The Voting News Daily: National Expert warns FCC of internet voting dangers, Vendor put on EAC advisory panel, Tennessee stall n crawl

In answer to the question “With existing technology, is it possible to enable and ensure safe and secure voting online today?”, Verified Voting responded, “in a word, no.” It is likely that no one in the country has studied the subject of internet voting more intensely than David Jefferson, senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Jefferson warns: “Even if an Internet election is apparently ‘successful’, the results are absolutely unauditable in any meaningful sense of the word….You may hear claims that many elections and election pilots have been conducted in the past without the loss or misrecording of a single vote. This claim is false on several levels.” Internet voting seems even more insane as the Guardian UK reports that “Russia and US in secret talks to fight net crime”…

Hawaii Oh No: Hawaii’s election dept faces new budget woes – the state will have to come up with $2 million to run a special election to replace U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who is leaving congress to run for governor. Add this to the fact that Hawaii’s election dept is woefully under funded, is in the process of creating new election rules, is considering cutting half of its polling places and does not have a voting system in place…Randolph County Indiana’s 2 year struggle to get SOS to reimburse costs of voting machines that should be paid by HAVA funds…

The End of Innocence — NY State Board of Elections Says Ballot Scanners Switched Votes in 2009 General Election…Local Groups Urge VA Gov Kaine to Restore Voting Rights… Tennessee continues ‘stall ‘n’ crawl’ tactics…

BradBlog reports: “Disgraceful: Discredited E-Voting Vendor VP Appointed to U.S. EAC Advisory Panel”

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

CT: Secretary of the State Candidate Criticizes Exploratory Committees
December 12. “In our view exploratory committees represent a loophole in the current public financing law. Candidates can collect and spend huge sums in the name of exploring runs for office.”
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2671

FL: The Advancement Project warns of problems with upcoming elections
A report released Thursday by the Advancement Project calls for changes in poll hours and voter registrations rules.
TALLAHASSEE — Even though Election Day last year went relatively smoothly across Florida, a civil rights advocacy group that focuses on elections warned that stricter voter registration laws could prevent thousands of eligible voters from joining the rolls in upcoming elections.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/story/1376506.html

HI: Abercrombie will quit Congress to focus on Hawaii governor race
Quitting Congress to prepare for likely battle with mayor
…Abercrombie’s decision throws a curve into the 2010 elections and triggers a special election to fill the remaining months of his two-year term.
…
The unexpected vacancy could lead the state Office of Elections to try to come up with as much as $2 million to pay for a special election and scramble to find a voting system because legal challenges have left the state with no voting machines.
http://twi.cc/HDjv

IN: County Council OKs voting reimbursement
Randolph County Council Tuesday approved County Clerk Claudia Thornburg’s submission of an application for the county to be reimbursed $194,048 for the purchase of its current voting machines.

Verified Voting Blog: Comments to the FCC on Internet Voting

It is likely that no one in the country has studied the subject of internet voting more intensely than David Jefferson, senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Part of his job is to help devise strategies to defend against the relentless attacks we see every hour of every day against U.S. networks, both government and corporate, from sources ranging from self aggrandizing students to foreign intelligence and cyber warfare agencies. He has also been deeply involved in voting and election security for over a decade as a voting technology advisor to five successive Secretaries of State in California, and is a coauthor of most of the best known peer-reviewed scientific publication on Internet voting, the SERVE Security Report.

[pullquote align="left"]“The integrity of a general election is as important as the integrity of many of our national defense secrets.[/pullquote]In his comments to the FCC, Jefferson emphasizes that election security is an aspect of U.S. national security. He observes that, “few people have any idea how tiny is the fraction of votes that, if selectively lost or switched, could swing a presidential election, or swing the balance of power in a house of Congress. The controversial 2000 presidential election that was decided by a few hundred votes in one state was only the most extreme object lesson, but other elections such as the recent Minnesota senatorial election, have been as close. This is all the more true in these times in which the electorate is nearly evenly divided on several key national issues. It is vital that we protect the security of every vote, or the legitimacy of our government will be rightly called into question--a situation that is very damaging in a democracy.”