The Fix Is In For McCain by SignyM

If Barry wins, are the machines rigged? Why is it when Democrats win no one yells RIGGED!?

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:31 AM

KELKHIL

C'mon now lets not be like that! You don't practice and practice just to show up on game day sayin' you're gonna loose! What would be the point?

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
If Barry wins, are the machines rigged? Why is it when Democrats win no one yells RIGGED!?

Well that is because to be a Dem you have to be honorable, trustworthy and noble. Uncorrupt-able so to speak. Pure could be used as well. (I have heard there are some that are so good that their farts don't stink either) [/sarcasm]

Sorry, couldn't resist. I still think that something is wrong; seriously wrong with someone who would want that job.

Some men just wanna watch the world burn

Zombie Killing, Ninja in Training Kelkhil
The Shirtless Forsaken

Member of the Coalition for HK - Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kelkhil:
C'mon now lets not be like that! You don't practice and practice just to show up on game day sayin' you're gonna loose! What would be the point?

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
If Barry wins, are the machines rigged? Why is it when Democrats win no one yells RIGGED!?

Well that is because to be a Dem you have to be honorable, trustworthy and noble. Uncorrupt-able so to speak. Pure could be used as well. (I have heard there are some that are so good that their farts don't stink either) [/sarcasm]

Sorry, couldn't resist. I still think that something is wrong; seriously wrong with someone who would want that job.

Some men just wanna watch the world burn

Zombie Killing, Ninja in Training Kelkhil
The Shirtless Forsaken

Member of the Coalition for HK - Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow.

You forgot "DEAD", alot of dead people vote Democrat.

I going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:51 AM

As I've said before... You righties act like a few fraudulent voters on the Dem is such a huge damned deal - but when the Republicans purge people from the voter list by the thousands.... nary a peep is heard.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:00 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

The Purges Have Begun

Republicans are purging hundreds of thousands off the voter rolls this year
www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=18&t=35469

Massive Republican 2004 e-Vote fraud on trial in Ohio
http://fireflyfan.net/mthread.asp?b=18&t=35077

E-Security Expert Steven Spoonamore testifies against pro-life Connell as the perp.

www.velvetrevolution.us/
---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
As I've said before... You righties act like a few fraudulent voters on the Dem is such a huge damned deal - but when the Republicans purge people from the voter list by the thousands.... nary a peep is heard.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

Rite now, ACORN is in grave yards all over the country looking for new Obama voters.

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:12 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:12 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
Rite now, ACORN is in grave yards all over the country looking for new Obama voters.

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

All this bullshit over ACORN, when the numbers of fraudulent voters is miniscule, especially in relation to the purging the GOP is doing - and most of the fraudulent registrations were caught, stopped and reported BY ACORN.

And you still havn't said anything about the voter purging.

So, thanks for making it clear - you have no problem with cheating, as long as it's your team doing the cheating.

Not that that comes as a surprise...

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
Rite now, ACORN is in grave yards all over the country looking for new Obama voters.

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

All this bullshit over ACORN, when the numbers of fraudulent voters is miniscule, especially in relation to the purging the GOP is doing - and most of the fraudulent registrations were caught, stopped and reported BY ACORN.

And you still havn't said anything about the voter purging.

So, thanks for making it clear - you have no problem with cheating, as long as it's your team doing the cheating.

Not that that comes as a surprise...

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

Purging? Is that what the Democrats did when they had Military absente ballots thrown out in Florida 2000?

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:25 AM

The only had the ones that could not be verified as having been mailed on time cast out - which is standard procedure, and is supposed to be done in every election.

So, no, that's not the same thing.

And you still sidestep the point, with obfuscation and half-truths.

Hipocritical douchebag.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:27 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Not purging- invalidating. In some cases it was a reasonable invalidation. In other cases, criteria were used that were not part of a normal process, and that wasn't right either. However, Republicans are more aggressive about using fraud to steal elections. And so far in this election cycle, the Dems have not got their hands on those e-levers, nor on the voter rolls.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
The only had the ones that could not be verified as having been mailed on time cast out - which is standard procedure, and is supposed to be done in every election.

