The Voting News Daily: Missouri Considers Tigheter Thresholds for Recounts, New President of Hart, Provisional Ballots Controvery in Ohio

CA: Report Finds Ranked Choice Voting Causes Confusion, Fatigue In SF’s District 10: News: SFAppeal

Ranked choice voting, otherwise known as instant run-off, has been used in San Francisco elections since 2004. This past November’s elections marked the first time it was used in Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro. California Watch analyzed the voting data from this district, which includes both Bayview/Hunters Point Housing Projects and middle class homes in Potrero, and came to the conclusion that RCV causes voter fatigue and confusion in especially low-income neighborhoods. Read More

IN: Bill would allow vote centers in all Indiana counties » Evansville Courier & Press

Every Indiana county could ditch neighborhood polling precincts in favor of centralized “vote centers” under legislation the Senate Elections Committee endorsed Monday. If Senate Bill 32 becomes law, it would extend the use of centralized polling places in Tippecanoe, Wayne and Cass counties, which have piloted the use of vote centers since 2007, while giving the state’s other 89 counties the same option. Read More

MO: Missouri bill would tighten threshold for election recounts – Columbia Missourian

A Missouri lawmaker has proposed legislation requiring that elections be closer to tied before the loser can request a recount. Currently candidates for public office in the state can request a recount if they lose by less than 1 percent of the total vote. The proposed legislation would lower that to one-half of 1 percent. Sponsoring Rep. Tony Dugger said Tuesday that recounts generally have little effect on election outcomes, and he is concerned about how much they cost local officials. Dugger, the House Elections Committee chairman and a former county clerk, said that local election authorities suggested the legislation. “There’s no change normally after you have a recount, and so, it’s all associated with the cost of doing the recount,” said Dugger, R-Hartville. It was unclear how much money could be saved by lowering the threshold for requesting recounts. Read More

NJ: New Jersey drops required poll-worker training for mechanics following Atlantic County complaint – pressofAtlanticCity.com: Atlantic County News

The state has dropped its requirement that voting-machine mechanics undergo poll-worker training, following a complaint from Atlantic County that the requirement is an unfunded mandate. The state Council on Local Mandates made its announcement Friday, following a complaint from Atlantic County that the requirement is an unfunded mandate. The order said that the council will consider whether the requirement — which states that “any individual whose job duties encompass access to the internal components of a voting machine is mandated to attend training” — is in fact an unfunded mandate, as Atlantic County argued in its complaint. Read More

NM: Legal Issue May Alter Absentee Voting – ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO:

Thousands of voters will now have to pick up the phone or turn on their computer to request an absentee-ballot application. Citing legal concerns, the Bernalillo County clerk and some other county clerks around the state will no longer send the applications out automatically before every election. About 6,000 voters in Bernalillo County were on the list to receive the applications automatically, County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver said.

The Voting News Daily: Indiana Senate takes step toward vote center approval; new Kentucky SoS named; voter ID debated

We at Verified Voting extend our thoughts and prayers to the victims of the tragedy in Arizona and their loved ones.

Tonight’s edition includes an important story about the Department of Labor’s new guidelines for electronic voting in union elections; several editorials on the question of voter ID [Editor’s Note: the editorials on voter ID in tonight’s edition express the same general point of view; please note that we include editorials expressing diverse points of view as they appear]; and news regarding Kentucky’s new Secretary of State.

CA: Report: Ranked Choice Voting Causes Confusion, Fatigue In SF’s District 10: News: SFAppeal

Ranked choice voting, otherwise known as instant run-off, has been used in San Francisco elections since 2004. This past November’s elections marked the first time it was used in Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro. Read More

CT: Our View: A Better Way to Vote?

In the aftermath of November’s election, with a ballot shortage snafu in Bridgeport that delaying naming a new governor for days, newly elected Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill has started a discussion about how the voting process can be improved. Read More

CT: Special elections mean more expenses, more rhetoric – Connecticut Post

If you thought you had your fill of political elections, think again.

Nine more are slated for March involving 18 municipalities. And if incumbents from other offices seek to elevate their political standing, there will be another round of special elections in May. Read More

IL: Chicago military first to receive municipal election ballots

United States Armed Forces members from Chicago serving around the world were the first to receive ballots on Saturday for the upcoming municipal general election, the Chicago Election Board announced. Read More

IN: Senate Takes Step Toward Authorizing “Vote Centers” Statewide | Indy’s News Center – 93.1 WIBC Indianapolis – Live. Local. First.

The Senate Elections Committee voted unanimously Monday to give all counties the vote-center option if local election boards give unanimous approval.

