The Voting News Daily

The Voting News Daily: Impossible Numbers Certified in NY-23? Florida SOS says trust us, blue ink suddenly ok, Internet voting creeps up in Canada

Reporting Error about election audits in Westport CT news story……Illinois petition challenge process must go… Voter turnout in VA Governor’s race went up in 2009…

Impossible Numbers Certified in NY-23 says Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D. an election fraud investigator. Phillips is known for his book, “Witness to a Crime: A Citizens’ Audit of an American Election” and lives in St. Lawrence County, NY…

Canada’s election integrity erodes as more towns adopt internet, phone or mail balloting….Violence in Elections: Suspect in Philippine Election Massacre Surrenders… The International Criminal Court seeks investigation into Kenya’s 2007 post-election violence that brought Kenya to the brink of civil war….

CA: Soapbox: Monterey County election has been certified, and here’s how
November 24, 2009…The day after the election, the department reported that 8,500 vote-by-mail, provisional and damaged ballots cast and received by the close of polls on Election Day remained. Now what? Let the “official canvass” begin
http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20091124/OPINION04/911240301/1014/OPINION

CT: Reporting Error In Westport News Story
Story in Westport News: Audit ensures election accuracy
…
The State, as far as we know, does not observe the local audits and bases all of its reports on data supplied from the registrars and investigations not open to the public. With perhaps 130 audit observations to date, our observers have never reported the presence of an observer from the State:
…
We believe the audits are a small. critical, incremental investment. The statewide cost of audits represents less than 10% of the costs of printing the paper ballots. We estimate $72,000 in Nov 2008 for local audit activities vs. more than $750,000 for ballots in that election. Both of these costs are small when compared to the total costs of conducing elections, not to mention the risk to democracy if the voters intentions are not consistently realized in the official election results.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2638

FL: Ensuring smooth state elections
By KURT S. BROWNING Guest Columnist
Thursday, November 26, 2009
“While we continue to encourage election-equipment vendors to search for ways to improve or enhance their voting equipment, let me be clear: The current equipment performs as it should –with blue or black ink.”
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091126/COLUMNIST/911261041/2127?Title=Ensuring-smooth-state-elections

IL: Illinois Challenge Process Must Go
This week, Free and Equal, Inc. has been working overtime in Chicago, defending candidates of all three recognized parties in Illinois from challenges to knock them off the ballot.

Illinois’ challenge process is inherently corrupt. Its only purpose is to rob the voters of their choices on Election Day. Naturally, the process favors the rich and powerful and places citizen candidates, regardless of party, at an undemocratic disadvantage.
https://www.freeandequal.org/2009/11/illinois-challenge-process-must-go/

NJ: Dalina seeks recount due to 31-vote margin
Hearing set for Dec. 3 in state Superior Court
With vote tallies indicating that he lost by a margin of less than 1 percent, Monroe Township Council candidate Stephen Dalina has filed for a recount of votes in the Ward 3 election.
http://ebs.gmnews.com/news/2009/1126/front_page/002.html

NY: Impossible Numbers Certified in NY-23 *
…Fundamentally, the fault does not lie with the Board of Elections, although perhaps they should have noticed the negative numbers before certifying them.

The Voting News Daily: Aspen voters-don’t ask questons! IL:Undervote lawsuit filed, NC BCBS campaign triggers probe

Ellen Theisen at Voters Unite continues to update a database of voting problems and news articles.

“Don’t ask, don’t think; trust us”
~Harvie Branscomb about Aspen Colorado’s shameful efforts to keep the election process closed to the public and the McCarthy-style tactics used against local voting activists….

The Voting News Daily: NJ Sequoia counties no recourse, PA mostly digital recount to cost $1.3 mill, Philippines election related massacre

New Jersey needs a lemon law for voting machines: Counties that purchased voting machines from Sequoia Voting Systems, which provides the majority of voting systems in the state, in many cases entered into contracts that leave them little recourse if the machines malfunction or require repairs, according to a report issued today by New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen…

As Aspen Colorado backs away from election transparency, they suddenly remember their election commission wasn’t properly appointed and new commission must be appointed. Will that be a bi-partisan commission?…Costly waste of time department: It will cost Pennsylvania $1.3 million to do a recount, much of it on paperless voting machines. Guess the losing candidate hasn’t heard about GIGO, Garbage in, Garbage Out….ACORN has flaws, but: Have the Media ‘Falsely Framed’ ACORN?…

Philippines declares state of emergency after brutal election related massacre..

