Aspens ballot images are secret depending on who asks for them. Marilyn Marks sued Aspen CO for public release of ballot images from Aspen’s May 2009 election and was told the images were “secret”. In turn the city sued Marks for frivolous litigation. There is a double standard here: “The judge, newspapers, Internet, GrassRoots and…
New Mexico SOS Herrera’s office may have violated federal law in a recent email dump revealing protected medical records of a former employee (and war veteran). The former employee recently resigned and alleged corruption in the SOS office…The Herald Tribune says “Sarasota County and the state should respect the will of local voters” and enact…
WVA officials tout the use of “multiple keyholders” as making the state’s military internet voting pilot safer: “The county will be given a passcode to access voter information,” Harris said. “But it will take multiple keyholders to get to the information. This will prevent one person from having access.” WV officials must have missed reading…
It is a tough week for election transparency and the activists who work so hard for it. Sarasota FL officials try another tactic to kill the charter mandated election audits that citizens asked for: “It is the duty of the County Commission and the county attorney to protect and defend our county charter, not work…
“Auditing election results isn’t just a good idea, it’s absolutely essential in order to guarantee the integrity of our elections,” said Connecticut Sec. of State Bysiewicz…Letter to editor criticizing Aspen Times: “An independently owned community newspaper should demand government transparency, not defend the government in demonizing the reformers.”…Trial set in Neb. election trade secrets case…
The Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections wants the state attorney and sheriff to investigate Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent’s decision not to have a spot-check audit last Tuesday of the school tax referendum results. “We must hold our elected officials accountable,” ~alliance co-founder Kindra Munt….The value of paper ballots demonstrated in Pelham MA after public…
An interesting candidate to run for California Secretary of State, Orly Taitz…Oakland, CA debates whether to use funds from campaign finance towards educating voters about instant runoff voting…Wisconsin considers a bill to automatically register drivers…CNN has an “article” advocating for internet voting. (It reads like a vendor issued press release). CNN’s expert? Not a computer…
“Silence isn’t golden for election issue” writes Tom Lyons, FL Herald Tribune. Kathy Dent failed to announce that she would not conduct the charter mandated pre certification election audits. Other examples of Dent’s silence: when she left an entire Republican’s primary state Senate race off some absentee ballots that had been mailed; and the 2006…
“It’s time for elected officials to abide by the law the same way citizens have to abide by the law,” ~ Kindra Muntz, president of Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections. Sarasota FL Election Supervisor Kathy Dent chose not to perform the charter mandated, court upheld, post election audits. Dent said there wasn’t enough time (since…
“The integrity of our ballots should supersede other considerations.” ~ Mary C. Eberle, President, Coloradans for Voting Integrity op-ed in favor of keeping precinct voting in Bolder County, Colorado….Voting activist Harvie Branscomb has an OpEd about judges decision to not hear the ballot image case in Aspen…Former Clay KY official jailed for dining with witness…Budget…
“Our leaders have slowly taken away our rights to control our elections as we mindlessly shirked our responsibilities of oversight, assuming that the government would substitute for us.” ~ Marilyn Marks in response to judge’s dismissal of case to review ballot images…A top UK election official is promoting internet voting, meanwhile citizens and groups from…
The “Un-Merger” is a step in the right direction. But there’s more work to be done. ES&S election monopoly blocked. Still at least 17 ways to steal or botch your next election…Ballot brouhaha in Aspen Colorado….Hans A. von Spakovsky appointed to Fairfax VA election board… “How can Florida, North Carolina and so many other states…
The resignation letter of Former New Mexico State Elections Director A.J. Salazar is now available online. The letter outlines allegations against SoS Herrera and Deputy SoS Don Francisco Trujillo: ethics violations, cronyism, political activity at the office, concerns about chain of custody of voting machines, and retaliation….WHO didn’t buy votes in Clay County Kentucky?… Good…
This IS the March 10 voting news. (We started late last night hence 3/9 date on post). Upton Co TX officials believe a software flaw allowed early voted ballots to be double counted.(ES&S is the vendor)… A loss for Aspen voters: A judge dismissed a lawsuit to make the digital images of Aspen’s May 2009…
Schumer Applauds Justice Department for Requiring ES&S to Sell Off Voting Machine Unit Purchased from Diebold… Another warning about internet voting: “In the zeal to increase voter turnout, the reliance on Internet voting could inadvertently place the validity of the election process at risk.” ~ Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law…
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees election issues, today applauded the Department of Justice’s decision to require Election Systems & Software to sell off the voting systems unit it purchased from Diebold last November. The consent decree in this case lasts for ten years, ensuring that competition is protected in the voting system industry. Schumer raised serious questions about the merger of ES&S Inc. and Premier Election Systems when it was first revealed in September 2009, because it created one company that would control at least 70 percent of the U.S. market for voting systems. The merger had been completed without any advance notice or consultation with the Justice Department.
