…but characters of all sorts are invited to join us at The Dickens Tavern on December 13th.

What: Holiday Party with Jake Williams

When: Sunday, December 13th from 4pm to 5:30pm

Where: The Dickens Tavern, 300 Main St. in Longmont

RSVP: Send an email to Jenn at jenn@jakewilliams.org

Happy Holidays! On December 13th, please join me in celebrating the season, enjoying great free food and supporting two great causes.

As we approach the start of the new year, it’s time to look forward to a better Colorado – where the security and dignity of employment is within reach for all, where each of us has access to quality health care, where we can offer every kid a quality public education, and where we always protect our environment. These are the goals of our campaign for the State House of Representatives, but there are many Coloradans among us who have more immediate needs.

The Inn Between of Longmont [i] is an organization that provides transitional housing and services to a diverse population that includes single and two parent families, teen parents, individuals exiting domestic violence relationships, persons with physical and/or mental disabilities, single adults, seniors, and teens unable to live at home for a variety of reasons. They truly help people in our community every day, and they need your support.

Celebrate with us on December 13th at the Dickens Tavern and bring along a suggested minimum donation of $25 for our campaign and/or a non-perishable food item, personal care product or cleaning supply (visit theinnbetween.org to see the “Wish List”) to support the Inn Between of Longmont.

[i] The information contained in this invitation is in no way meant to state or imply that the Inn Between endorses our campaign for the State House of Representatives.

a. CU Regent Joe Neguse and the Future of Higher Education in Colorado

b. Discussion and Debate of the Employee Free Choice Act

II.  Activist Items

a. Cinco de Mayo at Roosevelt Park

b. Death Penalty

c. March in Greeley

d. Immigration Legislation in Colorado

III LAD reaches the 21st Century?

I. 

a.

When: May 6, 2009 from 7-9pm

Where: Front Range Community College (East Building – Community Room) 2191 Miller Drive, Longmont, CO

 What:

Please join the Longmont Area Democrats and CU Regent Joe Neguse to learn about and discuss the future of higher education here in Colorado. The state legistlature initally looked at cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from our world renowned institutions such as CU and CSU.  Come and hear from the 2nd Congressional District representative Joe Neguse about the value of these insitutions and the financial peril they find themselves in almost every economic downturn.

b.  But first … the Longmont Area Democrats have been asked to endorse the Employee Free Choice Act.  Everyone is encouraged to discuss and debate the merits of this piece of federal legislation on May 6.  You may also post on this website your questions, concerns, and options (if you have them).

NOTE: If you wish to make an announcement at LAD, please contact me beforehand and we will work to make sure that some time is set aside (keep it topical).  You can email me at jonathan.singer@gmail.com

II

a. Cinco de Mayo … on Dos de Mayo

Longmont Area Democrats are going to be hosting a voter registration table at Longmont’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration. 

When: May 2, 2009 12p-6p

Where: Roosevelt Park

What: Voter Registration

Why: Just because the Presedential election is over doesn’t mean that people haven’t moved, turned 18, or changed their party affliation (talk to Arlen Specter).  Please help us register new and old voters alike.  If you are interested in helping for an hour or more email Jonathan Singer at jonathan.singer@gmail.com or call him at 303-875-4727.  Visit http://www.longmontcincodemayo.org/ 

Also, there will be plenty of exciting food, music and cultural events that are fun for the whole family.  If you can’t volunteer, stop by our booth and say “hi!”  

If you don’t think them Democrats are cool enough, you can also volunteer for the general event with Marja Johnson at mjohnson@bouldercounty.org

b. Death Penalty 

Right now the Colorado State Legislature is debating the creation of a cold case unit with the funds used for the death penalty.  I have received several emails from Longmonters supporting  this issue.  The LAD has not endorsed this but it merits consideration.  If you support this legislation let your State Senator know ASAP as the Senate adjourns in about a week!  Below is the body of an email sent to me.

 ”Right now, Colorado has a backlog of more than 1,400 unsolved murders that can’t be investigated for lack of funding.

