Election Reform and Related News, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008

[livvy]

Election Reform and Related News
Saturday, January 26, 2008




Your participation is most warmly encouraged and welcomed. Please feel free to:


*Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

*Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

*Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

*Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.


Recommendations for the Greatest Page are always welcomed. It's the link below.

[livvy]

1. Around the States n/t

[livvy]

2. PA Voters Seek Injunction to Block Purchase of ....Voting Systems

Pennsylvania Voters Seek Injunction to Block Purchase of Electronic/Touchscreen Voting Systems

By VoterAction
January 26, 2008
Cite Machines’ Inability to Verify Votes, Secretary’s non-compliance with law

Pennsylvania voters filed a motion today to block the purchase of electronic voting equipment citing Pennsylvania election code that requires all voting systems produce a “permanent paper record”. Three Pennsylvania counties, Lackawanna, Northampton and Wayne, must replace the voting system they were using, the AVS WINVote, because the Secretary recently decertified it for use in Pennsylvania after it was discovered the vendor had misrepresented the systems to testing authorities. The motion for preliminary injunction was filed in Commonwealth Court as part of a pending lawsuit, Banfield v. Cortes, originally filed in August 2006 which names Secretary of State Pedro Cortes as defendant and challenges the legality of all electronic and touchscreen voting based on the Pennsylvania election code.

Petitioners are seeking to prevent the future purchase of the 6 models of electronic voting systems at issue in Banfield v.Cortes until the legal challenges raised in the suit are decided. The six voting systems record voter’s choices directly to the computer; according to the suit, such “direct recording electronic” (DREs) voting systems do not create a permanent physical record of each vote and are not capable of a meaningful audit, both requirements of the Pennsylvania Election Code.

The AVS WINVote was decertified after it was discovered that the system violated several provisions of the Pennsylvania Election Code. The Secretary has told the three counties that it will reimburse them up to their original purchase price of the AVS WINVote system, approximately $4 million. If the Secretary continues to allow the these counties to purchase one of the DRE systems at issue in the lawsuit, the counties may have to discard yet a second electronic voting system after a trial on the merits in this case. “This motion aims to prevent the wasteful expenditure of taxpayer dollars on voting systems that do not have any way of verifying the votes cast on them,” said Marian K. Schneider, a Berwyn lawyer who represents the petitioners.

Petitioners assert that the Secretary’s process of examining voting systems and approving them for use in Pennsylvania is inadequate because it fails to detect flaws. Indeed, the original complaint catalogues numerous security and accuracy problems as well as violations of the Pennsylvania Election Code and the Pennsylvania Constitution. Recently the states of California and Ohio subjected their DRE voting systems to rigorous and thorough testing by outside computer science and electronic voting experts. In both states, the testing teams found severe security, reliability and workmanship defects. As a result, California has already decertified its DREs and Ohio’s Secretary of State has recommended that only paper ballots be used in the upcoming

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2730&Itemid=113

[livvy]

3. TX: ID Views Heat Up Voter Fraud Hearing

ID views heat up voter fraud hearing

Backers pressed on whether requiring proof at polls deters violators


12:00 AM CST on Saturday, January 26, 2008
By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has prosecuted 22 cases of voting or other election fraud in nearly six years, and none would have been prevented with a law requiring photo IDs at polling stations, officials from his office told state lawmakers on Friday.

Most involved mailed ballots, which were exempt from proposed photo ID bills that Republican lawmakers twice tried unsuccessfully to pass in Texas, and only one actually happened at the polls, said Eric Nichols, the state's deputy attorney general for criminal justice.

His testimony kicked off a contentious daylong hearing on voter fraud by the House Elections Committee. The hearing occasionally degenerated into shouting matches and accusations, with some witnesses near tears.

"I hope everyone brought their birth certificates and passports today, because we'll be asking about them," said committee member Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, one of the Texas House's leading opponents of "voter ID" laws. He asked Texas GOP Chairwoman Tina Benkiser for her identification during committee hearings last year.

