NewsTrust - Election Reform - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Players guide 2012 campaign

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson, team - Mar. 04 (Fact Check) - The 2012 campaign cycle marks the first presidential election since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that allowed corporations and unions to spend more freely in federal elections. The loosened campaign finance rules, coupled with an intense competition between the two major parties, have served only to embolden independent political groups that hope to influence the 2012 races. Below is a list of most major groups that have been active or expect to be active in the 2012 federal elections. Many of these groups can accept unlimited donations. Others can accept unlimited donations and avoid disclosing their donors. There’s even a new breed of so-called independent groups that advocate solely for a single presidential candidate.

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EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Officials Confirm Criminal Election Fraud Investigation of Gingrich Campaign

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Brad Blog - Jan. 31 (News) - Had the same thing been carried out by a worker for the now-defunct ACORN, Republicans -- and even Newt Gingrich -- would have called it massive "voter fraud". But the 1,500 acts of fraud, by Gingrich's own admission, were carried out by a worker hired by his campaign, so ...

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As States Take on Citizens United, Lawrence Lessig Offers Bold Plan to Get Money Out of Politics

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 04 (News Report) - California and New York City lawmakers are introducing measures today calling for a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United, the controversial 2010 Supreme Court ruling that characterizes political spending as free speech and opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending on election campaigns. Similar measures have passed in Los Angeles, Oakland, Albany and Boulder. We speak with Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, author of a new book that examines how money buys results in Congress and fuels campaigns that put the powerful in office. Lessig argues that both De

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Lawrence Lessig: The Great Promise of Super-PACs

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Lawrence Lessig - Dec. 20 (Special Report) - There's a certain terror to the life of a Member of Congress that, with all their pomp and pretense, is easy to miss. It runs something like this: An incumbent goes into an election, fairly confident about his or her prospects. They have money in the bank, polling in the low sixties, and an opponent with little chance to close the gap. Then 30 days out, a super-PAC drops half a million dollars in the district, funding attack ads, and ads that support the challenger. Very quickly, an easy reelection is thrown into doubt. Incumbents are beginning to recognize this pattern. But the most terrifying bit for the country is how they are reacting.

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Pastors who illegally endorse from pulpit face few consequences

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - Oct. 08 (News) -

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Ranked-choice voting complaints mount

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

californiawatch.org - By Lance WIlliams - Nov. 22 (News) - In a post-election interview, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the incoming lieutenant governor, told his hometown paper that he was among city voters who had been confused by ranked-choice voting. Newsom said he filled out his own ballot incorrectly, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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State to investigate Saguache County election

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Alamosa Valley Courier - By Teresa L Benns - Nov. 12 (News Report) - The reversal of the election results occurred after Myers and her staff counted the additional mail-in ballots, but Saguache County election judges maintain all mail-in votes were counted last Tuesday. A similar situation occurred in 2008 when absentee ballots were found in Center that overturned earlier counts for the mayoral and trustee races following the municipal election there.

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The Battle of Harris County

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Texas Observer - By Abby Rapoport - Nov. 01 (Investigative Report) - Before this election it was rare to hear of even one complaint from a voter. So far this cycle, there have been more than 55 in Harris County—many of which allege voter intimidation. True the Vote has promised it will have over 1000 poll watchers out on election day to ensure the process is fair, but so many poll watchers also heightens concerns about intimidation.

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Voting Challenges 2010

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Brennan Center for Justice - Oct. 31 (Special Report) - PowerPoint presentation on voting history and problems

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Computer Scientists, Election Integrity Advocates Question Feasibility of "Digital Democracy"

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Alissa Bohling - Oct. 13 (Special Report) - Despite the recent hack during public testing of DC's Internet voting pilot and the rash of other security problems that have plagued the short history of online voting systems, elections entrepreneurs, along with some state officials and voter advocates, continue to make headway as they push for the adoption of i-voting technology.read more

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State to Tackle Ann Coulter Voter Fraud Allegations Next Week

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

com - By Leanne Gendreau - Oct. 07 (News) - Daniel Borchers, a blogger who has written critically of Coulter, filed a complaint in 2009, claiming that Coulter used the Connecticut address in both 2002 and 2004 for absentee ballots, during which time she was living in Manhattan.

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Unlocking IRV in Aspen

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Aspen Times - By Aaron Hedge - Oct. 03 (Special Report) - There was no talk in that meeting about the previous night, when three private election engineers, hired by the city to count the ballots, reconfigured the tabulation software for the election computers after they discovered an egregious flaw. It had tallied test sample ballots incorrectly, causing the test candidate with the fewest votes to win.

