Posts by Steven Rosenfeld

Steven Rosenfeld is a senior fellow at Alternet.org and co-author of What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election, with Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman (The New Press, 2006).

McCain's Dithering Meant to Lower Debate Expectations?
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 25, 2008 at 5:31 PM.

There's a new theory of why John McCain has been "suspending" his campaign to focus on the Wall Street bailout. According to Teagan Goddard's Political Wire, McCain is trying to prepare the nation for a dismal debate performance with Barack Obama -- because everybody knows who is the better debater.

Goddard writes that McCain has told the AP that Obama is expected to be a better wordsmith. Thus his focus on saving America from Wall Street means he won't be in great shape for the first great debate.

McCain told AP, "Have no doubt about the capabilities of Sen. Obama to a debate. He's very, very good. He was able to defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton, who, as we all know, is very accomplished. He was able to, with his eloquence, inspire a great number of Americans. These will be tough debates."

Sounds like the pre-debate spin is off and running.

Still, it's unclear what will be more unlikely in coming days: a real presidential debate, or a surreal bailout of the nation's greediest institutions at taxpayer expense.

Obama Talks Straight: Launches Serious Ad on Economy
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 17, 2008 at 3:51 PM.

As the Wall Street meltdown continues and the cumulative costs of government-backed bank bailouts rivals the cost of the war in Iraq, the Obama campaign released a two-minute television advertisement that seeks to set a serious tone for economic debate and reform.

The text of the ad reads:

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GOP Voter Suppression Comes to Wisconsin
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 13, 2008 at 3:56 PM.

Partisan voter suppression efforts have many faces, but they all have one goal: suppressing your political opponent's voters.

In Wisconsin this past week, the Republican Attorney General, J.B. Van Hollen, filed a politically timed lawsuit that local election officials say will interfere with turnout for the presidential election on Nov. 4 and create a bureaucratic nightmare for election workers seeking to process a record number of new voter registrations before then. The AG's game plan is simple: create a bureaucratic nightmare to tie up the election machinery before Election Day and then create bottlenecks to confound voters on Election Day.

According to a Sept. 12 report by Steven Elbow at Madison.com, the Wisconsin AG filed suit this past Wednesday forcing election officials to use a tactic being employed by Republicans in other states -- notably Michigan, Kansas and Louisiana -- that involves removing people from voter rolls if the addresses on their voter registration forms does not match the address on their state driver's licenses. The rationale to purge would be based on the assumption that if the addresses did not match then the voter registration would be incorrect and therefore invalid.

Never mind that Wisconsin is among a handful of states where voters can register to vote on Election Day and ostensibly clear up or correct any registration information error at that time. The suit's goal is voter suppression, which would be accomplished by causing delays in voting when people show up on Election Day and are told they are not on voter rolls and then would have to go through the registration process, delaying them and holding up other voters in line behind them.

What's especially outrageous about this tactic in Wisconsin is that the very federal election law that makes this voter purging technique illegal in most states -- the National Voter Registration Act -- exempts Wisconsin from the NVRA's voter purging process because the state has Election Day Registration. In other words, because Wisconsin is among a handful of states with the most liberal, voter-friendly laws, its voters do not have the legal protections intended to stop voter suppression in other states.

Elbow's report on Madison.com quotes that city's clerk about the impact of the AG's suit.

"It will disenfranchise voters. That's what we're concerned about," City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said. "We're working on plans to make sure we don't have long lines at the polls, make sure that the lines can move smoothly and quickly. If we throw this into the mix, then it is going to slow things down."

The Madison.com report reveals the Wisconsin AG is reading from a long-established GOP playbook, justifying 'ballot security' concerns under the banner of preventing voter fraud.

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Another Big Investment Bank Bites the Dust
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 11, 2008 at 6:14 PM.

The sub-prime mortgage crisis apparently has another big victim on Wall Street. The Washington Post is reporting that the federal reserve will help sell Lehman Brothers, one of the country’s largest investment banks. Just days ago, the Treasury Department announced a government-backed takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which holds half of the U.S. home mortgages. The impending demise of Lehman Brothers has been rumored for month, but the ripples will be felt throughout the economy -- not just on Wall Street -- as access to loans and credit generally tightens for all borrowers. The larger question is at what point do today’s banking failures rival the Great Depression of the 1920s and early 1930s? The answer to that question arguably is more important than whether GOP vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, is wearing lipstick.

New Jersey Voters Wrongly Purged
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 10, 2008 at 3:00 PM.

