The Voting News Daily: $4M made on Clay KY vote buying.FL,TX vote glitches. Internet voting race to the bottom

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 IRV election public. You may remember that Humboldt County California makes digital images of their ballots available to the public on the intenret…Clay County KY witnesses testify-bribes, shootings, beatings marred Clay elections, 4$ Million in financial gain… Canada May Join Internet Voting Race To The Bottom…The BC Green Party is calling for internet voting – but experts say internet voting is inherently insecure and takes away the secret ballot… Let’s Not Rush Towards Online Voting

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

CA: Electronic Signatures To Be Tested In Court
http://bit.ly/dCaiqj

CO: Judge dismisses Marks’ lawsuit over Aspen election
http://bit.ly/dyObMG Judge James Boyd of the Ninth Judicial District Court dismissed the case, citing the Colorado state constitution, which requires the city clerk to keep ballots secret.

CT: Canada May Join Internet Voting Race To The Bottom
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2951
As CTVotersCount readers know we have long opposed internet voting, unless and until a viable mechanism is reviewed and approved by the majority of Computer Scientists, Security Experts and Advocates

FL: Glitch temporarily freezes results on Palm Beach County elections Web site*
http://bit.ly/csvbgC
RIVIERA BEACH — An unexplained computer problem delayed the publishing of election results for more than an hour Tuesday night on the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Web site.

FL: Incumbents win in Jupiter, Tequesta elections * (article does not elaborate)
Glitches in vote counting delay Jupiter results until after midnight.
http://bit.ly/aK6jiP …Golonka earned 54 percent of the vote, while Burg received 35 percent, in an election marred by a glitch in the voting machine results for seven precincts, which delayed the final tally until after midnight.

GA: Precinct, poll location changes will affect almost 42,000 voters
http://www.theweekly.com/news/2010/March/09/Poll_changes.html
Lawrenceville, Ga., (March 9, 2010) – Gwinnett County will reduce the number of voting precincts from 163 to 155 to save money and operate more efficiently.

GA: Secretary of State Kemp Applauds Georgia House Passage of MOVE Act Legislation
http://www.theweekly.com/news/2010/March/09/MOVE_Act.html

KY: Agents say defendants made $4 million from fraud
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=12117235
FRANKFORT, KY (AP) – Federal agents have testified that a scheme to buy votes in Clay County netted those accused more than $4 million in salaries and contract payments since 2002.

KY: Clay officials accused of reaping $4 million
Steered contracts, jobs, agents say
http://bit.ly/aLADpU …One charge in the indictment is the money they made was laundered because it resulted from illegal election activity.

KY: Bribes, shootings, beatings marred Clay elections, witnesses testify *
http://bit.ly/bJondR

MN: Consensus leads to voting process fix. Hard work to build bipartisan solutions pays off. http://bit.ly/bmNvYD

TX: Upton officials blame glitch *
Inflated results, silence lead to uproar over controversial totals
http://www.oaoa.com/news/last-44123-ballot-officials.html
Kristin E. Reid, the county’s Democratic chair, said Monday that an apparent glitch in the county’s electronic voting system appears to have tabulated early voting numbers twice, distorting the results.

The Voting News Daily: New Mexico SOS corruption claim-update. Internet voting and validity of elections

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 at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law…. The Election Law Journal releases study “Long Lines at Polling Stations? Observations from an Election Day Field Study”…von Spakovsky Attacks DOJ Civil Rights Lawyers…

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

CA: California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission: Do it Yourself Gerrymandering!
http://electls.blogs.wm.edu/2010/03/08/do-it-yourself-gerrymandering/

CT: A Thought Provoking Day at another Recanvass
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2941
…A properly conduced recanvass that results in the losers accepting the result and moving on is an important benefit – even if the election result is changed and the winners and losers change.

MI: Mississippians will have the chance to vote on voter ID
http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12106045

MT: Bozeman company sues over campaign finance law
http://bit.ly/9WSrQo
A Bozeman company is suing two state offices over a law dating back to 1912 that bans corporate spending in elections.

NM: Former Elections Chief Alleges Corruption in Secretary of State’s Office
http://bit.ly/cRNEMl
New Mexico’s top elections official and her deputy have engaged in rampant impropriety at the Secretary of State’s Office during the past year, according to AJ Salazar, who resigned Feb. 26 as the Office’s bureau of elections director.

TX: County rejects veteran’s vote *
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/County-rejects-veterans-vote
Williamson County…Man, 90, told signature was not his
Alfred Dula, 90, received a notice in the mail after the March 4 primary election.

TX: Texas Military and Overseas Voters, Return your Ballot for the April 13, 2010 State Run-Off Election Now!
http://www.fvap.gov/global/news/nr6-2010.html

VT: IRV repeal expected to sail through legislature
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=12104156

WA: Economics make it hard to keep polls open (opinion)
http://bit.ly/bSoQra

ES&S Merger News

DOJ TO REQUIRE ES&S TO SELL OFF ASSETS FROM DIEBOLD MERGER
CITING ANTI-TRUST CONCERNS (includes maps showing degree of control by vendor)
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7733

Schumer Applauds Justice Department for Requiring ES&S to Sell Off Voting Machine Unit Purchased from Diebold
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/03/09/436

“Justice Department Requires Key Divestiture in Election Systems & Software/Premier Election Solutions Merger“
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015428.html

Feds Move to Break Voting-Machine Monopoly
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/ess-sued-in-antitrust-cas/

National

Voting-Machine Flaws and Paper Ballots (LTE in NY Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/opinion/lweb09vote.html

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias Reponds to Rove Attacks
http://bit.ly/9dqc2c

Spencer and Markovits, “Long Lines at Polling Stations?”
http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/?p=3128
Douglas M. Spencer and Zachary S. Markovits just published a study in the current issue of the Election Law Journal, “Long Lines at Polling Stations? Observations from an Election Day Field Study.”

von Spakovsky Attacks DOJ Civil Rights Lawyers, Including Three Well Known to Readers of this Blog: Sam Hirsch, Sam Bagenstos, and Julie Fernandes
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015438.html

2008 Ballot Measure Overview
Interests Spend Lavishly To Influence Voters On Hot-Button Issues
http://www.followthemoney.org/press/ReportView.phtml?r=417

“To Fix the Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision, Copy the Brits”
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015436.html

International

Canada: Geist: Hackers, viruses threaten online voting validity
http://bit.ly/aMUGYN
More recently, the Netherlands used Internet voting as part of its 2006 parliamentary elections.

National: Schumer Applauds Justice Department for Requiring ES&S to Sell Off Voting Machine Unit Purchased from Diebold

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.”

National: Feds Move to Break Voting-Machine Monopoly | Wired

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.