Campaign 2006

This was just kinda cool. Along the course of the new Northstar commuter rail is the United Defense military industrial complex. It has a lot of scary signs outside, I noticed when hanging at the sweet river park there.

The building has a really interesting looking roof on Google earth. That is all.

I could provide some hyperlinks but you can find out about it ya damn self....

NY Times blog on campaigns:

A new study shows that Midwestern television viewers saw two and a half times more political ads about campaigns than received news information about them during their local news broadcasts.

Out this week from the Midwest News Index at the University of Wisconsin’s MediaLab, the research also offered a breakdown of what news coverage covered: campaign strategy (including reporting on ads) and polling far outweighed policy issues. No surprise there. This segment of research focused on the last month of the campaign season.

Political coverage was studied in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Cleveland, Columbus, Madison and Milwaukee, on the affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. The research found that an average of nearly 9 ads were broadcast, taking up almost 5 minutes or half, of all the commercials in a 30-minute local newscast. A little more than 40 percent of election coverage was concentrated in the final week before Election Day.

Fux0red. The Best democracy money can Buy.

Check out this article about how the Internet has radically changed politics. This article does a good job diffusing the typical bullshit thrown around about the role of these "netroots".

Bloggers and Parties: Can the netroots reshape American democracy? By Henry Farrell

.....The netroots are becoming a power in the Democratic Party, but they aren’t under the control of any one person or clique. And while many netroots bloggers describe themselves as progressive, they are generally not leftists in the conventional sense. Certainly they aren’t committed to any program of fundamental political and economic reform. As Benjamin Wallace-Wells and Bill McKibben have both documented, the netroots aren’t complaining that the Democratic Party isn’t radical enough; they’re complaining that it’s losing elections. Netroots bloggers don’t share a common ideology. If they are united by anything, it is their harsh criticism of the Republican Party, their shared anger at the Democratic Party’s failures, and their rough analysis of how it could do better.

Although the netroots don’t necessarily subscribe to left-wing views, they do have the potential to reshape the terrain of American democracy. For the last 20 years, intellectuals have been bemoaning the American public’s lack of engagement with political life. They have advocated different forms of direct engagement and public deliberation as means to revitalize democracy.

Netroots bloggers and blog readers don’t look much like the idealized citizens that some democratic theorists have been hoping for. They’re unruly; while they certainly engage in vigorous argument, it bears little resemblance to disinterested Habermasian debate, in which the only operative force is the force of the better argument. They are attentive to power as well as reason, and their response to perceived enemies, Republican or Democratic, is far from genteel—someone pilloried by a prominent netroots blog can expect to get hundreds of vitriolic e-mails or comments from the blog’s readers. David Brooks’s complaints likely stem from his own experience being called out by left-wing bloggers and the vituperative messages that have filled his in-box as a result. There are real problems of groupthink among netroots blogs (as there are among blogs more generally, and indeed among opinion journalists, political reporters, political scientists, and virtually every well-connected social group).

But if there is a fault it lies less with the bloggers than with our notions of what a politically engaged public will look like in real life. Theorists of the public sphere who hark back to the idealized coffeehouses of the Enlightenment tend to forget or pass over the spleen, vulgarity, and vigor of 18th-century political debate. Political engagement goes hand in hand with viewpoints that are strongly held and trenchantly expressed.

The current back-and-forth over the netroots obscures what they actually mean for the Democratic Party and for American politics more generally. If they are not simply a philosophy seminar, they are also not simply an interest group or a social movement in the usual senses of those terms. Their goals have more to do with electoral strategies than substantive issues. Nor are they a traditional form of mass populism—as currently constituted, they are a not especially representative minority of the American public (there is an over-representation of white, well-educated, middle-class men, as there is among political bloggers more generally).

What they are is an example of how the Internet can foster new ways of conducting argument and building social cooperation among diverse groups and individuals. In other words, they are the harbinger of structural changes in the relationship between technology and politics. Contrary to the predictions of social scientists like Robert Putnam, the Internet is making people more likely to be politically and socially engaged, not less. As Yochai Benkler has argued, information technology has made it radically easier and cheaper to engage in certain kinds of cooperation.

This has important implications for political parties in general and for the Democratic Party in particular. In the past, much of the political agenda has been set by elites—senior party officials, elected representatives, and a congeries of policy wonks and public intellectuals stationed in think tanks, universities, issue groups, and political journals. While activists have played an important role in politics, especially in the Republican Party, they have usually taken their cues from well-connected leaders such as Grover Norquist and (before recent scandals) Ralph Reed. This is changing. Elites are losing some of their agenda-setting power as a much wider set of actors begins to influence the terms of public argument. A sea change is taking place in American politics. Debates that used to be the preserve of a small, self-perpetuating group of pundits, pollsters, and policymakers are now being opened up to a much wider group.

The netroots are also important in their own right, even if their role in winning or losing elections is sometimes exaggerated. The availability of Internet-based communications and community-building technologies has allowed people from quite different ideological backgrounds to come together, to identify points of common interest, and to build a community of action.

Or else you could just say "Teh Sweet." Anyway...

