Election Reform and Related News: Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008

[livvy]

Election Reform and Related News
Wednesday, September 3, 2008



Everyone is welcome to participate. Feel free to:

:bluebox: Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

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

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

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

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



Recs are always appreciated!



We seem to be down to two editors, and could really use some assistance. School's in and I'm really active with the Obama/Biden campaign right now, so please consider helping out for a while. If you can give us a hand, let me know.

Thanks!

[livvy]

1. NM: Legislator asks court to toss opponent from ballot

Legislator asks court to toss opponent from ballot
By BARRY MASSEY Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 09/03/2008 04:19:09 PM MDT


SANTA FE, N.M.—A Democratic state senator is asking a district court to remove his Republican challenger from the November general election ballot.
The election dispute involves a Senate district in western New Mexico in which paper ballots turned up missing in the June primary election.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Sen. David Ulibarri of Grants contends that Jose Silva is not a qualified candidate to run in Senate District 30 because he was not registered to vote in the district when the governor's primary election proclamation was issued in late January. That's a requirement for candidates under state election law.

According to the lawsuit, Silva changed his voter registration to an address near Grants on March 17—a day before the filing deadline for legislative candidates. Silva previously was registered to vote in Los Lunas, which is in another Senate district.

more...

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_10372799

[livvy]

2. FL: Elections officials scramble to find missing ballots

Elections officials scramble to find missing ballots

By JANE MUSGRAVE

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Palm Beach County elections officials were scrambling against a midnight deadline Wednesday to find 3,478 ballots that somehow disappeared between last week's election and a weekend recount.

Spurred by a visit from Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, elections workers began sifting through hundreds of bins in search of the ballots that were missing at the conclusion of a manual recount of a judicial race that ended in a near dead heat.


They also began calling dozens of poll workers who might be needed Thursday if the ballots are found and a second recount is done in the race between Circuit Judge Richard Wennet and challenger William Abramson. Going into the recount 17 votes behind, Wennet ended up winning by 60 votes after the ballots disappeared.

The county canvassing board was to meet at midnight, when staff said they hoped the search would be complete and the ballots found.

more...
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/09/03/0903recount.html

[livvy]

3. NY: NIAGARA COUNTY: Changing the vote

Published: September 02, 2008 11:44 pm

NIAGARA COUNTY: Changing the vote

New equipment, change in some polling districts arrives

By Mark Scheer
E-mail Mark
Niagara Gazette

An unusually high number of telephone calls were made to the Niagara County Board of Elections this past week.

And the voters making them didn’t offer well wishes for the upcoming primary.

County elections officials acknowledged Wednesday that changes in polling places have upset some voters in the county’s 12 towns.

They also say the new arrangement was not intended to anger people, but rather to save taxpayer dollars as the county responds to new federal voting regulations.

more...


http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local_story_246234408.html

[livvy]

4. AZ:11,500 votes in Pima County not counted; final results released Thursday

11,500 votes in Pima County not counted; final results released Thursday
BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen

More than 11,500 ballots remain uncounted in Pima County from Tuesday's primary election, leaving a few races in doubt, said Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez.

Those ballots won't be finished being counted until Thursday, said Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson.

Elections officials in Maricopa County say they still have to count 43,000 ballots from Tuesday’s primaries, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

With more than 10 percent of the votes not counted, some races are too close to call.

more...
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/95690.php

[livvy]

5. CA Appeals Court Strikes Down Ten Percent Ballot Audit

September 2, 2008

CA Appeals Court Strikes Down Ten Percent Ballot Audit

By Rady Ananda


An August 29th ruling by California's Fourth Appellate District Court bans Secretary of State Debra Bowen's regulation requiring a ten percent manual tally of ballots when election results fall within a half percent between victor and loser, and when the margin of difference between jurisdictions exceeds a half percent. California will return to a one percent manual audit, as enacted in 1965. The grounds for this decision rest on Bowen's failure to follow public notice guidelines required of all proposed "general" regulations that apply across the board. Bowen also had the option of issuing this 10 percent audit regulation as an emergency, thereby avoiding public notice requirements.

After the 2007 scientific studies commissioned by Bowen confirmed that all the tested computerized voting systems could not be secured, Bowen decertified and conditionally recertified them, based on several conditions. In October she issued her Post-Election Manual Tally Requirements (PEMT) as one of those conditions. The County of San Diego (with other counties joining) sued on several grounds, including:

* The regulation exceeded Bowen's authority (rejected by the Court);

* A ten percent ballot audit is cost-prohibitive (also rejected by the Court); and

* The regulation didn't undergo public comment and scrutiny (accepted by the Court).

more...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/CA-Appeals-Court-Bans-10-P-by-Rady-Ananda-080902-141.html

[livvy]

6. Local activist candidate for Broward Election Supervisor denied access to ballot recount

Local activist candidate for Broward Election Supervisor denied access to ballot recount
by Peter Graves-Goodman Wednesday, Sep. 03, 2008 at 1:16 AM
[e-mail]

Ellen Brodsky, local activist candidate challenging incumbent Brenda Snipes for supervisor of elections in the Nov. 4 general election was denied access to a Broward County judicial race recount last Sunday August 31st in violation of Florida Statutes Chapter 104.29.

