South Dakota: Secretary of State Gant: E-Poll Books Prevent Voter Fraud | Keloland.com

An investigation is underway in Mitchell after Tuesday’s school board election. Craig Guymon, 54, has been arrested, charged and released on bond on a felony charge of voter fraud. Guymon ran for school board in Mitchell as recently as last year, he even filed a lawsuit contesting the election results after he lost. Now he’s accused of double voting but Secretary of State Jason Gant says an investigation into that case could have been avoided with the new electronic poll books he is working to roll out across the state. All it takes is a scan of a driver’s license to confirm a voter’s registration and if that person has already cast a ballot. “That’s why vote centers and electronic poll books are definitely the way to go, not only break down the barriers and allow more people to vote, but also to ensure no one can vote twice,” Gant said.

Ohio: State bill matches election standards to technology | The Medina County Gazette

The Ohio Senate on Wednesday approved a bill aimed at streamlining the administration of elections. Senate Bill 109, sponsored by Sen. Larry Obhof, R-Montville Township, would standardize the use of electronic pollbooks to sign voters in at polling places. Obhof said using electronic pollbooks is faster for voters and enables boards of elections to easily update registration rolls between the early voting period and election day, saving money. He said electronic pollbooks also would reduce voting errors by providing poll workers with instant, up-to-date information about voters’ proper polling locations. “These common-sense changes will help our elections to run smoothly and ensure the continued integrity of our electoral process,” Obhof said.

Iowa: New electronic poll book program to debut In Scott County | Quad Cities Online

Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz announced today that voters in Tuesday’s City of Dixon special election will have the option to scan their state issued IDs to help check in at the polling place. This is part of Iowa Express Voter, a new electronic poll book program developed by the Iowa Secretary of State. Precinct election officials presiding over the upcoming City of Dixon Special Election will be the first in Iowa to use this new program.
“We are pleased that Scott County will be the first to use Iowa Voter Express in a live election environment,” Moritz said. “My staff and staff from Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz’s office have worked together to fine tune this new program. It has been a good example of intergovernmental cooperation, and will result in a good product that is easy to use,” Moritz said.

Ohio: Electronic poll books seem conceptually simple but may be vulnerable to hacking and cyber attacks, experts say | cleveland.com

Cuyahoga County elections officials plan to experiment with electronic poll books to verify the registration of in-person voters despite warnings that the devices are vulnerable to hacking and even politically motivated cyber attacks. Two experts contacted by The Plain Dealer said the so-called e-poll books also have spotty performance records in several places where they have been tested and could be especially challenging for Cuyahoga County because of its larger number of voters and past troubles with new election technology. “E-poll books are similar to other computer-based technologies in voting – full of promise and lousy execution in most locations,” said Candice Hoke, a Cleveland State University law professor and an authority on laws governing election technologies. “Our counties should be extremely chary of adopting them, but definitely a pilot project is a good way to proceed.”

Missouri: Technology moving elections toward electronic ID | Columbia Missourian

Although Missouri has no photo identification requirement for voting, thousands of residents showed their driver’s licenses to get ballots this year. That could become the new norm because of technological advances that use of the bar codes embedded in driver’s licenses to check in people to vote. In roughly 20 states and about one-fifth of Missouri counties, local election officials this year used laptop computers or tablets to verify eligible voters. In many of those instances, prospective voters provided a driver’s license or voter registration card containing a bar code, which when scanned by poll workers automatically matched their identities against a computerized list of registered voters to determine if they were eligible to vote and in the correct precinct.

Kansas: ES&S must fix electronic poll books, election officials say | Wichita Eagle

More than $370,000 worth of electronic equipment won’t be used in local city and school elections early next year if the vendor doesn’t correct problems with the software, Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman said. There have been ongoing problems with the county’s 130 electronic poll books that were first used earlier this year, she said. “The vendor will have to fix that before we use them again,” she said. “The books have made it far more cumbersome for us. For the election administrators, they’re just a nightmare.”

Virginia: Virginia Beach voter registrar cites technical difficulties | HamptonRoads.com

Voter registrar Donna Patterson blamed technical difficulties and an unprecedented number of curbside voters for long lines at polling places and the delay in reporting election results on Nov. 6. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Patterson said she will evaluate each precinct to see what can be improved. “Having people wait three hours isn’t anything I’d like to see with an election,” she said.

South Carolina: All South Carolina voter registration machines go down, causing long lines | WYFF

Election officials say all the machines used to check voter registrations in the state of South Carolina were down for a time on Tuesday morning, causing long lines for absentee voters. Initially, Greenville County Registration and Elections Director Conway Belangia told News 4’s Nigel Robertson that the voting machines in Greenville County were down.  News 4 checked with other counties, and was told that the machines were down across the state. Robertson called the State Elections Office, and clarified that the machines that were down were the ones used to check voter registration and identification and to determine what ballot voters should be using, not voting machines.