>more

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/DN-voterid_26tex.ART.State.Edition1.37ee870.html

[livvy]

23. In N.J., No Paper Trail For Most Feb. 5 Primary Votes

Newsday.com
In N.J., no paper trail for most Feb. 5 primary votes
By CHRIS NEWMARKER

Associated Press Writer

8:41 AM EST, January 26, 2008

TRENTON, N.J.

With no paper trail to document their votes, the bulk of New Jersey residents will place their faith in technology as they choose presidential candidates in the Feb. 5 primaries.

New Jersey's polling places are run on more than 10,000 electronic, push-button machines. Voters press buttons to cast votes stored on the computers' memory. In most cases, voters aren't able to check paper receipts to verify the computers are properly recording their choices.

"You don't know if they're really working. You don't know if the right people are getting votes," said Penny Venetis, a clinical law professor at Rutgers School of Law in Newark who is representing voting rights groups that have sued the state over the machines.

New Jersey's voting machines were supposed to have voter verified-paper receipts by now, under a Legislature-imposed deadline. But lawmakers extended the deadline six months after New Jersey Institute of Technology researchers found flaws in paper printers for the machines.

Venetis thinks New Jersey should do what some other states have done: Get rid of its push-button machines and use optical scan machines, which process paper ballots filled out by hand.

more

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--votingmachines0126jan26,0,2074338.story

[livvy]

24. Back to the Future For N.Y. Voters

Back to the future for N.Y. voters
By Cara Matthews
Albany Bureau

ALBANY — Before lever machines were first introduced in the late 19th century and spread throughout the state and country, New York voters filled out paper ballots to elect leaders.

The practice was abandoned because of rampant fraud. Ballot-box stuffing was common. So was chain voting, in which a voter armed with a stolen, marked ballot cast it at the poll, sneaked out with a blank one and got money or liquor in exchange for giving it to the political appointee, said Bo Lipari of New Yorkers for Verified Voting. The process would continue throughout the day.


“This was a very common thing that political parties did,” he said.

A decision this week by the state Board of Elections makes it likely that people who have spent a lifetime pulling levers will be handed a pencil when they go to vote in 2009.
Election commissioners decided that the disabled would vote this fall on one of three ballot-marking devices — which have features like Braille and audio — and the marked ballots will be scanned into vote tabulators. They will decide later this year which machines will be available for the general public in 2009, but many believe counties will choose a compatible system — paper ballots that voters mark with pencils then scan into the system — rather than ATM-style touch-screen machines, the other major voting technology. They think counties would be reluctant to incorporate a new system and doing so could be cost-prohibitive

>more

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/NEWS01/801260354/1002

[livvy]

25. CT: SoS Says Safeguards For Computer Voting Are Strictest in Nation

Extra guards on voting system

Secretary of State says safeguards for computer voting are strictest in nation

By Neil Vigdor
Staff Writer

January 26, 2008

Connecticut, which uses the same voting machines blamed for discrepancies in the New Hampshire presidential primaries, has a number of added safeguards to prevent similar problems on Super Tuesday, state election officials said.

"We have many checks in place to ensure the integrity and security of the election process," Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said in an interview.

Bysiewicz said she had no reservations about using the fax-like machines known as the Accu-Vote system, which read blackened ovals on paper ballots that resemble standardized test answer sheets.

The new devices replaced mechanical lever machines throughout the state in the November municipal elections without any significant irregularities, Bysiewicz said.

But their accuracy has been called into question in New Hampshire, where one recount just ended and another is under way. Both were initiated by longshots from each party, though.

Under Connecticut law, election results from 10 percent of all voting precincts in the state must be audited, a mandate that was put in place when the switch to the new machines was made.

>more

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-votingjan26,0,2436484.story

[livvy]

28. Connecticut: VoTeR Center Audits Election Technology

Connecticut: VoTeR Center Audits Election Technology

By University of Connecticut School of Engineering
January 26, 2008
With the next presidential election just 10 months away, and increasingly negative press concerning the integrity of touch-screen voting machines, Connecticut residents may feel confident that their votes are not at the mercy of uncertain technology. In 2006, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz inked an agreement with a team of UConn engineering faculty to provide advice to the state regarding new voting technology and to assist in the certification and acceptance testing of the AccuVote Optical Scan (AV-OS) voting machines that Connecticut purchased to replace the old lever machines. These optical scan machines, which use voter-verified paper ballots, offer superior accountability and fewer opportunities for vote fraud versus the controversial touch-screen machines. (See our earlier story.)

