NYTimes Profiles 3 Elections Where Voting Machines Could Have Made the Difference

A Tale of Three (Electronic Voting) Elections

Electronic voting has made great strides in reliability, but it has a long way to go. When reformers push for greater safeguards, they often argue that future elections could produce the wrong result because of a computer glitch or be stolen through malicious software. That’s being too nice.
...
1. The 2002 Georgia Senate and Governor Races — Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was defeated for re-election and Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, was unseated. Polls had suggested that both men would win.
...
2. The 2006 Congressional Race in Florida’s 13th District — The machines said that Republican Vern Buchanan defeated Democrat Christine Jennings by 369 votes. But in Sarasota County, a Democratic area, up to 18,000 ballots, about 13 percent of the total cast, did not record a vote for Congress. That is extraordinarily high; in Republican Manatee County, only 2 percent of ballots didn’t contain a vote for Congress.
...
3. Alabama’s 2002 Race for Governor — Former Gov. Don Siegelman has been in the news because it appears that federal prosecutors may have put him in prison for political reasons. The controversy has brought attention to the odd way he lost the governorship.

Read it all here.

WCDP Announcement

Hello members and Friends of the Winnebago County Democratic Party!

We need you to volunteer for a shift at the Winnebago County Fair!
Can you sign up? There is a schedule as it stands when this email was sent attached. I will update it online as it fills in here:

http://jef4wi.com/files/Fair08.pdf

Please sign up! We will have free passes for volunteer hours.


Get deputized to register voters in Oshkosh!
Want to work with the Winnebago Dems/Obama campaign to register voters? Sign up for a registration class on Thursday, August 7th. It will be at the HQ. Let Casey know if you want to sign up (Casey Giltner: 920.410.6668). You must live in Oshkosh.


Help staff the office for the Gallery Walk.
Oshkosh’s Gallery Walk is this Saturday, August 1st. We need people to staff the office and talk to voters. Please be there (480 N Main st, Oshkosh) between 6-10PM.


Volunteer for the Obama Campaign:
Casey Giltner: 920.410.6668
Caitlin Hurley: 781.254.5555

Let me know if you have any questions!

Jef Hall
Chair, Winnebago County Democratic Party
2nd Vice Chair, Democratic Party of WI
224a Scott Ave, Oshkosh, WI 54901
920.203.6883
jef@jefhall.com
www.winnebagodems.com
www.jefhall.com

Authorized and Paid for by the Winnebago County Democratic Party – Jef Hall, Chair.

What Does Randy Hopper Stand For?

Interviewer: Are there any areas in which you break with the core Republican values?

Candidate Hopper: No. And I think that’s important.

There you have it, Randy Hopper is not going to be an independent voice in Madison. Candidate Hopper is going to be yet another partisan tool for the discredited Republican agenda.

Do you want higher health care costs? Do you want stagnant wages? Do you want lower taxes for the top 5% of Americans, while we see service and infrastructure cuts for all Americans.

If so vote Hopper, there is no single way in which he breaks with that agenda.

Are you happy with republican rule? From Bush to Katrina to our own do-nothing Assembly, we have seen the failure of the GOP agenda. Randy Hopper does not break with that at all.

I think that is important to know as well.

Another Quote From the Hopper Interview: Does WI have too few workers & too many manufacturing jobs?

In the words of candidate Randy Hopper: another greatest hit from the WI Eye interview:

Mercury Marine is critical to our economy. We need to be able to entice people to come to our community so they have a healthy workforce to choose from because the last thing you want is them going, you know what? We’re going to have an employee shortage in Fond Du Lac County in the next 10 years due to baby boomers retiring.
..
What happens when one shift shuts down because there are not enough workers to work that shift and those jobs go someplace else, whether overseas or elsewhere in the country. That will give the business owners pause to think, “Well, I can operate at full capacity in this facility so why don’t I take one more shift?” Then pretty soon you’ve got one shift and that operate says that it is not cost effective for us to run here and the jobs go elsewhere.

Maybe I am a little off here, but I do not think that the problem with Mercury marine right now is that there are not enough workers:

FOND DU LAC, Wis. -- Boat engine maker Mercury Marine said it will cut 60 jobs and temporarily shut down production in Fond du Lac.

