The Voting News Daily: The Business of Voting Machines, Citizens United drama,TX Vote Center controversy, DREs for sale

Editorials on Diebold’s sale to ES&S pouring in: “The Diebold name was snake-bitten, the product didn’t satisfy, and changing the name didn’t help much.” ~ the Dayton Daily News. “The combination of the Election Systems & Software and Diebold American voting machine divisions raises classic antitrust concerns.” ~ The New York Times.
Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission: “…at stake in this case are the voices of millions and millions of Americans that could be drowned out by large corporations if the decades-old restrictions on corporate electioneering are called into question.”
Feingold, McCain ask: Is Roberts a man of his word?
Vote Center controversy in Collin Co Texas:
“We are of the strong view that a majority of the Collin County Commissioners’ Court is more interested in having the possibility of cutting up to 50% of the polling locations in November 2010 than they are in actually making voting more convenient for all citizens that wish to vote.”
Warning to Florida Voters – check your registration status.
NY City Mayor Bloomberg Unveils Plan For Automatic Voter Registration & Weekend Voting.
The fate of Connecticut’s system of using taxpayer dollars to pay for political campaigns is about to be decided by a federal appeals court.
Shoup DREs for sale at Govdeals.com
The Phillipine justices who voted against automating the 2010 polls fear that control of the electoral exercise would be handed over to a foreign firm.

CA. Yamada bill would test-run all-mail elections
09/10/2009 Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada’s AB 1228 gives California the opportunity to gather information on all-mail elections by establishing an all-mail pilot project in Yolo and Santa Clara counties.
Whether it will be ratified by the governor, however, is another matter.
“The administration and cost of traditional poll voting has become increasingly burdensome to local governments. At the same time more and more voters are choosing permanent Vote by Mail status,” stated Yamada. “Voting by mail is emerging as a more efficient way to conduct an election in California.”
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_13306163The

CT. Waiting for a Solution
Scrapping the state’s public financing for campaigns could trigger a range of other problems
September 08, 2009. The fate of Connecticut’s system of using taxpayer dollars to pay for political campaigns is about to be decided by a federal appeals court. And, if part of this public-financing scheme is ultimately declared unconstitutional (as seems likely), it could trigger one bad-ass mother of a legislative brawl.
…Lawmakers are already sweating over U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill’s findings that two key sections of the law violate the constitution. One concerns the ban on state political contributions by state lobbyists and contractors; and the other decrees how minor party candidates are treated. The state is now appealing those rulings.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/CTVCdata/09/09/Advocate20090908.mht

CT. Hartford Advocate: Public Financing: Waiting For A Solution
September 10, 2009 Luther Weeks of CTVoter poses questions
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2363

FL. Winter Haven Vote: Election? What Election?
A total of 1,060 voters – not even double the number of members in Congress – put Jamie Beckett in office as a Winter Haven city commissioner.

The Voting News Daily: Warning Florida Voters – Voter Caging may become easier thanks to new rule 1S-2.041

The Florida Fair Elections Coalition warns that rules proposed by the Florida Dept of Elections would make voter caging easier. Rule 1S-2.041 is intended to address maintenance of voter registration rolls. The new rules make it easier for persons to maliciously, frivolously or fraudulently send in false or inaccurate claims of voter address changes. Any third party can report “address changes” without being held accountable. These actions result in valid voters being put on the “inactive” list. This could cause disenfranchisement, open voters up to challenges at the polls, and kicks voters names off of petitions.

Warning: All Florida voters, especially any who have been away or out of town- should contact their County Supervisor of Elections ASAP to make sure they are on the active voters list. This warning especially includes “snow-birds”, college and military but could apply to anyone. They can get back on the active voters list by confirming their address with the county voters list.
If you have signed any petitions recently and are listed as “inactive”, your signature may be considered invalid.

From the Florida Fair Elections Coalition website:

OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED “CAGING:

“If Florida passes proposed Rule 1S-2.041, it will permit officially sanctioned caging (vote suppression) to occur. Click here to read our comments on this proposed Rule.

Here are some excerpts from FFEC’s letter:

Problem #1
Several requirements in the proposed rule absolutely and unequivocally violate both state and federal law. If approved in its current form, this rule will permit officially sanctioned caging (vote suppression) with no accountability. The rule permits voters to be placed on the inactive list without proper procedures being followed, and the signatures of inactive voters, by law, will not be counted on any petition…
The rule allows any third party to inform a Supervisor of Elections that a voter might have moved, apparently without verification or restrictions…

Problem #2
A third party could get away with falsely reporting an address change for one voter or address changes for multiple voters.

Problem #3
There is never a reason to send nonforwardable address notices. Nonforwardable address notices violate federal law and set up the possibility of caging…

Problem #4
The proposed rule never mentions the prohibition in federal and state law against conducting voter list maintenance activities within 90 days of a federal election…

Summary
It is critical that proposed rule 1S-2.041 FVRS Address and Records Maintenance Activities,meticulously follow the mandates of state and federal law in its instructions to supervisors of elections. The mailings of notices are the steps towards placing a voter on the inactive list, which prevents that voter’s signature from counting on any petition. List maintenance notices are also the steps for eventually removing a voter completely from the voting rolls. The proposed rule fails to provide proper instruction in several critical ways, by omission and by commission.

link to the letter http://www.ffec.org/documents/CommentsListMaintenanceRule.pdf

You may read the rule at this link.
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/rules/proposed-rules/pdf/R1S2041DraftFVRSRecords08_09.pdf

Here are the accompanying forms to be completed by supervisors of elections at
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/rules/proposed-rules/index.shtml