Free Republic

SOUTH BEND - Minus suspected fakes, then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama likely fell short of the number of signatures needed to appear on the 2008 Indiana primary ballot, and it's possible his opponent, Hillary Clinton, did as well, according to information obtained by The Tribune as part of an investigation into suspected ballot petition fraud. Trent Deckard, Democratic co-director of the state Election Division, in an e-mail Thursday told The Tribune Obama's 2008 petition for primary ballot placement in the state contained just 534 certified signatures in the 2nd Congressional District. Clinton's petition contained 704 certified signatures, he said....

Just got off the phone with a longtime customer (a County Clerk in Texas) and was told of a program that is in the planning stages for Military voting procedures. HAVA (Help America Vote Act) and the EAC (Election Assistance Commission) play a large part in how BBM (Ballot by Mail) materials are printed and distributed to voters. According to my source, a federal representative of the HAVA accidentally let slip that HAVA are working on a process that would allow Military voters to a). request a ballot by mail via email b). be able to send the (voted upon)...

Former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, Democratic Party consultant Armando Gutierrez and lobbyists Elizabeth and Joseph Carl Kupfer were indicted Wednesday on 50 counts each of conspiracy, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering over $100,000 and other charges for alleged acts occurring from 2004 through 2006.... The charges relate to the office’s use of federal election monies under the Help America Vote Act.

Promiscuous Voting by: Irene Warren, November 03, 2008 With the 2008 Presidential Election drawing near to a close, political think tanks are proposing new election laws to deter election fraud and to prepare the state and federal governments in guiding an election during a time of catastrophe. In recent years, the U.S. election system has fallen prey to chaos. “Successfully managing an ordinary presidential election requires an enormous amount of preparation and planning, read an AEI October 2008 events news brief. “Natural and man-made disasters alike have caused massive administrative disruptions to elections in recent years in states like Louisiana,...

Retired bank president Christine Jennings of Sarasota, Fla., is optimistic about her chances in the 13th District congressional race. Polls show her ahead, but she is worried about those electronic voting machines that a third of the country is using this year. "There are too, too many things that can go wrong with them," she told "20/20." She's skeptical because two years ago, Jennings ran for and lost the same congressional seat. She got the most votes, but the machines in her hometown recorded thousands of ballots that registered no vote on election night. She lost by a razor-thin margin....

MADISON, Wis. (Legal Newsline) - Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Thursday he will appeal a court ruling today that threw out his lawsuit to force officials to cross-check information on voter rolls. "I believe today's decision was an erroneous interpretation of the law," the Republican attorney general said. "When a lower court gets the law wrong, parties appeal to a higher court, and that's what I will do. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi dismissed the lawsuit Thursday, saying Van Hollen lacked the authority to sue to force the state Government Accountability Board to comply with the federal...

Jane Platten gestured, bleary-eyed, into the secure room filled with voting machines. It was 3 a.m. on Nov. 7, and she had been working for 22 hours straight. “I guess we’ve seen how technology can affect an election,” she said. The electronic voting machines in Cleveland were causing trouble again. For a while, it had looked as if things would go smoothly for the Board of Elections office in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. About 200,000 voters had trooped out on the first Tuesday in November for the lightly attended local elections, tapping their choices onto the county’s 5,729 touch-screen voting machines....

The hoariest jest in conservatism's repertoire is that the three least credible assertions in the English language are "The check is in the mail," "Of course I'll respect you as much in the morning" and "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." Which brings us to the exquisitely named Help America Vote Act. Having fixed Iraq and New Orleans, the federal government's healing touch is now being applied to voting. As a result, days -- perhaps weeks -- might pass after Election Day without the nation's knowing which party controls the House or Senate. If that happens,...

Yesterday was the first election for which I was old enought to cast a ballot. I was the fifth voter of the morning at my rural polling place and proudly voted for Lynn Swann for the GOP nomination for Governor. Thanks to the unfunded mandate of the Help America Vote Act everyone had to get used to the touch screen Sequoia machines. I noticed that these machines have been programmed to make "undervoting" extremely cumbersome. You have to hit "confirm" two time, rather than the normal one time, if you have deliberately decided not to dilute your vote by spreading...

More than 25 percent of the new registration forms sent to the state since Jan. 1 have been returned to the counties, most because they lack the driver's license, state identification or Social Security numbers now required by federal law. ---snip--- Problems with a new statewide voter registration system could keep tens of thousands of Californians from showing up on election rolls this June. More than 25 percent of the new registration forms sent to the state since Jan. 1 have been returned to the counties, most because they lack the driver's license, state identification or Social Security numbers now...

