Absentee votes may delay results
http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1161765666260920.xml&coll=2Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Joan Mazzolini
Plain Dealer Reporter
Elections officials in large and small Ohio counties say they can't count all their absentee ballots in time to provide results on Election Day, unless they can start scanning them days earlier.
But the secretary of state's office has told Cuyahoga and Lucas counties, which asked for advice, that state law does not allow counting absentee ballots before 12:01 a.m. Election Day...
Completing the scans by 8 p.m. is critical. A Diebold Election Systems computer server that Cuyahoga bought can't download absentee ballot information at the same time it downloads votes from the touch-screen machines used in polling places.
"We will do it as just as quick as we can get it done," said Cuyahoga County elections board Chairman Bob Bennett(Chairman,Ohio Republican Party).
Scattered woes in the forecast for Election Day
New equipment, rules may become sources of trouble
http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1161765820260920.xml&coll=2 Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Plain Dealer Bureau
Washington- Groups that monitor elections anticipate problems around the country on Nov. 7 as new election systems are broken in and new voter registration and identification laws present potential pitfalls.
Ohio is among 10 states where new election procedures and tight contests could lead to delayed election results, recounts, challenges and other controversies, said Doug Chapin of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan election research group that scrutinizes election reforms...
Blackwell spokesman James Lee said that the secretary of state's office expects a smooth election and that Blackwell can impartially fulfill his elections duties given that "Ohio's secretaries of state have run for other offices for generations in this state." He called the group "ill-informed."
"In all that you've described to me, I haven't heard any issue that was brought up by Electionline.org that had any basis in truth or fact," Lee said.
Summit absentee ballots delayed to fix errors
http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/summit/1161765357260920.xml&coll=2 Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Karen Farkas
Plain Dealer Reporter
Akron - ...
"We look like we're incompetent, while it is the company that is incompetent," said elections board member Wayne Jones, referring to Election Systems & Software, the Omaha, Neb., maker of the county's optical scan voting machines. ES&S is responsible for contracting with a printer to provide ballots. It chose Miami Printing of Cincinnati.
Don Mummey of ES&S told the board that printing was initially delayed for several reasons, including a change in the wording on one ballot issue. The ballots had to be corrected because a software glitch made the digital printers unable to read them.
Mummey was unable to explain why issues and candidates on three pages were printed correctly but errors, including words that ran together, abounded on the fourth page...
Board members said they planned to bill ES&S for overtime and costs for temporary workers.
thurs.,npr
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/10/26.php#11452 10:00Electronic Voting Machines
Topic and guests to be announced
And Everybody is Okay With This?
http://www.wruw.org/guide/show.php?show_id=334 with Victoria (Lovegren)
Thursdays 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Genre(s): Public Affairs
I will be reading articles, playing tapes of speeches/programs, interviewing guests, and playing music that will heighten public awareness of government and corporate abuses and empower people to participate in true democracy.
http://wecount2006.org/radioblog