Many things can go wrong in elections - including before Election Day. New Jersey seems to be the latest poster child for high-tech snafus. The AP is reporting that the state sent 300,000 letters to people telling them they were not registered to vote, but in many cases they are qualified voters.

The problem is not confined to New Jersey. Under federal election reforms passed in 2002, every state is supposed to create statewide databases of its registered voters. The problem is not just that these new mega-lists contain errors, as is the case in New Jersey, but what state election officials are doing with the data.

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Election Observer Arrested in Arizona
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on September 7, 2008 at 1:45 PM.

According to the Election Defense Alliance blog, John Brakey, one of the country's leading election activists known for bring secretive electronic voting into public view, was arrested while observing problems in local elections this week in Pima County, Arizona.

The arrest begs the question of whether the same response will be forthcoming against election observers this November. That scenario is hardly moot after the police used excessive force in St. Paul in response to protests and other First Amendment activities at the Republican National Convention.

The EDA blog report said Brakey was arrested while officially observing the vote colunt.

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Forget the Media Driven Drama, Guess Whose Vote Will Nominate Obama?
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on August 27, 2008 at 1:06 PM.

Hillary Clinton will cast the vote by the New York delegation that will put Barack Obama over the threshold needed to become the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nominee, according to party staffers working at the podium.

The delegates have been asked to be in their seats at 3 PM, local time, to start the official nominating process a half hour later. That means the actual voting by state delegations will probably begin somewhere around 4 PM, convention staffers said.

The convention chair will ask various states for their votes, but before the total reaches the 2,117 delegates needed to secure the nomination, the chair will call on the New York delegation, where the state's junior Senator, Hillary Clinton, will announce to the hall how her state is voting -- delivering the nomination to Obama, party staffers said.

The move will be an emotional finale to Clinton's historic presidential campaign. Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to address the convention later tonight.

Ohio Secretary of State Predicts Cleaner Vote in 2008 than 2004
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on August 26, 2008 at 4:26 PM.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, predicted a record turnout of 80 percent of registered voters in the November election, at a press briefing where she also outlined the steps she has taken to make Ohio's voting system less prone to the problems experienced in 2004.

"This year you will see a big difference in Ohio from what you have seen in the past," she said at an Electionline.org forum in Denver at the Democratic Convention. "We had a bigger (administrative and legal) infrastructure in place for the March primary."

For November, Brunner said there will be better poll worker training with a focus in the state's new voter ID laws and using provisional ballots. She also said that she recently issued a directive limiting how partisan voter challenges can be conducted -- they can question poll workers but cannot challenge voters.

Brunner said that many of the reforms she has instituted since assuming office in 2006 have professionalized election administration in Ohio. She said new hiring standards prompted many people appointed to county election boards as political patronage jobs to retire.

"It has been a breath of fresh air," she said.

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Psst... Want to Know What Dem Insiders Are Being Told?
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on August 25, 2008 at 4:22 PM.

Democratic Party leaders say they are better prepared for the November election than their party has been in years. At a gathering for donors Sunday, DNC Chairman Howard Dean explained the party's new bullishness.

Dean said Democrats now have the same data resources as the Republican Party, something that has not been the case for 15 years. The party has 250 million names in a database, where the party can predict with 85 percent accuracy how those people will vote. A subset of that are the 35 million people who voted for Democrats in 2008's primaries and caucuses.

Dean predicted the party would win seats in Congress in some former Republican-majority states, saying Democratic candidates were ahead in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina and New Mexico.

"You helped us put in place the business plan to win elections," Dean said. "This is the party that is going to win a lot of elections."

Don Siegelman Calls on House to Hold Karl Rove in Contempt
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on August 25, 2008 at 10:07 AM.

Editor's note: Former Alabama Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman has been fighting to clear his name after being convicted of bribery for appointing a campaign supporter to a non-paying position on a state board -- a practice that is commonplace in American politics. Siegelman believes Karl Rove, the president's former political strategist, was behind his prosecution by U.S. attorneys, just as Alabama Republicans stole his 2002 governor's race by revising the vote count in one county and sealing access to the ballots for a recount. Seigelman spoke about why Rove must be held accountable for failing to testify before Congress at an election integrity panel at the Denver Press Club on Sunday. The panel was a briefing for reporters attending the Democratic Convention. Here is an excerpt.

I am from Alabama. I know something about how votes are suppressed. I know how those in power seek to control elections.

The spirit of the civil rights movement was not deterred by police dogs. The spirit of the civil rights movement was not beaten back by billy clubs, or dampened by the water cannon. The spirit of that movement was built upon the belief that every person should have the right to vote, and that those votes should be counted.

