Yearly Archives: 2012

Sophie Rogers, director of the Marion County Board of Elections, said the incident involving an errant vote has been settled. “We have to assure the members of Marion County that there is nothing wrong with the election,” she said on Wednesday. When a Marion Star article pointing out the problem a local early voter had getting her vote to register properly hit the internet, it sparked national attention. With numerous callers and emailers contacting The Star, including readers from Florida, Oregon, Texas and New York, it is not an isolated incident.

Ohio: Problems pop up as Election Day draws near | The Columbus Dispatch

Unlike past elections, an initial wave of election results should pour in from across the state Tuesday night within 45 minutes after the polls close. But that doesn’t mean it will be time to call the race. “My expectation is we will be able to declare a winner on election night,” Secretary of State Jon Husted said yesterday during a briefing about Election Day and beyond.But he also projected that final, unofficial counts might not be finished until 3 a.m. the day after the election.

Oregon: Ballot tampering reported in Clackamas County | KATU.com

Authorities said Friday they were investigating suspected ballot tampering by an election worker in one of Oregon’s most populous counties. Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall said a criminal violation of election law was uncovered by her office Wednesday and reported to the secretary of state’s Elections Division. Hall declined to identify the worker or describe the specific nature of the violation.

South Carolina: Absentee voting slowed because of internet problems | WCBD-TV 2

Wednesday there were reports the internet went down at a polling location on Leeds Avenue, which caused people to be processed at a slower rate. Dan Martin, Board of Elections and Voter Registration Members Chair, provided the statements below regarding the voting machines issues.

Virginia: Election Results Could Come Late Due to Virgina Voter ID Law | Newsplex

The new voter ID law in Virginia, which took effect earlier this summer, just doesn’t change how people vote — it also changes when the official results of the election will be released. “I don’t really know, since this is the first time really that the ID law has been into affect, what it’s going to do,” Charlottesville registrar Sheri Iachetta said. When Virginia’s voter ID law went into effect, it wiped out the affirmation of identity, the alternative for voters who didn’t have an ID with them. The signature would allow the person to vote.

Virginia: Fairfax Democrats sue over polling-place observers | The Washington Post

The Fairfax County Democratic Committee is suing state and local elections officials over what the committee says is an illegal attempt by Republicans to change rules about elections observers with the aim of reducing votes in Virginia’s biggest Democratic stronghold. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court, centers on what Democrats say are new restrictions on party observers inside polling places.

Guinea: Guinea swears in new electoral commission | Reuters

Guinea has sworn in a new electoral commission after an initial boycott by the opposition, which claimed the government had tampered with its list of nominees, state television announced on Thursday. A political stalemate in the world’s top bauxite producer has since last year stalled legislative polls needed to complete a shift to civilian rule after a 2008 coup and unblock international aid.

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Goes Digital | allAfrica.com

Election results will be electronically transmitted countrywide to undo claims of vote tampering, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said. Acting ZEC chairperson Mrs Joyce Kazembe said the commission was installing software linking the national command centre with all district offices nationwide to enable ZEC to electronically transmit election results without fear of people tampering with the outcome.

Colorado: GOP cites voting-machine errors | The Denver Post

November 2, 2012

The Republican National Committee on Thursday called upon Secretary of State Scott Gessler and elections officials elsewhere to look into reports of malfunctioning touch-screen voting machines that may be casting votes for Barack Obama when a voter meant to pick Mitt Romney. In Colorado, Republican officials pointed to a single example of a malfunctioning machine in Mesa County.

National: Election experts expect close scrutiny, unavoidable glitches | latimes.com

Peg Rosenfield has been monitoring elections for the League of Women Voters in Ohio for almost 40 years and has seen just about every voting glitch imaginable. She says there’s a saying among election workers: “Please, God, make it a landslide.” In a landslide, there is no quibbling over hanging chads or provisional ballots or registration requirements or rigged voting machines or whether ballots were cast by the dead. A winner is declared, a loser concedes — election over. No one expects a landslide when Americans go to the polls on Tuesday. As in 2000 and 2004, there is great potential for the race to be too close to call immediately in some states, and the possibility that the presidency will hang for days or weeks on a recount, or on the counting of provisional or late-arriving absentee ballots. It is possible the election won’t be decided at the polls alone, but, as in 2000, that it will determined in court — or in Congress.

