The Washington Post reports: The Washington Post today confirmed that W. Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat," the secretive source who provided information that helped unravel the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s and contributed to the resignation of president Richard M. Nixon.

The confirmation came from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story, and their former top editor, Benjamin C. Bradlee. The three spoke after Felt's family and Vanity Fair magazine identified the 91-year-old Felt, now a retiree in California, as the long-anonymous source who provided crucial guidance for some of the newspaper's groundbreaking Watergate stories. -- Washington Post Confirms Felt Was 'Deep Throat'

And analyzes here: W. Mark Felt always denied he was Deep Throat. "It was not I and it is not I," he told Washingtonian magazine in 1974 in the same month that Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace after a lengthy investigation and threat of impeachment, aided in no small part by the guidance Felt had provided to The Washington Post.

It was a denial he maintained for three decades, until today. Throughout that period, he lived with one of the greatest secrets in journalism history and with his own sense of conflict and tension over the role he had played in bringing down a president in the Watergate scandal: Was he a hero for helping the truth come out, or a turncoat who betrayed his government, his president and the FBI he revered by leaking to the press? -- The Motives That Drove Felt to Talk

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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports: The state elections director is biased against the Republicans in their legal challenge to the 2004 governor's election, a GOP lawyer suggested strongly in court today.

While cross-examining elections director Nick Handy, lawyer Dale Foreman cited a letter Handy wrote in January to lawyers for the secretary of state's office, where Handy works.

That letter, Handy testified, was designed to communicate his conclusion that Republican claims regarding how many voters cast ballots were baseless. The GOP has said discrepancies between the number of ballots counted and the number of voters credited with voting could indicate fraud.

"If we can successfully demonstrate that this is an unfounded claim, I would hope that this would severely undermine the confidence of the court in the other R claims," Handy wrote.

On the stand, Handy said there are some claims that have been pursued by the Republicans that "I do not believe are valid claims ... I thought this was really undermining the trust and confidence of the average voter in the election system in a way that was not fair or accurate." -- State elections director biased, GOP suggests

Note: The quote in the title is my interpretation of what Director Handy meant, but did not say.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Philadelphia's proposed new laws limiting campaign contributions by some city contractors, if approved by the voters this fall, are likely to withstand any legal challenge.

So say experts in campaign-finance law and reform advocates from around the country.

"I have no doubt that any challenge to this sort of pay-to-play law will fail in the courts, and fail quickly," said Craig Holman, campaign-finance lobbyist for Public Citizen, a Washington-based organization founded by Ralph Nader.

That said, the issue of whether state and local governments seeking to prevent corruption may impose special restrictions on a specific class of people - such as those seeking no-bid or professional-services contracts - has yet to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. -- Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/29/2005 | Courts OK similar ethics rules

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TalkLeft reports: Paper ballots that can be counted by an optical scanner are easy to use and they leave a verifiable paper trail that enhances voter confidence in the legitimacy of an election result. Miami-Dade County will become the first venue to replace controversial touch-screen machines with optical scanners if the county's election supervisor gets his way. -- TalkLeft: Miami-Dade May Replace Voting Machines

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The Helena Daily World reports: Attorney James Valley was expected to file a lawsuit Friday morning to force the Helena-West Helena School District to redraw its election zones and conduct an election for all school board members in the September school elections. The lawsuit is a civil action brought pursuant to the Arkansas Civil Rights Act.

Nearly 60 Phillips County residents are named as plaintiffs in this latest legal action.

Valley states in his lawsuit that the plaintiffs intend to show that the Equal Protection Clause and the "one person- one vote" principle have been violated. Federal law requires new district lines be drawn following each census. The most recent census was conducted in the year 2000 and the redistricting should have occurred in the year 2001.

The suit alleges that the current school board has failed and refused to draw any new district lines. The suit states that the board ordered new zones to be drawn by an expert in West Memphis but the board failed to adopt a map created by the expert. -- The Helena Daily World: News

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The Seattle Times reports: Judge John Bridges rejected the Democrats' call yesterday to dismiss the governor's election lawsuit at the halfway point of the first Washington trial to overturn a statewide election.

Bridges said it would be a disservice to Republicans if he stopped the case. He said both sides deserve "a full and complete analysis, not only of the court's finding of facts but as to the court's conclusions of law."