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

AR: Paper Ballots Will Be Available To Benton County Voters
November 24, 2009 BENTONVILLE — Paper ballots will be available to anyone who wishes to use one during the 2010 elections.
…
Last week, Bill Williams, chairman of the Benton County Election Commission, said that the commission hoped to have 100 percent electronic voting by 2012’s elections with the exception of provisional and absentee ballots.
http://www.nwanews.com/news/2009/nov/24/paper-ballots-will-be-available-benton-county-vote/

AZ: City staff eye potential savings of all mail-in ballot election
November 22, 2009 BULLHEAD CITY – During Thursday’s two-hour Bullhead City council retreat, City Clerk Diane Heilmann presented a report on the cost comparison of a traditional city election versus an all mail-in ballot election
…
Heilmann’s study indicates an all mail-in ballot election would be less labor-intensive. Mohave County Elections Director Allen Tempert would continue to need people to open the ballots, prepare them for the tally machine “and he still needs to adhere to the testing and reporting legislation,” the report states.
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/2009/11/23/news/local/local3.txt

CO: Council moves to appoint new election commission
November 24, 2009 http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137748

NJ: Public Advocate releases review of voting machine contracts
11/24/09 TRENTON — Counties that purchased voting machines from Sequoia Voting Systems, which provides the majority of voting systems in the state, in many cases entered into contracts that leave them little recourse if the machines malfunction or require repairs, according to a report issued today by New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen.

Read Report: The Purchase of Voting Systems in New Jersey: How Government Can Better Protect Taxpayer Rights and Voting Security
http://www.state.nj.us/publicadvocate/news/2009/approved/
091124_dpa_review_of_voting_machine_contracts.html
or use this http://twi.cc/REL7

NY: Hoffman considering challenge in NY-23
Nov 24, 2009 – Conservative Party candidate Douglas L. Hoffman passed his self-appointed deadline Monday without declaring whether he’d challenge results in the 23rd Congressional District race. Robert H. Ryan, Mr. Hoffman’s spokesman, said the candidate would announce his decision today. He would not say what Mr. Hoffman’s intentions were. Jude Seymour, Watertown Daily Times.
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091124/NEWS03/311249966

NV: Former ACORN official in Las Vegas gets probation
LAS VEGAS — A former Las Vegas supervisor for the political advocacy group ACORN was sentenced Monday to up to three years’ probation for his role in a plan to pay canvassers to register Nevada voters during last year’s presidential campaign.

The Voting News Daily: NY-23 election questions, Benton AR flirts with election disaster, E-vote secrecy hack

NY-23 E-Vote Failures Merit Full Hand-Count in Response, An update to the reports of an e-voting ‘virus’, and other failures, in New York’s recent Special Election for the U.S. House…New Yorks CD-23 had a source code bug not virus, but questions remain…Hoffman to Decide About N.Y. 23 Challenge This Weekend…

HAVA chuckle in Nassau County, New York? A total of 17 votes were cast on $3.5 million worth of disabled accessible voting machines…

Aspen Colorado officials still not ready to make ballot image files public…Luther Weeks describes a breach of chain of custody in a Haddam, CT election…
North Carolina GOP contests Clay Aiken vote…VOOGLE: From Idea To Reality, Virginia Poling Place Information Gadget!…

International: Brazilian Breaks Secrecy of Brazil’s E-Voting Machines With Van Eck Phreaking…Concerns about India’s paperless e-voting and push for biometric ID…21 dead in bloodiest pre-election violence in Maguindanao, Mindanao…

AR: COMMENTARY: County Flirts With Disaster
Benton County is seriously considering going to all-electronic voting. At least their election commission chairman is.

This is a particularly terrible idea at a uniquely awful time.
…
37 percent of the county’s voters demanded paper ballots in the last election.

I’m sure the fiasco in 2006 contributed to that. I’m also sure, however, that long lines to the machines contributed to that too. Voting on paper was simply faster during the peak times.

I hate to see the issue of filling a legitimate need for moremachines get tangled up in what now could be perceived as a referendum on paperless voting.
http://rmn.nwanews.com/news/2009/nov/22/commentary-county-flirts-disaster-20091122/

AR: Paper option needed
November 21, 2009. LITTLE ROCK — I sense a bipartisan storm brewin’ in Benton County as election commissioners urge county government to save money by virtually abandoning paper ballots.

