The Voting News Daily: ES&S faces federal hearings, No right to secret ballot in IL? CT Machine recounts machine
Is a Secret Ballot a Right? The answer is NO according to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan: “While plaintiff attempts to suggest to the court that there is a fundamental right to a secret ballot, no such right exists.”
…ES&S/Diebold/Premier faces federal hearings and 14 states have launched investigation into the merger or monopoly…
…CT IRONY #4: Machine Errors Result In Recounting By Machine…
Would a commercial internet voting company know more about security than the pentagon? A Wood County WV commissioner on internet voting pilot for military: “I guess if a hacker can break into the Pentagon’s computer system, they can possibly break into our voting system,” Rick Modesitt, Commission President…
All this and more in today’s voting news below….
CA: A chaotic year for California ballot propositions
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-initiatives27-2009dec27,0,1838547.story
Signatures are being gathered for more than 50 initiatives — big and small, promising and far-fetched
CO: Election Transparency Litigation: Marks v. Koch
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/election-transparency-litigation-marks.html
The suit has the remaining purpose to obtain access to inspect these public records of which all were displayed to the public on May 5 2009, and hundreds are still available for viewing as part of a GrassRootsTV program from election night. If the City’s motion to dismiss is not accepted by the court, there is a court date set for January 22, 2010 when a hearing may be taking place.
CO: One dozen excuses
http://bit.ly/68DlWL
Dear Editor: Mayor Ireland just sent an intriguing e-mail to the “voting rights community” titled “Why we don’t need your help in running our elections and why a recount is not needed.” It probably wasn’t written to amuse, given the personal attacks in it, but recipients surely chuckled.
CO: Add yours to this list of questions about Aspen’s May 5 IRV election
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/ongoing-list-of-questions-to-aspen-and.html
[We are collecting questions and answers about Aspen’s election and also public verifiability of elections in general on this site. Please contribute your own questions (anonymous questions ok).
CT: CT IRONY #4: Machine Errors Result In Recounting By Machine
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2732
Possibly some machine problems might be mitigated by such a recanvass, yet if there were an error in memory card programming or an error in the software it is quite likely the same discrepancy would be repeated.
HI: Interim elections chief to be selected Wednesday
http://bit.ly/934yQe
IL: Barrow to challenge Detroit mayoral recount
http://www.freep.com/article/20091224/NEWS01/912240394/1001/News/Barrow-to-challenge-Detroit-mayoral-recount
Dec 24, 2009…Barrow attributes his loss to Bing to vote fraud or gross human error.
…
During the recount, Barrow challenged the November election results on several fronts: mismatched seals on more than 40,000 absentee ballot containers; mismatched seals from poll books of voters’ signatures, and unaccounted for unused ballots that Barrow claims could have been counted for Bing.
IL: Is a Secret Ballot a Right?
http://illinipundit.com/2009/12/16/secret-ballot-right
December 16th, 2009 According to the State Board of Elections, and their attorney, the Illinois Attorney General, the answer is NO.
IL: Voting law proceeding despite concerns
http://www.pekintimes.com/news/x1689182012/Voting-law-proceeding-despite-concerns
PEKIN, Ill. – Voting this February could be a little more complicated.
Thanks to a provision passed by the Illinois State Legislature and signed into law by then-Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2007, if a voter fails to vote for any particular office, many voting machines throughout the state will beep loudly and spit the ballot back out.