The Voting News Daily: Glitches in IN,NC,OH,TX. Butler OH BoE website attacked. Internet voting risks

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 – some mitigated by paper ballots….Should US vote by mail? …Corp Candidate for Congress voter reg rejected twice…

All this and more in todays voting news below…

AR: The Looming Election: Is Arkansas Ready???
http://bluearkansasblog.com/?p=2300
The election is already taking place. Already, turnout has been big. And some problems are already appearing.

AZ: State mailing directs some voters to wrong polling place*(May 18 spec election)
Error affects 27,000 local voters; corrective postcard mailed this week
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=80703
State mailers told approximately 27,000 registered voters in Yavapai County to go to incorrect polling places for the May 18 election.
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The error, made by a third-party contractor used by the state, impacts 39 percent of all county households

CA: Los Angeles Ponders Instant-Runoff Voting
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/05/04/los-angeles-ponders-instant-runoff-voting/

CA: Schwarzenegger May Disenfranchise Thousands of Overseas Troops with Early Special Election Date
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7825

CA: SLO County supervisors take Schwarzenegger, Maldonado to task over special election (San Luis Obispo County)
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/05/04/1127958/slo-county-supervisors-take-schwarzenegger.html In a blistering rebuke, the county Board of Supervisors ripped into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado on Tuesday for neglecting taxpayers and county workers by backing a special election that could cost $3 million.
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Supervisors said Schwarzenegger could have called the special primary in early fall and scheduled the runoff to coincide with the Nov. 2 election.

CO: Aspen – Both transparency and trustworthy elections are required. There can be no tradeoff.
http://coloradovotergroup.blogspot.com/2010/05/aspen-both-transparency-and-trustworthy.html “Aspen officials have admittedly violated the law. They created and operated an election system that does not provide for anonymous ballots.” Al Kolwicz, Colorado Voter Group

CT: Connecticut Secretary of State Wins Qualifications Lawsuit
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/05/05/connecticut-secretary-of-state-wins-qualifications-lawsuit/

CT: Book Review: The Death and Life of American Journalism
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=3151 Part of the reason there has been so little improvement in our election laws is the lack of demonstrated public interest

IN: Voter turnout light in Vigo County* (ES&S iVotronic no paper)
http://tribstar.com/news/x500180624/Voter-turnout-light-in-Vigo-County
…The final tally of ballots changed nearly five hours after the polls closed, when the clerk’s office realized ballots cast by touch screen, used by handicapped voters, had not be counted.
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Tabulation of 87 voting precincts was progressing speedily with all but six precincts counted as of about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, then delays slowed the final tabulation, ending at 8:40 p.m. The six precincts had technical problems and were unable to send in results over computer lines.

The final precinct — Honey Creek E at Dixie Bee Elementary — experienced such a problem; however, poll workers left a computer card in a voting machine, forcing them to drive back to the poll, then back to the county courthouse for a final tabulation, Mansard said.

The Democratic Party race for prosecutor was by far the closest contest, with final numbers fluctuating as “remake” ballots were counted.

Verified Voting Blog: Military and Overseas Voting Update

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.

Verified Voting Blog: Verified Voting Comments to EAC on Internet Voting Pilots

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."

Verified Voting Blog: California Legislation Calls for First Risk-Limiting Pilot Audits

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 of State will report to the legislature on the risk-limiting pilots, and how their effectiveness, efficiency, and cost compare to those of the current 1% manual tally. Currently, California law requires hand counting all contests on ballots from one percent of randomly selected precincts in each county, and comparing those hand counted totals with the announced election results.

Verified Voting Blog: Efficient Auditing of Election Results

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.