India: Wrong to deny voting rights to Sehajdhari Sikhs: Amarinder | Express India

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday criticised the denial of voting rights to Sehajdhari Sikhs in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) polls. Amarinder, who interacted with students outside the Punjabi University campus during the ‘Ru-baru’ (face to face) programme organised by the National Students Union of India (NSUI), said that it was “wrong” to deny Sehajdhari Sikhs voting rights in the elections.

Asked why his party does not contest SGPC polls, Amarinder said Congress was a national and secular party, which does not contest polls relating to religion. He, however, added that as a Sikh, he will oppose and vote against the Akali candidates.

Nigeria: Situating Independent National Electoral Commission’s agenda for six states | The Nation/Nigeria

Last Wednesday, Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), set in motion processes that would put the nightmare or bad memories of the worst election in the history of Nigeria completely behind her. It set election dates for five governorship elections which were nullified by the tribunals and affirmed by the appeal court, but whose occupants had gone to court to contest the tenure of their offices, following plans by the INEC to conduct elections into the offices using the amended 1999 constitution as amended and the 2010 Electoral Act. But the states won the tenure legal battle and so set the tone for the present.

And whereas everything about the 2007 general elections ought to have been permanently put behind them because of the interpretations given to the constitutional provisions dealing with tenure by the law courts, Nigerians will be battling with what ordinarily should have ended with the last April elections for those who would be going for a second term in office.

Cabo Verde: Cape Verde heads to run-off in presidential vote | AFP

The Cape Verde archipelago on Monday headed towards a run-off presidential election with its two biggest parties neck and neck in provisional results from weekend polls. With nearly all ballots counted from Sunday’s vote, former foreign minister and law professor Jorge Carlos Fonseca from the opposition Movement for Democracy (MFD) was in the lead with 37 percent, election officials said. His rival Manuel Inocencio Sousa, from the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), had 33.9 percent.

“This is an excellent result and a foretaste for victory…. I’m in the run-off, in the second half of the game, and I’m winning,” Sousa told supporters, adding he expected a “significant increase” in votes in the August 21 second round, according to local media.

The Voting News Daily: India: ‘Electronic Voting Machines used in last polls not free of all doubts’, Elections System and Software could face contempt charges in Colorado

India: ‘Electronic Voting Machines used in last polls not free of all doubts’ | The Assam Tribune Online The controversies surrounding the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) refuse to die. A group of seven legal practitioners of the Mangaldai Bar Association have disclosed some sensational information regarding EVMs collected with the help of RTI Act which will make every concerned…

India: ‘Electronic Voting Machines used in last polls not free of all doubts’ | The Assam Tribune Online

The controversies surrounding the use of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) refuse to die. A group of seven legal practitioners of the Mangaldai Bar Association have disclosed some sensational information regarding EVMs collected with the help of RTI Act which will make every concerned citizen observe that the EVMs were not free from all doubts.

According to Jayanta Deka, one senior member of the group, the election authority here did not have any certificate from the experts that the EVMs used in the last Assembly election were a tamper proof. This was revealed by the District Election Officer, Darrang following a RTI petition filed by advocate Jayanta Deka and six of hiscolleagues. In the RTI petition to the District Election Officer cum Deputy Commissioner, Darrang it was asked whether the experts from the EVM manufacturing organisations issued any certificate that the EVMs were free of tampering. In the petition the district election authority was also asked to provide a photocopy of such certificate. But the authority failed to provide any such certificate as the EVM manufacturing company had not submitted any such certificate to the election authority.

Colorado: Elections System and Software could face contempt charges | Alamosa Valley Courier

District Judge Martin Gonzales ruled Wednesday that Elections System and Software (ES&S), who failed to appear for their depositions in the Marilyn Marks v. Melinda Myers Colorado Open Records Act suit could be held in contempt of court. Denver attorney Robert McGuire, on behalf of his client, Aspen election integrity advocate Marilyn Marks filed the suit to force Saguache County Clerk Melinda Myers to turn over voting records and related documents Marks requested beginning last November. ES&S provided Saguache County with their M650 voting device and accompanying software used in the contested Nov. 2, 2010 election.

