Verified Voting Blog: Enfranchising Military Voters: Michigan Legislators Protect Verifiable, Secret Ballots

In a move to enfranchise soldiers deployed overseas, the Michigan House of Representatives has passed legislation that would allow blank absentee ballots to voters overseas by fax or e-mail. If House Bill 5279 passes the Senate and becomes law, local election officials will be able to send and receive applications for absentee ballots via fax or e-mail, and also be able to send blank absentee ballots to voters electronically. Voters will then print, mark and send the completed physical ballots to their local Michigan election officials. H5279 passed the House unanimously on November 5. Senate committee action is likely in December, according to Emily Carney, an aide to Senate Campaign and Election Oversight Committee chair Sen. Susan McManus.

House Bill 5279 implements a central recommendation of the Pew Center on the States's January 2009 report "No Time to Vote". The Pew report stated that Michigan currently does not allow overseas and military voters sufficient time to vote because ballots have to be sent and received via postal mail. The Pew Center recommended that Michigan allow election officials to e-mail blank absentee ballots to overseas and military voters, and accept completed ballots beyond the current election-day deadline.

Verified Voting Blog: Email Ballots – A Threat to the Security and Privacy of the Military Vote

Last week  the state Massachusetts, intending to improve military voters access to the ballot while serving overseas, approved a law which throws the integrity and security of those ballots into question by allowing their return by email. The original bill contained excellent provisions which would have helped solve one of the biggest problems facing overseas military personnel - timely receipt of absentee ballots. Currently, absentee ballots are sent by conventional mail, which can take two weeks to reach military voters. The problem is further exacerbated when soldiers are deployed in the field where they may not receive mail for long periods of time.

In its original form, the Massachusetts bill allowed military only to acquire an absentee ballot online. The downloaded blank ballot could then be printed, voted on and sent back, greatly enhancing the availability of ballots. But, in an ill conceived last minute addition, the bill was modified to also allow return of voted ballots by email. In terms of voter privacy and ballot security, email return of ballots is one of the worst choices and should never have been inserted in the bill let alone been approved. It's not like the data wasn't available. All lawmakers needed to do was consult a 2008 NIST research document which lays out the problems with email return of ballots in gruesome detail.

The Voting News Daily: Sarasota voting machine blues, Lackawanna GOP distrust machines, Virginia laws need overhaul

The Herald Tribune says Sarasota Florida new voting-machine problems must be remedied, and statistically significant audits should be implemented state wide…Did you think the ballot you cast in the 2008 election was secret? Think again if you live in Hawaii…Three Indiana county precinct election results flipped….
Northern Kentucky set to get new scanning machines, why isn’t Tennessee?…In Michigan, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal members protest private election recount…Ohio lawmakers are considering electronic voter registration in addition to regular methods…. Lackawanna PA GoP party disappointed that recount of 51,000 Nov 3 will be done by ES&S machine, not hand…

Branchville South Carolina town council election results thrown out – election change wasn’t pre-cleared with DOJ…Virginia’s election laws need to undergo a major overhaul says the ACLU of Virginia after operating an Election Day hotline… Washingtonians tire of watching elections drag on and show new interest in requiring ballots returned by Election Day…
…The Supreme Court might announce Citizens United this week…
…India’s electronic voting machines impresses Clinton…Kosovo Votes in First Election

All of this and more in todays voting news below….

CA: CA to Provide Precinct-Level Data
elections, standards, open source, berkeley, friends, research, policy, usability Add comments Today, UC Berkeley Professors Philip Stark, Jasjeet Sekhon and Henry Brady, along with me, sent the California Secretary of State a brief comment about her effort to provide precinct-level elections data for all 58 California counties.
http://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/2009/11/16/cappldp

CA: Mail-Only Elections Are Likely Here to Stay in Santa Barbara
Decision not final but city officials tout turnout, price and trends as reasons to continue.
…
Some common issues with the ballots this year were people forgetting to sign their ballot envelopes or signatures that didn’t match voter registration papers. Up until Election Day, city staff mailed letters to or called local residents to try to fix the issues before it was too late.
http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/article/111509_
santa_barbara_vote_by_mail_elections/
or use this http://twi.cc/P5MJ

CT: OUR VIEW: A tale of two elections
…this recount is a reminder of what a miracle our election process is — voters choosing freely, poll officials determining the results honestly, winners peacefully taking office, while defeated incumbents quietly step down.
http://www.bristolpress.com/articles/2009/11/13/
opinion/doc4afe1580f086e652453892.txt
or use this http://twi.cc/EHDD

CT: In Monroe, Southbury and Washington
Election Audit Plans Detailed
11/14/2009 HARTFORD – According to a Tuesday, November 10, press release from Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, 60 of 597 voting precincts will have ballots hand counted and matched against machine totals to ensure the integrity of voting.

As required by Public Act 07-194, An Act Concerning the Integrity and Security of the Voting Process, 10 percent of the polling precincts used in the election are subject to an audit.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20388023&BRD=1380&PAG=461&dept_id=157525&rfi=6

CT: Morehead alleges voter fraud (absentee ballot)
Ward 22 alderman to accuse opponent of tampering with absentee ballots
November 10, 2009 Ward 22 Alderman-elect Greg Morehead is expected to file a complaint with the state government today accusing one of his opponents in last Tuesday’s election of voter fraud
…
Morehead said he has received statements from two New Haven senior citizens, both of whom he said approached him with concerns about their absentee votes.

Verified Voting Blog: Comments on the California Secretary of State’s Precinct Level Data Pilot Project

Thank you for inviting comments on your Precinct Level Data Pilot Project, which seeks to provide precinct-level vote tabulation data to the public. We applaud Secretary Bowen’s pilot program. Timely precinct-level election results from California counties are crucial for establishing the integrity of California’s elections, for supporting analyses of election results and for designing and conducting post-election vote-tabulation audits. We have examined the sample data from the four counties—Orange County, Sacramento County, San Francisco County and San Luis Obispo County—that provided data for the Pilot Project.[1. See: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2009-special/precinct-data/index.htm] We submit these comments in the hope that you find them helpful as the Pilot Project goes forward.

The Voting News Daily: Did Hoffman Win NY-23? Dominion scanner issues, Lancaster VA multiple machine malfunction

A ‘Post-Racial’ America? Not yet….On the law surrounding lines at polling places…Pay to play in New Jersey ?…Ex-first selectman has lawyer probe Middlebury CT voting, machine malfunction and some ballots photocopied…They don’t float: Clark County Indiana found out the hard way that if you store voting machines in a basement they may get water damage, we saw this happen in Gaston County NC after the 2004 election…. Meaningless recounts held in Carroll County Georgia and New Brunswick New Jersey on paperless e-voting machines, why even bother?…Post election audits in New York next week…

Did Hoffman Win NY-23? Does It Matter If He Did?…Hand counts needed in three Lancaster County Virginia precincts after multiple Diebold OS machines malfunctioned…
Oregon voters increasingly none-of-the-above…A handful of machines in Lewis, Seneca and Schuyler County New York froze due to memory problems…Pierce Council still hearts polling places, state’s last holdout for poll-site voting…Denmark Strips Away the Right to Privacy from Blind Voters…

All that and more in today’s voting news below…

CA: “Assessing California’s Hybrid Democracy”
…One lesson of this decade is that the devices of direct democracy remain too blunt and expensive as tools for anything but interstitial governance. From 2002 through 2008 voters were asked to approve 63 ballot measures – 43 voter initiatives and 20 ballot measures proposed by the legislature…Despite this flurry of activity, California’s governance appeared in shambles for much of the decade, http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014754.html

CT: Ex-first selectman has lawyer probe Middlebury voting *
MIDDLEBURY — Former First Selectman Edward B. St. John has hired an attorney to investigate ballot irregularities in the Nov. 3 election.

Dennis M. Buckley, a Waterbury-based attorney, is reviewing documents filed by poll workers and election officials for St. John.

