National: Simple steps could catch technical failures in vote counting | Palm Beach Post
Carolyn Crnich likes to be second-guessed: The registrar of voters in Humboldt County, Calif., scans every ballot and makes the election results available, online or on disk, so that anyone, anywhere, can count them. Community activists do just that. The result: 100 percent audits of the supervisor’s results, a sharp contrast to Florida, which limits vote counts to a small number of ballots in a single race. “I don’t like saying to my constituents, ‘Hey, just trust me,’ ” Crnich said. “Now, I don’t have to. Count them yourself, and if you find anything out of the ordinary, I want to know.” In 2008, the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project did find something out of the ordinary: 197 ballots dropped by machines. That led to an examination of the elections software used in Humboldt, about 200 miles north of San Francisco. So many problems were found, the system was decertified for use in California. It continues counting ballots in two Florida counties without incident, although a state Division of Elections advisory urged counties to get an upgrade. But elections supervisors shouldn’t get too comfortable with any system, experts say. Read More
Blogs: Overvotes: Phantoms of the Ballot Box | ReformNY
The New York State Board of Elections, New York City Boards of Elections, and voting machine manufacturer ES&S each released reports yesterday detailing the results of an investigation into the abnormally high numbers of lost votes attributed to “overvoting” in the South Bronx in 2010. The upshot is that a machine defect led to “phantom votes” on at least one machine used in the 2010 election, resulting in some candidates receiving more votes than they should have, and the choices of many more voters being voided when the machines detected both actual and phantom votes in the same contest. Now that the reports on how this happened are out, election officials must make sure that what happened in the Bronx in 2010 does not happen again in the future. Voting machines record overvotes when they detect more than one candidate selected for a contest. In such cases, no vote is recorded for any candidate in the overvoted contest, regardless of the voter’s actual intent. The Brennan Center first uncovered a high number of overvotes in the South Bronx while reviewing documents produced for discovery in a litigation it brought against the State and City. It published its findings in Design Deficiencies and Lost Votes; the report notes that in some election districts up to 40% of the votes cast did not count. Read More
National: Change to Ballot Request Form Angers U.S. Expats | NYTimes.com
The Pentagon office with responsibilities for assisting U.S. military and civilian overseas voters is issuing a new ballot-request form that requires civilian voters to make an all-or-none declaration either that they plan to return to the United States or have no intent of ever doing so. Expatriate groups say the choice is confusing and unfair, carries potential tax ramifications and could depress voting in ways that might affect close elections in November. The new form, the Federal Post Card Application, is issued by the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the agency legally charged to assist all overseas voters. It resides in the Pentagon. The form is used to help voters abroad register and obtain ballots. In the past, the form allowed a less absolute response — that the voter was either residing abroad “temporarily” or “indefinitely” — but the new form leaves civilian voters only these choices: “I am a U.S. citizen residing outside the U.S., and I intend to return,” or “I am a U.S. citizen residing outside the U.S., and I do not intend to return.” The Pentagon office says it needs the information to help election officials decide whether to send out just federal ballots or federal and local ballots. But expatriate groups say this forces people into a choice they do not want, and in some cases are unable, to make. Read More
Editorials: With Failures Rapidly Mounting, What Is Americans Elect’s End-Game? | AE Transparency
Having now been forced to cancel two primary ballots in a row due to the American electorate’sutter failure to respond to its spiel, Americans Elect may now be judged by any rational observer of the political scene to be an abject failure, and dead in the water. So what happens now? When Americans Elect’s predecessor, Unity08, failed similarly in 2008 (albeit much earlier in its existence, before a single ‘vote’ had been cast), that organization simply silently evaporated. That was really the only option available to Unity08’s leadership, because it was a worthless property: it was merely a thin web site, with no money behind it, and its founders had scattered to the four winds (many to their next failure, a ‘Draft Bloomberg’ initiative). So its operators simply abandoned it. Like a rusty old Buick up on cinder blocks in a weed-choked vacant lot, its twisted carcass had no significant scrap value. Read More
Both chambers of the state legislature have endorsed a bill to allow voters to register on Election Day, but some local registrars of voters are concerned about the proposal. The state Senate passed the bill 19-16 last week and the House of Representatives approved the measure on April 30 by a vote of 83-59. Both votes fell largely along party lines in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. The law will take effect in 2013. Republican lawmakers and some registrars have raised concerns about potential fraud and possible problems at the polls. Aleta Looker, the Democratic registrar in Cheshire, said allowing same-day registration also presents added costs. “Most towns are facing severe budgetary problems,” she said in testimony before the House of Representatives. “We are concerned about the cost of having this extra registering/polling place, which would have to be manned at nearly the same level as an actual polling place and have computer and telephone installations.” Read More
