Something Strange in Sarasota

Dan Tokaji's Blog has this:

"Any proposed reforms should of course await the results of the audit and recount to start next week, but one thing is already certain: sound election administration depends on people and procedures, not just machines."

and

"(I)ncidents like those in Carteret County [North Carolina in 2004] and Sarasota County are extremely serious and warrant careful scrutiny.

Fortunately, that appears to be what's happening. A recount of the election, along with an audit of Sarasota County's system, is scheduled to begin Monday. That audit will reportedly include parallel testing of the voting equipment -- a procedure that, in my opinion, should be done routinely in every election. There are a number of possible explanations for the high number of undervotes. One is the configuration of the ballot, which some voters have complained made it difficult to notice the race. Another possibility, and a far more serious one, is that voters actually made a selection for the race but that the machines for whatever reason failed to record them."

The search for the missing votes

Candidates Head To D.C. As Florida Audits Votes has this regarding the race with the missing 18,000 votes in Katherine Harris' old district:

The audit of Sarasota County's 13th District race will include ballot accounting, tabulator performance and forensic analysis, Secretary of State Sue Cobb said in a letter to Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent.

Officials will also conduct at least two "parallel tests" of the voting equipment, using four of the spare machines that were not used on election day.

What are the nuts and bolts of how these will be done? Please let me know in the comments.

These Republicans Deserve to Lose

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

My Problem with Christianism

For once I agree with Andrew Sullivan:

"The number of Christians misrepresented by the Christian right is many. There are evangelical Protestants who believe strongly that Christianity should not get too close to the corrupting allure of government power. There are lay Catholics who, while personally devout, are socially liberal on issues like contraception, gay rights, women's equality and a multi-faith society. There are very orthodox believers who nonetheless respect the freedom and conscience of others as part of their core understanding of what being a Christian is. They have no problem living next to an atheist or a gay couple or a single mother or people whose views on the meaning of life are utterly alien to them--and respecting their neighbors' choices. That doesn't threaten their faith. Sometimes the contrast helps them understand their own faith better.

And there are those who simply believe that, by definition, God is unknowable to our limited, fallible human minds and souls. If God is ultimately unknowable, then how can we be so certain of what God's real position is on, say, the fate of Terri Schiavo? Or the morality of contraception? Or the role of women? Or the love of a gay couple? Also, faith for many of us is interwoven with doubt, a doubt that can strengthen faith and give it perspective and shadow. That doubt means having great humility in the face of God and an enormous reluctance to impose one's beliefs, through civil law, on anyone else.

I would say a clear majority of Christians in the U.S. fall into one or many of those camps. Yet the term "people of faith" has been co-opted almost entirely in our discourse by those who see Christianity as compatible with only one political party, the Republicans, and believe that their religious doctrines should determine public policy for everyone."

Block the Vote

From the New York Times:

"In a country that spends so much time extolling the glories of democracy, it's amazing how many elected officials go out of their way to discourage voting. States are adopting rules that make it hard, and financially perilous, for nonpartisan groups to register new voters. They have adopted new rules for maintaining voter rolls that are likely to throw off many eligible voters, and they are imposing unnecessarily tough ID requirements."

Being a Democrat is about balance

Says Claire McCaskill, Democrat for senator from Missouri, in the New Yorker:

"Being a Democrat is about balance. It’s about being moderate and truthful and strong. Harry Truman, leaders like that, they were strong enough to take on foreign enemies when they needed to, but they were also strong enough to know when not to fight, when to use other weapons besides military force. That’s the message the Democratic Party should be sending. We should let the American people know we want to work with allies, work with the U.N., and that we don’t like war, but that we’ll defend this country’s interests with everything we’ve got."

Amen.

I wish I hadn't loved Bush...

Well look who regrets supporting Bush!

"The Irish Examiner is reporting that shock rocker Marilyn Manson feels partly responsible for George W. Bush winning the U.S. presidential election in 2000.

In an interview with talk show host Tucker Carlson at the time, the controversial rocker sarcastically condemned Democrat candidate Al Gore and told his fans to vote Bush.

Manson says: 'He won by such a small amount, and particularly because it was in Florida.

'Who's to say there weren't a couple of our fans who took my sarcasm seriously and voted for him?'"

Santorum tries to cover his tracks on residency

Click here for the entire editorial from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette:

Before every election, the Post-Gazette routinely sends letters to the candidates seeking material for the Voters Guide. Back in March, as part of that process for the primary, the newspaper sent a letter to Rick Santorum at his home address, at least the one that he claims. Back from Penn Hills came the letter with a sticker from the U.S. Postal Service checked as "Not Deliverable As Addressed -- Unable To Forward."

That is all you need to know about the nasty dispute between the Republican Sen. Santorum and his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr., in the November election. The whole thing is rooted in one inconvenient fact for Sen. Santorum: He doesn't live here anymore.

Texas redistricting viewed as illegal in secret memo

Yet another of Bush's political cronies suppressing and overruling the work of staffers who are trying to their jobs and to do the right and legal thing:

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections....

The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options....

The 73-page memo, dated Dec. 12, 2003, has been kept under tight wraps for two years. Lawyers who worked on the case were subjected to an unusual gag rule. The memo was provided to The Post by a person connected to the case who is critical of the adopted redistricting map. Such recommendation memos, while not binding, historically carry great weight within the Justice Department....

Mark Posner, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who now teaches law at American University, said it was "highly unusual" for political appointees to overrule a unanimous finding such as the one in the Texas case.

The Justice Department's approval of the redistricting plan was signed by Sheldon T. Bradshaw, principal deputy assistant attorney general. Another crony shaft job.

Ralph Reed got $4 million from Abramoff

Ralph Reed apparently forgot to register as a Texas lobbyist in 2001 and 2002 when he received $4 million from Abramoff and Scanlon. Watchdog groups in Texas have filed complaints in Austin.

The groups said Mr. Reed failed to register as a Texas lobbyist in 2001 and 2002, when he received more than $4 million from Mr. Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon. The Abramoff-Scanlon team was then pushing for a shutdown of casinos operated by the Tigua tribe of El Paso and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Livingston in East Texas. The casinos were ultimately closed.

Ah-nold rejects right-wing extremism

The LA Times has a story about Gov. Schwarnzenegger's appointment of a Democrat as his new chief-of-staff:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger picked a former Democratic Party activist as his new chief of staff after concluding that his current team was trying to push him in the directions they wanted to go, rather than embracing his more centrist ideas, sources familiar with the governor's thinking said Wednesday.

Damn right, they were.

Can You Prove Touch-screen Voting Machines Accurately Record Votes?

Seeing the Forest makes a good argument for why we need paper-trail voting machines.

I'm supposed to touch a screen and then just trust that the machine correctly records my vote. Right.

Suppose that every computer expert in the world decided that the machines were beyond any possibility whatsoever of being tampered with. (Set aside for a minute that it is the computer experts - the people who understand computers - who are sounding the warnings about the possibility of fraud from these machines.) And suppose that every politician, every authority figure, every credible organization declared that these machines are beyond question. Suppose that even every "fringe conspiracy nut" in the world issued forth with assurances that the machines accurately recorded votes.

There is still a problem. You still can not prove that the voting machine correctly recorded the way I voted.

Take a look. The entire thing is worth a read.

Mundell declines to challenge Feinstein

Republican Bill Mundell has decided not to challenge Diane Feinstein in next year's California race.

The move by Mundell, an education software executive, reflects the difficulty Republicans face in finding a strong candidate to challenge the popular Democratic incumbent.