St. John, who ran as a write-in candidate, raised concerns immediately following the election after he learned one of the voting machines had broken down Tuesday evening, forcing poll workers to switch to a separate machine to count the remaining ballots. Some of the ballots had been photocopied because election officials believed they had run out of the official ballots. It was later revealed that officials had more than 1,000 unused ballots locked in the registrar of voters’ office.
http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2009/11/12/news/local/449082.txt

GA: Recount confirms Rick Ford’s victory (recount by memory card-not a real recount)
Election Supervisor Patti Brown-Traylor and members of the Carroll County Board of Elections held a recount Tuesday because Ford’s margin of victory was less than 1 percent. The recount consisted of again running through the votes on computer memory cards from election night, as well as the early voting memory card ballots that were cast in the Office of Elections and Registration.
http://www.times-georgian.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Recount+confirms+Rick+Ford-s+victory%20&id=4430999-Recount+confirms+Rick+Ford-s+victory&instance=west_ga_news

MD: Cryptographic voting debuts
November 13, 2009
http://www.physorg.com/news177324972.html

IN: Clark County Commissioners: More costs pour in for Clark County
Replacing voting machines and shortfall from workers’ compensation pinch thin wallet
…Voting machines stored in the basement of the Clark County Government Building received water damage and the equipment will need to be fixed or replaced before the next election in May.

The Voting News Daily: Georgia Court: E-vote at your own risk, some NY votes up in air, Diebold miscount in Santa Barbara

Internet voting whack-a-mole and its inherent security risks and privacy loss – done on the backs of our troops: National voter groups urge MA Gov Deval Patrick to ask Legislature to remove dangerous e-mail voting provision from veterans bill, a Michigan bill would have military vote by email….Aspen CO seeks dismissal of suit for ballot images of May election…How To NOT Instill Confidence In Election Integrity (in Connecticut)…Georgia Court: E-Vote at Your Own Risk… Coin Toss Decides Whitsett NC Town Council Race…Activist security concerns – “New York counties don’t have the money to secure the ballots or verify the scanners.”…Port Chester NY’s new election system confusing…Ohio Ballot Access Bill Advances…GOP 1, TVCA 0 …Misplaced election reform priorities in Washington?…Verified Voting’s national newsletter is available online now!…

All this and more in today’s voting news below…

AL: Calera finally has six new council members
November 10, 2009. More than a year after voters originally headed to the polls, Calera has six new council members.
…
City officials submitted a new voting plan in July that called for six at-large council seats instead of the five districts used in the 2008 election.

Justice Department officials approved the new plan in September. The plan “reflects a good faith effort to effectively remedy the concerns raised in our objection,” according to a letter that Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general, sent to the city’s attorneys.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/11/calera_finally_has_six_new_cou.html

CA: Recount Called for City Election * Voting Machine Malfunctioned
(Premier/Diebold Accu-Vote ES 2000 and ES&S Automark)
November 11, 2009
Santa Barbara City election officials will be conducting a complete recount of all ballots cast in last week’s election, because one of the vote-counting machines failed to adequately count all the votes cast on the “B” side of the ballot.
…
it could affect the final outcomes of the city council races as well as Measures D and E.
…
The discrepancy in ballots counted is in the range of five percent to 15 percent. After counting 800 ballots by hand, city election officials concluded there was a problem…
http://www.independent.com/news/2009/nov/11/recount-called-city-election/

CO: City seeks dismissal of Marks suit (city does not want to release ballot images)
November 12, 2009 The city of Aspen has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Marilyn Marks, who is trying to force the city to release ballot images from the May election.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137594

CT: How To NOT Instill Confidence In Election Integrity * (photo copy ballots, “extra ballots”)
Waterbury Republican: Ex-first selectman has lawyer probe Middlebury voting
…St. John, who ran as a write-in candidate, raised concerns immediately following the election after he learned one of the voting machines had broken down Tuesday evening, forcing poll workers to switch to a separate machine to count the remaining ballots. Some of the ballots had been photocopied because election officials believed they had run out of the official ballots. It was later revealed that officials had more than 1,000 unused ballots locked in the registrar of voters’ office.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2587
[Thank you Luther Weeks and here is article Luther linked to
MIDDLEBURY — Former First Selectman Edward B.

The Voting News Daily: Massachusetts passes flawed vet voting bill, Vote By Mail concerns, Johnson City NY miscount

Unfortunately Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed military internet voting bill Wednesday even after National and State Voting Rights Groups urged him not to …Verified Voting has a new blog, you can sign up for updates…. …D.C. takes up same day registration, so should Congress…Brad Friedman on Acorn and “protecting” the taxpayers….Study shows permanent mail voting worsening lack of diversity among California voters….Vote by mail biggest perceived problem in OR and WA -slowness in election results…

…Glitches, snags, snafus and hiccups reported in IL, NC, NY, OH, PA, AND SC…Campaign website spoof results in formal complaint in Cary NC…Half of Johnson City NY election districts machine counts differ from hand counts…Diebold technician “fixes” election results for Miami County Ohio….2 candidates in Lackawanna PA request recounts after voting machines straight ticket error… Former Aiken SC GOP official admits to robo-calls scam….In the Port Hope (Canada) council opts for Internet voting, Mayor Linda Thompson was the only opponent…

All of this and more in today’s voting news below…

CA: Study finds demographic differences between vote-by-mail voters and registered voters
…Kim Alexander, founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, says permanent mail voting may be exacerbating the lack of diversity among California voters. “Policy-makers need to be mindful of that,” she said.
http://calvoter.org/news/blog/2009_11_01_
blogarchive.html#5954396140451513928
or use this url http://twi.cc/9mRT

IL: Prosecutor alleges pair tainted vote in 50th Ward*(absentee ballot fraud charged)
Precinct captain, volunteer said to have manipulated absentee ballots, cast absentee votes for Ald. Bernard Stone
November 10, 2009. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-voter-fraud-trialnov10,0,5858164.story

IL: Ald. Stone ally on trial for vote fraud *
November 10, 2009. Four members of a West Rogers Park family testified Monday that Ald. Bernard Stone’s (50th) ward superintendent Anish Eapen coaxed them to vote absentee, collected their ballots and then mailed them during the heated 2007 aldermanic race
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1874511,CST-NWS-eapen10web.article

Mass. voting advocates say veterans bill flawed (email voting inserted at last min)
November 11, 2009 Gov. Deval Patrick signed the bill Wednesday.
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1211192

MA: National and State Voting Rights Groups Urge Massachusetts Governor Not to Sign Internet Voting Bill
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 By Citizens for Election Integrity Massachusetts, Common Cause, ACLU-MA, Oiste, Voter Action, VerifiedVoting
Governor Patrick Must Protect Military Voters’ Right to a Secure, Private Ballot
To exercise their voting rights, Americans in uniform serving overseas must have better access to the process of casting a ballot. Equally important, the process of casting a ballot must be no less secure and verifiable for them than it is for voters at home….
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2009/11/11/165#more-165

MA: Last Minute Change in Massachusetts Veterans Bill Puts Soldiers’ Votes at Risk
Nov 10, 2009 Breaking news: It appears that at the last minute Massachusetts lawmakers changed language in a bill designed to benefit military voters – taking a good provision and unfortunately making it dangerous. The bill could have improved the voting process for our service men and women in uniform overseas by allowing them to obtain a ballot online so it could be printed, voted and mailed back in time to be counted.

Verified Voting Blog: National and State Voting Rights Groups Urge Massachusetts Governor Not to Sign Internet Voting Bill

UPDATE November 13: Massachusetts Lawmakers are listening to the concerns raised by computer scientists and civic organizations, and there is interest in correcting the oversight in the bill signed on Wednesday with new emergency legislation. Please visit the VerifiedVoting Action Center to send Massachusetts lawmakers an email urging protection of soldiers’ right to secret, verifiable ballot.

