The UK’s parliamentary election was a Florida style election nightmare. Thousands of UK voters turned away from polling stations. Shortage of ballot papers, not enough poll workers, & inaccurate poll lists were just some of the causes. “Here we are giving an example which would shame countries that are just starting their democracies.” ~ David Dimbleby with BBC…Fed lawsuit filed to block CA special election…ACLU Urges FL Gov. Crist to Veto HB 131; Bill Would Further Disfranchise Voters With Disabilities…Some Putnam Co TN voters used paper ballots when electronic machines failed…
All this and more in today’s voting news below…
AR: 1/3 of all Arkie votes expected during ‘early voting’ period
http://www.nashvilleleader.com/articles/2010/05/04/news/02news.txt
AZ: State scrambling to correct polling places
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles/
2010/05/06/news/local/doc4be2694ad384c439158237.txt http://bit.ly/dttIUI
KINGMAN — More than 10,000 Mohave County households were given the wrong polling sites for the May 18 special election.
CA: Complaint Filed: CA Special Election Dates Will ‘Disenfranchise Latinos’ As Well as Troops http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7828
CA: “CALIFORNIA COUNTIES OPPOSE SCHEDULING OF SPECIAL ELECTION”
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015921.html
CA: Lawsuit seeks to delay special election for Maldonado’s Senate seat
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_15032275?nclick_check=1
FL: ACLU Urges Gov. Crist to Veto HB 131; Bill Would Further Disfranchise Voters With Disabilities
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform/message/13485
FL: Sarasota Co Commissioners request Gov Crist Veto CS/CS/HB131
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electionreform/message/13469
The bill would delay by an additional four years – until 2016 – the right of voters with disabilities to vote on reliable paper ballot voting machines. This is a full eight years after legislation – praised by Governor Crist in 2007 – gave that right to all other Florida voters.
GA: Bartow To Try Voter ID Pilot Project
http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2010/05/bartow-to-try-voter-id-pilot-p.html
…Secretary of State Brian Kemp says they’ll take part in a pilot project that scans the bar codes on the backs of drivers licenses and state ID’s as a quicker way to input the voter’s information.
HI: State Elections Officials ‘Unable’ To Release Voter Names
Mail-In Voters’ Names Being Kept Secret
http://www.kitv.com/news/23471336/detail.html
(System not set up to provide daily updates on mail in votes)
ID: Audit finds 179 more votes in Tippecanoe County * (paperless Diebold TS)
http://www.jconline.com/article/20100506/ELECTION01/100506018
Election workers forgot to include one voting machine card during Tuesday’s count,
(article calls this an audit but it sounds more like canvassing of materials)
MI: Barrow in court to remove Bing
http://www.michigancitizen.com/print_this_story.asp?smenu=1&sdetail=8584
DETROIT — Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow will present charges of fraud in last November’s mayoral election and ask that Bing be removed from office in a hearing May 10 before Wayne County Circuit Court’s Judge Isidore Torres.
NE: Software error forces ballots to be reissued * (ES&S M100/Automark)
http://www.omaha.com/article/20100505/NEWS01/705059871
A little more than 100 early voting ballots in Douglas County were sent without listing certain slates of candidates who are up for election, forcing the election office to send replacement ballots to affected voters.
Election Commissioner Dave Phipps said the back side of certain candidate ballots printed out blank, intermittently leaving off races for the Douglas-Sarpy County Learning Community, Metro Community College, Metropolitan Utilities District, Omaha Public Power District and Omaha Public Schools board.
NY: Paterson: No to special election
http://www.eveningtribune.com/homepage/x2084229484/Paterson-No-to-special-election
“After July I’m not allowed to call a special election. We have an issue regarding the absentee ballot for citizens serving in the military,” Paterson said. “My initial feeling is that it would also be very costly
OH: Few problems reported on light Election Day* (Fairfield Co, Diebold TSX)
http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/article/20100505/UPDATES01/100505020/Few-problems-reported-on-light-Election-Day…Tussing Elementary in Pickerington had restricted visitors
…
“A police officer stationed at the school escorted voters in and out of the building and to our knowledge no voters were turned away,”
…
The second problem of the day happened during vote counting Tuesday night.
