John Conyers Brings It to the DNC
Appearing with other member of the Congressional Black Caucus at the Democratic National Convention tonight for a moving tribute to their recently deceased colleague Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers brings the issue of fair elections and election integrity to the convention.
Speaking after Charles Rangel of New York, Chairman Conyers said:
I knew Stephanie Tubbs Jones as a constant voice for justice and peace. She was known to others for her work as a prosecutor, a judge and chairwoman of the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives. She was a stalwart Democrat, a real leader and an enthusiastic supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the nomination.
After Senator Obama prevailed, the Congressional Black Caucus met with Senator Obama, and Stephanie Tubbs Jones led us in standing rock-solid in support of him as our candidate for president. She knew the importance of making sure that every vote counts and every vote is counted.
After the 2004 election when so many votes went uncounted in Ohio, Stephanie Tubbs Jones met with me and other House members in Columbus, Ohio to hear the testimony of hundreds of Ohioans angry at the way their secretary of state had misconducted the presidential election. She returned to Washington with one vow: “Never again.” Never again would we see justice left undone. Never again will votes go uncounted. Never again will the voice of the people be ignored.
Before leaving this convention, with Senator Obama nominated as our candidate, I ask that we honor the memory of Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and speak with one voice, as she would. “Never again. Never again. Never again.”
Take heed, Delegates and Senators Obama and Biden.
UPDATE: If you’re watching any of the Network or cable news coverage, then you probably didn’t see it live at 6:00 PM EDT. C-span has it all without the talking head blah-blah-blah. Check C-span.org for local listings or archives.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Dobbs
How can Lou Dobbs be so right on one thing and so wrong on another?!?!
In response to a story by CNN’s Dobbs in which he “told viewers that substantial evidence suggests that large numbers of non-citizens, including undocumented immigrants, are voting in federal elections and could be the deciding factor in November’s elections,” Truth in Immigration released a report that dispels the myth (which was started by The Heritage Foundation):
In a recent segment, The story primarily cites a recent report published by the Heritage Foundation. The report is written by former recess-appointed FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky, whose troubling record on voting rights caused him to withdraw his name from consideration for a permanent FEC seat. Von Spakovsky’s report contains gross distortions and represents an attempt to support a policy agenda that would disenfranchise many U.S. citizens.
As one of his primary examples of non-citizen voters influencing U.S. elections, von Spakovsky cites the 1996 Congressional race in California between Republican Bob Dornan and Democrat Loretta Sanchez. Sanchez prevailed in this election by fewer than 1,000 votes, and Dornan contested the results. The House of Representatives then investigated whether invalid voters won the election for Sanchez. Von Spakovsky notes that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ultimately dismissed the case, but suggests that the Committee did so only because it revealed just 624 noncitizen votes and 124 invalid absentee ballots. Von Spakovsky essentially ignores the Committee’s conclusion that the Sanchez/Dornan race was not compromised and that non-citizens did not vote in significant numbers. Instead, he speculates, without offering supporting evidence, that votes from undocumented immigrants probably accounted for the remaining votes. What he fails to note, moreover, is that 372 of the disputed noncitizen votes were cast by individuals who were officially sworn in as U.S. citizens before Election Day.
Most allegations of non-citizen voting, upon closer examination, likewise do not yield evidence of non-citizen voting. In the state of Washington in 2005, for instance, a private citizen asked county officials to investigate 1,668 registered voters who had
seemingly foreign names. To this day, none of these voters have turned out to be noncitizens. 10 In 2001, Milwaukee journalists conducted a review of 370,000 voting records between 1992 to 2000. The journalists found only four cases of possible non-citizen
voting, but it has never been established whether even these four voters cast invalid ballots.
Brad Friedman at BradBlog.com has the skinny on Hans von Spakovsky and it doesn’t pass the smell test.
Your Own Private Ohio: Seven Ways Your Vote Might Not Count This November
Steven Rosenfeld author of Count My Vote: A Citizen’s Guide to Voting writes at Alternet, “Some of the most serious election protection problems can be discovered and fixed before the presidential voting begins.”
What voters often do not know is that long lines or delays in polling place voting can result from many factors — some administrative, some technical, some partisan. Many of the problems that arise on Election Day not only can be identified before voting in November, they can be resolved by election officials. The following issues will directly impact how voters are accommodated.
Read the entire piece for more info about, and solutions for, Voter Purges, Unprocessed Voter Registrations, Obstacles to Student Voting, Voting Machine Allocations, Poll Worker Shortages, Partisan Voter Challenges, Early Voting/Absentee Ballot Problems, and Solutions and Resources for Voters.