They favor purchasing an additional 200 used electronic voting machines for $360,000, but there appear to be both Democrats and Republicans who aren’t too keen on trusting the outcome of elections solely to electronic machines without also having the familiar and verifiable paper ballots.
…
This sort of thing just looks suspicious in a system that must rely on credibility, and no doubt it fuels debate with those who place their trust in paper ballots. In Benton County, that’s apparently no small number. No fewer than 37 of every 100 Benton County voters in the 2008 general election used paper ballots. I’d say it was a big mistake morally and politically to basically deny nearly four our of every 10 voters their voting preference to save an estimated (and debatable) $95,000.

If I were on the Quorum Court and was working with a new, well-intentioned but relatively inexperienced election commission, I’d be wanting to see proven facts about how much money would actually be saved by abandoning paper ballots and purchasing hundreds of used machines. Then I’d be weighing that estimate against the public’s will and desire.
http://adg.nwanews.com/news/2009/nov/21/paper-option-needed-20091121/

CA: November 3rd election, scanning in progress
Humboldt County Election Transparency Project
We’ve started scanning ballots from the November 3rd election. Due to the horribly light turnout, we’re almost done.

The Voting News Daily: FCC considers Internet Voting, WV oks internet voting for military, NY Voting Machines had bug not virus

The biggest threat to democracy quietly sneaks forward: The FCC seeks public comment on internet elections by Dec. 10 of this year… Clearly the e-voting movement is not keeping up. Problems with voting machines pale compared to the risks of internet voting. Voting online is not secure and is not secret according to many tech experts…Meanwhile, West Virginia just passed a law allowing online voting for military, it goes to the governor to be signed…

“Voting is not a commodity or industry, it’s a democratic right…Anti-trust officials must stop this monopolization of America’s most basic democratic process. More fundamentally, though, we must restore full public ownership and management of our voting systems.”~Jim Hightower…This should be true everywhere: “Registration of voters should never be seen as a political act.” – European Commission Head of Delegation to Zambia…
…
There is good news and bad news about New York’s voting systems. The problems with some New York voting machines were not due to a virus, as reported yesterday by the Gouverneur Times, but were due to a flaw/bug in the source code. The problem was not caused by election workers but by the voting vendor. The good news is that there are paper ballots. But the bad news is that elections are still being used as beta tests for voting vendors. We all know there is no perfect voting system but is it too much to ask that these voting systems work correctly? Bo Lipari has a write up on his blog and we have a press release from the New York State Board of Elections…In Utah New ID Check-In scans your drivers license….

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

IL: Undervotes and the AccuVote
Champaign County Clerk under Elections. The formerly Diebold, formerly Premier, now ES&S Accu-Vote ballot tabulation system is under the gun to meet the state standards for rejecting undervotes. (We do not use the Accu-Vote) At the State Board of Elections meeting yesterday we learned that their first go around on testing failed, and now they are making programming changes and retesting.
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2009/11/18/undervotes-and-the-accuvote/

IL: Illinois Newspaper Story on Challenge to Green Party U.S. House Candidate in 14th District
November 20th, 2009 The Daily Herald, a newspaper in Arlington Heights, Illinois, has this article about a Democratic Party-connected challenge to the Green Party’s candidate for U.S. House in the 14th district.
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/11/20/illinois-newspaper-story-on-challenge-to-green-party-u-s-house-candidate-in-14th-district/

MA: BREAKING NEWS: Vote-Rigging Alleged in UC Presidential Election
November 19, 2009 In an unprecedented reversal following allegations of fraud and vote-tampering, the Undergraduate Council Election Commission decided to “de-certify” the results of the presidential election released today, pending further notice.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/11/19/11-bowman-votes-seiler/

MN: Kummer wins Park Board seat without a majority
Candidate is first under ranked-choice voting to be elected without support from a majority of voters.
November 19, 2009 …Incumbent Kummer amassed 46 percent of the vote to almost 42 percent for Jason Stone in a replay of their 2005 finish. Her election without a majority occurred because 957 ballots, or 12 percent of those cast, were exhausted.

The Voting News Daily: Virus in NY voting machines, Myrtle SC’s missing 260 votes found, ACORN ?

Hot story today: VIRUS found in the VOTING MACHINES Tainted Results in NY-23…Myrtle Beach’s missing 260 votes “found” when “correct” memory card put into machine to gather votes, voters will just have to trust the delayed digital count since there are no paper ballots – does that inspire confidence?…Benton County Arkansas officials do their citizens a disservice by proposing to ditch paper ballot voting systems, the officials claim this will save money, but cost studies show otherwise! Arkansas has a paper ballot law that grandfathered paperless voting in some counties….Indiana County PA officials are “irked” that they had to do a real recount and not just read off the voting machine tape like PA’s paperless counties do…PPP survey finds that 52% of GOP believe Acorn stole the election for President Obama…Readers, we apologize that for two days in a row feedburner did not send you the voting news. You can find those missing editions at http://votingnews.blogspot.com/ and we are working on a backup plan to avoid this happening again….

