The Progess Report: November 10, 2004

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Wed, 10 Nov 2004 08:59:13 -0800

Progress Report: The Case For Election Reform

" American Progress Action Fund "

<progress

 

 

The Progess Report

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

 

November 10, 2004

 

VOTING The Case For Election Reform

HEALTH CARE The Merck-y Case for Tort Reform

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

 

VOTING

The Case For Election Reform

 

Though we may have avoided the " major mishaps and controversies that

tainted the 2000 election, " preliminary analysis of last week's vote

underscores the fact that " substantial problems remain in the nation's

electoral system. " Election experts pointed to machine glitches, long

lines, confusion over provisional and absentee ballots and the lack of

paper trails for lost votes as proof of major structural deficiencies

in the way America votes. Computerized voter databases and upgraded

technology, both mandated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA),

but so far under-funded and inconsistently enforced, should help

resolve some of the problems by 2006. Other solutions, however, could

come from a careful analysis of exactly what went wrong in this year's

election.

 

EXTRA VOTES: Ever since election night, the evidence has mounted that

computer glitches in electronic voting machines caused substantial

errors. In a suburban Columbus precinct in Ohio, " An electronic voting

machine added 3,893 votes to President Bush's tally…even though there

are just 800 voters there. " MSNBC's Keith Olbermann reported that " in

Cuyahoga County, that is greater Cleveland, the official records of 29

different voting precincts show more votes than registered voters to a

total of 93,000 extra votes in that county alone. " Similar glitches

were discovered in e-voting machines across the country. In Broward

County, FL, " software subtracted votes rather than added them. " There

were as many as 10,000 extra e-votes cast in Nebraska and 19,000

mysterious " extra ballots " were added on electronic machines elsewhere

in Florida.

 

CODE AUDIT: Machine miscounts could have been caused by fraud or

hacking, but the problems were most likely the result of voting

software code errors. So far, none of the major e-voting vendors has

agreed to release its code to the public " for fear of competitors

stealing trade secrets. " But unofficial audits of some of the codes

revealed security weaknesses and potentially dangerous glitches. The

quixotic behavior of the machines in the 2004 election underscores the

need for the federal government to audit the machines before they are

used in elections.

 

PAPER TRAIL: In North Carolina's Carteret County, " more than 4,000

early votes were lost because the electronic voting system could not

store the volume of votes it received. " The mishap was a perfect

argument for a verifiable paper trail. With a voter-verified

paper-trail system, says e-voting software expert Avi Rubin, " If the

electronic votes were lost due to a computer malfunction, the paper

votes would still be there and could be counted. " As it stands, the

votes cannot be recovered. In Nevada, the " only state with a large

number of electronic-voting systems with voter-verified paper-trail

capabilities, only a handful of problems were reported. "

 

PROVISIONAL BALLOTS: Had President Bush's margin of victory in Ohio

been any slimmer, there would have been a fierce legal battle over the

155,337 provisional ballots cast in the state. Secretary of State

Kenneth Blackwell had ordered election officials to " only issue

provisional ballots to voters in the right polling places, " prompting

two federal lawsuits and possibly disenfranchising crucial votes. His

edict would seem to violate HAVA, which mandated that provisional

ballots be offered to any voter whose name is not on the rolls. But a

federal clarification of the law's standard for counting the votes is

clearly needed. " If Ohio's votes had been challenged by Democrats,

legal experts said, the election overhaul law would have left plenty

of other unanswered questions, particularly about provisional

ballots. " The ballots created confusion in other states as well: in

Colorado, Secretary of State Donetta Davidson inexplicably decided she

would count provisional votes for president, but not for the state's

tight U.S. Senate race.

 

LONG LINES: The most common problem of all in this year's election was

long lines. The large voter turnout " caused hours-long waits

throughout the country and prompted judges to order voting hours

extended in some polling places long past scheduled closing times. " In

Ohio, " lines were horrendously long, " even though turnout was below

what Secretary of State Blackwell had predicted. And there " appeared

to be disproportionately long lines in some low-income areas, "

stemming from an inadequate number of voting machines. " There is a

feeling here that the long-line problem was a problem of disparity

that fell along socioeconomic lines, " said Ohio election law professor

Edward Foley. " There were isolated instances of long lines here in the

seven- to nine-hour range. " For future elections, the nation should

commit itself " to providing enough voting machines and election

workers to make waiting times reasonable. "