 But there’s a bill moving through the state legislature that would change that. House Bill 1274 would repeal Colorado’s death penalty law and shift the cost savings into solving the backlogged cases.

 Our state Senator, Brandon Shaffer, needs to hear from you on this critical bill. So please take a minute and call or email him and ask him to support HB 1274 to help solve cold cases and put an end to the death penalty in Colorado.

His contact information is (303) 866-5291 and his email is brandon@brandonshaffer.com

Thanks for your time and consideration for this important piece of legislation. ”

c. Unity March on May 2 (Just in case Roosevelt Park isn’t exciting enough).

Several LAD members will be carpooling up to Greeley on May 2.  If you are interested, please email jonathan.singer@gmail.com.

Join May 2 Unity March in Greeley!

Reconstructing Our Communities Uniting Our Families Unity March! Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 Starts at the Island Grove Park – 514 N. 14th Ave, Greeley, Colorado Respect for Human Rights! Just & Humane Immigration Reform! For a better Greeley, in a better world! For More Information: alfrentedelucha@gmail.com, 970.388.0834 or 303.887.2795 Denver! Meet at one of these points to Caravan or take a Bus to Greeley at 9:30 AM, Saturday, May 2nd, 2009! Aurora—16th & Dallas or Denver —12th & Mariposa (Lincoln Park) You are welcome to bring Food or Donations for Greeley families affected by ongoing immigration Raids! Denver Contacts: Homero 303.437.7805 & Nacho 720.621.7468

d. Immigration Legislation

As some of you may know Bob Norris has been working with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.  He is encouraging folks to call their state reps to defeat SJM 09.

FACT SHEET:

Senate Joint Memorial 009

“Memorializing Congress and the Federal Government to

Make Changes to and Enforce Immigration laws”

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

STRONGLY opposes this Memorial

What does this memorial propose?

1. SJM 009 urges greater involvement by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Colorado state and local law enforcement agencies along with a significant expansion to Colorado’s immigrant detention capacity.

Why is this memorial harmful?

1. Expanding the role of local police officers in immigration work damages community trust in law enforcement. As the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police note in their statement on immigration, when local law enforcement becomes an immigration law enforcement arm, there is a sharp decline in immigrants reporting crimes, due to fear and a lack of trust of the police. This lack of reporting leads to less safe communities for all Coloradans.

1. Deputizing state and local law enforcement as immigration agents leads to discriminatory policing. In early April, 2009, the Congressional Judiciary Committee investigated 287(g) programs after several reports, including recent findings by the Government Accountability Office, revealed serious concerns with how law enforcement agencies were abusing the program in its implementation. 

Expansion of beds for immigrant detention is neither a cost effective nor humane solution in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform. Those being held in immigrant detention have not been charged with a crime but, rather, a civil violation. They are awaiting the US government’s decision on whether or not they are lawfully in the country. In the absence of meaningful reform to our immigration laws, the state of Colorado should consider more humane and cost-effective alternatives to mass expansion of immigrant detention.

Get the facts by clicking the link below and reading the legislation verbatim.

 http://www.leg.state.co.us/Clics/CLICS2009A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/504C1671A2BC3C0C8725753E0054CF90?Open&file=SJM009_01.pdf

The meetings are set up around the Congressional districts but the CD 4 meetings (Longmont is in this district) are being held in Lamar and Silverthorne. Citizens are free to attend meetings at other CD districts. Here is a list of meetings with the commissioners that Longmont citizens might find it easier to attend:

October 4, 2007 5:00pm-8:00pm Congressional District Hearing – Boulder Millennium Harvest House, Ballroom 1345 28th Street, Boulder 80302

October 4th 5:00pm-8:00pm Congressional District Hearing- Lamar Lamar Community Building Multipurpose Room 610 S. 6th Street, Lamar 81052

October 11th 5:30pm-8:00pm Congressional District Hearing- Greeley UNC Campus, Lindau Auditorium

October 12th 5:00pm-8:00pm Congressional District Hearing- Silverthorne Silverthorne Library, Blue River Room 651 Center Circle, Silverthorne