So, no, that's not the same thing.

And you still sidestep the point, with obfuscation and half-truths.

Hipocritical douchebag.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

That's "Mr Douchbag" please.

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
That's "Mr Douchbag" please.

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

No problem. From now on, I shall refer to you only as Mr. Douchebag (and I'll even spell it correctly).

I encourage others to do the same.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 10:55 AM

HERO

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
The only reason to sound so certain is because someone whispered in McCain's ear that the machines have been rigged and votes suppressed.

Or...somebody noticed the pundits being fooled.

Its like the CBS poll giving Obama a 16pt lead. That would be 66-34...and there is NO way McCain gets out at less then 42%, thats an eight point error at least.

My take is 49-45 Obama right now. Thats close enough to eek out a win if he hits the right numbers in the right places.

H

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 11:14 AM

KHYRON

Quote:
Originally posted by Hero:
Its like the CBS poll giving Obama a 16pt lead. That would be 66-34...

Huh? No, a 16-point lead is a 16-point lead, not a 32-point lead.

Don't know which one you're citing anyway, the latest CBS poll, afaik, has Obama +13, the one before was +14.

------------------------------

McCain/Palin: The first presidential ticket that features two candidates who have both been found to have violated ethics standards.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 11:36 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:

Its like the CBS poll giving Obama a 16pt lead. That would be 66-34...and there is NO way McCain gets out at less then 42%, thats an eight point error at least.

I guess they don't teach math to lawyers, eh? That would explain billing 15 minutes as an hour, I s'pose...

Might wanna recheck your numbers there. Try using your toes if you run out of fingers.

Mike

What, no catchy sig-line?

Trolls Against McCain!

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:01 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

From CREDO

Quote:
This year, there are over 600,000 newly registered Ohio voters, but President Bush has asked Attorney General Mukasey to investigate as many as 200,000 of them. Why? Because Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has refused to use an "exact match" standard before adding these voters to the rolls.

What is this "exact match" standard? Basically, it works like this: After you fill out your voter registration card, a local or state employee has to type in your information to add you to the voter rolls, and check to see that you really exist, usually by verifying your driver's license number or Social Security number. And as you can imagine, sometimes there are typos or other disparities when the information gets entered and matched - for example, if your last name is "De la Rosa" and it got entered as "Delarosa", you would fail to meet the exact match standard, and your registration form would be invalid. Secretary Brunner has refused to use this standard on the grounds that it would erroneously deprive tens or even hundreds of thousands of Ohioans of their right to vote. The Ohio GOP sued her a month ago to try and get the courts to compel her to use the exact match standard, but the Supreme Court ruled that they had no standing to make that case.Now, President Bush is trying to run around the Supreme Court by getting the Department of Justice to intervene. On Friday, October 24th, Bush reportedly asked Attorney General Mukasey to investigate whether as many as 200,000 voters need to reconfirm their registrations before November 4th

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:05 PM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Yeah.

Repubicans LIKE democracy (not).

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:11 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Just wanted to add that it's easier to typo than you think. Florida found a 25% non-exact match due to typos and administrative errors. Heck, the IRS w/held our refund because they couldn't verify a dependent's Social Security.... which has been the SAME NUMBER we've been using for 18 years!

So add to that

Quote:
College senior Kyla Berry was looking forward to voting in her first presidential election, even carrying her voter registration card in her wallet. But about two weeks ago, Berry got disturbing news from local election officials. "This office has received notification from the state of Georgia indicating that you are not a citizen of the United States and therefore, not eligible to vote," a letter from the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections said. But Berry is a U.S. citizen, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She has a passport and a birth certificate to prove it. The letter, which was dated October 2, gave her a week from the time it was dated to prove her citizenship. There was a problem, though -- the letter was postmarked October 9....Berry is one of more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters who have been "flagged" because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information