 

HEALTH CARE

The Merck-y Case for Tort Reform

 

Mounting evidence suggests that, for at least five years,

pharmaceutical company Merck aggressively concealed evidence that its

painkiller Vioxx was associated with an increased risk of heart attack

and stroke – recklessly endangering tens of millions of people.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is working actively to ensure that

drug companies like Merck don't have to pay one red cent to the

patients they harm. In December 2003, FDA Chief Counsel Daniel Troy

promised a group of drug industry lobbyists that " the FDA would

exercise its intervention powers to protect [drug industry]

defendants " from lawsuits. The FDA's actions back up Troy's words.

Since Bush took office, the FDA or Department of Justice has

intervened repeatedly in cases on behalf of pharmaceutical company

defendants, each time claiming the FDA's own judgment to approve the

drug means that drug companies can't be held responsible. The

administration's broader tort reform agenda – including caps on how

much a patient can recover – would provide further protection for

companies like Merck. If the Bush administration gets its way, drug

companies like Merck will be able to push products they know are

dangerous to the public with impunity.

 

MERCK KNEW ABOUT THE DANGERS OF VIOXX FOR YEARS: An e-mail written on

3/9/00 by Merck's research chief, Edward Scolnick, acknowledges that

results of a study conducted by a company showed cardiovascular events

" are clearly there " among those who take the drug. The data showed " a

fivefold increase in heart attacks in patients taking Vioxx compared

with those taking an older painkiller, naproxen. " Scolinick's e-mail,

obtained by the Wall Street Journal, called the results " a shame, "

especially since the risk of heart attack or stroke was " mechanism

based, " meaning it was a risk inherent in Vioxx.

 

MERCK WILLFULLY COVERED UP THE DATA: The following month, Merck

released a press statement saying the data from the trial showed " NO

DIFFERENCE in the incidence of cardiovascular events " between Vioxx

and older painkillers like aspirin. The WSJ also obtained a 16-page

internal training document entitled " Dodge Ball Vioxx. " Each of the

first 12 pages lists one question that may be raised by doctors,

including, " I am concerned about the cardiovascular effects of Vioxx "

and " The competition has been in my office telling me that the

incidence of heart attacks is greater with Vioxx than Celebrex. " The

last four pages contain a single word written in capital letters: " DODGE! "

 

MERCK THREATENED ACADEMICS WHO RAISED QUESTIONS: Merck attacked

medical researchers who raised questions about Vioxx's safety. A Merck

official called the Stanford Medical School to complain that a

professor there, Gurkipal Singh, was giving lectures that were

" irresponsibly anti-Merck and specifically anti-Vioxx. " On the call,

the Merck official, Louis Sherwood, said if Singh's conduct continued

" Dr. Singh would 'flame out' and there would be consequences...for

Stanford. " Other academics (and their superiors) received similar calls.

 

MERCK UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION: The Justice Department and the

Securities and Exchange Commission have launched criminal

investigations into Merck's conduct. The Justice Department probe is

investigating allegations that " Merck misled regulators or perhaps

caused federal health programs to pay for the prescription drug when

its use was not warranted. "

 

VIOXX SHOULD HAVE BEEN PULLED BY THE FDA MORE THAN THREE YEARS AGO:

There is another reason why FDA approval should not insulate

pharmaceutical companies like Merck for liability: the FDA hasn't been

doing its job. Jerry Avorn, a Harvard University drug safety expert,

described the probes by the Justice Department and the SEC as " doing

the FDA's work at a time when the FDA has been asleep at the switch in

its regulatory function. " Avorn's view is bolstered by a recent study

in the prestigious medical journal Lancet that found Vioxx's " heart

risk was evident in studies four years before the drug was recalled. "

By the end of 2000, " the evidence was strong enough to initiate

discussion of whether the drug should be recalled. " The Lancet study

concluded that " too often the FDA saw and continues to see the

pharmaceutical industry as its customer – a vital source of funding

for its activities – and not as a sector of society in need of strong

regulation. " Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said, " It looks like the FDA

saw a lot of red flags from the beginning. The agency must address

what looks like systemic problems when it comes to putting safety

first and public relations second. "

 

MERCK'S IRRESPONSIBLE ADVERTISING BLITZ: Why did 20 million people

take Vioxx when, for most, it was no more effective at pain relief

than aspirin? Marketing. In 2003, Merck spent half a billion dollars

marketing Vioxx to health care professionals. In 2000, Merck spent

more money advertising Vioxx to the public ($160 billion) than was

spent marketing Budweiser ($146 billion) or Pepsi ($125 billion).