Under the auspices of the Voting Technology Research (VoTeR) Center at UConn, the faculty team recently released the findings of their pre-election audit of the programming of memory cards used in AV-OS systems in the November 2007 elections. The team found that the memory cards were properly programmed for the election, and that the AV-OS systems used by Connecticut voters were correctly prepared for elections so long as poll workers accurately followed procedure.

The VoTeR Center team is made up of four faculty members from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering: Drs. Alexander Shvartsman (principal investigator), Aggelos Kiayias, Laurent Michel and Alexander Russell, assisted by engineering graduate students Andy See, Seda Davtyan, Karpoor Narasimha, Nicolas Nicolaou and Sotiris Kentros. The team's first audit was conducted as required under Public Act 07-194, An Act Concerning the Integrity and Security of the Voting Process. The VoTeR Center is also currently performing a post-election audit of the memory cards, along with an analysis of the hand-counted audit of 10% of the districts. The hand-counted audit, not conducted by the VoTeR Center, involves hand counting the ballot votes and comparing them against the results tabulated by the scanning machines.

Election Setup

The VoTeR Center technology audit began before the 2007 elections. Connecticut contracts with LHS Associates of Methuen, MA, a distributor/vendor associated with the voting machine manufacturer, Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold). LHS personnel program the memory cards that optical scan machines use to record the votes. The cards are programmed with the slate of candidates per office, and any ballot issues to be voted on within each district. After programming the memory cards, in advance of the elections LHS sends each district four identical, pre-tested cards.

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2731&Itemid=113

[livvy]

4. SC Primary n/t

[livvy]

5. NAACP Says It Will Increase S.C. Voting Scrutiny

Posted on Fri, Jan. 25, 2008
NAACP says it will increase S.C. voting scrutiny

The Associated Press
The NAACP said Thursday it will increase scrutiny of South Carolina Democratic primary voting Saturday to help avoid problems Republicans encountered during their contest last week.

Monitors from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will observe voting at random precincts around the state, NAACP state director Dwight James said a letter to the state Election Commission.

During the GOP primary, some voting machines in Horry County didn't work and some residents there had to use paper ballots. Others were told to return later to make their picks, but should have been allowed to use any scrap paper to cast their votes, the State Election Commission said.

On Wednesday, the South Carolina Progressive Network advised voters to carry their own paper and pencils to polling places. A day later, the group posted what it called an emergency ballot on its Web site voters can download, print and take with them to the polls.

>more

http://www.thestate.com/presidential-politics/story/295742.html

[livvy]

6. Election Day Updates- S.C. Politics Today

26 January 2008
Election day update, 11:15 a.m.

Pollsters say the young vote is leaning toward Barack Obama. At Ward 8 in Columbia, they also appear to be leaning toward sleeping late.

As of 11:15 a.m., about 100 people had voted at the Swinton Center on Benedict College’s campus. That’s a much smaller percentage of registered voters than have turned out a few miles away at Greenview Park. Poll workers said it’s not ususual for the college kids to vote later than residential voters.

The turnout so far had about as many men as women. As might be expected, it has been mostly African American and mostly young.

_ Marjorie Riddle


>other earlier updates at the link, and more will be posted throughout the day.

http://thestatecom.typepad.com/ygatoday/

[livvy]

7. Signs Pointing To Record Turnout

Posted on Sat, Jan. 26, 2008
Signs pointing to record turnout
If voters surge, party could share winner’s momentum
By JOHN O’CONNOR
[e-mail]
Good weather and an attractive slate of candidates have South Carolina Democrats expecting record turnout for today’s presidential primary, continuing a trend seen in other early-voting states.