Lawsuit alleges voters in Colorado illegally purged from rolls
Quote:
A lawsuit was filed late last week against Mike Coffman, Colorado’s Republican Secretary of State alleging that thousands of voters were purged from the battleground state’s rolls in violation of federal law.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/27/lawsuit-alleges-voters
-in-colorado-illegally-purged-from-rolls/

Quote:
The Brennan Center for Justice has documented incidents of voter suppression in Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, and California. These include illegal purges of voters as reported also by the New York Times and CNN, rejection of new voter registrations, and deceptive or intimidating information given to voters in the hope of stopping them from voting. The New York Times also names Indiana and Nevada among swing states in which illegal or improper voter purges are taking place, often due to minor errors or mismatches which should not prevent eligible citizens from voting, and including improper use of Social Security data to purge voters. CNN likewise reports eligible US citizens being purged from voting rolls on the basis of errors and technicalities, often so close to Election Day that it is impossible for them to be reinstated, and in spite of federal laws prohibiting such purges within 90 days of Election Day. Republicans are aggressively pursuing methods such as these for disenfranchising likely Democratic voters across the United States, including lawsuits and appeals for partisan intervention by George W. Bush's Justice Department.

www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=10411

UGLY, VICIOUS, AND SHAMEFUL.

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:27 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Complete list here:

www.alternet.org/election08/104413/brennan_center:_2008's_voter_suppre
ssion_incidents_so_far/

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 6:21 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Published on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by The Independent/UK
The Vote Grab: Voting Machines Are Unreliable and Inaccurate
by Peter Tatchell

As early voting in the US presidential elections gets underway, ES&S iVotronics touch-screen electronic voting machines have been observed in four separate states flipping the votes - mostly from Barack Obama to John McCain but sometimes to third party candidates too. This has already occurred during early voting in the states of West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Texas.

A county clerk in West Virginia invited a video crew to watch his demonstration of the reliability of the disputed voting machines but instead he saw the machine flipping the votes, as critics claimed. He put this down to the faulty calibration of the voting machine. However, even after he recalibrated the machine it continued to flip votes. (unable to link video)

This is further evidence that the electronic voting machines that will be used in the 4 November election are not reliable and accurate - that they are prone to malfunction and may not record the actual vote winner.

Democrats are not the only people who are worried. Stephen Spoonamore, a Republican security expert, explains why electronic voting is inherently unsafe in an eight part series of interviews. You can watch Part 1, and access Parts 2 to 7, here.

Writing in the New Statesman way back in 2004, reflecting on criticisms of the electronic voting systems used in the presidential election that year, Michael Meacher MP pointed out that statisticians, academics and political analysts had highlighted significant voting differences http://www.newstatesman.com/200411290018 between electoral districts that used paper ballots and those that used electronic systems. These cannot be explained by random variation. The investigators found a much larger variance than expected and in every case it favoured George W Bush over John Kerry. In Wisconsin and Ohio, the discrepancy favoured Bush by 4 per cent, in Pennsylvania by 5 per cent, in Florida and Minnesota by 7 per cent, in North Carolina by 9 per cent and in New Hampshire by a whopping 15 per cent.

Research by the University of Berkeley, California, revealed election irregularities in 2004 in Florida. These irregularities, all of which were associated with electronic voting machines, appear to have awarded between 130,000 to 260,000 additional votes to Bush.

The discrepancies between paper and electronic voting could be the result of simple technological glitches. But some experts detect something more sinister: outright vote fixing by interference with voting machine and tabulation software.

Meacher http://www.newstatesman.com/200411290018 reported that Diebold company voting machines and optical scanners may not be tamper-proof from hacking, particularly via remote modems. Diebold machines were used in counting a substantial proportion of the 2004 votes and will be used again in next week's presidential poll.

Two US computer security experts, in their book Black Box Voting http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-1.pdf, state that "by entering a two-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created; and this set of votes can be changed in a matter of seconds, so that it no longer matches the correct votes".