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

AR: Paper Voting Ballots Could Be A Thing Of The Past
Election Commission Looks To Make Changes
November 19, 2009. Should the Benton County Quorum Court approve the expenditure of $360,000 for the Election Commission to purchase 200 new electronic voting machines, paper ballots could soon be a thing of the past.

“Right now, it is an idea that is open for discussion,” Bill Williams, chairman of the election commission, said.
http://www.nwanews.com/news/2009/nov/19/paper-voting-ballots-could-be-thing-past/

Paper ballot voting cost less than all electronic voting
Voting System Cost Studies and Reports
http://www.votersunite.org/info/CostStudies.asp

NY: VIRUS in the VOTING MACHINES: Tainted Results in NY-23
GOUVERNEUR, NY – The computerized voting machines used by many voters in the 23rd district had a computer virus – tainting the results, not just from those machines known to have been infected, but casting doubt on the accuracy of counts retrieved from any of the machines.

Cathleen Rogers, the Democratic Elections Commissioner in Hamilton County stated that they discovered a problem with their voting machines the week prior to the election and that the “virus” was fixed by a Technical Support representative from Dominion, the manufacturer. The Dominion/Sequoia Voting Systems representative “reprogrammed” their machines in time for them to use in the Nov. 3rd Special Election. None of the machines (from the same manufacturer) used in the other counties within the 23rd district were looked at nor were they recertified after the “reprogramming” that occurred in Hamilton County
…
At least one County official thus far has raised concern that it’s possible that ALL of the machines used in the NY-23 election had the ‘virus’ but only a few malfunctioned as a result. The counts from any district that used the ImageCast machines are suspect due to “the virus” discovered in Hamilton County, last-minute “reprogramming” by Dominion workers, and security flaws in the systems themselves. A manual paper-ballot recount of the vote could resolve computer vote accuracy questions.

http://www.gouverneurtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8144:virus-in-the-voting-machines-tainted-results-in-ny-23&catid=60:st-lawrence-news&Itemid=175

PA: Vote recount irks commissioner; tallies remain virtually unchanged
November 19, 2009 The recount Wednesday of Indiana County votes for Pennsylvania Superior Court judges resulted in no change in the total for one candidate, and changes ranging from one to six votes for other candidates.

The Voting News Daily: Myrtle Beach missing 260 votes, Ohio voter rolls in disarray, Phantom districts

Our apologies if you did not receive a Voting News yesterday, there was a problem with our feedburner delivery… 260 votes lost or uncounted in a Myrtle Beach SC muni runoff election…Lackawanna PA will use a machine to recount its other failed machine count. Which machine count would you trust?….Phantom congressional districts get stimulus money…In Iran 5 Post Election Protesters Sentenced to Death…Congratulations: Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota Celebrates its 5th Anniversary!…Bob Fitrakis reports: On voter registration, the Columbus Dispatch gets it right, almost…
Retail Fraud – A Stitch In Time Could Save Democracy, Luther Weeks writes about absentee ballot fraud and disenfranchisement…Judge orders recount in Rutherford NJ squeaker…
Project Vote Releases New Report on Composition of the 2008 Electorate …We used to look to Canada for accurate and transparent elections, but that is at risk now as more Canadian municipalities adopt internet voting…

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

Voting News for November 17 (if you missed it)
Public Opinion and Election law shocker, NY 26 absentee ballots, Acorn -Bill of Attainder
http://votingnews.blogspot.com/2009/11/public-opinion-and-election-law-shocker.html

CT: Chain-Of-Custody Education In Haddam
November 18, 2009…Unfortunately, in Connecticut, election laws, regulations, procedures and common sense are often not followed. The Coalition Post-Election Audit Reports have documented many lapses in procedures, including the chain-of-custody. It is quite possible that in this case there was a violation of state law subject to enforcement, as the registrar points out
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2603

CT: Retail Fraud – A Stitch In Time Could Save Democracy
November 15, 2009. There is no agreement on the demarcation between retail vote fraud and wholesale vote fraud. In general retail fraud represents fraud that involves individual voters and individual votes, while wholesale fraud would represent fraud an a large scale by insiders or hackers.
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2595

MA: Massachusetts Military and Overseas Voters, Submit the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) NOW for the December 8, 2009 Special Primary
On Tuesday, December 8, 2009, Massachusetts will hold a special primary election to fill the vacancy left as a result of the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. A special State election will follow on Tuesday, January 19, 2010.

