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/
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

=============================================
“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:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5295

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

=============================================
“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:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=5295

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!

Verified Voting Blog: NY-23 and the Voting Machine Pilot Program

For the first time, NY-23 will vote on paper ballots

The special election for the seat in the NY-23 Congressional district has begun to draw national attention, being seen by some as a bellwether of the strength of conservative Republicans. Unnoted by the mainstream media is the fact that the election will be conducted on new voting systems that are being used for the first time as part of the state’s pilot program. The pilot, which permits use of the as yet uncertified machines on a provisional basis, was designed to allow local Boards of Elections try out the new systems in an off year election when turnout is typically low and few races for state or national offices are held. However, the vacancy in the NY-23 seat created by the resignation of Representative John McHugh and the political makeup of the district, always strongly Republican, creates a high tension atmosphere where the eyes of the nation will focus on northern New York on November 3rd. The performance of the new voting machines as well as the procedures used to manage and secure the paper ballots will be under intense scrutiny.

The Voting News Daily: US First Open Source unveiled, Aspen ballot snafu, dagdag-bawas ever present

‘The computer says so’ is not a good answer ~ Voting Matters Blog…“Disruptive Innovation” Could Fix U.S. Voting says Mitch Kapor,co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Lotus 1-2-3…Another Aspen Colorado election snafu: the wrong ballot was sent out to some voters. The Mayor is “unsure what threshold number of tainted ballots should invalidate an election”…Harris County lawsuit settled – in 2008 Harris County Registrar office rejected 70,000 voter apps, 23 more than any other county in TX…Senate passes bill giving US troops oversees more time to vote…Philippines’ new voting machines will not eliminate “dagdag-bawas” (fraud) says poll watcher group…

AZ: “US court reviews Ariz. registration requirement”
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014627.html

CA: ‘The computer says so’ is not a good answer
In Humboldt County California, Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich has not had good luck relying on her computer system(s) to give her accurate information. This has created problems.

In November 2008 she found out that the Diebold optical scan system she was using was capable of making an entire batch of counted ballots disappear into thin air without a trace … poof!
…
So Crnich did what a conscientious election official might do – she decided to switch to a new vendor and spent recent months getting her brand new system from Hart InterCivic ready for this November’s election.
…
During the process of importing election information into the new system, Crnich said, something happened and the Eureka school board race was inadvertently and incorrectly changed from an at-large race to a ward election.
…Both times when Crnich relied on computers for information she got bad information.
http://votingmatters.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/the-computer-says-so-is-not-a-good-answer/

CA: Tweet: smcvote DYK? There are 72 languages spoken in San Mateo Co. 90% speak English, Spanish &/or Chinese – per health dept stats.
http://twitter.com/smcvote/status/5103494240

CA: Tweet: smcvote Working w/ Professors Michaelson & Malhotra on a research project to test impact on turnout if official email reminders to vote are sent
http://twitter.com/smcvote/status/5103632019

CO: Voter omissions threaten validity of ballot question
October 24.A ballot question proposing to increase lodging taxes has been left off of the ballots sent to an unknown number of locals who were eligible to vote on it, and the Election Day outcome may be invalidated as a result.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137268

CO: Wasted ballots (LTE)
October 24, 2009 There are scores of unvoted mail-in ballots in the post office trash. They likely belonged to some of the 85 percent of Aspen voters who chose to sit out the 2007 election as well. Those wasted ballots reminded me of another 400-plus May election voters who, while standing in the voting booth, unwittingly became “no shows.” Their ballots were tossed in the rubbish container in the final stage of IRV tabulation. Those 400-plus unsuspecting voters probably mistakenly believe that their ballots counted.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/letter-editor/137280

CO: 4 Charged With Voter Fraud In Arapahoe County
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) ― Prosecutors in Arapahoe County say four people have been charged with voter fraud for allegedly voting twice in last year’s presidential election
….
Of the four charged so far, three are accused of misdemeanors and one is accused of a felony
http://cbs4denver.com/local/4.people.charged.2.1267603.html

The Voting News Daily: Diebold audit log bug under investigation, Why ES&S Diebold merger bad for NY and US, Election official touts open source

California investigating Diebold audit log bugs…Absentee ballot blues: 7% of Route County CO absentee ballots undeliverable…Tennessee Judge may force state To provide voting paper Trail and election officials get course on running paper ballot elections….Sequoia voting source code story hits mainstream media…why the ES&S/Premier merger is bad for New York State and the Country…Election official touts the benefits of Open Source programming…Election officials deliver Afghan runoff ballots…Impasse over Iraqi election law may slow U.S. withdrawal…Complaints of tampering with the E-voting machines in India…

