Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Wednesday 6//25/08

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Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

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1. States:

Template provided by achtung_circus in Research Forum.

A | C | D | | F | G | H | I | | K | L | M | N | O | P | | R | S | T | U | V | W |

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Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas

AL: Probe credible claims of vote fraud

Almost 20 times more people live in Montgomery County than in Perry County, one of the state's least populous counties. But in the June primary, more than twice as many people in Perry County cast absentee ballots than voted absentee in Montgomery County.
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Those numbers alone should raise eyebrows. But couple them with reports of voting fraud and it is easy to see why full-scale investigation of possible voting irregularities is justified.

Perry County has a population of 11,186, and in the June 3 primary there were 1,114 absentee ballots cast there. In Montgomery County, with a population of 223,571, there were only 519 absentee ballots cast.

...

Seemingly disproportionate numbers of absentee ballots appears to be one reason that the Alabama Attorney General's office has seized voting records in Perry, Lowndes and Bullock counties.

Sadly, the use of absentee ballots to commit voting fraud has been well documented in Alabama in past elections. While many people used absentee ballots legitimately, past court cases have disclosed numerous instances where the outcomes of elections have been skewed by people who manipulate absentee ballots in one way or another.

Montgomery Advertiser

AL:The number of absentee ballots cast in some of Alabama's Black Belt counties in the June primary is high - unbelievably high



THE ISSUE: The number of absentee ballots cast in some Black Belt counties in the June primary is unbelievably high. The numbers don't make sense.

Voters in Perry County, which has Alabama's second smallest population with 10,602 people, cast 1,114 absentee ballots in the June primary, according to unofficial totals from the secretary of state. Jefferson County, the state's most populous with more than 600,000 people, counted 365 absentee ballots cast.

How can voters in a county with about 60 times the population of another cast only about one-third the number of absentee ballots?

Inquiring minds want to know. Fortunately, those minds include the state's top law enforcement officer as well as Perry County's. The office of Attorney General Troy King has seized voting records in Perry, Lowndes and Bullock counties, and Perry County District Attorney Michael Jackson has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.

Lowndes County, with a population of 12,686, had 727 absentee ballots cast, according to the secretary of state's office. Bullock County numbers were unavailable.

Jackson called the Perry County absentee ballots "suspicious." Perry County has 8,361 registered voters, according to the secretary of state's office. There were 4,207 votes cast in the June primary, which means the county had a turnout of 50 percent (statewide, turnout was just 15 percent). Of that 50 percent, more than one-fourth were absentee ballots.

It makes sense that rural counties with high poverty rates would have higher percentages of absentee voters. Many people in those counties work in other counties; others may be infirm or don't have a way to get to the polls.

Birmingham News

AL:Wetumpka passes resolutions approving voting machines, liquor license requests

Wetumpka's City Council unanimously passed a resolu­tion during the June 16 council meeting that will allow for the permanent establishment of electronic voting machines to be used during municipal elec­tions.

The resolution is pursuant to Section 17-7-21 of the Code of Alabama 1975, which provides that a municipality may, by adoption of an appropriate reso­lution, authorize, adopt, and di­rect the use of electronic vote counting systems for use in all elections within the municipali­ty.

The resolution states that the city will use the Optech III P Ea­gle and Automark Voter 87000 electronic voting devices for the reporting, counting, and tabu­lating of any and all election re­sults during the municipal elec­tions in accordance with procedures set forth by the Ala­bama Electronic Voting Com­mittee.

"They are the same ma­chines that the county uses; we just needed to do some house­keeping," said city clerk Janice Whorton. "State law mandates that municipalities have to de­clare what machine they use in elections and that was what we were doing."

Prattville Progressive

AL:Changes may be coming for county elections

The Jackson County Commission recently discussed asking the local legislative delegation to allow the county to have a referendum on changing the way the county votes for its commissioners.

The specific changes are to establish staggered terms for commissioners and to have district voting for commissioners.

The commission took no action at Monday’s meeting but plans to revisit the topic at the next meeting.
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Currently, each county commissioner serves a particular district in which that commissioner must reside. The chairman is the only exception to this rule. He or she is not limited to any district. However, the entire county votes for each commissioner, regardless of district.

The Daily Sentinel

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California
Colorado
Connecticut

CA: Calif. lawmaker wants voting age dropped to 17

SACRAMENTO—State Assemblyman Gene Mullin wants to lower the voting age in hopes of boosting participation at the polls among young adults.

Mullin's constitutional amendment would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primaries and special elections if they will turn 18 by the next November general election. Such a policy has been adopted by 19 other states.

Mullin, a former high school government teacher from South San Francisco, believes that allowing high school seniors to vote at a time they're taking government and economics classes "would heighten the interest in voting and demystify the process."

