Greene County Without Republican Ballots for Early Voting!
From the Jim Lagrone for Secretary of State Campaign:
Moments ago, we confirmed a report that as of this moment, Greene county does not have any Republican ballots for the early voting primary. Republicans literally showed up to vote, and were turned away due to the fact that there was simply no ballots to vote with. Greene county election officials are stating that they are still waiting for the ballots to be shipped from Little Rock. They claim that "hopefully" they will receive them tomorrow. We have also received a report that Craighead county Republicans are in this same predicament. We are still waiting for confirmation. If there are voting issues in your county, please call us at (501) 374-0560, and notify your local media. Rest assured, we are working hard to expose these major infringements of your voting right.
This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is a democracy issue. Jim Lagrone has expressed that the integrity of the ballot is essential to our fundamental rights as Americans. Charlie Daniels stated in November of 2005 that " If I made the wrong decision, the buck stops here..." regarding his decision to purchase voting machines from ES&S. We feel that today, the buck also stops once again at the desk of Charlie Daniels.
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Tuesday, May 09, 2006
3 Comments:
Ballot, equipment problems pop up as early voting starts
BY DANIEL NASAW
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Amid a generally smooth start for early voting Monday, reports of botched deliveries of paper ballots and electronic equipment and flawed programming for new touch-screen voting machines surfaced in several counties.
The start of early voting gives Arkansas election officials an opportunity to test a multimillion-dollar contract with Election Systems and Software in advance of the May 23 primary. With voting under way, some found the Omaha, Neb.-based company’s performance still wanting.
“It’s frustrating that a company that was provided $15 million cannot provide us software on time,” said Pulaski County Election Commissioner Kent Walker.
In Craighead County, the company delivered only 25 ballots per precinct, said Election Coordinator Sandra Albert. She had ordered 2,500 ballots for Precinct 1 alone.
“We’re running out of ballots already,” she said.
Flawed proofs for paper ballots led the Pope County Election Commission to vote Monday morning to end its dealings with Election Systems and Software and print its own ballots. Workers will hand-count all the ballots cast in that county for this election. Pope County Election Commission Chairman Dale Brown said that touch-screen equipment never arrived, and Election Systems & Software sent incorrect ballot proofs.
“You’re two weeks from an election, you can’t just wait until the last minute to get your stuff,” Brown said. “We just don’t have any confidence in them at all.”
Brown couldn’t predict the turnout for this year’s primary, but in 2004, 6,459 Pope County voters cast ballots in the primary.
Jefferson County also hadn’t received programming for its electronic voting machines by Monday. Election Coordinator Taylor Eubank predicted that 1,000 people would cast early ballots, which the county will have to count by hand.
“We can count those,” Eubank said. “We’ve done it before.”
And, Republican voters in Greene County couldn’t cast their votes Monday because the printing firm didn’t receive what it needed from Election Systems & Software to prepare the GOP ballots, said Greene County Election Commissioner Harold Turman.
“They’ll have to come back and vote at another time,” Turman said.
Deputy Secretary of State Janet Harris said that Election Systems & Software has yet to explain why it has been unable to deliver the equipment on time to those counties.
“Communication has been a problem,” Harris said, and local election officials “have every right to be frustrated.”
She said she couldn’t predict how many counties could end up counting ballots by hand. Nine counties still tallied votes by hand before the state bought the new equipment.
In response to officials’ accusations that the company has been unresponsive, Election Systems & Software last week sent additional personnel to help ready the counties’ equipment.
Election Systems & Software’s iVotronic touch-screen voting machines fulfill new state and federal laws that require blindaccessible equipment at each polling location. Election officials have interpreted this requirement to mandate the use of touch-screen machines.
The iVotronics can sound out ballot choices through headphones.
For this election, the federal statute applies only to the counties of the 2nd Congressional District, which has a contested Republican primary for that seat, but roughly 50 Arkansas counties that didn’t have touchscreen machines available Monday violated a similar state law passed by the General Assembly in 2005. Harris said that by Monday evening, 33 counties either had the machines running or had them on hand for use today.
Voting equipment in Columbia, Ouachita and Union counties already met federal and state standards. Those counties didn’t participate in the state contract with Election Systems & Software.
After weeks of wrangling with the company, however, seven out of the eight counties in the 2nd Congressional District had the machines running Monday, officials said. Officials in counties that did have the touch-screen machines said voters liked the equipment, which resembles an automated teller machine.
In Faulkner County on Monday, about 80 people cast ballots electronically, said Bruce Haggard, Election Commission chairman.
“It’s a steady stream,” he said. “That’s big for us for a primary.”
Haggard said he believed that recent publicity about the machines drew curious voters out early. He said voters initially worried they wouldn’t know how to use the new machines but are quickly surprised by how easy it is.
“They are very pleased with it after they have a little experience,” he said.
Election Systems & Software delivered the programming for the iVotronic machines Sunday night, and Faulkner County workers had them running by 9 p.m.
“That’s how close we were,” Haggard said.
White County Clerk Tanya Burleson said 70 people voted Monday morning.
“The voters seem to really like them,” she said of the new voting machines. “They say, ‘This is easy.’”
But in Pulaski County, the state’s largest election district and part of the 2nd District, voters on Monday were marking paper ballots and dropping them into locked boxes. Pulaski County Director of Elections Susan Inman expects opticalscan machines will tally those on election night.
