South Carolina: Audit shows Richland, Colleton Counties had most 2010 ballot problems | TheState.com

State election officials have finished a county-by-county review of the November 2010 vote, concluding that Richland County was one of the biggest offenders in miscounting those general-election ballots.

The eight-month auditing process determined that “human error” was the culprit in mistakes made in “a number of counties” across South Carolina, said Chris Whitmire, assistant director of the S.C. Election Commission. The discrepancies would not have changed the outcome of any race or issue, Whitmire said.

Conducting the audit forced state officials to develop a new computer program that counties can use to identify specific problems in data collection from the touchscreen machines. The state has been using the machines for six years. “We think future elections are going to be better because of it,” Whitmire said.

Mississippi: Poll-worker error led to incorrect ballot style in Mississippi Primary | SunHerald.com

Complaints of voters receiving the incorrect ballot during the Aug. 2 primary election has been attributed to an error on the part of poll workers. Circuit Clerk Vickie Hariel said during the election she received a call from a candidate that a voter at the Carriere precinct did not get the proper ballot, and could not vote for the proper justice court judge.

Going to the precinct, Hariel diagnosed the problem as poll workers encoding voting cards with the wrong information. In the Gumpond precinct a similar situation occurred, with voters receiving incorrect ballots for the superintendent of education. That problem was caused by a poll worker incorrectly clearing out a voting card that was used by a previous voter.

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.

Mississippi: Lewis likely new Hinds sheriff | The Clarion-Ledger

Tyrone Lewis is expected to be certified this week as the winner in the Hinds County sheriff’s race, but questions remain about the election’s validity, and many suspect the results will be challenged.

The county’s Democratic Executive Committee completed its review of ballots Saturday, and it appears incumbent Sheriff Malcolm McMillin did not get enough votes to push the race into a runoff.

But with questions over voting machine numbers, found ballots and other alleged inconsistencies, McMillin’s team isn’t ready to give up the fight.

“Nobody here knows what the numbers are,” McMillin’s son, Andrew McMillin, said Saturday at the Hinds County Courthouse. “Nobody in here knows what the outcome of this election is today.”

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.”

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.

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.

Mississippi: Major races left off ballots | WLBT 3

Issues started to arise at polling places in and around Jackson shortly after the polls opened at 7:00 A.M.  In some instances, voters were turned away from the polls because they didn’t open on time. In one precinct, three of the biggest races were left off of the ballots.

There’s a significant issue for voters voting at the Wynndale Presbyterian church in Byram.  “Our chief problem right now is that we had two races left off the machine, the Sheriff’s race and the Governor’s race on the Democratic machine,” says Virginia Terry, a Democratic Receiving and Returning Manager.

The ballots on the Republican ballot weren’t correct either. The Lieutenant Governor and Governor were left off that ballot.  Election officials say the ballots were checked numerous times prior to the primary, but something obviously went very wrong. Terry says, “that’s how the machines came from the courthouse that’s how we got them from the courthouse they were already here when we got here so whatever problem it was we don’t know if it was in transition.”

Voting Blogs: New federal case says voting machines aren’t “facilities” under ADA; might the answer change as elections do? | PEEA

On July 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued a new opinion in American Association of People with Disabilities v. Harris, a case originally brought in 2001 by plaintiffs alleging that the State of Florida had failed to acquire voting machines to accommodate voters with disabilities.

The case has had a long and eventful trip through the federal courts – and appeared to be finished in May 2010 when the 11th Circuit issued an opinion dismissing the case on the grounds that plaintiffs lacked a private right of action (translation for non-lawyers – a right to sue directly as opposed to relying on government enforcement) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Editorials: Election certainty needs a put-it-on-paper foundation | Tri-State Defender

Recently, you ran articles of an interview with the Shelby County Election Commission’s Chairman and Secretary in the Tri State Defender’s July 14, 2011 and July 21, 2011 editions. During those interviews, Chairman Robert Meyers, while admitting the voting machines are hackable, indicated that he did not believe that hacking or other manipulation was the case with the August 2010 elections. He stated that he believed that “demographics” explained the losses by those who were claiming something improper happened. The inference was that those nine Democrats who lost did so because the traditional Democratic voters did not turn out.