The trial will determine whether Democrat Christine Gregoire or Republican Dino Rossi truly won the November election. But Bridges said it is about issues bigger than the candidates or the political parties. ...

Through five days of trial, Bridges has shown himself to be skeptical of key pieces of the Republican case. And while at each step he has allowed disputed evidence to be entered and witnesses to appear, Republicans yesterday tried shifting the legal basis for their lawsuit and saying they want Bridges to reverse himself on a key decision about burden of proof.

Republicans say it should be enough to show the election count was flawed to the point that the true winner of the governor's race is unknown. Bridges disagrees, saying Republicans need enough evidence to show that Rossi is the true winner — which is the decision he made at a pretrial hearing and then repeated in a clarification from the bench at a hearing May 2. -- The Seattle Times: Politics: Judge won't dismiss lawsuit

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Reuters reports: Kuwaiti women hailed as historic a decision to allow them to vote and run for parliament -- a law passed despite fierce resistance by Islamist and conservative MPs. ...

The all-male parliament passed the law on Monday after a nine-hour session.

The pro-reform government tempted lawmakers by backing a popular bill to raise salaries for most public and private employees.

Islamist MPs added a clause stipulating women must abide by Islamic law when voting or running for office. This would imply separate polling stations for men and women. -- International News Article | Reuters.com

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The Herald reports: MILITARY campaigners are preparing a detailed submission for the Electoral Commission, the watchdog body that oversees voting in the UK, in an attempt to ensure that service personnel are not disenfranchised in future ballots.

Up to 200,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and their families were effectively denied the chance to take part in the general election three weeks ago because of delays in delivering postal votes to those serving abroad and the failure of the Ministry of Defence to provide registration advice in time.

With the promised backing of both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, a handful of serving and former officers are drawing up proposals aimed at streamlining the system for servicemen and women scattered in garrisons from Basra to Benbecula and on patrolling ships and submarines around the world.
One key proposal is that the MoD reverts to the system of allowing the armed forces to register once for the duration of their careers. ...

A second suggestion is that a system of electronic voting be introduced. -- Campaign demands voting rights for the forces - The Herald

Trivia: I have spent a weekend on the Royal Artillery base on Benbecula. Look it up in a good atlas and you'll know where I was.

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The Clarion-Ledger reports: A jury of ten women and two men was selected today for the judicial bribery trial of Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., a wealthy Gulf Coast attorney and two former judges.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate says opening arguments will begin June 1.

Attorney Paul Minor is accused of buying favorable decisions from Diaz, former Circuit Judge John Whitfield and former Chancery Judge Wes Teel. ...

Prosecutors have alleged, among other things, that Minor guaranteed a loan for approximately $75,000 and provided checks and cash to Diaz. The government also has identified amounts they claim were given to the other judges.

Attorney Abbe Lowell of Washington, Minor's attorney, has maintained that the payments were campaign contributions, which were similar to those made by other Mississippi attorneys. Lowell says U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton singled Minor out because Minor won a large settlement from a business owned by one of Lampton's relatives. He has also claimed Lampton set his sights on Minor because of political differences. -- Jury seated in bribery case of Supreme Court justice - The Clarion-Ledger

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The Baltimore Sun reports: The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance law when Jackson used Rainbow/PUSH Coalition funds to travel the country in 2000 drumming up voter registration and staging get-out-the-vote rallies, according to a Federal Election Commission decision released yesterday.

Under an agreement with the FEC, Jackson, two of his organizations, Rainbow/PUSH and the Citizenship Education Fund, and the DNC were levied a $200,000 fine.

In accepting the fine, they also acknowledged violating federal election regulations by engaging in a campaign travel arrangement that saw Jackson's not-for-profit corporations illegally paying for political trips the DNC was supposed to fund. ...

"Due to an administrative delay by the Democratic Party in the payment of these expenses, Rainbow/PUSH was forced to decide between paying for the travel itself or canceling its voter registration efforts," the statement said. "Because of the vital importance of these efforts, Rainbow/PUSH chose to move ahead with the voter registration activities and pay for the travel." -- baltimoresun.com - Jackson, DNC draw campaign finance fine

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The Washington Post reports: A federal jury here on Friday found a former top campaign official for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) not guilty of charges that he intentionally covered up the lavish costs of a 2000 celebrity fundraising gala.

