The Voting News Daily: Beware Absentee Ballots. Judge nixes Sarasota audits. OR online primary hype
Absentee ballot fraud & corruption inquiries in Bell CA., Bladen Co NC, & Troy NY…Atty Bill Risner seeks to depose Iron Mountain over Pima Co AZ election materials…A judge overrules Sarasota voters on election audits that would make sure the tallying machines work correctly…Facts v hype in “The So-Called Online Internet Primary in Oregon” …Election snafu trips up Columbia voter..Citizens United ruling may WV Coal Industry elect friendly judges… BlackHat, Defcon Conferences…
All this and more in today’s voting news below…
Editor’s note: Kansas, Michigan and Missouri voters go to the polls Tuesday to vote in primaries for governor, Senate and the House. Please email news reports or blogs on election problems to us at votingnews (at) earthlink.net Thanks!
AL: Alabama’s judicial campaign finance law unenforced for 15 years
http://www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/006418.html The Birmingham News reports: A 15-year-old state law meant to discourage big-dollar donations to judicial campaigns has never been enforced, and each of the three branches of government in Montgomery blames another for the failure.
AZ: More Details Emerge About Missing RTA Poll Tapes
http://weeklyintercept.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-details-emerge-about-missing-poll.html …A whistleblower has come forward with a sworn affidavit testifying that Bryan Crane told him privately while at the Boondocks Lounge that he had “fixed” the RTA election under direction from his bosses…
AZ: Atty Bill Risner Motion for Deposition of Iron Mountain Company
http://www.fatallyflawedthemovie.com/media/MotionforDepoIronMountain.pdf
AZ: Missing Poll Tapes
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2010/07/18/missing-poll-tapes
…the Sept. 14, 2008 discovery that despite a court order for release of unaltered election data to the Pima County Democratic Party, the designated Democratic Party’s database containing the hard drive had gone missing from the Pima County vault. It was only upon Bill Risner’s visit to the County Clerk’s office that the box of hard drives reappeared: in the hands of John Moffat, who had only a garbled explanation for why he was illegally in possession of the hard drives.
CA: L.A. County D.A. expands probe into Bell government* (absentee ballot)
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/28/local/la-me-bell-elections-20100728
Investigators are looking into allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest, as well as the $100,000 salaries paid to four council members. The D.A. says several elections are targeted.
…
Sources with knowledge of the investigation said that among the subjects that prosecutors are looking at is the use of absentee ballots during the March 2009 City Council election…
CO: Kathleen Curry Will Sue Against Discriminatory Campaign Contribution Limits
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/08/01/kathleen-curry-will-sue-against-discriminatory-campaign-contribution-limits/ Candidates for the State House may receive contributions of $400 if they are running as members of a party. But if they are independent candidates, no one may contribute more than $200.
FL: Sarasota voting machine audit called off
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100730/BREAKING/100739983/2416/NEWS
But a judge this week ruled that state election laws trump the county charter requirement, the latest turn in a back-and-forth legal battle that went all the way to the Florida Supreme Court.
…
The president of Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, which has fought for four years to uphold the county charter, urged county officials to appeal the latest decision.
“They should stand up for our charter, they should stand up for the will of the voters,” SAFE president Kindra Muntz said.