"There's something that gives it more oomph when kids can actually get involved in the process and have a role in choosing nominees," he said.

Evidence from other states that use the same system indicates that allowing some 17-year-olds to vote leads to a "pretty significant bump" in voting among 18- to 24-year-olds, usually the group least likely to turn out at the polls, Mullin said.

Mercury News

CO: E-voting or paper ballots?

A group of activists skeptical of electronic voting machines as the primary instruments of democracy are having an impact on Colorado elections.

Some think government and the makers of electronic voting machines have too much power over elections.

Some don't want computers to have any part in how we elect representatives.

Still others believe Al Gore got cheated out of the presidency.

Agree with them or not, these well-educated and persistent local activists are more than a fringe political voice.

Their work is part of why Colorado voters will see fewer electronic voting machines and more paper ballots during this fall's presidential election. They also are a big reason the legislature passed a measure creating a new election-reform commission to study how we conduct elections and suggest changes to state officials.

The same trend is happening in other states. Anti-e-voting activists and a growing number of studies by computer science experts have pushed election officials in California, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states to limit the use of e-voting terminals and demand stricter audits.

Rocky Mountain

========== D ==========
Delaware
District of Columbia

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Florida

FL: Paper ballots pass first election test in Palm Beach County



Some voters unconvinced new system is superior to old electronic machines

West Palm Beach - Vic and Sandy Rocco left the voting booth in Tuesday's city election with this thought: We paid $8 million for a paper and pencil voting system?

For the first time since the era of the infamous butterfly ballot, voters in part of Palm Beach County returned to paper ballots at the polls following a state law outlawing the use of the electronic, ATM-style machines that had been in use since 2002.

After marking her ballot in a special, one-race West Palm Beach election, Sandy Rocco was unconvinced the cost of switching systems was justified. The electronic machines seemed more advanced, she said. Her husband agreed.

"It's pretty crazy, in the day and age where we trust electronics so much, not to do it here," Vic Rocco said.

Sun Sentinel

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Georgia

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Hawaii

========== I ==========
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa

IN: County's Voting Machines Waterlogged As Election Nears



Johnson County Scrambles To Prepare For Election

FRANKLIN, Ind. -- With a little more than four months until the November general election, officials in Johnson County are scrambling to find voting machines.

Raging floodwaters earlier this month rendered the county's electronic voting system useless, 6News' Ben Morriston reported.

Nearly 500 voting machines and about 100 printers were stored in the county government building that filled with about 5 feet of water.

"There's a company in Florida that refurbishes voting equipment and we're hoping that they might be interested in some of Johnson County's equipment," said Jill Jackson, the county clerk.

The waterlogged voting machines were put in storage while county officials await word on their fate.

The Indy Channel

========== K ==========
Kansas
Kentucky

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Louisiana

========== M ==========
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana

MA: Naming rights

It seems so innocuous, the idea that registered voters should be able to read the ballot on Election Day and select the candidate of their choice.

Anyone who thinks it is that simple hasn't been paying attention to the long-running battle between Asian activists and the state's top voting official on how to conduct an election.

The Chinese Progressive Association took its fight to the State House yesterday, as a group of elderly Chinatown residents marched into the building and attempted to meet with Secretary of State William F. Galvin. There was no meeting, which could have been predicted. Galvin has refused to meet with activists on this matter for at least a year.

At issue is a proposed law that would require that ballots be translated into Chinese and Vietnamese in all elections in the city, not just municipal elections, but state and federal elections, as well. Its supporters say that without such a law, elderly Asian residents, with limited English skills, are effectively denied the right to vote. Galvin disagrees, vehemently.

Boston

ME: Group delivers polling place petition

A Portland group has collected nearly 2,500 signatures on a petition to stop city officials from reducing the number of polling places from 16 to six after July 1.

The group delivered the signatures to the city clerk's office at noon today following a news conference at Portland City Hall.

The group, Save Our Neighborhood Polling Places, needs 1,500 sworn signatures to bring the matter to the Portland City Council.

"We are particularly concerned about the November election," said Ben Chipman, a group member and Green Independent Party leader.

Maine Today

MN: Backers of instant-runoff voting threaten to go to court



They say that's the next step if the St. Paul City Council doesn't put their proposal on the ballot. The city attorney says it may violate the state's Constitution.

A citizens group said Tuesday that it will sue if the St. Paul City Council tries to stop a ballot initiative that could change the way council members are elected.

A recently certified petition signed by more than 5,300 people would put a question on the November ballot asking St. Paul voters whether they want instant-runoff voting, a system approved by Minneapolis voters in 2006.

