AuditAZ & ADP EIC Update on Arizona Stolen Election Case

Written by: Cheryl on Mar 6, 2009 6:23 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network, DFA-Link Organizers, AuditAZ, Bloggers, Blog For America

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UPDATE

The RTA Ballot Case: Why Transparency Matters: 

 

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Students Face HUGE Obstacles When Voting

Written by: Sarahkatheryn on Oct 24, 2008 12:45 AM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team

This morning Matthew Segal from the Student Association for Voter Empowerment was on CNN talking about some of the challenges Students face and the rights that need to be protected for young voters. He also addresses the atrocious actions by the County Clerk in Virginia and El Paso, Colorado who attempted to disenfranchise students, and fliers that are geared to suppress the youth vote.

Segal who is younger than me, if you can believe it, is making the rounds talking about the unique challenges that youth face both in getting registered to vote and casting ballots on Election Day. Students who go to school out of state must choose between the state they left and their new state. Many who spend 9 months or more a year in school in the state, work there, pay taxes there, but for reasons passing in understanding are not considered by many to be "real" residents. This occurred in El Paso, Colorado and at Virginia Tech just last month. Government officials knowingly lied to students in efforts to disenfranchise thousands of students. It is unclear why there is not an investigation into this matter and these actions.

But Segal says it better here:

 

Montana GOP-ED Resigns post-Voter Suppression

Written by: Sarahkatheryn on Oct 15, 2008 1:54 PM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team

Just a few short weeks before the election Montana's Republican Party Director has resigned. No, not to spend more time with his family, but instead to "take another opportunity" in the private sector.... riiight...

This comes after a controversy I reported on earlier this month in gest, but the long and short is that 6,000 voters on the rolls in Missoula were challenged by the GOP, but when asked for the list of people "challenged" so that those folks could be checked out or would know that their registration was being challenged, the GOP said they wouldn't hand over the list. This just SCREAMS of dirty tactics.

Matt Segal, of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), and Forward Montana questioned the criminality of the MT GOP. In an op-ed by Segal, where he proposed criminal charges for those using these tactics:

"First, to be safe, there should be a tougher standard to challenge a voter’s registration. In Washington state, for example, a challenge must be entered based on personal knowledge by the challenger that the voter is no longer a resident of the address listed. This standard alone would have prevented the improper challenges filed in this case.

Second, the law should provide clear criminal penalties for malicious attempts to suppress the vote or for reckless challenges to voting rights that are filed without adequate verification by the challenging party. Penalties should be heightened in cases where overseas military or civilian voters are impacted, as voters abroad are unable to remedy their case through Montana’s Election Day registration process. Valid challenges have a place in Montana law to protect the integrity of our elections. Unresearched challenges and challenges made specifically to intimidate voters need to be clearly prohibited."

This is after Forward Montana and SAVE learned that some voters were challenged for insane inconsistancies in their registration

"But with these challenges moving behind us, it would be prudent for both the public and policymakers to turn their eyes to preventing these types of challenges in the future through simple, common-sense changes to Montana’s election laws. In particular, we need to do everything we can to prevent wasteful, entirely baseless challenges. In one particularly egregious example, one voter in Missoula County was challenged because one address showed her living in Apt. 7, while another address listed her at Unit 7.

Some of these challenges were filed on the basis of nothing more than slightly different spellings of addresses in two databases. But others were more pernicious. Lt. Kevin Furey for example, was properly registered but chose to forward his mail while deployed. Although his voting address hadn’t changed, his mailing address had moved across the state."

Today, the Executive Director of the GOP in Montana was forced to resign for his efforts, reports the Missoulan

"In an unusual move three weeks before the election and after a failed attempt to challenge voter registrations in some Democratic strongholds, the Montana Republican Party said Tuesday night it was changing executive directors.

Former state Rep. Larry Grinde of Lewistown was named the party's executive director after Jake Eaton resigned “to pursue other interests,” the news release said."

The report further says

"Last week, rumors were running rampant in political circles that Eaton would be pushed out because of the much-criticized effort to challenge voter registrations in seven heavily Democratic counties.

Reached by telephone Tuesday night, Eaton said, “It's all going to be all right. I'm going to work for an outfit, DNS Equity Consulting, a consulting and private equity firm in Madison, Wis. It's just one of those deals. The opportunity came up and I took it.”

Asked if he was forced out as executive director because of the vote challenges, Eaton said, “No, I'm not going to talk about any of that stuff on the record.”

These tactics are finally being seen for what they are, illegal, unethical, and clear attempts at voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement. When we fight back, we win. Don't allow your votes to be suppressed the election.

ACORN Fraud a GOP Scam

Written by: Sarahkatheryn on Oct 11, 2008 12:48 AM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

UPDATE: Now John McCain's campaign is attacking Obama for being associated with ACORN

All day the mainstream news has been reporting the so-called Voter Fraud on the part of ACORN that has registered over 1.2 million people to vote in low income areas of the country.

