UAE: Federal National Council election process ahead of schedule says Gargash | Zawya

The preparations for the Federal National Council (FNC) elections, including the arrangements at polling stations and the fine tuning of the electronic voting system, are going on ahead of the schedule. This was stated by Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and FNC Affairs and Chairman of the National Election Committee (NEC), while addressing a preparatory meeting. Dr Gargash affirmed that the new FNC’s first session will start in the third week of October.

The National Election Committee (NEC) discussed the preparations of the Election Management Committee for the Federal National Council elections at the meeting chaired by Dr Gargash. He said, “After the list of candidates is announced, they can start campaigning within the regulations prescribed by the NEC.” It is not allowed to use public places for the campaign and no comments on other candidates will be tolerated, he asserted.

UAE: National Election Committee underlines broad participation in Federal National Council election | Khaleej Times

The National Election Committee (NEC) discussed the preparations of the Election Management Committee for the Federal National Council elections at the 7th committee meeting chaired by Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs and Chairman of the NEC.

The Committee discussed several aspects including the preparations for polling stations, the electronic voting system, and the registration of candidates to be held from August 14 to 17. Members of NEC, the Election Management Committee, chief editors of local newspapers and columnists attended the meeting.

New Jersey: Vote devices in New Jersey counties re-evaluated | Courier-Post

In the middle of a vast warehouse of Gloucester County voting machines last Wednesday, Gary Plummer replaced chips and resealed some of the 520 voting devices. Plummer’s Medford-based Election Support & Services Inc. has been contracted by several New Jersey counties — including Burlington and Camden — to help them comply with a controversial Superior Court order.

In February 2010, Judge Linda Feinberg ruled New Jersey’s11,000 voting machines be disconnected from the Internet and re-evaluated by a panel of experts, and that anyone who works with or on voting machines be subject to a criminal background check.

Feinberg’s order is being appealed by Rutgers University’s Constitutional Litigation Clinic and the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action, neither of which believes the court order goes far enough.

Canada: Tabulated voting machines for British Columbia election | Coast Reporter

As the November municipal election comes closer, the Town of Gibsons has finalized its voting procedure, although the process has turned out to be different than originally thought.

… Mayor Barry Janyk has been opposed to Town staff tasked with running this year’s election, citing the mishap in ballot counting in the 2008 vote, resulting in a changed election result as well as a court challenge. At previous meetings, Janyk said he “does not want to see the last election mistakes happen again.”

United Kingdom: Logica tests Scottish e-voting technology | ZDNet UK

Along with technology supplier Logica it held a dummy run to count 160,000 ballot papers in Perth on Friday. This was the latest stage in testing the system, which uses off-the-shelf software from Opt2Vote.

Aileen Campbell, the Scottish government minister for local government planning, said: “Compared to a manual count which would take at least two to three days, e-counting will be much faster and more transparent. This test is a crucial milestone in the project to make e-counting a reality in 2012.”

Logica is providing the programme management, training services, printing services and more than 40 project and count centre managers for the election under a contract awarded in October 2010.

Mississippi: Vote tally on Hinds sheriff race may be finished today | The Clarion-Ledger

Hinds County Democratic Party officials say they’ll do their best to wrap up absentee and affidavit ballot counts today, giving answers to several candidates whose races are up in the air. “We are trying to conclude this. I’m hoping we can conclude a lot of things Friday,” Hinds County Democratic Executive Committee Chairman Claude McInnis said Thursday night.

Meanwhile, in Madison County, Republicans continued to count ballots into the night Thursday. The results could determine the outcome of at least three GOP primary races. In one of the pending Hinds County races, a final count and certification of votes will show whether incumbent Sheriff Malcolm McMillin makes it into a runoff with Democrat Tyrone Lewis, former Jackson Police deputy chief.

Voting Blogs: How easy is it to rig the outcome of a New South Wales Australia Electronic Election? | Poll Blogger

Question need to be asked “Just how easy is it to rig the NSW Legislative Council election? The reality is its quite easy if you have access to the data file and no one else has copies of the data so a comparison cannot be made.

The NSW “Below-the-line” preference data fiels that habve just been released exclude preferences recorded as being informal. Votes where a preference has been omitted or duplicated. This could be as a result of a data-entry or voter error. Without access to the missing data it is impossible to verify the quality of the data recorded.

What’s even more scary is that if a person had access to the original data file they could easily run a simple query against the data set, removing preferences for a given candidate where that candidate has a higher preference than another candidate. The number of primary votes would still be the same but the ballot paper would exhaust during the count if the preference order had been altered in any way.

