From Nassau Voter Protection:

Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Sends Out Illegal Order For Election Inspectors to Disregard County Attorney's Letter on Voter ID
Democrats: We're Prepared for the Worst

MINEOLA – With four hours before polls close in the hotly-contested special election between Craig Johnson and Maureen O'Connell, the Republican County Board of Elections Commissioner has taken illegal steps designed to intimidate and suppress voters.

Commissioner John DeGrace has illegally ordered election inspectors to disregard a legally binding court order, as well as the written instructions of the Nassau County Attorney – effectively encouraging Republican poll workers to suppress voting by demanding identification from voters.

DeGrace issued an order on Board of Elections letterhead requiring Election Inspectors to "disregard" the Nassau County Attorney's letter delivered to all poll watchers this morning.

Johnson campaign spokesperson Alex Navarro said, "We're prepared for the worst. Our campaign has deployed dozens of extra voter protection attorneys to at-risk areas, We have real concerns that Commissioner DeGrace is attempting to interfere with the lawful conduct of the last hours of this critical special election."

DeGrace's actions are illegal for two reasons:

1. First, the Republican chair issued the order on official Board of Elections letterhead without informing the Democratic Commissioner, Bill Biamonte. Under law, neither Commissioner can act unilaterally. By issuing orders without informing his Democratic colleague, DeGrace has violated election law.

2. The order issued by Judge Brandveen last night is still in effect while a stay is in effect. Until this stay is lifted in Appellate Court, Judge Brandveen's order is still in full effect. Judge Brandveen's order stated that all polls and all poll workers should have access to the letter issued by the Nassau County Attorney, and requiring elections workers to disregard this law is requiring them to disobey a court order.

There's more:  read more »

This just in from Nassau Voter Protection; the above flyer (click to enlarge), clearly pretending to be an official statement from the U.S. Attorney's office, is currently being districbuted in the Seventh District.

Somebody really should call the AG's office.

The foundation of any democracy has to be free and fair election. I have written considerably about the danger the over-priced, insecure and non-verifiable DRE eVote machines are. By now you'd think the evidence was more than enough to kill any interest any state might have in these machines.

To me one of the deciding factors should be the fact that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has advocated the decertification of these machines because:

According to an NIST paper to be discussed at a meeting of election regulators at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., on Dec. 4 and 5, DRE vote totals cannot be audited because the machines are not software independent.

In other words, there is no means of verifying vote tallies other than by relying on the software that tabulated the results to begin with.

The machines currently in use are "more vulnerable to undetected programming errors or malicious code," according to the paper.

The NIST paper also noted that, "potentially, a single programmer could 'rig' a major election."  read more »

We continue to fight the good fight against DRE machines. I have written about this enough that I doubt I have to go into too much detail. You can read some of my earlier stuff if you want more on it. Or see the DFNYC site's discussion of the issue. For me the lack of a legal recount and the fact that the National Institute of Standards and Technology is warning against DRE machines is good enough to fight them.

But here are some upcoming events in NYC where you can try out machines or testify to the Board of Elections about them:

On January 11, 2007, at 5 PM, the New York City Board of Elections will host a public demonstration of the proposed new voting machines at Fordham University, Pope Auditorium (60th Street and Columbus Avenue).

A large turnout by individual citizens and public officials will show that the public is watching! Join us in viewing the machines currently under consideration by our County Commissioners.

On January 23, 2007, at 4 PM, the NYC Board of Elections will conduct a hearing at the Board offices at 42 Broadway, 6th floor, and the public is invited to attend and comment to the Board Commissioners on the proposed new voting machines.  read more »

Venezuela is one of Bush's favorite bugbears. I am surprised we haven't heard some form of domino theory focused on Venezuela and Bolivia as the new Vietnam and Laos in the war against Communism justifying invasions. Maybe the fact that practically every major South American nation except Colombia has voted in leftist or left-leaning governments in recent years and we would not be terribly welcome on that continent.

Hugo Chavez is quite intentionally riding a wave of anti-Bush/anti-American sentiment to achieve political power. He may well fit the definition of Demagogue as the Greeks originally envisioned it. I have heard mixed things about him regarding Jews and don't know where the truth lies (and here is one place I wish Gatemouth could give his view, but alas it is not to be). Certainly his tendency to favor anyone who is anti-American, Iran's theocracy included, seems as misguided as the Republican policy of supporting Afghan extremists, including people who became part of al-Qaeda, against the Soviets, Saddam Hussein against Iran, and any petty dictator who gives us lip service against anyone we don't like.

But there are things we don't hear about Venezuela that tell a different story from what Bush tells us.  read more »