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

CA: California Investigating Problems With Voting-Machine Audit Logs
October 22, 2009 …The investigation is examining what the audit logs record and whether they can be easily altered or deleted, according to Secretary of State Debra Bowen
…
The state confirmed the problems in a report it released about a month later in which it also found that some versions of the GEMS software had a Clear button that allows anyone with access to the system to permanently delete certain audit logs “that would be essential to reconstruct operator actions during the vote-tallying process.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/audit-log/

Voting Machines With Disappearing Logs Finally Under Investigation
http://gizmodo.com/5388025/voting-machines-with-disappearing-logs-finally-under-investigation

CA: Tweet – smcvote Sequoia WinEDS v. 3.1.012 Revised Conditional Reapproval http://bit.ly/22iQOV
http://twitter.com/smcvote/status/5051346000

CO: Don’t forget: Ballots need extra postage
October 22, 2009 AURORA County officials are urging voters to take a close look at the postal rates spelled out on mail-in ballots for November’s local election.
…
“Our official policy is that the voters are supposed to put the postage on the ballot. Sixty-one cents is the amount this year,” …
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2009/10/22/news/metro_aurora/doc4ae0af6aa6b6e770115288.txt

CO: Clerk: Only 5 percent of voters have completed, returned ballots *
Less than 700 completed ballots received; 1,022 undeliverable
…as of Wednesday afternoon, her office had received only 682 of the 13,440 ballots sent to voters in Routt County’s first mail-only election.
http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/oct/23/county_clerk_
only_5_percent_voters_have_returned_b/#
or use this tiny url http://tinyurl.com/absenteeball

MN: St. Paul residents debate instant runoff voting
October 22, 2009 St. Paul, Minn. — Supporters and opponents of instant runoff voting faced off in St. Paul Wednesday night for their first and only formal public debate
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/22/st-paul-instant-runoff-voting/#

Audio of debate here http://twi.cc/qEhB

MN: Election night wins might be tough to call in Minneapolis
The winners in some races in Minneapolis won’t be known instantly under the new ranked-choice voting system.
October 22, 2009. Not only will it take weeks before all results are known from the first attempt at ranked-choice voting in Minneapolis, but some of the election-night results will be misleading.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/local/65698537.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUoaK7D_V_eDc87DUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

MN: Instant runoff voting and buyer’s remorse
October 23, 2009 Chuck Repke, St. Paul, works in neighborhood development and government relations.
He is co-chair of the No Bad Ballots Committee, which is organized to oppose IRV.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/23/repke/

NY: why the ES&S/Premier merger is bad for New York State
October 23 2009 Bad for the country, bad for New York
…Is it so hard to imagine a scenario where ES&S makes an offer they can’t refuse and swallows Dominion, bringing New York State’s voting machine contracts under its exclusive control?

The Voting News Daily: Pima CO fights ballot audit, 9,000 Absentee ballots returned-to-sender, Sequoia laid bare

Is a Fair Election in Afghanistan Possible?…Tuscon wants hand count audit, Pima County says NO…9000 absentee ballots undeliverable in El Paso County Colorado… Indiana Secy of State gives up on criminalizing use of election data…Nevada is prosecuting ACORN itself, not just individuals…Employee for Ohio pro casino group indicted on 5 counts voter registration fraud -Casino group not blamed… Group complains about WVA’s electronic voting machines… National Academy of Sciences reviews voter registration databases… McCain, Feingold Speak on Senate Floor About Citizens United…Sequoia Voting System database laid bare…

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

AZ: City, Pima at odds over vote hand-count
Dispute over audit of ballots could affect Nov. 3 tallies
Tucson, Arizona 10.21.2009. A dispute between Tucson and Pima County could lead to no hand-count of November’s election results — a practice that could help uncover voting machine malfunctions and fraud.
…
The heads of the Pima County Republican and Democratic parties asked the council to take the hard line to force a hand count, given the county’s history with the 2006 Regional Transportation Authority election, where some observers alleged votes were flipped to change the outcome of the election, and the county was forced to pay $230,000 in attorney’s fees for losing a public records suit.
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/314130

CO: No ballot? No problem, contact county clerk *
October 20, 2009 If you’re a registered voter but didn’t get a ballot in the mail last week, it’s probably because you moved but didn’t update your address with the county clerk’s office.