National: Sandy-Caused Power Outages May Complicate Election Day | Bloomberg

Election officials across the U.S. Northeast say they are determined to minimize disruption to Nov. 6 presidential voting in the region’s hardest-hit areas after super-storm Sandy knocked out power to 8 million customers. Officials are surveying damage and deciding how to conduct voting in areas without power. Service may not be restored for as long as 10 days to more than 2 million New York customers, mostly on Long Island and in New York City. Another 2.6 million customers in New Jersey and 627,000 in Connecticut were without electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Voting Blogs: Who Decides a Post-Election Dispute? | ElectionLaw@Moritz

This post highlights a chart containing information about who would decide a post-election challenge in each of the fifty states, broken down by type of election. To access the chart, click here. For a summary and further analysis, read on. Doomsday scenarios abound regarding an election that might last into extra innings. What will happen if, on the morning of Wednesday, November 7, we do not know who won the presidential election, or other races? More menacingly, what happens if post-election challenges last several weeks, beyond the routine provisional ballot and recount procedures?

California: City Hall sends faulty voting materials to Malibu | Santa Monica Daily Press

City and county election officials are imploring Malibu voters to stick to their county-issued voting materials when they mark their ballots after it was discovered that numbers in Santa Monica-issued materials did not correspond to Malibu ballots. The problem is confined to two voting groups in Malibu who participate in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District election. Vote-by-mail ballots include a voter guide that shows the names of candidates or measures and a corresponding number. To vote for that candidate or measure, a voter bubbles in an oval next to the number that indicates their choice.

Colorado: 3 Colorado counties’ touch-screen voting machines worry activists | The Denver Post

For months, a group of election activists has complained about Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s oversight of touch-screen voting machines used throughout Colorado that critics say are vulnerable to tampering and malfunctions. Gessler argues strongly that the voting machines are reliable, but critics say that in a close presidential election in swing state Colorado, and in places like Arapahoe County — where touch-screen machines are still the principal means of casting an in-person ballot — a mishap with the devices could tilt the race. Colorado’s touch-screen machines, they say, could become the “hanging chads” of 2012. “The secretary of state has not enforced his own voting security laws and regulations for touch-screen machines since he was elected,” said Paul Hultin, an attorney representing a group of voters who brought a 2006 lawsuit challenging the machines’ reliability.

Illinois: WBEZ answers what Chicago’s done to secure voting machines | WBEZ 91.5

Can we trust the machines that record our votes in local polling places? That’s the gist of the question that listener Ryan McIntyre submitted to Curious City. Like many people across the country, McIntyre is worried that election results could be manipulated by today’s electronic voting machines. Here’s how he phrased his question: “After watching the HBO documentary, ‘Hacking Democracy,’ I find using the electronic voting machines, usually by the corporation Diebold, very frivolous since they can so easily be tampered with. Entire elections can be manipulated, vote totals, everything. Before I make my vote I demand that I use the paper ballot. What is being done to eliminate these machines from use in the city of Chicago, a city known to be ravaged by dirty politics anyways? My question can include the entire state of Illinois, not just Chicago.” The simplest answer to McIntyre’s question is that elections officials in Chicago, suburban Cook County and other local jurisdictions are likely to stick with the machines they’re using now, at least for the foreseeable future. And for what it’s worth, Diebold, which is now called Premier Election Solutions, didn’t make any of the voting machines used anywhere in Illinois, according to a database maintained by The Verified Voting Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group based in California.

