The Voting News Daily: Humboldt’s Nov 3 ballots go public, NY 23 election pilot update, Glasgow KY ditching e-voting

Humboldt County CA’s Nov 3 ballots are now publicly viewable…Meanwhile, the struggle goes on in Aspen – a poll shows over 66% want ballots released to the public….So you think e-voting is as safe as using an ATM? Then consider this: “Hacking ring steals $9 million from ATMs globally”…

Bo Lipari’s testimony about New York’s optical scan pilot…What does the outcome of New York’s pilot with optical scanners mean? Is part of the problem the Dominion Imagecast? Are testing programs insufficient? In some states, like New Mexico and North Carolina, optical scanners have been a great improvement – over paperless electronic voting systems that they used to have. Undervote rates were greatly improved in these states….
The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act: “what began as a bipartisan effort to ensure electoral integrity has now devolved into something quite the opposite.”…

…A hand recount verifies results of a recall election in Clatsop County….Pennsylvania to increase voter registration at state agencies…
Champaign Co Illinois Clerk sues over notification about undervotes :
“Because such an error message will take the form of an audible beep, accompanied by a message on a screen on the tabulation machine, the secrecy of a voter’s choices is necessarily compromised,” Shelden said in his lawsuit. “There is no more fundamental right than the right to vote and to cast a secret ballot.”

Glasgow Co Kentucky may ditch paperless voting and use HAVA funds to buy new optical scan machines at $4,500 each….

CA: Humboldt County Election Transparency Project (ballots made public online)
Ballot Scans from the Election of November 3, 2009
http://www.humetp.org/20091103/

CO: Aspen Times poll about releasing ballots (from Aspen Election May 5 2009) http://apps.aspentimes.com/utils/polling/poll_results.php?poll_ident=1465
Should the city of Aspen release the ballots from the spring City Council election to anyone who wants to see them?
As of 8:30 AM 11/26/09: Yes 66.24%
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2009/11/aspen-times-poll-about-releasing.html

CT: Connecticut Governor Wants Non-Discriminatory Public Funding
November 29th, 2009. Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell has asked the legislature to amend the state’s public funding law so that it does not discriminate for or against any candidate on the basis of the candidate’s partisan affiliation
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/11/29/connecticut-governor-wants-non-discriminatory-public-funding/

FL: South Florida election observers head for Honduras
With government institutions declining to send election observers to Honduras, about 300 people from a variety of groups left Miami on Friday to fill the void.
…
`AT ODDS’

“If the U.S. sends election observers before President Zelaya is restored, it would prepare the ground for recognizing the coup regime and its election as legitimate, putting the U.S. at odds with the rest of the hemisphere,” wrote Robert Naiman, policy director of Just Foreign Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1354995.html

FL: Two ballot proposals stir fears
A push for new redistricting standards could inspire legal challenges
November 27, 2009 …Two little-noticed constitutional amendments that could be on the 2010 ballot are so potentially threatening to the status quo that there is already talk of lawsuits, disenfranchisement of minority voters and fears of a Democratic takeover of the GOP-controlled state government.

The push by FairDistrictsFlorida.org

Verified Voting Blog: Report on New York Voting System Pilot

Testimony on the voting machine pilot I gave at the New York State Senate Election Committee’s hearing on November 30, 2009. Full submitted testimony is posted here.

New York State was wise to do a pilot of our new voting systems. It provides an opportunity to work out the kinks in new systems and the procedures for managing them, allows us to learn from the inevitable mistakes, and to apply what we learn in the future. In my opinion, New York’s just concluded pilot was extremely valuable and revealed some important areas that need improvement. Certainly, privacy and ballot design issues often came up. However, given my limited speaking time I will submit comments on those two issues with my written testimony. Today I will discuss another pilot experience from which important lessons can be learned – the failure of some of the new voting machines and how New York can benefit from this failure.

Questions Raised in NY-23 Congressional Race
The NY-23 Congressional race had national attention, with 9 of 47 pilot counties holding elections in this race. Despite assurances from vendors, some of the new machines were inoperable on Election Day. In cases where machines failed, paper ballots were treated according to New York State emergency ballot rules, assuring that all votes were counted. Indeed, this is the great strength of New York’s new voting system – it ultimately relies on the marked paper ballot which contains a software independent record of voter intent.