Governor Patrick Must Protect Military Voters’ Right to a Secure, Private Ballot

To exercise their voting rights, Americans in uniform serving overseas must have better access to the process of casting a ballot. Equally important, the process of casting a ballot must be no less secure and verifiable for them than it is for voters at home.

In an effort to remedy longstanding deficiencies in the voting process for overseas and service voters, the General Court enacted House Bill 4310 on November 10. Most of H4310 is laudable, but Section 4 of the bill would create a high-risk voting system for overseas and service voters by allowing voted ballots to be returned via fax or e-mail.  This provision is unnecessary to solve the real problems faced by overseas and military voters, and we urge Governor Patrick to return the bill to the Court with a recommendation to delete it.

Verified Voting Blog: On the Proposed ES&S Merger

Bad for the country, bad for New York

On the face of it, it would seem that the proposed merger of Premier Voting Systems (aka Diebold) and Election Systems & Software (ES&S) shouldn’t matter much to New York State. After all, Premier pulled out of the state over a year ago, and ES&S splits the state’s voting system sales with a competitor, Dominion Voting Systems. But there’s plenty of reason for New Yorkers to be wary of further consolidation of the rapidly shrinking voting machine industry. Recall the not so distant past when ES&S, along with Sequoia Voting Systems, jointly decided that paperless voting was New York’s future and offered only touch screen DREs to the state. When New Yorkers for Verified Voting organized the first ever demonstration of a paper ballot system with an accessible Ballot Marking Device and an optical scanner at the Albany State Capitol, the makers of the AutoMark ballot marking device, with whom we had arranged the demo, were ordered by ES&S to remove the scanner because it didn’t fit their product plans. The New York Daily News reported this story in 2005:

At the Capitol recently, a lobbyist managed to shut down a demonstration of optical scanning by getting his client to pull its machine from the display. Assemblywoman Sandra Galef of Westchester called the company to object and was told that New York is “a touch-screen state.” ” I said, ‘We are?’” Galef recalled. “I’m a legislator. I don’t think I’ve voted on anything.”

Verified Voting Blog: Recommendations to NIST on Post Election Audits

Verified Voting today joined with computers scientists and advocacy organizations in signing the following recommendations on post-election audits to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

We, the undersigned, participated in a working meeting on vote tabulation audits hosted by the American Statistical Association (ASA) on October 23 and 24, 2009. We write to emphasize that future iterations of the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) should facilitate effective vote tabulation audits. We applaud the VVSG II's requirement for independent voter-verifiable records (IVVRs). This requirement is necessary to enable verification of election outcomes independently of the tabulation systems; it should be adopted as soon as possible. However, if election outcomes are to be verified efficiently, vote tabulation systems must meet requirements that go well beyond the draft VVSG 1.1.

Verified Voting Blog: Paper Ballots, Photocopiers, and Security

When I heard that New York City had found that a photocopy of a ballot could be successfully scanned by both of the two systems being used in New York State, my first thought was that this is Sun-Rises-in-the-East news. It didn’t surprise me, and the first line of defense against attacks involving any type of fake ballot, photocopied or printed, is well designed and implemented ballot management security procedures. But this is a complex issue which bears some discussion.

Before discussing the security threat, let’s look at a technical question – should a scanner be able to detect a photocopied ballot? One of the challenges posed by modern high resolution copiers and printers is that they are capable of producing all manner of difficult to detect counterfeits. This became an extremely serious problem in the 1990’s as convincing counterfeit currency became easy to produce using the off the shelf copiers. In response, the United States has been replacing currency with new bills containing anti-counterfeiting features. So it’s no surprise that a modern copier can create a ballot that can be successfully scanned.

The Voting News Daily: Expert:No way to secure internet voting, Talk–A Poor Substitute For Integrity?

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: Will Voters’ Choice Be Outdone by Sponsorship?…Security expert: no way to secure Internet voting…Hackers cracked military systems and cut mains power…Internet voting too dangerous, especially for our military….

D.C. passes same day voter registration…Audit finds that Venice FL ballots were counted properly…Vanderburgh County Indiana wrangles with voting monopoly ES&S over pricing…”Don’t Count Your Ballots Up in Massachusetts. That Sort Of Thing Just Isn’t Done.”…”Massachusetts does not have a post-election audit”…Ballot Design Still Matters…Bo Lipari writes about Paper Ballots, Photocopiers, and Security as pertains to New York’s voting machine pilot….Nobody could vote in the race for mayor in Limaville,Ohio…Calls for complete hand recount of Lackawanna County PA election….Gregoire pushes to make WA election results more timely…We’re still sweeping up after Nov 3 with voting glitches, snags,snafus and hiccup reports in CA, MA, NC, NY,OH AND PA…

CA: Letter: Frustrating vote
Editor: My apologies to my candidates, Michelle Gabriault-Acosta, Bill Blake and Mary-Michal Rawling. I tried to vote Tuesday but had a very frustrating experience.

I had requested a “vote by mail” ballot, which I never received. I thought, “No big deal.”

I went to my polling place a few minutes before they opened. When the polls opened, I was second in line but was unable to vote because I was marked as a mail-in voter.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/1155563.html

CA: Lobbyists sue to block state public financing proposition
Over the weekend the Sacramento Bee published this story by Andy Furillo reporting on recent legal actions taken by California’s association of lobbyists to block a proposition that, if passed by voters would create a public financing system for the Secretary of State’s elections in 2014 and 2018. The measure relies on fees paid by lobbyists and lobbying firms to fund the public financing system
http://calvoter.org/news/blog/2009_11_01_blogarchive.html#467239205392319216

DC: D.C. passes same day voter registration
The DC Council has unanimously passed an election reform bill that includes Same Day Registration and asks the District to look at implementing a system of universal voter registration.
http://nonprofitvote.blogspot.com/2009/11/dc-passes-same-day-voter-registration.html

FL: Venice ballots were counted properly
An audit finds no problems caused by the ink voters used
…The unusual proxy audit — one of only three that election workers could recall over the last decade — was conducted by the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections on a total of 1,028 absentee ballots.
…
“This gives me more peace of mind in the reliability of the machines,” Muntz said.
…
Dent said that future absentee ballots will carry instructions that voters only use black ink.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091106/ARTICLE/911061021/2055/NEWS?Title=Venice-ballots-were-counted-properly

IN: Elections Board having issues with voting machines co. (ES&S)
Nov 09, 2009 …The attorney said County Clerk Susan Kirk isn’t happy with the way the company is responding to her requests.

“Part of this actually has to do with obtaining the software which is actually needed to conduct the elections,” Vanderburgh County Elections Board Attorney Doug Briody said. “We had an original contract which expired last year and so we need some additional software from them in order to go forward with elections happening in 2010.

Verified Voting Blog: Improving the 2010 EAC Election Day Survey

The Election Day Survey plays an ongoing, important, and unique role in collecting and publishing data on election administration in the United States. Balancing the right of the public to know how our elections function with the burden of reporting useful data by those who administer our elections is clearly a complex task but one we feel is extremely worthwhile. There are several categories of data we believe are very useful to collect, and our recommendations address those categories specifically.

Voting System Reports

Beginning in 2004, Verified Voting collaborated with various partners to collect voters’, observers’ and others’ reports about incidents or malfunctions including those involving voting systems, the mechanism by which voters cast their votes. These reports came to the “Election Incident Reporting System” (EIRS) primarily via calls to a hotline operated by the Election Protection Coalition, part of an effort to protect the rights of voters to cast a ballot and have confidence that their ballot was counted. We made available a free public dataset of those reports. The project was cited in a GAO report  about electronic voting security and reliability in 2005.

