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Voting Rights, Not Wrongs!

Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 04:02:53 AM EST

A vote to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act was cancelled yesterday after some Republicans argued about requirements for bilingual ballots and federal oversight of voting practices in some Southern states. Some are of the opinion that the Voting Rights Actlaw served its purpose and claim it is "more nuisance than necessity."

This view is being supported by those Republicans who insist that immigrants must learn and use English.

Eighty Republicans signed a letter written by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) objecting to provisions of the Voting Rights Act's provisions requiring state and local governments to print ballots in foreign languages, or, to provide interpreters where there is a need for them, claiming that doing so is an unfunded mandate. The letter further stated

"The multilingual ballot mandate encourages the linguistic division of our nation and contradicts the 'Melting Pot' ideal that has made us the most successful multi-ethnic nation on earth."

continued

commentary :: :: :: buzz-it!

Republicans in Georgia, Texas and some other other states now claim that efforts to disenfranchise minorities are a thing of the past and further coverage and federal oversight "is an unfair stigma."

According to Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, evidence of voting rights violations exists in Georgia, Texas and several other states.

"These are not states that can say their hands are clean."

Are there others who cannot say that their hands are clean?

In Emery County, Bruce Funk, a county clerk of 23 years, was condemned by county and state officials and Diebold representatives for his scrutiny of touch-screen machines.

During testing of 40 of the Diebold machines that were purchased by Emery county, Funk discovered the following problems, faulty printers, broken doors and low backup-memory storage. Further, he suspected that some of the machines were not new, as they had the results of previous elections stored. Funk wondered,

"I’m supposed to rely on these for upcoming elections for how many years? Something’s not right here.’"

A security flaw, described by David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as agreeing with those who had the "frequently expressed opinion that this is the worst vulnerability that we have ever seen." In response to this, Diebold accused Funk of breach of contract by letting an unauthorized third party perform inspections on the machines.

In response to Diebold's accusation, Funk responded

"I felt that looking over the contract that I was totally within my right, because in elections, I’m the one ultimately responsible and I felt I needed to be assured myself that everything was okay."

He futher claims that commissioners accused him of causing an increased expense of $40-50 thousand in "recertification" costs and was pressured to resign. And, the locks on his office were changed. Funk also claims that his resignation was verbal, due to pressure, and, he later rescinded it.

In resonse to Funk's concern's, Bryan Simpson from Diebold, claimed, "One of the big issues the former county clerk had was the amount of memory the machines have. We have been erasing the operating system software and reinstalling everything on these machines...When voting takes place a vote is stored in three different places. On two different memory cards and also on a paper printout.”

A member of the retrofit team, John Tultz, stated,

“The[se] are good machines. Machines like these were used in the Ohio election last November and the machines were well received.”

Despite the flaws that were discoverd, and Diebold's initial claim of brech of contract, Emory county contracted with Diebold for recertification work at a cost of $1,260 per day per technician. Ironically, Emory county is responsible for these recertification costs. Additionally, Emory county may request that the state of Utah to assist with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds.

Funk has described his responsiblity for elections as

"my primary concern and has always been – the integrity of them and making sure everything was accurate. It’s not fun being a whistleblower."

Funk has retained an attorney, as is his right, and HAVA funds may be used for retrofitting Diebold machines. This results in additional costs to the taxpayers, besides those mentioned previously that are being incurred, to justify the use of voting machines.

Not included are the costs to this country of the hijacking of the extension of the Voting Rights Act. It is uncertain whether or not this legislation will be further discussed in Washington before recessing for Independence Day.

UPDATE [2006-6-23]: It has been reported in the Salt Lake Tribune that Bruce Funk was forced out of office for requesting that Black Box Voting examine the Diebold machines that are going to be used in the June 27 primary.

Michael Shamos, a Carnegie-Mellon computer science professor who certifies voting machines for the state of Pennsylvania, is quoted,

"He should not be punished for bringing this to light. He made noises that brought pressure from Diebold."

David Dill a Stanford University computer professor, who has served on an electronic elections task force in the state of California and founded the Verified Voting Foundation agreed,

"Bruce Funk is the only person who has tried to protect the voters. No one else flagged this flaw that has resulted in alerts being issued in several states. He is being removed from office for embarrassing Diebold."

