Bob Fitrakis asks “Why is it, on this anniversary of Bill Moss’ passing, that we can readily accept people are hacking into ATM machines, but ignore the fact that people are also hacking Diebold, ES&S and other electronic voting machines and stealing more than money.”…$20 votes in Perry Co KY vote buying scheme…Obama admin pushes back hard on charge that it’s not protecting military voters. Letter explains waiver process is built into MOVE act and the Department of Defense in consultation with DOJ determines whether to grant waivers…
All this and more in today’s voting news below…
CA: Fresno woman arraigned on voter fraud
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/03/2028064/fresno-woman-arraigned-on-voter.html
Election officials said Holland forged signatures in an attempt to reduce entry fees for Fresno City Council Member Cynthia Sterling in Sterling’s race for county supervisor and for Fresno police officer Oliver Baines, who is running for Sterling’s seat.
CA: State panel calls for online political ad rules
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/02/MNDQ1ENN37.DTL
California should regulate online political ads the same way it does television, radio or print communications – by requiring candidates and campaigns to tell voters who paid for them, officials with the state’s campaign watchdog agency …
CA: WHY IT MIGHT BE RATIONAL FOR JUDGE WALKER TO STAY HIS OWN RULING IN THE PROP. 8 CASE http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016619.html
CO: Buescher: GOP criticism on MOVE Act military voting ignores reality
http://coloradoindependent.com/58686/buescher-gop-criticism-on-move-act-military-voting-ignores-reality
Secretary of State Bernie Buescher Monday night told the Colorado Independent he was way ahead of his Republican critics on what needed to happen in Colorado to comply with a new federal law dictating the speed of mailing overseas ballots to members of the military, but lawmakers dragged their feet because of election-year politics.
…
Buescher said both his supporters and critics could have proposed legislation during the last session to comply with the MOVE Act but the political will was missing because of ramifications for campaigns already in progress.
CT: Conn. governor vetoes bill to fix campaign law
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2010/08/02/conn_governor_vetoes_bill_to_fix_campaign_law/
HARTFORD, Conn.—Gov. M. Jodi followed through Monday with her promise to veto a bill that attempts to fix Connecticut’s campaign finance law after a federal appeals court founds parts of it unconstitutional.
FL: Detour on election audits
With local measure apparently dead, seek a change in state law
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100803/OPINION/8031026/2198/OPINI
Instead of fighting for stronger ballot auditing in Sarasota County, push for it statewide. That would provide the consistency and uniformity the courts say is legally required.
FL: Show up Thursday, August 5th, 2 PM–Stand by the people of Sarasota
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform/message/13797
…Thursday, August 5th, please attend the special meeting of the Sarasota County Commissioners at 2 PM in the Commission Chambers at 1660 Ringling Blvd, Sarasota. That’s when they will make their final decision on whether to appeal the negative ruling of the judge in the 12th Judicial Circuit on the status of our county charter amendment for paper ballots and mandatory audits of election equipment, or whether they will support the will of the voters of Sarasota County in another way.
GA: Georgia Military and Overseas Voters, Submit Your Ballot for the August 10, 2010 General Primary Runoff! http://www.fvap.gov/global/news/nr20-2010.html
GA: Voter Fraud Alleged in Brooks County
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/99140784.html
Brooks County residents are concerned there may be irregularities with the outcome of several local races. And now the GBI has launched a probe into these allegations.
…
“The issue is the absentee ballots,” said Claude Butler, the County Commissioner for District Three, who lost to Willie Cody by 247 votes. Pre-absentee count, he was in the lead by 111 votes. “They have gone rampant here in our county…
GA: Bottoms resigns as probate judge
http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2010/08/03/news/breaking_news/01breakingnews.txt
Bottoms, who was involved in logic and accuracy testing on electronic voting machines Tuesday, said she would provide to The Northeast Georgian on Wednesday full details of her reasons for resigning for inclusion in Friday’s edition.
IL: 146 Illegal Votes Identified in November 2008 (Champaign County)
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2010/08/04/146-illegal-votes-identified-in-november-2008/
KY: 4 indicted on vote buying in eastern KY
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?s=12889273&clienttype=printable
HAZARD, KY (AP) – Four eastern Kentucky men have been indicted on vote buying charges for paying people to vote in the May primary in Perry County.
One of the men, Pearl Combs Jr., was arrested on election day in May on a charge of voter fraud after a voter told authorities he was paid $20 to vote for certain candidates.
MI: Did your voting machine in Lansing (MI) work today? *
http://thelansingblog.com/2010/08/03/did-your-voting-machine-in-lansing-mi-work-today/ … After we voted, we took our ballot to the machine where the voter inserts the paper with his choices to be counted. It would not pull the ballot into the machine. It wouldn’t function at all.
Voters behind us left their ballots on a nearby table to be inserted by workers later. There was maybe five or six when we finally left. The poll worker took our ballots and inserted them in an auxiliary bin behind the machine. And she said it would be scanned later as its watched by workers who are from both political workers.
