The Voting News Daily: Next Hawaii election a slow-moving train wreck? MOVE to expedite troop ballots free, Election Center ponders e-voting

The Election Center, a group that promoted the use of paperless voting, will meet Jan 7 & 8 to discuss voter reg, provisional ballots, and “the continued push to eliminate or restrict use of DREs” (The Election Center is a group that advises election officials while accepting donations from voting vendors)…Voter Action letter to Senate Rules committee about ES&S’s purchase of Diebold: “With this acquisition, ES&S has even less of an incentive to respond to the growing demand for improved accountability and product reliability.”…

…Did you know that the MOVE act guarantees free expedited mail service to return troops’ ballots?…Hawaii Uh-OH: “This (upcoming election) is a slow-moving train wreck and we’re still far enough away that we can get everything off the track,” says attorney Lance Collins. The state’s elections department is grossly underfunded, considering cutting polling places in half, and is in process of making new election rules: Bob Babson hopes rules will ban sending any election results via the Internet or telephone lines…Learn more about Tennessee’s proposed voting machines…

All this and more in today’s voting news below…..

CA: Voter ID intiative backers get green light in California
Dec 10, 2009 – Backers of an initiative that would require voters to produce identification at the polls were given approval to begin gathering signatures Tuesday by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_13959475

CA: Council votes to delay decision on ranked-choice voting
12/09/2009
SAN LEANDRO — The City Council has delayed a decision on whether to use ranked-choice voting in its 2010 elections until Oakland decides if it will hold a similar ranked-choice election next year — giving San Leandro more time to explore ways to mitigate the costs of such an election.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_13955369

GA: Oops: Group charging voting fraud admits mistake
“I acknowledge we had a huge misunderstanding about the data we were working with,” said Erica Long, co-chair of Citizens for Fair Atlanta Elections. “I would not have raised the issue with the Secretary of State if I did not believe it was correct.”
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/oops-group-charging-voting-234563.html

HI: State proposes major revision of election rules
Dec 10, 2009 …Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza decided that the state needs to hold a public hearing to come up with administrative rules governing electronic voting before new voting machines can be used in next year’s elections.
…
Written testimony can be e-mailed to elections@hawaii.gov or faxed to 453-6006. Written testimony will be accepted for the next two days.

“This (upcoming election) is a slow-moving train wreck and we’re still far enough away that we can get everything off the track,” Collins said.
…
Bob Babson, the lead plaintiff in the Maui lawsuit, said he is opposed to sending any election results via the Internet or telephone lines.

“It’s not secure,” Babson said. “They could easily just put it on a jet and fly it over.”
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20091210_
state_proposes_major_revision_of_election_rules.html
or use this url http://bit.ly/6tvKZz

Il: County to follow law on voting issue (machine notify voters of undervote in certain contests)
Iroquois County Clerk Lisa Fancher said she wants voters prepared for a new change in the election equipment.