New Jersey: County voting machines get chip upgrades | The Daily Journal | thedailyjournal.com Cumberland County recently replaced computer chips in all its voting machines and completed background checks on five technicians who service them as a safeguard against tampering and inaccuracy. But those upgrades, which are part of a statewide initiative, don’t sufficiently address…
Cumberland County recently replaced computer chips in all its voting machines and completed background checks on five technicians who service them as a safeguard against tampering and inaccuracy.
But those upgrades, which are part of a statewide initiative, don’t sufficiently address flaws in the system used to cast votes, according to a woman who says an electronic machine cheated her and her husband in a recent election in Fairfield.
The recent upgrades to county voting machines were not related to the Fairfield case. Activists say, however, the Fairfield case just adds ammunition to their argument that New Jersey needs a paper record of election results.
The Secretary of State’s Office said Thursday that it appears no personal information was compromised during a potential security breach of Maine’s Central Voter Registration database.
The apparent breach was the result of malware — or malicious computer software — found on a workstation computer in the town clerk’s office in the northern Penobscot County town of Millinocket.
“I want to update the public with our initial findings and assure all Mainers that appropriate action has been, and will continue to be, taken to protect all personal information located in the Central Voter Registration,” Secretary of State Charlie Summers said in a statement.
Opening up a new front in its legal battles with the Obama administration, the state of Arizona on Thursday challenged the federal Voting Rights Act, prompting a swift response from Attorney General Eric Holder.
Other political news of note
“The Voting Rights Act plays a vital role in our society by ensuring that every American has the right to vote and to have that vote counted. The Department of Justice will vigorously defend the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act in this case, as it has done successfully in the past,” Holder said.
Arizona is challenging the law’s requirement that the state seek Justice Department approval for any changes in how elections are conducted. Many states are subject to the law’s pre-clearance requirement, generally to remedy past restrictions that discouraged minority voting.
Cuyahoga County’s executive plans to continue sending absentee ballot applications to all voters, circumventing a ban the state’s top elections official had imposed on boards of election. County Executive Ed FitzGerald announced Thursday that his administration will pay about $330,000 for a mass mailing, if County Council approves the expense Monday. Seven council members, including Republican Mike Gallagher, have already signed on as sponsors.
“The vote-by-mail program which Cuyahoga and other counties across the state were running were working. It was good government,” said FitzGerald, a Democrat. “That’s a principle that is worth going out on a limb for.”
FitzGerald’s solution might be short-lived, though. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said he plans to look for a “legislative fix” that would prevent county governments from paying for the mailings in the future.
The Ohio League of Women Voters takes issue with several parts of the new law including the reduction of time for in person and absentee voting and elimination of the requirement that poll workers direct voters to the correct precincts.
Nancy Brown, co-president of the group says it has quote….historically sought to remove obstacles to voting, to ensure all eligible voters can vote and that all valid votes are counted…..unquote.
Thousands of low-income Indiana residents will finally have the opportunity to register to vote at state public assistance offices, as mandated by federal law.
Today, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt approved a settlement of a class action lawsuit brought against Indiana officials to bring the state into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act. The suit was brought by the Indiana State Conference of the NAACP on behalf of state public assistance clients injured by the state’s violation of federal law. Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Project Vote, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Demos, the NAACP, the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and the ACLU of Indiana.
The Cherokee Nation will not amend its election laws for the upcoming principal chief’s race. At its regular Rules Committee meeting Thursday, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council voted 8-4 to table a bill by acting Council Speaker Cara Cowan Watts of Claremore that would have codified a July 12 request from the council that the tribe’s Election Commission bring in a third-party organization to observe next month’s election.
The proposal also would have required voters to show identification when arriving to vote, such as a driver’s license, citizenship card, voter registration card or other identification specified by the Election Commission. The tribe’s election law allows for poll workers to identify voters by sight, rather than photo identification, if they know the voter in question.
The Secretary of State will conduct a public review of voted ballots and other materials from the Saguache County 2010 general election next week. The review is an effort to “remove doubt regarding the election results” among Saguache County residents, according to a five-page review and verification plan released today by Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s office. The review will not change the outcome of the election.
Four teams of three people — including volunteers from the Saguache County Democratic and Republican parties, as well as independent voters — will conduct the verification process beginning Monday at the Saguache Community Center. Three races will be reviewed: clerk and recorder, county commissioner and the University of Colorado Board of Regents race. The public and media will be allowed to observe, and the entire process will be videotaped.
The U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected the village’s controversial attempt to renew a nearly 5-year-old legal battle over its trustee election system. A three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the village has no right to appeal a 2008 ruling that deemed the former at-large system unfair to Hispanics.
In 2009, Port Chester agreed to usher in a new and unusual method called cumulative voting, under a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. This year, after winning office under the new system, the newly elected trustees switched course, opting to appeal. Justice Department attorneys maintained the village had given up that right. In a two-sentence order, the appeals panel agreed.
School districts in Michigan would only be permitted to hold elections in November of even-numbered years under a bill passed Wednesday by the Michigan House of Representatives. The bill passed by a vote of 72-36 and was billed as a way to cut costs and improve efficiency. But not all local officials agree.
Schools currently can set elections on any of the state’s four annual election dates, as can municipalities. The districts are responsible for the costs, which vary. In Adrian in 2011, for example, the May election cost the school district $6,171.
Cumulative voting is here to stay, and Port Chester taxpayers are on the hook for thousands of dollars in attorney fees from the ill-fated effort to reverse the voting rights case. The decision marks the end of a divisive saga that included political battles, philosophical differences and lots of emotional feedback from people who live in the village.
In February, Port Chester’s Republican trustees voted to fight the legally well-armed Department of Justice and appeal the voting rights case. In addition to hiring two local attorneys, trustees hired high-powered lawyer Michael Carvin at a cost of $225,000. Carvin is the brother of Joseph Carvin, Rye Town’s Republican supervisor.
In April, a federal judge threw a bucket of cold water on the appeal effort with a written decision that the village “may not appeal a consent decree.” Still, Republican trustees and their lawyers pressed on, saying they had faith in Carvin and other attorneys, who said Port Chester had favorable odds in the case.