This is entirely possible, according to Clinton Curtis, a Florida computer programmer. ( ) has confirmed that in 2000 he designed an undetectable programme for Republican congressman Tom Feeney. It was created to rig elections by covertly switching votes from one candidate to another to ensure a predetermined ballot outcome. See a video of his sworn testimony here. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/26/112912/81/554/642200

As Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of JFK, has exposed http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/robert_f_kennedy_j
r__will_the_next_election_be_hacked/1, the US is one of the few democracies that allow private, partisan companies to secretly count votes using their own proprietary software.

Moreover, the vast majority of western democracies have independent Election Commissions to oversee voting methods and corroborate the results. The US does not.

Most election ballots next week will be tallied or scanned by four private companies - Diebold, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic.

According to Kennedy:

Three of the four companies have close ties to the Republican Party. ES&S, in an earlier corporate incarnation, was chaired by Chuck Hagel, who in 1996 became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Nebraska in twenty-four years - winning a close race in which eighty-five percent of the votes were tallied by his former company. Hart InterCivic ranks among its investors GOP loyalist Tom Hicks, who bought the Texas Rangers from George W. Bush in 1998, making Bush a millionaire fifteen times over. And according to campaign-finance records, Diebold, along with its employees and their families, has contributed at least $300,000 to GOP candidates and party funds since 1998 - including more than $200,000 to the Republican National Committee. In a 2003 fund-raising e-mail, the company's then-CEO Walden O'Dell promised to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush in 2004."

Is it right and proper for partisan pro-Republican companies to count the votes? It is certainly not objective and impartial.

Kennedy recounts how computer scientists at Johns Hopkins and Rice universities conducted an analysis of the Diebold voting machine software source code in July 2003. "This voting system is far below even the most minimal security standards applicable in other contexts... (it is) unsuitable for use in a general election," the scientists concluded.

"With electronic machines, you can commit wholesale fraud with a single alteration of software," Avi Rubin told Kennedy. He is a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins who received $US7.5 million from the National Science Foundation to study electronic voting. "There are a million little tricks when you build software that allow you to do whatever you want. If you know the precinct demographics, the machine can be programmed to recognize its precinct and strategically flip votes in elections that are several years in the future. No one will ever know it happened."

Electronic voting machines not only break down frequently, their security and integrity is also easily compromised, says Kennedy:

"In October 2005, the US Government Accountability Office issued a damning report on electronic voting machines. Citing widespread irregularities and malfunctions, the government's top watchdog agency concluded that a host of weaknesses with touch-screen and optical-scan technology 'could damage the integrity of ballots, votes and voting-system software by allowing unauthorized modifications'...Locks protecting computer hardware were easy to pick. Unsecured memory cards could enable individuals to 'vote multiple times, change vote totals and produce false election reports.'

An even more comprehensive report released in June by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan think tank at the New York University School of Law, echoed the GAO's findings. The report - conducted by a task force of computer scientists and security experts from the government, universities and the private sector - was peer-reviewed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Electronic voting machines widely adopted since 2000, the report concluded, "pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state and local elections." While no instances of hacking have yet been documented, the report identified 120 security threats to three widely used machines - the easiest method of attack being to utilize corrupt software that shifts votes from one candidate to another.

There is no evidence that the voting machine malfunctions, flaws and security risks identified in the 2004 ballot have been fully corrected in time for the 2008 vote. This calls into question whether the 4 November ballot will reflect the will of the American people. As Kennedy concludes:

"You do not have to believe in conspiracy theories to fear for the integrity of our electoral system: The right to vote is simply too important - and too hard won - to be surrendered without a fight. It is time for Americans to reclaim our democracy from private interests."

To contact Peter Tatchell and for more information about his human rights campaigns visit www.petertatchell.net

© 2008 The Independent

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 6:54 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Editor's note: The Brennan Center will be updating and re-posting this document regularly between now and Election Day. This inventory is current as of October 22, 2008)

NO MATCH, NO VOTE

ISSUE: Some states will not register voters or will purge them from the voter rolls if election officials cannot match their voter registration information against information in other government databases. The problem is the computer match processes states use are inherently unreliable. Between 15% and 30% of all match attempts fail because of typos, other administrative errors, and minor discrepancies between database records, such as a maiden name in one record and a married name in another or a hyphen in one record and not another. No match, no vote policies can block hundreds of thousands of voters through no fault of their own. More information on no match, no vote policies is available here. This year, no match, no vote efforts across the country, if successful, could have a significant impact on the election, affecting tens of thousands of new voters.

