With short notice, DC offers a public “test” of internet vote system from Sept 24-30…Bo Lipari has some thoughts & recommendations r/e New York’s primary..Houston Voting Machine Fire Update and Shouting ‘Voter Fraud’ in a Crowded Midterm Election..Visit Electionland to register to vote, find polling place & sign up for election reminders..”the threat of the…
Ruling in AZ election case…Disappearing Voters -No Penalties for Failing to Correctly Fill Out & Deliver Voter Reg.Forms…NC vote vendor does NOT want to break law..NY city disabled complain -voting places inaccessible & no ballot-marking devices..3rd party lawsuit against NY Fusion..Wisconsin Group alleges voter suppression..Why Your Toaster Works Better Than Your Voting Machine..1-866-OUR-VOTE is back..Ireland…
“if Maryland is truly concerned about election results that are not only verifiable but also available much more quickly on election night, we would move as quickly as possible to the optical scan voting system mandated in the law passed by the General Assembly in 2007.” ~ Rebecca Wilson, SAVEourVotes.org ..Shelby County Tennessee Election Commission,…
If you’ve wondered why voting machine problems seem to occur again and again around the country and what can be done about it, the Brennan Center at New York University School of Law has an answer. A report released last week by the non-partisan organization, Voting System Failures: A Database Solution, found that in the absence of requirements to report malfunctions, vendors do not keep election officials informed about voting system defects. The report recommends several remedies for this pervasive problem. Among other conclusions, it calls for a searchable national database of voting machine problems to be created and made available to the public.
The report found that election officials “must rely almost exclusively on the voting system vendors for information about malfunctions, defects, vulnerabilities and other problems that the vendors have discovered, or that have occurred with their voting systems in other states“. Vendors “don’t have an incentive to inform [election officials] of certain problems with their systems”. Noting that this leads to repeated failures of systems year after year, ” these malfunctions – and their consequence, disenfranchisement – could have been avoided had election officials and/or public advocates known about earlier problems and had an opportunity to fix them”.
Common Sense: The Indispensable Role Of Voter Verified Paper Ballots..(NOT)Counting Votes in Shelby CO Tennessee..Why No Central Database Of E-Voting Problems?..Internet voting fiasco: Spam filter prevents many Palm Beach Co teachers from casting online ballot on new contract…Unlimited Political Speech For Corporations That Don’t Say Pledge Of Allegiance…Violence and fraud mar Afghan election..Burma Excludes Thousands…
Brennan Ctr: “Voting System Failures: A Database Solution”…Maryland officials blame voting machine failures on poll workers..The latest target of New Yorkers’ ire: new voting machines, which perplexed them, broke down and ate their primary election ballots…New Jersey Military/Internet voting pilot bill..Vote probs in DC, MA, MD…Pune India engineer held, cops say gave EVM to researcher…Why…
“Voting machines have acquired the sort of “sovereign” power that only voters should enjoy in a true democracy. What would you call it but a travesty of democracy where the people are relegated to the background and the unverifiable machine records (which can be wrong, manipulated) become the sole basis for declaring elected representatives?” ~…
Why did Benton Co AR Election Commission meet in secret?…North Carolina: Potential mess looms in judicial election..NY voting machine quirk may be problem for fusion voters..Best audit ever! Columbia CO New York to do 100% hand count of new opscan ballots…Shelby Co Tennessee “screw-up cast doubt on the entire process of voting in Shelby County…
Shelby Co Alabama fight against voting rights act argued in DC..Arizona fake green pty candidates stay on ballot for now..Another election down, another accusation of misconduct against Sarasota Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent..Hawaii voters take note: many polling places have closed..Maryland early voting yields only 2% turnout, costs $3.4M…Ballot access in NC nearly impossible says…
Citizens’ suit against Maricopa Co AZ election office begins Sept 10..Los Angeles Co voters prefer that new voting system use paper ballots…Election watchdog report challenges Scott Brown election in Massachusetts…New Mexico SoS Herrera troubles: 4 election chiefs quit so far, Herrera fired 2 whistleblowers last week & SoS office swept for bugs..Virgin Isl voting machine…
Lawyers’ Committee Condemns DOJ and Georgia’s Maneuvers to Preclear New Registration Procedures…Hinds Co Mississippi to buy 300 used optical scanners for $350 ea…New Mexico SOS fires whistleblowers…WA SOS office straight talk on military vote…Military & Overseas Voters, Submit your Ballot Request for the Gen Election!. Get big discounts on express delivery of voted ballots back…
If we can use the Internet to deliver blank ballots, then why not use it to return voted ballots? Part of the answer lies with the nature of the Internet itself. If we are to be sure that the vote cast is the same as the vote counted, we need a way to guarantee that 1) the voted ballot has not been substituted or altered in transit, and 2) the ballot received actually was sent by the voter, not someone impersonating them. But due to the way the Internet currently works, neither of these conditions can be assured. Before looking at sending ballots via Email, it’s helpful to understand how all Internet communication works, whether it be an email, website, file download, or tweet. What we now call the Internet grew out of research on connecting computers of different types and at different locations into a single network. One of the problems facing researchers was how to move electronic information reliably on pathways that are unknown and unpredictable. Two computers might be connected via a wire across the room, or across a huge network of sub-connections spanning the planet.
