The Voting News Daily: Audit-Maryland Elections Board ‘sloppy’. Show Me State’s ‘Trust Us Elections’
Linda Lamone has been Maryland’s election chief since 1997. With 13 years of Lamone’s leadership, a state audit has found so many flaws in the elections board’s oversight of local boards & financial management that Lamone will have to file quarterly progress reports with an auditor. The audit report cites “deficiencies”, “lax oversight”, “sloppy” internal controls, ” flaws in monitoring voter registration databases”,”short $2 million.” …Missouri, the “show me” state has “Trust-us elections”…DOJ Urged to Preserve S.C. Election Records…Georgia sues feds over voter ID, challenges voting rights act…
All this and more in today’s voting news below…
AL: ACLU Moves To Intervene In Alabama Voting Rights Act Challenge
http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/aclu-moves-intervene-alabama-voting-rights-act-challenge
Section 5 requires certain jurisdictions like Shelby County that have a history of racial discrimination in voting to obtain advance approval from the federal government before changing their election laws.
CA: Uncounted ballots in legal limbo
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_supes23.1ebac92.html
Riverside County will delay certifying results of the June 8 primary to see if possible legal action will resolve the fate of 12,500 mail-in vote
CA: RivCo supervisors may take up legal action to review election ballots
http://www.swrnn.com/southwest-riverside/2010-06-22/news/rivco-may-take-up-legal-action-to-review-election-ballots The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is considering legal action to prevent 12,500 ballots found after the voting deadline in the June 8 primary from being thrown out.
GA: Another challenge to Section 5 (of Voting Rights Act)
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016259.html
The complaint seeks judicial preclearance of its voter verification process under Section 5 and, in the alternative, asserts that Section 5 is unconstitutional.
GA: Georgia sues feds over voter ID
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/062310/new_660035693.shtml
MD: Audit finds problems with elections board
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics
/2010/06/legislative_audit_finds_proble.html http://is.gd/d1fpn The state Office of Legislative Audits has again found “deficiencies” in the state elections board’s oversight of local boards and in its financial management, the agency said in a report released Tuesday morning.
MD: Audit report of State Elections Board
http://www.ola.state.md.us/Reports/Fiscal%20Compliance/SBE10.pdf
MD: Audit finds lax oversight by State Board of Elections *
Felons remain on voting rolls despite requirement for local agency removal
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-elections-audit-20100622,0,834777.story
Of the 14 findings in the audit, six — including flaws in monitoring voter registration databases, local boards and cash receipts — appeared on the agency’s previous audit report three years ago and were not corrected. Legislative auditor Bruce A. Myers said that’s one uncorrected problem over the limit…
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The report said the state board did not have an audit performed on maintenance and security of the centralized statewide voter registration system, which is maintained by a contractor. Auditors said the elections board was “essentially relying on the contractor’s assertion that this critical database is secure and properly functioning.”
MD: Audit finds serious flaws at Maryland elections board
http://www.marylandreporter.com/page55042.aspx “SBE had $5.1 million they were supposed to pay but they only had money in their budget to cover $3.1 million.” Myers said. “So they are short $2 million,” representing both budget and financial reporting problems at the election board. He described the board’s internal controls as “sloppy.”
MD: Linda Lamone elections chief since 1997
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_8145/is_20040807/ai_n51378001
MO: Trust-us elections
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/article_0ef48e72-be15-5678-a727-af6d1b028631.html
…However, since the purchase of direct-record touch-screen voting machines (called DREs) in 2006, these efforts at making elections transparent — and election results thereby believable — have been nullified.