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Steven Rosenfeld is a longtime journalist who has worked in print and broadcast media. He is author of two books, most recently "What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election," which was co-written with Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman (New Press, 2006).
Sunday, November 30, 2008 More Unfinished 2008 Election Business: Verifiable Vote Counts (2 comments)
Lawyers for the Franken and Coleman campaigns may posture in the press about sloppy ballots, but there is little doubt that the Minnesota recount has integrity and voters will accept the final outcome. In Georgia, in contrast, there is no corollary. It is one of six states where all voters use paperless computers with no means of auditing the vote.
Sunday, November 30, 2008 Hard Lesson for Franken: Not All Votes Get Counted (5 comments)
The Franken campaign said it would not appeal the board's decision. That means that the 3,700 challenged ballots will now play a prominent role in deciding if Franken will become the Senate's 59th Democratic member. The Canvassing Board also told both campaigns to stop frivolously challenging ballots. Local election boards will now review those ballots.
Thursday, November 20, 2008 See (Literally) Why Al Franken is Gaining Votes (1 comments)
The Minnesota recount shows exactly why most voting rights advocates conclude that hand-marked paper ballots are the best way to vote. Unlike Georgia, where the final unresolved U.S. Senate seat will be selected in a runoff election in early December and the public uses paperless voting machines, in Minnesota representatives of both parties can clearly see the voters' intent in a deliberative but accurate recount.
Thursday, November 20, 2008 Machine Problems Worsened 2008 Voting Woes
Voting machine issues and the confusion they caused compounded the delays faced by untold thousands of voters this fall.
Thursday, October 23, 2008 Big Setbacks for GOP Voter Suppression Efforts in Swing States
GOP efforts to stop thousands of voters from casting meaningful ballots in 2008 because their registration information does not match government databases with high error rates was set back by legal rulings in WI, OH and NV on Thursday.While the developments in those three states may bode well for accommodating voters in a high-turnout election,the fights concerning whose votes will count on Election Day are far from over.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Democratic Election Protection Strategy's Missing Link: Electronic Vote Counts
private contractors with partisan ties have been hired by state and county election officials to program the software used in computers that count the vote on Election night.It is one thing for Democrats to come out of the starting gate with a lead in voter registration and momentum in the polls;it is another to hold that lead at the finish line,when the votes are counted.There is a rising resistance to going the extra mile to
Saturday, October 4, 2008 Big Presidential Vote Count Error Found and Fixed in New Mexico
Friday's test raised eyebrows because while it could have affected voters in
both parties who voted a straight party ticket,Santa Fe Cnty is
predominantly Democratic.In February 2008,more than 20,000 people
participated in the Democratic presidential caucus.In contrast,4,445 voted in the county's Republican primary in June.Thus,hundreds if not thousands of potential presidential votes--most for Dems--could have been lost
Friday, October 3, 2008 Republicans Challenge 6,000 Voter Registrations in Montana
Montana has Election Day voter registration,but only at county offices.Thus,the individuals who live in more remote locations whose registrations were challenged would have to travel to county seats to correct their voter file--a hurdle on Election Day.Also were intended to undermine the efficiency of local elections,because officials who have to respond to the voter challenges are now processing record numbers of new voters
Thursday, September 18, 2008 How the GOP Wired Ohio's 2004 Vote Count for Bush to Win (1 comments)
An election whistleblower who is a Republican, a nationally known data security and computer architecture expert, and an Ohio resident has filed a sworn affidavit in federal court that describes how Republican Party consultants in 2004 built an electronic vote counting network in Ohio that could have stolen votes to re-elect the president.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 GOP Voter Suppression Comes to Wisconsin (1 comments)
In WI this past week,the Repub AG Van Hollen,filed a politically timed lawsuit that local election officials say will interfere with turnout for the election on 11/4 and create a bureaucratic nightmare for election workers seeking to process a record number of new voter registrations before then.The game plan is simple: create a bureaucratic nightmare to tie up the election machinery & create bottlenecks to confound voters.
Monday, August 11, 2008 2008's First Disenfranchised Voters: Injured and Homeless Vets
"We may have all kinds of hurdles," Sullivan said. "We may have the clock
running out on us, but we will not give up. This needs to be shoved in the face of every single elected official in the country. We can fix this in a second We are talking about two or three sentences in legislation. We are talking about the integrity of our democracy."
Friday, July 25, 2008 Three States Accused of Illegally Purging Voter Lists
National voting rights groups have contacted officials in KS, MI and LA in recent weeks because those states appear to be purging registered voters after election officials found duplicate names and birthdays of people on their voter lists and in out-of-state databases,such as driver's license records.The purge issue is only going to rise in profile .Several voting rights groups are studying the process in some swing states.
Monday, July 14, 2008 "Count My Vote" Issues and Solutions (1 comments)
This book aims to ensure that as many Americans as possible are able to vote this November.Here are excerpted suggestions for voters for some of most frequent potential issues.Please read it carefully.Refer to it as necessary and share it with everyone you know.This information is truly color-blind:neither Blue nor Red,it's intended for all Americans.
Sunday, May 18, 2008 Election Activists Win Three Key Battles (1 comments)
Voting rights activists won three big battles this week.
The Missouri state Legislature adjourned without taking up a controversial voter ID bill. The Department of Justice settled a lawsuit with Arizona that will force the state to offer welfare recipients the opportunity to register to vote. And Hans von Spakovsky, the White House's controversial nominee to the Federal Election Commission, withdrew his nomination.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 How Republicans Quietly Hijacked Justice Dept. to Swing Elections (11 comments)
Will this history of vote suppression tactics repeat itself during the '08 presidential election?Republicans are already following Davidson's inventory by seeking to regulate the voting process well before the election.The tactics that can be implemented well before the voting begins-stricter voter ID laws,voter purges, registration drive curbs,tougher provisional ballot laws &easing rules for voter challenges-are already
Sunday, March 23, 2008 Will Rush Limbaugh Be Indicted for Voter Fraud? (6 comments)
While this all makes for great talk radio and sounds like fun, there is one catch: What Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters to do in Ohio was a fifth-degree felony in that state, punishable with a $2,500 fine and six to 12 months in jail. That is because in order to change party affiliation in Ohio, voters have to fill out a form swearing allegiance to that party's principles "under penalty of election falsification."
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Calling all election integrity activists!
I'm working on a paperback book/election guide to be published this summer. It will tell voters what they need to know to ensure that they can vote this November, and increase the likelihood that their votes will be counted. I'm asking all you activists to help me with this book, because you all know best what's happening in your states. What's happening that will affect the voters on Election Day?
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Hillary Wins New Hampshire, But the Presidential Race Has Just Begun
The NH primary is not the end of the process,but the true beginning of the second round--one where Dems will get a second chance to take a close look at their eventual nominee.They'll see if the glow surrounding the Obama campaign can hold up under closer scrutiny,and if the Clinton campaign can truly revive itself.The weeks ahead will also give John Edwards and Bill Richardson a final chance to make their cases. Stay tuned!
Sunday, January 6, 2008 GOP Already at Work to Keep Obama Voters From the Polls (2 comments)
Many of the new voters who were part of Barack Obama's winning coalition in the Iowa Caucuses are targeted by "ballot security" laws passed since 2004 by Republican-controlled state legislatures.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 AZ Lawsuit a Crystal Ball Into 2008 Presidential Vote Count
A trial starting Tuesday in Tuscon, Arizona, has some of the strongest evidence yet that political insiders can change electronic voting results. The Pima County Democratic Party is seeking all electronic voting records from a recent bond vote, but county supervisors say that data is private. The vote count issues and standoff over election records could be a glimpse of what may unfold in 2008.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 The Most Important Election Case Since Bush v. Gore? (3 comments)
Indiana's voter ID law, facing Supreme Court review, is a bureaucratic nightmare that disenfranchised voters this November. The law's supporters say it does not stop anyone from voting. But this report found would-be voters from populations that tend to vote Democratic - students, the poor and seniors - were stopped from casting regular ballots. Could this law -- and similar laws in several states -- affect the 2008 election?
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 California Severely Limits Electronic Voting (2 comments)
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has ordered thousands of new electronic touch-screen voting machines made by Diebold and Sequoia to be taken out of use for the state's presidential primary on Feb. 5, 2008. Her order means many big counties will have to scramble to change voting systems, and there already is talk of lawsuits to block her action.
Monday, July 30, 2007 Ohio's 2004 presidential election records missing or destroyed
"The extent of the destruction of records is consistent with covering up the fraud that we believe occurred in the presidential election," said Arnebeck,a Columbus attorney."On the one hand,people will now say you can't prove the fraud,but the rule of law says that when evidence is destroyed it creates a presumption that the people who destroyed evidence did so because it would have proved the contention of the other side."
Friday, July 20, 2007 Bush Govt and States Ignore Poor's Voting Rights
The Justice Department is pressuring 10 states to purge their voter rolls, while states are ignoring laws to help low-income Americans register to vote.
Monday, June 25, 2007 Will Electronic Voting Reform Create New Ways to Steal Elections?
If history is a guide,political machinations will outsmart the latest efforts to bring accountability to America's newest voting machines. Recent books on how American elections have been stolen-from the founding of the country to 2004-suggest voting machinery may change over time,but sleazy partisan tactics do not:they adapt to the newest way of counting votes.
