In the close House race on the East End, Republican Randy Altschuler moved ahead of incumbent Rep. Tim Bishop Friday after a re-canvass of voting machines.
Altschuler leads Bishop, a Democrat, by about 400 votes, both campaigns said, citing data from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. That represents a swing of almost 4,000 votes because Bishop was ahead by 3,461 earlier this week.
There is the growing possibility that all 61,700 votes cast on electronic machines in the contest will have to be recounted -- by hand, and witnessed by arguing lawyers, clerks and sheriff's deputies....
Until Thursday, all sides were thinking the dispute was just over the more than 3,000 uncounted paper ballots in the race. Now the talk is of scrutinizing every single ballot cast.
There is a process for election boards to canvass the machine votes in ways that can start out as a random audit of 3 percent of the machines. If there is a deviation in the recount of less than 2 percent from the original count, lawyers say, then the machine votes are considered to be valid. But that doesn't mean they won't be challenged by lawyers.
Democratic lawyers say they will likely press to have all the machine ballots recounted by hand, a process that, if permitted by the courts, could drag on. In the 60th District, it would mean checking 61,700 separate pieces of paper -- with each one examined, and argued over, by lawyers.
Election lawyers, who can earn $800 an hour, will then demand votes in dispute be set aside in boxes categorized by the kind of objection. A judge then would settle those disagreements, like whether a vote counts if someone circled a candidate's name instead of, as the instructions say, filling in an oval box.
I don't even know what to say, except to be extremely grateful that none of those races involves Tompkins County. I'm pretty certain that none of this will improve voter confidence or interest in our political institutions, however. A paper trail is a great thing - until you have 61,700 pieces of paper to sort out at an hourly rate of many thousands of dollars. Once again, I long for the lever machines that at least prevented this crazy possibility.
If this is really what "Democratic lawyers" are considering, maybe it's time for the party to take a deep breath and step back from this particular precipice.
It's been a few days now since we began a conversation that addresses the issue of how frustrated some number of LBGT voters are with the Democratic Party this cycle; this because they find themselves either frustrated at the lack of progress on the civil rights issues that matter to them, or because they see both the Democratic and Republican Parties as unreliable partners in the struggle to assure equal rights for all.
In an effort to practice some actual journalism, I assembled a version of an online "focus group" at The Bilerico Project ("daily adventures in LBGTQ"), with the goal of gathering some opinions on this subject in the actual words of those frustrated voters.
Part One of this story focused on "stating the problem", and today we'll take on Part Two: in this environment, with Election Day staring us in the face, what is an LBGT voter to do?
As before, there are a variety of opinions, including a very informative comment I was able to obtain from a genuine Member of Congress, Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania's 8th District, and that means until the very end you won't hear much from me, except to help "set the stage" for the comments that follow.
It is about a week before early voting begins for a bunch of us around the country, and that means this may be one of the last times I have to convince you that, frustrated progressive or not, you better get your butt to a ballot box or a mail-in envelope this November, because it really does matter.
Now I could give you a bunch of "what ifs" to make my point, or I could remind you how we spent all summer watching oil gush into the Gulf, and how that came to be...but, instead, it's "Even More Current Event Day", and we're going to visit Hungary for a extremely real-world reminder of what can go wrong when the environmental cops are considered just too much of a burden by the environmental robbers-and if today's story doesn't scare you to death, I don't know what will.
It ain't Texas, but we will surely visit a Red River Valley...and you surely won't like what you're gonna see.
Does anyone know if the Boards of Elections across the state have any review process following the primary to make things better for the general election in November?
In any event, it might be useful for TAP bloggers, occasional posters and readers to write here about their experiences with the new voting systems.
I voted in the village of Croton on Hudson in Westchester County and then was a poll watcher at PS32 in the Bronx for about 6 hours. My observations after the flip.
