Ellen Theisen at Voters Unite continues to update a database of voting problems and news articles.
“Don’t ask, don’t think; trust us”
~Harvie Branscomb about Aspen Colorado’s shameful efforts to keep the election process closed to the public and the McCarthy-style tactics used against local voting activists….
Something good! It is good to see reports of post election audits, something almost unheard of several years ago…The Champaign County Clerk of Illinois has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the undervote notification in Champaign County Circuit Court…
…NC Lawmakers join call for Blue Cross probe of anonymous robo calls, political campaigning, ethics issues…We wish all voting news readers a safe and happy Thanksgiving…
All this and more in today’s voting news below….
CO: Don’t ask, don’t think; trust us
Dear Editor:
Message from: The city
To: Our citizens
1) Don’t ask to see any copies of your anonymous ballots — something about them is just too dangerous for the public to handle — we will keep them briefly and destroy all copies for you…
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20091125/LETTER
CO: Should the city of Aspen release the ballots from the spring City Council election to anyone who wants to see them? (scroll poll 2/3 way down the page)
http://www.aspentimes.com/
CT: Audit ensures election accuracy
11/25/2009 Westport’s elected officials have already been sworn into office, but the results of the Nov. 3 election had yet to be put to rest until Friday evening
http://www.westport-news.com/ci_13862874
IL: Champaign County Clerk. lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the undervote notification in Champaign County Circuit Court
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2009/11/24/undervote-lawsuit-filed/
MO: Fighting corrpution like fighting H1N1? (campaign finance)
November 25, 2009
http://politicalactivitylaw.com/?p=6480
NC: Lawmakers join call for Blue Cross probe (anonymous robo calls, non profit campaigning, ethics issues)
November 24, 2009
http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/lawmakers
[it may not be against the law for BCBS to engage in campaigning, but many issues call for investigation]
NC: Twenty state lawmakers have signed a letter calling for an investigation into a campaign by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of N.C. (actual letter)
“…Further, given BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina’s status as a not-for-profit with a share of 96.8% in our individual insurance market built on over 60 years of preferred tax exemptions, we are concerned as a matter of public policy and ethical business practices that they have inappropriately engaged in political advocacy. As a corporation that claims to deliver innovative health care products and services to its members, BlueCross BlueShield appears to be engaging in a blatant political campaign utilizing the premiums paid by their customers.”
http://projects.newsobserver.com/sites/projects.newsobserver.com/files/blue%20cross%20letter.pdf
NC: Lawmakers alerted to potential problems with finance reports
State election officials have asked a number of lawmakers to respond to potential problems with campaign finance reports.
Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said officials are sending the audit letters as they try to catch up on a two-year backlog of work.
http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2009/11/25/955482
NM: Favela indicted on 5 counts of false voting
11/22/2009 LAS CRUCES – The wife of a former judge convicted on felony voter fraud charges has been indicted on five counts of false voting.
…
Horacio Favela, 49, was found guilty in August of declaring himself as a resident of Sunland Park in March 2008, a requirement for candidacy for the judgeship and
– after winning the race – falsifying a document that acknowledged he was a qualified voter. He also was found guilty of voting twice in the November 2004 general election, once in Texas and once in New Mexico. Each count was a fourth-degree felony
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_13844919
NY: Hoffman Concedes; Speaks More on Election Controversy
Watertown Daily Times: “[In his statement,] Mr. Hoffman makes clear he won’t ask for a recount because he doesn’t think it will change the outcome.
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014817.html
PA: Pennsylvania Paperless Recount
Nov 23rd, 2009. I wrote before that this month’s re-count activity in Pennsylvania was notable because of the variety of voting methods used there, and hence the variety of recounting methods needed. In contrast to the Lackawanna county that I mentioned specifically, there are many counties in PA that use completely paperless DRE voting machines. In these cases, there are no actual ballots to recount, nor are there paper-trail tape-rolls to examine.
http://www.trustthevote.org/pennsylvania-paperless-recount
TN: Push Underway To Get Deceased Off Voting Rolls
November 24, 2009 …He says they are working with the state to get a list of all deceased voters and remove them, but if the family or the state fail to notify election officials of a death, the process takes even longer.
http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-shelby-county-dead-voters-story,0,4666191.story
WA: County certifies 2009 General Election results (post election audits)
Nov 24 2009. King County’s post-election, random audit of 4 percent of accessible voting units (or electronic voting equipment) used at accessible voting centers resulted in a perfect match between the electronic vote totals and the paper audit trail. First introduced in the May 2006 special election, all manual audits of King County’s accessible voting units have been 100 percent accurate to date.
New for all-mail elections, a manual audit of mail ballots is conducted. Twenty batches, representing 4,338 ballots were hand-counted and compared to the machine count. All batch audits conducted have also been 100 percent accurate to date.
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/iss-s/news/73031767.html
National
Survey on the Performance of American Elections Data Available
…Lots of questions about how well elections were run, from the perspective of voters, plus some questions about why non-voters didn’t vote.
http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/?p=3004
Who is Behind the Anti-Robocall FEC Preemption Argument?
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014807.html
“Are Mapmakers Able to Target and Protect Congressional Incumbents?”
Chad Murphy and Antoine Yoshinaka have written this article for American Politics Research
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014808.html
von Spakovsky: Bob Bauer Wants To Criminalize Talk About Voter Fraud
von Spakovsky: “The spurious claims made in the [Bauer] letter were pretty outrageous at the time, but what is even scarier is that we now have a White House counsel who has asserted that anyone who talks about voter fraud, including the type of massive voter-registration fraud committed by ACORN, should be investigated
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014819.html
Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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