The Voting News Daily: Diebold audit log bug under investigation, Why ES&S Diebold merger bad for NY and US, Election official touts open source
California investigating Diebold audit log bugs…Absentee ballot blues: 7% of Route County CO absentee ballots undeliverable…Tennessee Judge may force state To provide voting paper Trail and election officials get course on running paper ballot elections….Sequoia voting source code story hits mainstream media…why the ES&S/Premier merger is bad for New York State and the Country…Election official touts the benefits of Open Source programming…Election officials deliver Afghan runoff ballots…Impasse over Iraqi election law may slow U.S. withdrawal…Complaints of tampering with the E-voting machines in India…
All of that and more in today’s Voting News below…
CA: California Investigating Problems With Voting-Machine Audit Logs
October 22, 2009 …The investigation is examining what the audit logs record and whether they can be easily altered or deleted, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen
…
The state confirmed the problems in a report it released about a month later in which it also found that some versions of the GEMS software had a Clear button that allows anyone with access to the system to permanently delete certain audit logs “that would be essential to reconstruct operator actions during the vote-tallying process.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/audit-log/
Voting Machines With Disappearing Logs Finally Under Investigation
http://gizmodo.com/5388025/voting-machines-with-disappearing-logs-finally-under-investigation
CA: Tweet – smcvote Sequoia WinEDS v. 3.1.012 Revised Conditional Reapproval http://bit.ly/22iQOV
http://twitter.com/smcvote/status/5051346000
CO: Don’t forget: Ballots need extra postage
October 22, 2009 AURORA County officials are urging voters to take a close look at the postal rates spelled out on mail-in ballots for November’s local election.
…
“Our official policy is that the voters are supposed to put the postage on the ballot. Sixty-one cents is the amount this year,” …
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2009/10/22/news/metro_aurora/doc4ae0af6aa6b6e770115288.txt
CO: Clerk: Only 5 percent of voters have completed, returned ballots *
Less than 700 completed ballots received; 1,022 undeliverable
…as of Wednesday afternoon, her office had received only 682 of the 13,440 ballots sent to voters in Routt County’s first mail-only election.
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/oct/23/county_clerk_
only_5_percent_voters_have_returned_b/#
or use this tiny url http://tinyurl.com/absenteeball
MN: St. Paul residents debate instant runoff voting
October 22, 2009 St. Paul, Minn. — Supporters and opponents of instant runoff voting faced off in St. Paul Wednesday night for their first and only formal public debate
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/22/st-paul-instant-runoff-voting/#
Audio of debate here http://twi.cc/qEhB
MN: Election night wins might be tough to call in Minneapolis
The winners in some races in Minneapolis won’t be known instantly under the new ranked-choice voting system.
October 22, 2009. Not only will it take weeks before all results are known from the first attempt at ranked-choice voting in Minneapolis, but some of the election-night results will be misleading.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/65698537.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUoaK7D_V_eDc87DUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
MN: Instant runoff voting and buyer’s remorse
October 23, 2009 Chuck Repke, St. Paul, works in neighborhood development and government relations.
He is co-chair of the No Bad Ballots Committee, which is organized to oppose IRV.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/23/repke/
NY: why the ES&S/Premier merger is bad for New York State
October 23 2009 Bad for the country, bad for New York
…Is it so hard to imagine a scenario where ES&S makes an offer they can’t refuse and swallows Dominion, bringing New York State’s voting machine contracts under its exclusive control?