Hale Co Alabama officials worry absentee mail ballot fraud is back…Vote totals were off, Caroll Co Arkansas officials recounted the votes after a power surge that may have skewed the election day results…Allegations of fraud and irregularities fly back and forth in Lucas Co Ohio…York County official says evidence anything with Newberry Twp. voting machines…
NC looks into possible double voting in Hoke Co..good thing Bullitt Co KY has paper ballots since 4 memory cards went missing…Some candidates for Avon, Indiana Town Council will be doing a forensic review of election. They are asking to review poll books, voting machine reports, paper ballots and ballot applications for absentee and early…
Ohio SoS orders recount in 18th Congressional District, 16 counties must schedule by June 4..Are chicken costumes a form of free speech?..Montgomery Co TX will have recount on paperless machines and of course the result is unlikely to change…Some Bullit KY voters were given the wrong ballot…Internet voting spreads to another Canadian muni…Smartmatic admission of…
The 2010 primary election season is in full swing. As in every election cycle, there are a number of extremely close races, with recounts looming for some. So far this year, state-mandated automatic recounts are likely for the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, and for the Republican primary for Ohio’s 18th U.S. Congressional District. In Oregon, a recount is possible in the statewide race for superintendent of schools. Some of 2010’s recounts will include the hand-to-eye examination of actual ballots; for example, Oregon mandates that recounts be 100% hand-counted. But too many “recounts” this year will depend upon the correct functioning of computer software or firmware. We believe that this state of affairs is not tenable. When a state does not provide every voter with a reliable, physical ballot showing his or her intent, or does not conduct computer-independent recounts of those ballots, then an effective recount – a process that should provide the strongest possible evidence of the intent of the electorate – is not possible.
The 2010 Primaries: More Recounts than Recountable Elections…Doug Jones on the erosion of the secret ballot: “If we allow a weakened right to a secret ballot, how can we ask other countries to set higher standards, and what will we do if the crooks do end up in control of our elections?”…FFEC Urges Crist to…
16 states will allow overseas voters to return ballots via email for the midterm elections. “But cybersecurity experts and voter advocates contend that these well-intentioned efforts ignore the technical vulnerabilities of sending a voted ballot as an e-mail attachment, potentially subjecting this midterm contest to electronic vote rigging and hacking”…Meanwhile, the US Air force assigns…
While Michigan, Minnesota, California’s Humboldt County and even other cities ..reaffirm citizens’ rights to oversight, “Aspen taxpayers are funding an expensive battle to fight election transparency. Aspen, of all places.” writes Mike LaBonte in LTE…Mississippi has entered into an agreement with several states to pull together what’s been called “The Kansas Report.” to purge duplicate…
WPBS radio interviews Kim Alexander of CalVoter…Michigan Atty Gen: “Voted ballots…are public records..”..Revolving door in PA swings toward Internet Voting..Anti-Trust: Dominion acquires Diebold assets from ES&S…San Francisco unsure how many wrong ballots issued…Delaware City ends “poll tax”…US experts ‘hack’ India e-voting machines…Philippines Rep. Locsin blows top over Smartmatic election return flaws… The Philippines is ordering…
Verified Voting on May 18 primaries: “Despite signs of progress, today’s primaries in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania show how much work remains to verify the vote.”..Paper ballots save day in Faulkner Co AR..San Francisco ballot mix: 1000 got wrong ballot, 1317 got dupes..178 Fayette Co, PA voters voted twice..A KY man charged with vote…
BRAD BLOG’s Election Integrity Backgrounder for ‘Super-ish Tuesday’ 2010…Excuses don’t help: Votes flipped on Carroll Co Arkansas touchscreens…Sen Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) gets provisional ballot…Wrong ballot sent to thousands of Sonoma Co CA voters….Voter supression & fraud alleged in KY elections…1000s of Pennsylvania voters registered to vote in 2 counties…Philippines: Polls not fair, not honest, not…
Watch Yuma AZ vote count live via webcam…Use iPad to register to vote in Santa Clara Co CA…”Too much” voter assistance in Forsyth Co NC?..90 Kentucky counties debut paper ballot systems in Tues Primary..Absentee/Early Voting Method: Raise Questions and Risks…No Voting Rights in Indian Country USA…Smartmatic Technician Takes Home 65 PCOS Machines…Internet voting watch in…
Another KY vote buying scheme, this time in Perry Co…Berkely CO WV’s early voted ballots counted twice…The City of Aspen CO claims to have spent $75K+ to keep citizens from viewing ballot images of May 5 2009 election…The EAC internet voting pilot test requirements are too weak for real elections. Joel Rothschild, Chief of Staff…
This week the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) released public comments submitted on their draft UOCAVA Pilot Program Testing Requirements. The EAC document spell outs testing and certification requirements for Internet voting pilot programs for military and overseas voters, partly in response to the requirements of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act passed in 2009. The MOVE Act required many excellent improvements that increase opportunities for voters overseas to be able to cast their ballots in time to be counted. These changes include the electronic delivery of blank ballots and information, but not the electronic return of voted ballots. The Act also included a provision for experimental programs involving voting via the Internet. At least three states (AZ, CO, WV, and possibly GA and FL) are planning to carry out voluntary pilot programs this year. Despite the short time available for comment, many substantive comments were submitted, including from Verified Voting. While we do not mention them all here, there were many insightful comments and we urge you to read through them. Many of the comments expressed recurring themes:
Audits, Security Standards and Procedures: Verified Voting noted that an equipment manufacturing standard alone is insufficient to provide anything resembling “reasonable assurance that the pilot systems will operate correctly and securely”, as stated in Section 1.1.3 of the EAC Draft. We assert that a comprehensive security plan is required, not merely an equipment testing plan. Robust post-election audits are essential to demonstrating correct and secure operation of any voting system, be it remote or local.
