Election Reform and Related News: Thursday, May 3, 2007

[livvy]

http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/tt/

Election Reform and Related News



Please post Election Reform & Related News on this thread.

If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

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

3. If you have information from an election reform activist organization outside of DU feel free to post (local or national)

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



5. Election related sources
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

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Recommends are welcome:

[livvy]

1. PA: Election Officials Fretting Write-Ins

05/03/2007
Election officials fretting write-ins
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER

Each of Lackawanna County’s 509 voting machines holds an 86-foot-long roll of sales receipt-like paper.


On Wednesday, Cathy Hardaway, the county director of voter education, ordered 1,200 more rolls for the machines — nearly 20 miles worth of it.

After the polls close May 15, every machine will spit out four copies of a paper record of every vote cast on the device. That includes a complete list of every write-in.

Even before this week, election officials fretted some machines could run out of paper on election night. With Republican Commissioner Robert C. Cordaro now mounting a write-in campaign after being bounced from the primary ballot Monday, they’re planning on it.

Mr. Cordaro joins Phil Spinka and Robert Castellani in the write-in derby for the GOP nomination for commissioner, a three-way race that has Mrs. Hardaway’s office bracing for thousands of write-in votes.

That is likely to produce paper lists of results from some polling places that are 30 or more feet long. And each of those write-in votes will have to be scrutinized and then tallied by hand.

>more
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18293905&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6

[livvy]

2. NY: Voting Machine Draws Scrutiny

05/03/2007
Voting machine draws scrutiny
By: Steve Couse , The Record

A voting machine was set up in the Media Center at Doyle Middle School, and a handful came out to see and operate it, many of them skeptical.

"I can't read that," Geri de Seve told Bob Witko, president of Albany-based Liberty, as she looked at the paper ballot verification. He instructed her to use the audio headset.

The board voted to go with Liberty back in March at no cost to the district. The firm has been working on the new electronic voting technology for three years, and used their machines last year during a school vote in western New York.

Liberty will provide 10 full-face electronic machines at the seven different polling sites. They include a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) that allows the voter the ability to review their choices on a paper receipt prior to casting a vote.

Many complained that the machine, made by Dutch firm Nedap, is not certified by the state Board of Elections.

>more
http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18293335&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6

[livvy]

3. Congress Launches Probe Into Florida Election

Posted on Thu, May. 03, 2007

Congress launches probe into Florida election
By Mark K. Matthews

The Orlando Sentinel

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - Congress took the rare step Wednesday of ordering an investigation into a disputed U.S House race in Florida last fall that raised questions about the accuracy of touch-screen voting machines in Sarasota County.

Republican Vern Buchanan won by 369 votes, but Democrat Christine Jennings challenged the outcome because she thinks malfunctioning touch-screen voting machines prevented about 18,000 people from casting ballots in the House District 13 race.

These so-called "under votes" were six times greater in Sarasota County than the rest of the congressional district, but an ensuing state investigation found no problem with the machines built by Election Systems and Software.

Jennings filed a lawsuit seeking another election and took her case to the U.S. House, which has authority to referee election disputes.

>more
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17171565.htm

[livvy]

4. CA: Voting System Maker Fields Riverside county's Security Questions

Voting system maker fields Riverside County's security questions
11:28 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 2, 2007

By KIMBERLY TRONE
The Press-Enterprise

Survey: What, if anything, should be done to improve the security of ballots in Riverside County?

Sequoia Voting Systems representatives said Wednesday that they welcome Secretary of State Debra Bowen's rigorous review of voting technologies in use by California counties.

Ed Smith, vice president of quality, certification and compliance for Sequoia, told Riverside County's election review panel that the company has turned over its equipment and source codes to Bowen's office for testing.

The source codes are kept private by manufacturers, but critics of electronic voting have called for open-source software to increase transparency in voting.

Bowen has said she will issue findings by Aug. 3 on whether the voting systems used by California counties comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

>more

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_vote03.3ee8f8e.html

[livvy]

5. FL: Millions of Dollars found For New Voting Equipment

May 2, 2007 10:10 pm US/Eastern
Millions Of Dollars Found For New Voting Equipment
Touch Screen Voting Machine Bill Comes To A Head

Michele Gillen
Reporting

(CBS4) TALLAHASSEE It’s not everyday that you find millions of dollars, but that’s exactly what happened Wednesday with millions of dollars to help our state’s voting system.

The US Election Assistance Commission will allow Florida to use federal funds to replace the state's touch-screen voting machines with a verifiable paper-trail system. Until now, there was concern that the state would have to dish out all the money to revamp its voting system.

The Florida Legislature is on the verge of passing an elections bill that calls for the use of nearly $28 million dollars in federal funds to replace touch-screen voting machines used in 15 counties. But until yesterday, state lawmakers and Florida's Secretary of State did not know for sure whether they could rely on federal money from the Help America Vote Act. It appears that the state had federal money all along that was supposed to pay for a fix to the 2000 hanging chad debacle.

The Election Assistance Commission said during a public hearing in Washington that it would permit the use of federal funds.