Massachusetts jurisdictions are currently express mailing ballots to military and overseas voters.
http://www.fvap.gov/global/news/nr17-2009.html

MA: MassVOTE on Boston’s phantom precinct
…This phantom precinct, made up of Boston’s Harbor Islands, where no ballots have been cast in the last four elections, is a quirk of the city’s intricate electoral landscape, which because of an obscure legal exemption has not been redrawn in almost a century.
…
“This one little voting place is so out of whack that it is an indication that all the precincts in Boston are in need of adjustment,’’ said Avi Green, executive director of MassVOTE
http://nonprofitvote.blogspot.com/2009/11/boston-globe-massvote-on-bostons.html

MN: Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota Celebrates its 5th Anniversary!
http://www.ceimn.org/citizens_election_integrity_minnesota_
celebrates_its_5th_anniversary_0
or use this http://twi.cc/Szjl

NC: Kinston rejects nonpartisan appeal despite pleas from residents
November 17, 2009 KINSTON — Despite a series of passionate pleas from local residents and political activists, the Kinston City Council voted 3-2 Monday against appealing the U.S.

The Voting News Daily: Public Opinion and Election law shocker, NY 26 absentee ballots, Acorn -Bill of Attainder

A national survey of the public’s attitudes towards basic voting rights would shock the activist community – the poll shows majority support (55%) for literacy tests…
Was Acorn defunding and “bill of attainder…an example of class warfare?”…
The University of Connecticut’s analysis of the state’s 2008 post election audit is out…NY 23 can Doug Hoffman un-concede?…its a short news day but we will catch up tomorrow, if you think we missed something please email us as ncvoter(at)gmail.com…

All this and more in today’s voting news below

AK: Court ruling reverses Haines election (decision on approved write-ins)
Nov 16, 2009 Five forlorn questioned ballots have been counted, and Haines has a new borough assemblyman.

Judge Patricia Collins’ decision to accept the five ballots means write-in candidate Daymond Hoffman has bounced from losing the election to Gary Lidholm by two votes to winning by three. The ballots in question included two votes for “D. Hoffman,” one for “Hoffman,” and two absentee ballots that arrived without postmarks.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/news/politics/2935-court-ruling-reverses-haines-election

CA: Lawyer Who Wrote Voting Law Sues & Collects, as Gov’t Officials Steam Over $4.3M Won
Nov 16, 2009. Only one legal group in California is suing to enforce the state’s unique voting rights law. And a key attorney in that group helped draft it and get it enacted.
…
the California statute. It is intended to protect minority candidates from being shut out of the political process by at-large elections that dilute the power of minority voting districts.

But all of the litigation brought under the voting rights law was initiated by Rubin or Avila and pursued by attorneys working with them, the AP reports. While there is nothing illegal about that, it has been another aggravating factor in an already-annoying situation to those defending the litigation.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/lawyer_who_wrote_law_
sues_collects_as_govt_officials_steam_over_4.3m_won/
or use this http://twi.cc/wMSq

CO: IRV still fails after all of the provisional ballots counted
November 17, 2009
…
The advisory question, although split nearly down the middle, will likely compel City Council to place a binding charter amendment question on a future ballot.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/137664

CT: Analysis of the Connecticut November 2008 post-election audit
The University of Connecticut’s Voting Technology Research Center has recently made available the results of their analysis of the State of Connecticut’s post-election audit of the November 2008 election
http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/?p=2997

FL: Anthony Westbury: Today is election day in Fort Pierce, again
November 17, 2009…Today’s election may not even be legal, and it’s conceivable Perona could be declared ineligible if he prevails.

His failure to step down from the Fort Pierce Utilities Board while running for the City Commission has prompted two formal complaints to the 19th Circuit Court.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/nov/16/no-headline—sl_anthcol/

NY: NY-23: Absentees (Still) Point to a Democratic Win
11/16/09
http://washingtonindependent.com/68016/ny-23-absentees-still-point-to-a-democratic-win

NY: Hoffman wants a do-over
Doug Hoffman has fanned the flames surrounding the New York 23 special election, telling Glenn Beck yesterday that he would “un-concede” the election, “if that’s possible.”

Problem is, it’s not possible – or at least won’t affect the seating of Rep. Bill Owens (D-N.Y.) — unless the New York Board of Elections certifies Hoffman as the winner of the race.

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.

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.

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.

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?
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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.”
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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

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.

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

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.

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!

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.