A report by the Election Reform Network shows that Montgomery Co PA has a systemic problem with paperless electronic voting plus poll books that don’t add up. “There are too many unanswered questions about why the numbers of voters signed in and the number of votes cast are so different at so many polling places.…
“Sack the Chairwoman of the Electoral Commission.” Iain Dale writing about UK’s election fiasco…Online bank thefts more than doubled in 2009 but no one would try to steal an internet election right?…Ballot boxing-When it comes to the mayoral election dustup, Tom Barrow has a point…‘Hispanic’ TX District Won by an African-American…Damaged memory cards delayed tally…
“Damn the science,Damn the integrity; If it feels good do it!” attitude riles CTvoterscount.org – response to comments in NYT article on Internet voting…The EAC violated law in proceeding with Internet voting system guidelines says Voter Action. “If allowed to proceed, the US Election Assistance Commission will place at risk the votes of hundreds of…
Concerns about EAC’s Overseas/Military Internet vote plan: Experts warn that e-mail messages can be intercepted, voting Web sites can be hacked or taken down by malicious attacks, and the secrecy of ballots is hard to ensure…DOJ asks court to compel Nassau compliance…”Here We Go Again (Again): 100% Unverifiable E-Voting Systems Set for Use in PA,…
The UK’s parliamentary election was a Florida style election nightmare. Thousands of UK voters turned away from polling stations. Shortage of ballot papers, not enough poll workers, & inaccurate poll lists were just some of the causes. “Here we are giving an example which would shame countries that are just starting their democracies.” ~ David…
After the attack on Butler County Ohio’s Elections website, the director of info services will check the county’s web servers & sites to determine if they are secure. Meanwhile the Sheriff is investigating…Paperless touchscreen machines once were “the wave of the future” until they were tied to lost votes, switched votes, inexplicable & massive undervotes…
Sending voted ballots over the public Internet “is in a security class by itself,” …and these ballots are vulnerable to attacks from a wide range of individuals, organizations, and even governments.” ~ Verified Voting Comments to EAC on i-voting pilots…Arizona mailer gives 27K voters wrong polling place… Voting machine probs in NC, IN, OH, TX…
For members of the military, their families, and other United States citizens living overseas, voting has always presented unique challenges. Some of these problems include reliable delivery of blank ballots to the voters, secure and timely return of voted ballots, and authenticating that ballots were completed and returned by the same person they were sent to. According to an EAC study, Voting from Abroad: A Survey Of UOCAVA Voters:
“There are no reliable data available on the number of [military and overseas] voters dispersed around the globe; some estimates hover around 4 million. Active-duty military are estimated at 1.5 million and family of military another 1.5 million.“
In 1986 and again in 2009, Congress passed laws looking to improve access to voting for military and overseas voters. And today, as communication technologies like fax and email have become available, states are moving forward with plans for electronic transmission and receipt of ballots, all too often without sufficient regard for the privacy and security issues involved.
With many states already deploying a form of Internet voting, email return of voted ballots (see map), it is important that requirements for remote voting systems and the pilot programs that test them reflect the highest standards for security. On April 30, 2010, Verified Voting submitted comments to the EAC on proposed testing requirements for military and overseas voting pilot programs that use remote technologies such as Internet Voting. In a letter to the EAC, president Pam Smith said that the comments focused on “the broad outlines of the pilot program and core precepts to which we believe any pilots should adhere.” Sending voted ballots over the public Internet “is in a security class by itself,” the letter noted, and these ballots are vulnerable to attacks from a wide range of individuals, organizations, and even governments. “Voting systems for UOCAVA voters should not be held to a higher security standard than domestic absentee voting,” the letter said, “nor should UOCAVA voters be required to use a system that is less secure than those used by voters back home.”
Over the past year, election auditing experts, including Verified Voting staff, have been working with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office toward improving California’s audits. Now legislation authorizing the Secretary of State to work with a minimum of five volunteer counties to conduct pilot risk-limiting audits in 2011 is making good progress. The Secretary…
On March 27 and 28, 2010, Verified Voting and Common Cause sponsored a meeting of in Washington, D.C. to share experiences and ideas for improving post-election audits. The participants included election officials, statisticians, computer and political scientists, election integrity advocates, and voting system vendor technical staff. This meeting marked the first time that diverse stakeholders, including voting systems vendors, met together for the explicit purpose of identifying the potential benefits and challenges of using small batches of ballots (i.e., smaller than precincts — down to and including individual ballot records) to make audits more effective and efficient.
The May 2010 Primaries: A Look at Voting Systems…A Forsyth Co NC voter cast 2 ballots in 1 day during early voting. Officials cancelled the xtra vote. PA voting machines concerns: “Whenever you have a system where only two minutes of access can provide a switch in the voting software, it’s a very tough problem,”~Richard…
Good thing they have paper ballots. Cuyahoga Co Ohio’s voting machines have a source code flaw causing some to “freeze” up. Cuyahoga uses DS200 optical scanners made by ES&S. A source code change is needed… FL Veterans for Common Sense to Crist -Veto poison pill bill!…Sarasota FL County Commissioners hire attorney to defend election audit…