THE FACTS: - all people who do voter registration are REQUIRED BY LAW to turn in the forms that they receive, whether they are valid or not.

What ACORN does when they register someone to vote is then turn around and verify that the person is who they say they are. When the person can't be found ACORN then flags them as suspicious. When they turn them into boards of elections (which again they are require to do) those suspicious ones are flagged so BOE's can deal with them accordingly.

Where the controversy comes in is that this is all a grand voter suppression tactic being used to scare those same low income voters that have been registered by ACORN from voting because they think that their registration might not be valid. If you notice... these are being contested in very close swing states as part of a Republican ploy to slow down the process and scare low income voters.

The Facts: If Donald Duck did in fact register to vote - and by some miracle showed up on the voter rolls, the only way he would be able to vote as a newly registered voter is by showing up on election day and showing valid ID to verify he is who he say he is and lives at the address he lives at. Conducting this kind of "fraud" on a large scale would be impossible.

In Ohio the county is a rich republican leaning county where it is Republicans who are the ones raising the issue

"Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer and representatives of County Prosecutor Stephen Haller have contacted the local Board of Elections asking for the voter registration cards of everyone who voted during the six-day window, which ended Monday.

Haller is the former law partner of Mike DeWine, the former Republican senator who is chairing presidential nominee John McCain's Ohio campaign." The AP Reports

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Huge Day for Voters from Congress

Written by: Sarahkatheryn on Sep 26, 2008 6:25 PM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team

"Today was a huge victory for us," Matt Segal the Executive Director of the Student Association of Student Empowerment (SAVE) said Thursday evening in an interview after testifying before the House Administration Committee on voting rights for young people.

This was the culmination of 5 months of SAVE members and volunteers working the Hill in efforts to educate Congress on the difficulties young voters face each election year. These stories are not unique to us. Recently, even, we've heard about voter disenfranchisement affecting students. In Colorado and New Mexico as well as Virgina Tech students who are "being told that they risk losing their scholarship and tax dependency status if they register to vote in their college, as opposed to home, state."

At a time when CNN is talking about the League of First Time Voters and the issues that matter most to them, few are stopping to ask whether or not these young people or first time voters will ultimately be disenfranchised on Election Day and turned away from the polls. Despite the lack of cameras and fanfair for the SAVE volunteers, members of Congress were pleased with the young people who took the stand.

The day leading up to the hearing, SAVE even had a press conference with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and 9 other members of Congress, all who stood up for the rights of young voters.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of members of the 30 Something Caucus, congratulated on their work saying she was surprised in the progress that has been made in just a little over a year.

SAVE has also launched their campaign to SAVE VOTING RIGHTS along with Campus Advantage that works to help students with problems around housing issues, and Headcount a voter registration group that signs young people up at live music events.

Thursday's success wasn't easy. Segal and his friends began testifying on the Hill 4 years ago when along with the rest of Kenyon College, he was forced to stand in line for 10 hours just to vote. The question to the committee :

"What standards or safeguards are in place to ensure that Kenyon College 2004 can never happen again?"

The answer, sadly, is there is no guarantee, merely "recommendations." This is the first time students and young people have had an opportunity to air the issues that face them in Washington. There have been hearings on disenfranchisement for African Americans, Spanish speaking Americans, overseas troops, many different communities... but never one focusing on students. The first step in guaranteeing this occurs, happened today thanks to SAVE's hard work.

"This democracy isn’t going to save itself" Segal said, "young people are stepping up, and that’s an inspiring story. Its time they are able to do so without fear."

SAVE lacks the glamor and non-stop excitment many young voter organizations provide. Instead, they work in the sometimes ugly world of Washington to write laws behind the scenes. They've championed Capitol Hill advocacy and formed careful and key relationships to garner results.

From 10 hour lines to standing with the Majority Leader, the hope is to move even further toward more hearings and further investigation after the election to guarantee students' votes are counted. They have earned the reputation of a group that gets things done.

"We are damn persistent" Segal laughs, "But we’re polite about it."

Crosspoted from Future Majority

Robin Carnahan: Young Voters and Voter Protection

Written by: Sarahkatheryn on Aug 1, 2008 11:06 AM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team, DFA at Netroots Nation (formerly YearlyKos) July 17-20

Carnahan's are a pretty big name in Missouri politics as public servants who have gone above and beyond to lead and serve with distinction.

The first (possibly only) campaign my cousin (who is 10 years older than me and have always looked up to) was a Carnahan campaign. I haven't stopped hearing about them since.

But as a next generation voter and politico in my family, I've discovered my favorite Carnahan in Robin for her relentless pursuit of fair and accurate voting laws.

