The Voting News Daily: EAC News #31 8-3-09 EAC on YouTube, Comment on 2005 Vol.Voting Sys Guidelines, VVPAT accessibility and more

U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION1225 New York Ave. NW – Suite 1100Washington, DC 20005

EAC Newsline: August 3, 2009
Public Meetings The EAC Standards Board will meet August 6-7 in Phoenix, Arizona.
For more information, click here.

EAC’s next public meeting will be Sept 2: agenda to be announced.

Visit our Web site to view the webcasts of meetings, and a tentative 2009 public meeting schedule.

EAC YouTubeEAC has launched a YouTube Channel here, and it features EAC’s new video about how voting systems are certified.

Voting Accessibility We have a new voting accessibility section on the EAC Web site, available here.

HAVA Funding To see the latest dollar amounts distributed to states, click here. See the updated funding breakdown by year for all states here.

Updated instructions for obtaining FY 2008 and 2009 HAVA requirements payments are available here.
The latest funding advisory opinions (FAO 09-006 and FAO 09-007) are posted here.
To view the advisory opinion policy, click here.

Testing & Certification The second voting system to be certified by EAC is ES&S Unity 3.2.0.0. The latest voting system manufacturer to register with EAC is Everyone Counts, Inc.

We have updated lists of registered manufacturers, certification applications, test plans, test reports and new correspondence here.

EAC’s decision on a request for interpretation of VVPAT accessibility is posted here.

EAC seeks public comments on draft revisions to the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG).
Click here to get started.
For more information about the program, go to Voting System Center.

NIST issues call for participation for two workshops in October

The National Institute of Standards and Technology seeks participation for the the End to End Voting Systems Workshop, Oct. 13-14, at George Washington University and the Common Data Format for Electronic Voting Systems Workshop, Oct. 29-30, at NIST in Maryland.

For more information and guidelines for participating, go to EAC’s calendar of events and updates. View latest election data reportsThe 2007-2008 NVRA report and the 2008 Election Data Grant Program are available here.

Reminder: EAC Voting System Reports ClearinghouseEAC urges state and local governments to contribute voting system reports and studies they have commissioned to the Voting System Reports Clearinghouse.####* If you wish to be removed from the distribution list email us at HAVAInfo@eac.gov.

The Voting News Daily: 8/3 Voting News. Dominion takes New York? USPS to push Vote By Mail, TX county ditching paper, PA wants levers

Sequoia/Dominion has succeeded in getting its machines in most New York Counties. The National Association of Letter Carriers) wants the the Postal Service to aggressively pursue “vote-by-mail” initiatives. Aspen is holding a special election by mail only, the town’s mayor worries voters will be caught unaware. A felon disenfranchisement case may head to the US Supreme Court… Galveston County Texas will ditch paper ballots, go to all paperless voting and hopes to cut polling places. The Mississipp GOP is pushing to get voter ID on the ballot.

Tennessee still fighting over paper ballot law. I just found a great video of a Tennessee lawmaker arguing the cost benefits of paper ballots vs. paperless. This is from June, but you need to see it. Sen. Herron (TN) rebutts alot of misinfo. In India, a group of NGOs sets out to prove the machines can be tampered with – a bit of déjà vu? In Afghanistan, 3,000 donkeys are transporting paper ballots to the polls. Other countries struggle.

CO. Aspen marketing officials prepare for bed tax ballot question
Friday, July 31, 2009
Pitkin County residents can only mail in their ballots, which will require a specific postage rate and a restrictive timeline for them to be received by the county clerk and recorder.That creates several issues, said Mayor Mick Ireland, adding he is not a fan of mail-in ballot elections because people who move a lot become disenfranchised and not all of them will receive their ballots at the correct addresses.Others caught unaware won’t realize that they can’t vote at their normal polling places.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090731/NEWS/907309967/1058

FL A conversation with Hillsborough’s new supervisor of elections. Aug 3. http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/article1024145.ece

FL & US.. For State, Local Office Seekers, Web Ads Present Potential Pitfalls
Aug 3. ..The Florida Elections Commission has decided a mayoral candidate’s ads on Google and Facebook appear to violate the state’s election law because they don’t include a disclaimer that indicates who bought them.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124925841924700351.html

IN. Counties try to stop vote
* Let the state pick up the tab or put off referendum until next year, critics say.
August 2, 2009…The combined cost for the four northern Indiana counties having a referendum on transportation this November will easily top $1 million… It’s not necessarily the ballot question they’re outraged about. Rather it’s the timing of the referendum that’s at issue.
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1696445,ropref.article

MA. Felon Disenfranchisement Issue Heading to the Supreme Court?
On Friday, a First Circuit Panel split 2-1 in Simmons v. Galvin, a case challenging the disenfranchisement of currently incarcerated Massachusetts felons under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the ex post facto clause… The majority, in an opinion by Chief Judge Lynch, rejected the arguments… This case could well go to the Supreme Court on an issue that Judge Sotomayor knows well.
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014188.html

MI. Michigan Law Allows Felons to Run for Local Office But Removes Them if they Win August 2nd, 2009
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/08/02/michigan-law-allows-felons-to-run-for-local-office-but-removes-them-if-they-win/

MS. Mississippi GOP launches voter ID campaign
Aug 3. JACKSON, Miss. — The head of the Mississippi Republican Party said the group will handle an initiative to get voter identification on the ballot just as it would any other election campaign, by traveling the state to urge voters to support the issue.

The Voting News Daily: Sequoia/Dominion Voting System takes New York?

It looks like Sequoia aka Dominion Voting Systems has taken NY. There are 62 counties in the State of New York, and 54 will be or are using the Sequoia Image Cast. Here’s a list from the New York State Board of Elections website:

1. Allegany County
2. Broome County
3. Cattaraugus County
4. Cayuga County
5. Chautauqua County
6. Chemung County
7. Chenango County
8. Clinton County
9. Columbia County
10. Cortland County
11. Delaware County
12. Dutchess County
13. Essex County
14. Franklin County
15. Fulton County
16. Genesee County
17. Greene County
18. Hamilton County
19. Herkimer County
20. Jefferson County
21. Lewis County
22. Livingston County
23. Madison County
24. Monroe County
25. Montgomery County
26. Nassau County
27. Niagara County
28. Oneida County
29. Onondaga County
30. Ontario County
31. Orange County
32. Orleans County
33. Oswego County
34. Otsego County
35. Putnam County
36. Rensselaer County
37. Saratoga County
38. Schoharie County
39. Schuyler County
40. Seneca County
41. St. Lawrence County
42. Steuben County
43. Suffolk County
44. Sullivan
45. County
46. Tioga County
47. Tompkins County
48. Ulster County
49. Warren County
50. Washington County
51. Wayne County
52. Westchester County
53. Wyoming County
54. Yates County

The ImageCast combines an optical scanner with a disabled accessible device, and theoretically a disabled person could be voting on the machine at the same time that abled voters were also feeding their ballots into the machine. The disabled voter would be on one end of the machine while the other voters accessed the other end.

A gap that had allowed ballots to accidentally feed straight to the ballot box without being scanned has been fixed.

The State Board of Elections has a video of how to use the ImageCast here, if you would like to learn more about its actual operation.