Their experiences have deepened the netroots’ conviction that there’s something rotten in the Democratic Party. Quasi-corrupt relationships hamper the ability of Democrats to win elections; candidates for office are expected to hire certain well-connected consultants if they want to receive party funding. Party leaders try to eke out narrow wins, focusing their attention only on the most competitive races instead of campaigning aggressively across the country. Elected officials prefer stroking the egos of major donors to grass-roots organizing. Senators mug to pundits’ and newspaper editors’ penchant for bipartisanship by denouncing fellow Democrats as extremists, giving cover to Republicans, and dragging the political center ever further toward the right. These problems cripple the party’s ability to compete successfully, guaranteeing continued Republican hegemony. In response, netroots bloggers want to reform the party’s organizational structures and punish elected officials who weaken the party in pursuit of their personal agendas. They pushed Howard Dean’s candidacy as chairman of the Democratic National Committee in order to change the party’s electoral priorities. The netroots are now encouraging activists to get involved in the party at the local and state level and take it over, just as Goldwaterite conservatives took over the Republican Party a generation ago.

NICE.

Posted on the Agonist, this deserves to be copied again.

Cuyahoga Ohio - No, no, every vote doesn't count, and isn't... as posted: I'm going to dump this file raw - this is a raw extract of the problems that Democratic poll watchers found in a single county - Cuyahoga, in Ohio.

The Ohio Democratic Party organized 500 observers in Cuyahoga.
Unfortunately, before the polls were even closed, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections went into cover-up mode. Time and time again, when observers pointed out that the BOE pollworkers were violating the law, the BOE pollworkers tried to throw out the observer.
For example, Mr. P.K. an observer in Bedford Heights, Precinct 4A&B saw the pollworkers using the encoder interchangeably between precincts. When the observer told the technicians that this could corrupt the voting data, the EDTs agreed, but then called the Police to have the observer evicted. The Police asked the observer to leave. After the observer left, voter protection called the BOE and asked for him to be reinstated. He reentered the polling place with his supervisor. Later in the afternoon the poll workers approached the observer and his supervisor and asked ”what they were watching”.

They said that the poll workers had inappropriately had a voter use a provisional ballot. The poll workers then called the police again and both the observer and the supervisor were ejected, for having pointed out the errors., These were unquestionably acts of revenge by poll workers who did not want to be corrected..‘

Perhaps most disappointing, the Cuyahoga BOE could not even train its own pollworkers on the Ohio Voter ID law. This law is very clear: a valid Driver’s license is acceptable ID even if it has an old address. This issue was a focus of BOE discussions and even public advertising. But was the BOE able to train its own poll workers? Not exactly.

Here’s a very incomplete list of the problems in Cuyahoga County on Election Day:

Machines Not Working or Missing
E. Cleveland 2F- 1 machine not working (F)
Ward 14 Faith United- 3 of 4 machines not opened (F)
14 K- no machines working (Y)
Ward 2 P- memory cards not working
Ward 1L Euclid- 1 of 4 machines not working (F)
Chamber School 4A,F, H- card problems, lines not moving(F)
Helen S. Brown 4 B & C- 4 of 9 machines not working(F)
Cleveland 4O & 4 R opened at 7 because machines slow to load (L)
Euclid 4- machines up at 7:15 (D)
Cleveland 7 Trinity Commons 1 out of 7 working, long lines (7:15 or so)(C)
St. Martin De Pore Cleveland 9- 3 machines of 6 down at 7:30 (C)
Ward 1 L- one machine down(F)
Allen Binstock- Woodmere A Woodmere City Hall- one of 3 down (F)
Glen Willow- 1 of 4 machines down (F)
Ward 13 E,D- opened 7:15 am- no machines working (Y)
Cleveland 16 J & K 4 of 8 machines not up 7AM- edt broke seals night before and numbers didn’t match
Cleveland Hts 4 J –memory seals missing (C)
Cle Hts Alcazar 1L – delayed opening voter access card not working (as of 7:45) (D)
Canterbury Cle Hts 2A/2B- no machines working, as of 7:30 running out of opti scan ballots (C)—see Lee Fisher’s email
Boulevard, Cle Hts 4M- only one of 4 machines working (C)
Maple Hts 5 C- no memory encoder (D)
Solon 5A- 2 machines missing (D)
Cleveland M, and O- one machine down as of 8 am, no EDT and some machine trouble (Y)
Cleveland 13 J- Reserve Sq. – opened at 7:30, and even after that only one machine working. Voters leaving (Y)
Cleveland 6Jand I- screens went black after voting started, EDTs were struggling with the problem (L)
Oakwood 6:50- only one of 4 machines working even with EDT on site- no one knew how to set them up. Working OK by 7:30 but still not enough machines for number of voters. Pollworkers didn’t know what to do about provisional ballots- our observer helped.(L) 12:30 pm- still problems, 25 people in line, 1 hour wait (precinct 2A?) techs keep calling add day for additional machines. 4A- as of 11 or so no replacement machine (L-p.18)
S. Euclid Roland School 4E- 1 machine down, only one encoder card for 2 machines, long lines (25 people) at 7:30 am
Warrensville Hts Westwood School 3A as of 7:24 no machines working, no EDT, using optiscan (L)
Circle Vista Apartments, 9 P & O, only 2 machines working in 1 precinct and one machine in the other, developing lines at 7:00 am
Cleve 13A, encoders not working
Cleveland 6 J & I, power surge shut down machines, all machines have low batteries, need to use stickers whenever they reboot, running out of stickers
Louis Pasteur, 8N, paper not feeding properly, machines stopped during voting
Cleveland Ward 10, M, voter tried to vote, machines not working, no optical, so voter went to 9F (got reported by 9F observer) (M)
Cleve Hts 1J, Edgehill- 2 machines working, 30-45 min wait, no one to fix it(M)
Cleveland 2P Supervisor and access cards-machines not responding to access code
Only one in four working as of 7:20am.; workers were given conflicting information regarding stubs (G)
Mt. Auburn 4K: ; Presiding Judge would not allow observer to work; One machine down, One pollworker missing. (G)
Robert Fulton Ward 4 Q memory card won’t fit machine(G)
Cleve 5 J and C – only one machine working/precinct (G)
Bedford Heights 3C- power cord missing = one machine in four down (G)
Ward 2P One machine down but it is the one for handicap voters(G)
Cleve 1P One machine still not working at 7:30am, apparently stuck while loading(G)
Canterbury – machines not working and provisional ballots treated inappropriately but resolved by 8am (C)
St. Albans Cleve Hts 1D, 1J voting provisonallly at 8am because machines are not working(C)
Cleve Hts. 1E and 3G Alcazar-no machines working; reported to BOE at 7:45am(C)
Ward 10 M, Polling place closed 7:48 (M)
Cleve P- no memory cards recognized(G)
Bedford Heights 1A- only 2 cards for 4 machines(G)
Cleve 1R-tamper seal broken; waiting for next machine(G)
Cleve 1 D and E- at 7:45am neither machine had memory card to transfer assignment sheet. (G)
Franklin 3- long line; lots of tech issues (G)
Cleveland A2, machine froze during voting, voter left without voting (M)
Maple Hts 6A, long lines, ½ hr waits at 8:14, voters leaving in disgust, not enough machines, some broken down (M)
Cleveland 6 U,O,H, 3 out of 10 machines not working (reported at 8:15, solved at 8:35) (M)
Cleveland 20K machine problems (M)
Cleveland 11E Voter Akev Sakid didn’t get to vote 440-915-3391 because of problems (M)
Lakewood 4E, only one machine working (M)
Parma Ward 1, D and B, machines down, long lines (M)
Lakewood Precinct 3, Westerly Apts, long lines for a while (M)
Cleveland 18L- voter left card in machine, no resolution (M)
Cleveland 4D, 2 machines down, one tampered with, lines earlier (M)
Cleveland 7, I & C, machines not working (M)
Cleveland P, machine tampered with , not in use, so only 3 working (M)
Cleveland 10-K Poll workers are saying they don’t have enough machines, worried they won’t be able to handle push later on, at 10:15 am (M)
Cleveland 9E Had 4 machines, but can insert tape into 1 so only 3 working, 30-40 minutes wait (M)
Cleveland John Dunn 5G, problems with machines in morning, 1 machine stopped communicating with printer, another machine not working, one non working machine still had votes on it but couldn’t print backup. (M)
Roxboro School- techs from diebold came to fix machine, it refused to work
Ward 13 A, St. Martin Depoure (sp?) No machines were working until 8:25 a.m. because poll location given wrong encoder card (memory cards did not work). Until 8:25 a.m., voters cast optical scan ballots and our observers made sure poll workers wrote “regular ballot” on the optical scan ballots. (YB)
Lynhurst – Turning people away from the pools, because ran out of optical scan ballots. (YB)
Ward 20, Precinct J, L – Poll workers confused and slow. 3 of 5 machines not working in precinct J. 2 of 4 machines not working in precinct L. (YB)
Ward 16, Precincts P, Q and R – BOE Technician showed up. Memory cards were in the wrong machines. He opened machines, broke seal and switched some memory cards into their correct machine (5 total). BOE was called before all memory cards were switched and technician left. (YB)
Cleve 8am Ward 4H- 2 of 5 machines not working(G)
