'Daily Voting News' For February 06, 2008 – Morning Edition

By John Gideon on 2/6/2008, 7:11am PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In last evenings “Daily Voting News” I said that we seemed to have dodged a bullet. That statement may have been made a little early. Most of the big reports are election administration failures. Administration failures are those failures that cannot be blamed on voting machines or the voters or poll workers. They are those failures that fall directly in the laps of clerks or registrars or boards of elections. Not enough paper ballots at the precinct is an administrative failure. The “decline to state” issues in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in California, is an administrative failure that may cost hundreds of thousands of voters their voice. We are also picking out little pieces in media articles and some first hand reports that machines put in some California precincts for voters with disabilities were not operational and voters with disabilities ended-up losing the privacy of their vote just so they could cast a ballot.

Note: This will be the last of the two-a-day DVNs we hope. Headlines and links to the notable voting news stories, since last night's edition, are listed below...

NAtional: Was Your Vote Counted?
An expert assesses how different technologies worked at the polls
http://www.newsweek.com/id/108320
NAtional: Registration Problems Mar Super Tuesday in Some Places
http://blog.wired.com/27.../02/registration-is.html
NAtional: Voting Goes Smoothly in Most Places
http://www.nytimes.com/2...olitics/06voting.html?hp
NAtional: Votes Go Smoothly in Most States
http://ap.google.com/art...nWKFHDXB7pXdpcgD8UKIHVO1
NAtional: Polls Flooded but No Major Problems
http://www.washingtonpos.../06/AR2008020601034.html
AL: Northwest Alabama counties pick Huckabee and Clinton
http://www.timesdaily.co...0206/NEWS/802060333/1011
AR: Slow going: County results trickle in : Unofficial numbers show Clinton, Huckabee in lead
http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/58488/
AZ: For some Arizona voters, an exercise in frustration
http://www.azcentral.com.../0205longlines05-ON.html
AZ: Super confusion at Arizona polls
http://www.azcentral.com...super-azprimary0205.html
CA: A few hitches as Bay Area voters go to the polls
http://www.sfgate.com/cg...R.DTL&type=politics
CA: Registrars begin slow task of tallying Calif. primary votes
http://www.signonsandieg...orniaprimary-voting.html
CA: Long lines of voters - may be record turnout
http://www.sfgate.com/cg...2008/02/06/MNQOUSIIM.DTL
CA: Gaming initiatives in lead as voters crowd polls
http://www.sfgate.com/cg...2008/02/06/BA7NUSERR.DTL
CA: Update: Dem ballot shortage keeps some Alameda County polls open late
http://origin.insidebaya...ivalleyherald/ci_8179918
CA: Glenn County - Paper ballots easy in Glenn County
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_8182334
CA: Los Angeles County - Quick Coverage of Problems (and Confusion) at L.A. County Polls Today
https://bradblog.com/?p=5658
CA: Los Angeles County - LA election officials leery of potential election fiasco over "double bubble"
http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8175116
CA: Los Angeles County - Voting advocates allege problems at Los Angeles polls
http://www.sfgate.com/cg...TL&feed=rss.bayarea
CA: Los Angeles County - Few election glitches, except for independents
http://www.latimes.com/n...te6feb06,0,5117569.story
CA: Monterey County - Observers will watch county ballot count until end
http://origin1.montereyh...rald.com/news/ci_8182998
CA: Napa County - Hope for those with lost, tossed-out ballots
Mail-in voting confused some who tossed out their ballots
