The Voting News Weekly for July 11-17 2011
Wisconsin taxpayers paid just under a half a million dollars for a round of six primaries this week in which 'fake'
Democrats challenged 'real' Democrats in order to give the Republican Senators facing 'real' recalls an extra month to
campaign and raise funds. The election also allowed what officials called a "soft launch" for the State's new Voter ID
law, which will cost those same taxpayers over $7 million to implement. Sussex County New Jersey officials are
withholding service and maintenance payments to their election vendor ES until they get an adequate explanation and remedy for tabulation errors that occured in several contests earlier this
year. The GOP candidate for Kentucky Secretary of State is challenging the incumbent's practice of allowing homeless
American citizens to write "homeless" in the address line of their voter registration application. Egypt announced it
would not pursue internet voting in upcoming elections, which were also postponed. Recall fever has reached Arizona,
where State Senate President Russell Pearce will face an election this November after petitions were submitted and
approved. After their crushing defeat in parliamentary elections last week, the Thailand Democrat Party has challenged
the winner of the election, Yingluck Shinawatra in part because she cooked noodles at a campaign event and then provided
the results of her culinary efforts to attendees, which thelosing party interprets as bribery. And in Malaysia election
reform protesters were met with tear gas and water cannons in what had become a very volatile situation.
Jul 16, 2011 05:35 pm
Governor Walker recently signed a bill that requires voters to show IDs at the polls. The new bill will cost Wisconsin
taxpayers nearly $7 million in new spending and lost revenue, according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
Many claim that the measure will do little to prevent voter fraud and will disenfranchise thousands of minority, elderly
and rural voters.
According to PolitiFact, Wisconsin’s law is one of the most restrictive, based on research on acceptable IDs and voting
procedures for those without IDs from state election offices, and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Under the new law, citizens would be allowed to vote only after showing a photo ID such as a Wisconsin driver’s license,
state-issued ID card, certain very limited student IDs, military IDs, passports, naturalization certificates or IDs
issued by a tribe based in Wisconsin. The new law will be partially implemented in the upcoming recall elections this
year, with full implementation beginning with the presidential election in 2012.
Wisconsin’s allowance of student IDs comes with a major caveat: Photo IDs from accredited, Wisconsin-based colleges and
universities could be used to vote if they had signatures on them and expired within two years of being issued. The
University of Wisconsin System IDs, however, do not meet the law’s criteria.
Those showing college IDs would have to establish they are current students, such as by presenting fee payment receipts
in conjunction with their college IDs or cross-referencing their name on a student housing list provided by the
university to election clerks. Other voters will have to present a state-issued ID showing their current address. If the
address on the ID is not up to date, then a utility bill in their name with their current address will also have to be
presented at the poll.
While voter ID laws do not directly bar anyone from voting, they add hurdles and rules to a process that already
prescribes voting hours, legal voting age and residency requirements. The legislation should prevent people from voting
in another’s name, but not the most commonly prosecuted form of voter fraud in the state — felons voting while on state
supervision.
According the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the state Department of Justice and Milwaukee County district attorney’s
office have prosecuted 20 cases of voter fraud from the November 2008 election. None involves people voting in someone
else’s name at the polls. Similarly, after the 2004 election, then-U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic found no evidence of
widespread voter fraud.
Full Article: WI voter ID law: Hurdles for voters, little to curb voter fraud & $7 million tab — Madison Independent | Examiner.com….
See Also:
Jul 15, 2011 06:17 am
On its face, the voting irregularities stemming from Primary Election day in Fairfield Township looked like a simple switch-up. Democratic Executive Committee
candidates Ernest and Cynthia Zirkle questioned the total votes they received. Upon research, it became clear they weren’t alone in doubting touch-screen Sequoia AVC
Advantage voting machines.
Superior Court Judge David E. Krell ruled Monday the Cumberland County Board of Elections must make available a number
of documents tied to the voting machine used on June 7.
“The voting machine isn’t going to tell you anything,” said Krell of inspecting the Sequoia machine used at the polling
place. However, the associated documentation produced by the machine during the programming process was of interest to
him.
To be made available are:
~ any printouts generated as a result of programming after the ballot definition was received
~ any maintenance logs that was printed
~ a maintenance report from the setup diagnostic process
~ any tape produced once the diagnostics were completed and any printing from the tape
~ all printed results from the pre-LAT tests (a machine testing procedure)
Also, Princeton University Department of Computer Science Chair Andrew Appel was approved as an expert witness.
State Deputy Attorney General George Cohen represented the board of elections Monday. He maintained that county Board of
Elections Director Lizbeth Hernandez had programmed the machine in accordance with the ballot definition sent over by
the clerk’s office.
“We can’t oppose a call for a new election,” said Cohen, who later stated, “It’s because of this unique case we’re not
challenging a new election.” He’s referring to the 30 affidavits signed out of the 43 total voters who swear they voted
for the Zirkle pair. With that majority in mind, the results were in question, but an expert such as Appel was overkill
to Cohen.
