The Voting News Daily: Dust settles on voting machine failures. Beware the Perils of Internet voting

Arizona Pot smokers ‘edgy’: Prop 203 still undecided..Colorado SoS to investigate Saguache County election after discovery of uncounted absentee ballots…Minnesota Recount part 2? Fewer absentee ballot rejections in 2010 vote…Spokane WA County Ballot Copying — Problem?..Six House Races Remain in Limbo..Africa election commission mulls EVMs for “ensuring free elections”..Beware the Perils of Internet Voting says Kyle Geske of www.WinnipegElection.ca…The dust settles – for now…

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

US: Six House Races Remain in Limbo
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/six-house-races-remain-in-limbo/?partner=rss&emc=rss

AK: Write-ins still going for Murkowski
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/154312 More than 90 percent are unchallenged for her. The Miller campaign challenged an additional 7.7 percent of Murkowski votes, but was overruled by Elections Director Gail Fenumiai.

Those are “counted but challenged” and could go to court.

The Miller campaign’s ballot observers have successfully challenged 1.48 percent of the 56,088 write-in ballots reviewed.

AK: On Alaska’s ‘Hinky’ Elections & the Fight for Oversight of Their U.S. Senate Write-In Count http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8193 (podcast available)
Where Brown is inappropriately suggesting “voter fraud” without evidence to back it up, he is exactly right in calling for the right for the campaign to be allowed to reconcile the poll rosters to determine if the lower-than-expected number of ballots so far tabulated are, indeed, accurate.

AK: Miller campaign plans to sue state over alleged voter fraud
http://www.wsbt.com/news/elections/ktuu-2010elect-miller-voter-fraud-state-lawsuit-111110,0,1111649.story

AZ: Pot smokers ‘edgy’: Prop 203 still undecided
http://tucsoncitizen.com/tucson-progressive/2010/11/12/pot-smokers-edgy-prop-203-still-undecided/ With tens of thousands of ballots to count in Maricopa County, Props 110 and 203 are losing by about 3000 votes, while Prop 112 is winning by less than 2000 votes, according to the Star. All three propositions have gained ground in the past week.

AZ: Appeals court won’t force Arizona to count ballots from citizenship dispute
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/article_7d0ec6f8-edef-11df-90b1-001cc4c002e0.html
In an unsigned order Thursday, the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged its earlier ruling that the citizenship-proof requirement imposed by Arizona voters in 2004 runs afoul of federal statutes.
But the judges said that ruling came weeks after the deadline to register to vote in Arizona had closed on Oct. 4. That was also the day that early ballots were mailed.

CA: Santos not ready to concede
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_16588954
Santos says “questions” remain about the election

SAN LEANDRO — Mayor Tony Santos said Thursday that he is not set to concede the mayor’s seat for the next four years, despite unofficial results that show him losing his re-election bid by less than 200 votes.

CA: The Winning Strategy in Oakland: Concentrate on Being 2nd or 3rd Choice
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/us/politics/12bcvoting.html

CA: Public Supports Ranked-Choice Voting
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Public_Supports_Ranked_Choice_Voting_8669.html
For the first time in San Francisco Bay Area history, ranked choice voting gave victories to candidates who did not win the most first-placed votes.

CO: State to investigate Saguache County election*
http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=18643
SAGUACHE — The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office (SOS) announced Tuesday that it will launch an official investigation into the reversal of the Nov. 2 election results following the discovery of mail-in ballots not counted on election night.

CO: Election Update: Saguache County Clerk presents report to County Commissioners; computer and scanner errors blamed for discrepencies in ballot tallies*
http://crestoneeagle.com/?p=2107 …ES&S notified us that they has miscoded the ballots and made each ballot style its own precinct, which created 25 precincts instead of the actual 9. The only way to fix it would be to reprint the ballots, which was not possible due to the UOCAVA ballots already out. To fix this problem, ES&S agreed to lend us a laptop and a copy of their Unity, Elections Report Management software, which would enable us to create reports and group the ballot styles together to get the results by precinct.
…
There is some community skepticism with the retabulation. In conference with the SOS, ES&S and County Attorney Gibbons, the election materials will be sealed up and on Nov 15th, the SOS will send representatives to review the entire election and report the findings.

CT: Panel to look into Conn. ballot shortage
http://www.courant.com/community/bridgeport/hc-ap-ct-notenoughballotsnov11,0,4989336.story
A panel set up by Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch to look into voting problems in the Nov. 2 election has scheduled its first public meeting.

IL: Borrowing Space for a Correction on Military Voting
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/11/12/borrowing-space-for-a-correcti
When I repeated this line at the beginning of a larger segment on Illinois’ problems with the military voting law, I misspoke. In Cook County, Illinois, it is not “felons” but not-yet-convicted inmates who are, quite legally, voting. And Cook County, unlike in 35 other Illinois counties that had failed to mail overseas military ballots on time, was indeed in full compliance with the military voting law.

KY: Watkins petitions for recount in Bullitt jailer race(overvotes & undervotes)
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101112/ZONE10/311120097
“A recount is necessary because an undetermined number of voters were given incorrect instructions by poll workers regarding the proper method for marking of their ballots during the general election,”

MN: Recount part 2? Fewer absentee ballot rejections in 2010 vote (Carver County)
http://www.chaskaherald.com/news/election/recount-part-2-fewer-absentee-ballot-rejections-2010-vote-111 ..The razor thin margin of victory in the state’s gubernatorial race is expected to extend this year’s election at least into December.
…
In 2008, absentee voters needed to provide two items of proof of identity, as well as a signature on the absentee ballot application that matched the signature found on the ballot envelop. In 2010, if the two items of proof of identity were validated, there was no requirement to have matching signatures. In 2008, many of the absentee ballots were rejected because signatures didn’t match.

MN: Brian McClung: Ballot ranking is a turnoff for voters
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/107585618.html
It means fewer people at the polls and a large potential for complications.

MN: Editorial: Ranked voting looks even better
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/107001918.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

MO: Voting advocates question students’ removal from voters lists
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kwmu/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1724708/St..Louis.Public.Radio.News/Voting.advocates.question.students A voter’s rights group is raising questions that could delay a recount in Missouri’s 24th Senate district. The Advancement Project has asked the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners to investigate why many Washington University students were removed from the voter lists before last week’s election.