The Voting News Daily: DOJ: Voting Firms Cant Merge. Internet Voting Utopianism. Hawaii finds $1.3 M election funds it forgot
“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 firm was hired by ES&S.
Hawaii officials “found” the $1.3 M needed to run the special election to fill Neil Abercrombie’s seat in a “forgotten account”…
Internet voting utopianism: “This inconvenient truth exposes the lie of Internet voting as being an easy, cost-saving citizen convenience, and so in most cases what I see is Internet voting advocates who are either ignorant of these issues, ignoring these issues, or deliberately trying to spin them” – Richard Akerman writing for PaperVoteCanada….
All this and much more in today’s voting news below…
CA: Fisher: Many hats, many contributions
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_14632307
San Mateo Co. …Slocum, 62, recently announced that he won’t run for re-election…
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When counties converted to electronic voting after the 2000 hanging-chad fiasco, he pushed for paper records of all votes cast….
CA: More Spanish-speaking voters sought
http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_14524934
As San Bernardino County’s Latino population increases, election officials are going to great lengths to reach out to Spanish-speaking voters.
FL: Despite law, some elections officials want to keep touch-screen voting
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/article1077763.ece
It looks like the Legislature is about to grant their wish, much to the frustration of Secretary of State Kurt Browning, the state’s chief elections official.
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“They’re whining,” Browning said of elections supervisors. “They’ve known this law has been on the books since 2007, and they will have had five years to comply with this change.”
HI: Abercrombie: Money’s there to fill vacant seat
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=12097495
But a special election to fill his congressional seat will cost nearly $1-million. Abercrombie says the state already has the money, when the office of elections found $1.3-million in a forgotten account.
IN: Vote centers remain in question at Statehouse
http://www.jconline.com/article/20100306/ELECTION01/100305035
The most contentious part of legislation that affects the future of vote centers may be dropped as negotiations continue into next week.
KS: Kan. House to weigh voting rights, mentally ill
http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=12088799
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A Kansas House committee is considering a proposed change in the state constitution to protect the voting rights of the mentally ill
OH: ACORN joins Browns on PD Front page (video)
http://bit.ly/b6DjFX
MO: Financial statement details county spending for 2009
http://bit.ly/ciLKp0
Another election expense from the general revenue fund was $8,134 to Sequoia Voting Systems for maintenance of Direct Recording Electronic voting machines and optical scan machines.
NH: New Hampshire House Sets Floor Vote on Ballot Access Bill
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/03/08/new-hampshire-house-sets-floor-vote-on-ballot-access-bill/
NM: Despite voting centers, turnout disappointing
http://bit.ly/ce2ImS
OR: Oregon 4th State to Offer Online Voter Registration
http://bit.ly/cRVM0C
TX: Upton Co. Election Mess Reported to State Officials by Rankin Voters 3/5/10 *
http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=18308
Some Upton County Residents are still wondering what’s going on, three days after the primary election, where 600 extra votes were counted that did not have matching signatures.