David F. Rosen, Clinton's national finance director during her first Senate race, had faced up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted on two charges of lying to the government when he understated the event's costs by nearly $800,000 in filings to the Federal Election Commission. Rosen claimed the event's hosts misled him about their true expenses.

Though Clinton was not charged in the matter, and prosecutors repeatedly said they did not believe she was involved, the case had been closely watched by critics of the former first lady, especially at a time of heated speculation about her possible aspirations for a 2008 presidential run. ...

But officials with Judicial Watch, an organization that has long been critical of the Clintons, pledged to pursue the Rosen case further. The group recently asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Clinton's role in the matter. -- Former Clinton Campaign Aide Acquitted

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AP reports: The treasurer of a political committee formed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay violated Texas election code by not reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, a judge ruled Thursday in a civil case brought by Democratic candidates.

State District Judge Joe Hart, in a letter outlining his ruling to attorneys in the case, said the money, much of it corporate contributions, should have been reported to the Texas Ethics Commission.

The ruling means Bill Ceverha, treasurer of the group, called the Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee, will have to pay nearly $200,000. It will be divided among those who brought the suit against Ceverha, five Democratic candidates who lost legislative races in 2002.

The Democrats who sued TRMPAC claimed Ceverha violated the state election law, designed to keep elections free from "the taint of corporate cash." -- DeLay PAC Treasurer Violated Texas Ethics Law, Judge Rules

Updates: The Campaign Legal Center has the judge's letter here.

NPR's All Things Considered had a segment on this story last evening. It ends with Wade Goodwyn saying that it is likely that Tom DeLay will be indicted.

The Houston Chronicle reports: Hart said TRMPAC defined administrative expenses overly broadly in using corporate money. He said all of TRMPAC's expenditures fit the Texas legal definition of political spending.

Hart, a Democrat, is a visiting judge chosen to try the case by the Republican lawyers for TRMPAC and lawyers for the plaintiffs because of a history of judicial fairness. Hart awarded the five Democratic plaintiffs $196,000 plus attorneys fees.

Terry Scarborough, the attorney representing Ceverha, said he will ask Hart to allow him to appeal the case immediately. Ceverha's case is linked to other defendants in such a way that an appeal could be delayed for more than a year if Hart did not sever the case.

"We feel strongly this decision is wrong," Scarborough said. "Our client was exercising his constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association. These are the most fundamental constitutional rights that we, as citizens, enjoy and cherish."

Cris Feldman, one of the lawyers for the Democratic plaintiffs, said more information likely will come out about illegal campaign activities as lawsuits proceed against other TRMPAC defendants and the Texas Association of Business. -- DeLay PAC's treasurer broke law, judge rules

Update to the Update: Peter Overby of NPR corrects my impression of what Wade Goodwyn said: "He said he "would not be surprised" if DeLay was added to legal actions by the Dems "& perhaps even" Earle." Thanks, Peter.

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AP reports: The former national finance director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton testified Wednesday that he may have used bad judgment when he failed to report that a campaign donor paid his $10,000 Beverly Hills hotel bill and let him use a Porsche. But David Rosen said he never tried to hide anything.

Rosen is charged with making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, which oversees campaign contributions. The defense rested after he testified, and closing statements were expected to conclude Thursday.

Federal prosecutors allege Rosen deliberately lied to regulators by claiming that "in-kind" contributions for a lavish Hollywood fundraiser he helped organize totaled $401,000. They say Rosen knew the contributions were worth more than $1.1 million, but he claims he relied on other people to document the costs.

Prosecutors say Rose was trying to duck federal financing rules so Clinton's campaign would have more money to spend on her 2000 U.S. Senate race, but they have said the New York Democrat was unaware of any wrongdoing. -- Clinton Fundraiser Admits Bad Judgment

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AP reports: The mail ballot supervisor in Washington state's most populous county testified Wednesday that she had raised concerns about the county's inability to track ballots months before last year's disputed governor's race.
Click Here

The supervisor, Nicole Way, said she repeatedly told her bosses as early as spring 2004 that the King County elections department couldn't tell how many ballots were being mailed out or received back. About two-thirds of the county's 900,000 votes in the November election were mail ballots.

She testified on the third day of a trial in the GOP's challenge to the governor's race, which Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, won by 129 votes on the third count.