CTVoter series on Common Sense Election Integrity…Sarasota FL election sup Kathy Dent shrugs of another lawsuit, no wonder since taxpayers foot the bill either way…Putting troops votes at risk: NJ lawmakers have two bills for internet/military voting…NY New Ballot Type Too Small…Paper V Plastic debate heats up in Tenn…Fox anchor accuses WA State of trying…
On Sarasota FL: Tom Lyons says “Recounts belong to the voters” and not a tired candidate or election supervisor…New York Warned of ‘Electoral Chaos’ in Transition to Electronic Voting: In the Wednesday hearing..”It seems to me that these new machines are more prone to fraud on a mass scale than a lever machine,”~Chief Judge Dennis…
Snoop Dogg fights cyber crime, see ‘Hack is Wack’…Dr.Joseph Lorenzo Hall writes about Electronic Voting and Direct Democracy…Class Action Lawsuit Being Filed Against Sarasota Elections Sup Kathy Dent?…Missing ballot ovals confuse Billings Montana voters…New Jersey lawmaker wants military internet voting experiment…18,000 Wisconsin voters could be cut from rolls…Fox News article: Online Voting For Military Serving…
13 candidates file for statewide contest for NC appeals court, to be tallied by IRV and counties don’t yet have procedures…TrustTheVote announces that District of Columbia will delay their internet voting experiment that uses overseas troops as guinea pigs. DC has advertised this pilot as “Digital Vote By Mail Service”, but it still is internet…
Luther Weeks on Connecticut elections: “State recanvass law inadequate for close elections”…Alaska mail ballots – Over 20,000 Votes Still To Be Counted, 11,200 are ‘question’ ballots…Sarasota FL Election Sup Kathy Dent accused of influencing election in recount…Virginia’s State Board of Elections still affected by IT outage that began last week in a data center run…
“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…
As noted in Part One of this series, one of the goals of the MOVE Act is to improve access to election materials such as voter registration forms and blank ballots. Examining why (and ignoring voter registration for the moment), we see that there are two parts to the process of voting from an overseas…
Democrats ask court to void Shelby County Tennessee’s August election. Vote-total discrepancies not mere error, suit alleges…On Australia’s national cliffhanger: “It’s not a good sign when the best way out may be a fresh election.”…Verified Voting “On India’s Electronic Voting Controversy”. India’s officials should address the voting machine vulnerabilities rather than punish experts who reveal…
For Americans who care about verified elections, recent events in India are resonant. Verified Voting applauds the advocates, ordinary citizens and technologists who are working for accountable voting in the world’s largest democracy. We support calls for the government of India to 1) engage constructively, rather than persecute, technologists who have conducted critical research on Indian voting systems; and 2) take immediate steps toward a verifiable voting process suited to India’s needs.
A bit of background for Americans who have not yet tuned in to the controversy: India adopted a nationwide system of paperless direct-recording electronic voting machines in 2004. Early on, some Indian computer security experts pointed to the inherent vulnerability of a purely electronic voting process, and a number of journalists and candidates for office raised concerns. The machines in India are much simpler than those used in America, but are no less vulnerable to wholesale attacks originating from the voting system vendor, and are prone to a number of serious machine-by-machine “retail” attacks.
Broward FL elections sup Dr. Snipes neglects to tell voters about polling place change…The BRAD BLOG Informs NBC’s Chuck Todd That Ballots Are Not Actually Counted by Humans…Pac-Man for president: Hack highlights e-voting flaws.University researchers remind people that electronic voting machines are still easy to manipulate by loading the venerable Pac-Man video game…’Too close to…
Brennan Center report: “Voting After You Move: A Guide”…Hawaii cuts 97 polling places..Tennessee mis-fires: The Rutherford TN election chief was fired for not having early voting on 1 Saturday, but has anyone been fired for the Shelby Co fiasco where e-poll books blocked thousands of voters?…Deputies of “Houston Votes” submitted thousands of fraudulent voter registration…
CTVoter on reforms intended to tweak turnout -“Fighting the last [election]war – Be careful what you ask for!” Florida Voter Alert: 2008 Absentee Voters May Have Problems at Polls…Dan Rather on Chris Matthews today, “Electronic voting machines still alot of problems…”…India electronic voting machine update: The ‘story’ behind Hari Prasad’s arrest and its aftermath News…
CTVoter on India’s arrest of Hari Prasad: “So as governments do to whistle blowers and those who bring uncomfortable facts, they have arrested the Indian member of the research team in an effort to determine the source of the voting machine and to intimidate.”..Sarasota FL voting machine meltdown proves value of paper ballots, no thanks…
Bell, CA may give ballot control to county after investigation into massive corruption and election fraud…CTVoter answers question: “Greenwich Audit: Is it worth $1,200?”…Shelby Co Tennessee election board voted 5-0 to certify flawed election after blaming all problems on a single “human error”. Some lawsuits in the works and TBI is investigating…Moreon impact of Citizens…
Florida Voters Coalition encourages citizens to observe poll closing procedures…Shelby Co TN blames technician for election fiasco, local DEM party launching own investigation…J. Alex Halderman has found a good use for touchscreen machines – reprogram them as PacMan consoles…Mason County WV to volunteer overseas vote for internet vote experiment…Bo Lipari has Part I of Verified…
In a wired world, it was inevitable that the subject of Internet Voting become a hot topic sooner rather than later. But more than just a topic of discussion, this year eighteen states will allow overseas ballots to be returned via email in November’s elections. Yet according to security experts, voted ballots sent via Internet…
Citizens file emergency suit to force Maricopa AZ Elections Dept to follow law…Florida Voters Coalition collecting observations on poll closings nxt Tues…Tennessee State Election website crashed 5 times on election day, delays Dyer Cnty results…Washington election returns crash state computers…1,100 Snohomish Cnty WA voters get ballots within hours to vote..90 yrs ago the 19th amendment…
A tale of two election offices: “WI’s Waukesha County Clerk to Keep Elections Results on Her Personal Computer Really, really dumb…What part of ‘public official’ and ‘public elections’ to these sorts of folks not get???” ~Brad Friedman…Contrast to this good example: “Coloradans For Voting Integrity Citizen Volunteers Audit Primary Election Ballots in El Paso County,…