Ellen Brodsky called Susan Pynchon, Florida Fair Elections Coalition and candidate for Volusia County, FL Supervisor of Elections and asked her to relay this to everyone:

She has been denied access to the Broward County recount (I don't know which race it is), which began at 8 am this morning, because, according to Ellen, they told her they were "afraid she might cause a disturbance." She was standing outside the building when she called me.

I just called an attorney who confirmed that this is in violation of Florida's Sunshine laws. They can't lawfully prevent her from entering the building, but could only evict her if they determine that she was actually causing a disturbance, not on the fear that she "might."

more...

http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2008/09/11679.php

[livvy]

7. Voter registration system to change

Voter registration system to change
County BOE: Switch won't affect November election
By AMY PICARD • Advocate Reporter • September 3, 2008

NEWARK -- The Licking County Board of Elections is expected to buy a new voter registration system before the end of the year, but it will have no impact on the November election.

Sequoia, the company that produced Licking County's current registration system, will no longer be in the business of voter registration systems beginning in 2009 and Sue Penick, director of the Board of Elections, said the county does not feel comfortable keeping the current system without the support the company traditionally has provided.

The change, however, will not be made until after the November election. Sequoia will continue to provide support until the end of the year.

"I don't want to even insinuate at all that our system is lacking," Penick said. "It is not."

more...

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080903/NEWS01/809030315

[livvy]

8. Eat My Vote: Election officials have no fear about the latest voting machine glitch. Others aren’t s

Eat My Vote: Election officials have no fear about the latest voting machine glitch. Others aren’t so sure.

By Ted McDonough
Posted 09/04/2008


Utah election officials have been working for months to get ready for November’s presidential election. Armies of new poll workers have been recruited and extra voting machines rented for an expected huge turnout. Now, with just two months before the election, they’ve been told of a bug in the computer that counts votes. And it can’t be fixed by Election Day.

County clerks received notice of the problem Aug. 19 from Premier Election Solutions, the manufacturer of the voting machines used throughout Utah. In a “product advisory notice” Premier—formerly known as Diebold—says a “logic error” in the company’s vote-counting software means the system sometimes leaves votes uncounted.

When Utah voters cast votes at a touch-screen machine, their choices are stored on the machine’s memory card. At the end of the day, poll workers gather memory cards from each machine and download them to a central vote-tabulating computer. That’s where the problem lies. Sometimes the tabulating computer stops before all votes have been downloaded. And, Premier says in the notice to county clerks, the machine will lie about it: “The AVServer console will indicate the affected upload of the memory card(s) has been successful, (green arrow), when the upload has not, in fact, been successful.”

In May, Premier sent out a notice saying the problem was caused by anti-virus software and could be stopped by disabling the conflicting program. The company now says the problem is with its own software. The glitch came to light during a May primary in Ohio when officials noticed 200 votes were missing. Premier is working on a fix, but it won’t be available in time for November’s election, mostly because the process for approving voting machine software takes two years.

more...

http://www.slweekly.com/index.cfm?do=article.details&id=294C9D1A-14D1-13A2-9FE79F8AEA4FFA4F

[livvy]

9. Warning for College Student Voters

Sept. 3

Warning for College Student Voters

Last week, Virginia’s Montgomery County, home to Virginia Tech, issued a press release regarding proper protocol for college students registering to vote. In interviews with Inside Higher Ed Tuesday, it was described by turns as “unsubstantiated,” “chilling,” and (more generously) as not “incredibly encouraging or friendly.”

It reads, in part: “The Code of Virginia states that a student must declare a legal residence in order to register. A legal residence can be either a student’s permanent address from home or their current college residence. By making Montgomery County your permanent residence, you have declared your independence from your parents and can no longer be claimed as a dependent on their income tax filings — check with your tax professional. If you have a scholarship attached to your former residence, you could lose this funding. And, if you change your registration to Montgomery County, Virginia Code requires you to change your driver’s license and car registration to your present address within 30 days.”

The county registrar of elections said Tuesday that the memo was intended to counteract the absence of cautionary information given to students signed up through the ubiquitous get-out-the-vote registration drives. Generally speaking, however, those interviewed for this article said the warnings are, at worst, farfetched and misleading, or, at best, overstated and not typically supported in reality.

And, in a year in which historic youth voter turnout is anticipated, and the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been propelled by college students’ support, this case in the battleground state of Virginia is “not an isolated incident,” said Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director for the Student Public Interest Research Group’s nonpartisan New Voters Project.

more...

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/03/voting

[livvy]

10. Michigan voters beware: Secretary of State’s voter ID ruling inspires mistrust

Michigan voters beware: Secretary of State’s voter ID ruling inspires mistrust
By Eartha Jane Melzer 9/2/08 7:02 AM

Activists say Terri Lynn Land’s policies discourage turnout, risk chaos on Election Day

A directive issued by Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land just nine months ago as part of the state’s new photo ID requirement could suppress voting in the November election, according to voting rights groups.