ALBANY, March 1 — The Justice Department sued New York State on Wednesday for failing to overhaul its election system and replace its aging voting machines. It is the first lawsuit the federal government has filed to force a state to comply with the voting guidelines enacted by Congress after the 2000 election debacle. The new federal guidelines were designed to prevent the kind of electoral chaos that marred the 2000 presidential election in Florida, and to make casting ballots easier for disabled voters. But New York State's efforts to modernize its election system have fallen far behind the rest...

In Controlled Test, Results Are Manipulated in Florida System As the Leon County supervisor of elections, Ion Sancho's job is to make sure voting is free of fraud. But the most brazen effort lately to manipulate election results in this Florida locality was carried out by Sancho himself. Four times over the past year Sancho told computer specialists to break in to his voting system. And on all four occasions they did, changing results with what the specialists described as relatively unsophisticated hacking techniques. To Sancho, the results showed the vulnerability of voting equipment manufactured by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems,...

ALBANY, Jan. 11 - The federal Justice Department has threatened to sue New York State over its failure to modernize its voting system, saying New York "is further behind" every other state in complying with new guidelines stemming from the 2000 presidential election dispute. The state has yet to decide what kind of new voting machines it will certify, leaving many local elections boards in uncertainty as they try to modernize their voting systems in time for next fall's primary elections. And the state missed the Jan. 1 deadline for creating a statewide database of registered voters, as required by...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - More than $3.8 million in federal election money was spent improperly or without required documentation by former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, federal auditors said in a report released Wednesday. The audit, commissioned by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, confirms an earlier state audit of Shelley's handling of money given to California under the Help America Vote Act. It examined spending through 2004. Auditors said about $3 million in spending lacked documentation, such as paying salaries for people who didn't submit time sheets, or was improperly awarded to consultants through no-bid contracts. The audit, conducted by the...

In a report released Friday, the investigative arm of Congress found that fully electronic voting machines hold promise for U.S. elections but still have security and reliability problems. E-voting failures in elections have been a problem in California, and the state's experiences are mentioned several times in the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Analysts for the GAO found that crucial vote-recording and tallying files could be altered, that voting software often had weak or nonexistent password protections and that manufacturers had installed unapproved software in several places, including California. Yet fixing those problems could be years away....

Despite the fact that we were told that things went well in the 2004 elections, there was an unprecedented amount of voter fraud in various parts of the country. Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee and thus a member of the Senate leadership, has issued a paper entitled "Putting an End to Voter Fraud" and its suggestions are surely worth considering. The Help America Vote Act, which was supposed to take care of a number of problems in the American election system when it was enacted in 2002, may have made matters worse. In any...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State Auditor Elaine Howle said Tuesday that the secretary of state's office is "headed in the right direction" to better manage millions of dollars in federal election funds, but she acknowledged it's still too early to tell if a lasting turnaround is in place. Howle, testifying one week before Secretary of State Kevin Shelley was scheduled to step down from the state's top elections post, said Shelley's office has showed progress toward removing a "cloud" over its operations. A consulting firm hired by the office also detailed its work toward tightening the scandal-tinged operation within the next...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - As Secretary of State Kevin Shelley faces multiple investigations into his performance in office, as well as calls for his resignation, a key constituency - California's 58 county elections officials - has been conspicuously absent in rallying support to him. County officials call Shelley's tenure as California's top elections official a disappointment, so many are standing on the sidelines as he struggles to keep his job. "The point of view I have is we're all disappointed in the way things have happened in the secretary of state's office under his watch," said Debbie Hench, registrar of voters...

Sacramento -- California campaign-finance regulators are investigating whether Secretary of State Kevin Shelley illegally accepted a political donation in his government office from a contributor seeking help with a tax problem, The Chronicle has learned. Investigators from the state Fair Political Practices Commission have met with at least one potential witness in the case, seeking details about a meeting in June 2003 between Shelley and the donor, and about how the campaign check was delivered, according to a person who was questioned. "They were clearly trying to dot their i's and cross their t's," said the person, who spoke on...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's expected appearance before an obscure legislative committee next week presents a rare spectacle in a state Capitol where few statewide elected officials have ever found themselves so engulfed in controversy. While many lawmakers have endured scandals and some seen the insides of prison walls, Shelley has few precedents as he prepares to testify before a committee that has traditionally concerned itself with auditing humdrum issues such as grazing fees and Medi-Cal overpayments. Though the 14-member Joint Legislative Audit Committee is also making headlines with its probe of cost overruns on the Bay...