The Republicans are trying to prove election errors and fraud stole the victory from Dino Rossi. They want Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges to nullify Gregoire's victory, prompting a new election.

Under questioning by GOP attorney Harry Korrell, Way said she and other workers tried to create a computer spreadsheet to track ballots they were mailing out, but eventually gave up. -- Top Stories - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

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AP reports: Groups wanting an independent panel to draw Florida's political boundaries are using Gov. Jeb Bush's support of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's to make their case.

The groups, including one founded by Betty Castor, are letting supporters know that Gov. Jeb Bush helped Schwarzenegger raise money last week for the California governor's proposed ballot initiatives. One of those measures would create an independent redistricting panel, which could help the Republican governor whittle down the Democrats' power in the California Legislature. ...

Castor is involved with two groups - Campaign For Florida's Future and the Committee for Fair Elections - that support a proposed Florida ballot measure that would create an independent panel to draw legislative and congressional districts.

As part of that effort, she e-mailed supporters and asked them to write to the governor under the subject line "If it's good enough for California...." -- Groups see opportunity in Bush aiding Calif. redistricting plan | theledger.com

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AP reports: A former fundraiser for Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton testified Tuesday that he relied on others to oversee production costs of a lavish Hollywood party and never told anyone to alter or hide the price tag of the event.

"I would never do that," David Rosen said after taking the witness stand in his defense. "The costs were concealed from me for whatever reason by people who were putting this on."

On cross-examination, prosecutors questioned how someone who was running the national fundraising effort for the then-first lady would be so out of the loop. -- AP Wire | 05/24/2005 | Clinton fundraiser says he never had event costs altered

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AP reports: A pro-affirmative action group has accused a Michigan group behind an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative of money laundering and other campaign finance violations.

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN) claims that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and California affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly have unlawfully refused to disclose who has donated most of the funding for their efforts. ...

According to the complaint, MCRI received $713,464 in 2004, with $545,693 of that coming from Connerly's California-based American Civil Rights Coalition.

But the Michigan group didn't include a list of people who gave money to ACRC in their state campaign finance report, thus concealing the identities of the people who contributed about three quarters of their funding, the complaint says. -- Group accuses anti-affirmative action group of campaign finance violations

A similar case in California is reported here.

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The First Amendment Center has this analysis by Tony Mauro: By upholding Oklahoma’s semi-closed primary election law yesterday, the Supreme Court gave higher priority to the state’s power to regulate elections than to the First Amendment associational rights of the Oklahoma Libertarian Party.

But a close reading of the two main opinions in the decision may give hope to minor parties that the Supreme Court will be more sympathetic to future challenges to election laws.

“The bottom line is that the opinions are an invitation for lower courts to consider challenges by minor parties that state election laws as a whole discriminate against minor parties,” said Loyola Law School professor Rick Hasen on his Election Law blog yesterday.

Under the law upheld in yesterday’s Clingman v. Beaver decision, political parties may allow only their own members and registered independents to vote in their primaries. When the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma (LPO) notified the state election board in 2000 that it wanted to allow registered Democrats and Republicans to vote in its primary as well, the board turned it down. -- Majority backs Oklahoma's primary-election rules

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AP reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it won't consider whether Oregon election officials wrongly kept Ralph Nader off the presidential ballot last November.

The court declined to hear Nader supporters' appeal of an Oregon Supreme Court decision that denied the consumer activist a ballot spot because of flawed petition signature sheets.

Nader turned to a statewide petition drive after failing at two mini-conventions in Portland to get the 1,000 voter signatures needed to qualify for the ballot as an independent candidate.

He needed 15,306 signatures to get on the ballot under the alternate method, and petitioners turned in more than 18,000 signatures.

But Secretary of State Bill Bradbury said that after checking, Nader fell 218 signatures short of being on the ballot. Bradbury disqualified thousands of signatures for not conforming to technical rules, such as petition circulators not having properly signed each sheet. -- Supreme Court won't consider Nader plea - The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA

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The Spokane Spokesman-Review reports: Washington Republicans began painting a picture this morning of two different ways the 2004 election was run.

One way was the efficient and well-managed approach in Chelan County, personified by its Auditor Evelyn Arnold. Here in Chelan County, she said, every absentee ballot is counted by hand, and a single lost ballot can be missed in the accounting system and found by a search.

