Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Recently a frustrated elderly voter from Albuquerque, New Mexico, wrote a letter to his local newspaper to relate his experience on a recent election day. The city had a 10% turnout of voters for a city-wide election and had a problem understanding why. This voter and his wife went to their normal polling place, where they had voted since they moved to the city. They were told their polls had been moved two miles away. They went to the new polling place, which was not marked by an American flag, only to find that their polling place was really a half-block away. They went to this venue, again not marked by an American flag, and voted. The writer is legally blind, uses a white cane, and a special lighted magnifying glass. He voted with a lot of trouble and as he was leaving the polls noticed a machine set up in a corner. He asked a poll worker about the machine and was told that it was there for voters with disabilities. Apparently none of the poll workers had used the white cane and lighted magnifying glass as a sign that the writer was sight impaired. This all points to poor election administration and gives an indication that some people just don’t care if we vote. At least not until a few days later when they add up the participation percentage and realize how low it is and blame the voters for not caring about our democracy.

Links and headlines for today's notable voting news stories follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“Please Vote For Me” is a documentary filmed in Wuhan, China. For the first time ever, the students in grade three at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China, have been asked to elect a class monitor. Traditionally appointed by the teacher, the class monitor holds a powerful position, helping to control the students, keeping them on task and doling out punishment to those who disobey. The film follows the candidates in their first immersion into democracy including campaigning and then the election. Will democracy work in China? The film is shown as part of “Independent Lens” on PBS.

As to democracy in the United States (and even a bit in Scotland), see today's notable voting news stories linked below, as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today’s news is varied widely but includes a transcript of testimony given by a representative of American Enterprise Institute to a subcommittee of the House Administration Committee. This subcommittee met last week and then again today to hear testimony regarding absentee voting and vote-by-mail.

That, and today's other notable voting news, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Butte Co California Clerk/Recorder is going to tell the county supervisors that elections will be more costly and complicated because of an “abuse of political power” by the SoS, Debra Bowen. The clerk, Candace Grubbs, uses the same arguments that her vendor, Diebold, used. She talks only about the security portion of the “Top-To-Bottom Review” and totally ignores that the review found her voting system to not be accessible. Source code and document reviews also found numerous violations of voting systems standards and numerous reasons why Ms. Grubbs's voting system should never have been certified by the state. I am pleased to present Candace Grubbs with today’s “Enemy of Democracy.”

That story, and the rest of today's notable voting news stories, all linked below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Amodio Worldwide Moving & Storage of New Britain Connecticut has a contract to move the city's voting machines. Gerry Amodio is a candidate for alderman-at-large. The Secretary of State has told the city, "Unequivocally, candidates should not be involved in touching the voting machines in any way." State law is clear that a candidate may not touch voting machines or be in polling places during the election. However the city has decided that Amodio won’t be moving the machines; his employees will be, therefore Amodio’s company will take custody of the voting machines and the city is satisfied that nothing at all will happen. I guess we wait and see....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

I got an email today that asked me why the voting machine companies are not refunding money spent by counties on voting machines. Of course the answer is that very few counties or states are taking the vendors to court and demanding their money back. I don’t know why West Virginia and Arkansas and Indiana threatened to take ES&S to court but never followed through. Or, maybe they did and it was never publicized? I think part of it is that we have entrusted these officials with hundreds of thousands of tax payers’ dollars and they spent that money on insecure, inaccurate, and unreliable voting machines. And they gave the checks to people who are every bit the snake-oil salesman and, in many cases, used to run elections in neighboring states or counties. Now that the systems are not what they were told they would be they have to admit they wasted the tax payers’ dollars. That’s a hard thing to admit to. It’s time election officials got together outside of the influence of the vendors and their apologists and began to support each other.

And with that, links to today's notable voting news stories follow below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Last week the Netherlands did away with e-voting and their DREs made by a company called “NEDAP.” These same machines were sold to Ireland under the brand name “Liberty.” “Liberty” is now being marketed in New York. Ireland paid 51.3m Euros to purchase their machines then they found out they were insecure and had many problems. The machines have been in storage since they were purchased. They have never been used. Instead of taking NEDAP to court for restitution, or scrapping the machines; the Irish have now decided to take out 25-year rental leases for storage facilities. The government has taken a lease for the 288 machines in storage in County Monaghan for over 27,000 Euros a year.

If you want a copy of the book featured in the first link below you can get one signed by the author at VotersUnite.Org as a premium on a donation....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Broward Co Florida began testing their new ES&S optical-scan system allowing citizens and the media only two hours to view the process before removing them from the area. What are the county and ES&S afraid of?

Vigo Co Indiana just wrapped up their Logic and Accuracy Testing. The Tribune Star reporter who wrote about the testing reported that they ran “at least 10 ballots” through each optical-scan machine. In an email response to an email I sent her where I essentially said, “Huh!?” she reported that they ran 13 or 14 through most of the machines and 10 or 11 through another because they didn’t want to overload that machine. Logic and Accuracy testing was complete within 45 minutes according to the reporter. Again I ask, “Huh!?” and pass on a well deserved “Enemy of Democracy” award to Patricia Mansard, Vigo County Clerk....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Voters in five California counties will have to wait a couple weeks, at least, for a decision from the Secretary of State as to what action the state will take against ES&S for selling the counties uncertified AutoMark ballot markers. My guess is that with primary season so close the state will provisionally certify the machines the counties have and then severely fine the vendor for violating state law. That’s just my guess though.