The Voting News Daily: US Troops as Internet Voting guinea pigs, Texas let voters eat cake, CO, NJ, NY, PA, TX, UT, VA and WA glitch snag reports

We’re still seeing articles on Nov 3 voting problems… Ellen Theisen has updated Voters Unite’s database on Voting Problems By State to the November elections. This database has been key evidence used to help get paper ballot laws passed in several states and was key to passing a law in my home state of North Carolina. So thank you Ellen!…

INTERNET VOTING WHACK-A-MOLE: Three states plan to use our troops as internet voting guinea pigs: We reported last week that Alabama Rep. Jimmy Martin, D-Clanton is re-introducing an internet/military voting bill. This week, we see that Colorado has passed legislation to allow internet voting pilots for military, and the pilots will be partially funded by “private” parties. Will these private parties be identified? Could any of these private parties have a conflict of interest?…Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth hopes to have their troops voting over the internet this December, 2008. Considering that Cyber Warfare is the weapon of choice now for China and North Korea, is this a good idea?…

Let them eat cake: In Texas an editorial board considers running out of ballots to be a mere ‘hiccup’. If you are a voter being disenfranchised, it is hardly a hiccup, now is it? This wouldn’t happen if Texas joined other states in requiring that enough ballots be printed for all voters. No voter should go to the polls and be told “I’m sorry, we don’t have any ballots right now” and no voter should have to vote on a makeshift ballot. In Harris County Texas, it took a court order to make the voter registration office follow the law after impeding the registration of 66,000 people…Minneapolis Minnesota held its first instant runoff voting election and had the lowest voter turnout for mayor since 1910…In Lackawanna County PA, faulty computer coding cause of 2,452 straight ticket votes to go uncounted…860 ballots found in vandalized King Co. drop box…Plaintiffs Comment on Court Order regarding TN Voter Confidence Act…Miss an email or don’t want to wait? See our home page…

All of that and more in today’s Voting News below…

AL: Commission OKs polling place changes (from schools to mostly churches)
November 5, 2009. Where voters go to cast their ballots in 2010 will undergo a major change as a result of action taken by the Morgan County Commission at a regular meeting Oct. 27.

The commission acted on a recommendation from Probate Judge Greg Cain to remove nine Decatur elementary schools from the county’s polling places list and replace them with alternate locations. The move is subject to the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice and would become effective with the Primary Election next June.

In a discussion prior to the vote, District 2 Commissioner Ken Livingston said several of the new polling places are at churches and questioned if a violation of the separation of church and state could be involved.
http://www.hartselleenquirer.com/articles/2009/11/05/news/news4.txt

AL: State may be on fast track to pass military voting bill (military internet voting) The Alabama military voting bill, House Bill 30, has
been pre-filed by Rep.

The Voting News Daily: Tennessee seek machines in Dec or Jan, 2452 straight ticket votes missed in Lackawanna, Moritz on uncounted ballots

Tennessee Judge Says No to Tennessee Voter Confidence Act Injunction, Yes to Crucial Plaintiff Claim, the Secretary of State will issue requests for proposals for NEW voting equip sometime in December or January…A programming error caused 2,452 straight-party votes to go uncounted in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania…Cuyahoga County sheds its reputation for troubled elections with smooth vote count Tuesday night…

…Moritz law talks about 3 types of uncounted ballots…6.8 percent of Virginians have permanently lost their right to vote (as long as they live in Virginia)….
Today we try to catch up on election day glitch-snag-snafu-hiccup reports in Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah and Virginia…….If you think we missed something, please send us a link to the story at joyce (at)ncvoter.net and we will post it…if you think you’ve missed an issue of Voting News check online at our home page

CO: Provisional ballots could change IRV outcome in Aspen
Clerk and recorder said it’s too early to speculate
November 6, 2009 ASPEN — There are between 25 and 40 provisional ballots in Pitkin County’s mail-in election that have yet to be counted, and depending on how many of them are from Aspen residents, they could change the outcome of the Instant Runoff Voting result.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20091106/NEWS/911069987/1077&ParentProfile=1058

MD: Maryland Voters Test New Cryptographic Voting System
Wired News… The Scantegrity code is written in Java and uses a Fujitsu high-speed scanner for reading ballots. Chaum owns the IP for the system and has promised that the first jurisdiction — county, city, state or country — that wants to implement the system can have it fully licensed in perpetuity for free.

“I’m not doing this to make money,” he told Threat Level. “I’m doing it because I want to make it happen.”

Chaum says he hasn’t decided on a cost yet for jurisdictions who will license it after the initial adopter but says he can easily sell it for half the cost of current optical-scan voting systems, which run about $6,000 apiece.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/scantegrity

MI: Election Night in Washtenaw County * After polls close, work continues for county clerk’s staff (ballot misfeeds, blank memory cards)
November 4, 2009…some ballots aren’t feeding into voting machines property, or aren’t being read. In Ann Arbor, for example, in several precincts there’s a one-ballot discrepancy between the machine count and the actual number of ballots. That count has to be resolved before delivering results to the county.

Brooks describes how the printer misaligned the perforation between the main ballots and the ballot stubs, which are torn off before the ballots are fed into the voting machine. “It looks like a six-year-old cut it with scissors,” he quips.
…
Throughout the evening, Yankee processes memory cards, uploading the information on them into the software program GEMS (Global Election Management System). A couple of times, Yankee encounters memory cards that have been wiped clean. This requires that he get the poll book and enter the results manually.
http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/11/04/election-night-in-washtenaw-county/

NJ: Voting machines absolved of blame *
November 06, 2009…The cartridge readers did produce counts of zero votes in districts spread through 10 municipalities, but they only did in response to an as-yet unknown problem in their connection to a county computer server, said Robert Giles, director of the state Division of Elections.

The Voting News Daily: Tennessee judge denies injunction, Election pilots crash, Sarasota ballot disinfo

Many states run elections as if they are beta tests. An prime example are the Vote Centers in Galveston County Texas. Officials ran into surprises when all vote centers tried to start up at beginning of day, causing the state’s voter registration database to crash. And since these vote centers are dependant on the online database, voting was held up 30 and 40 minutes.Another surprise – firewalls blocking access to the county central voting system. So much for the “convenience” of Vote Centers, never mind the other problems with them but the media says it was all good….

…Brad Friedman reports: Sarasota Sample Ballots Urged Voters to Use Blue Ink, Though New Op-Scan Systems Can’t Read It. Another screw-up for notorious Election Director Kathy Dent…
…Update on Tennessee Paper Ballot Law! Judge Denies Injuction In Paper Ballot Case
Secretary Of State Should Begin To Implement Voter Confidence Act, Recommends Judge…

…A few South Carolina races trigger an automatic recount but SC uses paperless voting so if there’s a programming flaw nothing will change….Texas finally pulls IBM off voter reg database project, 13 day system outage in Aug final straw…

What Sequoia’s Source Code Publication Means…Joe Hall has more on EAC testing and Top To Bottom Review…

….There’s too many glitches, snags, snafus and meltdowns for me to do summarize, so please read about those and more in the news below…

CA: Hawthorne used car dealer turns polling place workers, voters away *
11/03/2009 …Saunders said Finance Auto Sales workers also called police to try to get the volunteers to leave after they set up voting booths on the sidewalk in front of the dealership at 11604 Prairie Ave.
Police allowed the workers to stay on the sidewalk for several hours until a nearby business agreed to let them set up inside. Hi Tech Auto Collision and Glass Centers allowed voters to use their office until polls closed.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_13707170

CT: A Day As Absentee Ballot Moderator
November 4, 2009 This election day was spent as moderator for central counting of absentee ballots, once again, in Vernon, CT.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2542

CT: Reporter’s notebook: Brooklyn voters complain about ballot layout*
…St. Jean said because there were three candidates on the ballot for first selectman, many residents voted for two candidates rather than just one.