Further in the article, Secretary Norma Lester states that in essence since everything is politically balanced that it is very unlikely that any improper action would take place. As a former Election Commissioner (2 ½ years) and a plaintiff in both the 2006 and 2010 election contest challenges, I feel compelled to challenge these perspectives.

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.’

Indiana: Election challenge dismissed in Clarksville clerk race | News and Tribune

Clark Circuit Judge Daniel Moore dismissed a case that had been filed by Clarksville Clerk-Treasurer Gary Hall, which claimed Election Day irregularities due to a lack of handicap accessible voting machines at the polls on May 3.

Moore’s decision was a win for Bob Leuthart, who defeated Hall in the Democratic primary by 24 votes. Hall was challenging the results of the election because handicap accessible machines around the county were out of commission on Election Day. A bench trial, which took only about an hour, took place on Friday morning.

John Vissing, Hall’s attorney, based his case on the fact that federal laws passed as a part of the Help America Vote Act require such machines at each polling location. The Clark County Election Board conceded that the machines were not functional.

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.

Texas: Harris County buying new voting machine warehouse | Houston Chronicle

Harris County is buying a building to house voting machines and other equipment that will replace a warehouse destroyed by fire last August. The $4.35 million purchase of a facility on Todd Road near the intersection of Hempstead Highway and 34th is expected to close this month, said John Blount, director of architecture and engineering.

After a renovation, the building will house voting machines, the County Clerk’s archives, Tax Assessor-Collector’s distribution center and perhaps records of several justices of the peace and other county departments.

“Me and my team, we just worked our butts off finding the best possible replacement location,” Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart said. “Online we looked at over 100 places. In person I know I looked at at least three or four dozen. We scoured the county trying to find the best deal for the taxpayers.”

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).

New Jersey: Judge wants expert witness, voting machine docs in Fairfield case | NJ.com

On its face, the voting irregularities stemming from Primary Election day in Fairfield Township looked like a simple switch-up. Democratic Executive Committee candidates Ernest and Cynthia Zirkle questioned the total votes they received. Upon research, it became clear they weren’t alone in doubting touch-screen Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machines.

Superior Court Judge David E. Krell ruled Monday the Cumberland County Board of Elections must make available a number of documents tied to the voting machine used on June 7.

“The voting machine isn’t going to tell you anything,” said Krell of inspecting the Sequoia machine used at the polling place. However, the associated documentation produced by the machine during the programming process was of interest to him.

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.

New Jersey: Vote count bug found; county blames software – ES&S iVotronic | New Jersey Herald

Primary Day problems in Sussex County were not a matter of the votes counting, but of counting the votes. Computer experts have traced the problem with Sussex County’s election results on Primary Day to a bug in the software used to tabulate votes.

Marge McCabe, administrator for the county Board of Elections, said Friday that she received a verbal report from Elections Systems and Software that the problem had been traced to programming. “I’m relieved there was no problem with the voting machines nor our procedures,” she said. “The problem was not in voting, but in tabulating.”

A full written report on what the ES&S experts found is expected soon.

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.

New Jersey: “Human error” found in Fairfield New Jersey election results | NJ.com

A supposed malfunction of the problematic and much-debated Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machines is being chalked up to human error. Results from Primary Election day last month puzzled two candidates who expected the exact opposite. Less than a month later, there’s a line in the sand being drawn between a second election and inspection of the voting machine itself.

“On Election Day, the votes cast for Candidates Vivian and Mark Henry registered for Candidates Cynthia and Ernest Zirkle, respectively,” read a statement addressed to all affected by the Democratic County Committee election in Fairfield.

According to documents provided to The News, Cumberland County Board of Elections Director Lizbeth Hernandez takes responsibility and regrets a pre-election programming error. Attached to a legal petition filed by the Zirkles were 28 affidavits from voters swearing they supported the two candidates. Those 28 votes of the 43 total cast on June 7 make up the majority.

Namibia: Parties endorse voting machines in Namibia | New Era

There seems to be general consensus on both sides of the country’s political divide about the introduction of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN). The ECN announced on Friday the purchase of EVMs to the tune of about N$22 million from India, to all but kick off a new era of voting in the country.

