The Voting News Daily: Internet voting faces the music. SC voting machine bugs. Ireland trashes EVMs

About the DC Internet vote hack, Dr. David Jefferson says “Let there be no mistake about it: this is a major achievement, and supports in every detail the warnings that security community have been giving about Internet voting for over a decade now.”..The U. of Michigan team changed cast ballots to write-ins like HAL 900 of “2001: A Space Odyssey” …MAJOR writeup about SC’s voting machines, computer scientist says machines would get an ‘F’..Election expert testifies at trial on Shelby Co TN election irregularities..Ireland scraps EVMs, tired of paying storage fees…

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

CA: “SURGE IN EARLY VOTING UPENDS ELECTION PLAYBOOKS”
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/017254.html

CA: County’s mail ballot will need 61¢ postage
http://www.modbee.com/2010/10/06/1370533/countys-mail-ballot-will-need.html
Sacramento County’s registrar of voters is warning that extra postage is required to return vote-by-mail ballots.

CT: Ann Coulter to Face Vote on Voter Fraud Charges in CT by State Elections Enforcement Commission http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8110
“This case is scheduled to appear on the October 14, 2010 public session. We expect the Commission will vote on this matter at that time.”

KS: Should the state require you to show ID?
http://www.kansas.com/2010/10/05/1527367/should-the-state-require-you-to.html

MD: Early votes to be tallied earlier
http://www.somdnews.com/stories/10062010/indytop172101_32402.shtml
Early-voting totals must be processed and submitted two hours before polls close on general election night, according to an emergency regulation the state elections board approved last week.

MI: APPEALS COURT TO HEAR BARROW SUIT TO REMOVE BING NOV. 2
Former candidate seeks Bing’s immediate removal due to massive irregulaties in vote
http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=923 “This law suit is not sour grapes or a refusal to accept an election loss, rather it’s about 59,135 of 114,718 ballots which the public does not know were un-recountable and irregular….”

ND: Benson County won’t have polling site on reservation
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/543535.html?nav=5010
MINNEWAUKAN The Spirit Lake Reservation will be the only reservation in North Dakota without an on-reservation polling site this election.

NJ: HOMEOWNERS IN FORECLOSURE CAN STILL VOTE
http://www.nbc40.net/news/14916/

NY: Voter was right to be skeptical
http://registerstar.com/articles/2010/10/05/opinion/letters/doc4caa73ff
66e3e840177490.txt http://tinyurl.com/2vgnvwa By Virginia Martin, Democratic Commissioner of Elections. I and my counterpart, (Republican) Commissioner Nastke, believe that the only way we can be confident that we’ll know how the voters voted — which we must know before we can certify the results — is by counting every single vote on every single paper ballot that was scanned. Therefore, while what the scanner might show the voter on its screen might be interesting, no voter should be reassured by what that screen reveals, because it could be wrong.

NY: Libertarian Party, and Anti-Prohibition Party, Sue New York Over Refusal to Print Nominees’ Name Twice on Ballot http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/10/06/libertarian-party-and-anti-prohibition-party-sue-new-york-over-refusal-to-print-nominees-name-twice-on-ballot/

NV: RNC mails 200,000 absentee ballot request forms to wrong county, has to do
robocall to inform voters* http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/ralstons-flash/2010/oct/06/rnc-mails-200000-absentee-ballot-request-forms-wro/ The Republican National Committee recently mailed an estimated 200,000 absentee ballot request forms into Clark County – but a warning on the form instructs people who have never voted in “Washoe County” that they can only use the mail ballot under strict circumstances. (form and flyer posted)

OH: Morgan County suit seeks money to pay for election
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/10/05/copy/suit-seeks-money-to-pay-for-election.html

Verified Voting Public Commentary: Verified Voting Lauds Successful Test Hack of Internet Voting Pilot

Verified Voting applauds the decision of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics to suspend their plan to offer overseas voters the dangerous option of returning their voted ballots by a "digital vote by mail" Internet voting system. The District's plans to continue other Internet-based ballot return methods (including email and fax) for the District's military and civilian overseas voters still raise concerns among voting security experts. DC election officials made the decision after inviting technology experts to hack the Board's prototype voting system during a trial period. The test pilot was apparently attacked successfully shortly after it began by a team of academic experts led by Prof. J. Alex Halderman at the University of Michigan.

The attack caused the University of Michigan fight song to be played for test voters when they completed the balloting process. Full details of the hack and its impact on submitted test ballots are expected to become available in the coming days. In addition to the Michigan team's breach of the voting system, Verified Voting's Board Chair Dr.David Jefferson documented a very serious vote loss problem that caused voters to inadvertently return blank ballots while believing that they had submitted complete ballots. The disenfranchising bug was noted in at least two widely used computer/browser configurations. It is possible that the same problem would affect voters trying to use email or some fax systems to return voted ballots.

Verified Voting Blog: The meaning of Alex Halderman’s successful attack on the DC Internet voting system

University of Michigan Prof. Alex Halderman has now released some details about his successful attack on the District of Columbia's proposed Internet voting system which has been under test for the last week. (See www.freedom-to-tinker.com.) It is now clear that Halderman and his team were able to completely subvert the entire DC Internet voting system remotely, gaining complete control over it and substituting fake votes of their choice for the votes that were actually cast by the test voters. What is worse, they did so without the officials even noticing for several days. Let there be no mistake about it: this is a major achievement, and supports in every detail the warnings that security community have been giving about Internet voting for over a decade now. After this there can be no doubt that the burden of proof in the argument over the security of Internet voting systems has definitely shifted to those who claim that the systems can be made secure.