Cleve Hts W2-no machines working at 8:50am(G)
Cleve Hts.(Voter reported at 8:58am) W1 pct.1 Since 6:30am, the cards and readers do not work. They are handing out provisional votes or “optical scan regular ballots”. 10 people are in line but many have already left. This voter will fill out a declaration. (G)
Cleveland Hts 2 A and B no machines working. This call came at 9:11am. (G)
At 7:10am in Cleve 20J and L only 5 of nine machines worked; follow up at 7:23am: two of the machines fixed but 2 others determined to be permanently disabled, leaving only 7 of 9 machines working. (M)
Bedford Hts.. Ward 2. At 10:30am three of the eleven machines were not working (C ) .
Warr. Hts, Westville School 3A- no machines, no EDT, as of 7:24 no machines working, using opti scan (L)
Solon Advent Lutheran Church-5 A,B,C D all machines down, 7:17 (L)
Highland Heights 2D, 1Bdown and turning people away 7:17 (L)
Parma 2D- one of four machines paper log jammed (L)
Warrensville 1B polls opened late due to machine malfunction, took one hour to vote. Machines functioning at 8:28 call. (L)
John Dewey School 6A,5A,3C Warrensville Hts, 20 min wait- machine down, no response from BOE 8:44 (L)
Oakwood village, City Hall 2A overwhelmed, poll workers need reinforcements, too many voters, not enough machines, one voter left (9:40 am) (L-p.8)
Senior Citizens Center 4A- machines broken all morning, called last night, called today, still waiting for replacement, 6-7 people in line at 9:30 am.
Woodmere, line too long, people left- did get it fixed later in morning (L)
Clarksville Library A= 18 minute line, B=10 min. line at 10:30—just not enough machines
Westwood School- BOE brought in 4 machines to replace 5 that didn’t work with printers (all defective), couldn’t print zero report. Used optiscan, and those are being put in provisional envelope (L. p. 12- also noted under provisional problems) 12:23 still using optical scan ballots to move the line (L)
Precinct: 2 F
Location: Anthrop Towers, East Cleveland
Issue: Voting machine inoperative. Technician cannot get the machine operable. 3 out of 4 machines operable.
Reported to BOE:
Precinct: 14
Location: Faith United Methodist
Issue: Voting machines inoperative. 3 out of 4 machines inoperable.
Reported to BOE:
1. Precinct: 2 P
Location: Faith United Methodist
Issue: Memory cards not working.
Reported to BOE: Yes
2.
3. Precinct: 4 A, F, H
Location: Chambers School
Issue: Difficulty with memory cards. Resulting in long lines.
Reported to BOE: Yes
5. Precinct: 4 B, C
Location: Helen S. Brown
Issue: 2 machines are completely inoperable and 2 other machines working intermittently.
Supervisor:
Observer:
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE: Christy at 6:56 AM. Will try to get a tech down here ASAP
6. Precinct: 4 A, B, C, E, F
Location: Euclid
Issue: Machines operating eratically. There is a 20 minute line . Technicians onsite are trying to keep the machines up and running.
Supervisor:
Observer:
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE: Christy 7:18 AM. Will dispatch a supervisor.
7. Precinct: 2 B
Location: Lakeside Baptist Church, 12600 Euclid Ave.
Issue: One mach inoperable and the onsite technician was unable tot resolve the issue. Request was made to BOE for a technician supervisor.
Reported - Yes EP: 10:10 AM.
Reported to BOE: Not reported.
8. Precinct: 2 A.
Location: United Methodist Church 6630 Smith Road, Brookpark
Issue: 4 machines up and running . Needs 6. 25 people in line. Wait time about 30 minutes.
Reported - Yes EP: 10:10 AM
Reported to BOE: not reported
8. Precinct: 3 G, E
Location: New Covenant Lutheran Church
Issue: 2 machines down all day. Called in. No line now. This morning a 15 minute line. Worried about length of lines this afternoon. Need additional machines.
Observer:
Reported - Yes EP: 12:00 PM.
Reported to BOE: not reported
9. 11 C Precinct:
Location: Bedford Heights Aurora Road Upper Intermediate School
Issue: only 2 working machines, there is a 30 – 45 minute wait
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE: reported at 1:00 PM
10. Precinct: 11 C
Location: Beth Israel Church 18100
Issue: machines not set up 20 minute to a 1 hour wait. 30 to 40 people left. Initially no machine available for the precincts provisional ballots. Poll workers were tearing off the top section.
Supervisor:
Observer
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:
11. Precinct: 2 D
Location: Fairfax
Issue: Problems with memory cards
Supervisor:
Observer
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:
12. Precinct: 1 H
Location: Coventry
Issue: 89 people could not vote due to machine problems and cast a paper vote. The workers tore stubs off and put them in envelopes
Supervisor:
Observer:
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:
12. Precinct: P
Location: Fuch s MizachiPocky SchoolUniversity Heights
Issue: older presiding judge was lost.
Supervisor:
Observer
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:
13.Precinct: 11 C
Location: Temple Emanuel
Issue: plder presiding judge, delay in opening polls delayed by 20 .
Supervisor:
Observer
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:
14. Precint: 4A, B
Location: Solon Road, Bedford Heights
Issue: Observer corrected the poll workers that had incorrectly used the encryption card form one precinct to another in violation of policies. The workers then told observer to leave and had the police remove the wokrker. The BOE was called and the observer was let back in.
14. Precinct: 4 C
Location: First Baptist Church, Bedford
Issues: Voting a provisional ballot , the workers had the voters signing the incorrect book.
Precinct: L
Location: Hampton Recreation BuildingBeachwood
Issue: refused to accept a utility bill as identification
Supervisor:
Observer:
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:issues
Machine /operator problem
Ward 11 D,C,P- running late, struggle to get zero reports(F)
Cleveland 13 S,T,U—trouble loading paper and canister problems (Y)
Maple hts High School 5 A,B,C,D- voters allowed to vote in wrong precincts
Cleveland O-9, voter asked for assistance using machine, pollworkers refused to help, didn’t get to vote (filled out incident report) (M p. 7 11:47)
