Trolling for Votes in Virginia Psychiatric Hospitals

Submitted by beatriz on 10/31/08 6:31am
Trolling for votes in psychiatric hospitals can be tricky.  Going after the votes of questionably competent voters can open up all kinds of suspicions of fraud and intimidation.  The mentally disabled may be getting their chance to cast their ballot in Virginia.  Read more here.

Ohio, One of Twelve States to Follow On Election Day

Submitted by beatriz on 10/31/08 5:25am
Ohio is one of the twelve states likely to see some troubles on Election Day.  Check out the story at http://www.alternet.org/election08//voting_watch
"Controversy and lawsuits swirled around the state s six-day one-stop registration and voting period that ended earlier this month. Republicans say the options should have never been allowed, arguing that it violated the state s voter registration deadlines, though it has been on the books in the state for more than a quarter century"

Ohio Vulnerable to Electronic Election Theft

Submitted by beatriz on 10/31/08 5:08am
In Ohio voting is getting pretty messy.  From suspicious voter registrations, to unveryfiable provisional votes, now it is being reported that the chances of election theft from rigged or faulty electronic voting machines is a likely scenario.  Democrats fear loosing thousands of votes to purging, out-right intimidation and computerized manipulations.
[...]Vote shifting has also surfaced where citizens attempt to select a straight party ticket. Even during less pressured advance balloting, machines are breaking down, causing delays and opening wide the door to theft and fraud. The magic word "recalibration" has come to mean mid-stream re-rigging of electronic machines, and is being strategically conjured in voting booths throughout the nation. The antidote is clear: paper ballots must be made universal. In Ohio, Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has attempted to make this happen, but has been beaten back by Republicans. Maryland and Virginia have announced they will return to paper ballots, but AFTER this year's election. In Pennsylvania, a Democratic Secretary of State has, incredibly, RESISTED making paper ballots universally available in a state now dominated by electronic machines without paper trails. It should be no surprise that the McCain campaign is now insisting that Pennsylvania is still "in play" despite a double-digit lead in the polls by his opponent, Senator Barack Obama.[...]
Check out the complete article in  http://www.progressohio.org

Florida Voting Machines...Unreliable?

Submitted by astrocastro on 10/31/08 4:14am
http://edition.cnn.com Could Florida be embroiled in another voter scandal in this next election?  Read this article from CNN and learn more about the concerns some have with voting machines.
"[...]Most concerns about electronic voting have focused on touch-screen machines. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sued the maker of the touch-screen equipment used in half of Ohio's 88 counties in August after an investigation showed the machines "dropped" votes in recent elections when memory cards were uploaded to computer servers. Most electronic voting machines are equipped to produce paper records if required by an audit, said David Beirne, executive director of the Election Technology Council, a trade association for voting-system vendors. Recent reports of "vote-flipping" on touch-screen machines -- when a vote for one candidate is recorded as a vote for another -- can be explained by voter error or election workers not properly calibrating the machines, Beirne said. So how can voters on Tuesday be absolutely sure that their ballots are being recorded with 100 percent accuracy? They can't, most election observers say. But election watchdogs and voting-system industry officials agree on one thing: People voting on touch-screen machines should take their time, read the ballot instructions carefully and not be afraid to ask for help.[...]"

McCain Ahead In Florida? Please!

Submitted by astrocastro on 10/31/08 3:58am
Wishful thinking from Florida Republicans. http://www.redcounty.com
"This is stunning. Florida Democrats are voting early by a margin of 2 to 1 over Republicans but a L.A. Times/Bloomberg exit poll has McCain ahead by 4%.
If early voting in Florida is any indication what will happen across this country come next Tuesday (and there is little reason to assume it will be some crazy outlier well outside the norm) then Obama and the Dems are going to be getting a lesson from the American voters. They are the lead incumbent party in a country where 90% think the country is off track. And how America feels about them and Obama is showing in some early polling of early voters:
According to a GMU site monitoring early polling Florida is already seeing almost 34% of the total 2004 vote for Florida - stunning. And the advantage for Dems on this site is 45.4% to 39% (including absentee). So with a really high 6.4% advantage in turnout Obama is losing by 4%. That is some massive defection numbers away from Obama. And it would seem a large turnout is not a bad thing at all for McCain-Palin, since it will swamp the Obama strengths in certain demographics."

Florida's top elections official confident about Tuesday

Submitted by astrocastro on 10/31/08 3:51am
Check out this post from the floridas_top_elections_official_confident_about_tuesday.html" target="_self">http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com Kurt Browning is Florida’s top elections official. He was named secretary of state in December 2006 by then Gov.-elect Charlie Crist. For the previous 26 years, Browning was the Pasco County supervisor of elections and had served as president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public administration from the University of South Florida.

Dead People Voting Throughout Florida

Submitted by astrocastro on 10/31/08 3:26am
Florida is having problems with some voter registrations.  Turns out a bunch of the folks registering to vote are dead.  Sounds pretty suspicious.  This could be the beginning of another Election Day nightmare,  Can anyone say recount? http://www.wftv.com/news
"Thousands of dead Floridians are registered to vote and some in Central Florida had ballots cast in their names long after their deaths."That is scary," said Jim Branch.Branch's mother Marjorie died in 2004 but someone voted for her in 2006. Branch had tried to get his mother removed from the voter rolls. County records show James Santiago voted in the 2006 general election. He too, was dead. His wife, Joann, sees this as an open invitation for voter fraud."

Seeking Midwest Talent

Submitted by mous on 10/31/08 2:54am
Movie production company in ST Louis MO is expanding. Seeking additional talent in the MO and Illinois area for print, film, commercial and promotional assignments. If interested plz e.mail or call (314) 427-7224 ask for Kathy. thanks

BuyMeds: 2 Fedex Numbers No Shimpment

Submitted by mous on 10/31/08 2:00am
I placed my order on 3/30. Since then I have received two separate fedex tracking numbers, however, when I check either number on the fedex website they are not found indicating it has not shipped. My cc has been charged. Has anyone else had this?

In Tight Race, Victor May Be Ohio Lawyers

Submitted by beatriz on 10/31/08 1:40am
From the NY Times Experts are saying there could be another recount nightmare this election.
“Provisional ballots are really the Achilles’ heel of our electoral process, because in a close race that is the pressure point lawyers use to try to undo the results,” said Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University who is one of the nation’s foremost experts on voting litigation. “The larger the number of provisional ballots cast in a state, the more vulnerable the Achilles’ heel, and Ohio has for a couple of elections used more of these ballots than most any other state.” In 2004 and 2006, Ohio, unlike most other states, increased the percentage of provisional ballots used by voters. In the 2004 presidential election, which hinged on Ohio, the margin between the candidates was about 118,000 votes, of 5.7 million cast. Of those, more than 158,000 were provisional ballots.
Provisional ballots in Ohio are difficult to verify because methods vary from county to county, and therefore leading to counting inconsistencies.
“Our goal has been to get in front of this problem,” said Jennifer L. Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state, who has issued directives over the past two weeks creating uniform standards for how counties must handle the ballots. “We have more machines and voters casting ballots early and that means things should move more smoothly this time,” he said.

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