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Welcome to Denver: Cheers, Jeers and Hillary Rodham Clinton
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on August 24, 2008 at 12:38 PM.

Welcome to Denver, where political rumors travel faster than car and foot traffic because of the mega-police presence and ubiquitous orange traffic cone, and where on Joe Biden's first day in the vice-presidential sunshine rabid right-wingers and recalcitrant Hillary Clinton supporters snipped at the edges of the unfolding great Obama fest.

First, the reaction to Biden. Most delegates and party people heading to a Saturday evening reception for the media said they were were pleased. Not euphoric. Not cloud nine. Not thinking Biden would be a silver bullet into the dark heart of John McCain's I'm-the-toughest campaign. Most were not aware of Biden's support for going into Iraq, or when asked about that, said, 'Well that was then ...'

As one woman who was selling hand-painted wooden campaign buttons at the entrance to the media reception -- at an amusement park -- said, "People back home (Pennsylvania) are excited for Biden because he has a lot of experience in foreign affairs. He is a no-nonsense, sincere, intelligent, go-get-em senators. It's a great addition to the ticket."

The only grumbles among this very loyal Democratic crowd -- who all had credentials to get into official events, which is not the case for most progressives -- came from Hillary supporters. One fellow, from Colorado, said, "She was the most popular choice among delegates polled -- I'm not impressed." But he didn't give his name; citing party loyalty.

Perhaps more disturbing, another early Obama supporter and delegate said she had been approached by two Georgia delegates who were upset by a simmering but mysterious vote-Hillary ploy. They said the women in their delegation had been receiving e-mails urging them to vote for Hillary on the first ballot, when the convention formally selects the presidential nominee. Whether this is part of a bigger HRC plan or a last-ditch effort by supporters of a vanquished candidate, remains to be seen.

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At Netroots, Pelosi Ducks Impeachment; Gore Calls for National Grassroots Movement
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on July 19, 2008 at 10:20 AM.

Karl Rove should be put in the jail cell at the U.S. Capitol for defying a congressional subpeona to testify before Judiciary Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told a national bloggers conference on Saturday morning, but she did not directly answer questions on why the House has not pursued impeachment charges against the president.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Al Gore, who made a surprise appearance at the "Ask The Speaker" session at the Netroots Nation conference, urged those in attendance to help him create a national grassroots movement to counter corporate interests and others ignoring the global climate crisis.

Gore said the best way for the country to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy was not to push car companies to build different vehicles, but rather to rebuild the country's electricity infrastructure so the U.S. Relied on 100 percent renewable sources in a decade.

"The easiest and cheapest way to shift over to a new energy is to start with electricity," Gore said. "Cars will follow. A new national grid is the centerpiece of this agenda. We have to switch our electricity generation system to get 100 percent from renewable sources."

"We can do it, but I need your help," Gore said, urging the bloggers to encourage people to join his new organization, wecansolveit.org. The group has 1.3 million members, but Gore said it needs 10 million members to counter corporate and political opposition to real change - even if a Democratic president and Congress is elected in the fall.

"I need your help," Gore said. "You speak to and connect with so many millions of people. I ask for you help to build that group of people. You will not see this organization getting partisan or turning to some other agenda. We will not back down."

ARREST KARL ROVE

The organizers of Netroots Nation created an "Ask the Speaker" website where people voted on the questions they most wanted to ask Pelosi. Impeachment topped the list. Pelosi did not reply directly, but instead said the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) would be pursuing a contempt of Congress resolution against Rove, just as it had with other White House staffers who did not testify when ordered to do so by House committees.

"Now the committee is considering contempt for Karl Rove," she said. "That will be up for the committee to decide. Mr. Conyers says I am in charge and I accept that."

When another questioner asked if Rove should be in the Capitol's jail, Pelosi replied, "That's where he belongs. As Mr. Conyers says, 'leave it up to me.'"

Pelosi also defended the recently-passed FISA bill, which deals with how the federal government can monitor the personal communications of U.S. Citizens when fighting terrorism. She said the House's version of the recently passed bill did not grant retroactive immunity for telecom companies that helped the government spy on what some believe is millions of Americans. But she said House Democrats could do little when 17 Democratic senators sided with their Republican colleagues and supported a version of the bill that gave telecom companies retroactive immunity.

She said the bill that was passed, the product of a conference committee, included the immunity but also for the first time brought oversight of the FISA law to two House committees and the Inspector General's office, which she said was some progress.

"I'll never understand how Dem 17 senators voted with the GOP on FISA," Pelosi said. "I have serious sadness over two things in the congress. One is that they sent us the (Senate) FISA bill and that we could not overcome 60 votes in the Senate to end the war in Iraq."