In Cleve 20 L technician switched memory cards. (M)
Brooklawn Elem, Cleveland ward 19, Precinct F and E: subs problem---“A and B stubs go here”---tearing off stubs and putting in envelope---p -59 shown , not sufficient; poll worker called BOE---told to take off B stub, leave A. (S)(2:25)
Howard Precinct V: no scan ballots; does have provisionals. (S)
Bedford/Bedford Heights: confusion re stubs, which sign/retain---will have observers complete incident report. (S)(3:52)
Brooklawn Elem, Cleveland ward 19, Precinct F and E: subs problem---“A and B stubs go here”---tearing off stubs and putting in envelope---p -59 shown , not sufficient; poll worker called BOE---told to take off B stub, leave A. (S)(2:25)
Howard Precinct V: no scan ballots; does have provisionals. (S)
Bedford/Bedford Heights: confusion re stubs, which sign/retain---will have observers complete incident report. (S)(3:52)
Opened late because of building access problem/other access problems
Paul Lawrence Dunbar- Cleveland 14, C,D,E, Q- no keys, no access to bldg (F)(Y) E& C opened at 7pm, D&Q opened at 7:10 (Y)
Cleve M- just got running at 7:15am(G)
Ward 17, Precincts L, M & N – School Lot small and every spot filled. Police ticketed voters parking on the street between 7-9 a.m. Sign also indicates no parking between 3-6 p.m. RESOLUTION – City relaxing enforcement of no parking zone near voting location. (YB)
Ward 14, Precinct D - Only 5 people listed in pool book.(YB)
Warrensville Hts 7A&B, moved St. Judes to Parish center across driveway, no signs out, church is condemned, plenty of people out, not hard to find, no flags to post, some voters confused, problem, but not devastating (L)
Warrensville 1B, took 1 hour to vote, polls opened late (L, p. 6)
FRANK FINK’S DATA: Precinct: 11 D , P, C
Location: Chambers School
Issue: Running well behind. All poll except one is new. Having difficulty getting up and running. Trouble getting people to work.
Supervisor: Reported to BOE: By at 6:40 AM
1. Precinct: 2E
Location: My. Nebo Baptist Church Annex, 12713 Superior, Cleveland
Issue: All poll judges cancel at the last minute except one. The one who did show became ill and returned home. As 7:14, one functional machine. One voter had to leave and cast a paper ballot. Others waited and no one was turned away. Unknown wait time. As of 11:10 AM, up and running per Kevin, despite reports that the site was totally down.
Supervisor:
Reported - Yes EP: reported at 5:550 AM
Reported to BOE: Yes, the said replacements would be dispatched.
Problems due to lack of staffing
Mt. Nebo Baptist in Cleveland 2E- opened at 7:10—no BOE staff at first, now short handed (F)
Canterbury- no R poll worker , EDT won’t open till there is (D) (see other Canterbury problems)
Solon 2A/5A- no presiding judges (C)
Cleveland Ward 11 C, P, D: opened 20 min late, Precinct D- missing 2 judges, everyone is new, long lines (M)
Ward 11 U Cleveland, opened 15 min late, only 3 workers, confused, not yet voting at 7:12 (M)
Franklin 3- Presiding Judge missing- opened but long line; lots of tech issues (G)
Only one judge in Cleveland 11D, slow lines (M)
East Cleveland Mt. Nebo 2E- no voting machines working all day. (M)
Chambers Elementary 4A,F,H opened 45 minutes late, had problems at least until 8:30 (M)
Lakeside Baptist 2A 1 machine down (M)
Helen Brown Senior Center 4B&E, problems with codes until 9:30 am (M)
Prospect Elementary 4 D & F, opened 30 min late (M)
MLK CMC Center 3D & I, 5 of 8 machines not working, 3 never worked, huge lines (M)
St. John’s Lutheran Church,Ward 11 Precinct I, no workers showed up to set up the night before, only one worker showed in the morning, later others showed up,not up and running till 7 am.
Ward 12, Precincts C, F - Insufficient election officials (2 poll workers short in each precinct), one precinct does not have a presiding judge. (YB)
Ward 17, Precincts E, F – Insufficient election officials. No presiding judges showed up and no poll workers showed in precinct E. A poll worker from F substituted for E. (YB)
Maple Heights Fire Station #1, contentious poll workers arguing, delayed opening by 10 min. (L) 2 gentlemen from BOE ejected someone from the fire station, other people in polling place are upset about it
Staffing problems (no info re: whether this resulted in delayed opening or other problems)
Cleve Hts 4J- Forest Hills—no EDT (C)
Solon 5B- no presiding judge (D)
Granger School 12 (C) short 2 poll workers
Ward 18 E, A, F- only one presiding judge for all 3 precincts (Y)
Cleveland 14 W Max Hayes- no presiding judge (Y)
Cleveland 20 D-missing 1 worker (Y)
E-missing 2 workers (Y)
J- No presiding judge (Y)
K- no worker (Y)
Cleveland 13W no. P5 couldn’t open machines for short time (G)
One EDT for 4 precincts (G)
Cleveland 6A- only one Republican judge showed up (M)
Cleveland A2, only one poll worker (M)
Cleveland 6H- no presiding judge (M)
Cleve Ward 4 8am – Presiding Judge just left(G)
Parma Ward 9 J-only two judges out of four at 6:30am (Elks Lodge)(M)
Lakewood W2J 3 out of 4 judges missing(M)
Lakewood W2P- 2 out of 4 judges missing at 7am(M)
Cleve 20 J and L- West Park Slovenian- Presiding Judge did not arrive and the other three seemed confused. (M)
Cleveland Hts. 5E and J: Hope Evangelical on N. Taylor: Presiding Judge says the observer is not able to interact with the voters.(C)
Granger School, Maple Hts, 2 poll workers missing , BOE sent only one
Opened Late – no reason given
Grantwood Golf Course, 38855 Aurora Rd, Solon opened 20 minutes late. This information provided to M by Regional Field Organizer, Dems. Says he got this info from Candidate.
Cleve 5F and 5M-delayed precinct openings of approximately one half hour.(G)
Observer not allowed to work or hassled
Huron Apts, E. Cleve- observer not allowed in (F)
Parma 4A,I, F- observer not allowed in till poll opened (F)
No observers allowed Cle Hts 2H (D)
Cleveland 11 C, D, P, 2 pollworkers complained to BOE, told observers not to call BOE and not to talk to poll workers or voters. (M)
Cleveland 10-D , Q,R,S- observer walked outside, Sally Floukewicz from BOE told her not to talk to ANYONE. (M p.7, 10:59)
