The Voting News Daily: AZ, FL, TN vote probs. Harris TX voting equip burned up. EVM expert bailed out
“With less than seven weeks before early voting starts for the general election, the clock is ticking for Tennessee’s election officials’ efforts to get it right.” ~ Tennessean.com..Broward’s Disappearing Ink Before Election Day & Early Voting…MORE Lee Co FL ballot problems…Toast: Harris County Texas’ 10,000 eSlate electronic voting machines…DOD denies 4 states military ballot law waiver..Australia’s hung parliament…India EVM Security Researcher Released on Bail…
All this and more in today’s voting news below…
AL: More on Alaska and Australia: Is there a security issue in postmark states?
http://www.earlyvoting.net/blog/2010/08/more-alaska-and-australia-there-security-issue-postmark-states
AZ: Vote-by-mail ballots just delivered now being verified* (day after election)
http://www.kvoa.com/news/vote-by-mail-ballots-just-delivered-now-being-verified/
Pima County. Approximately 13,000 vote-by-mail ballots have been dropped off late at the polling locations and delivered by U.S. mail. These ballots are being signature verified this morning and will be transferred over to the Division of Elections for counting.
AZ: Late ballots being verified & counted * (KVOA Video available)
http://www.kvoa.com/news/late-ballots-being-verified-and-counted/
TUCSON – In Pima County, 13,500 mail in ballots were delivered this morning, and there are 3,500 Provisional ballots that still need to be verified.
The mail in ballots were supposed to be a part of “early voting.” But Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez says, for some reason they didn’t make it to the post office in time or were dropped off at the polling places.
CA: Lengthy ballot to cost voters time — and money
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_15903293
Alameda County voters may want to delay diving into that next novel soon, because a long read is on its way this fall — in the form of November’s general-election ballot.
…
However, voters in Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro are likely to see three pages because of the debut of ranked-choice voting, which eliminated the need for June primaries for those cities’ local races.
…
A type of “voters’ fatigue” or “voter roll-off” can set in if ballots are too long, said Robert Dudley, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia who studies elections.
CO: City Council gets it right
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20100827/LETTER/100829867/1020&
parentprofile=1061 http://tinyurl.com/23vtzx3 The City Council properly deleted from the November ballot a referendum question on replacing instant runoff voting (IRV) with a winner-take-all election reform as a means of deciding both mayor and council contests, deciding instead to present to the voters a straightforward choice between IRV and the traditional runoff election technique.
FL: Audit This! Broward’s Disappearing Ink Before Election Day & Early Voting*
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform/message/13849
All Federal and FL State Law require election records be held for 22 months. Broward’s Poll Tapes are already beginning to disappear before Election Day!
FL: 2 Volusia races getting recounts
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/west-volusia/2010/08/27/2-volusia-races-getting-recounts.html A county judge’s race is so close after a review of problem ballots that Volusia officials expect to need to recount the votes by hand, while a County Council race is close enough to warrant a second tally with voting machines.
…
A machine recount takes place when the margin is less than half of 1 percent. If that recount shows a difference of one-fourth of 1 percent or less, a manual recount is ordered
FL: Lee County judge race remains undecided; recount to continue tomorrow*
http://www.news-press.com/article/20100828/NEWS0107/100828017/1075/Lee-County-judge-race-remains-undecided–recount-to-continue-tomorrow