But the St. Paul city attorney's office has said the council doesn't have to put the question on the November ballot because changing the city's voting system would more than likely violate the state's Constitution.

More than likely, however, is not a good enough reason to deny the petition, said Jay Benanav, former council member and attorney for the Better Ballot Campaign. The council could only refuse to put the question to the voters if the question were "manifestly unconstitutional," meaning that it clearly violates the Constitution, Benanav said.

Star Tribune

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Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota

NC: Racial prejudice still plagues voting system

According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Sunday, nearly 3 in 10 voters acknowledged they possessed some form of racial bias.

The poll also said that only 51 percent of Americans currently rate the current state of race relations as “excellent” or “good.”

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But amidst the promising numbers at the polls, it’s discouraging to me to think there are still people who harbor some feeling of racial prejudice toward others in this time of great uncertainty in our country.

One of the last states to hold primary elections in the United States was West Virginia. It turned out to be one of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s strongest election performances when she claimed nearly 67 percent of the vote. The New York senator thrived among white, working-class voters. The polls would later show that of those who voted, 2 in 10 white voters said that race played a factor into their decision.

The Appalachian Online

ND: Voting in Pingree becomes tricky

The city government situation in Pingree is a little murky when it comes to a council position, according Mayor Joe Detmer.

“We had four write-ins cast for four different people,” Detmer said. “Troy Thomas received one of the write-ins but he is on the City Council already so effectively we have a three-way tie for the race.”

The incumbent for the position, Holly Thomas, a sister to Troy Thomas, received one vote along with challengers Dave Johnson and Casey Zink. The next step in the process of breaking the tie is up to those who received a vote.

“I have to send a form to them asking them if they don’t want to accept the position they were voted for,” Detmer said. “If none want to resign, or there are still two with one vote each left, we go to deciding by lot.”

Jamestown Sun

NJ: County clerk recalls night of glitch in voting machine



TESTIFIES IN CIVIL LAWSUIT

TOMS RIVER — Ocean County Clerk Carl W. Block was the first election official at the courthouse to flag a problem with voting returns in Barnegat on the night of Nov. 7, 2006, he testified Tuesday in state Superior Court.

Block took the stand for almost an hour in the case of a lawsuit brought against the county Board of Elections by former Dover Township Committeewoman Michele Rosen and former Barnegat Township Committee candidate Rose Jackson.

The clerk's office is not a defendant in the civil action. At issue is whether officials connected to the board acted properly after an error was discovered in the reporting software of Sequoia Voting Systems, the electronic technology the county uses to administer elections.

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Block testified he was in his office on election night, monitoring returns on the county clerk's public Web site. At some point after 10 p.m., Block said he noticed that all 12 voting districts in Barnegat were in and the final election results tabulated.

Later, as the site automatically refreshed, as it does at rapid, regular intervals, the numbers in Barnegat had changed. Block said it was clear there was a discrepancy.

APP

NJ: Prepare a voting plan now

Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg, who is hearing the legal challenge to the reliability of the state's voting machines, wisely has loosened the muzzle she originally slapped on everyone connected to the case. The move means performance test results will be available well before the Nov. 4 presidential election.

That should provide enough time for county election officials to prepare an alternative voting plan if the tests reveal serious problems with the touch-screen machines used throughout the state.

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New Jersey risked becoming the next Florida of the election comedy circuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the New Jersey Press Association and several other groups asked Feinberg to reconsider, and she did.

So what can be done if the tests reveal serious problems? Realistically, the only option at that point would be to have everybody vote on paper ballots, which would then have to be scanned. The process would be time-consuming but necessary to preserve the integrity of the election.

Star-Ledger

NY: Early Voting Creates Polling Challenges

CBS News' Kathy Frankovic:



Traditional Exit Polling Is Harder Thanks To Pre-Election Day Voting

During the primaries, there were no mistakes in projections that could be traced to exit poll problems - the only projection error, the Associated Press mis-call of Hillary Clinton in Missouri on Super Tuesday, had nothing to do with the exit poll. But doing good exit polls sometimes requires more traditional polling methods that go beyond simply sampling voters at polling places. That’s because, in a growing number of states, more and more people aren’t waiting for Election Day to cast their ballots.

The percentage of voters who DON’T vote at the polling place has been consistently growing. As many as one in five voters may have voted before Election Day in 2004, and even more are likely to do so this year.

Some states have a history of making it easy for voters to cast their ballots before Election Day. In 1992, nearly a third of the vote was cast early in Texas, which (like some other states) opens the doors at a limited number of sites as early as 17 days before an election. In this year’s primary, held on March 4th, that meant that while all Texans cast ballots knowing the results on Super Tuesday, early voters might not have known about Barack Obama’s big victories in Wisconsin and Hawaii on February 19th.