Gonzales ordered that the election firm appear in court to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for failing to appear for the scheduled depositions in June after he approved the issuance of a subpoena for the depositions. Marks later filed a motion with the court to hold ES&S in contempt unless they could show sufficient cause for refusing to honor the deposition subpoena. ES&S made no motion to file a protective order, protesting appearance on the grounds that the deposition would violate trade secrets and/or force the production of proprietary information. Nor did their attorneys move to quash the subpoena, court records show.

North Carolina: Voter ID Bill would not have stopped Wake Co. voters attempting to vote twice but current law did | Progressive Pulse

Media outlets reported Thursday that three Wake County residents were charged with voter fraud in connection with the 2008 presidential elections. The County Board of Elections noted that all three voted early and again on Election Day. The NC Republican Party used the opportunity to say this type of fraud is exactly why the state needs a photo voter ID law.

But Democracy NC says the core truth is that House Bill 351, the photo ID bill, would have done absolutely nothing to prevent the crime of attempting to vote twice. Here’s more from the good government group:

“The alleged cheaters could show an ID when they voted at the Early Voting site, and show it again a few days later when they voted at their polling site on Election Day. They voted in their own names and did not attempt to impersonate somebody else; impersonation is the only fraud H-351 really addresses.

Another truth: The current safeguards worked – none of the three successfully voted twice. Their ballots at the Early Voting sites were retrieved and not counted; the system worked, without an ID requirement! This case involves three black Democrats in the NC election Obama narrowly won; the outpouring of hostility is unfortunately predictable. More prosecutions of double voting are in the works.

Editorials: Wake County voter fraud not linked to ID | WRAL.com

The big story today was the arrests of four people in Wake Co. for voter fraud. Three are accused of having cast double ballots in 2008 – first during early one-stop voting, and then again at their local precincts on Election Day. (Two of them deny any criminal intent.) The fourth person was arrested for double-voting in 2010.

Backers of this year’s Voter ID legislation, which was vetoed by Gov. Bev Perdue – one of the few vetoes that hasn’t yet been overturned – heralded the news as proof that Perdue’s position was wrongheaded. Whether that’s true in general depends on your views on Voter ID. But in fact, the Voter ID bill supported by Republican lawmakers this year wouldn’t have prevented the double voting.

The Voter ID bill, H351, would require voters to produce a photo ID to prove they are who they say they are – if they vote on election day. But according to what we know tonight about the charges, these four voters didn’t claim to be anyone else – they voted twice under their own names, and the system didn’t catch it.

Florida: New system in Volusia County will make voters swipe their IDs | Daytona Beach News-Journal

A new voting system in Volusia County will mean less work for poll workers and more for machines — computers that can identify voters with the swipe of a driver’s license and are already common in counties across Florida, including Flagler.

“It’s not only going to save dollars, but it’s going to save possible fraud,” elections head Ann McFall said Thursday of the system on its way to Volusia: EViD, or the Electronic Voter Identification System. The new voting process, instead of requiring voters to sign in on a precinct register, will have many of them swiping their licenses like credit cards instead. “This is a real, real popular piece of equipment,” McFall said. “You’re going to see it in every one of the counties in the next five years. We were waiting for all the little chinks to be worked out of it.”

Colorado: Arapahoe County completes successful test of Web-based voter check-in | Littleton Independent

The Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder’s Office completed a “stress test” Aug. 3 to determine the viability of using a web-based voter check-in system in the 2011 Coordinated Election. The goal of the test was to determine whether the county would be able to successfully connect to SCORE, the Colorado Secretary of State’s web-based pollbook of all registered voters, from 17 Vote Center locations on Election Day, Nov. 1, 2011.

“The stress test simulated an Election Day scenario, with a large number of voters being artificially checked in at our 17 vote center locations at once in order to place strain on the SCORE server and our network connections,” said Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty. “Our systems handled the volume beautifully with no major issues with connectivity or download speeds. We plan to move ahead using the web-based pollbook starting this year, instead of the inches-thick paper pollbooks we have used for decades.”