See Also:
•State Supreme Court dismisses challenge to electronic voting machines in Travis County | statesman.com…
Jul 15, 2011 06:12 am
The candidates for Kentucky Secretary of State are sparring over the issue of registering homeless people to vote, which
is becoming the first line of attack in the race for the commonwealth’s chief election officer.
Earlier this month, the state board of elections sent a 2-page memorandum to county clerks telling them to uphold up state law and approve registration cards that have “homeless” or “place to place” listed
under their addresses. The memo said a clerk should not refuse to register a homeless person on the grounds they do not
have a traditional residence, but some county officials raised concerns about potential election fraud.
Citing state law and the now-defunct community organizing group ACORN, Republican candidate Bill Johnson decried the memo and called on
current Secretary of State Elaine Walker, who chairs the state board, to resign from office.
He declared “No Address, No Voter Registration” on his website last week and told WFPL in a telephone interview he plans to file a legal challenge against the state
board along with an ethics complaint against Walker before the end of the week. Johnson says he’s not opposed to homeless people voting and understands their plight, but
they should have to list an address to avoid voter fraud.
“When you look at Kentucky statuette it says that to properly register to vote you must provide an address. Now that
address needs to be some identifiable place which you live and it just can’t say place to place or in your car, for
example,” he says. “And it’s important because without an address we can’t determine residency, which is one of the
eligibility requirements.”However, the list of requirements on the secretary of state’s office does not mention residency and a Walker spokesperson points out the courts have ruled against refusing to allow homeless people to register on the
grounds that they fail to inhabit a traditional residence because it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment.
In response to Johnson’s charges that she is “unfit” for office because she supports the homeless’ right to vote without
an address, Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes says Johnson is restricting voting rights to property owners
and is unfamiliar with state law.
“No group—regardless of your economic status—should be denied the most basic right that each of us are entitled to here
in the commonwealth of Kentucky and that’s our right to exercise our voice on Election Day,” she says. “As a candidate
for secretary of state, I would expect and hope that Mr. Johnson would know better. The bill of rights provides that are
elections shall be free and fair to all individuals regardless of their economic status.”
The memorandum does address ways county clerks should deal with an incomplete voter registration card. It instructs
election officials to “make all attempts to contact” individuals if a telephone number or mailing address is provided.
It also says if the application uses the description of an address then clerks should assign the corresponding precinct.
If a person lists “place to place” or “homeless” then state officials should place the voter in the precinct containing
the county clerk’s office.
See Also:
Jul 14, 2011 06:12 am
Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) presented new draft amendments to the telecommunications
law, according Maged Osman, minister of communications and information technology.
… The minister dismissed the possibility of utilizing electronic voting through the internet in the upcoming elections.
“It has been proven worldwide that there is a high risk of security compromises using such method in elections”
“Also candidates and supervisory bodies will not be able to dispute election results in court since there will be no
printed forms to be recounted,” the minister added.
Osman explained that the Egyptian government cannot take the risk of applying electronic voting as it wants to ensure
the maximum efficiency of the model used in elections.
Full Article: Security will not be able to cut telecom again, no electronic voting: Telecom Minister — Economy — Business — Ahram
Online.
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Jul 13, 2011 07:17 am
Six fake Democratic candidates put up by the Republican Party to buy time for Republican state senators subject to
recalls accomplished that job Tuesday, but none of them did the unexpected and knocked off a real Democrat.
Candidates backed by the Democratic Party won all six Senate primary elections, all but one of them by substantial
amounts. They’ll all go on to face the Republican incumbents on Aug. 9, in an attempt by Democrats to regain control of
the state Senate and put the brakes on Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda. That the primaries were held at all is a function of
the twists and turns of political strategy played out in recent months as the state broke into warring camps over
Walker’s attempt to restrict collective bargaining for public employees.
The Republican Party forced the primaries to give its six senators facing recall another four weeks before facing a
Democratic challenger, in order to allow them to take their case to the voters and argue that their work on the budget
was good for the state.
… But there was some activity in the final week to turn out voters for those candidates.
One of the most prominent efforts was in Harsdorf’s 10th Senate District, where Jesse Garza, chairman of the St. Croix
County Republican Party, sent out an email urging recipients to vote Tuesday, telling them a vote for Weix was the same
as a vote for Harsdorf.
Moore was probably the Democrat most vulnerable to this tactic, as she didn’t have the name recognition the other
Democrats did — all of them having run for or held a major office in their districts.
Calls urging votes for the fake Democrats were reported in three other Senate districts last week — Olsen’s, Hopper’s
and Kapanke’s — with a piece of literature sent out in Hopper’s. It said voting for protest Democrat Buckstaff over King
was a way to express support for Walker.
The primaries set up major faceoffs in the six districts, with national attention on the races, and massive amounts of
money and national advertising flowing into the state.
See Also:
Jul 13, 2011 07:16 am
The Cherokee Nation Supreme Court ordered another recount Tuesday in the election for Principal Chief. The second
recount will be done by hand and will start at 8:30 a.m. this Saturday, July 16, 2011.
The race has been the center of controversy since the election on June 25, 2011. Chief Chad Smith was initially declared
the winner by just seven votes over challenger Bill John Baker. Baker ordered a recount and was declared the winner by
266 votes last week.
