on chicanery

Some Voters Say Machines Failed, Incorrect Choices Appear on Screens from Daily Kos
Albuquerque Journal
By Jim LudwickJournal Staff Writer

Kim Griffith voted on Thursday— over and over and over. She's among the people in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties who say they have had trouble with early voting equipment. When they have tried to vote for a particular candidate, the touch-screen system has said they voted for somebody else.
It's a problem that can be fixed by the voters themselves— people can alter the selections on their ballots, up to the point when they indicate they are finished and officially cast the ballot. For Griffith, it took a lot of altering.
She went to Valle Del Norte Community Center in Albuquerque, planning to vote for John Kerry. "I pushed his name, but a green check mark appeared before President Bush's name," she said.

From Atrios
Election Fraud
In Ohio people are being called and told to vote at the wrong precinct, which explains their Secretary of State Blackwell's obsession with preventing people from using provisional ballots in the incorrect precinct.

People for the American Way tells us this incident (there's lots more, just click the link):
Most recently, controversy has erupted over the use in the Orlando area of armed, plainclothes officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to question elderly black voters in their homes. The incidents were part of a state investigation of voting irregularities in the city's March 2003 mayoral election. Critics have charged that the tactics used by the FDLE have intimidated black voters, which could suppress their turnout in this year’s elections. Six members of Congress recently called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate potential civil rights violations in the matter.

other things: i've heard about other dubious actions that seem to be getting squelched here and there. in Pennsylvania, there was a last minute effort to move 60-some poll locations that was organized by republicans. It was challenged, and the poll places will not be changed. And in Florida, one heavily African American county was allotted only one early-voting booth. There was an uproar, and now there will be four or six locations. If you hear of other stories, please let me know or report it to: People for the American Way, Telephone: 202-467-4999 or 800-326-7329 • pfaw@pfaw.org