We've got another voting snafu here in Columbia County, where the Republicans are challenging the right of second-home owners to vote upstate. The case is being adjudicated in court as we speak, and has put an enormous burden on the staff at Board of Elections. Democrats have been forced to hire attorneys to defend the ballots of legitimate, registered voters. Enclosed below is a subpoena authored by the GOP, in which they ask the court to demand all sorts of personal documents from Democratic voters. I am not making this up:
-Voter Registrations you maintain in other counties and / or states
-Federal Income Tax Returns (past 3 yrs., Financial Information Redacted*)
-New York State Income Tax Returns including listing of school district of residence (past 3 yrs., Financial Information Redacted*)
-Most recent Social Security Statement (Financial Information Redacted*)
-Driver's License and Motor Vehicle Registration(s), Motor Vehicle insurance card Licenses and registrations for any aircraft or watercraft
-Any solicitations you may have received from any political party or candidate asking you to register to vote in Columbia County
-Professional License(s) and registrations (in state and out of New York State)
-Records of any Political Donations within the past 7 years
- New York City Finance (or County,Town, School District outside of Columbia County) tax bill or Quarterly Statement of Account on Real Property, Condo, or Co-Op for past 3 yrs.
-Residential Leases, deeds, cooperative shareholders agreements, and condominium owners documents, including but not limited to Property management agreements and contracts. (Financial Information Redacted*) Also, all contracts and / or bills with private security companies or alarm services
- Evidence of any STAR exemption on real property, condo, or co-op apartment, including any STAR exemptions
-Employment contracts and / or pay stubs (Financial Information Redacted)
-Bank Statements (checking savings, certificates of deposit, brokerage accounts and locations of branches with financial assets (Financial Information Redacted*)
-Credit Card bills, bills for and location of Safety Deposit Box(es) and / or secure storage facilities (Financial Information Redacted*)
Contract(s) for vehicle parking and / or parking permits
-Most recent EZ Pass Records (only portions showing residence address (Financial Information Redacted*)
-Last 6 months of utility bills, including cable, satellite television, internet services, telephone, electric, gas, or propane (only portions showing residence address)
-Library cards, memberships in health clubs, gyms, social clubs and organizations, political organizations, unions. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions
-School District (or private school) enrollment documents for any children / dependents
-Passports, visas, travel documents including travel clubs and frequent flyer program memberships (only portions showing residence address)
Most of you probably heard about the ruling by Judge Jim Brands on election night that all college students in Dutchess County must vote by affidavit ballots, even if everything was completely in order. This was just one part of an effort to systematically harass, intimidate, and suppress the student vote orchestrated by the GOP across Dutchess County.
Some background information is in order. Up until 2000, Dutchess County was one of very few counties, possibly the only county in the entire nation, to deny college students the right to vote where they resided nine months out of the year. About two or three years prior to that, a group of students attending Bard College and Vassar College filed a class-action lawsuit against the County Board of Elections to process the registrations of students without subjecting them to discriminatory practices designed to prevent their registration from being accepted. While the case was tied up in the courts, a bipartisan committee was formed by the County Legislature to review the issue of qualifications and procedures for college students who wish to vote in Dutchess County. It concluded that "As a society we should encourage every class of citizen to vote, and remove every impediment to voting for every class of citizen." Then Republican election commissioner Bill Paroli disagreed. Paroli, however, found himself preoccupied after he was arrested for fraud, extortion, and several other charges relating to corruption, and resigned in disgrace. Republicans chose current commissioner David Gamache (last seen refusing to do his job) to replace him, who eventually relented and began to process the registrations of students without discriminatory practices.
I am a student at Bard College, located in the Town of Red Hook. Like a lot of Dutchess County, and indeed, like much of rural New York in general, Red Hook is a traditional Republican stronghold which is rapidly trending Democratic. Bard routinely ranks as one of the most liberal colleges in the nation; as you might expect, we aren't exactly popular with the Red Hook GOP. Me and about a dozen other students volunteered our spare time on election day to coordinate campus GOTV, keep track of student turnout, make sure that people can get to the polling place, etc.
This sounds too crazy to be true, but a very reliable source informs me that Judge Jim "Pizza Stain" Brands (You remember him, right?) in Dutchess County has ruled that all college students must vote by afadavit even if they are registered and in the book. I'm also told that the challenges to the students came from none other than our old pal, GOP lawyer John Ciampoli, the guy who ran Jim Tedisco's disenfranchisement effort in NY-20.
I hear that this is being appealed and I hope to have the ruling shortly.