WASHINGTON - The federal commission that distributes election reform money to states voted Thursday to audit millions in questionable expenditures overseen by California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. In the latest blow to Shelley, who is also facing criminal investigations of his hiring practices and campaign fund-raising, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission voted unanimously to undertake a formal accounting of the $180 million in federal funds sent to California. A state audit released last month said Shelley, a Democrat, mismanaged the funds, using some of it to pay employees and consultants for attending partisan events. "Legitimate questions have been raised...

SACRAMENTO -- Under threat of a subpoena, embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley agreed Thursday to testify voluntarily before a committee investigating his handling of federal election funds. Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, the committee's chairwoman, said Shelley would be sworn in as a witness, leaving him vulnerable to possible perjury charges if he lies. Shelley is willing to testify under oath at the committee's next hearing Feb. 3, said spokeswoman Caren Daniels-Meade. "If that's what the committee wants, yes," Daniels-Meade said. Parra's Joint Legislative Audit committee is holding hearings on a stinging audit report that found Shelley mismanaged millions of...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley agreed Thursday to testify Feb. 3 before the legislative committee investigating his use of federal election funds, his aides said. Shelley made the commitment Thursday morning, meeting a 10 a.m. deadline to confirm his appearance before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee's hearing next month. The committee's chair, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, said she would seek a subpoena to compel his testimony if he did not agree to come. Shelley made the commitment in a letter and telephone call to Parra, said his spokeswoman, Caren Daniels-Meade. "He looks forward to participating," she...

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblywoman Nicole Parra on Tuesday gave beleaguered Secretary of State Kevin Shelley two more days to decide whether to testify voluntarily before her audit committee about his handling of federal election funds. At the conclusion of a committee hearing late Monday night, Parra said she would seek a subpoena if Shelley had not agreed by noon Tuesday to appear before the committee's next hearing. Tuesday afternoon, she released an exchange of letters between herself and Shelley in which the secretary of state asked for more time to consult with his attorneys before responding. "As you might imagine, your...

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley bent rules, missed deadlines and failed to do proper paperwork as he spent millions of dollars in federal election money, state Auditor Elaine Howle told a legislative committee conducting its first hearing Monday to investigate the embattled state elections official. Howle meticulously told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee that Shelley's management failures, which also included the questionable use of federal money, added up to "disregard for proper controls and poor oversight" of money given California to modernize its voting systems. But a representative of Shelley's office testified under oath that much of the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Five months ago, California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley could have been considered one of the state's rising Democratic stars, the man who coordinated the 2003 recall election that ousted a governor and then earned favorable national attention on electronic voting issues. Now that prominence is being battered by allegations of campaign finance improprieties and of mishandling of millions of federal dollars sent to states to modernize voting. Gone are the flattering media profiles, the suggestions he's a top Democratic contender for the governor's office after Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger departs. Instead, Shelley faces the wrath...

When Kern's Democrat Assemblywoman Nicole Parra said "no stone would be left unturned" in her committee's investigation of scandal-plagued Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, she must have meant only the light stones. Next week's hearing by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee seems destined to fall short of Parra's pledge to hold Democrat Shelley accountable for his management of millions of federal Help America Vote Act dollars. A review by the state auditor concluded Shelley's management of federal voter outreach and election reform funds was inept and much of the money was used to promote Democrat election efforts. Shelley also is...

The head of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, who promised that "no stone would be left unturned" in the panel's review of Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's handling of federal election funds, has backed off a request that her fellow Democrat appear in person at the panel's only scheduled hearing. Republicans and at least one Democrat complained that the approach borders on a partisan "whitewash" unless more substantial hearings, including testimony from Shelley, occur. A state auditor's report last month found that Shelley mismanaged millions of dollars in federal Help America Vote Act money and likely used some nonpartisan funds...

Anew report issued by the state auditor reflects terribly on Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, California's chief elections official. It concludes that "insufficient planning" and "bad management" by Shelley's office resulted in its failure to implement provisions of the federal Help America Vote Act in "a timely way." It also charges that "disregard for proper controls" by Shelley's office and "poor oversight" of staff and consultants led to "questionable uses" of the federal election funds. Shelley's failings in planning and management of the HAVA program are problematic. But they do not rise to the level requiring the secretary of state...