Voting Rights, Not Wrongs! | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)

Read the slimey letter (5.00 / 1) (#1)

Reps Peter King (NY) and Steve King (IA) should be ashamed.. but they are not. They made this (like immigration) all about "boo-hoo" bilingual ballots.

We have a *&$#@$%! gazillion dollar debt, rising inflation, Fannie Mae is going to hell, soldiers are dying. We're in a Vietnam-level conflict...

WTF is wrong with these bastards.

98% incumbancy rate.

They are going to have to repeal the 2nd amendment soon.

Feb 3, 2006 letter signed by bastard Congress Critters (pdf)
(HTML version of 121205_King_Bilingual_Ballot.doc)

All you Congress bastards should read this:
Senate testimony by Professor Drew S. Days, III (Yale Law) May 17, 2006

Ok, I can't find a version with the names, so I guess I have to type them

THE 56 SIGNERS IN ORDER (Reps.)

P. King, S. King, B. Inglis, B. Goodlatte, J. Hostettler, B. Jenkins, H. Coble, L. Gohmert, R. Paul, R. Bartlett, J. Doolittle, R. Wicker, S. LaTourette, D. Rohrabacher, J. Duncan, K. Calvert, E. Royce, D. Manzullo, S. Buyer, N. Deal, C. Petterson, D. Burton, Akin, J. Miller, T. Price, M. Blackburn, G. Gutknecht, G. Brown-Waite, W. Jones, J. Culberson, G. Barrett, J. Boozeman, S. Graces, B. Shuster, R. Lahood, J. Ryun, J. Kline, Jo Ann Davis, J. Bradley, H. Brown, T. Tancredo, T. Platts, G. Miller, V. Goode, P. Sessions, E. Istook, J. Campbell, C. Miller, C. Weldon, S. Myrick, P. Gingrey, J. Ramstad, R. Alexander, J.D. Hayworth, S. Garrett, B. Cupin

by intranets on Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 06:40:54 AM EST

huh (5.00 / 1) (#2)

If you go to house.gov and get the 121205_King_Bilingual_Ballot.doc MSWord document, you can look at the metadata and find....
(drumroll....)

Numbers USA

(It's there 4E 75 6D 62 65 72 73 20 55 53 41)

Wow.. so who might they be?

I dunno, but I was looking up "proenglish.org" because they are the only ones with the signed pdf and you guessed it..

Domain Name:PROENGLISH.ORG
Created On:15-Sep-1999 14:36:11 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Jan-2006 09:34:30 UTC
Expiration Date:15-Sep-2006 14:36:11 UTC
Registrant Name:K.C. McAlpin
Registrant Organization:ProEnglish
Registrant Street1:1601 N. Kent St
Registrant Street2:Suite 1100
Registrant City:Arlington
Registrant State/Province:Virginia
Registrant Postal Code:22209
Registrant ****@wslogic.com
Admin Name:Stephen Carter
Admin Organization:NumbersUSA
Admin Street1:1601 N. Kent St
Admin Street2:Suite 1100
Admin City:Arlington
Admin State/Province:Virginia
Admin Postal Code:22209
Tech ****@wlsogic.com
Name Server:NS1.FASTDNS.NET
Name Server:NS2.FASTDNS.NET

Now why is their email Whetstone Logic?

Jim Robb, Whetstone Logic's CEO, has a broad-based set of skills in technology, communications and organizational development. Robb gained technical and creative communications skills both inside and outside of Washington, D.C.
In Washington, Robb has organized press events, served on the board of a national interest group, and provided consulting to non-profits on development, positioning, and public relations. He developed skills in driving activism, recruiting members, hooking up with volunteers, finding and delivering services, dispensing up-to-the-minute information and raising money. Since the web is used so strongly to build relationships, this is valuable experience to bring to the Internet and gives him a decided advantage over many other web program developers.
In his career outside of Washington, he served nine years as a magazine editor and three years a book publisher.
During the 1990s, Robb concentrated on database design and management and the World Wide Web. Combining his communications and technical skills, he specializes in identifying the key messages of an organization and translating them into compelling interactive functions on the Web.
A veteran entrepreneur, in 1987 Robb founded and managed Bristol House Ltd., an independent publishing company. He holds a BA in English Literature from Asbury College.
He has directed the technology for a number of Web sites. He conceptualized and directed technology for NumbersUSA.com, an important policy web site. He has developed many other web sites using specialized, high-end functionality. Robb has a clear understanding of and hand-on capability in the area of computer technology. He has concentrated on database design and management, and the World Wide Web. He works in Visual Basic, VB Script, HTML, SQL and relational database design.