The other way is the system in King County, which lawyers for the GOP have previously described as rife with “bungling bureaucrats.” Those lawyers are attempting to personify that system by Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens, who was asked a series of questions about ballot problems ranging from felons who voted and tallies that don’t match. ...

But under cross-examination from Jenny Durkan, an attorney for the state Democratic Party, Arnold said that while her computer system was similar to King County’s, the scale is far different. It has slightly more than 29,000 ballots, mostly voted by mail, and only seven poll sites. King County has more than 646,000 voters, and more than 500 poll sites.

The more poll sites a county has, the more potential for problems, Arnold agreed.

Even in a small county like Chelan, elections officials weren’t aware that some felons had registered to vote even though they did not have their rights restored, she added. -- GOP: Elections rife with 'bungling bureaucrats'

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AP reports: Edgar Ray Killen, the reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused of killing three civil rights workers in Mississippi four decades ago, will stand trial as planned on June 13, Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon ruled Monday.

Gordon denied a defense motion to dismiss the murder charges on the basis of alleged selective prosecution of Killen in violation of the 80-year-old part-time preacher's constitutional rights.

"We will definitely have a trial on June 13," Gordon said.

Killen, who is confined to a wheelchair after shattering both his legs in a March tree cutting accident, is charged with the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County. -- Picayune Item: Mississippi News Near the Gulf: News

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports: Rural residents are not a class of voters entitled to special protection, a judge has ruled in Glencoe, Minn.

Judge Thomas Murphy ruled that it was legal for the McLeod County Board to reapportion itself in 2002 so that Hutchinson, Minn., is represented by 60 percent of the commissioners although it had only 37.5 percent of the county's population.

In a lawsuit filed last year against the county and city, Douglas Krueger of Glencoe said the result was that county commissioners favored road and other projects in the Hutchinson area, often by 3-2 votes.

Each of the Hutchinson districts includes some rural voters, and Murphy ruled earlier this month that the districts are well within the 10 percent population variance allowed by state law. He said that Krueger failed to show any "disparate" treatment and that no case law "established 'rural' or 'urban' as a constitutionally recognized class for the purpose of judicial protection in a redistricting matter." -- Judge rules against suit in McLeod County

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The Los Angeles Times reports: More than three years ago, voters in Pasadena, Claremont and Santa Monica approved some of the nation's strictest campaign finance laws.

But the rules, which strictly limit the ability of individuals who have business dealings with the city to make contributions to local officials, have yet to be enforced. In fact, Pasadena and Santa Monica have fought to kill the laws, arguing that they violate free-speech rights.

The last of the cities' legal battles appeared to end earlier this month, when the California Supreme Court refused to hear the challenges to the laws. Backers now hope the cities will finally begin enforcing them. -- Court Gives Campaign Finance Laws a Green Light

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The Dallas Morning News reports: The partisan blood bath that has been congressional redistricting in the Legislature would be relegated to a citizen board under legislation tentatively passed Friday in the Senate.

The victory for bill author Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, was somewhat hollow. While he has worked on the proposal for 12 years, and it passed the Senate for the first time, he acknowledged that the bill is presumed dead in the House and lost for the session. ...

Under his proposal, the House and Senate would join to appoint eight redistricting commissioners, with Democrats appointing four and Republicans appointing the other four. A ninth member would be selected by the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court and would vote only to break ties.

Commissioners could not be a party official, registered lobbyist or an elected official, or anyone who had served in those roles within the previous two years. In addition, a commissioner would serve for 10 years and could not run for elective office. -- DentonRC.com | News for Denton, Texas | Texas/Southwest

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AP reports: Ending one of the last fights from the contentious 2004 presidential campaign, Ohio's top judge on Thursday declined to punish four attorneys who had challenged the results in court.

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ruled against Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's attempt to have the lawyers sanctioned for filing "a meritless claim" against the vote that gave President Bush a win in Ohio and, as a result, enough electoral votes to win a second term in the White House.

In legal documents filed with the state Supreme Court, the lawyers had said the challenge they filed on behalf of 37 voters included enough evidence of voting irregularities to back up their allegations of widespread fraud. Neither Democratic Sen. John Kerry's campaign nor his party were part of the challenge, which was later withdrawn.