West Virginia: Counties will have to pay for voting machine maintenance | Charleston Daily Mail

Kanawha County commissioners will have to come up with $60,000 to $70,000 to pay for maintenance of electronic voting machines. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant’s office was in the process of negotiating a statewide maintenance contract with Electronic Systems and Software that could have reduced the cost for counties, Commission President Kent Carper said.

But, Carper believes the negotiations must have stalled and the counties around the state were left holding the bag. “And we have an election coming up,” he said. Warranties for the machines expire at the end of September.

Mississippi: Malfunction of machines puzzling | The Clarion-Ledger

A day after some electronic voting machines malfunctioned in Hinds County, the mystery remains. “Everyone I’ve talked to is baffled,” Hinds County Democratic Executive Committee Chairman Claude McInnis said Wednesday.

At Wynndale Presbyterian Church, the electronic ballot failed to include races for governor or lieutenant governor. The precinct switched to paper ballots that included all the races.

This is the first time McInnis said he has seen the problem with these machines. “On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give the machines a 7.5 to 8,” said McInnis, who also is executive vice chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party. Hinds County’s voting machines, which are about 10 years, are no longer manufactured. The company that made them, Advanced Voting Solutions, is out of business. Hinds County is the only county in Mississippi to use the system.

Editorials: Polls: Voting problems inexcusable | The Clarion-Ledger

The types of problems experienced by voters at the polls Tuesday – machines not working, names missing from the ballots, lack of workers – are inexcusable. Mistakes happen and that seems to be the attitude of party officials in charge of the primary election. Well, no. They shouldn’t happen, not with elections.

Finding out at 7 a.m. on Election Day that a voting machine is not working properly or there is a malfunction that can’t be immediately fixed simply shows lack of preparation and ability to properly conduct an election. Not having enough poll workers or, worse, no poll workers to staff a precinct shows an inability to do the job.

Mississippi: Poll workers struggle to obtain results | The Natchez Democrat

Primary county election results came close to remaining incomplete this morning. At approximately 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the election commission found themselves unable to extract poll results from two polling machines — one from the bypass fire precinct and one from the Pine Ridge precinct, Election Commissioner Larry Gardner said.

Precincts report their numbers to the courthouse via memory cards that are inserted into polling machines at the beginning of each Election Day, and for whatever reason, Gardner said, these two machines’ cards were faulty.

Data was recovered from the internal archives of the machines shortly after the problem was discovered, and Gardner said there’s no chance any result would have been skewed because of the mishap.

India: Gujarat panchayat poll: Ballot boxes back in fashion | DNA India

The State Election Commission (SEC) may have encouraged online voting during the municipal elections but it is going back to ballots and boxes for the polls to be held in more than 11,000 gram panchayats later this year.

Sources in the SEC indicated that the commission doesn’t have enough electronic voting machines (EVMs) to conduct the gram panchayat elections. “The commission is considering various options to conduct the elections and has not yet taken a final decision. There are not enough EVMs in the state to hold elections in more than 11,000 gram panchayats of Gujarat,” an official said. The official further said that there are currently around 40,000 EVMs in the state which can be used to conduct the gram panchayat elections.

Sri Lanka: Plans to introduce electronic voting in Sri Lanka | SundayTimes.lk

Fanning the flame of speculation regarding an electronic voting system for Sri Lankans, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga publicly stated last week that the Government planned to introduce such a system in a bid to promote “democratic engagement” among citizens.

Making this comment as the keynote speaker at a recent event on electronic governance, the two-day FutureGov Forum Sri Lanka 2011, which was held in Colombo; he also asserted that the “whole idea of expediting government processes is to save time of citizens.

It also saves time for the public servant. The additional time available for citizens can be therefore spent productively – to engage with family members, community and voluntary work and more importantly, to live a contented life, the dream of every human being.”

India: Setback to Election Commission as India paper trail pilot poll reports errors | menafn.com

In a setback to the Election Commission (EC), its pilot poll conducted on Sunday to establish a paper trail for electronic voting machines (EVMs) reported significant errors.

Preliminary results of the EC pilot poll indicated discrepancies between votes polled in EVMs and the paper trail, according to three people involved and familiar with the testing process. Two of them are EC officials who confirmed the mismatch, but did not give any more details. EC will release a comprehensive report on the pilot poll in a few days.

“Even a difference of one vote is not acceptable,” said one of the EC officials, who, like the other EC official familiar with the matter, asked not to be identified given the controversial nature of the findings.

India: New voting machine with paper trail tested | News One

Braving the rain, people Tuesday participated in a mock poll in Cherrapunjee, one of the wettest places on earth, using a new electronic voting machine that gives out a paper trail as proof of the voting. The simulated polling was held on the Voter Verifiable Paper Trial (VVPT) system. It was conducted by the Election Commission in 36 polling stations under Sohra assembly constituency.

