The Trail

Friday, August 22, 2008

DEMOCRATS' EVANGELICAL OUTREACH

Pastor to Deliver Closing Prayer

Barack Obama's team will continue its aggressive outreach to evangelical voters at the Democratic National Convention next week. Making a prime-time appearance Thursday night will be Joel C. Hunter, a Florida megachurch pastor, who will deliver the convention's closing prayer after Obama's speech accepting the party's presidential nomination.

Hunter is a registered Republican, opposes abortion and, at one point, had been chosen to lead the Christian Coalition. He has not endorsed Obama and says he agreed to give the benediction because he was asked to do so. For years, he has pushed for evangelicals to not align themselves with a political party and has been a part of new evangelical movement, which is interested in getting away from traditional culture-war flashpoints.

"I'll kind of be the elephant in the room, but it really says something about how far Senator Obama is reaching out," Hunter said in a phone interview Thursday. "We are expanding the agenda of what's pro-life. When you consider poverty, environmentalism and war . . . those are the issues that are being addressed by the Democratic Party."

Hunter was initially brought into the Democratic conversation through discussions about the abortion language in the party platform organized by Third Way, a progressive group that is trying to find compromises on cultural issues. The group was in the background of tense negotiations between Hunter, evangelicals and abortion rights groups during the reworking of the party platform. It resulted in a strong affirmation of Roe v. Wade and an addition of language that encourages a reduction in the number of abortions.

Rachel Laser of Third Way said Hunter's inclusion proves that "the Democratic Party is open to faith in a new way."

-- Krissah Williams Thompson

MORE ISSUES IN OHIO

Voting Machine Flaws Acknowledged

A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges. The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials after the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.

The flawed software is on both touch-screen and optical-scan voting machines made by Premier, and the problem with vote counts is most likely to affect larger jurisdictions that feed many memory cards to a central counting database rapidly. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has said no votes were lost because the nine Ohio counties that found the problem caught it before primary results were finalized.

Premier and Brunner are in an ongoing court battle over the voting machines and whether Premier violated its contract with the state and warranties. Half of the Ohio's 88 counties use the GEMS system. Brunner has been a vocal critic of electronic voting machines. Both Brunner and Premier said that remedies to the problem will be in place for the November presidential election. A nationwide customer alert with recommended actions was issued Tuesday by Premier.

Approximately 1,750 jurisdictions use the flawed system, Riggall said. The problem is most likely to affect larger jurisdictions that upload multiple memory cards during counts, Riggall said. The GEMS system is supposed to save information from one card at a time to be counted in order as the cards are read by a database that Riggall described as the "mother ship." But a logic error in the program can cause incoming votes to essentially shove aside other votes that are waiting in the electronic line before they are counted. Officials in Butler County, Ohio -- north of Cincinnati -- were the first to raise the issue when 150 votes from a card dropped in March. Brunner's office originally said that 11 counties had the same problem but has revised that to nine.

"I can't provide odds on whether dropped votes were not recognized" during the decade GEMS has been used, Riggall said, "but based on what we know about how our customers run their elections and reconcile counts, we believe any results not uploaded on election night would have been caught when elections were being certified."

In his letter to Ohio's Brunner, Premier's president said: "Voters in jurisdictions Premier serves, both in Ohio and throughout the country, can be assured that election officials employing standard canvass and crosscheck procedures will count their votes completely and accurately."

-- Mary Pat Flaherty

LETTERS CONTAINED WHITE POWDER

2 McCain Offices Evacuated

John McCain's headquarters in suburban Denver was evacuated Thursday afternoon after a worker opened a threatening letter and discovered white powder inside. A spokesman for the candidate said a similar letter was sent to a McCain office in Manchester, N.H.

McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky said both letters were sent from Denver and were addressed to McCain in handwritten block lettering. Sadosky said the letter sent to a McCain headquarters in suburban Centennial, Colo., contained a threatening message and a "unknown amount of an unidentified white powder."

The campaign alerted other McCain offices around the country and a similar letter from Denver was discovered in Manchester, N.H. Sadosky said he did not know if that letter had been opened or if it contained powder.

Linda Watson, a spokeswoman for Sky Ridge Medical Center in suburban Centennial, said four workers from the office drove themselves to the hospital. She said they underwent decontamination procedures, but showed no signs or symptoms of exposure to a toxic substance. She said the substance in the letter was being analyzed.

Postal inspectors were on the scene in Denver. The Associated Press in Centennial reported that 12 people were quarantined in Colorado, including three police officers, two firefighters and seven civilians, said Andy Lyon of the Parker South Metro Fire Rescue Authority.

-- Robert Barnes