Anyways, that's who is behind YOU NOT GETTING YOUR VOTING RIGHTS.

Welcome to the information age.

by intranets on Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 06:54:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Don't worry (none / 0) (#3)

Really, there is nothing wrong with your democracy. I mean this whole NSA AT&T thing.. Not to worry, who cares about your phone records.

It's not like the NumbersUSA folks have ties or anything?

http://www.wslogic.com/main.html

Cathy Carter is responsible for planning amd designing the software for our websites. In addition, she leads Whetstone Logic's work in extensive multimedia applications. She has a 20-year background in programming and in desktop publishing and user interface design.
Before joining Whetstone Logic, she was a Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories and an engineer with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.
She has a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Kansas and a Master of Divinity from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

Before coming to Whetstone Logic, Anderson served as IT Supervisor at Liberty University

It also is an ambition of mine to perfect a repertoire of Sesame Street character impersonations that includes Kermit the Frog and Grover.
Peter has a diverse educational backgroud. He attended Elim Bible Institute of Rochester, NY. He then attended Elmira College at Elmira, NY. To finish out his bachelor's career, he will graduate from Liberty University at Lynchburg, VA. He will receive a BS in Religion with an emphasis on pastoral ministry.

by intranets on Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 07:00:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

more here (none / 0) (#4)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200505120005

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is promoting an online petition, titled "Mr. President, Please Secure our Borders Immediately," spearheaded by NumbersUSA, an anti-immigration group.

Good background on the Tantoun guy and NumbersUSA

by intranets on Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 07:15:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

: Authored by NumbersUSA (none / 0) (#5)

Incase the name wasn't incriminating, I forgot to add the part about the meta-data
KC McAlpin
He is the Exec Director of ProEnglish.org
http://www.proenglish.org/board/mcalpin.html

For several years he worked for an oil company in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
...
K.C. has appeared frequently as a guest on radio and television programs including ABC's "Good Morning America;" Fox Morning News; CNN News; CSPAN; National Public Radio; CNBC; CNN's "Both Sides" with host Jesse Jackson, and "The Lou Dobbs Show;" MSNBC's "Connected Coast to Coast;" and numerous other media programs. K.C. can be reached for media programs at (703) xxx-xxxx
Maybe he'd like an interview.

by intranets on Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 07:23:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]

(Comment Deleted) (none / 0) (#6)

This comment has been deleted by Terri Emerick

by standingup on Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 07:50:21 AM EST

Main page (none / 0) (#7)

Well, I guess I didn't have to type the names. For some reason they aren't in google. (robots.txt?)

http://www.proenglish.org/issues/ballots/opposition.html

Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
Rep. Steve King (R-IA)
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO)
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.)
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Rep. John Boozman (R-AR)
Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-NH)
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL)
Rep. Henry Brown (R-SC)
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN)
Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN)
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Rep. John Campbell (R-CA)
Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC)
Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY)
Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)
Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA)
Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)
Rep. John Duncan (R-TN)
Rep. Scott Garrett (D-NJ)
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX)
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO)
Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-MN)
Rep. J. D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN)
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC)
Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK)
Rep. William Jenkins (R-TN)
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)
Rep. John Kline (R-MN)
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL)
Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH)
Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-IL)
Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA)
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL)
Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC)
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN)
Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA)
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)
Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN)
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA)
Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS)
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA)
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)
Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

And from his written testimony,
www.proenglish.org/issues/ballots/wtestimony.html
STATEMENT OF
K.C. McALPIN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
PROENGLISH