In California, 13 million people voted in the 2008 presidential race. But double-checking the result could have been as simple as looking at the right 96 ballots. Post-election audits in Florida are done with hand recounts of a sliver of ballots, taken from a few random precincts. They help identify widespread problems, as one did recently in Wellington, when it caught the fact that results for three races had been accidentally switched by Palm Beach County’s vote-counting software. But they tell you nothing about what happened in precincts that weren’t checked. In theory, a huge problem could go undetected. A new method of audit – developed by Philip Stark, statistics department vice chairman at the University of California, Berkeley – gets around that. Stark’s method works like an opinion poll, by looking at a random sample of ballots from across the race. The key word is random: The ballots have to be picked with precision, from a master list of every ballot cast. Once picked, only that ballot will do. The number of ballots reviewed depends on the margin of victory. Tighter races need more ballots. In California in 2008, Barack Obama won with 61 percent of the vote, so 96 ballots would do. If Obama had won with 52 percent, the state would have needed to check about 3,900 ballots, Stark said. Read More
Hawaii: Voter Registration Could Be Online By 2016 | Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaii voter registration forms display a logo that reads “Wikiwiki,” meaning quick or speedy in Hawaiian. But anyone who has registered has found the process doesn’t live up to its motto. Now, Hawaii might finally be able to make it easier to register — and tackle its dismal voter turnout numbers at the same time. The Office of Elections is set to get a major upgrade to its voter registration process under a bill just passed by state lawmakers. The measure, which still requires final approval from Gov. Neil Abercrombie, calls for $500,000 for the elections office to design an online voter registration system. The system would need to be in place for the 2016 elections. Read More
Indiana: Low voter turnout might be due to new technology | WLFI
It’s been a topic of discussion lately: low voter turnout for this year’s primaries. According to Tippecanoe County Clerk Christa Coffey, only 4,800 ballots were cast in early voting, which is only half the turnout from four years ago. Purdue Political Science Professor Jay McCann said there could be many reasons for the low turnout, but said one reason might be over looked: the new voting technology. “Sometimes the election machinery, there’s a kind of double edgeness there,” said McCann. “On the one hand, it’s more efficient, we know who’s winning, there might be some better reliability to it than hand counting. On the other hand, it is technology for some voters and it can be a little off-putting.” Yet, several voters, like John Richardson, said the new technology didn’t scare them off. Read More
New Hampshire: Opponents raise red flags about changes to voter ID bill | NashuaTelegraph.com
Those speaking for local election clerks, reform advocates and civil libertarians rang alarm bells Tuesday about proposed changes to a compromise voter ID bill. Senate Republicans had crafted a voter ID bill (SB 289) that won bipartisan support and appeared on its way to ending more than 15 years of political struggle over the issue. Unlike other failed voter ID bills of the past, this bill from Sen. Russell Prescott, R-Kingston, permits those without an ID to vote. Instead, those without ID would have to sign a challenged voter affidavit under penalty of perjury. This provision helped this bill win the support of both Secretary of State Bill Gardner and the state lobby for local town and city clerks. But Rep. Will Smith, R-New Castle, fashioned a nine-page amendment that made sweeping changes. The most significant would bump up the voter ID law’s effective date so it could be used for this November’s general election. Read More
Back in late February, I wrote about apparent problems with a voting machine in Bronx, NY – and outrage by the New York Daily News about those problems. Yesterday, I received an email from Doug Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, detailing the findings of a team of investigators attempting to re-create and diagnose the problem. It’s a nice window into the kind of detective work that election offices can and should be doing when things go wrong. Read More
North Carolina: Voter group sees spike in complaints about incorrect ballots | NewsObserver.com
The North Carolina Election Protection hotline, part of a nationwide voter education coalition coordinated by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, has fielded numerous calls from voters who were given a ballot without Amendment One at their polling sites, said Elizabeth Haddix, staff attorney with the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Civil Rights, which sponsored the hotline. A Triangle voter advocacy group says it has received numerous complaints from people who were given the wrong ballot while trying to vote Tuesday. The North Carolina Election Protection hotline, part of a nationwide voter education coalition coordinated by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, fielded calls from voters all day who were given a ballot without Amendment One at their polling sites, said Elizabeth Haddix, staff attorney with the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Civil Rights, which sponsored the hotline Tuesday. “We’ve certainly gotten a heavy volume of calls, many more than we expected in a primary,” she said. Read More
South Carolina: Ground gained to get 180 candidates back on primary ballot | TheState.com
