Saturday,
February 26th, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Program Overview
| 10:00 I. The Arc Of Justice: We've Been Here Before | |
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| 10:30 II. Voter Suppression | |
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| 5 Minute Stretch | |
| 11:35 III. What Happened In 2004: Exit Polls - Were They Right? | |
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| 12:15 IV. The Age of the Machines | |
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| 12:50 Lunch | |
| 1:20 V. Litigation | |
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| 1:55 VI. Legislation | |
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| 2:40 VII. Action | |
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| 3:40 VIII. Open Microphone | |
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This Teach-In has been organized by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, http://democraticrenewal.us and the MMOB (Mainstreet Moms Operation Blue), http://www.themmob.com. Organizing
a pro-democracy movement at the grassroots involving local Democratic
clubs, Assembly District committees, the MMOB, the Green Party, Code Pink,
and every group that is concerned about every citizen voting and every
vote being counted. |
Presentation
Details to come
Biography
Lynn Landes is a freelance journalist who specializes in voting, the environment,
and health issues. Lynn's been a news reporter for DUTV in Philadelphia and
hosted a radio talk show at WDVR in New Jersey. She has also been a weekly commentator
for a British Broadcasting She is one of the nation's leading journalists on
voting systems and democracy issues. Lynn's articles are published on her website,
http://ecotalk.org, in the alternative press,
and in other online and print publications.
Biography
John Gideon is a disabled Viet Nam veteran who retired in 2002 after over 30
years of federal service at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA. In 2003,
he started working with Bev Harris of http://BlackBoxVoting.org,
then he became the information manager of VerifiedVoting.org, http://verifiedvoting.org,
and now is the information manager at VotersUnite!, http://votersunite.org.
In John's work, he reads numerous newspaper and provides a clipping service to voting activists, attorneys, elections officials, media professionals and others. John has been asked to testify as an expert before both houses of the Washington legislature.
VotersUnite! is a national nonpartisan organization dedicated to fair and accurate elections. It focuses on distributing well-researched information to elections officials, elected officials, the media, and the public; as well as providing activists with information they need to work toward transparent elections in their communities.
Biography
Bob Fitrakis is a political science professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Department at Columbus State Community College, where he won the Distinguished
Teaching Award in 1991. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow to the Michigan state
legislature in 1975 and studied at the University of Sarejevo on scholarship
in 1978. Fitrakis earned a J.D. from the Ohio State University Mortitz College
of Law in 2002. His Ph.D is in political science from Wayne State University
in Detroit, Michigan. He has also taught political theory at the University
of Michigan-Dearborn and political science at Wayne State University and Oakland
Community College. Bob Fitrakis is the executive director of the Columbus Institute
for Contemporary Journalism (CICJ) and has published the Free Press, http://www.freepress.org/index2.php
since 1992 and acted as editor since 1993. He wrote monthly investigative news
articles, including articles on Klan activities in Ohio. He both participated
in, and wrote about a controversial plan by Columbus' NAACP to "out" Klan leaders
in Ohio.
Biography
Emily Levy is the project coordinator for Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips's precinct-level
analysis of Ohio election anomalies, and a member of United for Secure Elections.
She volunteered with the Election Protection Coalition in New Mexico for the
2004 election. She is a long-time activist on issues ranging from nuclear power
to disability rights. Her passion is helping people who care about the world
become active in social change movements. Emily offers group presentations and
individual consultations for those who desire to increase their power to make
change. http://www.juiceforjustice.com
Warren Stewart, Ballot Integrity Project, "Recounting New Mexico"
PresentationBiography
Warren Stewart is a researcher and data analyst with the National Ballot Integrity
Project and VotersUnite.org, and worked on the Green/Libertarian recount effort
in New Mexico. Warren's research reports can be accessed at:
http://www. votersunite.org/info/newmexicophantomvotes.asp
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00152.htm
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1063
Biography
Dr. Jonathan Simon is a graduate of Harvard College, New York Chiropractic College,
and New York University School of Law. He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar
and directs a health clinic in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to entering NYU
Law, Dr. Simon was employed by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in Washington
as a political survey research analyst, the youngest person to have held that
position at Hart Research. As a result of this experience, Dr. Simon is versed
in the history and protocols of exit polling.