FOR THE

CONSTITUTION SUBCOMMITEE
OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

Hearing on
Wednesday, November 9, 2005

BILINGUAL BALLOTS ARE AN UN-FUNDED MANDATE THAT FUNCTION LIKE A TAX ON ENGLISH-SPEAKING CITIZENS
No federal funds are appropriated to pay the cost of bilingual voting materials, which must be paid for by state and local taxpayers. The cost is often a substantial portion of a local government's election costs. A GAO study found that the cost of providing multilingual election materials accounted for 55 percent of Suffolk County, New York's total election costs in 1996. (12) In San Juan County, Utah the percentage was 64 percent. (13)
And the cost of providing bilingual voting materials continues to escalate. The same GAO report found that Los Angeles County taxpayers spent $1.1 million to provide election materials in five languages in 1996. (14) But by March 2002, the County was spending $3.3 million out of a total of $22.6 million to provide voting materials in seven languages. (15) Bingham County, Utah reported that its cost of providing multilingual voting assistance increased 41 percent in four years.
Even though electronic voting machine technology advances have greatly reduced or eliminated the cost of printing ballots, including bilingual ballots in many jurisdictions, the cost of providing and carefully proofreading translations of sometimes lengthy ballots remains, as well as the cost of printing and distributing absentee ballots, and election notices, posters, and materials of numerous kinds.
The heavy burden of paying for bilingual ballot materials in as many as seven languages functions as a tax on English-speaking American citizens for the benefit of citizens who are required by law to learn English in order to naturalize and have the right to vote. Bilingual ballots would not be necessary if immigrants had fulfilled their responsibility to learn English in the naturalization process in the first place. It is simply unfair to tax English-speaking Americans to remedy that failure.
6. BILINGUAL BALLOTS INCREASE THE RISK OF ERRORS AND FRAUD
Introducing multiple languages into the voting booth increases the likelihood of errors and election fraud. In a 1993 election, New York City officials mistakenly printed Chinese language ballots with the character for "no" in place of "yes." (16) During the 2000 general election six polling places located in heavily Chinese populated areas of Queens, New York had "Democratic" translated in Chinese as "Republican" for party labels and vice versa on election day ballots. And the Chinese characters on the ballots were often too tiny to read without magnifying glasses. (17) In 2003, Stockton California mistakenly transposed sections of separate Spanish translations of ballot questions that escaped the notice of proofreaders and resulted in a ballot question that made no sense. (18)
12.GAO Report to House of Representatives: Bilingual Voting Assistance, May 1997, pp.20-21 [GAO/GGD-97-81].
13.Ibid.
14.Ibid.
15.Associated Press, "30 states have multilingual ballots," 2002.
16.New York Times, "Bilingual ballot law fails to help Chinese-American voters," Aug. 14, 1994.
17.The Village Voice, "Chinatown ballot shows Republican as Democrat," Nov. 13, 2000
18.The Stockton Record, "Sample S.J. ballot contains error - Spanish translation doesn't make sense," Feb. 27, 2003.

by intranets on Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 07:14:29 AM EST

Online Petition to renew VRA before recess! (none / 0) (#8)

Just checked my email:

a small but vocal group in the House of Representatives managed to stage a revolt within the Republican Party and have the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization (H.R. 9) pulled from the House floor.
We cannot let this small band of ultra-conservative House Republicans succeed in holding up reauthorization of this landmark civil rights legislation. That's why we're launching an emergency petition to tell House Leadership to pass the bill immediately.

http://www.kintera.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactcustom.asp?c=feIJKQMEF&b=1810325&sid=136373225

by Terri Emerick on Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 03:46:57 PM EST

Sheesh! (none / 0) (#9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Yahoo News

a year ago, the GOP-dominated Georgia Legislature reminded me why the VRA remains a necessary protection for voters of color. Georgia Republicans rammed through a divisive requirement for state-issued photo ID at the polls, the most restrictive voting law in the nation. While Republicans claimed they wanted only to protect against voter fraud, that contention wears not one stitch of credibility. There is much more fraud in the use of absentee ballots, but the Legislature loosened the laws governing those.
What Georgia Republicans really wanted to do was bar a small group of voters who tend to be rural, isolated, poor and predominantly black. According to many studies, those voters are less likely to own a car and, therefore, less likely to have a driver's license. They are also more likely to vote for Democrats. They may be a small group, but they'd make a difference in close races. For years, Republicans have used similar voter-suppression strategies around the country, trying to bar voting by small numbers of Latinos, blacks and native Americans, all of whom are more likely to support Democrats.
(Section 5 didn't protect Georgia's black voters from this bit of harassment;
President Bush's highly partisan Justice Department approved the state's restrictive voter ID law. But Section 5 is still one necessary tool among many, including the federal courts. It might be more fairly used by a future Justice Department.)

by Terri Emerick on Sun Jun 25, 2006 at 02:01:12 AM EST

Voting Rights, Not Wrongs! | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 hidden)

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