The Senate could vote as early as Wednesday to allow 180 disqualified candidates back on the June primary ballot. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a measure today that would allow any candidate who attempted to file an statement of economic interest by April 20 back on the ballot. The deadline was March 30. The state Supreme Court booted candidates last week who failed to file a hard copy of the statement. The Senate put the new measure on the fast track by amending it to already approved House bill. The move also overrode objections to changing the law from state Sens. Jake Knotts and Robert Ford that could have stalled efforts to reinstate the challengers in state and local races. Knotts’ decision led to a brief shouting match after the meeting with Roxanne Wilson, the wife of U.S. Rep, Joe Wilson and sister of Suzanne Moore, a candidate for Lexington County clerk of court who was ousted off the ballot. Read More
West Virginia: Keith Judd: How the felon won | Politico.com
So how did a felon incarcerated in a Texas prison manage to win 41 percent of the Democratic primary vote against the president of the United States? For starters, Keith Judd was either clever or lucky enough to have filed for the ballot in the heart of Appalachia’s anti-Obama belt. West Virginia’s county-by-county numbers tell an interesting story: Judd defeated the incumbent president in 9 counties across the state, and held him under 60 percent in 30 of West Virginia’s 55 counties. Whatever other forces may be at work in the Appalachian opposition to Obama — the role of race has been debated since his 2008 run — it’s clear the administration’s energy policies played a big role in the president’s lackluster performance. Locally, it’s referred to as “the war on coal.” Read More
In mid-January, Wisconsin Democrats unloaded 128 cardboard boxes from the back of a moving truck outside the Government Accountability Board, which is just around the corner from the state capitol that served as a stage for last summer’s epic legislative fight over union bargaining rights. Democrats were optimistic about the boxes’ contents, reams of petitions to set in motion the process that will subject the state’s governor, Scott Walker, to a recall vote. When, two months later, the board formally accepted the petitions, they confirmed that the truck’s arrival had consummated a staggering feat of political organizing: 900,039 valid signatures collected by 35,000 unpaid volunteers over two months. That was well over one and a half times the number required to trigger a statewide recall ballot, and nearly matched the number of votes the Democratic nominee for governor received in 2010. Walker won that election with only 1.2 million votes cast in his favor. That math may herald the premature end of Walker’s term when he has to defend his office next month. (Democrats will select their nominee in a primary today.) But there’s a consolation for Republicans: They’re thrilled to get their hands on the petition documents, and the 900,039 names they believe will help them make sense of the state’s political geography on behalf of Mitt Romney this fall. Indeed, the boom in large-scale signature-gathering efforts—most visible in 16 different recall campaigns filed in Wisconsin over the past year, and similar efforts elsewhere in the Midwest—has fixed attention on a largely unmined source of political data that can help clarify fault lines in a difficult to gauge electorate. “They’ve just handed us the names of 900,000 people who are known, or are likely to be, anti-conservative voters. It’s a huge favor they’ve done.” says Rick Wiley, the political director of the Republican National Committee, which has 22 offices open in Wisconsin coordinating anti-recall efforts. “Without it you were stuck with somehow IDing these voters.” Read More
Editorials: Assessing Electoral Fraud in New Democracies: Refining the Vocabulary | IFES
While electoral fraud has been studied for decades, it has never been defined in a practical way that allows for its detection, deterrence and mitigation. In the third white paper in an ongoing series on electoral fraud, IFES presents a set of practical definitions that will help election managers, experts and observers to accurately identify and address the problem. Read More
Algeria: Algerians skeptical election will bring change | chicagotribune.com
Algeria’s authorities say a parliamentary election on Thursday is a stepping stone towards a more democratic state, but many people do not believe their promises, expect only marginal change and will stay away from polling stations. The north African country is under pressure to come into line with neighboring states, where “Arab Spring” uprisings last year pushed out autocratic leaders and are bringing hopes of genuine democracy for the first time. The vote is likely, for the first time in Algeria’s history, to make Islamist parties the biggest bloc in the 462-seat national assembly, say diplomats and analysts. That will be in keeping with a trend in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere since the “Arab Spring.” However, there is little chance that will lead to radical change: the Islamists who are expected to dominate are moderate and loyal to the ruling establishment. Several of their leaders are already ministers in the government. Read More
Egypt: SCAF backs embattled electoral commission | Ahram Online
Egypt’s ruling military council assured its support of the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) and their work in a press statement Wednesday, after Parliament moved to change the operating laws of the body tasked with managing the electoral process. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) affirmed its “full appreciation and trust in Egypt’s esteemed judiciary” and the commission and emphasised the necessity of “committing to the constitutional verdicts” and “non interference of a state authority in the work of the other.” The military council’s statement comes one day after a row erupted between the SPEC and the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament. On Monday, the electoral commission announced its intention to indefinitely suspend all its activities and postpone meetings scheduled for Tuesday with presidential candidates and media personnel. Read More