‘I found the new voting machine much more transparent compared to the electronic voting machines,’ said Mary Queen Nongbri after exercising her vote in a VVPT system, developed by the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL).

Similarly, Wanropbor Umdor, who also tested the new VVPT system, said, ‘The new voting machine should replace the electronic voting machines to ensure free and fair voting.’

Texas: Senate Bill 100 May Change Voting in Municipal Elections | Examiner.com

Voting in Garland, TX and other cities in Dallas County has gotten a lot more complicated, thanks to Senate Bill 100. The Bill was introduced to the Texas Senate, passed by the Senate and House and was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on June 17.

Mary Kayser, Garland City Secretary said the purpose of the bill is to adopt voting procedures necessary to implement the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act) which is aimed at making the voting process easier and faster for military and overseas voters.

India: India, US to take fair poll practices to West Asia, Africa | TMCnet

World’s biggest democracies, India and United States, have joined hands to help building up strong electoral institutions in emerging democracies, especially in middle-east and Africa. As part of the collaboration, the Election Commission’s newly started International Institute for Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) and Washington DC based International Federation of Electoral Systems (IFES) will work together to strengthen election management capacity in the interested countries.

“We will be training officials from middle-east and African nations in conducting free and fair elections,” chief election commissioner SY Quraishi told HT, a day after US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in Chennai described the commission as a “gold standard” institution. Reaction to her statement, the CEC said, “We feel the credibility and reputation of Election Commission has gone beyond our boundaries”.

Russia: Russian Internet whistleblower goes to court over government failure to act | RIA Novosti

Russian blogger Alexei Navalny has asked a court to declare illegal the failure of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS)  to act in a case which involves state purchases of electronic equipment, an official said on Friday.

Navalny, who has become well known in Russia for using the Internet to lampoon the country’s ruling elite and expose high-level graft, said on his website he found violations in purchases of electronic voting systems for the Central Election Commission and filed a complaint to the FAS.

Sri Lanka: Additional officials to vulnerable stations – plans for electronic voting in Sri Lanka | DailyMirror.lk

The Elections Commissioner said yesterday that measures had been taken to deploy an additional number of officials to vulnerable polling stations located in areas where a high number of complaints concerning election violence had been reported.

Speaking at a media briefing held at the Elections Department yesterday, Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said that polling stations located in Kaduwela, Warakapola, Minuwangoda, Attanagalle, Wilgamuwa and Chilaw would receive special attention, and the presence of Elections Department officials in those places would be increased.

India: Electronic Voting Machines – Field trial of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system in five locations in India | All Voices

The Commission vide its Press Note dated 14th June, 2011, announced the details of the conduct of field trial of the VVPAT system in simulated election in the districts of Leh (Jammu & Kashmir), Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala),Cherrapunjee i.e. East Khasi Hills (Meghalaya), East Delhi District (NCT of Delhi) and Jaisalmer ( Rajasthan).

In wider fulfillment of the objectives of the field trial, the Commission has requested the National and State Parties to extend necessary cooperation by getting involved in the trial process actively and also witness the trial in order to have a first hand experience of the system.

UAE: Voting machines for UAE Federal National Council elections | Khaleej Times

The Federal National Council (FNC) elections this year would use the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) as part of a series of reforms introduced in the election process.

“The voting would be done using EVMs for the first time in the region. The system is fast, efficient and reliable and hence it is being introduced as we want to keep pace with modern facilities to improve the level of accuracy,” said Dr Saeed Mohammed Al Ghafli, Assistant Undersecretary for the Federal National Council Affairs in the Ministry of State for Federal National Council, as he spoke to the electoral college during an awareness lecture at Dubai World Trade Centre on Tuesday.

He said the voting system would be unique and progressive, in a way connecting with the youth who are a major part of this election.

India: Shillong to host first test for advanced Electronic Voting Machines | DNA

None of the existing MLAs will feel the threat of losing their seats even as candidates from all parties will be out on the electoral battlefield to woo voters as ballots will be cast in Cherrapunjee on July 26.

Confused? This will just be a mock polling exercise to be conducted in Sohra and Shella constituencies of Cherrapunjee just to test the efficacy of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system, a new technology which verifies the recording of votes in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

Kenya: Kibaki and Odinga to set up new Electoral Commission – no electronic voting in Kenya in 2012 | Individual.com

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have just two days to set in motion the mechanism that will give the country a new Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

… Mr Hassan said the commission is working on rules and regulations that will require political parties to reserve some seats for women candidates only during nominations. This will help attain the gender ratios set by the new Constitution.

He also said the commission will use a manual voting system in 2012 elections. This ends speculations that Kenya could have electronic voting in next year’s elections.

