The Voting News Daily: Smartmatic must reveal source code, WVA touchscreens easily hacked,Aspen ballot battle continues
“Why does U.S. seemingly insist on electronic voting machines?” asks an IT professional in Japan. Indeed. The Philippines calls for review of Smartmatic source code. Good reason not to require voters to dip fingers in ink: Afghan election observers report finger amputations. West Virginia lawmakers hear expert testimony that their ES&S ivotronic touchscreens have “serious security vulnerabilities”. A Denver Colorado attorney says Aspen’s May 5 IRV ballots are subject to open records request.
Are some candidates for California’s top offices “Too big to vote”?
Economics affect elections again: Budget crunch may eliminate early voting in Evansville IN in next GE. Should there be fewer polling places in primaries? While some US states struggle to get paper ballots, a Ghana oped proposes electronic voting and biometric id as solution to vote rigging problems. Intimidation and Fraud Observed in Afghan Election. Afghans turn to the Twitterverse.
CA. Too big to vote?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
How do you run for California’s top political offices when you often have failed to vote yourself and have no political experience? …Some big names in the GOP have rallied behind former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as she eyes a run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as she prepares to run for governor…But both former CEOs have a boardroom-size problem: They have shoddy voting records.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/08/22/INAQ19AI2K.DTL
CA. Proposed constitutional convention is a big con
08/22/2009 The most interesting thing about the New America Foundation think tank’s recent Sacramento seminar on replacing the California state constitution with something unknown and unpredictable was that even the foundation’s designated election law expert had to admit the “Pandora’s Box” problem
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinions/ci_13185105
CO. Links to media- discussion of ballot release and election review
The two Aspen Colorado papers and one state-wide blog have been covering the topic of the Aspen May 5 IRV election and the upcoming Aspen Election Independent Review and numerous letters to editor. Here is a perhaps not complete collection of them:
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2009/08/links-to-media-discussion-of-ballot.html
CO. More calls for release of ballots
August 24, 2009 ….Sources from across the state and the political spectrum called into question the city of Aspen’s reasoning for not making citizens’ ballots from the May election public…
…Thomas Kelley, a Denver attorney who specializes in open records law, said he has studied the issue before and concluded that ballots are subject to open records requests, as long as the ballots don’t identify the voter.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/136238
CT. Should There Be Fewer Polling Places For Primaries?
…When we think of a large cities such as Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport its easy to see how reducing polling places could reduce turn-out and locations could easily change the result
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2267
IN. Sunday Soapbox (budget dispute about early voting)
August 22, 2009
Due to a budget dispute, that service may not be available during next year’s general election. County Clerk Susan Kirk says she would need $60,000 in 2010 to pay part-time workers to man the voting centers
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/aug/22/no-headline—23a13soap/
NY. City Council campaigns use social media
August 23, 2009 ..They