When that happens, the voting machine returns the ballot and an election moderator gives the voter a new ballot to fill out, she said.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x1156075453/Reporters-notebook-Brooklyn-voters-complain-about-ballot-layout

FL: Sarasota Sample Ballots Urged Voters to Use Blue Ink, Though New Op-Scan Systems Can’t Read It *
Another screw-up for notorious Election Director Kathy Dent…
On October 17th, we reported that World’s Worst Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent of Sarasota, FL had discovered in pre-election tests that her new Diebold/Premier optical-scan voting systems failed to properly read paper ballots marked with blue ink.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7502

IN: For voters, county maps were a source of confusion *
…St. Joseph County provided a map to help voters find their special election polling place. The information was on WSBT.com

The Voting News Daily: Another Sarasota Fl election screw up – Sample ballot tells voters to use ink scanners cannot read

Sarasota Election Supervisor Kathy Dent was aware that the Diebold OSX optical scanners did not consistently read blue ink. She knew this before the Venice Florida election that was held on Nov 3.

But what does the sample ballot for Venice Voters say? It says
“Use only the marker provided or a blue or black pen.”

See the sample ballot below

City of Venice General Election

THE DIEBOLD OSX DOES NOT READ BLUE INK OR #2 PENCIL.

We don’t have time right now to outline Sarasota Florida’s inglorious failures, just google Sarasota FL 13 Jennings Buchanon or “smoothing filter” + Sarasota and learn how Kathy Dent ignored the warnings by the vendor back in 2006. She wasn’t worried then, she isn’t worried now.

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
Archives here at http://votingnews.blogspot.com/
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email comments, questions us at ncvoter (at) gmail.com

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Verified Voting Blog: Burstein and Hall’s Response to the EAC

Verified Voting Foundation Board of Advisors member Joseph Lorenzo Hall and Aaron Burstein submitted the following response to the EAC's letter from October 21 2009.

Thank you for your reply of October 21, 2009, to our letter of October 13, 2009. We appreciate your pointing out that relevant documents are available on the EAC’s website. Of course, it was the EAC’s commendable policy of making these documents publicly available that allowed us to initiate this dialogue. As you know, neither test plans nor test reports were available under the NASED qualification testing program; this change is important for establishing a more trustworthy voting system testing and certification program under the EAC. After carefully reviewing your letter, however, we continue to question whether iBeta’s test plan for the Premier system fully incorporates some of the lessons of the California Top-to-Bottom Review (TTBR) into EAC testing and certification. Even for the examples the EAC points to in its reply, the test plan does not state in sufficient detail what iBeta proposed to do to test the system. For example, an element of the security test—“port access is controlled” (test plan p. 73)—states a desired result or conclusion but does not describe how iBeta would arrive at that conclusion nor under what conditions would this element fail.

The Voting News Daily: DOJ probes Diebold sale, Voting Hiccups, glitches, snags, and snafus cont’d

Justice Department Probing Diebold Sale, timing of sale is also of interest…
Brad Friedman reports “Your Election Night 2009 ‘Hiccups’ ‘Glitches’ ‘Snags’ and ‘Snafus’ Report”…Today’s voting news report covers election problems in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia…

Bay County Florida resolves to ask lawmakers for money for voting machines for disabled while SoS sits on HAVA funds….Virginia’s Elections Are UNCONSTITUTIONAL?!?! Internet voting whack-a-mole in Port Hope, Ontario….

…Election method flux: Aspen Colorado voters voted to reconsider instant runoff by very slim margin, St Paul MN voters voted to adopt instant runoff voting but opponents have filed election complaints, Lowell MA voted not to adopt proportional voting, and Pierce County Washington overwhelmingly voted to repeal instant runoff voting…

All of that and more in today’s Voting News below and lots more tomorrow I promise…

CA: Because of mailer problem, Atwater will have new school board election* (voter guides, missing ballot boxes, incomplete poll books)
Confusion over a new boundary line in the Atwater Elementary School District means that voters in the only contested race there may have to recast their ballots.

But 29 homes with eligible voters didn’t get proper voter guides before the election, said Karen Adams, county registrar of voters.
…
At 6:15 a.m., polling places in Gustine, Delhi and Livingston reported that they were each short one ballot box. Election workers delivered the missing ballot boxes by 7 a.m.

A precinct in Snelling was missing two pages of its eligible voters roster and four election computers in Merced, Delhi and Le Grand were fixed after minor problems kept them from working properly earlier in the day.

Another ballot problem in the Franklin precinct — near Beachwood Drive and Santa Fe — affected some voters in the Merced Union High School District race there. The precinct had no copies of a certain ballot type.

The error was the result of a mistake by the ballot printer and packager, Adams said. New ballots arrived at the polling place after a 25-minute delay.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/1151301.html

CO: Aspen rejects Instant Runoff Voting — by six votes
Council will explore alternative voting methods for elections
…Aspen residents voted 805-799 to eliminate ranking City Council and
mayoral candidates by preference on the municipal election ballot, which
replaced the traditional June runoff.

The city of Aspen launched its first-ever IRV election this past May.
Shortly thereafter, doubts among elected officials and some residents
surfaced as to whether the method was the best way to elect a mayor and
City Council members.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20091103/NEWS/911039976/1077&ParentProfile=1058

FL: Voting Machine Issues
The Bay County Commission unanimously backed a resolution asking the state legislature for an extension on new voting machine requirements. According to Supervisor of Elections Mark Andersen, a new legislative mandate requires another overhaul in election equipment.

Every touch-screen would have to replaced with a paper ballot scanning system, called AutoMark. Andersen says that shift would cost the county almost half a million dollars. But, some commissioners say they want more time to discuss the issue with legislators
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/68978487.html

Verified Voting Blog: November 2009 Snapshot: Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia

Elections are underway in four states today. The two highest-profile elections lack basic verification measures. The gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia today will not be auditable or recountable. Both states have enacted legislation to end unverifiable electronic voting, and need funding to complete the transition to new voting systems.

Two other closely watched elections today are verifiable, though only one will be audited. In Maine, where a statewide referendum on same-sex marriage has attracted national attention, a majority of ballots are tallied by optical scanners, and there is no automatic manual tally audit. The special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District will see most voters cast balllots using new paper ballot scanners, which will be subject to a manual tally audit of 3% of machines.

The Voting News Daily: Voting problems: New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland. Internet voting whack-a-mole contd

A 90-Year-Old Won’t Be Voting Today because of the ID nightmare she faced when moving to Virginia…Election/Voting problems reported in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Maryland, just to mention a few…Montgomery County Ohio had problems with Diebold TSX – with some encoders, some calibration issues, printer jams and some machines taken out of service. Emergency paper ballots were provided in some cases……Police called to polling places in NY 23…King County’s Ballot Scanners can’t handle close Mayor’s race?…Must You Vote?…

Alabama State Representative Jimmy Martin reintroduces military internet voting bill HB 30. Something for Alabama lawmakers to this news: Cyber attacks traced to N. Korea -The United States military cyber defense is one of the world’s most robust yet the article says “Affected sites include those of the White House and the South’s presidential Blue House.” Are we going to trust the election of our decision makers to the internet,or even more secure networks the Pentagon has?…
Virginia election officials take precautions to avoid spread of H1N1 – is voting more dangerous than going to the grocery store or shopping mall?…Take action, tell ES&S to open up their source code…Did you have problems voting? We’d like to hear from you….

All that and more in today’s voting news below…

AL: State may be on fast track to pass military voting bill (military internet voting) The Alabama military voting bill, House Bill 30, has been pre-filed by Rep. Jimmy Martin, D-Clanton, for the legislative session that begins in January. He sponsored the bill last year as well. The bill nearly passed during the last session, but an amendment added by Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, was largely seen as an attack on U.S. Rep. Artur Davis’ gubernatorial campaign and the bill failed.