“This decision will restore competition to an industry that is critical to our democracy. If left unchallenged, this merger would have created a virtual monopoly that could have done serious harm to the idea of free and fair elections,” Schumer said. “This action will prevent one company from garnering three times the market of its next closest competitor. Localities need choices in their voting machines, just like voters need choices on the ballot.”
Citing anti-competitive concerns, the Justice Department sued Election Systems & Software in order to force the company to divest itself of the voting machine assets it obtained from Premier Election Solutions last year. The department’s antitrust division, along with nine state attorneys general, filed the civil antitrust lawsuit (.pdf) in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., charging that the acquisition threatened competition. The department proposed a settlement that, if accepted, would dissolve the merger and force ES&S to sell its Premier business to a buyer approved by the Justice Department. “The proposed settlement (.pdf) will restore competition, provide a greater range of choices and create incentives to provide secure, accurate and reliable voting-equipment systems now and in the future,” said Molly S. Boast, deputy assistant attorney general for the antitrust division in a statement. The nine states that joined the suit are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington.
“The nation’s two primary electronic voting machine manufacturers cannot merge their operations, the Justice Department announced on Monday”…How did the merger ever get so far so fast? The NY Post reports that critics believe the DOJ didn’t give this as much attn because of the anti trust head Christine Varney recusing herself. Varney’s former election…
The Muscogee County GA Board of Elections just voted to cut polling places from 48 to 28. “The changes that they’re proposing to make will hurt African Americans and Hispanic voters…” says Marcus Hunter, Columbus NAACP…What could go wrong with internet voting? Ask UVA students with last names beginning with S – Z who were…
My favorite quote from Texas Terrible Tuesday: “I thought the electronic voting machines were supposed to be more efficient.” ~ John Muns, candidate for county judge…Postcards detailing CT voter’s records spur complaints…FL blind decry bid to stall paper ballot…KY court hears testimony about vote rigging from 2002-2007: Former Clay clerk describes $100,000 worth of vote-buying…
Texas’ elections were a mess yesterday. There were issues with polling places being moved, some not opening, and some opening late. Voting was delayed at one location where poll workers couldn’t get the voting machines started. There were voting machine software problems and some contests had to be counted manually – where votes could be…
Nearly 60% of voters in Texas cast ballots on paperless direct record machines…Columbia County Joins With Nassau to Contest ERMA: Counties Want to Keep Their Lever Voting Machines…NY D.A. Clears Brooklyn ACORN: ‘No Criminality Found’… Online Voting in Alberta or Elsewhere – How easy is looking after “all that security stuff”?…Unofficial results – Burlington VT…
There’s ALOT of news today…Project Vote releases new policy paper on “No Match, No Vote”. “…matching voter data with other govt databases is an unreliable, error-laden process, and that conditioning the right to vote on such a flawed system will inevitably disenfranchise eligible citizens.”… …The Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United has a loophole that…