Firestation #1, Maple Heights Gary @ BOE told observer he was not allowed to interact, only to observe (L, p. 6)
Cleveland 20J and 20L, BOE told judges not to talk to observer (L)
Voter-Precinct Issues
Address that voter gave did not show up on BOE website (G and W)
Lakewood 2Q, police officer sending voters to wrong precinct (was corrected 9:20) (M)
Firestation #1 Maple Heights- lots of voters at precinct B, not many at precinct D, voters are impatient (L)
Brookpark United Methodist- a lot of name changes, addresses don’t match.(L)
Long Lines
Lee Road Library 2J very long lines at 8am(C)
Cleveland Hts. Noble Rd Library- lines are 75 minutes; worst at 4N and 4H and 4D and 4L. One line for sign in, one line for card; some people are leaving after signing in(C)
Bedford Glendale School 4A and B- lines are too long and voters are leaving(C)
Cleveland Hts Grace Lutheran Church 2K long lines at 8:30am(C)
Lee Rd Library- 8am-2I long lines(C)
Cleve. Hts. 2K Lutheran Church on Cedar, long lines(C)
Cleve Hts. 2K, 3C and 2D are waiting 40 minutes to vote. (C)
Precinct 20 J&L, very long line from 10 until after 12; 45 min. long, 2 people left without voting (S)
Provisional Ballot Problems
Cleveland 11 C,D,P giving out provisional ballots to people in line to speed voting up (M)
Cleveland 10M, person voted provisional ballot—presiding judge said board of elections told him/her that observer couldn’t talk to voters after voting(M)
Woman moved out of precinct, brought ID, given provisional ballot, issues ballot not given to her. Registered co-worker made to vote provisionally, also not given issues ballot. Voter had moved within precinct, pollworker told voter to use provisional ballot (M)
Ward 20-21, Gunning Recreational – Report that a large number of provisional ballots being cast (i.e. people not in poll books, possibly sent to wrong polling place by BOE). RESOLUTION – Supervisor checked and was told only 3-4 provisional ballots cast in each precinct.(YB)
Bedford Hts. 2A At 8:52am a provisional ballot was cast. After the voter left, the worker discovered the voter could have voted by regular ballot. Since the voter had left, Dora told the observer that the information should be written on the provisional ballot. (G)
At 9:11am, a call from Columbus stated that in Cleveland 20M and P there is a list of people who must vote provisionally. (G)
From a call from Columbus at 9:11am, one of the Presiding Judges called and asked “Am I supposed to sign the provisional vote or is the BOE worker?” (G)
Ridgewood Elem. School, Lyndhurst (W1DorE)- giving people provisional ballots and not explaining what they are. This information provided to M by Paul Mernacheck, Regional Field Organizer, Dems. Says he got this info from Candidate Roger Gundy.
Westwood School- BOE brought in 4 machines to replace 5 that didn’t work with printers (all defective), couldn’t print zero report. Used optiscan, and those are being put in provisional envelope (L. p. 12- also noted under provisional problems)(L-p. 19 12:23- presiding judge filled out pink sheets, said no need to record SSN, checked ID and said that’s ok. 20 min. line.
Shaker Hts DD, O: Additional electors list, lots of provisional ballots being issued.(L)
Cleveland 19M- poll judge challenging all provisional ballots
3-I: six people listed as required to do provisionals---all did---did not give reasons. (S) (12:30)
3-I: six people listed as required to do provisionals---all did---did not give reasons. (S) (12:30)
Absentee Ballot Issues
Bedford 2A. Poll worker accepted absentee ballot. The 9:20 am follow up is that that absentee ballot will not be accepted and the vote won’t count. (G)
Parma 4 H no absentee voter list in supply box-- seemed too many people marked Absentee, voters said they never requested absentee ballots (L)
Precinct Ballot Issues
Presbyterian Church, 5312 Mayfield Rd. (not sure of Ward or pct): Giving ballots from the wrong precinct to voters. This information provided to M by Paul Mernacheck, Regional Field Organizer, Dems. Says he got this info from Candidate Roger Goudy.
Euclid 1-D: voter sent card but not in poll book. (S)(11:00)
Parma, Pleasant View Elementary, 770 Malibew, 7-D,7-F, 7-I and 7-J: refusing to take sample democratic ballots into voting booth. Called to BOE.
ID Issues
Forest Hills 3E- Carl Rottenberg’s driver’s license was being written down. (C)
Bedford 2A (bellweather, High School, 481 Northfield). Voter asked for PROOF of DOB. Voter left. (C) .
Fairfax, CH 2E,F Anne Billington, voter, was not told to sign the book.
She voted but is concerned that it might not count (C).
Precinct: L
Location: Hampton Recreation BuildingBeachwood
Issue: refused to accept a utility bill as identification
Supervisor:
Observer:
Reported - Yes EP:
Reported to BOE:issues
Mayfield Village City/Community Hall: Keelin O’Neil states signs of Katz campaign pulled and destroyed; Alan paid permit fee; all others removed.(S)
TSX Assignment Sheet Problems
Cleveland 3 N and #J, no TXS assignment sheets, no one seems to know what observer is talking about (L- p. 10-approx 10 am)
OTHER:
Cleveland, 2O, 3N, 2G, 3J- no one in whole polling place (L)
3J, 3N, one EDT for all chips, that person did not record which chip went into which machine, observer convinced poll workers to record which chip number ws from which machine. No chip numbers on security log, no TSX sheets. (L-16, 10:30)
Shaker Hts community Bldg (?L-p.17) voter passed out and knocked over machine, machine now out of order, people had voted prior to it being knocked over.
Shaker Hts community Bldg. (? L-p.17) family got card from BOE, not in book and not on list of additional electors
Mayfield Hts destroyed all lawn signs at polling places, said need $100 permit (L)
Problems Resolved
Ward 10 precinct 7, open and functioning, all problems resolved 8:21 am (M)
New Covenent Lutheran 3F and 2G, problems earlier, now fixed at 10:15 (M)
Carla reported that Elsie Day (470-1729) reported that the access cards were being reincripted for another precinct. This apparently is OK, according to Carla.
Bedford Heights-Service Building-Ward 4 A and B: sending voters from one precinct to another, at least one vote voided; since corrected. (S) (Between 12:30-1:00