Iowa: Secretary of State Schultz: International voting monitors face arrest in Iowa

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz warned a group of international voting monitors that they face arrest if they monitor polling locations in Iowa next week. “My office met with two delegation representatives last week to discuss Iowa’s election process, and it was explained to them that they are not permitted at the polls,” Schultz said in a statement released Tuesday. “Iowa law is very specific about who is permitted at polling places, and there is no exception for members of this group.”

North Dakota: Judge says North Dakota ban on Election Day campaigning violates free speech rights | Grand Forks Herald

A federal judge on Wednesday barred state and local prosecutors from enforcing North Dakota’s ban on Election Day campaigning, saying the century-old restriction violates political speech rights. “There is no valid justification for the law in modern-day society, nor any compelling state interest offered to support its continued existence,” Judge Daniel Hovland wrote in his 13-page decision. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said Wednesday that Hovland’s ruling will not be appealed. He will ask the Legislature next year to repeal the law, Stenehjem said.

Ohio: Election may not wrap up Tuesday | The Columbus Dispatch

If the presidential election really does come down to Ohio, and the Buckeye State is as close as some recent polls indicate, America might not know its next president until December. That could plunge Ohio into the middle of a bitter legal drama reminiscent of the 2000 presidential election in Florida. From hanging chads to butterfly ballots, the Sunshine State came under heavy criticism for how it conducted the vote, which was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Could Ohio withstand similar scrutiny? “Truthfully, it will likely come down to one simple question: Is it close?” said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials. “If it is, and the scenarios (outlined below) come true, things will get ugly.

Ohio: Search For Mythical Voter Fraud Leads To False Sighting In Ohio | Huffington Post

Right-wing activists bent on exposing the alleged epidemic of in-person voter fraud suffered a major misfire over the weekend when anonymous pollwatchers set off alarms over groups of Somalis getting rides to a central Ohio early voting center. Many members of the large Somali community in and around Columbus are U.S. citizens and therefore have the constitutional right to vote. But that didn’t stop the conservative Human Events website from warning of “troubling and questionable activities” — or the Drudge Report getting its readers exercised about “Vanloads of Somalians driven to the polls in Ohio.” The Human Events story quoted two anonymous pollwatchers complaining of “Somalis who cannot speak English” arriving in groups, being given a slate card by Democratic party workers outside the polling place, then coming in and being instructed by Somali interpreters on how to vote. The article also raised the question of “whether a non-English speaking person is an American citizen.” One regular contributor to the right-wing American Thinker website likened the voters to “Somali pirates” being used by Ohio Democrats to “hijack the election.” Somali leaders in central Ohio said the charges in the article were upsetting as well as unfounded.

Ohio: State data glitch delays delivery of thousands of Ohio voter registration records | cleveland.com

A small fraction of Ohio voters’ absentee ballot requests may have been mistakenly rejected due to a recently discovered glitch in the transfer of change-of-address records. Even though the deadline for voters to register or change their address was three weeks ago, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted just this week sent about 33,000 updated registration records to local elections officials. The local boards had to immediately process the records to ensure those voters could properly cast a ballot in the Nov. 6 election. An unknown number of absentee ballot applications across the state have been rejected due to the delay because election officials did not have some voters’ current addresses.

South Carolina: All South Carolina voter registration machines go down, causing long lines | WYFF

Election officials say all the machines used to check voter registrations in the state of South Carolina were down for a time on Tuesday morning, causing long lines for absentee voters. Initially, Greenville County Registration and Elections Director Conway Belangia told News 4’s Nigel Robertson that the voting machines in Greenville County were down. News 4 checked with other counties, and was told that the machines were down across the state. Robertson called the State Elections Office, and clarified that the machines that were down were the ones used to check voter registration and identification and to determine what ballot voters should be using, not voting machines.

Utah: Printing error slows Utah County absentee ballot scanning | Deseret News

A misplaced bar code slowed the processing of absentee ballots in Utah County, frustrating campaigns that rely on voting data for 11th hour electioneering. The vendor that printed the county’s absentee ballot envelopes placed the bar code on the outside but under the flap. That means election workers have to open each envelope to scan the code just to check the ballot into the computer system.