A big turnout likely will propel the winning candidate into so-called “Tsunami Tuesday,” when more than 20 states vote Feb. 5. But state party leaders said it also will make Democrats more competitive in South Carolina.

Despite the surge in voters, though, few believe a Democratic candidate has a shot to win South Carolina in November’s general election. The numbers aren’t there yet.

In 2004, about 290,000 people voted in the Democratic presidential primary. Party officials are hoping as many as 350,000 voters will head to the polls today. Weather forecasts are for sunny skies and seasonable temperatures.

“It’s one of the reasons we wanted the early primary,” said Don Fowler, a U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton supporter and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “I think that’s moving in the right direction.”

Fowler did not know how high turnout might affect the results, noting it depends on the demographics of those voters.

>more

http://www.thestate.com/presidential-politics/story/297243.html

[livvy]

8. Another Update Page

Posted on Sat, Jan. 26, 2008
UPDATED 11:45 a.m.: 5 keys to winning today's S.C. primary


-- Check TheState.com throughout the day today for updates on these keys to winning

1. Turnout: Heavy statewide turnout is expected to favor U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who was behind in earlier S.C. polls, but surged in recent weeks.

2. African-American: Almost half of Democratic voters in the state are African-American, and big turnouts in counties like Richland, Charleston and Orangeburg counties could indicate strong support for Obama.

UPDATE | 10:30 a.m.: In Richland County, a predominately African American Greenview precinct, poll workers reported that nearly 25 percent of all registered voters had cast ballots by 10:30. That’s amazing considering voter turnout in some primaries doesn’t reach 25 percent all day.

3. Women: Women have helped U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton in other primaries, especially in her surprise win in New Hampshire. Reports of heavy turnout in Greenville or Horry counties could indicate hope for Clinton.

4. Youth vote: Obama heavily courted the youth vote; heavy turnout in wards adjacent to Clemson University, USC and Benedict College could point toward votes for Obama.

UPDATE | 11:15 a.m.: About 100 people had voted at the Swinton Center on Benedict College’s campus. That’s a much smaller percentage of registered voters than have turned out a few miles away at Greenview Park. Poll workers said it’s not unusual for the college kids to vote later than residential voters.

5. Independents: Exit polling data showing a higher than expected vote by independents could benefit Obama and the Democratic Party, which is trying to claim the independent vote.


http://www.thestate.com/presidential-politics/story/297223.html

[livvy]

11. S.C. Progressive Network. Emergency Paper Ballot link and related info

Get your emergency ballot here!

To address concerns that precincts around the state may run out of emergency ballots if voting machines fail during this Saturday’s Democratic primary, the SC Progressive Network is providing voters with their own emergency ballot that they can print and take with them to the polls.

IMPORTANT: Please note that if your precinct runs out of state supplied ballots, you can vote on any scrap of paper. Do not leave a poll where the machines are not working without casting a paper ballot. Do NOT try and vote on paper if the machines are working. If you insist on voting on paper when the machines are working, your ballot will go in with the contested ballots that will not be counted until the Thursday after the polls close - if at all.

You can print your own emergency ballot by downloading this file:
emergencyballot.pdf

If you encounter problems at the polls, please call the Network’s office to lodge a report by calling 1-803-808-3384. If warranted, the reports will be compiled and circulated to election officials and lawmakers as a resource to help guide us through the uncharted waters created by South Carolina’s new touch-screen voting machines.



http://www.scpronet.com/

[livvy]

9. Editorial, OpEd, Opinion...n/t

[livvy]

10. The Nation: Why We Need Democracy Promotion at Home

Why We Need Democracy Promotion at Home

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Posted 01/23/2008 @ 1:32pm

In a campaign where there has been much talk about change, bringing new people into the process, and high voter turnout (at least on the Democratic side), the recent lawsuit in Nevada attempting to bar nine at-large districts created so that shift-workers could vote was indeed a low moment. Fortunately, a District judge made the right decision, protecting voters and rejecting a transparent effort to suppress turnout for Barack Obama.

As I noted in a previous post, shouldn't Democrats be on the side of getting more voters to the polls, not turning them away (leave that to the Republicans)!?