Washington: Voting by mail fails to increase turnout in King County | Seattle Times

When King County shifted to an all-mail voting system in 2009, it was supposed to increase voter participation. A progress report published Thursday makes the tentative conclusion that it hasn’t.

“It is interesting to note that voting by mail appears to have made no difference in election turnout,” wrote Mike Alvine, the report’s author and an analyst for the Metropolitan King County Council. Turnout was about the same — about 53 percent — in two comparable general elections, one before and one after the county implemented vote-by-mail.

Voting Blogs: Florida’s “hacktivism” controversy and its lessons for the election community | PEEA

Recently, the Miami Herald ran a story about the boasts of a hacker named Abhaxas that he had twice compromised Florida’s election systems by gaining access to servers with sensitive data. State and local election officials – and their vendors – vehemently denied the hacker’s claims and insisted that their systems (and the personally-identifiable voter data on them) remained insecure.

That didn’t stop what the Herald called “major geek news clearinghouses” like Gizmodo and Slashdot from publicizing news of the alleged hack, leading to lots of “here we go again” in the comments.

Even more importantly, the hacker appears to have taken the public denials of harm as a challenge – and has invited others to do the same. Last week, he tweeted the location of the vendor’s server, saying it had a “hack me” sign on it and noting “hack one, have access to all”.

Zambia: 2011 headed for a record number of presidential candidates for Zambia | Lusaka Times

The high success rate of filling in of nominations by different political parties point to a record number of presidential candidates in this year’s elections. The last highest number of presidential candidates was in 2001 which saw eleven candidates fight it out for plot one.

9 presidential candidates have successfully filed in for the race to plot one ahead of the 20th September elections. Only with the failure by Dr Cosmo Mumba’s NRP to participate in the presidential elections, and the withdraw by the ZDDM, the expected number of presidential candidates now stands at 15, from the total of seventeen who had shown interest to vie for the highest office in the country.

UAE: Federal National Council election process ahead of schedule says Gargash | Zawya

The preparations for the Federal National Council (FNC) elections, including the arrangements at polling stations and the fine tuning of the electronic voting system, are going on ahead of the schedule. This was stated by Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and FNC Affairs and Chairman of the National Election Committee (NEC), while addressing a preparatory meeting. Dr Gargash affirmed that the new FNC’s first session will start in the third week of October.

The National Election Committee (NEC) discussed the preparations of the Election Management Committee for the Federal National Council elections at the meeting chaired by Dr Gargash. He said, “After the list of candidates is announced, they can start campaigning within the regulations prescribed by the NEC.” It is not allowed to use public places for the campaign and no comments on other candidates will be tolerated, he asserted.

The Voting News Daily: Creating a Spectacle — ballot mess causes mob-like atmosphere in Mississippi, New Florida election law approved – except for most controversial portions

Mississippi: Creating a Spectacle — ballot mess causes mob-like atmosphere | Jackson Free Press At 7:05 a.m. Aug. 2, Republican Executive Committee Chairman Pete Perry received an urgent call from a poll worker at the Wynndale Precinct in Terry. The poll worker told him that candidates’ names for certain races were not appearing on some…

Mississippi: Creating a Spectacle – ballot mess causes mob-like atmosphere | Jackson Free Press

At 7:05 a.m. Aug. 2, Republican Executive Committee Chairman Pete Perry received an urgent call from a poll worker at the Wynndale Precinct in Terry. The poll worker told him that candidates’ names for certain races were not appearing on some of the electronic voting machines, and he needed more paper ballots quickly.

This was the first sign that something was awry in the Hinds County election process. Gay Polk, candidate for Democratic state representative of District 73, also received phone calls from supporters saying they could not find her name on the paper ballots or on voting machines.

Perry says that a technician must determine the cause of the computer glitches. But handing voters the wrong ballots isn’t uncommon at split precincts like Wynndale. A split precinct is where two different legislators represent its residents. Poll workers must verify the voter’s precinct, and make sure the machine displays the correct ballot or give the voter a correct paper ballot.

Florida: New election law approved – except for most controversial portions | OrlandoSentinel.com

Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning announced Tuesday that the Obama administration had cleared 76 changes to state election law that the GOP-led Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott approved earlier this year.