Former Secretary of State Todd Rokita spearheaded the push to test the concept in Cass, Tippecanoe and Wayne Counties. Those counties say they believe discarding multiple precincts in favor of a handful of centralized locations has improved turnout and polling-place accessibility. Read More

KY: Kentucky to Receive New Secretary of State

Governor Steve Beshear has announced that Grayson would be replaced by Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker. According to Beshear, Walker will take the position for the final eleven months of Grayson’s term and then file to run in the next election for a regular term as Secretary of State. Read More

LA: Federal approval of Louisiana open primaries expected within a month | NOLA.com

Louisiana is still waiting for federal approval to return to open primaries in the state’s congressional and U.S. Senate elections beginning in 2012, though aides to Attorney General Buddy Caldwell say they do not believe the delay suggests the U.S. Department of Justice will reject the request. Read More

MD: Military Spouses Get Residency Relief – Odenton, MD Patch

Now, spouses of active duty military can choose to change their state of residency for taxes and other purposes like voting and car registration.

Montana: Supreme Court upholds state ban on corporation spending | Billings Gazette

The Montana Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court’s ruling and reinstated the state’s century-old ban on direct spending by corporations for or against political candidates. The justices ruled 5-2 in favor of the state attorney general’s office and commissioner of political practices to uphold the initiative passed by Montana voters in 1912.

Western Tradition Partnership, a conservative political group now known as American Tradition Partnership, joined by Champion Painting Inc., and the Montana Shooting Sports Association Inc., had challenged the Montana ban after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The U.S. Supreme Court decision granted political speech rights to corporations.

Editorials: A Common Sense Solution to Defective Voting | Lawrence Norden/The Hill Blog

In a week, millions of Americans will exercise their most important civil right – the right to vote. But as surely as some campaigns will end in a deluge of confetti and others in popped balloons, there will also be problems with vote tallies. Some votes will be counted more than once, some votes will be counted not at all, and some votes will appear as if by magic. This state of affairs is not caused by corruption. It is caused by malfunctioning voting machines. Since 2002, federal, state and local governments have spent billions on electronic voting systems. These systems are complex, consisting of tens of thousands of lines of computer code. And when, as is inevitable, some machines malfunction on the first Tuesday in November, it is election officials who will be asked to explain. They will struggle to cope with these problems while under enormous pressure to produce timely and accurate results. One would think that information about voting machine malfunctions would be just as open as the democracy for which, they are, quite literally the linchpin. Instead, defects or failures in voting machines are treated as secrets. For the most part, voting system manufacturers are under no obligation to publicly report malfunctions to a central authority. Officials in each of the nation’s approximately 4,700 election jurisdictions are left to fend for themselves.

National: Schumer Applauds Justice Department for Requiring ES&S to Sell Off Voting Machine Unit Purchased from Diebold

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, chairman of the Senate committee that oversees election issues, today applauded the Department of Justice’s decision to require Election Systems & Software to sell off the voting systems unit it purchased from Diebold last November. The consent decree in this case lasts for ten years, ensuring that competition is protected in the voting system industry. Schumer raised serious questions about the merger of ES&S Inc. and Premier Election Systems when it was first revealed in September 2009, because it created one company that would control at least 70 percent of the U.S. market for voting systems. The merger had been completed without any advance notice or consultation with the Justice Department.

“This decision will restore competition to an industry that is critical to our democracy. If left unchallenged, this merger would have created a virtual monopoly that could have done serious harm to the idea of free and fair elections,” Schumer said. “This action will prevent one company from garnering three times the market of its next closest competitor. Localities need choices in their voting machines, just like voters need choices on the ballot.”

National: Feds Move to Break Voting-Machine Monopoly | Wired

Citing anti-competitive concerns, the Justice Department sued Election Systems & Software in order to force the company to divest itself of the voting machine assets it obtained from Premier Election Solutions last year. The department’s antitrust division, along with nine state attorneys general, filed the civil antitrust lawsuit (.pdf) in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., charging that the acquisition threatened competition. The department proposed a settlement that, if accepted, would dissolve the merger and force ES&S to sell its Premier business to a buyer approved by the Justice Department. “The proposed settlement (.pdf) will restore competition, provide a greater range of choices and create incentives to provide secure, accurate and reliable voting-equipment systems now and in the future,” said Molly S. Boast, deputy assistant attorney general for the antitrust division in a statement. The nine states that joined the suit are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington.

Florida: Groups and Election Officials Warn Department of Justice that Voting Machine Vendor Merger will Inflate Costs to Taxpayers, Threaten Election Accuracy and National Security

Experts propose remedies to prevent U.S. monopoly of Voting Equipment and Election Services

In a letter to Attorney General Holder, election administrators, computer experts and fair election advocates warned that last year’s merger of the largest and second largest voting machine manufacturers has “broad-based detrimental public impact.”  They outlined serious threats to national security and election accuracy. The experts cautioned the merger produces greater capacity for predatory pricing and coercive contractual terms that raise costs to taxpayers and harm other commercial vendors. The letter suggests actions the Department of Justice Antitrust Division should take to correct major market injuries and fortify election and national security.

In September 2009, Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S) announced it had purchased Premier Election Solutions, Inc. (formerly known as Diebold Election Systems, Inc.), consolidating over 70% of the U.S. voting system market into one private company.  In December, the Florida Attorney General announced its office was investigating the merger over concerns it constituted anti-competitive behavior that may seriously harm consumers. In their letter, experts cite a record of anti-competitive market practices by ES&S that include contract clauses which prohibit ES&S governmental customers from hiring other vendors to service, program or administer ES&S voting equipment and predatory pricing of goods and services to drive other vendors out of business. They claim taxpayers and election offices have been harmed by Election Eve threats to cut off services if local governments did not accept higher prices for previously contracted Election Day services.