The Nevada shenanigans once again exposed problems with a voting system desperately in need of reform. If we are to succeed at this historic moment in bringing new people into the process and creating a fair, transparent, accountable and truly democratic system – then we need to understand how the hardwiring of our electoral system works against *real* change. As Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has written in the pages of The Nation: "Our voting system's foundation is built on the sand of states' rights and local control. We have fifty states, 3,141 counties and 7,800 different local election jurisdictions. All separate and unequal." While many of the needed reforms are resolutely unsexy, they are also vital if we are to overcome our current crisis – a downsized politics of excluded alternatives and a growing mistrust of the way we vote and our election results.

The 2000 presidential debacle focused public attention on our increasingly dysfunctional electoral system. In its wake a pro-democracy movement has emerged, and efforts to bring democracy home are making headway on some important fronts. Many advocates have demonstrated the unreliability of so-called black box or touch-screen voting machines which can be hacked, breakdown, and don't always leave a paper trail to resolve tabulation disputes. California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen recently decertified Diebold voting machines.

>more



http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=274167

[livvy]

12. Tennessee Bill Could Do Harm in Search of Phantom Fraud

January 26, 2008


Tennessee bill could do harm in search of phantom fraud

Today's Topic: States press voter photo IDs


The movement in Tennessee and a number of other states to require voters to present government-issued photo identification represents misguided intentions at best, an attempt to unfairly sway elections at worst.

And the U.S. Supreme Court is set to weigh in, just in time to affect November presidential and congressional elections.

The concept of a photo ID requirement caught fire with conservatives after the tumultuous elections of 2000 and 2004, arguing that voter fraud was being committed by individuals with phony identification. Some even charge that illegal immigrants with an agenda are voting in large numbers.

Seven states have enacted photo ID laws, according to The Associated Press. In six, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri, the laws are under challenge. Florida's, which allows those without photo ID to present an ID with signature, is not.

>more

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/OPINION01/801260331/1008

[livvy]

16. Stolen Elections?

Original post and discussion by kpete (Thanks!):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x495887

Stolen Elections?
by Tim Bousquet
January 24, 2008

City council has fully embraced internet voting, awarding a $487,151 contract to Intelivote, a Dartmouth firm, to oversee an internet component for early voting in the October council and mayoral elections (traditional voting remains an option for early voters, and the only choice on election day).

I worked as a reporter in the US when many states and localities adopted electronic voting, and was assured by a parade of voting experts, auditors and engineers the system was fail-proof. Only a "lunatic fringe" called it into question.

A decade later, however, the lunatic fringe has been proved right. "Warning: can you count on these machines?" blared the cover of last week's New York Times Magazine, introducing a devastating investigation of electronic voting. Many states are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to move back to paper, and verifiable, ballots.

But Tuesday I watched again, as here in Halifax a parade of voting experts, auditors and engineers assured council that the new internet voting system is fail-proof, and council obliged.

>more


http://www.thecoast.ca/Articles-i-2008-01-24-151577.113118-p19977.113118_Stolen_elections.html

[livvy]

17. Democrats Pass On Secret Vote Counting in SC

Democrats Pass On Secret Vote Counting in SC
Friday, 25 January 2008, 10:23 pm
Opinion: Michael Collins
Scoop Independent News
Washington D.C.

South Carolinians mounted a serious protest to the onerous "Stamp Act" imposed on the colonies by British rulers. The act levied a tax to pay for the "Seven Years War" which established Great Britain as the world's dominant colonial power. South Carolinians resisted funding their own domination through payment of the tax.

Today, the Palmetto state faces a challenge beyond the Stamp Act. Their state constitution is clear, if not elegant, in its definition of the basic elements of elections:

All elections by the people shall be by secret ballot,
but the ballots shall not be counted in secret.


Touch screen voting machines like those used throughout South Carolina are inherently private. Citizens and officials are barred form accessing the fundamentals of the voting machines. As a result, meaningful information on errors or fraud is off the table.