Give the post I did yesterday about the Durbin/Schakowsky/SAVE Student Voter Bill extravaganza, I wanted to also highlight some of the dangers Missouri faced in had the new voter ID bill passed. These laws and other "policies" enacted by renegade county clerks can result in the disenfranchisement of hundreds if not thousands.

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Election Fraud Discussion TODAY, June 20th, from 6-8pm Texas time zone

Written by: Cheryl on Jun 20, 2008 2:53 PM EDT

Linked to groups: "FreePress.org" OhioHonestElections, AuditAZ, DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team, Netroots Activism!, Blog For America

I received this in my inbox today. Try to listen if you can. You can access via internet and the call in number is 512-646-1984

John Brakey and David Griscom are comrades in AuditAZ and have been quoted by experts across the country for their work, including Mark Crispin Miller in his new book:

Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008

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Citizen Transparency Wins!

Written by: Cheryl on Jun 4, 2008 8:28 PM EDT

Linked to groups: dfatucson, DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team, AuditAZ, Democracy For Arizona, DFA-MC

 

The long hard battle for citizen oversight of elections and transparency was won yesterday when the Pima Board of Supervisors decided not to appeal the decision by Judge Miller to require the Board to turn over the database files since 1998 to the Pima Democratic Party as well as any other oversight Party. In addition, Pima Democratic Party attorney Bill Risner will be paid for all but $90,000 of his legal expenses (by us the taxpayers of course). The entire cost to taxpayers is likely around $1 million when you include the County Attorneys, staff, and legal fees they incurred fighting their own citizens on this. This case is a perfect example of poor government and what volunteer citizen activists can do to raise the issues and keep holding their elected officials accountable.

Had the Board of Supervisors not wasted over a year and hundreds of thousands of dollars and just turned over the data, it would have been less painful for all involved. We here at AuditAZ do want to thank the biggest obstructionists on the Board, Sharon Bronson, Ramon Valadez and to a lesser extent Ann Day. Had it not been for their "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach to this case, the general public, local media, and voters and volunteers from the Democratic, Republican, Green and Libertarian parties (plus independents) would not have gotten so outraged and our profile would not have been raised to the level it has. We thank you for all the added members who joined to help us out due to their outrage at the shenanigans both at the Board meetings and in court. Chair Richard Elias didn't exactly show leadership on this issue either.

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Debra Bowen Wins!

Written by: David Reiter on Nov 15, 2006 1:40 PM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team

Tremendous victory for California.  Clean money may have lost, but there will now be a more active voice toward clean elections in the Secretary's office.

Congratulations!

Election Day Response Network

Written by: Ginny Ross on Oct 29, 2006 10:23 AM EST

Linked to groups: DFA Election Rescue Strategy Team

Dear Member
(***Please circulate to EI Leaders involved in E-Day response activities***)

Below is a forward from Rob Kall publisher, OpEdNews.com.

There is a conference call today for EI leaders to coordinate and connect in a national network for election day information collection, analysis, and response. Anyone who is working on local or national election day response efforts please send an email back to me and I will make sure the info is sent to you about the call. The call is today Sunday at 4pm Pacific time (please remember to fall back one hour today).

Of course everyone is going to be extremely busy on election day --- this coordinating effort is meant to help identify roles in three broad categories 1) data/info collection 2) analysis 3) distribution and broadcast and give people the opportunity to give and receive contact information and role information. (Not on the call itself of course, but the groundwork will be laid out.)

Under #3 we have Brad Friedman, Mark Miller, Bob Fitrakis and Thom Hartmann and hopefully Greg Palast who are making arrangements to help broadcast information in as close to real time as possible through whatever means can be arranged. Most of them will be on the call.

Please send a reply my address asap (ginnypdx at comcast dot net) and we will send the notice to you. I also encourage everyone to go to OpEdNews and set up an account so you can report information from your area to this collection point.

Thank you,

Ginny Ross
Portland, OR

From: Rob Kall
Subject: A system for coordinating reports of vote improprieties

OpEdNews has set up a system to help coordinate all reports of vote theft, tampering, manipulation, voter registration purging, etc. Our goal is to help coordinate and enable anyone who has a report, who has a video, to place them all in one central, easily accessible location.

We are set up so people can easiliy register to submit written or video reports as diaries which can be assigned to multiple pages-- by state, county, voting district and subject categories.

We currently have pages for every state and can easily add counties or voting districts.

People can upload their video to youtube, then link to it on OpEdNews, putting it on a state page. We will also use a standard subject tag (or several, if you deem appropriate) like
2006 vote report all
2006 vote report theft electronic
2006 vote report theft long lines
2006 vote report theft voter registration purge
2006 vote report theft misc.

People would siimply sign up as members and submit their reports, videos, photos. We're pretty much set up and ready to go on this-- just need to finalize the subjects.
We have all the states set up and can easily add counties, voting districts and metro areas as requested.
We're willing to modify this "first pass" on the idea as experts and activists suggest.
Suggestions invited.

Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com,