With the proliferation of computerized, "black-box" vote tabulation under the private control of partisan corporations, Dr. Simon became deeply concerned that the electoral system as a whole had become susceptible to widespread outcome-determinative "mistabulation," and that no reliable check mechanism existed to tell us whether electoral thefts had occurred.
He proposed the adoption of an independent exit poll-based multistate "burglar alarm" system for Election 2004. Although his plan was unfortunately not enacted, Dr. Simon was able to use the analytical component of the plan, as well as some quick work in downloading the posted official exit poll data, before they were contaminated by actual vote tabulations, to identify a pattern of exit poll-vote count discrepancies that raised a red flag over the 2004 election and has led to an expanding ongoing investigation. In particular, Dr. Simon has been instrumental in refuting all arguments that the source of the discrepancies lies with the exit polls rather than with the vote count itself.
A member of the Alliance for Democracy, Dr. Simon has also worked with the National Ballot Integrity Project, http://www.ballotintegrity.org and We Do Not Concede, http://www.donotconcede.com/
Allyson Washburn, Ph.D, US Count Votes, "The Reluctant Republican Responder"
PresentationBiography
Larry Bensky is a literary and political journalist with more than 40 years
experience in print and broadcast media. He has been managing editor of Ramparts
Magazine, Paris editor of The Paris Review, and an editor of the New York Times
Book Review. As national affairs correspondent for Pacifica Radio from 1987-1998,
Bensky covered the Iran-contra hearings in 1987, the confirmation hearings for
four Supreme Court justices, and the 1990 elections in Nicaragua. His many honors
include the prestigious George Polk award, a record five Gold Reel awards from
the National Association of Community Broadcasters, and a lifetime achievement
award from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is currently senior editor
at MediaChannel.org, http://www.mediachannel.org,
a contributor to The Nation and the Los Angeles Times book review, and teaches
mass communications, journalism, and broadcasting at California State University,
Hayward.
Jim will outline the reforms that Blackboxvoting.org advocates:
Biography
Jim March is a member of the board of directors of BlackBox Voting. A former
computer technical support and systems administration professional, Jim followed
the early work of Bev Harris and joined in the analysis and investigation process
in mid-2003. March and Harris are the plaintiffs in the California Diebold "whistleblower"
lawsuit, which resulted in Diebold refunding $2.6 million to Alameda County
and the State of California. Their suit was the first of its kind to recoup
for any state or local government a cash penalty for the installation of substandard
voting machines and uncertified, insecure elections software code.
BlackBoxVoting, http://www.blackboxvoting.org, is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) election reform investigation and educational clearinghouse founded by Bev Harris. Blackbox investigators utilize the techniques of investigative journalism, public records access, and technical analysis of voting products and procedures to lift the veil of secrecy cloaking proprietary "blackbox" voting machines running secret software.
How a select few voting machine and tabulation firms tied to the right-wing of the Republican Party are able to engineer the outcome of elections to favor their candidates.
Biography
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and syndicated
columnist. His articles and columns have appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution,
the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Miami Herald, the Village Voice, The Progressive,
In These Times, and Counterpunch. Madsen is the author of "Genocide and Covert
Operations in Africa 1993-1999" (Mellen Press) and "The Handbook of Personal
Data Protection" (Macmillan & Stockton Press). Wayne has appeared as a national
security analyst on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, ABC News, CBS News, CNN,
and Fox News Channel. He wrote the foreword for the best-selling book, "Forbidden
Truth".
A former U.S. Navy officer, Wayne has a background in computer security and worked for the National Security Agency (NSA) and Naval Data Automation Command.
Madsen is co-author with John Stanton of "America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II", published by Dandelion Books, and is the author of the forthcoming "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates".
Biography
Paul R. Lehto is a business law and consumer fraud attorney from Everett, Washington.
He is retired from a term on the board of governors of the Washington State
Bar Association, has two published appellate cases, and currently serves on
the Washington state committee regulating continuing professional education
for lawyers, and on the steering committee of "Every Vote Counts". He's been
voted "Rising Star" in both 2003 and 2004 by Washington Law and Politics magazine.
