Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

While legislation that would essentially do away with DRE touch-screen voting in Florida in favor of optical scan voting, sailed through the House without problem a Senate bill has been amended 14 times with amendments that try to help some legislator’s agenda to make it harder for people to vote. Added to the bill were unheard amendments that would limit the ability of groups to register voters and that would prohibit unions from political activity. Support for the legislation was immediately withdrawn by the Democratic party, League of Women Voters, ACLU, AFL-CIO and many others. So why this change? Is it an act to put in a poison pill to kill the bill or is it a hope that there is enough strength in the bill that it can carry these restrictive, disenfranchising amendments?

That voting news story, and many more, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

According to an article in USA Today this morning:

Links to that, and all the other notable voting news stories today, follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In an article on the EAC, Congressional Quarterly had this to say:

And the National Journal reports:

Links to those stories, and more, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Pensacola [FL] News-Journal begins an editorial this way:

That, and links to other notable voting news stories from over the weekend, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It is amazing that different media sources can read a report (or not read it) and report on it and those reports are totally different. The recently released Cuyahoga County, Ohio report told that vote-memory card totals failed to match electronic voting machine ballot tallies in more than one quarter of the samples checked. The report also found that hundreds of votes were lost, that others were recorded twice and that software used to count the ballots was vulnerable to data problems. The New York Times reported the problems. Meanwhile the local Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the audit is good news for touch screen and that the audit showed that a tally matched the official record. It makes one question who read what in the report....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In written testimony presented to the US House Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee, Government Accountability Office representative Randolph Hite said in part:

That story, and many other voting related stories from today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Associated Press reports:

That voting news story, and many others from today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a “Wired News” article today, Kim Zetter reports in part:

As ever, links to that story, and today's other notable voting news, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As reported by BRAD BLOG:

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

What is it about elections administration that the names never change, just their jobs? Tom Wilkey moved from the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to the Election Assistance Commission. Donetta Davidson was on NASED panels and now she is Chair of the EAC. Brit Williams and Steve Freeman were both working for Wilkey at NASED and are now consultants for the EAC. And then there is Michael Vu who was under fire and a complete failure as an election administrator in Cuyahoga Co., OH. He finally resigned before he got fired and now he is the assistant registrar in San Diego Co., CA with a $10,000 a year raise. And these people all talk about voter confidence. We are supposed to have confidence in them? The EAC? Michael Vu? I don’t see how....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A press release from the office of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) begins:

Links to that item, and all the other notable voting news stories today, follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

As previously reported by The BRAD BLOG (here and here) the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is being accused of altering a report that they commissioned and that did not meet their expectations.

In this case the EAC was apparently hoping to show widespread voter fraud had taken place in recent elections but the report that they commissioned revealed just the opposite. The EAC buried the report and issued one of their own that came to no conclusion at all.

Today Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) sent a letter to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which has oversight over the EAC, "expressing his concern over the revelations and asking her to examine the process by which the EAC report was produced. Menendez maintains that the use of the EAC to advance a political agenda is a blow to the integrity of the electoral system and that an investigation into the motivations behind the panel's report is warranted."

Mendendez's press release on the matter is now posted here...

LATE UPDATE: Feinstein sends letter of inquiry on these matters to EAC, demanding all communications and processes leading to the alteration and/or hiding of both the EAC's "Voter Fraud" report and the report showing that Voter ID laws depress voter turnout. Announcement and Letter to EAC posted here...

ADDITIONAL NOTE: The BRAD BLOG will have an EXCLUSIVE new report next week, on yet another recently discovered and astounding failure by the EAC on the heels of a few questions we had ourselves for them over the past week or two...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Yesterday the New York Times reported:

Why is it that the main-stream media can report this yet the supposedly bi-partisan Election Assistance Commission refuses to release a report that says the same thing?

Also late yesterday San Diego Co, CA announced that they had hired Michael Vu to be their assistant registrar of voters. Vu resigned under fire from his last job as the election director of Cuyahoga Co, OH where two of his employees were convicted of election fraud for pre-counting precincts in a scheme to cherry-pick precincts to be recounted with no problems. Vu still refuses to believe that the employees did anything wrong. Perhaps Michael Brown will be San Diego county's next emergency preparedness director?

And today voters in Pennsylvania won a suit brought by the state who attempted to stop a suit brought by 26 voters. The original suit challenges the use of electronic voting machines “that provide no way for Electors to know whether their votes will be recognized” through voter verification or independent audit.

Those voting news stories, and many others on a busy day, all lined below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Election Assistance Commission has again taken deserved flack for hiding commissioned reports that do not meet the political aims of some. Instead the commission has released versions of the reports that more closely represent those aims. The New York Times reports:

Meanwhile Congressman Hinchey (D-NY) has said:

Those stories, and many many more today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Yesterday the Maryland legislature voted unanimously to ban the use of paperless voting machines by 2010. The legislation requires an optically scannable paper ballot marked by hand or with the help of a ballot marking device. This news leaves one questioning the demise of MD's State Board of Elections head Linda Lamone who has sworn that the state would go to paper “over my dead body.”

“Newer isn't always better. The Harrison County [Mississippi] Board of Supervisors has decided the new touch screen voting system isn't worth the hassle, the expense, or the nightmare it would create in a contested election. The board voted Monday to revert back to scanning machines on the recommendation of Circuit Clerk Gayle Parker. There are several reasons why Parker is no fan of the touch screen system. She says she'd rather stick to what works well than sit on the cutting edge of technology under a flawed system.” Among those reasons are that the Diebold TSx DREs are not “user friendly” and the system is “a headache.”

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