http://www.napavalleyreg...a8d95ad182c362832823.txt
CA: Napa County - Delays, snags fail to register at elections office
http://www.napavalleyreg...a95e153004e476879000.txt
CA: Nevada County - Young people drive turnout - local results to be delayed
http://www.theunion.com/.../20080206/NEWS/694092183
CA: Riverside County - Voters claim party registrations wrongly switched
http://www.pe.com/localn...D_dvoting06.3bf9f0f.html
CA: Riverside County Registrar's Office vows ballots will be hand-counted
http://www.mydesert.com/...1/802060326/-1/newsfront
CA: Riverside County - Machines delay Riverside County election results
http://www.mydesert.com/...20080206/NEWS03/80205061
CA: San Diego County - Polls Close In California
Paper Ballots Will Be Individually Scanned
http://www.nbcsandiego.c...ews/15228228/detail.html
CA: San Diego County - Paper ballot election hits few bumps
http://www.nctimes.com/a...litics/7_91_062_5_08.txt
CA: San Diego County - Independent voters voice ballot complaints
Some poll workers unclear on rules
http://www.signonsandieg...080206-9999-1n6vote.html
CA: San Luis Obispo County - By polling place and mail, SLO voters cast their ballots
http://www.sanluisobispo.../local/story/268687.html
CA: Santa Clara County - Some Palo Alto voters turned away --- no ballots
Provisional ballots run out at polling place on extremely busy day
http://www.paloaltoonlin...s/show_story.php?id=7071
CO: Moffat County - Commission to support ballot protests
Moffat County Clerks have qualms about decertification process
http://www.craigdailypre...support_ballot_protests/
CT: Registrars busy keeping up with demand for ballots
http://www.newsday.com/n...205feb05,0,1133864.story
DE: Some problems at Del. polls
http://www.delawareonlin...=/20080205/NEWS/80205042
FL: Voters' Disconnect From Election Process Is No 'Virtuality'
http://brandonnews2.tbo....lection-process-is-no-v/
FL: Sarasota County elections chief drawing more fire
http://www.heraldtribune...802060442/-1/newssitemap
GA: Grovner beats Deverger in a court-ordered rematch for McIntosh County
http://www.jacksonville....0608/geo_244103741.shtml
HI: Critic Says E-Voting Machines Vulnerable
http://www.khon2.com/news/local/15340126.html
IL: Winter Weather Almost Freezes Primary Voting
What happens when winter weather threatens Super Tuesday primary voting?
http://www.hoinews.com/n...news_story.aspx?id=92726
IL: Voting smooth for Illinois, despite invisible ink incident
http://www.thesouthern.c...p-state-il/d8ukhke05.txt
IL: Chicago - Election officials probe use of 'magic' invisible ink pens in 49th Ward
http://www.chicagotribun...webfeb06,0,4184216.story
IL: Cook County - Election '08: City precinct misses half of ballots in count
http://media.www.dailyno...s.In.Count-3191362.shtml
NJ: Hudson County - Poll worker errors rectified; votes flowing in Hudson
http://www.nj.com/hudson..._errors_rectified_v.html
OH: Ohio County, ACLU Sue Brunner Over Ballots, Voting Machines for March Primary
http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/702
OH: Tally in fight with Brunner: 1 new lawsuit, 1 challenge lost
http://www.columbusdispa..._B1_76997D5.html?sid=101
OH: Cuyahoga County - No Last-Minute Switch at Cleveland Polls
http://ap.google.com/art...o3ArBE4wYNydVFwD8UKGG8O1
OH: Cuyahoga County can use optical-scan voting machines for March primary
http://www.cleveland.com...53425000.xml&coll=2
OH: Union County officials contest state's decision on paper ballots
http://www.columbusdispa...voting_wrap.html?sid=101
UT: Turnout high for Utah's primary
http://origin.sltrib.com/news/ci_8175189
United Kingdom: Super Tuesday: Voting from London in the Democratic Global Primary
http://www.associatedcon...ting_from_london_in.html