Chapman said the state bill should be on the fast track to pass this session because it passed both houses last year, before the amendment. But she added that the federal legislation was “icing on the cake because it allows us to implement what we’ve been hoping to implement all along,” in regards to federal elections.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20091030/NEWS01/910300363/State-may-be-on-fast-track-to-pass-military-voting-bill

CA: San Ardo woman sentenced for voter registration fraud
November 2, 2009 Monterey County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo announced today Irene Madrigal, 33 of San Ardo, pled guilty on Oct. 30 to a violation of fraudulent voter registration.
http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20091102/NEWS01/91102013
/1002/San+Ardo+woman+sentenced+for+voter+registration+fraud
or use this http://tinyurl.com/ylqy8rw

CO: Summit County clerk & recorder resigns unexpectedly
Deputy clerk Kathleen Neel appointed to fill spot during emergency BOCC meeting
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20091103/NEWS/
911029972/1078&ParentProfile=1055
or use this http://tinyurl.com/yz4tmzo

CT: Secretary of the State’s Letter To Senator Schumer RE: Premier, ES&S
November 2, 2009 Secretary of the State, Susan Bysiewicz and Deputy Secretary Lesley Mara have sent the following letter to Senator Schumer relative to the Premier acquisition by ES&S.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2538

FL: Judge rules Fort Pierce election good to go; questions about Perona’s qualifications to be decided Wednesday
November 2, 2009
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/nov/02/judge-rules-fort-pierce-election-good-to-go-to/

IL: Ballot Order
Champaign County Clerk. We had our drawing today for the ballot order for the candidates who filed at 8am last Monday, the first day of filing.

The Voting News Daily: Election day problems? Let us know

Tuesday is election day. If you hear of an election meltdown or see them , problems with voting machines, polling places, voters, reports in the media or with your own eyes, let us know at Voting News and also BradBlog.

We’ll do our best to monitor and report as things develop.

Watch for key words in the media that usually indicate more trouble:
“glitch”, “hiccup”, “snafu” and “snag”
in reality known as FAILURES!

Send reports to brad (at)bradblog.com and cc me at joyce@ncvoter.net (best email to use)

Thank you!

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
Archives here at http://votingnews.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to receive the Voting News by email by visiting this link:
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=VotingNews&loc=en_US
email comments, questions us at ncvoter (at) gmail.com

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“The Voting News is a free service made possible in part by support from Verified Voting Foundation. You can help support the Voting News by sending a check to Verified Voting Foundation, PO Box 4104, Carlsbad, CA 92018. Be sure to note “for Voting News” in the memo line of your check! Your contribution is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.”
Donate online at this link:
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The Voting News Daily: Sarasota undervote fears, Go Vote Tuesday, Montreal ditches e-voting

Sarasota Sup. of Elections Kathy Dent predicts another “smooth” election in spite of voting machine problems – the machines can’t read blue ink or #2 pencil and manual counts are needed to ensure that all votes are counted, but once burnt twice shy activists and a candidate call for manual counting of ballots…
… The Defense Authorization Bill, which contains an internet voting pilot, was signed by the President last week. Around the same time, a government commission released a report on China’s ability to conduct Cyber Warfare against the US…Missing ballots for April 08 Nevada State GOP convention finally counted, favored Ron Paul…Some New Jersey officials warn that under-vote notification goes too far causing loss of secrecy…Galveston TX Vote Center pilot cut number of voting places in half…The Washington Post slams Virginia State Board of Elections’ website…Open Software Can’t Count Votes & Elections Still Won’t Work…Montreal Canada returns to hand counted paper ballots after e-voting problems…Privacy Looms Over Gay Rights Vote…Rock the Vote urges you to take part in democracy, get out and vote this Tuesday…

CO: Inside the ballot issues for Pitkin and Eagle counties
October 30, 2009 …City of Aspen Referendum 2A: The city wants advice on whether it should continue to use Instant Runoff Voting for its mayor and council elections. The question is on the ballot because of the controversy and complications associated with IRV in the May election. Voters are being asked a simple “yes” or “no” on whether to keep using the method.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20091030/NEWS/910309979/1077&ParentProfile=1058

FL: Elections supervisor predicts smooth election in Venice * (Diebold OSX scanners)
November 1. VENICE – Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent said she is expecting strong turnout and a smooth election for City Council seats Tuesday despite some complaints about a ballot counting glitch.
An elections activist and at least one candidate are calling for a manual vote count after a ballot marked with blue ink failed to scan properly during a test run earlier this month.

“I’m not concerned,” (Dent)…
…
Muntz also disputed Dent’s assertion that every ballot would be counted.

“She can’t catch them all,” Muntz said. “She thinks she’ll be able to intercept each one, that it’ll be rejected, but from what I’m learning lightly colored blue ink could slip through. It would be accepted and register as an undervote in that race.”
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091101/ARTICLE/911011031/2416?Title=Elections-supervisor-predicts-smooth-election-in-Venice

Another “Smooth” Election supervised by Kathy Dent? 2006 Florida 13 Buchanon/Jennings Congressional Contest and the 18,000 undervotes. Dent ignored the vendors warning and also failed to supply this document to Jennings campaign:

E-Vote Memo Is a ‘Smoking Gun’
03.22.07… “This memo is the smoking gun that says, ‘Yes, Houston, we have a problem,’
…
Jennings and voting activists had sought not only access to the source code but to all correspondence between ES&S and election officials related to the performance of the machines. The memo was not among documents handed over.
…Kathy Dent, election supervisor in Sarasota, decided not to post the sign, (the sign ES&S urged her to put on each voting machine to warn voters of delay),,,
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/03/EVOTE_0322

Verified Voting Blog: Verified Voting Statement on the Acquisition of Premier Election Solutions

The recently announced acquisition of Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold) by its largest competitor, Election Services & Software (ES&S), requires close scrutiny, as it raises greater concerns about the security, transparency and cost of elections and creates a profound anti-competitive effect in the shrinking marketplace for voting systems. We welcome the call by Senator Charles E. Schumer, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, for a Department of Justice probe of the Premier sale,[1. http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=317761] and we hope the Department acts promptly on the recommendation. In addition, a judge for the US District Court in New Jersey has set a date for a hearing on an injunction to block the merger.[2. http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/09/judge-sets-hearing-on-injunction-to-block-voting-machine-merger.html] Verified Voting estimates that some 64 percent of the nation's registered voters live in jurisdictions where ES&S or Premier vote tabulating equipment is used. The request was brought by a vendor who argues that the resulting stranglehold on the market raises a "threat of irreparable harm" to voters.[3. Based on 2008 voter registration data. http://verifiedvoting.org/verifier]

What can we expect to see? In the near future, many election jurisdictions, especially those using direct-recording electronic voting systems, may need to replace their current voting systems as equipment purchased to comply with the Help America Vote Act of 2002 nears the end of its expected life. With ES&S’ acquisition of Premier’s contracts, it dominates the marketplace.[4. “Ongoing Challenges in Voting System Certification.” By Douglas W. Jones. Presented at the Innovations in Election Technology Conference, May 28, 2009. http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/uminn09.shtml]

The Voting News Daily: Fix Tennessee broken elections, Hawaii prime for open source voting,Voting machines made in China?