********

Land of the free, Cleveland

A wrapup on all the stuff that I've got sitting on the computer right now. "Who cares?" you say. Good question. Certainly a subtext of politics these days is how the blogs are all talk and no action. Well no one on our side has had any power nationally for pretty much 6 years, so we were never really going to get things moving until now.

As for me, well, I just don't know if campaign work is what I want to do. It is very hard but I respect it - on either side it is a grueling thing, and probably even worse in other states. Tomorrow I'm going to help door-knock for the DFL much of the day, then go check out some things going on in Minneapolis and St. Paul. One of those days where you go out and try to find out what is really going on. Going to take a lot of pictures and catch The Process.

For me, in this new and somewhat better phase that damn well better start tomorrow, well, writing on the website is going to have to take second priority to working enough to make rent, and also engaging with politics in a way that is actually productive, rather than just screaming at the wind in the usual way. That would definitely be a good thing.

For all the bitching, though, there have been a lot of useful principles and information collected during the CryptoBush years. Now we have whole new ways of developing political awareness and momentum, and a kind of 'digital collective memory' that makes it impossible for the shady patterns of power that have dominated modern America from continuing their reign.

We're gonna win big this time, for Hunter, for all the people that are disgusted with truthiness and want the damned truth.

Pentagon gaining quasi-PSY OPS organization to fight Information operations/wars at the American information public sphere etc:

NY Times: Pentagon Widens Its Battle to Shape News of Iraq War

By DAVID S. CLOUD and THOM SHANKER

Published: November 3, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 — The Pentagon is reorganizing its public affairs operation in an attempt to influence news coverage, amid internal frustration at the tone and substance of reporting on Iraq and on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The expanded office, which was first described by department officials in an informal press briefing on Monday, features a “rapid response unit” to react to news reports. It is also stepping up efforts to arrange appearances by department officials on talk radio and cable television, and to recruit “surrogates” who are not on the department’s payroll to defend its policies.

A dozen new staff members have started to work behind a newly installed wall in the Pentagon’s press office.

Officials involved say the new effort, which was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense Dorrance Smith, is not primarily a response to negative coverage but rather is aimed at more aggressively challenging articles and broadcasts deemed inaccurate and at making better use of podcasts, blogs and other new outlets.

“This is about the Department of Defense keeping the American people better informed about the nature of its operations, its activities, and its policies,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. “We would have to do this even if we were not nation at war.”

But officials also concede that much of the effort so far has focused on disputing stories about the war in Iraq and about Mr. Rumsfeld that they deem to be inaccurate. Pentagon officials in recent months have issued a flood of letters to the editor taking issue with accounts of Mr. Rumsfeld’s role in setting Iraq strategy, the content of his speeches and other matters of fact and interpretation in newspapers and magazine articles.

More on that. related: U.S. Seeks Silence on CIA Prisons - washingtonpost.com. AP Wire: U.S. war prisons legal vacuum for 14,000.WaPo: Bush Wants "Terrorists" Thrown Deeper Into Black Hole. PrisonPlanet.com: Pentagon Will "Catapult the Propaganda" Via U.S. Media: Military, government indoctrination wing formally declares psychological warfare on the American people!! [w000000!]

Criminalizing exposing the truth about Iraq. The only metric that really matters on Iraq.

Also the use of Position papers and fear of dictatorship, all from MyLeftWing.com. UK has become a surveillance society.

Looking back at 2004 shadiness: Truthisall.net looks at how the exit polls were leading to a Kerry victory. Voting machines going to get more federal scrutiny next year. Diebold's actual voting machine business is not profitable at all: they should sell it! Check BlackBoxVoting.org!! What they are looking for.

Poll wanderings: Polls are just nuts. Consider all these polls from just the last week and how the gayMethPreacherGate collided with KerryBigMouthFeignOutrageGate. This Gallup poll looked perhaps too good for Democrats. Netroots wouldn't support Rahm Emanuel for speaker.

God wants you to kill the Arabs: how to rationalize religion into politics in spooky ways.

Blogs and Monks: not so different.

“There has never been an American army as violent and murderous as the one in Iraq”: Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh slams Bush at McGill address

Robocalls dirty tricks: AKA RoboSpoofing. How to tape robocalls. The DCCC is tracking the dirty tricks issue, as is keith Olbermann and TPM. Ian Welsh in the Agonist on this;

Republicans and Republican proxies have flooded key battleground areas with calls and robocalls to Democrats and independents. The calls are long, tedious and appear to come from the Democratic candidate in the state. They tend to come in at around 2am to 3am. And if you hang up, they call again, and again, and again... The goal, of course, is to suppress turnout - to make people so pissed that they don't vote.