In January 2005 Lehto co-authored with Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman a groundbreaking paper entitled "Evidence of Election Irregularities in Snohomish County, Washington, General Election 2004", which documented political bias in malfunctioning Sequoia voting machines that could not be explained by any plausible voter choices. Starting with their Snohomish County, Washington lawsuit against Sequoia, Paul and his attorney Randy Gordon have announced their intention to remove from our democracy, all electronic voting machines utilizing trade-secret vote-counting mechanisms.
Biography
See Bob Fitrakis's biography for the morning session.
Presentation
Butch will speak about the flaws in today's electoral system, and the
need for a Voting Rights Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution.
Biography
Robert Kibrick, legislative analyst, researches current events, official meeting
transcripts, and election regulations and procedures and prepares rebuttals
to propound the positions of the Verified Voting Foundation and VerifiedVoting.org.
He is also working to build relationships with other organizations, including
university groups and organizations promoting electoral reform and integrity.
He is helping others to organize public forums on electronic voting and will
help with efforts to establish local chapters of the Verified Voting Foundation
and VerifiedVoting.org.
Mr. Kibrick is a research astronomer at the University of California Observatories / Lick Observatory, where he has worked since 1976. For the last 6 years, he has served as its Director of Scientific Computing and is currently responsible for overseeing the development of computer software and hardware for scientific instrumentation and control systems employed in the Observatory's astronomy research programs.
From March 1998 through 2003, he served on a national advisory council of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID). Mr. Kibrick has a B.A. in Information and Computer Science from the University of California and is the principal inventor for three U.S. patents involving optical position encoding systems and bar code technology. He has also served on a voting systems review panel for the City of Santa Cruz, California.
Biography
Medea Benjamin is founding director of Global Exchange, http://www.globalexchange.org.
For over 20 years, Medea has supported human rights and social justice struggles
around the world.
Medea is a leading activist in the peace movement and helped bring together the groups forming the coalition United for Peace and Justice, http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
She is also the co-founder of "Code Pink: Women for Peace", a women's group that has been organizing creative actions against the war and occupation of Iraq. Code Pink, http://www.codepink4peace.org/, is pushing for a reorientation of budget priorities in the U.S. to focus on heath care, education and housing, not war. Code Pink now has more than 100 chapters throughout the United States.
Biography
Walter Riley is a civil rights attorney practicing in the Bay Area, focussing
on criminal defense and police misconduct. Mr. Riley is a long-time social and
community political activist.
Biography
See her biography in the morning session.
The Open Voting Consortium (OVC) is working with scientists, engineers, and interested companies to develop a nonproprietary open voting system for use in public elections. With the OVC model, the companies that deliver the goods and services to election boards will do so competing on services rather than proprietary hardware and proprietary software. OVC software will be readily available and open to public inspection, and the hardware will be assembled from nonproprietary, off-the-shelf components.
The OVC is promoting legislation that will require that software used in elections be open source code"public software."
Biography
Alan Dechert has been a software test engineer and application developer for
the past 15 years. In 2001, Alan co-authored a voting modernization proposal
for California designed as an in-depth study of the voting system, including
development of reference open source voting software. In 2003, along with Dr.
Douglas W. Jones (University of Iowa) and Dr. Arthur Keller (UC Santa Cruz),
Alan founded the Open Voting Consortium (OVC), http://openvotingconsortium.org.
He currently serves as president and CEO of the OVC.
The Open Voting Consortium (OVC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development, maintenance, and delivery of open voting systems for use in public elections.
OVC scientists and engineers built a prototype of an inexpensive voting machine
based on inexpensive commodity components and open source "free" software, which
produces a Summary Paper Ballot on-the-spot in the voting booth. The OVC system
has been demonstrated to public acclaim, beginning with an April, 2004 demonstration
at the Santa Clara County Government Center in San Jose, California. The Mercury
News, April 4, 2004, hailed the OVC system as the "Holy Grail" of verifiable
elections. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/8383100.htm
Biographies
See Allyson Washburn biography for the morning session. Kathy Dopp, founder
and president of USCountVotes, is also the founder of UtahCountVotes http://utahcountvotes.org, a voting rights
group that successfully blocked Utah from deploying DRE voting equipment. Founder
of a pioneering internet service provider in Park City, Utah, Kathy is
also an amateur architect, a ski instructor, and a former mathematics teacher,
and has an MS degree in mathematics with an emphasis in computer science.
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