But the “pre-clearance” from the U.S. Department of Justice doesn’t cover the four most controversial parts of the law. Last month, Browning asked a federal court in Washington D.C. to approve those changes, saying he didn’t think they’d get a “fair hearing” from Justice. The changes include reducing the number of days voters will have for early voting and new restrictions on third-party voter registration groups.

Massachusetts: Mansfield Selectman wants to put voter ID on ballot | The Sun Chronicle Online

Mansfield Selectman Olivier Kozlowski wants voters to make the same effort to prove their identity when they go to the polls as they do at the airport or the checkout line. The attorney and first-term selectman has filed a statewide ballot initiative that would require every Massachusetts voter to bring government-issued photo identification with them when they head to the polls.

“In this day and age, you look at everything you need to show an ID for – everything from renting a car to getting on a plane,” Kozlowski said Wednesday. “We as a society have become accustomed to that. And something as important as voting, you have a right to say: ‘Are you really the person you claim to be?'”

Considered a common-sense precaution against fraud by supporters and an attempt to suppress low-income and minority turnout by opponents, voter identification laws have been debated and approved in several states this year.

Oklahoma: Costly city-run elections feared | Tulsa World

City councilors were told Tuesday that voter approval this fall of an initiative petition ballot question for nonpartisan races would be “extremely” costly for Tulsans because it would force the city to conduct some of the elections on its own. The nonprofit group Save Our Tulsa successfully petitioned to have voters decide Nov. 8 three questions that could make changes to the city’s form of government.

A question addressing the nonpartisan races calls for both the primary and runoff races to be held during months in which, by state law, the Tulsa County Election Board does not hold elections, Assistant City Attorney Patrick Boulden said. “It is obviously in conflict with state law and would mean the city of Tulsa would have to conduct the election in September and the Election Board would not participate,” he said.

Colorado: Weld County awaits federal decision on providing bilingual voting materials | Greeley Tribune

As the 2011 election season nears, Weld County is among 16 counties in Colorado that are waiting to find out whether they will be required to provide election materials in Spanish in November. The U.S. Department of Justice will hand down the decision in the next month, and county clerks will have to comply with the guidelines under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act.

The 1973 Voting Rights Act states that areas with large Latino, Asian, American Indian and Alaskan populations provide voting materials in languages spoken by these minorities. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, that requirement affects counties in which more than 5 percent of voting-age residents are members of a single minority language group, provided that group also has depressed literacy rates. This data is determined by the most recent census.

South Carolina: Audit shows Richland, Colleton Counties had most 2010 ballot problems | TheState.com

State election officials have finished a county-by-county review of the November 2010 vote, concluding that Richland County was one of the biggest offenders in miscounting those general-election ballots.

The eight-month auditing process determined that “human error” was the culprit in mistakes made in “a number of counties” across South Carolina, said Chris Whitmire, assistant director of the S.C. Election Commission. The discrepancies would not have changed the outcome of any race or issue, Whitmire said.

Conducting the audit forced state officials to develop a new computer program that counties can use to identify specific problems in data collection from the touchscreen machines. The state has been using the machines for six years. “We think future elections are going to be better because of it,” Whitmire said.

Northern Mariana Islands: Man’amko preview AutoMARK disability-friendly voting machine | Saipan Tribune

Congregates at the Aging Center will now be able to use the new voting machine of the Commonwealth Election Commission when casting their votes in next year’s election. Executive director Robert A. Guerrero of the Election Commission, Raymond Diaz of the Council on Developmental Disabilities, and Thomas J. Camacho of the Disability Policy & Programs Office were at the center yesterday to conduct a presentation on how to use the AutoMARK accessible voting machine.

“The new voting machine is going to be available in the next election,” Diaz told his audience composed of about 60 man’amko and 20 caregivers of the center’s homebound clients. Diaz said the machine allows voters who have disabilities to cast their votes using any part of their body instead of the traditional way of voting by pen and paper.

Afghanistan: Karzai Annuls Afghan Court Reviewing 2010 Polls | NYTimes.com

In a startling reversal on Wednesday, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan annulled a special court that he had set up to review the results of the 2010 parliamentary elections.