**"Daily Voting News" is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in "Daily Voting News" may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or BradBlog.Com**

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READER COMMENTS ON
"'Daily Voting News' For February 06, 2008 – Morning Edition"
(8 Responses so far...)

COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
... TruthIsAll said on 2/6/2008 @ 11:17 am PT...

Déjà vu: The Obama to Clinton Exit Poll Shift
Updated: Feb. 6 at 2pm
TruthIsAll

http://www.geocities.com...el/SuperTuesdayShift.htm

Was it New Hampshire all over again? Once again the preliminary exit polls were forced to match the recorded vote. But this time, Hillary Clinton, not Bush, was the beneficiary of an unlikely one-sided shift from the exit poll to the vote.

SEVEN states shifted beyond the MoE in Clinton’s direction: AL, AZ, CA, GA, IL, MA, NJ
The probability is virtually zero that 7 of 16 states would exceed the MoE.

At 7pm, Obama’s national exit poll share was 50.9%; his actual recorded vote share was 46.8%.
The probability of the 4.1% discrepancy is virtually zero.

Obama led in 11 of the 16 exit-polled states.
In Massachusetts, Obama led by 3%; he lost by 15%.
In New Jersey, Obama led by 5%; he lost by 10%.
In Arizona, Obama led by 6%; he lost by 6%.
http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3670

The Final CNN Exit Poll, which was forced to match the recorded vote, indicated that 15 states shifted to Clinton.
The exit poll shares flipped: Clinton 49.6%, Obama 45.4%.
Obama led in just 7 states.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECT...primaries/results...

Fourteen of the 16 states shifted to Clinton from the 7pm exit polls to the final recorded vote.
Arkansas and Oklahoma shifted slightly to Obama, but Clinton won them both - by 42% and 24%.

The recorded vote shares: Clinton 49.1%, Obama 46.8%
Obama won 7 of the 16 states.
He currently leads in NM by 71 votes (98% reported).

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
... Linda said on 2/6/2008 @ 12:11 pm PT...

It is my understanding that San Diego County's ROV Debra Seiler is a former rep for Diebold/Premier. It's also my understanding that there's a group of ROVs suing CA SoS Debra Bowen because she decertified Premier's voting machines.

How can we find out how many and which of CAs ROVs are actually "plants" who have infiltrated our ROVs offices?

If we don't stop this now, every county in CA will end up like LA County. Connie McCormick, former Diebold rep and LA County ROV, is likely the reason LA is having the integrity problems it's experiencing post-Feb. 5.

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
... JW said on 2/6/2008 @ 12:23 pm PT...

California switched to paper ballots in some counties --- does anyone know how we go about finding out the vote counts for those counties vs. machine counts in the others? It would be interesting to see if we have another NH effect going on.

Again, not crying voter fraud, but as I posted earlier as well, this exit poll shifting (all in favor of Clinton) doesn't make sense. People then argue that folks just lie about exit polls, but these are anonymous and they're writing them down --- not speaking to someone on the phone.

The media still hasn't dug at why these polls are so on for other things, but off again in this case favoring the Clintons. There needs to be some explanation as to why things are so off.

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
... mateito said on 2/6/2008 @ 12:27 pm PT...

I saw something odd last night while watching the returns come in on the CA SOS page. The gap between HC and BO was widening slightly from 1:30 AM until it began to hold steady at around 381,000 votes. Then, at 2;39 AM the gap narrowed by about 10 thousand votes to 371,530, as if a very strong LA precinct had come in for Obama.

But then at 2:59 AM, Obama's numbers jumped again while Clinton's numbers stayed exactly at 1,744,945. I couldn't help but notice Richardson's total sat exactly at 15,000 at this time until 3:24 AM.

There are many explanations one could offer for this. The most obvious seems to be human data entry error or delay in posting portions of the results. But I felt that I should share, particularly because the gap quickly widened back to about 380,000 votes, where it remained at 11:00 AM today. Did anyone else notice this?

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
... GWN said on 2/6/2008 @ 12:28 pm PT...

JW I thought, maybe incorrectly that "all" counties were going paper ballots, no? but counted on scanners?

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
... mateito said on 2/6/2008 @ 12:38 pm PT...

the counties reporting late at night were all urban counties with scanners from what i can tell.

COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
... Dredd said on 2/6/2008 @ 1:22 pm PT...

Speaking of dodging bullets, Senator Inouye (D-HI) cast his 15,000th vote in the Senate a short while ago.

He is a Japanese American, you know, the ones who were put in prison camps by "patriots" during WWII.

He advocated for a Japanese American unit and became a leader in that unit. It ended up being the most decorated unit in American Military history.

He vote "yes" to sunsetting FISA in 4 years ... if it passes. He is against the things he fought against ... totalitarianism.

Yet the senate leader Reid, required that there be 60 votes for it to pass. The vote was 49-46 ... so it would have passed but for Reidism.

What is Reid's f**king problem? How many dems are going to become demoCons?

As goes FISA so goes the nation ... already at the 8 count ... two to go ...

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
... JW said on 2/6/2008 @ 2:31 pm PT...

#5 --

Actually I think you're right. My understanding was paper ballots were paper ballots, meaning they had to be hand counted, but it looks like they're still scanned --- does that not still fall under the category of an electronic voting machine? I was thinking results on those can still be manipulated.

When I voted, I gave it to the woman and they let you put it through the machine, but you're given no print out that what you voted for matches with what came up on the screen.

Here's an article on it:

http://www.signonsandieg...80205-0359-election.html

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