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So, “traditional” exit polling is getting harder; and pollsters have to find new ways to sample these voters’ choices. Sometimes those new ways are just like the old ways. So far in 2008, the news consortium National Election Pool (NEP) has conducted pre-election polls of voters who have voted (or definitely will vote) absentee or early in nine states. Several states that usually have high absentee voting, like Colorado and Washington, held caucuses for delegate selection this year, and there was no need for absentee polls there: Caucus rules usually require attendance in person.

CBS News

NY: Still no storage for voting machines

NORWICH – It’s still a matter of legal interpretation. Even after a second look at a New York State Board of Elections regulation about storing voting machines, Chenango County Attorney Richard L. Breslin remains the only county attorney in the state to say the responsibility remains at the town level.

“We are the only county that hasn’t interpreted the law as the state says it reads,” Republican Elections Commissioner Harriet Jenkins said.

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His directive leaves Chenango County’s elections commissioners in limbo. Delivery of the newly-mandated, handicapped-accessible machines has already begun, with two currently housed in the Board of Elections offices. The remaining 45 could arrive at any time, and are headed for temporary storage in a training room at the Chenango County Public Safety Facility.

Chenango County Sheriff Thomas J. Loughren has said he doesn’t want the machines stored at the new jail on Upper Ravine Road indefinitely. “It was never our intention to keep them,” he told Safety and Rules Committee Chairman Alton B. Doyle, R-Guilford, last week.

The Evening Sun

NY: Move to cut polling places decried



Reducing number of voting sites could disenfranchise residents of Albany's poor neighborhoods, critics say

ALBANY -- Efforts to reduce the number of polling places in the city drew protests Monday from elected officials and ward leaders who said the move would disenfranchise voters in poor neighborhoods.

The Albany County Board of Elections is cutting the number of voting places in the city from 72 to 49 to save money and meet federal guidelines for polling places.

John Graziano, the Republican elections commissioner, said a 2002 federal voting law requires the replacement of the old lever-pull machines with new electronic voting machines.

The county also received a court order in January requiring that every location have at least two voting machines.

Cutting the number of polling places will reduce costs for new equipment, Graziano said, noting all of the remaining sites will be handicapped accessible. "That's the way voting is going," Graziano said. "It's going to large places that are accessible, that have lighting and power" to handle the new machines.

Times Union

NY: Errors on NY voter forms could keep some from voting

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's Board of Elections has found about 45,000 inconsistent voter records, and thousands could be turned away from the polls on election day if the errors aren't resolved.

A new database compares voter information to other government data and flags mismatches or duplicate records. That's a requirement of the Help America Vote Act, which aims to improve voting accuracy and access for the disabled.

Board spokesman Robert Brehm says the problem generally originates with a voter incorrectly documenting a move, name change or variation in personal data. County election boards must determine who is legally registered.

Voters are notified electronically and must respond within 14 days.

Newsday

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Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon

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Pennsylvania

PA: Commissioners Reviewing Voting Machine Comments

BELLEFONTE, CENTRE COUNTY -- An update on voting machines in Centre County. Commissioners have been busy reading through the nearly 250 comments from voters. They say that the majority of them are in favor of producing some type of paper trail, but not necessarily changing voting systems.

Centre County currently uses a touch screen system which does not produce any kind of paper trail. Several groups have suggested changing to an optical scan system. Commissioner Rich Rogers says that no matter what decision is made, the county will need to purchase more machines by the November election. Rogers said that they hope to have a decision on the voting machines in about two weeks.

Central PA

PA: Precinct consolidation plan stalled

A sweeping precinct-consolidation plan by the director of the Fayette County election bureau stalled Tuesday when the Fayette County commissioners requested additional information.

Laurie Lint proposed consolidation of 13 precincts prior to the Nov. 6 election, dropping the number in the county from 103 to 90. The discussion arose at the commissioners' agenda meeting, when a vote was approved to table the proposal.

In total, Lint was seeking changes for precincts in the townships of Dunbar, German, Jefferson, Luzerne, Nicholson, North Union, Perry and Washington; Masontown Borough and the city of Uniontown.

Lint said any changes are needed by September. She said the largest amount of work would involve redistricting all three precincts in Masontown, which would require court approval.

Herald Stand

========== R ==========
Rhode Island

========== S ==========
South Carolina
South Dakota

========== T ==========
Tennessee
Texas

TN: Early voters to try new ballots



Anderson, Roane, Loudon, Sullivan to test paper method

CLINTON - Early voters in the August and November elections in four East Tennessee counties will get a preview of how ballots will be cast statewide in 2010.

Instead of using electronic voting machines, they will mark paper ballots that will be read by optical scanners.

