Guest Blogged by John Gideon

It has just been announced by San Diego County that they have hired Deborah Seiler as their new permanent Registrar of Voters. Ms. Seiler joins the county elections office from her job as the Assistant Registrar in Solano County, California.

"Seiler brings unique elections experience from the state, local and private sector that adds valuable perspective at a crucial time," according to a press release (posted in full at the bottom of this article) as issued today by San Diego County.

All of which sounds great, until one does a moment or two of Googling --- particularly on that "private sector" point mentioned --- and Seiler's troubling past is quickly revealed to be yet more bad news for the voters of San Diego, who continue to get the worst of what American democracy is supposed to look like.

Look what we found out about Seiler...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

On the same day that a committee of the House of Representatives met to pass a marked-up HR-811 out to the floor for a full House vote, the voters in Indiana counties went to the polls. Today the reports of the failures began to come in from Allen, Hancock, Lake, Marion, and Morgan counties. Under votes in Hancock, failure of poll workers to show up at the polls in Marion, and other counties with similar problems have led to another failure and disenfranchised voters....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Brian Chess, chief scientist of Fortify Software [United Kingdom] has gone on record as saying:

California SOS Debra Bowen asks and answers [PDF]:

Those stories and more, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today HR-811 was marked-up. We can only guess at what the bill looks like now and we should know before tomorrow’s DVN. From what I have heard the bill seems not to have suffered from the mark-up process and amendments. In fact, it may now be better than it was when it was filed. The bill was voted out of conference by a party-line vote of 6-3 and will go to the floor for a vote sometime within the next two weeks.

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In testimony presented today to a House subcommittee, computer scientist and voting system expert David Wagner said, in part:

Links to that, and many more related stories today, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There are elections in many jurisdictions around the country this week so we will be keeping our eye on the media for any reports of problems.

A report on the recent French e-voting catastrophe opines:

... And follows-up with this:

That, and links to other notable Voting News stories --- including problems in Scotland as well --- all follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Voters in Randolph Co Indiana are being asked to vote on a system made by now defunct Voting Technologies International; the same system that has failed in the last two elections and that failed in pre-election day set-up. Meanwhile an election this week in Scotland has been a disaster. High-speed ballot scanners failed, hundreds of thousands of ballots were spoiled, and postal ballot delays all added up to one huge mess. Also a new judge’s ruling in Alameda Co, more from Florida and a fun deposition taken from Linda Lamone in Maryland....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The headlines from Florida say it all today. The Miami Herald said, “Lawmakers ditch touch-screen machines” while the Sun-Sentinel said, “Bill to replace touch-screen voting with optical scanner sent to Gov. Crist.” In a press release, the Florida Voters Coalition said in part, “In a historic vote, the Florida House today unanimously passed CS/HB 537, already passed in the Senate that provides almost all voters paper ballots in time for the 2008 Presidential election, and bans paperless DREs outright by 2012. The bill now goes to the Governor where he’s sure to sign it since it’s his initiative.” Also, the EAC gave the state permission to use their HAVA funds to make the switch-over. And still in Florida, a House committee has now asked the GAO to investigate the District 13 debacle and report back to them....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

While the voters in Florida have received good news from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) which has told them they can spend HAVA funds for new optical-scan machines to replace their DRE machines, all is not golden. The interplay with the EAC has revealed that the state only reimbursed the counties with 20% of the funds they had coming when they bought new voting systems. Where did the rest of the money go and why are the counties still making payments for something that should have been paid for? Also, the state House of Representatives has taken the just passed Senate bill that would have given the voters optical-scan systems and they have begun a ‘slice and dice’ job on the bill. The House just needs to pass the Senate bill and fund the change and not play political games that will only harm the voters, again. Meanwhile a committee in the US House of Representatives has voted on party lines to investigate the FL-13 congressional election and what happened to 18,000 votes.

Those stories, and many other notable voting news stories today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today finds a mixed-bag of articles but nothing earth shattering.

See today's notable stories as linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Tune in to Voice of the Voters this Wednesday, May 2 at 8PM EDT (5PM PDT) to listen to an hour devoted to three American heroes - whistleblowers, who, based on their experiences on the ground, will paint a comprehensive picture of electronic voting in America, the deceptive practices of corporations, the often misguided relationships between election officials and electronic voting machine vendors, the various system inadequacies and how the voice of the citizen is left out of the elections process. Go here to find out how to hear Ion Sancho, Bruce Funk and Stephen Heller live this Wed.

That, and more on the voting news front today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The state of Texas has taken action to close the elections office in Waller County. The state will be providing monitors who will be closely watching the election process in the county. This as a result of numerous complaints from citizens of the county, including students of Prairie View A&M University, who were disenfranchised last November. Meanwhile yesterday the Florida state Senate passed a bill that may finally give the voters a paper ballot and end the use of DREs.

Those, and the other notable voting news stories today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Yesterday we provided a link to an opinion piece by Dr. David Dill of Stanford University and Verified Voting. Dr. Dill gave his opinion on why he supports HR-811. Today I have provided you a link to Dr. Dill’s article as posted to OpEdNews and a counter opinion from Nancy Tobi of Democracy for New Hampshire. Read them both and make up your own mind.

And for links to many of the other notable voting news stories today, see below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Yesterday the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) announced that "Special Circumstances" would require them to hold a public hearing next Tuesday, 1 May in Washington DC. The "Special Circumstances"?

It seems that the state of Florida asked the EAC if they could use funds provided under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to replace their present paperless touch-screen DRE voting systems and someone at the EAC told the state that they didn't think it would be alright for the state to spend their HAVA funds for anything like going to a paper based voting system. But, the EAC representative said that the Commissioners would have to get together and vote on the issue.

So, yesterday the commission announced when that vote would take place; May 1. That's three working days from now. That's three days for the state and the state's very active Election Integrity community to prepare their statements in favor of spending the states own funds for their own voting system.

And, this public meeting that is very important to the state of Florida --- will be convened in Washington DC to ensure that the commissioners make it as hard as possible for anyone to attend and voice their opinions.

The EACs "Sunshine Notice" announcement is for a meeting that is murky and as closed as the EAC can possibly make it without directly violating federal law.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a statement today, Tova Wang of the Century Foundation says in part:

Links to that story, and other notable voting news today, all below...