Ohio

On September 26, 2008, the Ohio Republican Party asked a federal court to issue an emergency ruling requiring the state to generate a list of more than 200,000 new voters whose information did not match other state records, presumably so those voters could be purged from the rolls right before the election, forced to vote provisional ballots, or challenged at the polls. They asked the court before the absentee ballots cast by new registrants were opened and counted. A federal court granted the temporary restraining order, and after a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stayed that order, the full appeals court, sitting en banc, reinstated it. On emergency review, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the TRO on October 17, 2008, preventing chaos in the election in Ohio and protecting hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens from disenfranchisement-by-typo. That same day, the Ohio Republican Party filed a virtually identical suit with the Ohio Supreme Court, seeking essentially the same relief they lost in the federal courts. They also seek to prevent the counting of absentee ballots cast by unmatched voters unless or until the mismatches are cleared. The Republican fundraising consultant who brought the lawsuit has voluntarily dismissed his case. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert T. Bennett said he asked the plaintiff David Myhal to drop the case and plans to meet on October 22, 2008 with Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, representing Secretary Brunner, to discuss an out-of-court solution to the dispute. Regardless of the outcome, non-matching voters may still face challenges on Election Day by partisan election workers. Further details can be found here.

Florida

On September 8, 2008, the Florida Secretary of State instructed election officials to reject voter registration applications that do not pass an error-prone computer match process. In the first three weeks of the policy, 15% of registrations were initially bounced because of failed computer matches; election officials were able to catch and correct obvious typos in about 3/4 of these cases, but to date, here.

Wisconsin

After the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (the state's election board) rejected a proposal in July to retroactively implement a no "match, no vote" policy for all voters who registered since 2006, on September 10, the Attorney General sued the board seeking to force such a policy (RETROACTIVE no match, no vote) right before the election. The Board conducted an audit of its voter rolls and found a 22% match failure rate, including for 4 of the 6 members of the board. The court ruled on Thursday, October 23, 2008 that the attorney general had no authority to sue, however Van Hollen said he would appeal. More information can be found here.

Other states

No match, no vote policies are in place also in Louisiana, Iowa, and South Dakota pursuant to policies adopted well before the 2008 elections. Tens of thousands of voters have been denied registration in those states. Evidence suggests that Colorado also may be treating some voter registrations that fail to match as incomplete.

VOTER PURGES

ISSUE: Election officials across the country routinely purge millions of names from the voter rolls. Although purging is necessary to keep the voter rolls up to date and accurate, a recent Brennan Center study demonstrates that the processes states use for purging are prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation. Purges are typically done without notice to affected voters or the public, and without any public scrutiny whatsoever. As a result, thousands of registered voters show up at the polls each election year only to find that they are not on the rolls and cannot cast a ballot that will be counted. This year, unreliable and possibly illegal purges could keep thousands of votes from being counted.

Possible Illegal Purges Reported by New York Times

According to a recent front-page article by the New York Times, several states have been illegally purging their voter rolls this year, including Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Nevada. (The Brennan Center has not independently verified all these purges.)

Michigan

Michigan illegally purged its voter rolls this year within 90 days of an election and using non-forwardable mailings to recently registered voters, according to a recent federal court ruling. The court ordered the restoration of about 1,400 voters who had been removed because their voter identification cards were returned as undelivered.

Colorado

In response to a New York Times article, the Colorado Secretary of State admitted that at least 2,454 voters were purged illegally within 90 days of a federal election. Several thousand additional records were purged as potential "duplicates" within 90 days of the election, also in violation of federal law. Another several thousand were illegally purged based on non-forwardable mailings to newly registered voters.