The switch in voting methods will take place in Anderson, Roane, Loudon and Sullivan counties only during the two-week early voting periods before the two upcoming elections this year.

Knox County was considered for the program, but Chief Deputy Administrator of Elections Lorrhonda Myers said paper ballots won't be used in Knox this year.

Knox News

TN:Sullivan County to pilot optical voting equipment

BLOUNTVILLE — Sullivan County voters will be among the first in Tennessee to try a new paper ballot voting system mandated by state law, Sullivan County Administrator of Elections Gena Frye said Monday.

Frye said local election officials have been notified Sullivan County is one of five of the state’s 95 counties set to try optical voting equipment next month.

Sullivan County residents who early vote for Aug. 5 elections will use paper ballots and optical scan equipment if they cast their early ballots at the Sullivan County Office Building in Blountville — one of three early voting sites available in the county.

“We are doing this to introduce the voters to the system,” Frye said. “We do want to expand use of this in November. The switch to optical scan is what is going to happen. The legislature passed this, and this is what we will be using as a voting system no later than 2010. So we’re just trying to get a jump on things and help the voters get adjusted to it. It’s mandatory by 2010.”

The Times News

TN: Commission Investigates Illegal Voting Practices



Officials Receive Reports Of Voter Intimidation, Violations Of Boundaries, Says Election Administrator

SMITHVILLE, Tenn. -- A small-town election may have been marred by some big problems.

The DeKalb County Election Commission said it is investigating allegations of illegal voting practices in Smithville in connection with an election that occurred this month.

Election Administrator Lisa Peterson said there are reports of voter intimidation, violations of boundaries and also the forcing of some individuals to sign documents.

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"We've always had Democrats and Republicans, and we're in a small town where not a lot goes on and sometimes that's just the interest of the town," said Annette Greek.

At the election commission, a lot is going on as Peterson is trying to get to the bottom of the allegations following last week’s city election of the mayor and alderman.

W5MV

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Utah

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Vermont
Virginia

VA: Kaine says he'd consider voting rights for felons

WASHINGTON - Should convicted felons be able to vote in Virginia once they are released from prison?

Currently, only the governor can restore voting rights for felons in Virginia. Virginia is one of the few states that doesn't have a more automatic procedure for felon voting laws.

Appearing on WTOP's Ask the Governor program on Tuesday, Va. Gov. Tim Kaine says he would support some changes.

"When somebody wants to participate, I think we ought to have procedures that enable them to once they've shown that can do fine in civil society," Kaine says.

WTOP

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Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

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11. States Additions:

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12. AL: Alabama AG says Justice Dept. obstacle in probe

MONTGOMERY - Alabama’s attorney general said Monday the U.S. Department of Justice has become an obstacle to his investigation of voting fraud allegations in Perry County.

Attorney General Troy King criticized the department at a news conference for not immediately providing him with reports from its election monitors in Perry County for the primary election June 3.

“Rather than forthright cooperation, we have become entangled in bureaucratic red tape,” the attorney general said.

The Justice Department says it’s also looking at Perry County.

Department spokeswoman Jamie Hais said Monday that “observer reports are not released to the public or to state officials while a matter is still under review by the department.” She said that is standard practice for the department and is done “to protect the integrity of the department’s election monitoring system.”

Opelika and Auburn News

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13. CA: Measures could restructure voting procedure

Tehama County residents may weigh in on new supervisor elections, pay

RED BLUFF - Voters in Tehama County may be asked in November to revisit how they elect their supervisors and how those officials are paid.

The board on Tuesday will consider putting forth separate ballot measures to hold members' elections by district rather than countywide and to let the local grand jury decide how much they should be compensated. Supervisors have been chosen by countywide balloting since 1982 and have been making $12,540 annually since 1988.

...

The vote-by-district plan has been a major priority for Supervisor Ron Warner, who asserted that Tehama "may be the last California county to vote at-large." He may get an argument from Supervisor Charlie Willard, who said earlier this month that it would be better for a supervisor to represent the whole county rather than just one district.

Tehama County voters long elected their supervisors countywide until 1979, when they chose to elect them by district. Supervisors' elections were switched back to at-large in 1982.

Redding

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14. IN: League of Women Voters of Indiana challenges voter ID

The League of Women Voters of Indiana filed a complaint in the Marion County Superior Court to request that the Indiana Voter ID Law be declared unconstitutional under the Indiana Constitution.

The League's lawsuit is in furtherance of its purpose "... to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation in government and to act on selected governmental issues." The League of Women Voters of the United States adopted the Citizen's Right to Vote position which states "that voting is a fundamental citizen right that must be guaranteed."