NYTimes Slams Diebold/ES&S Merger, Succeeds In Not Using Word ‘Paperless’ Even Once!…Is the Supreme Court about to turn the US into a corporate democracy?…Senator Feingold and Representative Ellison for Introducing Same Day Voter Registration Bill…Military ballot law means some states must move up primaries…

Humboldt County uses the Hart Voting System for the 1st time…Controversy heats up over IRV question on St Paul MN ballot…Op/ed in Tennessee says voting system isn’t broke, don’t use taxpayer money fix it – but oh Tennessee’s voting system is most definitely broken and Tennessee has millions of federal $ to fix it…Wisconsin Supreme Ct says ok for judges to preside over cases involving big campaign contributors…How To Vote From Six Feet Under…Deal Reached in Honduras to Restore Ousted President…Queensland Australia wants internet voting for disabled…Irony: China to make Philippines voting machines?…

CA: Elections office preps for big day
10/28/2009 For a moment, things got tense.
…The county opted to make the switch to the new equipment after discovering flaws with its Premier Elections Solutions equipment last November — flaws that ultimately led to the system having its statewide certification withdrawn by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
To help with the transition, Hart Intercivic consultant David Magedson is on site in Humboldt County, and will remain to help the local elections staff until Nov. 4
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_13658263

CA: Oakland, California, Moves Closer to Using Instant Runoff Voting
October 30th, 2009 According to this story in the October 30 Oakland Tribune, the Alameda County (California) Elections Department says the vote-counting machines used in that county can handle Instant Runoff Voting. Alameda County is waiting for the Secretary of State to certify those machines
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/10/30/oakland-california-moves-closer-to-using-instant-runoff-voting/

CA: Perata questions ranked choice voting in Alameda County
10/30/2009 Three years after Oakland voters approved instant runoff voting for city elections, one Oakland mayoral candidate is questioning whether or not the city, county and voters are ready for it.

In a letter to Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi, former state Senate leader Don Perata brings up a variety of questions and concerns about the possibility of using instant runoff voting in next year’s city elections.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_13672535

CT: Working Families Party May Elect City Council, School Board Seats in Bridgeport, Connecticut
October 30th, 2009 Bridgeport, Connecticut, like other towns in that state, is hold local partisan elections on November 3, 2009. In Bridgeport, and certain other Connecticut towns, no one political party is permitted to run a full slate of candidates.
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/10/30/working-families-party-may-elect-city-council-school-board-seats-in-bridgeport-connecticut/

HI: Hawaii should clean its election house and join other states supporting open source voting software
Who will you vote for in 2010?

If you live in Hawaii, the better question right now is “how” will you vote in 2010.

If a crisis can be an opportunity, we’ve got the makings of a grand opportunity as our Office of Elections continues to melt down.

Senate Ways and Means and Election Commission hearings that put Chief Elections Officer Kevin Cronin on the hot seat have not yet revealed any clear path to solving the many problems the CEO faces
With its budget cut 94% by the gov, lawsuits still pending and procurement on hold, there is yet no solution in sight.

The Voting News Daily: Trust, Antitrust and Your Vote, GA. seeks voter id approval, VA. votes still at risk

Trust, Antitrust and Your Vote (or ES&S buys Diebold)…Your papers please: Georgia’s State Board of Elections seeks DOJ approval of law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote…Correction: Voting news should have said Wyoming County New York yesterday: Pilot is beginning of Wyoming County New York’s switch to electronic voting, officials incorrectly cite HAVA as requiring they ditch lever machines…St Paul MN divided over instant runoff voting…NY City Council member sponsors resolution urges state lawmakers to keep the levers…Will every vote count? New optical scan voting machines to be tested in NY 23rd House race…Virginia runs risk in 2010 elections with mostly paperless voting…VA State BoE submits swine flu contingency plans to EAC…”President Obama signs Schumer bill to ease voting process for Military, overseas voters…Voting Gets Easier For Disabled, But Problems Remain…

All of that and more in today’s Voting News below…

CA: Santa Barbara “Vote-By-Mail” Election Nears
There are nearly 47,000 registered voters in the city of Santa Barbara and with less than a week until the November 3, 2009 election, just 11,000 ballots have been received by the County Elections Office.

The election is the city’s first ever “vote-by-mail” election, and there’s concern that some registered voters may not return their ballots on time.
http://www.keyt.com/news/local/67064762.html

GA: Citizen Check For Voter Registration Moves Ahead
ATLANTA — The State Elections Board this week decided to take the first step to get approval for Senate Bill 86. Passed by state lawmakers earlier this year, it requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote in Georgia.
http://www.gpb.org/news/2009/10/28/citizen-check-for-voter-registration-moves-ahead

KY: Polling preparedness: Counties gear up for December special election
…At its meeting on Oct. 13, the court approved the purchase of 19 new eScan voting machines. A machine will be placed in each of the 17 precincts, one will be in the courthouse for absentee voting and one reserved in case of malfunctions.
…
On Dec. 8, voters will get their first chance to use the new machines. Judge-Executive Milward Dedman said this election offers a chance for voters and poll workers to get familiar with the new machines before the primaries in May.
http://www.amnews.com/stories/2009/10/28/loc.745133.sto

MN: IRV: No, but we appreciate the debate
Pioneer Press Editorial 10/28/2009
…try as we might – and we tried pretty hard – we remain
unconvinced of the compelling need to change the way we elect the mayor
and members of the City Council. We view up-or-down, yes-no voting as
simpler and clearer, and IRV as an intriguing idea whose time has not
yet come in St. Paul.
http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_13663272

MN:Don Fraser and George Latimer: The case for instant-runoff voting is clear
Name any common flaw in the current system, and IRV offers a solution.
By DON FRASER and GEORGE LATIMER
October 29, 2009 …Fortunately, St. Paul voters can do just that on Nov. 3 by adopting a proposal for instant-runoff voting — also called ranked-choice voting — in mayoral and City Council elections.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/67356572.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

MN: More complicated, confusing and expensive
By Chuck Repke, Angie Kline, Kathy Lantry and Dave Thune
Pioneer Press Updated: 10/28/2009
St.

The Voting News Daily: Why Rig Elections? Because it works. Diebold on EFFs TakeDown Hall of Shame

Diebold can’t seem to get away from the bad publicity its disgraced election division keeps churning. The latest disgrace of many: EFF launches a “Takedown Hall of Shame” to fight censorship and – Diebold makes the list…Why Rig Elections? Because it Works….Low Tech, Computer Hack…Sens. McCain and Feingold defend campaign finance laws that Supreme Court threatens to roll back…President Obama Set to Sign Overseas Voter Act…Cool free online redistricting tool in preparation the 2010 Census!…Newspaper Condemns North Carolina Ballot Access Law…Big Week for Election Integrity in The Big Apple… 16 Va. localities fail to meet absentee-ballot deadline…Pilot is beginning of Wyoming County NY switch to electronic voting, officials incorrectly cite HAVA as requiring they ditch lever machines…Internet voting whack-a-mole in Canada: one Canadian city promises paperless online voting for 2010, another city rejects online voting as insecure…

All of that and more in today’s Voting News below…

CT: Low Tech, Computer Hack
October 28, 2009. Just a little reminder that we can have all the physical security, encryption, open source, and source disclosure in the world and there are still low tech ways to hack systems available to high school “D students”.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2499

FL: Lake Park To Change Voting Method In 2010
Change Comes After Lawsuit Claimed Blacks Not Getting Fair Shot In Elections
…”In the consent decree, the town of Lake Park conceded that there is a factual and legal basis for concluding that the current at-large method of electing the town’s commissioners results in an unfair dilution of the African-American vote,” said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman. “
http://www.wpbf.com/news/21436468/detail.html

FL: Broward’s Advancement Project Report
The Advancement Project and other 501c3 groups have been meeting with SOEs around the state discussing problems with provisional ballots, voter registrations, early voting etc. They are working to create legislation for 2010 to address the problematic issues uncovered in their public records requests from the November 2008 election. They did a comprehensive request to determine the cause of rejected provisional ballots and voter registration applications.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform/message/12682

MD: Open meeting squabble in Prince George’s leads to new policy
Elections administrator won’t attend closed-door meetings with delegates
http://www.gazette.net/stories/10262009/polinew181149_32537.shtml

ME: Pilot Program Encourages Early Voting
AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER) — Nine communities are participating in an early voting pilot program in Maine. Early voting is not the same as absentee voting. Registered voters show up to a polling place, fill out a ballot and that ballot is immediately counted.
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=110486&catid=2

MN: Candidates, like city, slow to grasp instant-runoff voting
October 27, 2009
…Now the city that once made the world’s fastest supercomputers expects to employ 100 election judges for eight weeks to conduct a full hand-count of next month’s city election. Judging by their campaigns, candidates for city office haven’t cottoned much faster to the new system.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2009/10/26/candidates-city-slow-grasp-instant-runoff-voting

NC: Nonpartisan voting issue brings Fox News to Kinston
October 26, 2009 KINSTON — The national media spotlight shone a little brighter on Kinston Monday as a crew from the Fox News Channel rolled into town to interview various local figures in the ongoing nonpartisan voting issue.