It Started By Showing a Movie
A frequent question being asked now is “why are films like Uncounted all suddenly coming out in a clump” and “why are these films important?”
Although the answer may be obvious to some, we sometimes forget that not everyone is consumed by the fight for free and fair elections. People are busy…they have lives…families…jobs…And the little news they do get during their busy days is from a corporate media that still refuses - Lou Dobbs notwithstanding - to stop, drop and roll this issue out to the masses.
And so the answer to the above questions is that anyone who makes a film - or writes a book, pens an article, or makes a blog post comment - about this issue is doing so for one very important reason:
To Get the Word Out. And Take Action.
And it’s working:
The League of Women Voters of Clarion County this spring held a screening of “Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections,” a documentary about problems with touch screen voting machines and other voting problems in recent years.
A man stood up at the screening, held at the Main Street Center in Clarion, and said he was a poll worker who had problems with the voting machine he used to cast his own ballot.
According to Jane Schautz, chair of the local League?s voting integrity project, the man said he tried to vote for Lavieta Lerch in the race for district attorney the previous year, but three times he touched Lerch’s name only to see a check mark beside the name of Mark Aaron.
Finally, on the fourth try, the screen showed a vote for Lerch. Aaron won re-election by just under five percent.
Others have come forward with accounts of voting problems, Schautz said; some are documenting the accounts of their problems and will have them notarized, she added.
The League is now calling on any other voters who experienced problems with touch screen voting machines to come forward so their stories can be documented.
Clarion County uses Diebold AccuVote TSX voting machines, purchased in early 2006, at all polling places. But so many questions have been raised about these and similar touch-screen machines, that many are calling for a return to systems that use some form of paper ballots or voter verified paper records.
Centre County recently decided to switch to an optically-scanned paper ballot, Schautz said, adding that 17 of the state?s 67 counties are now using some form of paper ballot system.
Matthew Segal: A Tribute To My Friend, Stephanie Tubbs Jones
A fitting tribute to a great lady from her good friend. We join Matt in sending our heartfelt condolences to Congresswoman Tubbs Jones’ family, friends, and all those who had the privilege of working closely with her throughout the years.
Most everybody who is a friend or colleague of mine has come to know of my friendship with Stephanie Tubbs Jones over the past few years. I liked to talk about her — the loud and proud gentlelady from Ohio, the sassy fighter for social justice who always wore bright red power suits, the woman who refused to shake your hand when she met you insisting on a hug instead.
The most impressive part about Stephanie, however, was how courageous and authentic she was. In the elections world, she will be remembered for standing up in front of Congress and Vice President Cheney to contest the 2004 counting of Ohio’s 20 electoral votes.
Just after I introduced her for a speech she gave six weeks ago, she told the audience about her decision to protest the 2004 electoral vote certification with Senator Boxer. She said that she was threatened at the time — that if she were to contest the Ohio vote certification that she might be blacklisted by certain House members or might lose her ability to secure earmarks for her congressional district.
Her response? “Bring it on!” Stephanie explained that people like her would outlast those in Congress who are too fearful of political consequences. Now, we can only hope her like-minded colleagues will sustain her tenacity.
Seeing STARZ
Defenders of democracy unite! Just in time for the crucial 2008 presidential election, Starz Edge and Starz Cinema present the world television premiere of Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, the documentary that shows how election fraud changed the outcome of the 2004 election, led to even greater fraud in 2006 and now looms large over 2008 presidential race.
The film will premiere on Starz Edge on Monday, August 25 at 10:30 p.m. (et/pt). Starz Cinema will show Uncounted on Thursday, August 28 at 10:00 p.m.
The schedule of additional Starz Edge and Starz Cinema screenings of Uncounted throughout September and October can be found at Starz.com.
The provocative Uncounted examines in factual, logical and startling terms how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the United States. The film shines some much-needed light onto:
- Jim Crow-like Voter Suppression and Intimidation in the 21st Century
- Exit Poll Discrepancies in 2004 and 2006
- Undervoting up to 80% in Precincts
- Electronic Voting Machines Altering Final Vote Tallies
- Provisional Ballots Not Counted
- The Privatization of the Election Process
In addition to being a searing indictment of the country’s election system and a stunning wakeup call for voters, Uncounted also tells the inspiring stories of three patriotic whistleblowers who recognize the threat to the core of our democracy and do the right thing – regardless of the consequences.
