The Voting News Daily: ES&S-Diebold’s “Ominous Monopoly”, ACORN, NY “Count the Vote”, Internet Voting Whackamole in FL
ES&S purchase of Diebold “The Most Ominous Monopoly”. Congratulations to Brad Friedman, who has a piece about the Acorn controversy published in the Guardian UK.
Florida has a bill, HB 131 that would allow overseas voters to cast ballots by email.
New Jersey’s early voting (by mail) could diminish effect of “October Surprise”?
Boulder Co releases report blaming software problems for the slow count of the 2008 election. Al Kolwicz, a member of the CO. Voter Group said: “There were thousands of dollars spent to ensure that this kind of problem that was exhibited didn’t happen,” he said. “If it’s possible to circumvent that procedure (with an incompatible device driver), what could be happening with the counting software?” . This is an all too common story, elections as beta tests for overpriced electronic voting systems.
Shelby Co TN has been “aggressively” paring its voter rolls, but officials say they are acting in accordance with federal law.
New York voting activists oppose replacing lever machines ” until paper ballot security and proper auditing is mandated by state law or regulations.” Teresa Hommel of http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ worries that “”Once we give up the lever machines, we will never get the law to require better security or audits,”. More transparency measures are needed with computerized voting. Hommel says “When the levers are broken, everyone can see it. When computers are programmed incorrectly, no one can see it.”
The Wisconsin DOJ defends code that prevents judges from joining political parties: “I believe that justice is blind. When someone walks into a courtroom they shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not the judge sitting there has an ‘R’ or a ‘D ‘behind their name,” ~ Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. Does the First Amendment Apply to Corporations?
Congratulations! New Zealand women have been voting for 116 years.
CA. The Future of Voting Systems in Los Angeles County
September 19th, 2009
http://la.metblogs.com/2009/09/19/future-voting-systems/
CA & FL. Residual votes in LA and Palm Beach Counties *
…In 2008, the residual vote rate for Florida was 0.7%, compared to 1.3% in California. If California could reduce that rate to Florida’s, over 82,000 additional votes would be recovered among Golden State residents in presidential years. The number for LA County alone is over 20,000.
http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/?p=2846
CA. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter Writes in Support of “Top-Two”
September 19th, 2009 Newsweek’s latest issue carries this column by its columnist Jonathan Alter, in favor of “top-two” election systems. Here is his column, which is titled, “The Jackass-Reduction Plan.” Here is the text of a letter Ballot Access News has just sent to Jonathan Alter, outlining six reasons why he should change his mind:
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/09/19/newsweeks-jonathan-alter-writes-in-support-of-top-two/
CO. More to the story
Dear Editor: I was surprised to read that Aspen’s City Council is still denying access to the digital images of ballots
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090918/LETTER/909179976/1020
CO. Slow Boulder vote count blamed on software glitch *Hart Intercivic ballot scanners. 9/19/2009 (AP) — BOULDER, Colo. – Boulder County election officials say a software problem led to the delay in counting votes last November, when the county processed 172,531 ballots.