The League's challenge is based upon Art. 2, Sec. 2 of the Indiana Constitution which sets forth the only qualifications for voting eligibility that can legally be imposed upon voters without further amendment of the Indiana Constitution. For example, the Indiana Constitution was amended in 1882 to grant the legislature power to enact a voter registration program.

As the Indiana Voter ID Law imposes an additional voting qualification on the citizens of Indiana that is not provided for in the Indiana constitution, the League has filed its complaint challenging the law.

The Paper

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15. MA: Voting Booths May Be Set Up At Supermarkets

Election Officials Call Move 'Logical'

BOSTON -- Schools have often been the polling location of choice for most elections , but that may be about to change.

... some Worcester voters may be punching ballots at the supermarket.

"It became a logical option for us to go to the supermarkets to try and meet the voter where the voter already is," Worcester City Clerk David Rushford said.

Some voters say it makes perfect sense.

"Banks are in supermarkets to make it easy for people to have access to money and then do their shopping. And on a day when they had to vote and they had to go shopping, too, it would be more convenient," one voter said.

Boston Channel

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16. MS: Justice Department to Monitor Election in Mississippi

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department today announced that on June 24, 2008, it will monitor the special primary election in Wilkinson County, Miss., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. The election will include special primary contests for county offices.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the Office of Personnel Management to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered by the Act or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities in Wilkinson County, Miss., based on the special coverage provisions. The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in this jurisdiction. Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from the Office of Personnel Management, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections across the country. In calendar year 2006, for example, 966 federal observers and 575 Department personnel were sent to monitor 119 elections in 81 jurisdictions in 24 states. To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, including acts of harassment or intimidation, voters may call the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

7th Space

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17. NJ: Public can now check voting machines

TRENTON — A state Superior Court judge Friday pulled long-feuding parties together in a pact that allows the public to view and check the veracity of electronic voting machines lacking a receipt or paper trail.

"I think this is right," said Judge Linda Feinberg as she waived her proposed pact in front of the attorneys for the two sides. She sternly added later, "If anybody violates this protective order, there are going to be serious consequences."

"This," said plaintiff's attorney Penny Venetis, "is the first time a court has ordered the public can check a voting machine."

...

The multi-dimensional issue turned partly on crafting an agreement that gives the New Jersey public a sense of whether their voting machines -- in this case, the ones made by Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. -- even work.

"The public in New Jersey does not own the elections," said Goldman. "They are owned by Sequoia."

Courier Post Online

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18. OH: Cuyahoga's paper ballots may bring second wait in line at polls

Cuyahoga County polls will be stocked with new machines this November, but the voting experience will be familiar to people who cast ballots last March.

The county is sticking with the paper ballots that debuted in the primary after two troublesome years with touch-screen voting machines.

But there will be a big difference. Unlike in March, voters will feed their ballots into scanners at the voting locations instead of dropping the ballots in a box to be counted later in the night.

The new optical scanners -- made by Election Systems & Software -- record votes on memory cards and alert people if their ballots were filled out incorrectly, giving them a chance to fix errors.

The scanners create a potential for a second line at the polls, after you may have waited to get a ballot. Cuyahoga is renting 1,500 scanners, to be distributed throughout the 576 polling locations. With only one scanner per precinct, lines are possible at the machines.

Plain Dealer

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2. Federal:

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8. Problems, funding plague voting panel

It was not an auspicious beginning. The year was 2004 and the newest federal agency had no desks, no computers, and no office to put them in. It had neither an address nor a phone number. Early meetings convened in a Starbucks near a Metro stop in downtown Washington.

Somehow, Congress had neglected to fund the Election Assistance Commission, a small group with a massive task: coordinating one of the most sweeping voter reform packages in decades.

...

The agency remains stalemated on other important issues, including whether states can require people to provide proof of citizenship before they can register to vote - an especially touchy subject exacerbated by a Supreme Court decision this spring upholding Indiana law demanding voters present a government-issued photo ID before casting a ballot.

Both past and present commissioners complain they were granted little power to force states to implement reforms, and that they often are battered by the brutal nature of partisan politics in the nation's capital.

Tri Valley Central

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3. Commentary, OP-Ed, etc.

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4. Implicit political attitudes can predict future voting behavior

In many political elections, undecided voters come to a decision about who they will vote for only a few days before the vote, if not the very same day of the election. A new study in the journal Political Psychology reveals that people's future voting decisions are to a significant degree determined by their current automatic mental associations, even when individuals consciously believe that they are still undecided.

Researchers led by Luciano Arcuri of the University of Padua in Padua, Italy surveyed 74 participants about their voting choices one month before an election time. They then administered the Implicit Association Test as an instrument for the detection of automatic, unconscious attitudes and for the forecast of voting behaviors.