Petro, a Republican, asked for sanctions against lawyers Cliff Arnebeck, Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt and Peter Peckarsky. If the court had sanctioned the lawyers, they could have been forced to repay attorney's fees and court costs.

Moyer, acting under the court's power to assign election-related complaints to a single justice, said that while the court has the authority to sanction attorneys, the speed with which elections must be challenged allows the court some leeway. -- newsobserver.com | Nation

Thanks to the Jurist news service for the link.

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AP reports: Some bills that died on final day of 2005 session of Legislature would have:

-Banned the transfer of campaign contributions from one political action committee to another. ...

-Moved Alabama's presidential preference primary from June to the first Saturday after the New Hampshire primary. ...

-Required nonprofit organizations to disclose their source of funding for buying advertising to influence the vote on a referendum. ...

-Given Alabama a new official insect by replacing the monarch butterfly with the queen honey bee. -- Welcome to TimesDaily.com

The last one was just to see if you were paying attention.

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AP reports: Up to 10 counties would have the option of trying an "instant runoff" in upcoming primary elections to avoid the expense and time of a separate second vote under legislation approved Wednesday by the state House. ...

Under the instant runoff bill, approved 79-32 and sent to the Senate, counties chosen by the board could try the process in local elections this year and next.

Voters would rank their order of preference among the candidates listed and election officials initially would tally only the first choices. If the leading candidate fails to win more than 40 percent of the first-choice votes, the top two candidates would advance to the runoff.

In the runoff, election officials would examine the ballots of voters whose first-choice candidate was eliminated and check how many times each of the remaining two candidates was the highest-ranked alternative choice.

These totals would then be added to the original totals for the top two candidates, and the person with the most votes would be declared the winner.

Supporters said the process would reduce the price of a separate runoff, which on a statewide level can cost millions of dollars but can draw very little interest. -- AP Wire | 05/18/2005 | N.C. House votes to try 'instant runoff' in local primaries

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AP reports: The Perry County District Attorney's office is investigating a high school student's claim that her ballot was changed after she was driven from the lunchroom to the precinct by a candidate in a recent special legislative election.

District Attorney Michael Jackson said his office is checking out 18-year-old Cynthia Davis' claim that she was driven to her polling place by Albert Turner Jr. and that a woman wearing a Turner campaign shirt switched her vote to Turner when she tried to vote for his opponent.

Turner lost to Ralph Howard in the May 3 vote for the House District 72 seat. -- AP Wire | 05/17/2005 | DA investigating voter fraud complaint in Perry County

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AP reports: King County's absentee-ballot supervisor has testified that she collaborated with her boss when she filled out a report that falsely showed all ballots were accounted for in the November election, The Seattle Times reported Thursday.

Nicole Way is the first employee to link an upper-level manager with a practice that failed to meet state ballot-auditing regulations. In a deposition Friday, she said she and assistant elections superintendent Garth Fell agreed to the misleading report because officials didn't know how many absentee ballots were returned by voters.

By law, counties must reconcile the number of absentee ballots returned by voters with the number of ballots accepted or rejected. Way's report showed perfect reconciliation because it simply added the number accepted and rejected to calculate ballots returned.

Dozens of absentee ballots were misplaced and the votes not tabulated during the November election. The ballots were never counted as accepted or rejected. -- OregonLive.com: NewsFlash - Election manager testifies boss agreed to false absentee count

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The Washington Post reports: House Republicans are gearing up to push campaign finance legislation that would scrap post-Watergate restrictions on the total amount of money individuals can donate and parties can spend on candidates.

House Democratic leaders, who see the GOP gaining a huge financial advantage, yesterday protested the bill, as did campaign finance advocacy groups. ...

A person can donate $101,400 to federal candidates and parties in each two-year election cycle. The Pence bill would eliminate this limit. The limit an individual can contribute to a candidate or a political party would not change. Instead, individual donors could give Republican or Democratic committees a total of more than $1.1 million every two years: $53,400 to each of the three major (national, senatorial and congressional) party campaign committees and $20,000 to each of the 50 state parties.

Critics of the legislation contend that an enterprising donor could give $1.1 million to one campaign by giving the maximum allowed to all national and state committees, and asking them to put it into one race.

Lifting the limit would also allow any donor to make $4,200 contributions to any number of federal candidates. ...