IN BASEBALL, it's three strikes and you're out. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley must be hoping California politics is more forgiving. He's already at the center of federal grand jury proceedings into improper political donations, first made public by The Chronicle. In a second inquiry by the state Personnel Board, he's pictured as the boss from hell by a string of former workers who've talked about his tirades and off-color remarks. Now comes a third hit, a withering state audit that says his office bungled the task of modernizing election procedures and spent money on partisan chores. The latest charges...

Three months ago we said California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley should resign. The case for his departure was compelling then, and it is overwhelming today. Last week, the Bureau of State Audits released a damning report that documents not only gross mismanagement but also what could be criminal violations in Shelley's misuse of federal Help America Vote Act funds. State auditors say that because Shelley's office spent federal funds for activities not authorized under the law, the federal government may end up requiring California to repay millions of dollars. Even Shelley has acknowledged that mistakes were made, but that's...

SANTA FE— Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron on Friday defended her decision to spend nearly $2 million on radio and television ads explaining how New Mexicans could register for and vote in the Nov. 2 general election. Vigil-Giron said the federal Help America Vote Act required her to spend the money on voter education programs before the election. The Democratic secretary of state said Republican attacks of her decision were politically motivated. "If they have a problem with seeing my mug on television, well, then that's their problem," Vigil-Giron said.

New federal regulations allow anyone — felons, fugitives, even foreign nationals — to vote anywhere unchallenged, with their votes subject only to post-election review by local authorities. But never fear: For your protection, 30,000 pro-Kerry trial lawyers have volunteered to monitor polling in every KEY state! The more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same. Just as New York’s Tammany Hall or Chicago’s Daley machine did decades ago, it now appears that legions of political hacks and big-city ward heelers are lining up to try to steal this year’s elections. Except now, for the first time, they...

SACRAMENTO - Embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Thursday shook up his top management team five days before Tuesday's presidential election. Most important, Mark Kyle, the undersecretary of state and Shelley's best friend, will be replaced immediately by a 23-year veteran of the agency, Cathy Mitchell. Caren Daniels-Meade, Shelley's new assistant for communications, said ongoing investigations tied to the secretary were not a factor in the change, which she described as the result of ``mutual agreement.'' Daniels-Meade, who has worked in the secretary of state's office for three decades, said Kyle ``had given Kevin a two-year commitment. And he's...

(snip) Other investigations revealed similar results elsewhere. The Orlando Sentinel found that 68,000 Florida voters are also registered in Georgia or North Carolina (the only two states it checked), 1,650 of whom voted twice in 2000 or 2002. The Kansas City Star discovered 300 "potential" cases of individual voter fraud, including Kansans voting in Missouri and St. Louisans voting in both the city and the surrounding suburbs. "I probably shouldn't have voted in Kansas," a Kansas City businesswoman named Lorraine Goodrich told the paper, owning up to the offense. "That was a mistake. Whoops! Oh my God, I'm going to...

SACRAMENTO -- Accused of mismanaging a federal voting-rights program, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley disputed the allegations on Monday and blamed some problems on the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials says Shelley, a San Francisco Democrat, has failed miserably in administering California's Help America Vote Act program. HAVA was passed by Congress in 2002 in the hope of preventing a repeat of Florida's 2000 presidential election debacle. In a letter to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Shelley disputed the charges, though he made no mention of the group or its specific allegations....

SACRAMENTO - The chairman of the new national election oversight commission warned Wednesday that California could lose quick access to $170 million in federal funds because of the controversy overshadowing Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. Election Assistance Commission Chairman DeForest B. Soaries Jr. said he is concerned about reports that California has fallen short in setting up new voter outreach programs. ``We have information that suggests that the state may not be just behind, but be completely delinquent in addressing some of the mandates,'' Soaries said in a conference call with California reporters. ``It's our responsibility to verify the information,...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley may have violated congressional restrictions on how federal voting funds may be used by spending some of the money on Democratic consultants who attended fund-raisers and party meetings, a newspaper reported. At the least, the way Shelley applied some of the nonpartisan funds differs from how his colleagues in other states spent the money earmarked for replacing voting machines and educating poll workers and voters following the disputed outcome of the 2000 presidential race in Florida, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "We didn't intend for anyone to hire political...

The expensive, federally mandated "cures" to the election snafus of 2000 are worse than the problem, experts warn. "What we know is that the machines can't be trusted. It's an unlocked bank vault ... a disaster waiting to happen," warns David Dill, a Stanford University computer science professor who has gotten more than 110 fellow scientists to sign a petition urging more accountability in voting technology. The researchers think problems with software systems will result in hacking and even more fraud than usual, with people casting extra votes and poll workers changing ballots undetected. "Techies and election bureaucrats are...