Inman said that delivery delays for the touch-screen machines’ programming meant the county had to scrap plans to use those machines in early voting. The equipment arrived flawed last week, with replacements delivered Monday evening, Inman said. She hopes to have the touch-screen machines ready Friday.
Asked why Pulaski County’s equipment wasn’t delivered on time, Ken Fields, a spokesman for Election Systems & Software, said it was likely because of the county’s size. He said he did not know why the early programming was flawed.
Arkansas is one of 23 states that allow voters to cast a ballot before Election Day. In the 2004 primary, more than 41,000 people — or 14 percent of the total turnout — took that option, which is available to all voters.
Election experts differ as to whether early voting increases turnout.
Doug Chapin, executive director of Electionline.org, said research indicates that many who cast early ballots are habitual, partisan voters who have already chosen candidates. But early voting can also increase turnout simply by removing the scheduling hurdle, he said.
The start of early voting in Arkansas came after weeks of squabbling between county and state officials and Election Systems & Software workers.
The company, which underbid rival Diebold by about $2 million but scored slightly lower on a secretary of state commission evaluation, has kept local election officials on edge this year by delaying the delivery of voting equipment and paper ballots.
Last week, at least 14 Arkansas counties missed a state-mandated deadline to have absentee ballots delivered to county clerks’ offices for mailing. Those delays occurred because the company failed to provide electronic ballot proofs or printed ballots on time, election officials said.
Election experts pin the difficulties on the federal 2002 Help America Vote Act, which created a national demand for new voting equipment that the handful of available vendors were unable to meet.
In addition to requiring blindaccessible voting machines, that law, which was passed in the wake of vote-counting problems in the 2000 presidential election, provided money to the states to upgrade obsolete lever and punch-card equipment.
6:29 PM
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(Please pardon our post that is not related to the topic you are discussing here)
Cephus,
We don’t know you, and you don’t know us. One of these days we will meet. Always know our friend, we have your back. Unfortunately there are those from every political persuasion that will exploit racial divides for their own personal gain. It is made worse by those who pretend to care about racial unity. This sort of activity only strengthens the hatred that we must endure and overcome. The hardships that you have faced from those like Lindsley Smith have made you strong and mature beyond your years. Always be a gentleman and continue to treat Ms. Smith as a lady. Peace my friend, you make us proud.
There are some things that we know that you and the world must know.
Arkansas Watch and Readers,
Please evaluate this information and inform the press outlets in your area. If you kind people would so indulge us, please devote a post to this topic. Please call your governor and legislators and inform them that this is not the way Arkansas people treat their brothers in humanity.
If any of the information below is removed from the internet, we made a full archive and screen captures that will be provided.
These links and websites are all from the same source:
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2732/cephusbanner6bv.jpg
http://cephus-richard-blog.blogspot.com
http://richard4representative.com
Domain name: richard4representative.com
Registrant:
Tyrone Adams (PNV62) tyadams@louisiana.edu
personal site
112 Gravenhage Circle
Youngsville, LA 70592
United States
Phone: +1 (337) 482-6077
Administrative Contact:
Tyrone Adams (MKWGG) tyadams@louisiana.edu
personal site
112 Gravenhage Circle
Youngsville, LA 70592
United States
Phone: +1 (337) 482-6077
Technical Contact:
Tyrone Adams (PNV62) tyadams@louisiana.edu
personal site
112 Gravenhage Circle
Youngsville, LA 70592
United States
Phone: +1 (337) 482-6077
Billing Contact:
Tyrone Adams (MVQQP) tyadams@louisiana.edu
personal site
112 Gravenhage Circle
Youngsville, LA 70592
United States
Phone: +1 (337) 482-6077
Record last updated on 2006-05-07 00:00:00
Record created on 2006-05-07 00:00:00
Record expires on 2007-05-07 00:00:00
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.abac.com 216.55.128.4
ns2.abac.com
Registration Service Provider: AplusNet(APRO)
apro-n4e-racc@abac.com
http://www.aplus.net
Registrar: NAMES4EVER, http://www.names4ever.com
Who is Tyrone Adams?
A google search of "Tyrone Adams" +"Lindsley Smith" revealed this:
Link: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-39,GGLD:en&q=%22Tyrone+Adams%22+%2B%22Lindsley+Smith%22
Portal Peruano Sociedad y Parlamento
Link: http://www.congreso.gob.pe/fotografia/2005/050526.htm
Picture 1 Link: http://www.congreso.gob.pe/fotografia/2005/050526_01.jpg
Picture 2 Link: http://www.congreso.gob.pe/fotografia/2005/050526_02.jpg
Fotografias Link: http://www2.congreso.gob.pe/Sicr/Prensa/heraldo.nsf/cd2757754f83280f0525666600656889/9253e433def103750525700d00834ffb?OpenDocument
Picture 3 Link: http://www2.congreso.gob.pe/Sicr/Prensa/heraldo.nsf/cd2757754f83280f0525666600656889/9253e433def103750525700d00834ffb/$FILE/26Mayo05.Grupo.Americano.11.jpg
FH&CG
Are you trying to say that Representative Lindsley Smith is behind the dirty tricks websites for young Mr. Richards? We would be interested in looking at the evidence. It rates a story if true.
There is an email address on our frontpage you can send a story to. You are going to have to organize it more coherently than this post. Example: Who are the people in those last pictures supposed to be? (Except I recognize one of them as Rep. Smith).
That email does not go to me, and I have always gotten along well with Rep. Smith, but there are other contributors on this blog who don't share that view.
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