 

 

Under the Radar

 

MILITARY – VETERANS LACK HEALTH CARE: The Christian Science Monitor

reports, " After spending months in a war zone, many of the 170,000

soldiers who've returned home are struggling with their transition to

back to civilian life – from coping with a maze of red tape and

contradictory messages on healthcare to finding affordable housing and

jobs with adequate incomes to accessing disability payments. " And

according to the Government Accountability Office, one of the biggest

problems is a lack of health care. In fact, a new study done at

Harvard University has found that " almost 1.7 million veterans of all

wars lack health insurance, an increase of 13 percent since 2000.

More than one in three vets under the age of 25...have no health

insurance. " The Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony

Principi admitted the crisis, saying, " If you are killed, you get the

$250,000 service group life insurance. But if you are just wounded

and lose a leg and your wife is spending six months or a year in

Washington, traveling back and forth, and not able to work...what do

you do? It is troubling me. "

 

HEALTH – SCORE ONE FOR THE KIDS: Under pressure from scientists,

environmentalists and ethics groups, the Environmental Protection

Agency announced yesterday it would suspend a controversial study on

the effects of pesticides and chemicals on infants and toddlers. The

EPA had proposed paying parents in Duval County, FL, to expose young

children to chemicals and pesticides. Even worse, the study's

objectivity had been compromised, as it was to be paid for in part by

the American Chemistry Council (the group that looks out for the

interests of the chemical and pesticide industry). As Jeff Ruch,

executive director of the Public Employees for Environmental

Responsibility, put it, " paying poor parents to dose their babies with

commercial poisons to measure their exposure is just plain wrong. "

 

RELIGION – LIBERAL CHRISTIANS: Liberal Christian leaders united

yesterday to charge that the " moral values held by most Americans are

much broader than the handful of issues emphasized by religious

conservatives in the 2004 presidential campaign. " Rev. Welton Gaddy,

head of the Interfaith Alliance, explains, " The values that were

promoted most within the conservative religious community were almost

always tied to a fear factor, and that was not necessarily the case in

the Democratic strategy, and I would say should not be the case. " This

was buttressed by a recent poll sponsored in part by the Center for

American Progress which showed " 33 percent of voters said the nation's

most urgent moral problem was 'greed and materialism' and 31 percent

said it was 'poverty and economic justice.' "

 

EDUCATION – TEXAS COOKS THE BOOKS: In its efforts to advance a

conservative agenda, the Texas State Board of Education is failing its

students. Last week, the group voted on standards for new health

textbooks, deciding " abstinence should be taught without any textbook

discussion of contraception. " The newly approved textbooks don't

mention condoms; instead, for example, " one offers strategies such as

going out in groups, avoiding alcohol and drugs, and getting plenty of

rest to avoid having 'to make a tough choice when you are tired.' " The

Board of Education also decreed textbooks have to " be explicit about

marriage as a union between a man and a woman. "

 

CIVIL LIBERTIES – 1942 ALL OVER AGAIN?: Members of a Census Bureau

advisory board panel yesterday told top officials that the Census

Bureau's decision " to give to the Department of Homeland Security data

that identified populations of Arab-Americans was the modern-day

equivalent of its pinpointing Japanese-American communities when

internment camps were opened during World War II. " Barry Steinhardt, a

civil liberties lawyer and member of the panel, charged, " This for the

Arab-American community is 1942. Thousands of Arab-Americans have been

rounded up and deported. " Charles Louis Kincannon, the Census Bureau

director, acknowledged that even if handing that information to the

DHS broke no laws, " the agency had undermined public trust,

potentially discouraging Arab-Americans or other minority groups from

filling out future census forms. "

 

RIGHT-WING COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY: " You watch the

voter turnout on the near south side, heavily Hispanic, and compare it

to the voter turnout in any other election, and you're going to see

every wetback and every other non-citizen out there voting. " – Radio

host and regular Rush Limbaugh substitute Mark Belling, 10/27/04.

Belling has since been suspended by Clear Channel station WISN.