Kansas: Voters don’t have to have IDs scanned at polls | Wichita Eagle

Voters don’t have to have their IDs scanned with the new electronic equipment that Sedgwick County uses to quickly pull up voters’ information at polling places, a top state elections official said Tuesday. The electronic devices, which are similar to a grocery store bar-code scanner, speed up the voting check-in process by quickly verifying voters’ identification if they have a Kansas driver’s license or other state-issued ID. But some voters didn’t want to have their IDs scanned or had alternative IDs that can’t be scanned. Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, said some of those voters told her that poll workers forced them to cast provisional ballots, which are more likely to be rejected. “That’s a mistake,” said Brad Bryant, deputy assistant secretary of state.

Tennessee: Vendor Gives Tennessee County Closed-Primary Pollbooks in Open Primary | Election Academy

Continuing in the vein of “there is no small stuff” in elections, here’s a story from Davidson County (Nashville), TN where voters in the August primary didn’t always get the ballot they were expecting, acording to the Tennessean. The problem, apparently, was that the county’s vendor failed to program electronic pollbooks to allow for the fact that the Volunteer State conducts “open primaries” where a voter can choose which party’s ballot to cast – as opposed to a “closed primary” where voters must register as a member of a party in order to cast a ballot in that party’s primary. Unfortunately, the mistake creates a situation where critics can claim that the vendor is either engaging in illicit activity or simply incompetent.

Test Category: Vendor Gives Tennessee County Closed-Primary Pollbooks in Open Primary | Election Academy

Continuing in the vein of “there is no small stuff” in elections, here’s a story from Davidson County (Nashville), TN where voters in the August primary didn’t always get the ballot they were expecting, acording to the Tennessean. The problem, apparently, was that the county’s vendor failed to program electronic pollbooks to allow for the fact that the Volunteer State conducts “open primaries” where a voter can choose which party’s ballot to cast – as opposed to a “closed primary” where voters must register as a member of a party in order to cast a ballot in that party’s primary. Unfortunately, the mistake creates a situation where critics can claim that the vendor is either engaging in illicit activity or simply incompetent.

Tennessee: Electronic poll books won’t be used in November in Davidson County | The Tennessean

Despite expressing confidence in the reliability of electronic poll books, the Davidson County Election Commission on Thursday stuck with its decision not to use the devices in the November election. The poll books, which recently replaced paper poll books in 60 of the county’s 160 voting precincts, have been at the center of criticism the past few weeks because some voters received the wrong ballots during the Aug. 2 primary. The commission had planned to use the new poll books in all 160 precincts for the Nov. 6 general election. Last week, four of the five commission members voted to revert to the paper poll books for all precincts. However, Commissioner Steve Abernathy wanted the commission to revisit the issue.

Tennessee: Electronic poll books set for many Nashville voting precincts after $777K upgrade | Nashville City Paper

Poll workers won’t be shuffling through papers to verify voter registration information at many Davidson County precincts during August’s election. New electronic poll books will do the work for them. The Davidson County Election Commission, following a $777,000 purchase, is making the transition from paper poll books to electronic versions at 60 of the city’s 160 precincts beginning this election cycle. Early voting for state primaries and Metro school board races begins Friday, but the commission won’t roll out the new machines until the Aug. 2 election. “They speed up the process for the voter and they greatly reduce the opportunities for errors,” Elections Administrator Albert Tieche said, adding that the electronic poll books are identical to versions the Shelby County Election Commission uses.

New Mexico: Electronic Pollbooks Help End Precinct Voting in Doña Ana County | GovTech.com

Electronic registration technology has enabled Doña Ana County, N.M. to eliminate voting precincts and make it easier for residents to cast their ballots. The county moved to a system of 39 polling places where citizens can go vote, regardless of where they live in the area. Previously residents could only vote at a pre-assigned location. The change was made possible by a big change: shifting from paper-based, manual voter registration to each site having multiple computer stations that help voters check-in. Doña  Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins said Colorado’s move to a similar voting center strategy spurred the county’s interest in the method. He revealed that the upgrade has provided a variety of benefits for the county. By reducing the polling sites from 120 to 39, significantly fewer poll workers were needed and the county saved approximately $135,000 in operating costs. The technology also sped-up the voting experience for citizens during the June 5 primary election. “We were signing in four or five people at a time instead of one person at a time,” Ellins said. “It got people through in less than two minutes from the time they came in, signed the signature pad, got their ballot and went to the voting booth.”