UPDATE: Source says ruling now reversed.
Reversed. Not in writing yet but college kids can vote on machine if in book.
This should surprise no one as this ruling was completely insane. That said, I think it is high time we had a much, much closer look at the Ciampoli/Brands alliance here. It stinks to high heaven and has gone on for far too long. Sunshine, please.
We have talked about turnout today and according to Kyle Kotary, who knows a thing or two about New York State politics, turnout is looking great in the Capital Region and statewide.
From Kyle:
75% turn out in Bethlehem so far...similar numbers throughout Cap Region and State. Schenectady, Troy, Albany...all huge turn out...numbers closing in on 80%...Rochester, Buffalo, NYC and LI turn out closing in on 75-80%...
With these numbers, Senate Dems will pick up State Senate...all local incumbents look safe though...look for Assembly 112 and Bruno Senate seat to be really close given this kind of turnout. Gillibrand will win comfortably and Tonko in a landslide.
Could SD-43 with Mike Russo as the Democratic candidate be that surprise I was talking about earlier? Maybe.
High turnout is a good thing. We knew turnout was going to be high. But we didn't know how high. This turnout is historic, not only for New York, but for the United States as a whole. With turnout numbers like this throughout the country, a lot of races are in play.
Even Dixville Notch, a town that usually votes for Republicans, has Obama fever.
UPDATE: There are three things I wanted to mention in relation to these results from Dixville Notch.
(1) Obama and McCain won their respective primaries in Dixville Notch's voting. Not that Dixville Notch's voting had anything to do with it (Obama ended up losing New Hampshire) but it is interesting that the presidential election ended up being those two.
(2) Democrats haven't fared well in Dixville Notch voting, especially in recent history. In 1992, Bill Clinton came in fourth behind George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot and Libertarian candidate Andre Marrou. In 2000, George W. Bush blew out Al Gore by 16 votes, winning 21-5.
(3) Prior to Obama, the only other Democrat to win Dixville Notch? Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
Earlier today I spoke on the phone with someone who had worked on the Aubertine campaign. They told me about this new voter tracking system that I've been hearing about for weeks now, the system that Bruno's boys thought was going to win them the election that should have never been close. Basically, the GOP assigns their voters in each ED a barcode and equips their poll watchers a blackberry type device with a barcode scanner attached. Every time a code is scanned it's instantly relayed to GOoPer HQ and they know who has voted and who to send the body snatchers for. The staffer I spoke to earlier laughed as he said, "I'd rather have 100 WFP folks working their tails off than a barcode scanner any day." Well, behold the results:
The first thing that should jump out at you is the higher turnout in the northern and central parts of the district, Aubertine's homebase and the areas encompassing much of his AD. Then check out the southern part, Barclay's turf. It appears that many of Barclay's folks did what Danger Democrat figured they might do a few days ago, namely "vote with their fanny."
But, that's only part of the story. The really significant take away here is how the DSCC crew on site (which was run by Nathan Smith) along with the WFP's folks working their tails off simply outhustled Bruno's boys. They turned out their people in the ED's that they needed to.
Dave Pollak and June O'Neill of the New York Democratic Committee have launched a new web resource with all kinds of info about next week's New York Primary. It's one stop shopping for all kinds of information about polling places, delegates, results, etc. There's plenty of great stuff there and I'm sure there are plenty of folks who will find it useful. From the announcement:
Next week, Democrats across New York will have their chance to take part in nominating our party's next candidate for president. On February 5th Democrats in New York will head to the polls and select 151 voting delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer. New York has a total of 281 delegates-the second highest of any state in the country-and on Tuesday your vote can make a big difference.
The New York State Democratic Party is working hard to ensure New York has a record breaking turnout on Tuesday. That's why we're announcing today a new web resource with everything you need to know to participate on Super Tuesday. You'll find critical info about how to participate in Tuesday's primary, how to support your favorite candidate, as well as a listing of Primary Night parties and more.
On Primary Night, our site will have up-to-the-minute results from the State Board of Elections, and, starting today, you can sign up for Primary Night e-mail/Blackberry updates and text message alerts.