Election officials said one memory card from Amanda from a voting machine had not worked in the downloading process.
“It had four or five precincts on the card,” said Brian Schwartze, elections information systems specialist for the elections board.
“But we have contingencies planned for that type of problem,” Schwartze said.
There are three printed rolls created when people vote on the electronic machines.
“We were able to look at the printed voting rolls and then manually put in the vote totals from that memory card,” Schwartze said.
OH: Sheriff to probe elections website mishap
http://www.oxfordpress.com/news/election/sheriff-to-probe-elections-website-mishap-690632.html?showComments=true
The board’s computer servers crashed Tuesday night, leading to fears they were ‘under attack.’
“Some possibilities and causes could include intrusion from an outside source or could have been potential issues with the county website,” McGary said.
TN: Software glitch blamed for voting delay*(Putnam Co, Microvote Infinity DRE)
http://www.herald-citizen.com/view/full_story/7334726/article-Software-glitch-blamed-for-voting-delay?instance=homefirstleft
The software problem contributed to about an hour and a half delay at the start of the night. Later, after all the other votes had been tallied, the machine — which contained ballots from 592 early voters — had to be manually fed, a process that took another hour or so to complete.
…
At the Boma Community Center, she said, paper ballots were issued because of another problem with the machines. “I don’t know if they didn’t plug in the printers or didn’t plug in their voting machines, but it did back up some and that’s why they started using paper ballots,” Steidl said. “We buy a lot of paper ballots just in case something like that happens.”
TN: Update: Slight delay to some Knox results*(paperless Hart Intercivic eSlate)
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=120688&provider=rss
A problem with a voting machine at the Karns polling place has slightly delayed the final tally of Knox County primary results.
A JVC machine had to be replaced, so about 15 voters in line there had to fill out paper ballots in lieu of using the machine.
WV: Attorney will investigate voting irregularities (Lincoln Co)
http://www.dailymail.com/News/201005060795
National
“REPUBLICANS STRONGLY OPPOSE DISCLOSE ACT AT INITIAL CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON MEASURE” http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015922.html
Internet Voting Watch
Polling Problems Could Lead To e-Voting
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/polling-problems-could-lead-to-e-voting-6903
Pressure is building to introduce electronic voting in the UK, after some citizens were unable to take part in yesterday’s General Election
International
No ballots, long lines: UK election night snarls spur investigation
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0507/No-ballots-long-lines-UK-election-night-snarls-spur-investigation
Britons who queued for hours on UK election night were turned away as ballots ran short or polls closed before they could vote. An investigation is under way into logjams that could have an impact on an already muddled outcome
UK: Voters declare their anger as thousands are turned back at polling station door
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7118998.ece
Thousands of people were deprived of the right to vote last night as polling stations were unable to cope with demand and police opened investigations into allegations of electoral fraud..
UK: Blow-by-blow election liveblog: Election night
http://timesonline.typepad.com/election10/2010/05/blowbyblow-election-liveblog-election-night.html
…
voters being turned away by police in Hackney.
…
The Labour Party is now saying that 600 people were missing from the electoral roll in Chester, despite having registered.
UK: Polling station nightmares: send us your voter chaos stories
http://timesonline.typepad.com/election10/2010/05/chaos-at-polling-stations-as-voters-are-turned-away.html
UK: Final Tally, House of Commons
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/05/07/final-tally-house-of-commons/
UK: What is a hung Parliament?, The Telegraph (2010)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7689985/What-is-a-hung-Parliament.html
UK: Green Party Wins Seat in UK Parliament for First Time
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/05/06/green-party-wins-seat-in-uk-parliament-for-first-time/
UK: Take a look at UK’s first secret ballot box from 1872
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/WryVwsknTr-aa4IQ-ID9iQ
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