The sometimes-mediocre conduct of elections, as pointed out by Judge President Petrus Damaseb in his electoral judgment earlier this year, could be a thing of the past with the introduction of this new technology. And all parties that New Era spoke to yesterday agreed in unison that with EVMs in place, whoever cries foul after elections could be rightly dubbed a “crybaby”.

According to the manual published by the ECN about how the EVMs work, “there is no scope for invalid votes”, while “total secrecy of voting data is maintained”.

Texas: State Supreme Court: no e-voting paper trail required | Ars Technica

A group of Texas voters seeking to stop the use of paperless electronic voting machines reached a dead end on Friday; the Texas Supreme Court ruled that their suits could not proceed without evidence that they have been personally harmed.

Texas has been using direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines for more than a decade. In 2006, a coalition of voters led by the Austin NAACP sued to stop Travis County from using the eSlate, a DRE machine made by Austin-based Hart InterCivic. (Hart does offer a printer as an optional component of its system.) The voters claimed the machines were insecure and did not allow meaningful recounts.

Travis County disagreed. In a FAQ on the county’s voting website, officials answered questions about paper trails and security.

Tennessee: Secretary of State Haggett Shares NNCSVote Concerns | Daily Courier-Observer

A Norwood resident told Norwood-Norfolk School Board members last week that he still had concerns about the close results during this year’s school budget vote.

“I have some concerns relative to the overwhelming vote, the two votes that passed the budget last month,” Robert Haggett said. “It concerns me that a budget of this size can pass by two votes. That certainly doesn’t constitute much of a majority.” The district’s $19.2 million spending plan, which called for a 5.82 percent tax levy increase, passed by a razor-thin 288-286 margin during the May school budget vote.

However, 581 district residents went to the polls and 22 ballots were voided because the residents did not vote “yes” or “no” on the voting machine for one of the propositions or their votes did not register in the machine, District Clerk Barbara Halpin said.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh Nationalist Party attacks Electronic Voting Machines, e-vote | bdnews24.com

Opposition BNP has attacked the electronic voting machine (EVM) as ‘a key tool to rig vote’ and said the government plans to introduce e-voting to doctor up election results. Acting secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir inveighed against the EVM and e-voting at a workshop titled ‘Electronic Voting System’ organised by Centre for National Studies (CNS) at BRAC Centre Inn Auditorium at Mohakhali in the city on Tuesday.

“As part of its design, the government has abolished the caretaker government system through the 15th Amendment to the constitution. Their objective is to change public verdict by holding the next parliament election under the elected government.”

Fakhrul said the initiative to introduce EVM was a part of that government plot.

India: District Election Officer says electronic voting machines were not tampered | DNA

The deputy district election officer (DEO), Apurva Wankhede, has refuted allegations of political parties that some of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered with during the counting of votes.

The election for the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) Chatuhshrungi Mandir ward’s by-election was held on Sunday. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, Congress and an independent candidate had made the allegations.

Bangladesh: Electronic Voting Machines likely in N’ganj city polls | The Daily Star

The Election Commission (EC) plans to introduce electronic voting machine (EVM) experimentally in the Narayanganj City Corporation polls. The EC will hold the election within 180 days after formation of the corporation, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda said yesterday.

The government on May 5 declared the Narayanganj municipality as Narayanganj City Corporation and appointed its administrator on June 23 this year. As per the law, the election should be held before November 5.

The CEC said voters will get to know the system if it is introduced in different local government polls before the general election, which is due in 2014.

New Jersey: Voting machine fears hit home in Cumberland County | NJ.com

It’s been a while since concerns about the reliability of voting machines made news. It was a hot topic in the early 2000s, as worries over flimsy punchcard ballots (Remember the hanging chads?) gave way to concern about the reliability of electronic voting machines.

Electronic voting machines are the standard these days, but the lingering questions about reliability bubbled back to the surface locally this week with questions over a recent contest in Fairfield.

The race for Democratic executive committee featured Cindy and Ernie Zirkle against Vivian and Mark Henry. The Zirkles lost, according to the official tally, with Cindy getting 10 votes and Ernie a mere 9. Oddly, 28 Fairfield residents have signed affidavits declaring that they cast votes for the Zirkles.

The Sequoia AVC Advantage Direct-Recording Electronic Voting Machine was not operating properly, according to a petition filed by the Zirkles’ attorney.