From Clare Maher via Mark Crispin Miller:

'MICROSOFT 811'

Holt: "It's no longer my bill."

In a town meeting in his New Jersey home district in July, Congressman Rush Holt made some disturbing statements which leave no doubt that H.R. 811 has become a bill that protects the interests of software corporations over the rights of citizens. In fact the Holt bill is NOT the Holt bill anymore! It has become 'Microsoft 811'!

Mr. Holt: "The bill has been changed since I introduced it. It's no longer my bill -- well, it's still my bill but it's been marked up in committee."

Further he added:

"Unfortunately, the committee that made this change heard from Microsoft. They heard that Voice. The point is Microsoft did lobby strongly. It wasn't just Microsoft. It was everybody who..."

Audience question: "Diebold?"

Holt: "No, it was software -- the software industry."

'DIEBOLD ELECTION SYSTEMS, INC.' IS NO MORE!
Election Unit Spins off from Corporate Parent, Becomes 'Premier Election Solutions' After Failure to Find Buyer for Failing Unit!

-- By Brad Friedman from St. Louis, MO
Diebold Elections Systems, Inc. is no more. At least in name.

After a year and a half of conversely trying to dump their failed voting unit and/or lying to customers about the reliability and security of their voting systems, corporate parent Diebold is giving up the ghost of their election business which, according to an analyst in a Reuters report, was "responsible for less than 10 percent of Diebold's revenue, and 100 percent of its bad publicity.

According to a company statement just released, Diebold Elections Systems, Inc. will become Premier Election Solutions as of today. The company president, David Byrd, who has overseen the disastrous election unit for some time, will stay on as President to go down with the ship, apparently.

Yesterday, as a result of voting system reviews, Secretary of State Debra Bowen decertified for state use the voting systems of Diebold Election Systems, Inc., and Sequoia Voting Systems. A third vendor, Election Systems and Software (ES&S), declined to participate in the review process mandated by law, and so Secretary Bowen withdrew approval of their Inkavote Plus Precinct Ballot Counting System for use in California. A fourth firm, Hart InterCivic, Inc. chose not to submit the voting system previously used by California voters for examination and certification, and voluntarily withdrew from the certification process. Instead, the company plans to upgrade their county customers to a newer version and submit that version for review and certification by the Secretary of State.

Diebold was in the center of 2004 election controversies pitting its tabulation results against exit polls. Sequoia Voting Systems offers a product called "Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail" (VVPAT) that was reported by the review team to have a series of serious and often undetectable flaws. Their voting software was also found publicly available online in 2003, raising questions about future vote tampering. In 2006, during a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review, the company, owned then by 3 Venezuelans, was allowed to withdraw from that review on news of its pending sale.

When California's Secretary of State Bowen was inaugurated January 7, 2007, she announced her intention to conduct a "Top to Bottom" review of voting systems used in California. "The review was designed to restore the public's confidence in the integrity of the electoral process and to ensure that California voters are being asked to cast their ballots on machines that are secure, accurate, reliable, and accessible." The review began two months later, in March, 2007.

Ask your Congress Member to contact Congressman Kucinich to sign onto this letter.

Speaker Pelosi:

We have been made aware of a growing concern with H.R. 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007.

Many constituencies important to the Democratic Caucus, including but not limited to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Counties, VotersUnite.Org, and Election Defense Alliance, have expressed frustration with our offices about the process and current legislative text of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act.

These constituencies represent a broad range of interests that reflect many of the core values of our party. H.R. 811 now finds opposition from organizations focused on upholding the integrity of our elections and local and states governments. For these constituencies, H.R. 811 falls short of its intended goals to ensure votes are cast and counted as intended by the voters.

So, the landslide was denied. I guess it's a matter of interpretation, but if accurate, these reports show the Democratic tsunami would have been even bigger than the thirty+ seat gain in the House. Would have been more like fifty-sixty seats... Landslide Denied: Exit Polls vs. Vote Count 2006 - Major Miscount of Vote in 2006 Election: Reported Results Skewed Toward Republicans by 4 percent, 3 million votes

Election Defense Alliance Calls for Investigation BOSTON, MA - November 16, 2006 Election Defense Alliance, a national election integrity organization, issued an urgent call for further investigation into the 2006 election results and a moratorium on deployment of all electronic election equipment, after analysis of national exit polling data indicated a major undercount of Democratic votes and an overcount of Republican votes in U.S. House and Senate races across the country....