The company has already announced layoffs at other facilities in the U.S.

Spokesman Steve Fleming said slow boat sales and the poor economy have forced the company to cut costs. He said more layoffs could be coming, but he didn't know how many.

Along with the layoffs announced Monday, Mercury Marine will shut down production for three weeks starting Aug. 28. Fleming says a two-week shutdown had been expected but a third week was being added.

He said salaried employees will keep working during the shutdown. Hourly workers will not.

Mercury Marine is a subsidiary of Brunswick Corp., based in Lake Forest, Ill.

We need someone in office that understands the forces at work in our local economy.

Voting History

In his interview with Wisconsin Eye, 18th Senate District Republican Candidate Randy Hopper claims that he is involved with local governments:

I’ve been around Fond Du Lac County and I’m working with the County Executive to direct me into different divisions. It’s amazing to me how no one from the state is listening to the municipalities. They’ve got more efficient and effective ways to do the jobs that are required by the state but no one is asking them what those more efficient and effective ways are.

Who are these people that are not concerned with local government? Well, one of those people are not Candidate Randy Hopper...

Voting records are open records. And it seems that Candidate Randy Hopper has not voted in an April (or municipal) election in this century.

These are open records, feel free to check them and contact me if you have questions...

Jessica King’s Grassroots Support Trumps Hopper’s Deep Pockets in 18th Senate District Race

Jessica King’s Grassroots Support Trumps Hopper’s Deep Pockets in 18th Senate District Race

OSHKOSH – Recently filed campaign finance reports indicate stark differences between the campaigns of Democratic Candidate Jessica King and Republican Candidate Randy Hopper for the open 18th Senate District Seat.

King, a native of Fond du Lac and Rosendale, a UW-Oshkosh graduate, attorney, and current member of the Oshkosh Common Council received 486 individual contributions during the recent fundraising period, 90% of those contributions were less than $100.

Hopper, a radio station owner in Fond du Lac with no government experience and no public positions on issues at this time, had just 28 individual contributors, an average contribution of $682.90 and just 2 contributions less than $100.

“While Jessica King continues to reach out and receive broad support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents throughout the 18th District, Mr. Hopper is relying on support from his big money friends. The fact that Mr. Hopper has not received a single contribution from anyone in Winnebago County is very telling of his campaign’s support and reach beyond Fond du Lac.”

Jessica King challenged the incumbent State Senator Carol Roessler before Roessler dropped out in March. Since then, Winnebago County Sheriff Mike Brooks announced and then dropped out; Mark Reiff had announced for the Senate Seat before deciding to move to the 54th District and run for Assembly; and Tim Lakin had been running for months before Republican operatives asked him to step down, leading to his withdrawal from the race.

“I understand why the Republican party establishment is backing someone with deep pockets like Randy Hopper. But the 18th Senate Seat is not for sale, and as Jessica King’s previous opponents have found out, she has broad support throughout the District from people who want real change in Madison and want someone who will bring ideas and experience to the table.

“Jessica King will continue knocking on doors throughout the District and make her priorities for Wisconsin clear. In the meantime, we will be waiting for Mr. Hopper to make some positions known. Is he on board with the Senate Republicans agenda, or is he with the people of the 18th Senate District?”

King vs. Hopper July Reports

Average Contribution:
King - $77.90 Hopper - $682.90

Individual Contributors:
King – 486 Hopper – 28

Donations Under $100
King – 90% Hopper – 7%

Total Raised:
King – $54,997 Hopper – $18,425

Cash on Hand:
King - $44,520 Hopper - $18,425

Support the Troops

From the Center for American Progress:

Fox Flooding in Princeton, Then and Now

I took pictures of the 2004 flooding on Father's Day, and again yesterday. It seems they are the same pictures.

I have all of them here.

The river is supposed to be behind the far row of trees. The creek looking thing is the road down to the river.

2004:



2008:

Is McCain's WI Campaign Weighing Racist Attacts?