The Pence legislation, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Md.), would also allow the parties to spend unlimited amounts in behalf of House, Senate and presidential candidates. In Senate races, for example, the limit on the total given by parties ranges from $2.1 million in California to just over $100,000 in such small states as Vermont and Wyoming; under the Pence-Wynn bill, there would be no limits. -- GOP Targets Spending Limit

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Blogads has initiated The Law Blog Ad Network. It allows advertisers looking for legal blogs to find them easily and with one click, place their ads on multiple blogs. For advertisers, it eliminates the guesswork in finding their target audience.

We're starting small, with eight law blogs (to see the list, click on the Network link above). We're trying to attract advertisers of law products, so we're keeping it to lawyers who principally write about legal matters. In other words, if you're a lawyer who blogs mostly about food, you should join the Food Ad Network, not the Law Blog Network.

We will be adding more blogs to the network. Ideally, we'd like to have at least 25. Joining is by invitation, and you will have to carry a link to the network on your site (see mine in the left column of the main page). You also should have some decent traffic numbers on your site and a reliable counter.

Henry Copeland, the founder of Blogads, believes as the number of blogs continues to grow, ad networks will be the wave of the future.

If you're interested in joining the Law Blog Ad Network, send an e-mail with any questions to TalkLeft.

Thanks to Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft for spearheading the effort (and for providing most of the foregoing message).

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AP reports: Many state prisoners convicted of drug and alcohol felonies may be eligible to vote, even while incarcerated, though they probably don't know it.

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles announced Wednesday that under a 1996 amendment to the Alabama constitution, inmates convicted of DUIs or drug possession alone never lose their voting rights - despite common belief that felons are prohibited from casting ballots.

"Everybody thought anyone convicted of a felony lost the right to vote," said Cynthia Dillard, assistant director for the pardons and paroles board.

Dillard said the parole board looked into the issue after hearing about a Pell City prosecutor trying to charge an inmate who attempted to vote in last November's elections. The board received a March 18 advisory opinion from Attorney General Troy King, who said only those felonies involving "moral turpitude" - meaning the crimes are inherently immoral - disqualify a convict from voting. -- Dateline Alabama

I can see how a prosecutor might be confused about this. Amendment 579 (yep, that number is right) states, in part, "No person convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude, or who is mentally incompetent, shall be qualified to vote until restoration of civil and political rights or removal of disability." I suppose trying to find something like that among 742 amendments does get sort of confusing.

Posted by Ed at 8:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports: Affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly has agreed to pay $95,000 to settle a state lawsuit that accused him and his American Civil Rights Coalition of violating campaign laws by failing to reveal the source of $1.7 million in contributions.

California's campaign watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission, said Wednesday that the settlement also requires Connerly and the ACRC to admit they violated campaign finance laws and to file required donation disclosure reports.

The suit, filed by the FPPC on Sept. 3, 2003, involved contributions to support Proposition 54, Connerly's unsuccessful ballot measure to restrict state and local governments' ability to collect racial data.

The measure was rejected by voters in a special election in October 2003 after opponents argued that it would hamper law enforcement, health programs and schools. -- Affirmative action opponent agrees to pay $95,000 to settle lawsuit

Posted by Ed at 8:33 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports: An event planner testified Wednesday that she was ordered by the former national finance director of Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign to obtain a fake invoice connected to a Hollywood fundraising gala.

Bretta Nock told jurors that ex-Clinton aide David Rosen told her to get a $200,000 invoice for the concert portion of the event when the actual costs were much higher.

Rosen, 38, is accused of lying to the Federal Election Commission about the true costs of the August 2000 gala that drew celebrities, including Cher, Diana Ross, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Muhammad Ali. Prosecutors contend that Rosen deliberately caused campaign finance reports to be filed that claimed "in-kind" contributions of $400,000 for the Hollywood gala, when he knew that contributions exceeded $1.1 million.

Rosen has pleaded not guilty to three charges of filing false statements with the government. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, plus fines. -- Newsday.com: Planner says ex-Hillary Clinton aide hid costs of fundraiser

Posted by Ed at 8:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports: Secretary of State Bruce McPherson cast more doubt on the need for a special November election, saying the new legislative and congressional districts sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't be in place for elections next year.