But over the weekend, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court counted absentee ballots. Their count showed more than 200 of
those ballots were not included in the recount that reversed the election results.
Smith claims the recount short-changed him by several hundred votes. Baker responded with claims Smith is trying to
steal the election.
According to an order from the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court Tuesday, “at this time in this appellate process, this
Court cannot confirm the accuracy of the results” to a “mathematical certainty.”
Full Article: Cherokee Nation Orders Second Recount In Chief Election — NewsOn6.com… — Tulsa, OK — News, Weather, Video and Sports — KOTV.com… |.
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Jul 12, 2011 08:14 am
Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, sponsor of the nation’s most controversial anti-immigration law, has become the
first legislator in his state’s history to face a recall election.
Pearce was the author of SB 1070, Arizona’s law requiring law enforcement to pull over any motorist suspected of being
an illegal immigrant and demand proof of legal residency or citizenship. It was signed into law in April 2010 by
Governor Jan Brewer.
Opponents of Pearce collected more than 16,000 signatures from people in District 18 for a recall petition that required
about 7,700 names. Local elections officials certified at least 10,300 signatures were valid, making the recall
official.
Pearce now has two choices: resign from office within five days; or become a candidate for his seat in a special
election slated for November.
Supporters of the Republican state senator expect him to fight for his seat. But he will do it with limited
participation from corporate interests. The day before the recall signatures were certified, Arizona’s solicitor general
informed Pearce that the law forbids direct contribution of corporate or union money to recall campaigns. However, the
U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 Citizen United ruling will allow contributions to his cause through third-party Super Pacs.
Full Article: AllGov — News — Architect of Arizona “Papers Please” Immigration Law to Face Recall Election.
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Jul 12, 2011 07:09 am
The Election Commission last week found itself stuck in a situation that was both silly and serious. On one hand, it
received a complaint about election campaigning that perhaps 99% of the nation would consider frivolous and, at best, a
joke.
On the other, the complaint that the top candidate as the next prime minister had bribed voters is actually enshrined in
the election laws. The idea that Yingluck Shinawatra’s noodle cooking amounted to an election bribe is ludicrous.
Unfortunately, because of a bad law that never was corrected, the EC is actually forced to consider reversing Ms
Yingluck’s election and banning her from politics.
How did we get in one week from a universally praised free and fair election to the point where almost every campaign
stop by every candidate is contested by hard-nosed opponents? It is not as if this issue arose suddenly. It is almost
three years since then-prime minister Samak Sundaravej was thrown out of office because he had once conducted cooking
shows on television.
That decision was by the Constitution Court. It should have been a red flag that the election laws had serious loopholes
giving featherbrained complaints equal status with serious allegations of cheating and corruption to get elected.
On its face, the current case involving Ms Yingluck almost gives new meaning to the term “unwarranted”. A single voter
in Nakhon Sawan saw a well-circulated photo in a newspaper of the then-candidate stirring up a dish of kuay teow pad
thai at a Nakhon Ratchasima market. The accompanying story stated _ probably correctly _ that members of the crowd
around her got a taste of her finished noodles. The voter dashed off a letter of complaint to the EC.
By law, the commission has to consider all allegations of cheating. Indeed, the current law makes it a serious offence
for the EC to do the right thing. That would be to chuckle and throw the complaint in the dustbin, so that members can
consider real complaints of actual election cheating.
But that could land EC members in hot water and trigger charges of malfeasance _ under the current law.
Full Article: Bangkok Post : ‘Noodlegate’ an utter farce.
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Jul 11, 2011 08:13 am
Malaysian authorities cracked down on protesters demanding free and fair elections Saturday, firing tear gas and
arresting more than 1,6000 people. Some 1,667 people had been arrested as of early evening, according to the Royal
Malaysia Police, with 16 children among them. Protest organizers said at a news conference earlier in the day that about
400 had been detained.
By Saturday night, police said the crowds had been dispersed.
The government said the protest, organized by a loose coalition of opposition groups known as Bersih 2.0, was illegal.
It had already declared Bersih an illegal organization and police said anyone found with Bersih-related materials, such
as yellow T-shirts, could be arrested.
“Malaysians of all walks of life overcame the oppressive acts of the police to come out peacefully and in incredibly
large numbers to show their love for their country and for the principles of justice,” the coalition said on its
website.
“We are nonetheless horrified that several hundred people have been detained, many of them without any justification
whatsoever,” it said.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was among hundreds of protesters who gathered at the Hilton hotel in Kuala Lumpur before
heading toward the Sentral Station. There the protesters breached police lines to march through the rail station, before
being met by riot police with tear gas on the other side.
Ibrahim posted on his Twitter account that he had sustained a minor injury during the demonstration and that a staff
member had been badly hurt. He also said his youngest daughter had been arrested.
Writing on his blog ahead of the protest, Ibrahim said the “intended peaceful gathering” was to bring Malaysians
together “as one united people in pursuit of clean and fair elections.”
Full Article: Malaysian authorities crack down on protesters — CNN.com….
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