State gives districts option to sign with vendors
By Claudia Lauer - The Sun News
Rebecca Koenig/The Sun News
Students board buses at Myrtle Beach Middle School. Horry County schools had a meeting with a vendor about school bus advertising on Jan 18.Advertisements targeting school-age children could be making their way to Horry County school buses.
The S.C. Education Department has given the OK to school districts to start the advertising program under a general contract it signed with SAC Inc., an advertising firm in Warrenville, at the end of November.
"The state has given us the option, and we had a meeting with the advertising vendor that was purely informational," said Teal Britton, Horry County Schools spokeswoman. "There are lots of things that are yet to be determined, in terms of what the financial benefit would be to school districts."
The advertising company's contract with the state specifies that SAC will receive 20 percent of the revenue for each ad; the state, about 80 percent.
"The way the contract works is 80.1 percent of the gross income goes to the state technically because the state owns the property," said Don Tudor, director of the state Education Department's transportation office. "We recognize that these revenues should be appropriately shared with the school district. It is not the state who will be responsible for determining if the advertising is appropriate, and it's the children that make the advertising valuable."
Continued . . .
Friday, January 25, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Staff changes not expected over primary
By Mike Cherney - The Sun News
Three members of the Horry County Election Commission said they do not anticipate any staffing changes in the county election office after a programming error disabled voting machines during last Saturday's S.C. Republican presidential primary.
Donna Royson, the deputy director of the S.C. State Election Commission, said Tuesday the state commission will help the county determine exactly what went wrong.
Larry Leagans, Gene Sparks and Deborah Johnson, three members of the county commission, said the commission will meet after the S.C. Democratic presidential primary this Saturday to ensure that similar mistakes do not happen again.
"We're going to try to turn over every stone that needs to be turned over," Leagans said. "I don't see any kind of staffing issues. A mistake was made, and we need to find out why the mistake was made."
During the S.C. Republican primary, State Rep. Tracy Edge, a campaign official with Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, called for Sandy Martin, the county's election director, to be fired. McCain won the state and the county's votes.
"They need to explain how not changing any staff is going to be sure that no more mistakes are going to be made in the future," Edge said Tuesday. "They need to make a complete report to tell us all exactly what went wrong and why and who failed to do their job."
The five members of the election commission are responsible for hiring and firing the county's election director. Leagans said the commission meets on an as-needed basis.
Continued . . .
Three members of the Horry County Election Commission said they do not anticipate any staffing changes in the county election office after a programming error disabled voting machines during last Saturday's S.C. Republican presidential primary.
Donna Royson, the deputy director of the S.C. State Election Commission, said Tuesday the state commission will help the county determine exactly what went wrong.
Larry Leagans, Gene Sparks and Deborah Johnson, three members of the county commission, said the commission will meet after the S.C. Democratic presidential primary this Saturday to ensure that similar mistakes do not happen again.
"We're going to try to turn over every stone that needs to be turned over," Leagans said. "I don't see any kind of staffing issues. A mistake was made, and we need to find out why the mistake was made."
During the S.C. Republican primary, State Rep. Tracy Edge, a campaign official with Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, called for Sandy Martin, the county's election director, to be fired. McCain won the state and the county's votes.
"They need to explain how not changing any staff is going to be sure that no more mistakes are going to be made in the future," Edge said Tuesday. "They need to make a complete report to tell us all exactly what went wrong and why and who failed to do their job."
The five members of the election commission are responsible for hiring and firing the county's election director. Leagans said the commission meets on an as-needed basis.
Continued . . .
Sunday, January 20, 2008
SC voting machines not set to zero before voting started
Sun, 01/20/2008 - 00:14 - Wire Services
The voting machines in Horry County, South Carolina were not reset to zero before the first voters came to cast their ballots, the state's Election Commission admitted today.
The Commission stated that the technicians perform a "clear and test" procedure on all machines prior to the machines accepting votes, but in this case, it was not carried out before people arrived at the precincts to vote.
"This resets the test votes recorded on the machine to zero," a press release by the Commission read. "Without performing this measure, the voting system will not allow machines to be opened for voting on election day."
But the Commission blamed the delay on human error, even though Election Systems & Software voting machines used in South Carolina were decertified by the California Secretary of State last year, after the company refused to provide information necessary to review the voting systems, as required by state law.
"Some voters cast paper ballots today in 15-20 precincts because voting machines were not ready to accept votes," the Commission stated. "This issue was due to a human error in preparing the machines for the primary.
