "Revenge of the Sith" successfully blends stunning special effects and edge-of-your-seat action sequences with a complex and long awaited plot that, at last, answers the questions that have plagued the minds of Star Wars fans since the first movie was released.

Specifically, the movie focuses on showing the transformation of young Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) from Jedi to Darth Vader, lord of the dark side.

It was the last week in April 2005 and I received a call from the Franklin County Board of Elections wanting to know if I would want to help out as an Election Official for the May 3, 2005 Election. After a few moments of thought on the matter, and revisiting my memories of the traumatic and fraudulent November Presidential Election, the memories of months of work I put into assisting the many heroic citizens from Ohio and across the nation that tried to figure out how big, and how far reaching the apparent theft of the Ohio Election was, I thought I should continue my education on elections. I called and got it set up, that I would be trained in the art of working the polls, and that I would become a Judge, for the May 3 primary election. It seems kind of humorous that Kim Spangler, the Deputy Director of the Delaware County Board of Elections (BOE) is who recommended me to the Franklin County BOE. I had brought some protestors to the Delaware Courthouse and Ohio Wesleyan University in the fall regarding Delaware legally blocking the recount of the presidential election. I was also the Delaware County Coordinator for the Green Party and was there for the recount.

This is a summary of the perceptions and deceptions I formed an opinion on during the 2004 election.

The federal HAVA Act of 2002 was Chaired/promoted by Ohio Rep Dist 18 Bob Ney to fix the 2000 election problems. But, the wording about verification of voting opened the door for more election fraud.  This is the root cause of the voting machine controversy.

Perception is, counting of votes, as stated in Title III Sec 301 can be trusted with auditing.

Deception is, secret counting is allowed by software written by someone politically biased.

The best news coming out of the first hearing of the Carter-Baker Commission is that the co-chairs recognize that Americans are losing faith in their democracy, and that even in the 2004 presidential election – among the most passionate elections in recent history – 40% did not vote and, increasing numbers of voters lack confidence that their votes were counted as cast.   The bad news is that a corporate conflict of interest of one member of the Commission raises doubts that they will recommend the common sense necessity – voter verified paper ballots.

Scores of voting rights and electoral reform organizations nationwide have united to demand real electoral reform proposals from the private, blue ribbon Baker/Carter Commission on Elections. They are organizing a visible presence at 10:00 a.m. in front of the Kay Center on the American University campus where the Commission is planning what they call "public hearings."

These groups, including Progressive Democrats of America, United Progressives for Democracy, Code Pink and Velvet Revolution, are opposed to the inclusion in any form of James Baker III on the Commission. Baker was the lead attorney in Florida for the 2000 Bush/Cheney campaign who engineered Bush's selection as President by five Supreme Court justices who demanded that America's votes NOT be counted.

The pro-democracy groups are also strongly opposed to at least two other members of the Commission who have direct ties to Mr. Baker's law firm, Tom Phillips and Robert Mosbacher, and to Ralph Munro, Chairman of the Board of VoteHere, a voting machine manufacturer.