And a number of election integrity advocates just filed a an amicus brief in that case, hoping to avert a federal takeover of our elections next year. DOJ is suing our state board of elections alleging that the state of New York has failed to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The advocated behind the brief beg to differ. From their press release:
Amicus Filed in Federal - NY State Voting Machine Suit Two Dozen Election Integrity Groups Back Brief to Bar E-voting
Seeking to avert a federal Justice Department takeover of New York's 2008 federal election, and a possible court-ordered purchase of computerized voting machines, attorneys Andrea Novick and Jonathan Simon of Election Defense Alliance (EDA) yesterday filed an amicus brief in United States v New York State Board of Elections (Case # 1:06-cv-263).
The case is scheduled for argument in United States Federal Court in Albany on December 20.
The Voting Rights division of the Justice Department is suing the state board of elections for its alleged failure to comply with Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements for voting systems that assist voters overcoming physical access or linguistic barriers to voting.
The EDA amicus brief, filed on behalf of 32 election integrity groups and individuals, argues that hand-counting the two federal races in New York in 2008, combined with the addition of accessible ballot marking devices at every polling site, is consistent with the essential requirements for democratic elections and will bring the state fully into compliance with HAVA, as sought by the Department of Justice.
So, far, it has not been a very merry season around our house this year, what with the deepening US recession. If you are sober when you read Paul Krugman's quantification of the economic losses associated with the US mortgage meltdown, "After the Money's Gone" here http://economistsview.typepad.... , well, you will surely want some eggnog when you are done. Then, we have recently had scientific news that the munitions of the US military-industrial complex actually already hit our family, due to the decades of sloppy manufacture of armour-piercing weapons in my Italian homegirl-ghetto-of-birth back in Colonie, NY-- believed by reputable scientists to be the half-mile-or-so with the densest depleted uranium pollution on earth. No, really, am not making it up: see this http://www.troyrecord.com/WebA... and this http://www.albany.edu/news/pdf... . Oh, and, of course, there were those poll numbers on Spitzer, too, indicating that most of NY was losing hope in the Great White Hope of reform in NYS government, as the 3 men in a room continued to wrangle over that most critical of NYS issues, control of horseracing.
Then there was a major snowstorm.... so, OK, I was primed for some good news. You, too? Well, folks, we got some here! First off, the highest-ranking Ohio election official has come out unequivocally for optical scan voting machines-- a bipartisan commission, teamed with a nonpartisan academic team, having found precisely what Bo Lipari and the NYers for Verified Voting have told us all along, see http://nyvv.org/. Any and all of those all-in-the-computer systems can be hacked, and are not secure for use in fair elections. See the story here http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12...
Not, of course, they carefully note, there is any evidence that any of Ohio's machines actually WERE tampered with.... naw, 'cuz, you know, that would imply that the crooked, corrupt, crony-enriching fool in the White House was not really the rightful president of the US.....
Which brings us to the other, even bigger, good news of the day. The guy who actually did win the popular vote back when this whole GW Bush nightmare started, what ever happened to him after he won the Nobel Prize? Oh, yeah, he went to represent the people of the United States at the UN Bali Climate Change Conference, gave a tremendously inspiring (presidential!) speech, and rallied a divided world to come to consensus to address, together, the most important issue of our times: keeping our world livable for humans. Read it here http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12... OK, maybe I'll get that Christmas tree today.
If you look at the column on the right side of this page, you'll see a new addition. It's a widget produced by Working Assets and Rock the Vote that allows you to register to vote (mostly) online. It's a really nifty tool and I hope you'll use it if you aren't yet registered. If you want to vote in the Democratic Primary, the deadline to register is OCTOBER 12, less than two weeks away.
While NYBri and Lipris are quite capable of representing themselves, In The Matter of iloveny v. et al NYbri and Lipris- Part of the problem?http://www.thealbany... I disagree with the allegations contained therein so strongly that I felt compelled to take on this case, pro bono.
The concepts of reform advocated by TAP and its band of merry bloggers, is based on non- partisan ideals, not bi-partisan horse trading. Reform, true reform, should not be based on politically efficacious compromise as suggested or as iloveny put it "real reform that would be agreeable to both sides.
Dave Pollak and June O'Neill of the 