 

Bangladesh: Chief Election Commissioner frustrated over Dhaka City Corporation election delay | The Daily Star

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr ATM Shamsul Huda yesterday expressed his frustration over the government’s dilly-dallying approach on holding the long overdue Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) poll.

“Government’s attitude indicates that they have no headache to hold the election,” he said during a dialogue with Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB) on electoral reform at the commission’s secretariat in the city.

The last DCC election was held in early 2002 and its tenure expired on May 14, 2007. Election Commission (EC) already approached the government three times to hold the election but there was no satisfactory response, he said.

Russia: Russians abroad to vote via electronic devices | Voice of Russia

December 4 will see parliamentary elections in Russia. However, Russian citizens who are now living and working abroad will also have a possibility to vote. On December 4, polling stations will open in all countries with which Russia has diplomatic relations. For the first time, they will be equipped with a technical novelty – electronic devices which will ease the procedure of voting and calculating the votes.

In total, there are over 1.7 mln Russian citizens abroad now – at least, those who are registered by consulates, – mostly, in former Soviet republics, Israel, the US and Europe. However, polling stations will appear in all countries with which Russia has diplomatic relations.

The main novelty of the electronic voting devices is that with them, you don’t need any paper bulletins. At the polling station, you get a plastic card and insert it into the device. On a sensor screen, the names of the candidates appear, and you just press the name of the one you’ve chosen. After that, the device gives you something like a reciept which confirms that you have voted.

Florida: Florida Election Servers Hacked Again | InformationWeek

For the second time in a week, a hacker has broken into systems connected with voting in Florida, stolen data, and released it to the public. The most recent breach occurred after Florida election officials had touted the security of their systems. “Glad you cleaned things up, pretty secure now guys,” said the hacker responsible for the attack–who goes by the name “Abhaxas”–in a post to Pastebin uploaded on Thursday. That post also contained data obtained during the second hack.

We spoke with Chris Sather, Product Management for Network Defense at McAfee about McAfee’s next generation firewalls that analyze relationships and not protocols.

Via Twitter, Abhaxas said that hacking into the servers–using well-known and what would be easy-to-close holes–took him about 10 minutes. Furthermore, he said he had access to all 310 databases on the server, though only publicly released information from two of them.

Nevada: Secretary Of State Rejects Requests For Mail Ballot Only Precincts For Special Election | Nevada News Bureau

Secretary of State Ross Miller has denied requests from Esmeralda and Nye counties to expand the number of mail ballot only precincts in their counties for the special election to fill the 2nd Congressional District seat set for Sept. 13.

While both counties claimed they would realize modest cost savings by designating more mail ballot only precincts, Miller said his overriding concern is the integrity of the election process.

“This election is already on a greatly expedited timeline,” Miller said. “My first and foremost objective is to conduct an error-free election and I’m concerned that unknown challenges are likely to arise in implementing a new and different process in such short order.”

Philippines: Comelec warned vs new tech for 2013 polls | ABS-CBN News

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday cautioned the Commission in Elections (Comelec) against pushing through with a plan to use new technology for the 2013 elections, with an alleged cheating operator leading the poll body.

Cayetano said having election lawyer Sixto Brillantes as Comelec chairman raises doubts about the intentions behind changing the technology used during the first nationwide automated elections in 2010.

Kenya: State goes hi-tech with launch of online data in Kenya – IBM to Help Set Up New Vote System‎ | Business Daily

Technology giants are scrambling to help Kenya digitise its processes to increase access to public information entrenched in the new Constitution. Internet giant Google has just unveiled an online access of more than 2,000 copies of the Hansard, a collection of parliamentary debates that date back to the past four decades, weeks after it did the same with the Kenya Gazette.

Another US tech giant, IBM has also announced that it is partnering with the government to propose a framework to support the development of an electronic voter masterplan, months after its delegation volunteered to boost operations of the Postal Corporation of Kenya, in what is emerging as a departure of the tech firms eying to grow their presence in the country from their heavy reliance on the private sector.

Kenya: 2012 could be an electronic voting year in Kenya | Capital FM Kenya

The country may next year start full scale electronic voting after a team of international consultants arrived in Nairobi to assist in developing a master plan for e-voting in line with the Constitution. The team from IBM’s Corporate Service Corps Programme will volunteer their expertise for the next four weeks after which they will present findings and a plan to the government.

“IBM is partnering with the Government of Kenya to propose a framework that addresses Kenyan voting challenges,” said IBM Country General Manager Anthony Mwai.

“Our consultants will review the experience of the recent electronic voter registration pilot and compare this with global e-voter frameworks and evolving standards,” he added.