A clear relation emerged between the implicit attitudes of undecided voters and their subsequent voting behavior. Voters, who on conscious level hadn't made up their minds, did have evaluations towards candidates they were not aware of but that will predict their vote.

Researchers contacted several hundred people in order to identify undecided voters, and administered an implicit attitude measure about the candidates. Participants were asked to send back a questionnaire after the election reporting their voting choice.

Results confirmed the high predictive value of the automatic unconscious reactions of undecided voters. The automatic preferences provided one month before election the questionnaires matched the political choices expressed during the vote, approximately four weeks later.

Physics, Science, Tech News

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5. Another Ineffective e-Voting Reform Bill that Solves Nothing

by Jerry Lobdill

Now the Senate is Going to Write Another Ineffective Electronic Voting Reform Bill that Solves Nothing

I am a rather jaded participant in the election reform wars. I am a retired scientist who was intimately involved in the design, building, and testing of computer aided systems for military use for a period of over thirty years. In 2006 I decided that the various ideas being advanced to make voting a secure, transparent, auditable and credible process could use my expertise. There were two areas of concern in which I thought I could contribute useful work. One was software security, and the other was auditability. I joined the Open Voting Consortium among other discussion groups and began to work on auditing methods. Some of my work is published on the NIST website.

The answers to the technical issues came after only a few months of discussions between computer scientists, mathematicians, and others who had been involved in elections for many years. But it soon became apparent that the elected powers did not want to listen to the technical people. They wanted to assert power, to grandstand, to avoid any proposed solution that would compromise their authority to be the final arbiters of election outcomes, and to retain the power to deny recounts without any hard checks or balances.

Their actions in bill-writing committees resulted in bills that ignored the rather startling recommendations by most scientists that elections be conducted by means of hand-marked paper ballots. Scientists had long recognized that if ballots were ephemeral entities that disappeared without a trace the instant a voter pushed the "Cast Ballot" button, elections could never be audited. It was equally clear that computerized vote tallying-even if elections involved optical scanning of hand marked paper ballots-was a process vulnerable to computer fraud, and thus required a scientifically designed partial recount audit that could be conducted with the participation of voters in public.

It was also recognized that any criminal programmer who was willing to permit the voter to see a paper record of her ballot choices--a record that would be preserved for a possible audit-was actually counting on the retained ability of an elected official (the state Secretary of State) to control rules and events in such a manner as to 1) make audits ineffective statistically, and 2) preserve absolute authority to declare an audit unnecessary and certify the election results as previously announced.

OP ED

[flashl]

6. GOP Prepares To Scale Back Aggressive Anti-Voter Fraud Campaigns

John McCain's election strategists plan to tone down the Republicans' traditionally aggressive and public campaign against potential voter fraud, several Republicans familiar with the situation say.

The strategists and consultants all would speak only on the condition that their names and affiliations not be used because they were not permitted to divulge the information, they did not want to disclose internal deliberations, and because the issue is still being discussed within the party.

Sources with direct knowledge of the coordinated Republican effort this year say that high-ranking Republicans, including some within McCain's campaign, are convinced that GOP efforts in 2004 were damaging.

"Spreading 10,000 lawyers around the country and announcing a challenge to 40,000 new registrants in Ohio was counterproductive," a Republican familiar with the situation said. The Republican said that many within the party believed that then-Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's efforts to tighten provisional ballot rules ahead of the 2004 may have increased Democratic turnout because it convinced Democrats that Republicans were trying to disenfranchise voters.

The Atlantic

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7. Rogue code could seriously skew US presidential election results

If you thought the electronic voting systems being used in the upcoming American presidential elections guarantee a fair ballot...think again. Small changes to these machines' software by a rogue programmer could completely distort election results without us even knowing it, says an expert.

This Fall's U.S. Presidential elections could be stolen by one person – not Democratic candidate Barack Obama or Republican candidate John McCain – but by a rogue programmer writing code for one of the many electronic voting machines used, experts say.

After the 2000 election dispute in Florida forever ingrained the term "hanging chad" in the public consciousness, the U.S. began funding user-friendly e-voting systems.

...

But the solution may leave the country no better off, according to experts with A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Auditable and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE). The centre was created in 2005 with a $7.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of a program to bolster the nation's computers against attack.

"One programmer could make a change in the software that would affect 100,000 votes," says David Dill, an investigator with ACCURATE. "That's a one-attacker team."

IT Business

Note: Kpete you beat me to it!

[flashl]

9. Diebold Summer Sale Offers Used Voting Machines

Act now and you can possess a pre-owned touch-screen voting machine made by Diebold Election Systems.