October 12th 5:00pm-8:00pm Congressional District Hearing- Fort Collins Lincoln Center, Mini Theatre 417 W. Magnolia, Fort Collins 80521

October 13th 1:00pm-4:00pm Congressional District Hearing- Brighton TBD

Note: Also check out Dr. Mercuri’s views on H.R. 811 & US election security from her 3/7/07 interview on “Voice of the Voters!” http://www.voiceofthevoters.org/ (podcast & transcript available) Also, please telephone & fax/email your Representative in Congress and ask him/her to vote NO on H.R. 811. Urgent! Vote could be next week (For details see Why this MUST be voted down,

“H.R. 811 does more harm than good” Please send this to as many people as possible …and make those calls Monday! Mary Ann Gould, Coalition for Voting Integrity OpEdNews Original Content here)

July 13, 2007

Connecting the Dots? Rush Holt, HR 811, and Avante International

By Rebecca Mercuri

Consider this scenario: If Avante wins its patent lawsuit against the “big three” vendors, HR 811 could bring billions of dollars to Holt’s home district. Here’s how it could happen.

The latest version of HR 811, the “Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007 [1], amends HAVA’s Section 257(a) by adding an additional billion dollars for municipalities “to modify or replace its voting systems” in accordance with Section 2 of Rush Holt’s bill. Many election integrity advocates have (erroneously) looked to this bill as a mandate that will require voter-verified paper ballots (or “audit trails”) to be added to all of the nation’s Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting equipment.

But back in July 2006, I wrote an OpEd piece [2] describing a lawsuit by Avante against Diebold, Sequoia and ES&S that stands poised to derail much of the Federal and State VVPAT legislation. This case grinds merrily along and trial has been scheduled for May 2008. Should Avante win their suit, they have requested relief that could specifically include: 1) permanently enjoining the sale of all infringing equipment produced by Diebold, Sequoia, and ES&S; 2) recalling all infringing equipment; 3) destroying or delivering to Avante the infringing equipment; and 4) awarding infringement damages to Avante including treble damages for willful infringement.

In a one-two punch, Avante’s key patent, #7036730 “Electronic Voting Aparatus, System and Method,” also includes claims that pertain to “a Braille device,” “an aural device,” and “voice recognition apparatus.”[3] Conveniently, Holt’s bill happens to also include requirements that there be “at least one voting system equipped for individuals with disabilities at each polling place” that “allows the voter to privately and independently verify the individual, durable paper ballot through the conversion of the human-readable printed or marked vote selections into accessible form.”

So, Avante could be the “spoiler” in thwarting implementation of Holt’s bill, if the court rules in their favor and they (or the Judge) choose to recall or destroy all of the deployed and infringing VVPAT and disability accessible voting equipment, just a few months prior to the November 2008 Presidential election. Alternatively, all of HR 811′s $1B, plus a potentially large chunk of the prior $3B bonanza that voting system vendors had received from the 2002 HAVA legislation, may wander back to Holt’s election district, since Avante, as Mark Crispin Miller recently noted [4], just happens to be located in his “backyard.”

Indeed, this metaphor is considerably more accurate than even Mark had presumed. Avante’s website [5] shows a picture of their 52,000 square foot corporate headquarters, situated on 16 acres at 70 Washington Road, Princeton Junction, NJ. Rush Holt’s website [6] lists his District Office as 50 Washington Road, West Windsor, NJ. As it happens, these two properties are directly adjacent to each other (separated only by some landscaping and their buildings’ parking lots). I’ve posted a few photos on my website that show the juxtaposition of their office signs. [7] This is not a new development, Avante’s office has been “next door” to Rush’s for the entire duration of time since their parent company (AIT) entered the voting business.