Georgia naturalized citizens

Georgia recently began using an unreliable matching process to purge the voter rolls of alleged non-citizens. The process they use misses naturalized citizens because it only checks the citizenship documents used to obtain driver's licenses, no matter how long ago, and those records are not updated when legal residents become naturalized. A federal court refused to block this practice in a recent lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Muscogee, Georgia

Earlier this year, a county election administrator in Muscogee County, Georgia purged 700 people who were supposedly ineligible because of criminal convictions. The purge was highly inaccurate and included people who never received even a parking ticket.

Mississippi

About a week before the Mississippi primary, an election administrator in Madison County, Mississippi improperly purged approximately 10,000 voters, reportedly from her home computer. Reportedly, the purge was detected when it was discovered that a local candidate was removed from the voter rolls. By all accounts, the Secretary of State's staff successfully reinstated the erroneously purged voters in time for the primary.

VOTER CHALLENGES

ISSUE: Political operatives sometimes challenge voters' eligibility either before Election Day or at the polls, based on names culled from unreliable caging lists or other lists they develop. While the rules and procedures for voter challenges vary from state to state, these challenges can lead to voter intimidation, long lines at the polls, and disenfranchisement of eligible voters. Historically and in recent years, caging and challenge operations have targeted minority communities, students, and homeless citizens. Widespread challenges are expected across the country on Election Day. Recent incidents include:

Montana

The Republican Party of Montana challenged the registrations of over 6,000 voters in 7 counties based on change of address information. Many were service members and students eligible to vote in Montana but who had their mail forwarded to where they were serving or going to school. Under Montana's challenge rules, these voters would have had to answer the challenges to the satisfaction of election officials before being allowed to vote. After a public outcry--including criticism by the Republican Lieutenant Governor--the party abandoned the challenges. For more information, click here. In a resulting lawsuit brought by the Montana Democratic Party, on October 10, 2008, a federal judge found that the challenges were frivolous and that it would violate federal law for state election officials to deny anyone the ability to vote based on these challenges.

No home, no vote

The Chairman of the Republican Party of Macomb County, Michigan reportedly told an online publication that the party planned to mount challenges to voters whose names appeared on foreclosure lists. After public criticism and instructions by the Michigan Director of Elections that these challenges are insufficient under Michigan law, the Chairman denied that there were such plans (and even sued the publication for libel). There have been fears and reports that similar challenges will be mounted in other states, particularly battleground states such as Ohio where more than 5% of homes are currently in the foreclosure process. Similar challenges are possible across the country on Election Day unless election officials take immediate steps to ensure that those in danger of losing their homes do not also lose their vote. On October 20, 2008, the Democratic and Republican parties agreed that appearance on a foreclosure list is not a reasonable basis to challenge a voter and that no voter will be challenged on that basis.

Ohio mailer

Ohio election officials sent a non-forwardable mailer to voters on the rolls, and over 600,000 were returned as undeliverable. The list was provided to the political parties, and there were fears that this list would be the basis of challenges. After concerns were raised, the Ohio Secretary of State issued a directive explaining that returned mail alone is not a sufficient basis to sustain a challenge. More information on why returned mail is an unreliable indicator of residence or eligibility can be found here.

TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO VOTING AND REGISTRATION

ISSUE: In the Jim Crow era, technical barriers to voter registration and voting were common. In the 1960s, Congress tried to put an end to these types of barriers, prohibiting officials from denying the right to vote based on any immaterial "error or omission" on voting-related paperwork or records. In this election cycle, there has been a resurgence of technical barriers based on the failure to check unnecessary boxes on forms.

Colorado registrations

Colorado is treating applications missing unnecessary checkmarks to indicate that the registrant lacks a driver's license as incomplete. Thousands of recent registrations are already affected, and there will likely be more as counties process new forms.

Florida registrations

Florida still rejects voter registration forms submitted without checkmarks in check boxes that are duplicative of other information on the forms. Thousands of votes were lost in prior federal elections because of this practice.