Here's the headline:

McCain Supporters Studying Gableman Campaign

MADISON (AP) - A little-known country judge's road to the Wisconsin Supreme Court is being eyed by John McCain backers as a map for him to win the state.

Republican operatives are closely studying how circuit judge Michael Gableman, a conservative candidate from from Webster in far northwest Wisconsin who never ran a statewide race before, was able to oust a more liberal sitting Supreme Court justice in April.

They believe his win provides a guide for McCain to become the first Republican to carry the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984 and capture its 10 electoral votes.

If you don't remember the add, Plaisted Writes got it right here:

It was all a precursor to this – the most racist, unfair ad in the history of Wisconsin politics that started running on Friday. To his slight credit, it comes from the Gableman campaign itself, which chose not to hide behind the WMC or other surrogates and sponsors. To his never-ending shame (if he had any sense of it), the ad shows Michael Gableman to be a racist pig who will do anything to get himself elected on behalf of his wealthy patrons.

You thought Willie Horton was the scariest, ugliest black man used in a political campaign to scare the bejesus out of a mostly-white electorate? Meet the new "winner", Rubin Lee Mitchell, a former client of Justice Butler’s back when he was doing his usual exemplary legal work as an appellate lawyer at the State Public Defenders office over 20 years ago. Mitchell’s menacing mug shot is shown right next to that of the first African-American to serve on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Black guy gets black guy off..."Can Wisconsin families feel safe with Louis Bulter on the Supreme Court?"

So now this is the campaign that the WIGOP is studying to run against Sen Barack Obama.

It is going to be a long election season. We will work hard, and we will win, even if our opponents dip this low.

NYTimes Cohen Gets it 100% Right:

Obama's right to play hardball to win. A core lesson of Republican methods these past four decades is that winning is everything.

Quote of the week

From NYTimes conservative columnist David Brooks:

I've spent the past few years trying to find conservative experts to provide remedies for middle-class economic anxiety. Let me tell you, the state of free-market thinking on this subject is pathetic. There are a few creative thinkers (most of them under 30), but for the most part, McCain is forced to run in an intellectual void.

McCain for change...?

It is here.

Great Cartoon

Hits it on the head. Click here for more.

What would a (real) judge say if this was your defense...?

Gableman said last week he did not remember why he called the Republican Party headquarters, McCallum's fund-raising staff or people who gave to McCallum at the fund-raiser in Cable he hosted. But he said he did not think the calls were political in nature. State law forbids using government resources for campaign purposes.

Explanation of Florida & Michigan Situation

From Jason Rae - a good explanation of the situation

Friends--

Over the past few days I have received several emails and calls inquiring about the situation with the delegates to the National Convention from Florida and Michigan. I wanted to take just a moment and provide some historical background to the situation for you. As always, if there are any questions after this, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know.

I will start at the very beginning. Every four years, the Democratic National Committee establishes the calendar for the upcoming nominating period. This calendar decides when states will be allowed to hold their primaries and caucuses. A part of this calendar is known as the pre-window, which is a period of time in which only a select number of states are able to hold their primary or caucus. This pre-window had traditionally only allowed for Iowa and New Hampshire, but was extended this year to add Nevada and South Carolina in order provide more diversity into the early part of the process. For the 2008 cycle, the first date every other state was allowed to hold their primaries or caucuses was February 5. This date became dubbed "Super Tuesday" because every state wanted to be as early as possible, so over 20 states jumped forward to the first eligible date.

This is where Florida and Michigan enter the picture. Each state is required to submit a plan to the DNC announcing when its event will take place. Michigan submitted a plan that would have their event on January 15 and Florida submitted a plan that would have their primary on January 29. Both of these dates violated the DNC Call to the Convention and the Regulations of the National Convention as the first date they could hold their primaries was February 5.

The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee reviewed the delegate selection plans submitted by Florida and Michigan and found them in non-compliance with the Convention Rules. As such, each state party was given thirty (30) days to submit a modified plan with a date in compliance. Neither state party was willing to move the date of the primary, because they wanted to have an early say in the primary process. As such, the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to find their plan in non-compliance and as such they were told their delegates would not be seated at the national convention.