But it doesn’t stop here. As Bo Lipari revealed a few weeks ago [8], Avante (along with Microsoft) was an active player in the recent attempt to rewrite New York State’s source code review laws. Their Vice President issued an email to all of the State’s election commissioners and officials [9], complaining that they do not have sufficient time, nor perhaps inclination, to comply with the law, while also mootly asserting that “there is no intent to reduce the integrity of the vote.” Although New York held firm in maintaining its source code escrow and review statutes, the spineless U.S. House of Representatives, apparently caved to “Microsoft and others in the proprietary software industry” according to Holt’s counsel, Michelle Mulder. Never mind the fact that Mulder had dissuaded many election integrity advocates from providing input, with her repeatedly assertions that the wording of the bill, as originally introduced, was a “done deal”; and never mind that she had also failed to warn these advocates that the wording was subsequently being co-opted by “the software industry” (including perhaps Avante?) while it was in committee.

Ultimately what emerged in Holt’s revised bill is a requirement that could potentially become the first Federal law to instantiate the use of nondisclosure agreements for voting systems (unless State laws waive them) and to further provide that such agreements “shall be governed by the trade secret laws of the applicable State.” Despite this explicit vendor-partisan language, various Holt support groups, such as the dubiously-named People For the American Way, have continued to falsely claim that “Rep. Holt’s bill requires … for ALL federal elections starting in 2008: … No Secret Source Code – ALL voting machine vendors MUST make the machines’ software available for inspection” [10] when, in fact, exactly the OPPOSITE is what this bill now says! Interestingly, Holt’s own FAQ sheet on the bill [11] entirely avoids mentioning that there’s been a complete reversal on his earlier “open source” stance and focuses on activist bashing along with hammering home the fact that the bill does not ban DRE’s (great for Avante, since they believe they hold the key patents on the VVPAT DREs).

If any of the above bothers you, try contacting Holt directly (even though you probably won’t be satisfied with the response), or better yet, spread the word and let your own congressperson know that this bad piece of compromised and potentially pork-barrel legislation for Holt’s “backyard buddy” is far worse than no legislation at all.

[1] HR 811 (as revised)

[2] http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Avante_lawsuit

[3] http://www.google.com/patents?id=nwd3AAAAEBAJ&dq=AVANTE

[4] http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_mark_cri_070711_expose__3b_rush_holt_2c_.htm

[5] http://www.avantetech.com/company

[6] http://holt.house.gov

[7] http://www.notablesoftware.com/holtavantepics.html

[8] http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bo_lipar_070629_voting_machine_vendo.htm

[9] http://www.nyvv.org/newdoc/RGleimEmail062007.pdf

[10] http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=24309

[11] http://holt.house.gov/pdf/hr_811_faq.pdf

Authors Website: http://www.notablesoftware.com

Authors Bio: Rebecca Mercuri has been in the forefront of the voting integrity movement since 1989. She provides expert witness services for elections and other forensic computing matters. Here’s bio we used on Dr. Rebecca Mercuri’s Voice of the Voter Interview on 3/7/07 … transcript and podcast of her views on H.R. 811 can be found at http://www.voiceofthevoters.org/ Dr. Rebecca Mercuri has been referred to as “one of the leading international experts on electronic voting.” A technology specialist, with degrees in computer science and engineering, Rebecca defended her doctoral dissertation, “Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks & Balances,” at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania, just eleven days before the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Subsequently, her testimony and opinions were sought in Bush v. Gore and referenced in briefs presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2002 she was contacted by Janet Reno and her legal team to help solve the mystery of the thousands of votes that vanished from the new touch-screen machines being used in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Since then, Dr. Mercuri has provided formal testimony and comment to the House Science Committee, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Election Assistance Commission, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.K. Cabinet, and numerous U.S. state legislatures. Her advocacy work has directly influenced the wording of state, federal, and international election legislation as well as standards and best practices guidelines. Many of Dr. Mercuri’s views and papers on electronic voting appear on her website at http://www.notablesoftware.com/evote.html.

Finally, Americans soldiers and Iraqi civilians are dying. Over a hundred of the soldiers have ties to Colorado. To argue that we shouldn’t be debating the resolution, because the Iraq war somehow doesn’t affect Colorado, seems like a pretty hard case to make.”