"There's no way I can see that we can make 2006," McPherson, California's top elections official, told members of the Sacramento Press Club on Tuesday. "Maybe 2008, but that's a question mark."

Schwarzenegger announced in January that he wanted to take the power to draw the districts away from the Legislature and have a panel of retired judges draw new lines in time for 2006 balloting.

He's threatening to call a special election in November to give voters a chance to approve an initiative that would make that change. Schwarzenegger proposals to cut state spending and lengthen the amount of time new teachers remain on probation could also be on that ballot. -- SignOnSanDiego.com > News > State -- McPherson says new lines can't be in place for 2006 elections

Posted by Ed at 8:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports: Beating the drum in advance of the governor's election trial next week, Republicans yesterday outlined new claims that King County tallied more ballots than there were voters voting in the 2004 election.

"The discrepancy is enough on its face to throw out the election," said Chris Vance, the state GOP chairman.

The Republicans hope Judge John Bridges will do just that in the trial, set to start Monday in Wenatchee. Republican Dino Rossi is suing to set aside his defeat by Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire in an election decided by 129 votes after two recounts of more than 2.8 million ballots cast.

But in pretrial rulings, Bridges has made it clear that it won't be enough for Rossi to show that the number of ballot errors exceeded Gregoire's margin.

Citing state laws and previous court cases, Bridges has said the GOP must show that Gregoire owes her victory to illegal votes. The only exception to that requirement would be if fraud occurred -- and in a hearing May 3, Bridges said the Republicans "have never alleged, to the court's knowledge, or even alluded to fraud or voter intimidation." -- GOP adds 875 to suspect vote list

Thanks to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for the link.

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AP reports: A former Republican official says charges that he conspired to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002 should be dismissed because the grand jury that indicted him included Democrats.

The grand jury "included purported victims of the alleged scheme -- Democrats," said a motion filed by James Tobin, who at the time was the Northeast political director of the national Republican Senatorial Committee. He was indicted in December.

"The government must demonstrate that it properly screened the grand jury to prevent bias, and if it cannot or will not do so, the indictment must be dismissed," the motion said.

And if the case does go to trial, Tobin's lawyers want to question prospective jurors extensively about their politics and their exposure to media reports of the case to root out potential bias. -- Boston.com / News / Local / Maine / Former GOP official says grand jury included Democrats

Thanks to Talking Points Memo for the link.

Posted by Ed at 5:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports: An $850,000 donation from an anti-tax organization to the Alabama Christian Coalition came from an Indian tribe that runs a casino in Mississippi, according to the president of the tax organization.

Americans for Tax Reform also gave $300,000 to an organization formed to fight former Gov. Don Siegelman's proposal to create a lottery in Alabama to fund education programs, the organization's president, Grover Norquist, told The Boston Globe newspaper.

Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles confirmed Friday that his organization received the donation from Americans for Tax Reform in 2000, but he said he was not aware it came from a Mississippi Indian tribe. ...

[Ralph Reed's earlier admission of a similar contribution] fueled efforts in the Alabama Legislature this session to pass legislation to require nonprofit groups to disclose the source of money used to buy advertising to influence the outcome of referendums, like the lottery vote. The bill passed the House but was delayed in the Senate after opponents staged a four-week filibuster.

The sponsor, Rep. Randy Hinshaw, D-Huntsville, said he believes there may be an effort to revive the bill Monday, on the final day of the 2005 session of the Legislature. -- Welcome to TimesDaily.com

Posted by Ed at 8:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

AP reports: Democrats, looking to reverse their fortunes after two straight White House defeats, met yesterday to hear competing proposals to revamp the election calendar used to choose a presidential nominee every four years.

The three major proposals would focus on regional primaries. Two of those proposals would allow Iowa and New Hampshire to retain their leadoff roles in the candidate selection process.

A third plan, offered by Michigan Democrats, would create a rotating series of six regional primaries. A different region would launch each presidential nominating season.

That plan would allow single-state contests to begin the process, but those states would be rotated. -- Democrats debate plans to revamp primaries

Meanwhile, the elbowing continues. Alabama's legislature will vote tomorrow on a bill to move the Alabama presidential primary to the Saturday after New Hampshire's primary. South Carolina vows to move its primary to an even earlier date.

Posted by Ed at 8:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

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