The office of the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder, Bob Balink, said Tuesday that out of 278,000 ballots mailed last week for the Nov. 3 election, about 9,000 ballots had been returned as undeliverable. To cut down on voting fraud, the Postal Service is forbidden by law to forward ballots
http://www.gazette.com/articles/ballot-64099-clerk-contact.html

CT: Al Lenge Named Director of State Elections Enforcement Commission
October 21, 2009
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2474

IN: Funding for new voting machines approved
21, 2009 The Harrison County Council Tuesday, Oct. 13, unanimously approved new voting equipment for the county.
The machines, produced by Hart Intercivic based in Lexington, Ky., and Harp Interprises, were purchased for a reduced price of $227,250 because they were used for one election cycle in Hawaii.
…
New voting machines became an issue after Election Systems & Software, the company which provided upkeep for the county’s 40 Optech Eagle machines, said technical support no longer will be available for the machines.
http://www.corydondemocrat.com/Articles-i-2009-10-20-212291.114125_Funding_for_new_voting_machines_approved.html#

IN: Rokita rolls out redistricting proposal
Secretary of State Todd Rokita today urged lawmakers to change how Indiana draws legislative and congressional districts.

But he backed off an earlier recommendation that they make it a felony to consider political data, including the addresses of incumbents and the voting history of constituents
http://www.indystar.com/article/20091020/NEWS05/910200367/
Rokita+rolls+out+redistricting+proposal
or use this tiny url http://tinyurl.com/yjqx9gh

IN: Ind. Decisions – Petitions to transfer filed in the Indiana voter ID case
Briefs have now been filed re the Court of Appeals decision in League of Women Voters v.

The Voting News Daily: Sequoia e-voting code out, Vote flipping in Tennessee, Will Afghan voters turnout for do-over?

Aspen Colorado citizen wins effort to stop destruction of May 5 ballots…New Jersey’s anti-exit polling law…Election Defense Alliance has election databases from Riverside County that Sequoia insisted on “redacting” first, Sequoia Voting Systems inadvertently released the SQL code for its voting databases…Wow! Diebold (OSX) scanners are picky about ink colors on ballots…”The next question is whether these machines can actually count.” ~ Voting Matters Blog…Touch Screen Vote flipping in Franklin Tennessee…Breaking: Supreme Court Reverses Ninth Circuit, Reimposes Stay in Washington Referendum Signer Case…Afghan Leader Said to Accept Runoff After Election Audit, Do-over? “Neither Karzai nor Abdullah are worth the lives of our children.” ~ Sadruddin Khan, a tribal elder in Kandahar.. Oh goodie Nigeria wants e-voting…

AZ: City of Prescott appeals election ruling
…Claiming “irreparable harm,” the city filed a request this morning for a stay of the ruling that Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Michael Bluff issued this past Thursday, prohibiting the city from continuing with its November general election.

…The case centers on the city’s decision in September not to place City Council candidate Paul Katan’s name on the general election ballot. Katan, the seventh-place finisher in the Sept. 1 city primary, maintained that he should have moved up and onto the ballot after fifth-place finisher Bob Bell withdrew from the race in mid-September.
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=73637

CA: E-Voting Code to Receive ‘First-Ever’ Public Scrutiny Following Public Records Request Sequoia’s ‘proprietary’ source code now available on the Internet
ALSO: Company yet to come clean to federal investigators, election officials, public about Chavez-tied Venezuelan firm’s ownership of vote machine Intellectual Property…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7477

CA: The Election Defense Alliance filed a public records request under California law for a copy of the final election databases from recent elections in Riverside County California. Riverside coughed them up, after sending them first to Sequoia for “redaction of trade secrets” and forcing EDA to pay a substantial amount for this “service.”

As near as we can tell, instead of stripping out proprietary stuff of any sort, Sequoia simply committed vandalism:
http://studysequoia.wikispaces.com/

CO: Ballots will be kept past Nov. deadline
Saturday, October 17, 2009
A judge has issued an order requiring the city of Aspen to keep ballots from the May election past the November date when they otherwise would have been destroyed.

The ruling, issued Friday by District Court Judge James B. Boyd, granted a preliminary injunction sought by Marilyn Marks in her lawsuit against the city, which has the ultimate goal of forcing the city to release the ballots.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137091

GA: Ballot confusion: Candidates, issues, polling places vary in Nov. 3 voting
The Nov. 3 Douglas County election presents a variety of candidates and issues, and the ballots that voters receive depend upon their city or county locations.

This may cause confusion for some voters, Laurie Fulton, county election supervisor, confirmed Friday.

“Voters in city precincts must request both city and county ballots,” Fulton said. “Signs are posted at these locations showing the two separate voting places.”
http://www.times-georgian.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Ballot+confusion-+Candidates-+issues-+polling+places+vary+in+Nov-+3+voting%20&id=4038469-Ballot+confusion-+Candidates-+issues-+polling+places+vary+in+Nov-+3+voting&instance=west_ga_news

MN: Not-so-instant runoff voting
Results of the first IRV city election may not be in for weeks.