The 2008 Primary season has been wracked by allegations of vote fraud stemming from the use of unreliable and easily hackable voting machines belonging to Diebold and ES&S and other vendors.
New Hampshire was forced to carry out a state-wide manual recount after discrepancies emerged between hand counted and machine counted votes.
The voting machines in Horry County, South Carolina were not reset to zero before the first voters came to cast their ballots, the state's Election Commission admitted today.
The Commission stated that the technicians perform a "clear and test" procedure on all machines prior to the machines accepting votes, but in this case, it was not carried out before people arrived at the precincts to vote.
"This resets the test votes recorded on the machine to zero," a press release by the Commission read. "Without performing this measure, the voting system will not allow machines to be opened for voting on election day."
But the Commission blamed the delay on human error, even though Election Systems & Software voting machines used in South Carolina were decertified by the California Secretary of State last year, after the company refused to provide information necessary to review the voting systems, as required by state law.
"Some voters cast paper ballots today in 15-20 precincts because voting machines were not ready to accept votes," the Commission stated. "This issue was due to a human error in preparing the machines for the primary.
The 2008 Primary season has been wracked by allegations of vote fraud stemming from the use of unreliable and easily hackable voting machines belonging to Diebold and ES&S and other vendors.
New Hampshire was forced to carry out a state-wide manual recount after discrepancies emerged between hand counted and machine counted votes.
Voters Turned Away Amongst Complete Chaos in Horry County, South Carolina Primary
By Matthew Jarfi
Make A Difference In Horry County
Chaos would be an understatement in describing the handling of the 2008 Republican Primary Elections in Horry County, South Carolina this past Saturday evening. Horry County is located on the coast of South Carolina and is home to Myrtle Beach. Murphy’s Law was in full effect for the Horry County Elections Commission as things that could go wrong, did go wrong.
A massive 80% of the ESS electronic voting machines were not able to “open up” in Saturday’s primary forcing almost all Horry County precincts to use paper ballots. When precincts opened Saturday morning a majority of the voting machines would not work at all. The Seawinds precinct had reported that the electronic voting machines were down “county wide.”
Paper ballots were issued to Horry County citizens in replacement of the voting machines. The process at the Seawinds precinct was you would take the backup ballot to a table and fill in the bubble next to the candidate that you wished to select in the primary. After filling in the bubble, you would next fold your ballot back and slide it in the manila envelope that you were given and return it to the precinct worker. On one side of the manila envelope you would put your name, address, and your signature. However, this was not protocol in Horry County.
Make A Difference In Horry County has confirmed that some precincts passed out legal pads and simply asked the voters to write their candidate’s name on the 8.5X11 paper. Early reports show that one precinct reportedly turned away voters for seven hours consecutively while at least one other precinct turned away voters but it is currently unknown as to how long. While it is still very early, it is not understood as to why this happened. If one precinct was able to simply ask voters to cast their ballot by writing their candidate down on a piece of paper, than why would another precinct turn away voters?
For those in Horry County who are not a fan of the electronic voting machines, the disabled machines could have been a blessing in disguise. The reason is simply because the South Carolina state Constitution specifically notes that ballots are not allowed be counted in secret. As it has been speculated that this only applies to the paper balloting, there was no back door for Horry County as the paper ballots had to be counted in public.
Voter Fraud?
As Make A Difference In Horry County will investigate the plethora of information that was recorded via video and transcript over the election day, we will also be looking into a potential situation where voter fraud could have taken place. Our reasons for this include the fact that technicians did repair voting machines at precincts where voting machines were down, but it is unknown if the machines were set to a zero count. Additionally, votes were casted on yellow legal pad paper at a particular precinct and later counted in a room filled with stacks of the identical same yellow legal pad paper that was openly used by county officials while those ballots were being counted leaving the possibility open that there could have been suspicious activities to have taken place.
Please stay tuned for the latest information at www.madinhorrycounty.com
Make A Difference In Horry County
Chaos would be an understatement in describing the handling of the 2008 Republican Primary Elections in Horry County, South Carolina this past Saturday evening. Horry County is located on the coast of South Carolina and is home to Myrtle Beach. Murphy’s Law was in full effect for the Horry County Elections Commission as things that could go wrong, did go wrong.
A massive 80% of the ESS electronic voting machines were not able to “open up” in Saturday’s primary forcing almost all Horry County precincts to use paper ballots. When precincts opened Saturday morning a majority of the voting machines would not work at all. The Seawinds precinct had reported that the electronic voting machines were down “county wide.”