National: In Industry First, Voting Machine Company to Publish Source Code | WIRED

Sequoia Voting Systems plans to publicly release the source code for its new optical scan voting system, the company announced Tuesday — a remarkable reversal for a voting machine maker long criticized for resisting public examination of its proprietary systems. The company’s new public source optical-scan voting system, called Frontier Election System, will be submitted for federal certification and testing in the first quarter of next year. The code will be released for public review in November, the company said, on its web site. Sequoia’s proprietary, closed systems are currently used in 16 states and the District of Columbia. The announcement comes five days after a non-profit foundation announced the release of its open-source election software for public review. Sequoia spokeswoman Michelle Shafer says the timing of its release is unrelated to the foundation’s announcement. … Sequoia in fact has been a champion of security through obscurity since it’s been selling voting systems. The company has long had a reputation for vigorously fighting any efforts by academics, voting activists and others to examine the source code in its proprietary systems, and even threatened to sue Princeton University computer scientists if they disclosed anything learned from a court-ordered review of its software.

The Voting News Daily: Sequoia new open source voting system, Indiana exports e-voting to East Africa, India’s e-voting rigged say candidates

Industry First, Sequoia Voting Machine Company to Publish Source Code: “Security through obfuscation and secrecy is not security,” said Eric D. Coomer, PhD, Vice President of Research and Product Development at Sequoia Voting Systems. This ought to be against the law: Indiana County palms off 600 old Microvote machines to West Africa…Absentee ballot blues: Hamburg NY finds missing absentee ballots just in time…In India, losing candidates allege tampering of e-voting machines, but whether they are right or wrong, no one can prove the validity of a paperless computerized election…Ireland’s storage bill for e-voting machines still rising as Govt stalls…The news is short today, will have much more tomorrow… Reminder, if you have a news article or great blogged article, send it to us and we will use it if we can…

All of that and more in today’s Voting News below..

CO: Aspen withdraws marketing district ballot question
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Amid revelations of inaccurate voter rolls, Aspen City Council voted unanimously Monday night to withdraw a ballot question that would have increased local lodging taxes
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137345

CO:Snafu jeopardizes fate of Aspen’s ballot question 5A *(voter reg. database error)
The City Council is expected to decide Monday night what to do about a snafu that resulted in some voters receiving a ballot that includes Referendum 5A even though they don’t reside in the district and aren’t supposed to vote on the measure, while others who should be able to vote instead received ballots without 5A on it.
…
The city clerk certified the list of 700-plus voters who were to get ballots that included Referendum 5A, but she was working with data base and mapping errors provided to her, Ireland said in an email sent out on the heels of Braun’s missive.
…
County Clerk and Recorder Janice Vos Caudill said Monday morning she would not attempt to reprogram the statewide voter registration system at midstream in an attempt to correct the problems.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20091026/NEWS/910269991/1077&ParentProfile=1058

CO: Clerk asks for ballots’ early return
Only 13,000 of the 84,000 ballots mailed out have been returned.The ballots have been mailed to voters . . . and Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz is encouraging voters to mail them back, or hand deliver them earlier than Election Day on Nov. 3.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/10/27/news/local/doc4ae68487041bd874229499.txt

CT: Connecticut submits election audits to EAC Voting System Reports Clearinghouse
http://www.eac.gov/blog-postings/connecticut-submits-election-audits-to-eac-voting-system-reports-clearinghouse

FL: Voting machines for disabled could cost $3.5M
Oct 27, 2009 5:17 LEE COUNTY: Lee County leaders say they can’t afford to buy new voting machines for voters with special needs, despite the fact they are required to have accessible machines with a paper trail by 2012
…
Lee County estimates the new machines would cost at least $3.5 million.

And they’re not sure it’s money well spent. Of the 340,000 registered voters in Lee County, only 58 with special needs came to the polls in 2008.
http://www.nbc-2.com/global/story.asp?s=11394401

IN: Voting machines destined for West Africa
26 October 2009 Around 600 voting machines from Allen County will begin a journey to West Africa on Monday, where they will be used to assist the Benin republic in implementing a new voting system.

The Voting News Daily: Expert to aid Tennessee paper ballot case, Cyber warfare vs internet voting, NY official won’t certify election IF

Tennessee Common Cause calls in big guns – asks expert Doug Jones to aid in paper ballot case…Is signing a petition a public or private act?…Absentee ballot blues: La Plata County Colorado sent some voters 2 ballots, Tulare County CA must re-send some ballots, Nearly 500 Hamburg Michigan voters don’t have absentee ballots…No one on ballot for mayor, council in NC town…NY Election Official would refuse to certify electronic vote count if…For the first time, NY-23 will vote on paper ballots…A Voting News reader writes: So you want to run elections on networks? FYI Northrop Grumman report on the Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation…A different view of ACORN…Why Russians Ignore Ballot Fraud…

All of that and more in today’s Voting News below..

CA: Tulare County looks to resend ballots to dozens living on Visalia outskirts
October 24, 2009 The county is looking for a do-over when it comes to mail-in ballots for 57 people on the outskirts of Visalia.
…
The ballots didn’t include the race for Visalia City Council. There are nine candidates running for three seats in the Nov. 3 race.
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20091024/
NEWS01/910240325/Tulare+County+looks+to+resend+ballots+
to+dozens+living+on+Visalia+outskirts
or use this tiny url http://tinyurl.com/visaliaballots

CO: Double ballots complicate election
Saturday, October 24, 2009 Bud Smith, the attorney for the district, said some voters received duplicate ballots because of slight variations between their names on their voter registration and property ownership
http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/10/24/Double_ballots_complicate_election/

CO: Ballot advice (humor)
October 26, 2009
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/columnist/137297

MI: Nearly 500 Hamburg voters don’t have absentee ballots
According to Joan Runyan, elections coordinator with the Livingston County clerk’s office, as many as 475 of the 1,300 absentee ballots mass-mailed from the post office in Howell on Oct. 14 have yet to reach voters.

Runyan said her office became aware of a problem when concerned voters continued calling her office through Thursday — eight days after the mailing went out. The county clerk’s office said ballots reported missing
http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20091025/NEWS01/910250330/Nearly-500-Hamburg-voters-don-t-have-absentee-ballots

MN: better ballot? St. Paul election to decide ‘instant-runoff voting’
Supporters, opponents make cases on non-primary system
10/24/2009 The second-choice candidates of the voters for the candidate who finished last among first choices get the second round of votes. And so on.

Got it?

It can actually be stated simpler than that, but the point is it’s not hard to find confusion surrounding a significant election reform St. Paul residents will vote on next month.
http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_13631593?nclick_check=1#

NC: What if there’s an election and nobody runs?
10/25/2009 SPENCER MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) — Who’s on the ballot in a tiny North Carolina mill village? This year, no one.
…There are 29 registered voters in Spencer Mountain
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_13638927

NC: City to test instant runoff voting (using ES&S iVotronic Touchscreens)
October 23, Hendersonville residents who haven’t voted in awhile will notice something different at the polls Nov. 4.
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20091023/SERVICES03/910231039/1042/NEWS?Title=City-to-test-instant-runoff-voting

NC: Hendersonville Instant runoff voting in Nov – Will your vote be counted? Surprising answer
http://irvbad4nc.blogspot.com/2009/10/hendersonville-instant-runoff-voting-in.html

NY: Let NY keep its lever machines! PRESS CONFERENCE on 10/28!