In a brochure (.pdf) announcing its "Red Hot Summer Sale" Diebold, now known as Premier Election Solutions, is selling off everything from used touch-screen voting machines ($600/each) to ballot boxes ($1,000/each), voter and poll supervisor smart cards that are used to initiate voting on machines on election day ($2.00/each), and tamper-evident security seals ($0.15/each) that are supposed to protect machines from intruders.

You need to open a sales account with the company to participate in the sale. Buyer beware, however. Terms & Conditions limit Diebold/Premier's liability for products:

Premier makes no guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied, that the goods will avert or prevent occurrences or consequences therefrom which the goods may be designed to detect or avert. In no event shall Premier or its suppliers, agents or representatives be liable for losses, damages or expenses associated with burglary, robbery, loss, transfers or misdispensing of funds or property, loss of data, interruption of business or for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, whether arising under contract, tort, strict liability, or other forms of action, even if Premier has been apprised of the possibility thereof. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of con-sequential, special, incidental or indirect damages in certain situations, so the foregoing may not fully apply.

Wired

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10. Green and Fair: Election Day registration means more voters

What do Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Wisconsin all have in common on Election Day? Some of the highest voter turnout numbers in the country, virtually no problem with voter fraud and - not coincidentally - laws allowing citizens to register right at the polls on the day they vote.

...

The money needed to implement the program - about $1 million a year - is already in place thanks to federal funds made available to states after the election debacle of 2000. Secretary of State William Galvin, whose office oversees the federal funds, has endorsed the measure. So, too, have Gov. Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, key city and town clerks and voting rights groups like Common Cause and the League of Women Voters.

...

No other step we can take will do so much to bring in new voters and increase turnout. In the eight states that have same-day registration, turnout is 10 percent higher than in states that make voters register 20 or 25 days prior to the election.

The upside for Massachusetts is potentially huge. Voter-rights groups estimate that Massachusetts could see between 200,000 and 300,000 additional voters if Election Day registration is in place come November. And many of those new voters will be new citizens - just the people we want to become involved and active in the life of their new country.

Metro West Daily news

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19. Rigging elections

Here's a career possibility for some of those baby boomers facing retirement - run for public office, because Sacramento needs some new faces.

Sounds like a good idea, but you'll need more than hard work and luck to get elected. California has just been named one the nation's “Dirty Dozen” states, whose voting districts are so gerrymandered incumbents are pretty much locked in.

Gerrymandering is the act of drawing voting districts along party lines, ensuring that districts that elect a Democrat continue to re-elect a Democrat, no matter who runs.

Normally, the legislative majority chooses the district lines, but California - as in most everything else - is a little different. In a rare show of solidarity, the two major parties came together in 2001 in a conspiracy to protect each other's seats in the Legislature.

As a result, in the last three statewide elections, in 495 legislative races, only four seats changed parties.

It's a legalized way to rig elections, and it should be stopped. An initiative qualified for the November ballot last week that would take redistricting - at least in statewide races - out of the hands of the Legislature, and give that responsibility to an independent citizens' committee.

Lompoc Record

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20. Contributions:

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21. Judge leaves case after ties revealed

By Jake Griffin | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 6/25/2008 12:07 AM

The judge handling the appeal of a Democratic state Senate candidate thrown off the ballot by the DuPage Election Commission has recused himself after questions surfaced about his financial ties to the commission's lawyer.

Election commission attorney Pat Bond donated $6,500 to DuPage Circuit Judge Ken Popejoy's campaign between June 2003 and September 2004. Bond also once served as Popejoy's campaign chairman, according to campaign disclosure documents from the Illinois Board of Elections.

Calls by the Daily Herald to Popejoy and Bond on Friday were not returned, but Monday Popejoy stepped away from the case. He would not discuss his reasons, citing through his secretary judicial canons and ethics that forbid judges from discussing pending cases.

...

Bond, who donated nearly $1,000 to Pankau's campaign between 2002 and 2007, advised the commission on pertinent case law during the decision-making process.

Lawyers for the Republican objectors have already moved the appeal out of Judge Bonnie Wheaton's courtroom at a hearing earlier this month. Cullerton's attorney, Mike Dorf, said that was because Wheaton had ruled against them on a similar matter a few years ago. Each side is allowed one judicial objection, he said.

...officials from the DuPage chapter of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, a group that has been feuding with the election commission for years, questioned Bond's relationships.

"The one distinction which separates Bond from other attorneys making contributions is that he is being well-compensated by taxpayers to represent the alleged bipartisan election commission," said the group's co-chairwoman Jean Kaczmarek. "While I realize that all attorneys vote, an attorney in that position should at least give the appearance of non-partisanship. Bond doesn't even try."

Daily Herald

[Melissa G]

22. Off to Greatest!

Thanks, flashl! :yourock:

[flashl]

23. Thanks. nt