Editorials: Internet Voting, Still in Beta | New York Times

Internet voting is in its infancy, and still far too unreliable, but states are starting to allow it and the trend is accelerating because of a new federal law that requires greater efforts to help military and other overseas voters cast ballots. Men and women in uniform must have a fair opportunity to vote, but allowing online voting in its current state could open elections up to vote theft and other mischief. It is often hard for military voters to get ballots, and because of distance and unreliable mail service, it can be difficult or impossible for them to meet election deadlines. A year ago, the Pew Center on the States found that more than one-third of states do not provide military voters stationed abroad with enough time to vote, or are at high risk of not providing enough time. To address this problem, the new Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act requires states in most cases to get ballots to military and overseas voters well in advance of regularly scheduled federal elections.

Maryland: Maryland Needs Secure, Verifiable Voting System | Gazette.net

The state of Maryland will be making a foolish choice if it decides to renege on its promise to replace our risky paperless touchscreen voting machines with a paper ballot, optical-scan voting system. The new voting system, with just one-fifth the equipment of the old one, would be much cheaper to operate and maintain. It would reinstill voter confidence by finally putting in place a safe, reliable voting system that records the votes as voters intended, and allows recounts to be conducted in close races. Maryland voters overwhelmingly favor a paper record of their votes and the transition to the new system is mandated by a law that passed the General Assembly unanimously in 2007. After years of debate and reams of data from computer security experts exposing a vast number of security vulnerabilities in touchscreen voting, as well as information from other states about the cost benefits of transitioning to optical scan voting, it appears that a well orchestrated effort has resurfaced at the 11th hour to mislead the Board of Public Works and others about the true costs of purchasing the new system versus the cost of trying to keep the old system on life support.

Voting Blogs: OSDV Responds to FCC Inquiry about Internet Voting | OSDV

The OSDV Foundation and TrustTheVote Project are pleased to have an opportunity to provide comment on an increasingly vital aspect of broadband in the United States: its use in civic participation and the processes of democracy.  We encourage the Commission to develop a comprehensive national broadband plan that particularly includes a plan for the use of broadband infrastructure and services to advance civic participation. To the extent this Plan includes consideration of broadband infrastructure for election processes and services, we advise careful consideration of what the architecture for a broadband‐based voting system should look like and call upon experts and stakeholders to facilitate that understanding.

Clearly the digital age and increasingly mobile society can benefit from digital means for such civic participation services. However, the extent to which the challenges discussed herein can be adequately addressed remains unclear. However, any such Plan should consider the possibility that broadband infrastructure may be called upon in the future to support and sustain elections services in some capacity, whether strictly for back‐office functions or all the way out to ballot casting and counting services. We do not recommend reliance on home or personal broadband connected digital devices for citizen‐facing voting services for the foreseeable future or until such time as the challenges discussed herein are resolved to the satisfaction of the public.

Editorials: Tennessee Voters Need Confidence in the Electoral Process | The Tennessean

The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act requires replacement of paperless touchscreen voting machines with optical ballot scanners by November 2010. Optical-scan voting systems read marked paper ballots and tally results, providing a tangible record of the voter's intent. They are now the most widely employed voting systems in the nation, used by 60 percent of voters in other states. The act was adopted nearly unanimously by the Tennessee legislature — by both Democrats and Republicans — and in 2008 enthusiastically signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen. But implementation of the law has been ensnared in legalities and technicalities. Tennessee's secretary of state and coordinator of elections have argued that the new law requires scanners be federally certified to 2005 standards, and because no machines have yet been certified to that standard, the law cannot be put into effect in time for 2010 elections.

National: Microsoft reports hundreds of election-related cyber probes | Associated Press

Tech giant Microsoft says it has detected more than 740 infiltration attempts by nation-state actors in the past year targeting U.S.-based political parties, campaigns and other democracy-focused organizations including think tanks and other nonprofits. However a company spokeswoman would not name or further characterize the targets. All of them subscribe to Microsoft's year-old AccountGuard service, which provides free cyberthreat detection to candidates, campaigns and other mostly election-related groups. Microsoft did not say how many infiltration attempts were successful but noted in a blog post Wednesday that such targeting similarly occurred in the early stages of the 2016 and 2018 elections. "Cyberattacks continue to be a significant tool and weapon wielded in cyberspace," Microsoft said. "In some instances, those attacks appear to be related to ongoing efforts to attack the democratic process. A year ago, Microsoft said it had detected attempts to infiltrate the networks of U.S. senatorial candidates and think tanks. "As we head into the 2020 elections, given both the broad reliance on cyberattacks by nation-states and the use of cyberattacks to specifically target democratic processes, we anticipate that we will see attacks targeting U.S. election systems, political campaigns or NGOs that work closely with campaigns," Microsoft said.