Guinea: Guinea’s new election commission delayed | San Jose Mercury News

Guinea’s opposition blocked the swearing-in ceremony of the country’s new election commission Wednesday and reiterated that it will sue if the panel’s members are not changed. Disagreements over the electoral process in this West African nation already have spilled over into violent protests and made it impossible for the country to hold legislative elections.

Russia: Russian election chief criticises US democracy | guardian.co.uk

When Russian protesters took to the streets last year following allegations of mass fraud in the parliamentary elections, Vladimir Churov became a popular hate figure. Many held the head of the central elections commission responsible for massaged results that had given the ruling United Russia party up to 99% of the vote in some regions of the country. In a comment widely lampooned by protesters, the then-president Dmitry Medvedev referred to Churov as a “wizard” for his success in predicting the election’s outcome. As the presidential vote looms in the US, however, Churov has gone on the offensive with his own scathing criticism of American democracy.

National: Election watchdogs keep wary eye on paperless e-voting systems | Computerworld

As the clock winds down to what could turn out to be an extremely close presidential race, some election watchdogs are keeping a wary eye on paperless electronic voting machines that are scheduled to be used in several key states and jurisdictions around the country. Paperless systems are basically Direct Recording Electronic systems (DREs) in which voters cast their ballots in a completely electronic fashion by using push buttons or touchscreens. Some DREs allow voters to print out a paper copy of their ballots to verify that their vote was cast as intended. Election watchdog groups such as Verified Voting and Common Cause and academicians have insisted that such a voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) is vital to ensuring the integrity of the vote in jurisdictions that use DREs.

National: ES&S plans for the worst on Election Day: No power | Omaha.com

If polling places along the East Coast are without power on Election Day, an Omaha company faces a powerful test. With much of the coast bracing for damage and prolonged power outages from the storm called Sandy, election officials and providers of voting equipment, including Omaha-based Electronic Systems & Software, spent Monday hashing out contingency plans, backup contingency plans and backup-backup contingency plans in case polling places remain without power on Nov. 6.

National: Could the election be delayed by Hurricane Sandy? | Washington Post

Slate has an Explainer on the possibility of a delay. The power to change election dates lies with the states, not with the president. “Although states may reschedule a canceled or suspended election at their discretion (or according to their individual election laws), they must choose their presidential electors by the “safe harbor” deadline, which is six days before the Electoral College votes,” L.V. Anderson writes. That deadline is Dec. 17.

National: Will new voter ID laws swing the U.S. election? | Yahoo! News Canada

With polls continuing to suggest a presidential election too close to call, attention has focused on what some critics refer to as voter suppression tactics and whether they could have a significant effect on such a tight race.
As with most election years, there have been regular media reports of such things as destruction of voter registration forms and allegations of voter intimidation. But more troubling for some are the suggestions that politicians, through the legislative process, are creating laws to disenfranchise certain voting groups. The accusations of legislative suppression are mostly targeted at Republicans, who are criticized by some civil rights groups for creating new laws, in particular voter identification laws, that affect mostly poor or minority voters — a demographic more inclined to vote Democrat.

Voting Blogs: Is The Voter Vigilante Group True The Vote Violating Ohio Law to Intimidate Voters at the Polls? | Alternet

A right-wing voter vigilante group, TrueTheVote, may be pushing their anti-democratic agenda into illegal territory in Ohio by interfering with that state’s official poll worker training regimen one week before the 2012 presidential election. In recent weeks, the Texas-based group, with many local affiliates drawn from Tea Party ranks, has been urging poll workers in key Ohio counties—primarily Republicans—to supplement their official state training with TrueTheVote materials. These Election Day workers are not the observers chosen by political parties who can watch but not interfere with voting; they are the people who are drawn from both parties and employed by the state to run the voting process.

Voting Blogs: Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters In Wisconsin | ThinkProgress