Once a voter touches the box next to their candidate, the machine takes over turning the vote into an electronic ballot that cannot be examined, even with access. This voting machine right of privacy is written into agreements signed by election officials all over the country. It's called "faith based voting." We vote and then have faith that the machines will do their job.


>more



http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0801/S00233.htm

[livvy]

27. VerifiedVoting.org Statement in Support of HR5036: “Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act”

VerifiedVoting.org Statement in Support of HR5036: “Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act”
By VerifiedVoting.org
January 26, 2008


As 2008 begins, over 30 million voters face the prospect of depending upon unverifiable and insecure electronic voting equipment in the November elections. Millions more will vote on paper ballot systems without the reassurance of a routine hand counted audit of the vote tallies. Already we have seen voters turned away from the polls in South Carolina as a result of machine malfunction and insufficient emergency paper ballots.

There is an excellent way that Congress can improve confidence in the 2008 elections: by quickly passing HR 5036, the Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act. HR 5036 would reimburse counties, states, and other jurisdictions for the cost of replacing paperless voting equipment with paper ballot systems purchased in time for the November elections, the cost of emergency paper ballots in locations that use electronic machines, the cost of hand counted audits of the 2008 federal elections, and even for the cost of hand-counting the ballots on election night if a jurisdiction chooses to do so.

Responding to reports from a series of voting system reviews undertaken in undertaken over the past year, many states and counties are ready to make a change in their voting systems. The question for many jurisdictions across the country is not whether to purchase voting equipment that secures both voter confidence and electoral integrity, but how to pay for it.

HR 5036 would enable these jurisdictions to move away from equipment that has been demonstrated to be unacceptably insecure and manifestly unverifiable by a large body of governmental, academic, and private sector studies: the 2003 Security Application International report,1 Government Accountability Office report of 2005,2 the 2006 report of the Task Force on Voting System Security at the Brennan Center for Justice,3 and most recently, the reviews of voting systems commissioned by a number of states, including California,4 Ohio,5 and Kentucky.6

>more

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2732&Itemid=26

[livvy]

13. National Issues n/t

[livvy]

14. Carded at Polls: No Photo ID, No Vote

Carded at polls: No photo ID, no vote
Stopping fraud, or voters? Photo ID laws incite biggest voting legal battle since Bush v. Gore
By DEBORAH HASTINGS AP National Writer | AP
Jan 23, 2008

There's the poor, 32-year-old mother of seven who says it would cost her at least $50 to vote in person. There's also the 92-year-old woman who's voted for decades in the same polling place, but now can't vote there because she let her driver's license expire when her eyesight began to fail.

These folks live in Indiana, home of the country's most restrictive photo-identification voter law. The U.S. Supreme Court is now scrutinizing whether that statute violates the first and 14th amendments, in the most contentious legal battle over voting since the high court issued a bitterly divided decision eight years ago that stopped Florida's recount and handed the presidency to George W. Bush.

If the law is upheld, voting rights advocates fear it will encourage conservative lawmakers across the country to enact equally restrictive measures. The high court's decision is expected in the summer _ leaving time to impact November's general election.

Opponents, most of them Democrats, say requiring photo ID at the polls disproportionately affects the poor, the elderly and minorities _ the most likely to lack photo identification.

>more

http://www.newsweek.com/id/98159

[livvy]

15. Hacking the Vote

Interesting article particularly a proposal at the end.

Tech.view

Hacking the vote
Jan 25th 2008
From Economist.com

Reliability, more than fraud, bugs voting machines


AS AMERICA’S presidential election process stumbles its way towards November, fears are surfacing of yet another Florida- or Ohio-style voting fiasco. In the New Hampshire primary on January 8th, both independent polls before the election and exit polls on the day itself predicted that Barack Obama would soundly defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. Mrs Clinton’s surprising upset cast fresh doubts over the reliability of the computerised machines used to count the vote.

Four out of five votes in New Hampshire were tallied by Accuvote machines from Premier Election Solutions, part of the Diebold Corporation. The remainder were counted by hand. Accuvote machines rely on an optical scanner to read paper ballots completed by voters, who use pens or pencils to fill in little ovals next to the candidate of their choice. The machines read the blackened ovals and tally the result.