In the directive, “Special procedure if picture ID leaves voter’s identity in question,”Land authorizes poll workers to request additional forms of ID from voters who, in the poll workers’ opinion, do not resemble the photos on their driver’s licenses. It instructs poll workers to then issue those voters provisional ballots if questions are not resolved.

Provisional ballots, a relatively new election phenomenon, were created by the federal Help America Vote Act in 2002 to address the problem of people being turned away from the polls because their names don’t appear on the precinct voter list. If a poll worker decides a person doesn’t look like his ID, his provisional vote would be counted only if he proves his eligibility by bringing another form of ID to election officials within six days of the election.

Bradley Heard, attorney with the Advancement Project, a Washington, D.C.-based voting rights group, told Michigan Messenger that Land’s policy authorizing poll workers to require multiple IDs is unprecedented, gives too much discretion to poll workers and may result in overuse of provisional ballots, placing an unfair burden on voters and especially on poor and minority voters.

more...

http://www.michiganmessenger.com/3542/michigan-voters-beware-secretary-of-states-voter-id-ruling-inspires-mistrust

[livvy]

11. Hawaii Election Integrity Lawsuit Update

Hawaii Election Integrity Lawsuit Update
By Bob Babson, 9/2/2008 12:11:24 AM

Our lawsuit for integrity in Hawai'i elections continues. Judge Cardoza denied our motion for preliminary injunction because he believed the harm to intervening in the current election outweighed the possibility of election fraud -- since "legally" election fraud can be challenged after an election. However, the issue of the overall illegality of the voting system has yet to be determined by the court. We are optimistic that we will prevail and thereby improve election integrity here in Hawaii.

The case is very simple. There is a law here in Hawaii called the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act (HAPA) (aka Chapter 91, HRS) which requires all state agencies to promulgate "administrative rules" for their agency whenever the public is affected by actions their agency takes. Public hearings are required, the Attorney General must then approve the rules from a legal standpoint and then the Governor must sign the rules to make them law.

The Office of Elections has taken numerous actions that affect the public without promulgating administrative rules including transmitting votes from Maui to the state count center in Honolulu over telephone and internet connections and the use of electronic voting machines in general. We are simply asking the judge to order the Office of Elections to comply with the law by legally promulgating the necessary rules.

Our attorney, Lance Collins, has agreed to do this case pro bono. However, we, the plaintiffs, have agreed to pay the "court costs" and other fees. If you would like to help, please send a small donation to Lance Collins, Esq., 2070 W. Vineyard Street, Wailuku, HI 96793 and write "election lawsuit" on the memo line. We would be most appreciative.

more...

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?8c7ee46f-80cf-4782-a66f-50aea61195fc

[livvy]

12. VA: New Voters Stretch City Resources

Issue #20.36 :: 09/02/2008 - 09/08/2008
New voters stretch city resources


State law limits voting machine options

BY CHIARA CANZI


The 2008 presidential election has attracted a record number of new registered voters throughout the country, and the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County are part of that trend. Since 2004, more than 5,000 new voters registered in the city along with more than 5,000 in the county. But the influx of voters will strain the city’s voting resources.

The reason for that strain comes from legislative hamstringing. In an effort to ease fears of hackers manipulating electronic voting machines, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law in April 2007 that prohibits local governments from purchasing new Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines. If localities need new voting machines, they are expected to turn to optical scanning machines that read paper ballots.

According to the Verifiable Voting Coalition of Virginia, the DRE machines have shown to be vulnerable to manipulation and error. For supporters of the new law, paperless machines won’t allow voters to check that their vote was correctly cast.

The city’s electronic machines do not produce a paper record of individual votes. “People didn’t have the confidence in the machines that had no paper trails,” says Sheri Iachetta, the city’s general registrar. “They want us to scrap everything and get new ones.”

more...

http://c-ville.com/index.php?cat=141404064431134&ShowArticle_ID=11802908081539566

[livvy]

13. Sorry to be so brief, but...

[tbyg52]

14. K&R - some more recs for this fine thread, please! nt

[autorank]

15. k*r How about a replay of that Alaska Voting Scandal, 2004

Hey, Edison Mitofsky and the Network Consortium must have been advising the state on withholding the raw data or just showing it to 'special people.' I recall this story because the Alaska Democrats really pushed on this without hesitation.


State rebuffs raw vote demand
http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7386582p-7298824c.html

STANDOFF: Democrats want 2004 base election data; machine firm is playing coy.

By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: January 24, 2006
Last Modified: January 24, 2006 at 02:26 AM

The state Division of Elections has refused to turn over its electronic voting files to the Democrats, arguing that the data format belongs to a private company and can't be made public.

The Alaska Democratic Party says the information is a public record essential for verifying the accuracy of the 2004 general election and must be provided.

The official vote results from the last general election are riddled with discrepancies and impossible for the public to make sense of, the Democrats said Monday. A detailed analysis of the underlying data could answer lingering questions about an election many thought was over more than a year ago, they say.

"Basically what they say is they want to give us a printout from the (electronic) file. They don't want to give us the file itself. It doesn't enable us to get to the bottom of what we need to know," said Kay Brown, spokeswoman for the party.