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Right Wing Foments Voter Fraud Conspiracies, Hatches ‘Voter Caging’ Plot To Suppress Minority Votes In WI

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Josh Dorner - Sep. 22 (News Report) - Documents and audio recordings released yesterday by One Wisconsin Now document an apparent plot by the Wisconsin Republican Party, Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (aka Fight Back Wisconsin), and various other tea party groups to suppress votes from minorities and students in this year’s elections using a well-documented — and illegal— practice known as “voter caging.” The alleged plot offers fresh evidence that long-discredited right-wing conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud supposedly perpetrated by minorities and others remain alive and well in both the official GOP establishment and its tea party base

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Target's gay problem keeps getting worse [UPDATED]

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

City Pages - By Nick Pinto - Aug. 11 (News Report) - Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel wants us to believe that when his company threw money into Tom Emmer's campaign for governor last month, it wasn't because Emmer's a raging homophobe, but because he's a raging pro-business tax-cutter.

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Anti-Corruption Law in Effect This Year

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

avaaz.org - By Jaylan Boyle - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Law 9840 prevents candidates who have been convicted of any one of a range of crimes, including electoral fraud, from running for public office. The law passed unanimously through the senate on May 19th, and was ratified by President Luis Inacio da Silva. Last week the law passed a final hurdle when by a vote of six to one the Federal Election Board, which is actually a court composed of judges that has enforceable power, upheld the applicability of the law to October’s elections.

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Rove-Linked Group Uses Secret Donors to Fund Attacks

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Kenneth P. Vogel - Jul. 22 (News Report) - A new political operation conceived by Republican operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie formed a spinoff group last month that - thanks in part to its ability to promise donors anonymity - has brought in more money in its first month than the parent organization has raised since it started in March.

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Mandatory Voting As a Cure for Extreme Partisanship?

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Emily Badger - Jul. 08 (Special Report) - If every adult American had to vote, perhaps the extremists on both ends of the spectrum could be shushed out by the silent majority.

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Good-Government Groups Spending Big Money On Fair-Elections Push

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Jul. 08 (News Report) - In a push to implement a publicly-financed election system and curb moneyed interests in politics, a pair of good-government groups is launching a television ad campaign with a noteworthy price tag. Common Cause and Public Campaign, two organizations known for exposing the murkier influences on legislative and electoral processes, are staking $8 million to try and burnish Congress with the willpower to pass the Fair Elections Now Act. And they're willing to spend as much as $15 million on their campaign-season gambit.

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Investigate this

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Power Line - By Scott Johnson, Jennifer Rubin - Jun. 29 (News Analysis) - In the first year of the Obama administration, we saw how justice can be politicized when the Department of Justice dismissed the civil rights charges brought against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation at a polling station in Philadelphia on election day 2008. Jennifer Rubin provides a useful summary of the case: On Election Day 2008, two members of the New Black Panther party (NBPP) dressed in military garb were captured on videotape at a Philadelphia polling place spouting racial epithets and menacing voters. ... The Obama administration's dismissal of the charges occurred over the stalwart opposition of Christopher Coates and J. Christian Adams, the career Department of Justice attorneys who brought it. For his efforts, Coates has been reassigned to South Carolina.

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BP Funnels Millions into Lobbying to Influence Regulation

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 06 (News Analysis) - The entire oil industry, will continue to use its vast wealth unequaled by any global industry to escape regulation, restriction, oversight and enforcement," “BP, now the source of the last two great deadly US oil industry explosions, has shown us that this simply cannot be permitted.”

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Behind The Arizona Immigration Law: GOP Game to Swipe the November Election

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Greg Palast - Apr. 26 (Investigative Report) - Our investigation in Arizona discovered the real intent of the show-me-your-papers law. Phoenix - Don't be fooled. The way the media plays the story, it was a wave of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that moved Arizona Republicans to pass a sick little law, signed last week, requiring every person in the state to carry papers proving they are US citizens. I don't buy it. Anti-Hispanic hysteria has always been as much a part of Arizona as the saguaro cactus and excessive air-conditioning.

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Higher Corporate Spending on Election Ads Could Be All but Invisible

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

ProPublica - By Chisun Lee - Mar. 10 (News Report) - The Supreme Court recently freed [1] corporations to spend more money on aggressive election ads. But if businesses take advantage of this new freedom, the public probably won't know it, because it's easy for them to legally hide their political spending.

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Judge dismisses Marks’ suit against city

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

aspendailynews.com - By Curtis Wackerle - Mar. 10 (Breaking News) - Pitkin County District Court Judge James B. Boyd, in a ruling issued Wednesday morning, agreed with the city’s argument that allowing public inspection of photographic images made of the ballots cast in the May 5 election would violate state law.

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Bayh Endorses Public Financing For Campaigns As Retirement Nears

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Mar. 03 (News Report) - When Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) announced his pending retirement from Congress last month, he cited the power of moneyed interests over the legislative process, among other things, as a compelling reason to exit. Now, on one important measure, he's backing up his words with action. The Indiana Democrat on Wednesday became the latest senator to sign on as a co-sponsor the Fair Elections Now Act, which would set up a public-financing system for national campaigns.

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Massachusetts Exit Polls for 2010 Senate Race: There Are None

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Jan. 19 (News) - Those seeking exit polls for the 2010 Massachusetts Senate Race will be disappointed to know there aren't any. Mike Allen of Politico reports about the...

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