1000s Of Legal Voters Disenfranchised-Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed 1/2/08

[kpete]

1000s Of Legal Voters Disenfranchised-Election Reform, Fraud & News Wed 1/2/08



“Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters,” according to USA Today.

Legal voters thrown off rolls
Database woes could be 'sleeper issue of 2008'

By Richard Wolf
USA TODAY

Five years after passage of a federal law to create electronic registration databases to deter voter fraud, the new technology is posing hurdles that could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters, a USA TODAY examination finds.

From Florida to Washington, voters have been challenged because names or numbers on their registration forms did not exactly match other government databases, such as Social Security and motor vehicle agencies. "We know that eligible people have been thrown off the rolls," says Justin Levitt, a lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

The databases are only as good as the information fed into them by applicants and election officials. That can lead to human errors as well as variations from state to state. Colorado, for instance, knocked nearly 20% of its voters off the rolls between the 2004 and 2006 elections. Arkansas purged 3%, according to Election Assistance Commission data.

Voters who have problems at the polls can cast "provisional" ballots. Election officials rule later whether those votes were properly cast and should be counted. But even that backup system varies greatly from state

more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080102/1a_lede02.art.htm

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[Bitwit1234]

1. Rove is still working isn't he?

Wonder who is paying him....I have heard of some evil people but he has more dirty tricks in his mind that anybody you know of....gensus, hell no. Just one common, sorry ass bottom of the barrel.

And since "spell check" can't spell check the information typed into a computer if the computer doesn't know the spelling of or the combination of, numbers, than how in heck can all and every piece of information put into the computer be correct.

We all know the problems we have in mundane actions with the wrong info in the computer, what in the devil do you think happens when some of your vital statistics get screwed up. AND you don't know the difference. If your address was typed wrong, and you didn't get your registration application, how do you know it is wrong. If you telephone number was wrong and you didn't get the call, how do you know it was wrong. Do you understand what I mean...the statement, the computer is a correct as the information put in it. And how do we know the information, in some cases wasn't deliberatly wrong.

[kpete]

2. What Older Adults Can Teach Us About Designing Better Ballots"

What Older Adults Can Teach Us About Designing Better Ballots"



http://www.hfes.org/web/PubPages/EID-Jastrzembski-Eldervoters.pdf

[kpete]

3. Your Incredible Neighbors: Local expert on politics specializes in voting theory

Your Incredible Neighbors: Local expert on politics specializes in voting theory

Arnie Urken
By Ellen Sussman, Special to the Green Valley News
Published: Wednesday, January 2, 2008 1:16 AM MST

It was Urken’s wife, Maddy, who discovered Arizona on business trips. After looking at locations throughout the state, when it was time to leave the East Coast, he said, it took only a few minutes for them to decide on Green Valley.

Defining his specific area of expertise, Urken said, “My field is political science specializing in voting theory; I have a theoretical interest in voting.”

Urken said the people who run elections in the U.S. tend not to understand theories; hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to manipulate people to vote this way or that.


Regarding the 2000 presidential election, Urken believes that history can indeed repeat itself, that there were a lot of errors in 2004 as well, some of which were malicious.

“The punch card systems didn’t work, cards jammed, no one was watching … The reason “chad” technology failed is the metal and the cardboard were said to be inferior. The machines were ‘off patent’; there’s a definite need for standards.”

Asked what safeguards are in place for 2008, Urken said what’s different now is that people know there are failings.

http://www.gvnews.com/articles/2008/01/02/news/news04.txt

[kpete]

4. Voting machines: what it all means

Voting machines: what it all means

January 02, 2008
On Dec. 17, Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman declared many of Colorado's electronic voting machines "Decertified."

What does this mean and how does this affect Ouray County?

In 2002, Congress made sweeping reforms to the nation's voting process by passing Help America Vote Act, (HAVA). HAVA implemented many changes to how we vote. Just a few of these changes addressed were the implementation of Statewide voter registration systems, discontinuation of punch card or lever machines and the required use of Direct Record Electronic machines (DREs) for the disabled communities to be able to vote independently, and in compliance with the Americans with Disablities Act.

In 2006, all 64 counties in Colorado purchased Electronic Voting Equipment. Ouray County purchased equipment from HART Intercivic, along with 46 other Colorado counties. At that time the HART equipment used was certified based on Federal and State mandates.

more at:
http://www.ouraynews.com/Articles-i-2008-01-02-169619.112113_Voting_machines_what_it_all_means.html

[kpete]

5. Paper trail on voting devices a bumpy road

Paper trail on voting devices a bumpy road
Elections officials contend machines are reliable; critics say jams are proof of flaws
MARK JOHNSON
[e-mail]

RALEIGH --The future of democracy in North Carolina will hinge on a paper wad fight.

The crumpled paper, in this case, is not the weaponry in the dispute, but the source of it.

North Carolina's elections are running on fresh machinery, 2-year-old voting mechanisms that have yet to be taken out for the performance run of a presidential election. Some of the equipment, including some machines in Mecklenburg County, has run into a jam -- paper jams, to be exact.

Elections officials have made adjustments and are contemplating more to reduce the clogs, but most contend that voters now have a system deserving of their trust. Advocates of a paper ballot say the equipment is fundamentally flawed, and the paper jams provide proof.

An electronic voting machine in Carteret County lost 4,400 votes in 2004, giving North Carolina its share of infamy that year. The disappearing votes prompted cries for a paper ballot that voters can verify, a demand from a public with vivid memories of the vote-counting controversies in Florida after the 2000 presidential election.

more at
http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/428180.html

[rumpel]

6. just kick'n

[Wilms]

7. Kick n/t