Verified Voting Blog: EAC Response to Burstein and Hall

The Election Assistance Commission has sent this response to Aaron Burstein and Joseph Lorenzo Hall's comments on the EAC's Voting System Test Lab and the California Top to Bottom Review of Voting Systems.

Thank you for your letter dated October 13, 2009, concerning the federally accredited Voting System Test Lab's (VSTL) consideration of the California Secretary of State's Top-To-Bottom Review (TTBR) in developing the test plan for the Premier Assure 1.2 voting system. The VSTL that tested the Premier Assure 1.2, iBeta Laboratories, closely reviewed the findings of the TTBR during the development of its test plan in accordance with the requirements of EAC's Testing and Certification program and the "Evolution of Testing" requirement contained in Section 1.5 of the 2002 Voting System Standards (VSS). In addition, the VSTL reviewed the results of the Kentucky, Ohio, and Connecticut Reports which resulted in an update of the Security Test Case to verify that Connecticut's recommended tamper-resistant seals were incorporated into the Premier Technical Data Package (TDP). The review of the 3 March 2009 California Secretary of State report. was also reviewed as well as the Premier Product Advisory Notices. Finally, please note that the software and firmware versions of each component of the system reviewed by California were an earlier version than that tested by the EAC VSTL. A comparison is listed below for your information.

The Voting News Daily: Calls for Open Source voting systems, Diebold OSX WARNING, Afghanistan election disaster

SOS project call on Sen Schumer for Open Source voting machines… Pre-Election Diebold Op-Scan Failure in FL; ‘Reform’ or Legislative Obscenity? – WARNING on Diebold OSX optical scanner…California considers how to regulate electronic campaigning…DOJ spikes Georgia voter voter registration matching/citizenship checks again…Washington State OP: “Ballot secrecy is being eroded.”…Afghanistan: anatomy of an election disaster…Estonia automatically registers voters at 18 but also issues national ID, the latter controversial in the US…India goes to polls and 18 killed in violence, candidate alleges that e-voting machines were rigged…

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

CA: State watchdogs consider regulating campaigns’ electronic messages
October 19, 2009 Between tweeting, YouTube videos and text messaging, the age of the Internet means political candidates now rely on more than snail mail to reach voters, and California’s ethics watchdog agency is responding to the changing times.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/state-watchdogs-consider-regulating-campaigns-electronic-messages.html

CT: The Day: New London has problem with math
October 19, 2009 New London has problem with math…Actually it is more a problem of complexity and communications:
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2468

D.C: Voting Plan Could Be Attached To Defense Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) A plan to give D.C. residents a voting member of Congress could be attached to a defense funding bill.
http://wjz.com/local/DC.voting.plan.2.1253234.html

FL: Pre-Election Diebold Op-Scan Failure in FL; ‘Reform’ or Legislative Obsenity?…
Diebold’s Optical-Scan System FAILS in Sarasota, FL
County election director Kathy Dent’s ‘solution’ as bad or worse than the actual problem…as usual…
…
Today, it’s our old friends in Sarasota, under the continuing and now-legendarily failed direction of Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent and her latest failed voting system, this one an optical-scan system made by Diebold, featured in the Charlotte Sun’s “Scanning glitch in vote machine test”:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7472

FL: Scanning glitch in vote machine test * Premier’s OSX can’t read blue ink (Premier Release 1.20.2, Version 1 Gems 1.20.2 Accuvote OSX)
http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/pnnews.aspx?NewsID=70156&a=newsarchive3/101709/vn1.htm&pnpg=0

FL: Sarasota’s Diebold scanners flunk test, fail to read blue ink on ballots *
Saturday, October 17, 2009 VOTING NEWS BLOG
WARNING: Voters in jurisdictions that use the newer Diebold/Premier optical scanners OSX with 1.0.2 firmware should use black ink to mark their ballots. The machines may not read markings made with blue ink. The OSC also has trouble reading markings by a number 2 pencil according to other reports. This is an intermittent problem.
http://votingnews.blogspot.com/2009/10/sarasotas-diebold-scanners-flunk-test.html

GA: Voting Checks Rejected Again
ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has rejected Georgia’s voter verification process for the second time. Last May, the DOJ ruled the process has “a discriminatory effect” on minority voters.
http://www.gpb.org/news/2009/10/16/ga-voting-checks-rejected-again

GA: DOJ spikes Ga. voter citizenship checks again
ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice has for the second time rejected Georgia’s system of using Social Security numbers and driver’s license data to check whether prospective voters are citizens.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/ga/story/875653.html

IN: State voter ID law could go before Supreme Court
October 16, 2009 A The question of whether Indiana can require voters to show government-issued ID could be headed to the state Supreme Court.

State Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed a petition to bring it before the high court Friday, after the Indiana Court of Appeals declared the state’s voter ID law unconstitutional last month.