However, this was not the end of the DNC's attempt to work with Florida and Michigan to help get them seated at the Convention. The DNC had originally given each state those 30 days to make amends to their plan and the states refused. After that point, the DNC had been willing to work with each state to hold a new nominating contest, either a new primary or caucus. By doing so, the delegations from those states would be seated in Denver. However, neither state party agreed to do this and instead asked to be seated at the convention based on the original results.

Where are we now? Well, all states must complete their primaries and caucuses by June 21. Realistically, it is impossible for either state to put together a new plan in time that will be in compliance with DNC rules. So as stands, the delegations from those two states will not be seated at the National Convention. There is currently an appeal pending before the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee that will ask the DNC to seat 50% of the delegates from each of those states, as well as the state's superdelegates. I am unsure at this time what the decision of the Rules and Bylaws Committee will be. They meet on May 31 and I will certainly provide you with information following their decision. Whatever is decided can then be appealed to the Convention's Credentials Committee and ultimately all the delegates at the National Convention in August.

Those are the facts, as unbiased as I can present them to you. I just wanted to take a moment to make sure that you were all aware of what was going on, because in the next few weeks, we are certain to hear many more arguments regarding Florida and Michigan. I will add two personal opinions. One, it is important for us to find some way to work with those state parties because they are crucial states for Democrats to win in November. However, I am fearful that seating the delegates based on primaries held in violation of the DNC rules would only open the floodgates in 2012 and allow every state to jump before the first eligible date with the excuse "Florida got away with it, why can't we?" Its a two way street and I am eager for the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee to hear this case and move forward.

Regardless of the outcome, I will keep you all up to date on what is happening. Thank you for your emails and calls on this issue. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Hopefully summer is on its way!

-Jason

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jason R. Rae
DNC Member - WI
raejason@yahoo.com
715.790.4334

Conyers on Rove - Closing In...

Here is the article.

Conyers: 'We're closing in on Rove'

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: “We’re closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass.”

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn’t, said Conyers, “We’ll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We’d hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested.”

Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, among other things.

“We want him for so many things, it’s hard to keep track,” Conyers said.

Milwaukee Small Business Times: We Need Universal Healthcare

It is all here:

Business is just booming in Canada, eh. That message rang loud and clear at the Milwaukee World Trade Association's 44th annual Wisconsin International Trade Conference Tuesday.
...
In 2004, Ontario made automotive history when it surpassed Michigan as the largest automotive producing jurisdiction in North America, according to Ward's Automotive. While Detroit withers, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Suzuki and Toyota have shifted production plants to Canada.

I asked Ward why America is losing so much production and so many jobs to Canada. She did not hesitate with her answer. "Health care."

America has the highest health care costs in the world. I know it deeply disturbs many Wisconsin business leaders to hear it, but Canada's government-paid, universal health care system is an economic competitive asset, when compared with America's mish-mosh system that is part private, part socialistic and all redundant, inefficient and costly.

Ward also noted that Canada has a more tightly regulated mortgage banking system, so its economy has not been nearly as shell-shocked by the subprime collapse as the American economy has been.

Republican Congressional Prospects Continue to Dim

After losing 3 reliably-Republican seats:

Stomping Mad: And NBC's Mike Viqueira reported on Capitol Hill that there were lots of very glum faces among House GOP members this morning as they emerged from their weekly closed-door session. Rep. Tom Davis stomped on the concrete floor of the Capitol basement when asked by reporters about Republican fortunes at the moment. "This is the floor," he said, by way of explanation. "We're below the floor." http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/14/1019748.aspx

A busy day to be Jef(f) Hall

A few highlights from my Google Alerts:

Home of the Week

College Baseball

Jazz Music

Plant Sale Falls Apart

OshNW Covers the Near East Recovery

There are 3 articles:

A neighborhood in transition: City continues work on near east project

Foreclosures, bank owners pose challenges to neighborhood cleanup efforts

Fighting crime in the Near East Neighborhood

Best Band Name Ever...

Big Jef Special


Here's the website.

Conservatives are Happier...

It's all here:

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found. Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities.