Ohio absentee ballots

In September 2008, the Ohio Secretary of State announced the election officials must reject absentee ballot requests made by voters whose eligibility was not in serious doubt because of their failure to check an unnecessary check box. A federal court ordered the Secretary of State to process those ballot requests.

STUDENT VOTING BARRIERS

ISSUE: Students who attend school away from their homes often fulfill residency and other requirements to be able to register and vote in the communities in which they attend school, but there are obstacles and efforts to discourage them to register and vote. Across the country, there have been reports of widespread misinformation about student voting rights, misleading and intimidating statements, and registration and residency barriers unique to students. The fact that students are readily identifiable at their college community polling stations also makes them easy targets for partisan challengers or voter intimidation efforts. The result is a disproportionate number of student voters being challenged at the polls, discouraged from voting, or prematurely told to cast a provisional ballot.

Dorm room addresses

Local registrars in several states, including in Virginia, were denying registration to students who provided dorm room addresses even though those are valid registration addresses.

Misleading and intimidating information

A registrar in Montgomery County, Virginia, affecting Virginia Tech University, issued a memo giving incorrect and intimidating information to students about the consequences of registering to vote, including possible loss of financial aid and tax dependence status. Similarly, a county clerk in Colorado Springs, Colorado incorrectly told students at Colorado College that they could not vote at school if their parents claimed them as dependents on their federal tax returns. The websites of the Virginia and Indiana Secretary of States still contain misleading information that could dissuade eligible student voters.

Prairie View, Texas

On October 10, 2008, the registrar of Waller County, Texas entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to stop imposing unfair and illegal barriers to student voting.

Restrictive Residency Rules

Several states make it very difficult for students to establish residency for voting purposes. In Idaho and Tennessee, for example, students cannot establish voting residency unless they have affirmative plans to remain in the state after graduation. Virginia and Indiana also make it difficult for students to establish residency.

Restrictive Absentee Voting

Michigan and Tennessee require all first-time voters who registered by mail to vote in person; they cannot vote absentee. This makes it nearly impossible for college students (a great percentage of whom are young, first-time voters) to vote in their hometowns.

Intimidation Aimed at Students

A flier recently disseminated on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia warned that undercover officers would be present at the polls, looking for voters with outstanding warrants or parking violations.

VOTER REGISTRATION ACCESS

ISSUE: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 30% of Americans were not registered to vote in 2006. A range of barriers to voter registration access could affect registration rates in certain communities. Several states have enacted laws that impose unnecessary burdens on organized efforts to register voters, which target communities that have the greatest barriers to registration. Threats of criminal penalties and crippling civil fines for failure to comply with requirements have forced community groups to stop or substantially cut down on registering voters. A policy brief on restrictions to voter registration drives can be found here.

Veterans

The Department of Veterans' Affairs denied voter registration access to residents and patients of its facilities, refusing to allow election officials or nonpartisan groups to offer voter registration services, and failing to provide such services itself. A last-minute change in policy offered only a partial fix to this problem. More information is available here.

Voter registration drive restrictions

Several states, including New Mexico and Florida, have enacted restrictive laws that interfere with the ability of groups to do voter registration drives. The Florida law was tied up in litigation filed by the Brennan Center and so has not been in effect for this election season. A court refused to block the New Mexico law, and a number of community groups, especially those that work with volunteers, have not been able to register new voters.

Noncompliance with federal voter registration law

A number of states have not been providing voter registration services at social service agencies, as required by the federal Motor Voter law. Recent lawsuits filed by Project Vote and Demos seek to enforce states' compliance with the implementation of the NVRA.

VOTER INTIMIDATION AND DECEPTIVE PRACTICES

ISSUE: In recent elections, robo-phone calls and misleading flyers, often targeting minority and low-income communities, have spread false information regarding elections and voting qualifications. For examples of such documents, click here.

Philadelphia fliers

Deceptive fliers about the consequences of voting were distributed in a predominantly African American neighborhood in Philadelphia.