The decision, which came after months of pressure from Western diplomats, reaffirms the authority of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, which finalized the results of the election last November only to have its authority undermined by the creation of the special court. It was also an acknowledgement that President Karzai’s effort to change the makeup of the new parliament through the court was hurting his administration more than helping it.

Afghanistan: Afghan president: Courts cannot change election

Afghanistan’s president issued a decree Wednesday stating that the country’s courts do not have the power to alter election results, appearing to bow to pressure to resolve an impasse over the parliament’s legitimacy that threatened to create a constitutional crisis.

The Afghan parliament has been in limbo after a special court in June called for the removal of 62 sitting lawmakers, saying they won their seats through fraud. The dispute hamstrung the country’s already tumultuous political system, with the courts, the president and legislature all claiming the right to make the final ruling about last year’s messy elections.

Afghanistan’s September 2010 ballot was plagued by irregularities and voter intimidation. Fraud monitors discarded 1.3 million ballots — nearly a quarter of the total — for fraud, and disqualified 19 winning candidates for cheating.

India: Maharashtra governor calls for online voting | Mumbai DNA

The state governor, K Sankaranarayanan, has advocated major electoral reforms in the form of introduction of online voting system in elections. He was speaking at the launch of the official website of the state election commission at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (Yashada), in Pune on Tuesday.

“If we can have online banking, why can’t we have online voting?’’ he asked, making a strong plea for the educated to be involved in the process of elections and the political system at large. “There is a general feeling that the political process is too corrupt to be involved in. It is wrong to blame politicians for all ills in society,’’ he said.

Ghana: Biometric voter registrarion without verification is a meaningless exercise | Ghana Online

Ghana is almost certainly gearing towards a revision of our voters’ registration and the Electoral Commission has been mandated and resourced to introduce biometric registration in the last quarter of the year. The fact that our current voters’ register has outlived its usefulness is well known and agreed upon by many political analysts. The fact also that the government has allocated GHS50 million to the Electoral Commission to implement biometric registration is equally known.

What is however uncertain is the kind of biometric technology the Electoral Commission is going to deploy and whether the biometric register that will be created will be able to stop multiple voting. Biometric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by the evaluation of a biological trait such as fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA or signatures.

Ireland: Sinn Féin urges presidential voting rights for North | The Irish Times

Sinn Féin has called for voting rights in the presidential election to be extended to Irish citizens in Northern Ireland. In a protest outside Leinster House yesterday, members of Ógra Shinn Féin wore the county jerseys of Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone with a gag covering their mouths to indicate the lack of voting rights for those in the North.

The party is expected to introduce a Private Members’ motion in the Dáil in the autumn on the issue. Sinn Féin education spokesman Seán Crowe said the extension of voting rights was “a natural outworking of the Good Friday agreement, which enshrines the rights of people in the North to Irish citizenship”.

UAE: National Election Committee underlines broad participation in Federal National Council election | Khaleej Times

The National Election Committee (NEC) discussed the preparations of the Election Management Committee for the Federal National Council elections at the 7th committee meeting chaired by Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs and Chairman of the NEC.

The Committee discussed several aspects including the preparations for polling stations, the electronic voting system, and the registration of candidates to be held from August 14 to 17. Members of NEC, the Election Management Committee, chief editors of local newspapers and columnists attended the meeting.

Philippines: Filipino declared senator after 4-year recount | Taiwan News Online

A Philippine candidate for Senate has been declared the winner of a contested seat more than four years after the election.

Aquilino Pimentel III had been locked in a recount battle since 2007, when he lost the mid-term senatorial race to rival Juan Miguel Zubiri. He filed a fraud protest after the results, citing witness statements that fake ballots were used to favor allies of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Voting News Daily: Democrats Remove Vote Tampering Allegations in Recall Election, Hinds County Democrats close vote certification meeting

Wisconsin: Democrats Remove Vote Tampering Allegations in Recall Election | Fox Point-Bayside, WI Patch The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has pulled a news release from its website that alleges vote tampering in Waukesha County by the county clerk. The party chairman, Mike Tate, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that they would not“not pursue questions of irregularities” that was…