Paper ballots were issued to Horry County citizens in replacement of the voting machines. The process at the Seawinds precinct was you would take the backup ballot to a table and fill in the bubble next to the candidate that you wished to select in the primary. After filling in the bubble, you would next fold your ballot back and slide it in the manila envelope that you were given and return it to the precinct worker. On one side of the manila envelope you would put your name, address, and your signature. However, this was not protocol in Horry County.
Make A Difference In Horry County has confirmed that some precincts passed out legal pads and simply asked the voters to write their candidate’s name on the 8.5X11 paper. Early reports show that one precinct reportedly turned away voters for seven hours consecutively while at least one other precinct turned away voters but it is currently unknown as to how long. While it is still very early, it is not understood as to why this happened. If one precinct was able to simply ask voters to cast their ballot by writing their candidate down on a piece of paper, than why would another precinct turn away voters?
For those in Horry County who are not a fan of the electronic voting machines, the disabled machines could have been a blessing in disguise. The reason is simply because the South Carolina state Constitution specifically notes that ballots are not allowed be counted in secret. As it has been speculated that this only applies to the paper balloting, there was no back door for Horry County as the paper ballots had to be counted in public.
Voter Fraud?
As Make A Difference In Horry County will investigate the plethora of information that was recorded via video and transcript over the election day, we will also be looking into a potential situation where voter fraud could have taken place. Our reasons for this include the fact that technicians did repair voting machines at precincts where voting machines were down, but it is unknown if the machines were set to a zero count. Additionally, votes were casted on yellow legal pad paper at a particular precinct and later counted in a room filled with stacks of the identical same yellow legal pad paper that was openly used by county officials while those ballots were being counted leaving the possibility open that there could have been suspicious activities to have taken place.
Please stay tuned for the latest information at www.madinhorrycounty.com
Friday, January 18, 2008
Canada puts U.S., Israel on torture watchlist -CTV
Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:32am EST
OTTAWA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - An official Canadian government document has put both the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners run the risk of being tortured, CTV television reported on Thursday.
The revelation is likely to embarrass the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch U.S. ally.
The document mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.
CTV said the document was part of a course on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats to help them determine whether prisoners they visited abroad had been mistreated.
It said the document mentioned U.S. interrogation techniques such as "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation."
Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran and Afghanistan, CTV said.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier tried to distance Ottawa from the document.
CONTINUED . . .
OTTAWA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - An official Canadian government document has put both the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners run the risk of being tortured, CTV television reported on Thursday.
The revelation is likely to embarrass the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch U.S. ally.
The document mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.
CTV said the document was part of a course on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats to help them determine whether prisoners they visited abroad had been mistreated.
It said the document mentioned U.S. interrogation techniques such as "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation."
Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran and Afghanistan, CTV said.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier tried to distance Ottawa from the document.
CONTINUED . . .
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Bogus Iran story was product of Pentagon spokesman, reporter says
John Byrne
Published: Wednesday January 16, 2008
An American journalist and historian who was the first to break the story of a secret Iranian peace overture to the Bush Administration in 2006 alleges that the latest Pentagon encounter between Iranian ships and a Navy vessel was a deliberate fabrication.
The incident, on Jan. 5 in Strait of Hormuz off the Iranian coast, was originally described as a non-event -- then quickly became one in which Iranian boats threatened to "explode" American ships.
At about 4 am on Monday Jan. 7, the commander of the Fifth Fleet issued a news release on an incident with small Iranian boats. According to reporter Gareth Porter, writing in the Asia Times, "the release reported that the Iranian "small boats" had "maneuvered aggressively in close proximity of [sic] the Hopper [the lead ship of the three-ship convoy]. But it did not suggest that the Iranian boats had threatened the boats or that it had nearly resulted in firing on the Iranian boats."
"On the contrary, the release made the US warships handling of the incident sound almost routine," he adds. "'Following standard procedures,' the release said, "Hopper issued warnings, attempted to establish communications with the small boats and conducted evasive maneuvering.'"
No reference was made to a US ship nearly firing on an Iranian vessel, or suggestions that the US ships would "explode," or white boxes dropped into the water in the path of the US fleet.
This press release, however, went ignored by the media, Porter notes. Instead, the focus turned to CNN's Barbara Starr, who touted allegations that military officials told her Iranian boats were carrying out "threatening maneuvers." CBS soon followed up with a story positing that the Persians had dropped white boxes in the water around the American ships.
CONTINUED . . .
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