MI: Election Day: August 2010 *
http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/08/03/election-day-august-2010/
Ann Arbor. 9:30 a.m. Ward 1, Precinct 3: Community High School (401 N. Division):
…
The clerk staff reports several humidity-related issues citywide with voting machines. The humidity makes the paper ballots “puff up.”
MI: Modem problems in voting machines to delay Washtenaw County results *
http://www.annarbor.com/news/modem-problems-in-voting-machines-to-delay-results/
The modems used for Washtenaw County’s voting machines aren’t working, county election officials said just after 9 p.m.
That means clerks in the county’s various townships, cities and villages will have to physically drive the results in. That occurs anyway, but the county is normally able to get the results faster from the modem and put them up on its website.
MI: More Michigan polling places use electronic pollbooks
http://www.freep.com/article/20100803/NEWS15/100803067/More-Michigan-polling-places-use-electronic-pollbooks
NY: New York Passes Two Landmark Democracy Reforms
http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/new_york_passes_two_landmark_democracy_reforms/…requiring
that people in prison be allocated to their home communities for redistricting purposes; and requiring criminal justice agencies to provide voting rights information to people who are again eligible to vote after a felony conviction.
VA: Va. registrars study mobile voter unit
http://www2.newsvirginian.com/wnv/news/state_regional/article/va._registrars_study_mobile_voter_unit/58532/
WA: R-71 petition challenge heading back to court
http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/FromOurCorner/index.php/2010/08/r-71-petition-challenge-heading-back-to-court/ Protect Marriage Washington, gay-marriage opponents who forced a public vote on the state’s new domestic partnership law last November, are heading back to court to try to ban public release of the 138,000 names of people who signed Referendum 71 petitions.
Internet Vote Watch
Aug 9-10 in DC: EVT/WOTE ’10
http://digest.electionguide.org/2010/08/03/aug-9-10-in-dc-evtwote-10/
The Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections conference (EVT/WOTE ’10), will be held in Washington, DC from August 9-10. Topics will range from optical scan technology to potential vulnerabilities in internet-based voting systems.
MD: State of Maryland Will Deliver Absentee Ballots to Voters by Internet
http://media-newswire.com/release_1123583.html (blank ballots to overseas voters)
Beginning with the upcoming gubernatorial primary election in September, voters in Maryland will have a new convenient method of voting available to them.
The On Demand Ballot System, developed by the Center for American Politics and Citizenship( CAPC ) in partnership with the Maryland State Board of Elections, is a revolutionary system that will allow voters to print their official absentee ballot and mailing label from the internet.
National
Obama admin pushes back hard on right’s charge that it’s not protecting military voters http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/08/obama_admin_pushes_back_hard_o.html
Now DOJ has responded to Cornyn with a letter of its own. And it lays out the reasons why this latest attack is bogus:
* The DOJ letter points out that the waiver process is built into the MOVE law. It notes that states have the right to request a waiver if they are unable for whatever reason to meet the requirement, and that it’s the responsibility of the Department of Defense, in consultation with DOJ, to determine whether to grant those waivers.
Adams: I Never Said Holder Is Disenfranchising Troops On Purpose
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/adams_i_never_said_admin_is_disenfranchising_troop.php
Moss versus machines (Bob Fitrakis)
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6184.shtml
It is fitting on the fifth anniversary of the death of Bill Moss, lead plaintiff in the legendary Moss v. Bush 2004 lawsuit in Ohio, that the Associated Press is admitting the easy hackability of Diebold machines.
“A hacker has discovered a way to force ATMs to disgorge their cash by hijacking the computers inside them,” reads the AP lead.
…
The similarities between hacking a Diebold ATM and a Diebold/Premier election machine are startling. For example, the hacker, Barnaby Jack, director of Security Testing for Seattle based IOActive, Inc., stated, “Every ATM I’ve looked at, I’ve been able to find a flaw in. It’s a scary thing.”
Trick or treat: Rock the Vote launches voter registration drive
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/08/rock-the-vote-young-voters-/1
The group will focus its efforts on the 18-to-29-years olds who have become eligible to vote or moved since the 2008 election, Smith said. Young people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Colorado — all with high-profile elections and Rock the Vote state coordinators — will be targeted.
An End Run on the Electoral College
http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/an-end-run-on-the-electoral-college-20276/
International
Australia: Blind man fights for secret ballot (video and transcripts)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/08/03/2972633.htm
A vision-impaired man in South Australian is calling for changes so he can cast a secret ballot.
Ivory Coast: Impunity, Lack of Election, Hang Over Ivory Coast Independence Day
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Impunity-Lack-of-Election-Hang-Over-Ivory-Coast-Independence-Day-99868314.html As Ivory Coast prepares to celebrate 50 years of independence on August 7, impunity, a lack of elections, and the constant threat of political violence hangs over the divided country.
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