“The notion of stolen elections is something we assign to Third World countries, but not this beacon of freedom and democracy that we like to view ourselves as.” Bernie Ellis, Election Integrity Activist.
Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 16.8 million and 31.4 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Entertainment Group, a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.
BradBlog: LUCKY!
The BRAD BLOG Goes to the DNC…
All in all, we’d rather be in St. Paul. But, then again, nobody involved with the Republican National Convention invited us to speak in Minnesota. We will, however, be speaking on a panel about “Clean, Fair and Transparent Elections” at a forum sponsored by The Nation magazine and the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) in Denver, so we’re now on our way. Whether we like it or not.
We’re also told that press credentials to the big show have been secured for The BRAD BLOG, so who knows what may happen? In truth, we have no idea what we’ll find in Denver worth reporting, if anything, but many are the days we often awake with no clue at all what nightmares and/or hilarity await us, requiring light and focus that sometimes only we seem to be able to help bring. It’s with that same sense of wonderment and a not-bad-nose-for-news-found-nowhere-else that we head towards the Rockies.
Check The Brad Blog early and often for all the news from the DNC that’s fit to print.
If the Man Won’t Come to Uncounted, Then Uncounted (and Bob Edwards!) Will Take it to the Man
The outrage of systematic voter disenfranchisement looms large over the 2008 presidential election. It is in this highly charged atmosphere that David Earnhardt’s UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections screens at the American Film Institute’s prestigious AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Tuesday, September 9, at 7:00 PM.
Veteran broadcast journalist Bob Edwards of XMPR Satellite Radio’s “The Bob Edwards Show,” will host a post-film panel discussion.
With the urgent need to move America toward absolute election integrity, the discussion panel will be made up of leaders in national efforts to preserve democracy and ensure that the voice of every voter is heard at the polls. The panel members include:
- Mimi Kennedy – Board Chair, Progressive Democrats of America; actress
- Rev. DeForest Soaries - former Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (2004-2005)
- Matthew Segal – Founder & Executive Director S.A.V.E. (Student Association for Voter Empowerment)
- Rebecca Wilson - Co-Director; Save Our Vote Maryland
- Robert Fitrakis, Ph.D. – Author & Journalist, “What Happened in Ohio?“
- David Earnhardt – UNCOUNTED Director/Writer/Producer
“The predicted record voter turnout for November illustrates an engaged electorate - which is fantastic,” said Earnhardt, “But our country has a long history of manufactured election irregularities and it’s important we all remain vigilant about making sure that every vote that is cast, is counted. Now is the time for the American people to closely examine the accuracy and effectiveness of our election system and I hope that watching UNCOUNTED and listening to the post-film discussion will encourage people to take immediate action.”
For the last seven months, Earnhardt has been on a national tour with UNCOUNTED, partnering with local election integrity groups and using the film as a tool to shed some much-needed light onto electoral affronts. Among the offenses are Jim Crow-like voter suppression, voter intimidation, undervoting, provisional balloting, electronic voting, and the privatization of the election process.
Beyond serving as a searing indictment of our country’s election system as well as a wake-up call for voters, election officials, and lawmakers, UNCOUNTED shares the uplifting stories of whistle-blowers determined to do the right thing. One of them is Florida computer programmer Clint Curtis, who was directed by his boss to create software that will “flip” votes from one candidate to another. County Clerk Bruce Funk in Utah is another electoral hero who was locked out of his office for raising questions about security flaws in electronic voting machines. In California, Steve Heller was convicted of a felony after he leaked secret documents that detailed illegal activities perpetrated by a major voting machine company. Through the compelling stories of these modern day patriots, Americans who see UNCOUNTED will be deeply moved when seeing what is best about our country.
The AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center is a state-of-the-art moving image exhibition, education and cultural center located at 8633 Colesville Road in Silver Spring.
Ticket price for the 7:00 P.M. screening on September 9 is $10.00.
How Does He Sleep at Night?
From the CBS Story, Voting Machine Doubts Linger:
“Touch-screen voting machines have proven to be accurate, reliable, and secure time and time again”
– Ken Fields, spokesman for ES&S
Seriously.
The Electronic Voting Machine Hokey Pokey (You Put Your Right Vote In. It Spits Your Wrong Vote Out)
Paperless electronic voting machines are sometimes referred to as a “black box,” but a “black hole” would be more like it. Like a black hole, once the true intention of your vote goes in, there is no way for it to escape - no paper confirmation, no audit system, and no way to identify a problem and fix it. But unlike a real black hole, and the hokey pokey for that matter - electronic voting machines are so not cool.