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Fight Over the VA's Ban on Voter Registration Heads to Court
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on July 18, 2008 at 4:23 PM.

The state of Connecticut may file a federal lawsuit to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow voter registration drives, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz said Friday.

"Time is of the essence," she said. "We have 109 days left before the election. The (Connecticut) Attorney General and I are looking at possible legal action. It is fair to say that is very likely."

Bysiewicz' comments came a day after she was notified by U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake that the VA would not permit voter registration drives at its campuses and was imposing new restrictions on who could contact veterans at VA facilities to help them register to vote.

"It is a disguised no," Bysiewicz said, referring to the VA's new policy that only "Voluntary Service" officers at VA facilities would be allowed to register the former soldiers. "It is legal mumbo-jumbo that appears to grant something but really takes away everything."

Anytime a person moves they must update their voter registration. This includes former soldiers who are receiving care at VA facilities.

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Coalition Plans to Register 500,000 Recent Immigrants to Vote
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on July 10, 2008 at 6:00 PM.

Washington, DC -- A national coalition of immigrant rights groups, ethnic organizations, and community and leadership organizations Thursday announced a plan to register half-a-million new voters from the ranks of recent immigrants for the 2008 election.

The We Are America Alliance will work in 13 states to register voters and conduct get-out-the-vote efforts on Election Day, participants said. The effort is targeting people age 25 and under, new citizens and eligible but infrequent voters. These voters historically have been overlooked by campaigns and susceptible to being disenfranchised.

The We Are America Alliance partner organizations have fought for the rights of immigrants in their respective communities, but this year they are coming together to make voter engagement their number one priority, said Holli Holiday, WAAA Executive Director.

"We will be touching over 1 million immigrant voters going into the fall election and encouraging them to vote come November," said Erica Bernal, senior director of civic engagement for the national Association of Latino Elected Officials Education Fund. "We will spend over $10 million turning out the immigrant vote. This is unprecedented."

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Electronic voting without software?
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet on July 9, 2008 at 2:00 PM.

Avi Rubin, one of the country's foremost computer voting experts, said electronic voting systems do not have to rely on the unpredictable and unverifiable software used today.

In a July 9 interview with InterGovWorld.com, the computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University said it was possible to build another generation of electronic voting machines that can be "software independent."

"The National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] identified what I think is a breakthrough property in an e-voting machine, which is the idea of making it software-independent," he said. "That means designing voting systems where a software failure does not have any possible impact on the accuracy and integrity of the election. This isn't my idea. This is NIST. They published a paper where they identified that, and I said that is the killer property that you want."

Rubin then explained how this kind of computerized voting machine would work.

You design it very, very differently. You have redundant components.

Let me give you an example of a system that is software-independent. You have a system where voters use a touch screen to make their selections and the touch-screen machine, when they're done, prints out a paper ballot that they look at and has all the candidate choices that they made. The voter then takes the completed, printed ballot, and they put it into a scanner. The scanner tallies the ballots up and keeps counts of all the votes. Now if the software on that system fails, they wouldn't get a printed-out ballot that they could then accept and approve.

After the election is over, you pick a bunch of scanners randomly, and you audit them. You count the papers, and you compare the totals that the scanners ran, or you have a different independent scanner that you run the ballots through to see if you get the same answers.

In any stage of the process, a flaw in the software will either be caught and corrected, or it will prevent you from proceeding, in which case you can get the ballots pulled up some other way.

Now let's compare that to an existing direct-recording electronic (DRE) touch-screen machine, where the voter comes in and marks his or her choices and they are stored on a magnetic card on the inside of the machine, and at the end of the day, the voting officials get the card and it has all the tallies. Any flaw in the software could change all the tallies or record the votes incorrectly, and there would be no checks and balances against that because there is no paper record of the actual choices made by the voters.

Rubin also said the landscape facing voters in 2008 is much improved since 2000, where confusion over various kinds of ballots in Florida led to a recount that was stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court, which awarded the presidency to George W. Bush.

"Things are improving," he said. "We're definitely much better than we were in 2004, when we had 37 states that were using fully electronic voting that was poorly designed, without paper ballot backups...

"The problem in 2004 was that very few of the systems were software-independent because they relied on the software to keep and store vote tallies. In my opinion, most systems that use optical scanning of paper ballots, whether they are generated by computer or by hand, are likely to have that property. But you could conceive of designing it so badly that it didn't have it."

[ED: Avi Rubin is pictured above]