Greene County, Ohio

A law enforcement officer in Greene County, Ohio sought the names of 300 voters who registered and voted at the beginning of Ohio's early voting period in a town made up largely of students. The effort, which was later withdrawn, was criticized as an effort to intimidate student voters and deter others from voting.

Hamilton County, Ohio

In a move that could intimidate and deter voters, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters recently requested, via subpoena, personal information for 40% of the voters who registered and immediately cast a ballot during the weeklong period in which Ohio allows same-day registration and voting.

POOR BALLOT DESIGN

ISSUE: Poorly designed ballots -- remember butterfly ballots? -- can lead to the loss of thousands of votes. A recent Brennan Center report demonstrates that ballot design problems are still widespread and can threaten many votes. Already, there have been problems relating to November's election.

Mississippi Senate race

Mississippi election officials were sharply criticized, in a New York Times editorial and in a letter sent by the Brennan Center, for their decision to place(d) the Wicker-Musgrove U.S. Senate race at the bottom of Mississippi's ballot. This "ballot trick" placed the Senate race far below the other federal races listed in the 2008 election, creating a confusing layout for the ballot, one that could potentially mislead and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Mississippi voters in that race, particularly low-income and minority voters. More information can be found here.

Twelve Ohio counties

Twelve Ohio counties released sample paper ballots that split the presidential contest over two columns for this November's election. As the Brennan Center's study found, this particular layout often confuses voters and causes them to double-vote, an action which ultimately results in an uncounted ballot. On September 17, 2008, the Brennan Center sent a letter to the board of elections in all Ohio counties, urging them to reconsider their ballot layout and place the presidential contest in a single column on the paper ballot. The Ohio Secretary of State forwarded the letter to all county board of elections as well. Further details can be found here.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:03 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

If I were President I'd REQUIRE that counties employ systems that are tamper-proof and verifiable by third parties (not Secretaries of State who either have no expertise or have a vested partisan interest).

This should have you all spitting mad. If not, then you're willing to accept the greatest threat to democracy. (And no, it's not <1% registration fraud)

---------------------------------
Let's party like its 1929.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:17 AM

DEADLOCKVICTIM

Steal Back Your Vote
http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:44 AM

HERO

Quote:
Originally posted by Khyron:
Huh? No, a 16-point lead is a 16-point lead, not a 32-point lead.

Hmm...(shakes calculator...sighs...throws calculator against the wall...consults abacus)...well then I guess 58-42 makes sense.

Today's Gallup says 49-46...only need three fingers to count that one.

H

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:59 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

Depends which Gallup you look at. The other Gallup has Obama up by 7. I guess that's what happens when you depend on Drudge for 'news'. You only get a sliver of the story.

http://www.pollingreport.com/

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:19 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/politics/29anxiety.html?_r=1&hp&o
ref=slogin

Wounds have not healed here in Duval County since the mangled presidential election of 2000, when more than 26,000 ballots were discarded as invalid for being improperly punched. Nearly 40 percent of the votes were thrown out in the predominantly Democratic-leaning African-American communities around Jacksonville, a reality that has caused suspicions of racial bias to linger, even though intentional disenfranchisement was never proved

“They’re going to throw out votes,” said Larone Wesley, a 53-year-old black Vietnam veteran. “I can’t say exactly how, but they are going to accomplish that quite naturally. I’m so afraid for my friend Obama. I look at this through the eyes of the ’60s, and I feel there ain’t no way they’re going to let him make it.”

Mr. Wesley refuses to vote early. “I don’t believe the machines work properly in general,” he said, “and they really don’t work properly when they think you’re voting for Obama.”

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:24 AM

WULFENSTAR

http://youtu.be/VUnGTXRxGHg

Seriously, Rue, why do we care?

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:30 AM

RIGHTEOUS9

Why don't you care, Wulf?

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:31 AM

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

"Seriously, Rue, why do we care?"

I can't speak for you or anyone else.

I'd like to think that in a wealthy and technological supposed democracy we could get more than 70% of all eligible people registered, get more than 50% turnout, and accurately count all of the votes.

Do you disagree with that ?

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Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:33 AM