>snip

The independent researchers found numerous design and maintenance flaws. One machine from ES&S known as the M100 even accepted counterfeit ballots. Premier’s AV-TSX allowed unauthenticated users to tamper with its memory. The Hart EMS had audit logs that could be easily erased.

On all machines, the root cause of the poor security was the way standard practices for key and password management, security hardware and cryptography had been blindly ignored. Auditing was virtually non-existent. Logs of events happening during an election could be easily forged or erased by those operating the system. In all cases, the software was deemed “fragile” at best.

Yet these are the machines that 100m Americans will use to record their vote in the months ahead. The $3.9 billion of federal money allocated to state election boards in 2002 following the Florida fiasco has led to some 40,000 DRE machines being installed across the country. Far from making elections more representative and transparent, the machines seem to have made matters worse.

>more

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10573225

[livvy]

18. World Election News n/t

[livvy]

19. Fight Brews in Italy Over New Elections

January 26, 2008
Fight Brews in Italy Over New Elections
By IAN FISHER and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

ROME — The day after Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned, Italy’s leaders began gearing up Friday for a new fight: whether to hold immediate elections, an option considered favorable to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, or first fix an electoral law blamed for the current instability.

President Giorgio Napolitano, as required by the Constitution, began holding consultations on Friday with the many political parties on how to proceed. That process will last through Tuesday.

Though he has remained silent on the crisis that ended Mr. Prodi’s 20-month, center-left government, Mr. Napolitano has spoken of the urgent need to fix the election law. He is thus expected to try to form a temporary government of technocrats, charged with making those changes.

But Mr. Berlusconi and his allies on the center-right — leading in opinion polls and eager to regain the power they lost to Mr. Prodi in the 2006 elections — are arguing for an immediate vote. They may have enough power in Parliament to block any temporary government that Mr. Napolitano proposes.

“There is no alternative to an immediate return to the ballot box, to give life in the shortest time possible to a strong government,” said Sandro Bondi, the head of Mr. Berlusconi’s political party, Forza Italia.

>more

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/world/europe/26italy.html?_r=1&ref=europe&oref=slogin

[deminks]

34. Pakistan bans international observers from conducting exit polls for election

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/25476.html

WASHINGTON — Despite assurances to the Bush administration that it will allow unrestricted international monitoring of crucial Feb. 18 elections, Pakistan is refusing to permit observers to conduct exit polls, an important method of detecting fraud.

The United States and other powers see a fair vote in Pakistan as a chance to stabilize the country, which has been under eight years of army rule and is racked by an al Qaida-backed Islamic insurgency, ethnic tensions and a political crisis fueled by the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

"The elections need to be free and fair, and be seen as free and fair," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday in Davos, Switzerland.

Privately, Pakistani officials have assured the Bush administration that U.S. and European Union monitoring teams will have free access to election sites and won't be subject to the extensive restrictions that Pakistani election officials outlined last month, U.S. officials said.

But Pakistan is refusing to reconsider a regulation that bars monitors from conducting exit polls, said Lorne W. Craner, the president of the International Republican Institute, a U.S. democracy promotion group that planned to send dozens of election monitors to Pakistan.

[livvy]

20. 'Toooooons! n/t

[livvy]

21. Danziger explains how the stimulus plan'll work....

[livvy]

22. Not covered so well...

[EFerrari]

26. Thank you,livvy.

Have you volunteered for Saturday or are we stilling subbing? :hi:

[livvy]

30. Back in my old spot.

I missed doing the thread. It really helped me to keep up on the issues, so when the need came, I volunteered.

:hi: back to you!

[EFerrari]

31. I know what you mean. Putting up the thread helps me stay with it, too.

Thank you for Saturday. :)

[rumpel]

29. thanks

& r

[Melissa G]

32. livvy ROCKS!

Thanks! Good to have ya back! :yourock:

[Kurovski]

33. Yep, she does indeed.

:yourock:

[livvy]

35. You folks are one of the reasons I love this job!

:grouphug: