I meet Brian Dunkiel , a dem lawyer from Burlington, VT. He is on the observer team. He is about 30, sharp, witty and "gets it". In wrap around shades he informs me in a whisper that he is also doing an NPR audio report about the election down here. I tell him I am writing for this blog. I take some photos of the crowd. He freaks."Don't let the republican poll watchers see you. They've been getting the Sheriff's men on any photog they see. We saw one guy arrested moments ago."

No one knows if this is legal or not. But it is clearly intimidating. The Repubs do not want these long lines to be seen. However, the oddity is that tons of news crews are video taping with impunity. I resort to my Motorola V-300. I took a shot of two poll observers inside. These democratic lawyers were about to get involved in my case, but pulled back when they realized I had it under control.

It would be nice if every Secretary of State could speak with such confidence on their voting system. I thought this tied in nicely with my earlier post about Dianne Feinstein.

WaPo :

This month, as controversies emerged in other parts of the country over polling place problems and malfunctioning touch-screen machines, we here in Oregon prepared to swear in a new crop of elected officials with nary a question about the legitimacy of the count or the functioning of our electoral process. We accomplished this with a turnout on Nov. 7 that was, once again, among the highest in the nation. How?

With Vote by Mail.

One episode that highlights its success occurred in Tillamook County, where 13 inches of rain on Election Day sent many citizens scrambling to the safety of shelters under a declared state of emergency. Despite the fact that many roads were impassable and parts of the county were inaccessible -- conditions that would have crippled turnout in a state that relied on conventional polling places -- 70 percent of the voters cast ballots. Only voting by mail could have led to this outcome.

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Delay guilty of fundraising shakedown? Bartcop

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Excerpt;
Fundraisers for a political committee founded by Tom DeLay routinely solicited donations by identifying legislative actions that prospective givers wanted, from video gambling to lawsuit limits, memos show.

"What companies that you know of would be interested in tort reform in Texas with asbestos problems that might support TRMPAC?" one DeLay fundraiser wrote in a memo prospecting for donors to Delay's , Texans for a Republican Majority  (TRMPAC).

   
, but maybe it looks a lot different when you're on the BFEE payroll and it's your job to help crooked Republicans and attack Democrats.

Voting Rights:    Move Left

Counties Buy Expensive Electronic Machines, and Then Create Long Lines by Combining Precincts to Make Up the Cost

Most don't print a voter-verifiable paper ballot, and therefore these machines allow elections to easily be rigged.

Some electonic machines do print a voter-verifiable paper ballot, but even then most voters don’t check the printout anyway, and so there is still room for rigging.

Optical-scan (fill-in-the-oval) ballots and plain paper ballots are superior for this reason: voters inherently check an optical-scan ballot or a paper ballot.

Electronic voting machines are also bad because they're the most expensive of these options.

political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC).

, but maybe it looks a lot different when you're on the BFEE payroll and it's your job to help crooked Republicans and attack Democrats.

Move Left

Counties Buy Expensive Electronic Machines, and Then Create Long Lines by Combining Precincts to Make Up the Cost

Most don't print a voter-verifiable paper ballot, and therefore these machines allow elections to easily be rigged.

Some electonic machines do print a voter-verifiable paper ballot, but even then most voters don’t check the printout anyway, and so there is still room for rigging.

Optical-scan (fill-in-the-oval) ballots and plain paper ballots are superior for this reason: voters inherently check an optical-scan ballot or a paper ballot.

Electronic voting machines are also bad because they're the most expensive of these options.

Some counties which are buying electronic voting machines are trying to address their cost by combining precincts. Unfortunately, this will cause long lines.

There is more...

",0] ); D(["ce"]); D(["ms","3301"] ); //-->Some counties which are buying electronic voting machines are trying to address their cost by combining precincts. Unfortunately, this will cause long lines.
There is more...