Yes, there's another stolen election in Florida, KKKatherine Harris' old seat, FL-13..... seems 18,000 voters (13%) in Sarasota County declined to vote for their new congress-critter...

Dist. 13 voting analysis shows broad problem
A review of Sarasota County voting results shows that in almost every precinct a high percentage of voters didn't cast ballots in the hotly contested 13th Congressional District, a trend that likely affected the outcome of the race. Democrat Christine Jennings lost to Republican Vern Buchanan by 368 votes, making it the second closest congressional race in the country. More than 18,000 voters who showed up at the polls voted in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings race.

That means nearly 13 percent of voters did not vote for either candidate...

There's been much wringing of hand and gnashing of tooth over the impending 2006 Stolen Elections (myself included). With stories breaking into the corporate MSM (esp. Lou Dobbs on CNN) of Dieblod's voting machine vulnerabilities, touch screen machines flipping votes to repubs in S FL, and voting machine "sleep-overs" in San Diego,CA.

While not, perhaps, the intended effect, this news has the psychological effect of discouraging and dissuading active participation in our democratic process (ie: Voter Suppression). The wife, however, in her infinite wisdom, has a simple answer to these developments - "I'm going to vote, they're not going to stop me, I'm going to make them steal my vote". So what can we do to catch the Republican Dirty Tricksters trying to steal our votes? Below are listed several Election Protection initiatives to help stop the disenfranchisement by the Republican election suppression machine and maybe catch them red-handed. Make them steal your vote....

OpedNews editor Rob Kall has an update on the OH Voter Letters Purge story. Seems he and Fitrakis are gettin' their ducks in row...

"I asked him if he agreed that there was "no truth to the Ohio Purge Letters." He replied, "WE are not satisfied at this moment that this purging did not occur. WE don't know yet.""

Fitrakis Ohio Voter Purge Investigation Continuing-- Letters Found
This article will recap the the evolution of the last few days of news regarding voter roll purging in Ohio, with an update from Bob Fitrakis, since he has seen and had reports of several vote purge related letters and uncovered more information on statewide vote purge activities, including private, vendor control of the voter rolls. After an initial report that letters were sent out to many Ohio voters, particularly in Democratic voting areas, questions have been raised as to whether inappropriate voter purging, particularly of young, student voters and apartment dwelling, city African American voters occurred.... (more)

Looks like the source for the OH voter purge letters story has bugged out of the conversation he instigated, with this cryptic sign-off -

Update on Possible Ohio Voter Purge by KStreetProjector Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 08:38:02 AM PDT Sorry to have bothered you all. Best to all.

Going through the three relevant posts over at kos (and pawing through some of the 1356 related comments [1,2,3]) no clear answer is apparent, as of yet, as to the validity of the tip from an "insider...very close to Ken Mehlman". The original post has been updated (the full ver. w/758 comments included ) by Mr. Kstreetprojector w/ further expalnation...

Suspected Repub hoax or plant? via anastasia p over at kos...

Yesterday, a diary posted here said that an "insider...very close to Ken Mehlman" had revealed a voter disenfranchisement plan engineered by Diebold that involved sending letters to voters that appeared merely informational but, in fact, required a response within 60 days or that voter's registration would be purged. The source asserted that this system had been "tested" in Ohio in late July and early August with 1.2 million voters, targeted at voters in high-transient areas such as universities and low-income neighborhoods. I'm a journalist in Cleveland, OH who has followed election issues closely. I hadn't heard about this so I started to make calls. By last night, I had talked to seven people: election protection activists, organizers and attorneys, and people with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones' office and the Ted Strickland gubernatorial campaign.  I spoke with Vicki Lovegren, founder of Ohio Vigilance and organizer of two big election conferences here, who is all over anything she perceives as an attempt to game the system. I spoke with the Cuyahoga County election protection coordinators, Chris Nance (also of the congresswoman's office) and attorney Lesley Huff. I spoke with the election observer coordinator in Strickland's Cleveland campaign office and with a spokesperson in his Columbus campaign office. None had seen such a letter or heard of anyone receving it. It seemed incredible to me that such a letter could go out and no one in the most urban, Democratic county in the state had heard about it.... (more)