>more
http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_122194001.html

[livvy]

6. Ballot Fraud Furor Fades

Ballot fraud furor fades
GOP-driven cases largely fall flat in Missouri; critics see a larger plan to sway election.
By Greg Gordon - McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, May 3, 2007

Accusations about voter fraud seemed to fly from every direction in Missouri before last fall's elections. State and national Republican leaders fretted that dead people might vote or that some live people might vote more than once.

The threat to the integrity of the election was seen as so grave that Bradley Schlozman, the acting chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and later the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, twice wielded the power of the federal government to try to protect the balloting. The Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly also stepped into action.

Now, six months after freshman Missouri Sen. Jim Talent's defeat handed Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, disclosures in the wake of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys show that that Republican campaign to protect the balloting was not as it appeared. No significant voter fraud was ever proved.

The preoccupation with ballot fraud in Missouri was part of a wider national effort that included stiffer voter-identification requirements, wholesale purges of names from lists of registered voters and tight policing of liberal get-out-the-vote drives. That effort, critics charge, was aimed at protecting the Republican majority in Congress by dampening Democratic turnout.

>more
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/165463.html

[livvy]

10. DU Discussion

Post started by Hissyspit :hi:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3247645

[livvy]

7. IL: State To Monitor E.C. Primary Polls

Date posted online: Thursday, May 03, 2007
State to monitor E.C. primary polls
EAST CHICAGO -- Race could be contentious, if police reports filed so far are indicator
BY JOE CARLSON
[e-mail]
219.662.5339

EAST CHICAGO | In addition to voters, election judges and campaign boosters, another group of interested people will be visiting city polling places next week -- fraud monitors.

Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office has decided to send 10 special deputies to monitor the May 8 election in East Chicago and Gary to investigate complaints and watch for shenanigans.

"We had some requests, but this is more because of the documented history of vote fraud in the area," said Jen Fanger, spokeswoman for Rokita's office.

It's not the first time. Monitors from the federal and state governments oversaw the mayor's race three years ago, during which George Pabey unseated 33-year incumbent Mayor Robert Patrick in a special election.

>more
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2007/05/03/news/top_news/docc0b108077c5990ca862572d000022d18.txt

[livvy]

8. TX: Voter system Too Flawed, Counties Say

May 2, 2007, 11:26PM
Voter system too flawed, counties say
Concerned by registration woes in early voting, many want the state to get rid of it

By HARVEY RICE and HELEN ERIKSEN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A $14 million centralized voting-records system used by 224 Texas counties has so many computer flaws that voter registration officials in many counties want the state to scrap it.

The system already has kicked registered voters' names off the lists during early voting that started Monday and forced others to wait as long as 10 minutes while the system verified voter registration. One of those left off the rolls was Prairie View Mayor Frank Jackson.

The system, intended to meet federal requirements for centralizing voter information statewide, has been plagued by so many problems since it began operating in January that some counties want out after the May 12 election.

"This particular system is just not working," said Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson, one of the most vocal critics of the Texas Election Administration Management System, or TEAM.

>more
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4770651.html

[livvy]

9. CA: Pro-Term Limits Group Claims Ballot Summary Misleading

Pro-term limits group claims ballot summary misleading
By STEVE LAWRENCE Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 05/02/2007 05:51:06 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO- A pro-term limits group accused the attorney general Wednesday of drafting a misleading title and summary for a term limits initiative, contending it was "largely hypothetical" that the proposed ballot measure would reduce lawmakers' time in office.

U.S. Term Limits filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking an order directing Attorney General Jerry Brown to amend the title and summary, which appear on petitions and, if the proposal makes the ballot, in voter pamphlets.

"Attorney General Jerry Brown has shown contempt for California voters and for California election law and the initiative process by producing a title and summary ... that is intentionally inaccurate and misleading by promoting the fraud that this initiative will result in a reduction in terms," Jeremy Johnson, director of state government affairs for U.S. Term Limits, said during a news conference.

The initiative's supporters and a spokesman for Brown, David Kravets, said the title and summary were accurate.

>more

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5803820

[babylonsister]

11. K&R, and good morning, and thanks! nt

[Melissa G]

12. Off to greatest with you!

Thanks, livvy!

[livvy]

13. Thank you, both! n/t

[freedomfries]

14. K & R

:hi:

[Patsy Stone]

15. FLORIDA MOVES TO PAPER BALLOTS!

Source: BRAD BLOG

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2833625

FLORIDA MOVES TO PAPER BALLOTS!
A Huge Victory (Finally!) for Voters in the Sunshine State...

Will the Democrats in the U.S. Congress finally begin to realize their mistake in allowing for DRE touch-screen voting machines now that the Republican Governor of Florida has led the Republican Florida legislature to do the right thing and move to all paper ballots? Or will they continue to allow themselves to lose yet another issue that they should be owning?

We'll leave it to the Election Integrity advocates on the ground who have worked so long and hard, to give you the great news...

FULL REPORT:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4506

Related threads:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x472108
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x472134