I am copying his handy list of shady tricks:

• Finding out you're not on the voters list, voting with a provisional ballot which in most cases will never be counted
• Not enough machines delivered to Democratic leaning precincts
• Off duty police intimidting blacks and hispanics
• Many people arriving at the wrong polling station because they got a phone call giving them the wrong location
• Scrutineers demanding multiple pieces of ID even when not required by law
• Republican districts reporting their votes last, after closed door counting sessions
• Overvotes: cases where more people vote than are registed to vote in the riding
• Posters and fliers in Democratic areas listing the wrong polling place or saying that more ID is required than is needed by law
• Districts where machines are inoperative for hours
• Cases where the machines register the Republican instead of the Democrat, no matter what you pick
• And much more

Indeed.

Neoconservatives backstab Bush Administration: in a great moment, Vanity Fair leaked excerpts of leading neoconservatives bitching at the Bush people for fucking up the war. This is funny - via Wonkette:

Michael Ledeen, American Enterprise Institute freedom scholar: "Ask yourself who the most powerful people in the White House are. They are women who are in love with the president: Laura [Bush], Condi, Harriet Miers, and Karen Hughes."

Also they have a plan for a comeback: Bomb Iran and Lieberman for President. Yep, it's dumb. More on running for cover and here.

Florida is nuts: Katherine Harris says all kinds of crazy shit.

The Faux Kerry Insult fracas: It was just weird. A roundup of 9/11 exploitation gestures from Bush.

Save the Israeli and Palestinian moderates: read this, and about humanitarian collapse and destabilization.

How Journalists Lost the Connecticut Senate Race. Army Times: 'Time for Rumsfeld to go' (full text). Hotline's saturday update on the Campaign. McLaughlin Group favors a Senator Webb 3 to 2, even Blankley's with Webb!

Afghanistan is going to fall apart: read this interview with NPR reporter Sarah Chayes, which portrays the reality of ongoing Pakistani support for the Taliban, including news that the border near Quetta is totally open, and that is where most of the Taliban leadership is hanging out.

Random from DailyKos: History of wars and elections: worth glancing at. Breaking down the Fortress GOP. The kids are gonna be right-wing? Rove's armies of the night. NY Times is all anti-Republican now. It is a battle for Total Governance. How Conservatives Exploit Our Five Core Concerns. Runaway Nukes: Bush Not First Republican President to Betray US.

Fitz moves to contain CIA leak court case: He doesn't want the whole thing to be examined - just the parts he can nail Libby with. There has to be another legal strategy to keep hitting them.

Mike Stark keeps getting his ass kicked: In the madness of the Allen/Webb race, one law student/blogger, Mike Stark got tackled and then arrested at another event. But with all this video these days we can clearly the Allen guys were acting way too aggressive, as they tend to do.

The Press Corpse: ABC political director Halperin begs Hugh Hewitt to love him: Hugh Hewitt is a bloviating conservative radio show host and blogger, and Mark Halperin, the director of ABC's political news coverage, went on Hewitt's show and begged Hewitt to confirm that Halperin is not a secret liberal, and this extended into a smooch fest with letters of fealty exchanged. What the fuck? Would someone like Kos expect a news director to promise not to be liberal and get all these lovey letters out of him? That's ridiculous.

Iraq continues disintegration: The Bushies bought a little quiet with Saddam-verdict-based curfews around Iraq, but of course the real situation hasn't changed at all. Even the great mighty Bechtel pulling out after 3 rough years of rebuilding work.

Open Source Intelligence: Going to have to check this out later and this too, and here, here. So why did the guy running this site, Robert Steele, a veteran of the American intel community and an author of serious books about intelligence reform, endorse the full blown "synthetic terror" conspiracy theory? His Amazon reviews are pretty sweet.

Karen Weldon and the Serbs, another corrupt foreign lobbying relationship. Productivity going down.

Paranoia Alternative Universe etc: watch Wayne Madsen interviewed on a Portland community TV show Outside the Box. Official website @ alexansary.com. Actually pretty funny. The late Sherman Skolnick on a conspiracy involving the Clintons and everyone back in the day. Not that I'm a believer, but its a funny one starring Vince Foster and Rahm Emanuel. The late great Skolnick's page. They are going to require clearance from Homeland Security to even leave America??! Gore Vidal on 9/11 and stuff (video). Bush admits demolitions? 911keymaster.com. Rockefeller Predicted "Event" To Trigger War Eleven Months Before 9/11. Former World Bank Chief Economist Predicts Global Crash. The NAFTA Superhighway!! XFiles' Lone Gunmen and 9/11. Cloakanddagger summarizes their favorite 9/11 conspiracies. A German intelligence officer Andreas von Bülow says Cloak and Dagger is on the right track?! What about the AIPAC case, and secret balconies? It all reads too silly to me... Fake 9/11 phone calls??

Nerd out: Spyware company Zango under pressure - their spyware opens doors for hackers. Best game levels of all time. Funny Borat story. Apparently there are five women to every man in Beirut these days and things are steamy. All the nerds gotta go. CarryABigSticker.com liberal gear.

Well that's all the links I got for this political era. It's my friend's birthday tomorrow.

After the deal is sealed, Fuck it man. I'm going bowling.