Michigan: New Technology for Tech Bond Election | The Ann Arbor Chronicle

On Tuesday, May 8, Ann Arbor voters will be asked to approve a bond to support investments in technology for Ann Arbor Public Schools. And it turns out that new technology will play a part in the Ann Arbor city clerk’s implementation of the election. A driver’s license can be swiped for automatic lookup in the electronic pollbooks that will be deployed at eight precincts for the May 8 election. The voting process itself will take place using the usual paper ballots. In eight of the city’s 37 precincts, election workers will deploy electronic pollbooks (EPBs) – information downloaded onto laptop computers (the night before the election) from the state’s qualified voter file. (The count of 37 precincts arises from the combination of several of the city’s usual 48 precincts for this local election.) The laptops are supplied to the city of Ann Arbor by the state of Michigan through the Help America Vote Act. Michigan’s secretary of state’s office told The Chronicle in a phone interview that of Michigan’s roughly 1,500 different municipalities across Michigan about 800 will use EPBs in the May election, and more than 1,000 will use them in the August primaries. In 2009 40 different municipalities had tested the system.

Minnesota: Dayton, Ritchie offer ‘poll book’ as voter-ID alternative | TwinCities.com

As a bill asking Minnesotans to amend the state constitution so voters would be required to show a photo ID began its way through the House on Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie unveiled an alternative they say would be faster, cheaper and less likely to disenfranchise voters. With an electronic “poll book,” eligible voters who have lost an ID or no longer carry one could come to the polling place and have their electronic information pulled up from state records, Ritchie said. He said about 84,000 Minnesota voters don’t carry photo ID, but in many cases, they would have photos in the state drivers’ database. For those who don’t, another ID could be scanned in or a photo could be taken at the polling place. “We would not be disenfranchising anybody and we would not be breaking the bank,” Ritchie said.

Florida: New system in Volusia County will make voters swipe their IDs | Daytona Beach News-Journal

A new voting system in Volusia County will mean less work for poll workers and more for machines — computers that can identify voters with the swipe of a driver’s license and are already common in counties across Florida, including Flagler.

“It’s not only going to save dollars, but it’s going to save possible fraud,” elections head Ann McFall said Thursday of the system on its way to Volusia: EViD, or the Electronic Voter Identification System. The new voting process, instead of requiring voters to sign in on a precinct register, will have many of them swiping their licenses like credit cards instead. “This is a real, real popular piece of equipment,” McFall said. “You’re going to see it in every one of the counties in the next five years. We were waiting for all the little chinks to be worked out of it.”

Colorado: Arapahoe County completes successful test of Web-based voter check-in | Littleton Independent

The Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder’s Office completed a “stress test” Aug. 3 to determine the viability of using a web-based voter check-in system in the 2011 Coordinated Election. The goal of the test was to determine whether the county would be able to successfully connect to SCORE, the Colorado Secretary of State’s web-based pollbook of all registered voters, from 17 Vote Center locations on Election Day, Nov. 1, 2011.

“The stress test simulated an Election Day scenario, with a large number of voters being artificially checked in at our 17 vote center locations at once in order to place strain on the SCORE server and our network connections,” said Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty. “Our systems handled the volume beautifully with no major issues with connectivity or download speeds. We plan to move ahead using the web-based pollbook starting this year, instead of the inches-thick paper pollbooks we have used for decades.”

Kenya: Parliament backs motion on electronic voting in Kenya | Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Parliament has Wednesday given the nod to compel the executive facilitate the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission develop a modern electronic system. The system will legalize electronic voter registration in all polling stations in the country up to the national level in readiness for electronic voting come 2012. The motion sponsored by Karachuonyo MP Eng. James Rege, unanimously…

Virginia: State weighs in on Montgomery County Virginia vote flap | Roanoke.com

The state board of elections wants Montgomery County election officials to have more training in using electronic poll books and provisional ballots to prevent a repeat of mishaps that occurred in November’s elections.

The state board on Wednesday signed off on a letter censuring Montgomery County Registrar Randy Wertz and the three members of the county electoral board who were serving during the Nov. 2, 2010, election, when some voters were allowed to cast ballots without having their registration verified. The letter formalizes the state board’s April 29 decision to issue a censure based on findings by the state attorney general’s office.

Virginia: Montgomery County Virginia electoral officials meet with Attorney General’s office about voting irregularities | roanoke.com

The entire electoral leadership of Montgomery County met Tuesday with state investigators to discuss voting irregularities that took place nearly five months ago. State officials are trying to determine whether any laws were broken when normal voting procedures broke down in the Nov. 2 election. As expected, investigators interviewed election officials Tuesday at the County…