In another indication that the voting machine vendors are gouging their customers and the tax payer, Luzerne Co Pennsylvania signed a four-year contract with ES&S to provide warranty services. The contract is for $60,550. Originally ES&S offered the county a three-year contract for $320,000. The difference? The county will pay shipping and labor costs for whatever breaks. It just took county officials willing to stand-up to ES&S and tell them “NO! We aren’t going to be gouged”....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

On Oct. 13 I led off DVN with a graf concerning an “Alert” that was on the Maricopa County Democratic Party website. If you waited until Saturday morning to go to the link provided you would not have found the “Alert.” It had been removed. I followed up today and talked to the County Recorder and the Executive Director of the county Democratic Party. What I wrote in that graf was true to some extent. In fact, a contractor for the state Democratic Party pays $4 per registration for each registration turned-in to the County Recorders. Maricopa County has received 26,000 new registrations. Of those 26,000 only 5,000 were any good. The reasons for the rejected forms were varied and among those were some forms for legal aliens. The County Recorder has met with the contractor and a representative of the state party. She has also talked to Immigration on behalf of those who were taken in by the scheme. Is there a problem with the way legal aliens are being treated and the possibility that they may lose their ability to file for citizenship? Yes, very much so. The overriding problem, however, is paying people to gather registrations. That practice needs to stop.

There was a public hearing in California today. There are no reports yet about whether ES&S will be punished for selling uncertified voting machines to some counties. I’m sure we will hear more tomorrow....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Legal aliens living in Maricopa Co Arizona are being targeted by an insidious fraud. Unscrupulous people are picking people with Hispanic surnames from the phone book, calling them or visiting them and asking if they wish to become citizens. They then tell them, falsely, that they must register to vote as a part of the citizenship process. The voter registration form is then filled out, either with help from the alien or by the person. When turned in the registrations are denied. When the alien files for citizenship they are asked if they have ever attempted to register to vote. Citizenship is denied because the attempt to register is a felony. Update: The report on this issue was carried on the Maricopa County Democratic Party website. It has been removed with no explanation. I will be checking to find out why it was removed and if the original report was bogus.

The computerized voter registration system being used in Virginia appears to be ready to melt-down. The system was used last June and the state claimed success while some registrars were less than happy. Now voters may be disenfranchised and counties will be forced to use provisional ballots for many voters who would otherwise be allowed to vote normally....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a press release Project Vote announced the release of a new report, “Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate.” The report finds a continuing problem with the U.S. electorate: those who are registered and vote are not representative of the overall U.S. population eligible to vote. The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that does vote is highly skewed towards whites, the educated and the wealthy. Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate.

“This review of the survey data strongly points to the need for civic organizations and government officials (at all levels of government) to continue to expand access to voter registration,” says Hess. “For their part, governments should view bias in the electorate as a call to embrace voter registration as an affirmative responsibility through better implementation of laws relating to the registration of young, low-income and minority voters.” ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Recertification of voting systems for use in Colorado was supposed to be complete this past summer. Now the state says they may be ready on Dec. 1 or, more probably, later. This is all a result of a lawsuit brought by voters last year for failure by the state to appropriately certify the systems that were being used. The state is pointing to delays by the vendors as the reason for missing the scheduled certification date. Naturally county election officials are concerned that they may not have machines for use in the state’s primary next August or that they may not have enough machines. They cannot plan until the state certifies their machines. The county officials are asking the state for status but written communications with the state are going unanswered. The reason? It seems the state is concerned about another lawsuit in their future and they don’t want any communications that they would have to share with litigants or the public via public records requests. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Lani Massey Brown had this to say about her new novel:

Help us to continue to help you. Go to VotersUnite.Org and follow the links to make a donation. Any donation over $50 will receive a signed copy of A Margin of Error: Ballots Of Straw [Note: VotersUnite! is in affiliation with International Humanities Center, a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501[c](3) of the Internal Revenue Code.]

And now, links to today's notable voting news stories follow below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“Daily Voting News” has now been in existence for close to four years. VotersUnite can use some help keeping it going for a while longer. We rely on the Election Integrity Community and those who have interest in elections to keep us funded. If you rely on DVN as a source for news and information on voting issues then we need your help. Go HERE and follow the links to make a donation. Any donation over $50 will receive a signed copy of “A Margin of Error: Ballots Of Straw” [NOTE: VotersUnite! is in affiliation with International Humanities Center, a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501[c](3) of the Internal Revenue Code.]

"It's probably true that among those who don't [have Photo ID], it's primarily elderly persons. And that's a shame. Of course...our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way that white people do. They die first." - John Tanner, Chief of Civil Rights Section, Voting Unit, U.S. DoJ, today’s “Enemy of Democracy”.

Links to today's notable voting news stories follow below...