Electronic Voting: A Failed Experiment

This document provides brief summaries of only some of the many DRE failures that have been reported in news articles, along with short excerpts from the articles. The list is in order by state

Cost Estimate for Hand Counting 2% of the Precincts in the U.S.

Hand counts of significant numbers of ballots were conducted in Washington State andNevada after the 2004 General Election. Estimated costs of a 2% audit of federal contestsare based primarily on the costs of those recent, extensive hand counts

Performe Emotionalität!« Emotion und/als (geschlechtsspezifische) Arbeit in Inscourcing des Zuhause. Menschen in Scheiss-Hotels (2001) und SEX nach Mae West (2002) von René Pollesch

Als ein Exempel zeitgenössischer Auseinandersetzung mit Emotionen auf der Bühne wird in diesem Artikel der Autor-Regisseur René Pollesch herangezogen werden, der ausgesprochen energetische Theaterproduktionen realisiert (hat), wie nicht nur der Schrei (überwiegend) in seinen frühen Inszenierungen, die rhythmisch-melodische Ausrichtung schnell geäußerter Textfluten oder etwa das komische Potential und der Unterhaltungscharakter der Stücke verdeutlichen. Pollesch erinnert bei seiner praktischen Annäherung an das Thema der Emotionen an Bertolt Brechts Episches Theater sowie dessen Diktum der Rücknahme gefühlsmäßiger Darstellung zum Zweck der Tilgung illusionistischer Verklärung. Mit diesem Vorgehen versucht Pollesch auch, einer universalistischen »Repräsentationsfalle« zu entkommen, in der er eines seiner großen Feindbilder, das Hollywood-Kino, sieht. Die dort präsentierten Liebesgeschichten oder »Schnulzen« werden bei Pollesch auf deren geschlechtsspezifische Verabredungen hin geprüft, da sie meist Heterosexualität normalisieren, Sexismen oder auch rassistische Konnotationen (re)produzieren. Bei Pollesch lässt sich dagegen beobachten, wie diese Heteronormativität als eigentliches soziales Problem (auch im Rahmen theatraler Darstellungsweisen) exponiert und diskursiv verhandelt wird

Vendors are Undermining the Structure of U.S. Elections

As we approach the 2008 general election, the structure of elections in the United States -- once reliant on local representatives accountable to the public -- has become almost wholly dependent on large corporations, which are not accountable to the public. Most local officials charged with running elections are now unable to administer elections without the equipment, services, and trade-secret software of a small number of corporations. If the vendors withdrew their support for elections now, our election structure would collapse. Case studies presented in this report give examples of the pervasive control voting system vendors now have over election administration in almost every state, and the consequences some jurisdictions are already experiencing.However, some states and localities are recognizing the threat that vendor-dependency poses to elections. They are using ingenuity and determination to begin reversing the direction. This report examines the situation, how we got here, and steps we can take to limit corporate control of our elections in 2008 and reduce it even further in the future

Nonprofit Business Plan Development: From Vision, Mission and Values to Implementation

Describes steps for nonprofit planning, with sections that cover organizational assessment, vision and mission statements, goal-setting, and plan implementation

Superconformally covariant operators and super W algebras

We study superdifferential operators of order $2n+1$ which are covariant with respect to superconformal changes of coordinates on a compact super Riemann surface. We show that all such operators arise from super M\"obius covariant ones. A canonical matrix representation is presented and applications to classical super W algebras are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, LATEX, MPI-Ph/92-66 and KA-THEP-7/9

Implications of N = 2 Superconformal Symmetry

We review recent results on the general structure of two- and three- point functions of the supercurrent and the flavor current of N = 2 superconformal field theories.Comment: 7 pages, latex, JHEP style, no figures; based on talks delivered at the Workshop on Supersymmetries and Quantum Symmetries, Dubna, Russia, 26-31 Jul 1999, and at the Meeting on Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetry and Unification, Paris, France, 1-7 Sep 199

Moduli Anomalies and Local Terms in the Operator Product Expansion

Local terms in the Operator Product Expansion in Superconformal Theories with extended supersymmetry are identified. Assuming a factorized structure for these terms their contributions are discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, v2: footnote and reference adde

Comments on the Algebraic Properties of Dilaton Actions

We study the relation between the dilaton action and sigma models for the Goldstone bosons of the spontaneous breaking of the conformal group. We argue that the relation requires that the sigma model is diffeomorphism invariant. The origin of the WZW terms for the dilaton is clarified and it is shown that in this approach the dilaton WZW term is necessarily accompanied by a Weyl invariant term proposed before from holographic considerations.Comment: 19 page

Some aspects of holographic W-gravity

We use the Chern-Simons formulation of higher spin theories in three dimensions to study aspects of holographic W-gravity. Concepts which were useful in studies of pure bulk gravity theories, such as the Fefferman-Graham gauge and the residual gauge transformations, which induce Weyl transformations in the boundary theory and their higher spin generalizations, are reformulated in the Chern-Simons language. Flat connections that correspond to conformal and lightcone gauges in the boundary theory are considered.Comment: 42 page