The rationalization measure included statements such as: "It is not really that big a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others," and "This country would be better off if we worried less about how equal people are."

Voter ID - Nuns Can't Vote!

About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow sister because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.

Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow members of Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.

The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.

...

Late Tuesday, Secretary of State Todd Rokita was unapologetic.

"Indiana's Voter ID Law applies to everyone. From all accounts that we've heard, the sisters were aware of the photo ID requirements and chose not to follow them," he said in a statement released by his office.

Wisconsin Health Care Facts

From the Badger Poll:

• Approximately 45% of Wisconsin residents feel that the health care system in the state has major problems, 44% say it has minor problems, 7% say it is currently in a state of crisis and just 2% say there are no problems.
• 76% favored expanding the eligibility of existing government programs such as BadgerCare and Medicaid to provide coverage for more people without health insurance.
• 65% favored requiring every resident of Wisconsin to attain health insurance, either from their employer or another source, with government subsidies to low-income residents to help them pay for it
• 61% of residents favored replacing the current health care system with a new system administered entirely by state government that covers all Wisconsinites.
• When it comes to how responsible the State of Wisconsin and the Federal Government should be in making sure that all state residents have access to both high quality and affordable health care 44% said the State of Wisconsin should be extremely or quite responsible and 55% said the Federal Government should be extremely or quite responsible.

Healthy WI is here.

The Free Tibet Irony...

From the NYTimes:

It seems that even as the Chinese government was engaged in a massive effort to crush Tibetans and their culture, a factory in the southern Chinese city of Guangdong was manufacturing the very same ?Free Tibet? flags that have been flying in pro-Tibet, anti-Beijing demonstrations all over the world.

According to media reports quoted by the BBC, factory workers didn?t realize the meaning of the colorful flags they were producing in response to overseas orders until they saw protestors carrying the flags on TV. They then called authorities. The factory owner also was quoted as saying he didn?t know the flags stood for an independent Tibet.

The GOP is Bad for the Midwest...

From Krugman's Blog:


You can see that the Midwest was ahead of the US under Carter & Clinton...

An Interesting Way to Generate Electricity...

Read it all here:

POWERLeap is an urban flooring system that harnesses exerted kinetic energy to generate electricity. Its designer, 22-year-old Elizabeth Redmond proposes that heavily trafficked urban areas from sidewalks to airports be carpeted with the tiles she’s designed—they light up as they’re walked upon or can store energy for later use (technical info here). Redmond and her expanding team are working to develop the efficiency of the piezoelectric generators and the energy harvesting system; a custom installation is under discussion between Redmond and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Both projects have in common a respect for the natural patterns and rhythms of life. And while each may seem small in scale, or a mite earnest in intent, their respective creators succeed in doing something most large scale endeavors rarely do: they recognize how humans and the earth can intersect in a positive way.

More info here.

Income Disparity

Today's fact:

In 2005 the wealthiest 1 percent of the country earned 21.2 percent of all income, according to IRS data, while the bottom 50 percent of all Americans earned just 12.8 percent of all income

Quote of the Day - Robert Reich

Supply-side, trickle-down economics has been a cruel joke, perpetrated on most of us by a cabal intent on justifying widening inequality. Nothing has trickled down except cuts in services.

Taxing and Fairness

Freakonomics takes on taxing and fairness for wealthy vs working people here:

So that got me to thinking about how fair the tax system really is. Do the well-off pay their fair share, or do they also deserve a tax break?

Well, let’s start with the ultra-rich. Bajillionaire Warren Buffett has argued that he isn’t being asked to pay his share. He went around his office, asking people what share of their income they pay in income taxes. Buffett’s 17.7 percent tax rate compared a bit too favorably with the 30 percent tax rate paid by his secretary.

So it appears that the tax system favors the super-rich over working stiffs.

And Buffett went a step further, putting his money where his mouth is. Last November he issued a challenge to his fellow billionaires:

I’ll bet a million dollars against any member of the Forbes 400 who challenges me that the average (federal tax rate including income and payroll taxes) for the Forbes 400 will be less than the average of their receptionists.

So far, no-one has taken him up on this bet.