Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“If the success of an election is to be measured according to whether each voter’s voice is heard, then we would have to conclude that this past election was not entirely a success,” said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan election group that plans to release a report Wednesday with a state-by-state assessment of voting. “In places where the margin of victory was bigger than the margin of error, we looked away from the problems, but in 2008 we might not have that luxury.” The preceding from an article in the NY Times....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A majority of today's news is about the audit to be held by the state in Florida's 13th Congressional District and the controversy over the people who will do that audit. I'll leave it to the readers to decide for themselves. / In North Carolina there is more testimonial to the fact that accessible voting systems are, in fact, not accessible for all voters who are supposed to be able to use those machines. / New York is the last state to make a decision about a voting system for their voters. Let's all hope the people who will be making the decisions have seen what DRE voting does to destroy voter confidence. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! / The disaster of an election in Denver, Colorado cost the tax payers over $4M or $20 for each voter who went to the polls. This is an amazing cost and it is being borne out all over the country as counties begin to tally up the costs of HAVA. Many counties are now spending two and three times more for elections than they have spent in the past and the cost can only go up once the first year contracts go away and the counties begin to realize they have the extra costs of maintenance, licensing, technical support, and the other hidden costs. And to add to the misery, many counties are beginning to complain about the cost of purchasing accessible voting machines that were not used in the last election and may never be used. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We at VotersUnite.Org want to express our hopes that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our best wishes to all. / We warn anyone who will listen that our election system is being privatized. Private companies use private software to count our votes. There is very little transparency in the system. So it is extremely disconcerting to learn that some counties in Indiana have hired MicroVote to tabulate their votes for them. The counties buy MicroVote's machines, software, technical support and now even MicroVote employees to do the vote counting. MicroVote is the same company that knowingly installed illegal software on the machines in Indiana, and possibly in other states, prior to the primary. MicroVote is that same company that is being investigated for their practices in the state and has been investigated for illegal business practices and successfully sued for selling faulty equipment in the past. And yet this company is still being trusted to count votes? ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Elections officials, including the EAC, wring their hands in worry over "Voter Confidence." Voter confidence won't come about because we cover up or minimize the fact that there are failures all over; that people are having to stand in lines so long that some give up and go home. Voter confidence will not come about as long as voters see their votes 'flipping' on the screen before their very eyes. Voter confidence will not come about as long as voters know there were problems with the machines they voted on but election officials tell them it's alright, "no votes were lost." Voter confidence WILL grow when the problems are fixed and when all voters can go to the polls and have a good experience. Making a pretty picture out of a disaster helps no one except a few elections officials who want the truth hidden and the vendors. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Doug Chapin of electionline.org 'said for all the flaws, Colorado was fortunate on two fronts. First, the problems were largely what he called ‘‘hassle factor,’’ and had nothing to do with allegations of inaccuracy, fraud or large-scale disenfranchisement. Plus, Florida grabbed the headlines again with a congressional race that has wound up in court.' I wonder how the fact that over 18,000 voters stepped out of lines over 4 blocks long and did not vote in Denver is not, arguably, 'large-scale disenfranchisement'? It is certainly "large-scale voter suppression" and much more than just a "hassle factor". / In Florida today the Jennings campaign has filed their election challenge. Groups representing the voters in Sarasota Co. have also announced a press conference for tomorrow morning. This PC will be followed by a lawsuit filed by those groups; VoterAction, PFAW-FL, ACLU, EFF....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

"Florida needs to demonstrate that it is a functioning democracy by getting to the bottom of the problem in the District 13 Congressional Race in Sarasota County. Republican Vern Buchanan now leads Christine Jennings by only 369 votes. But voter complaints and anomalous statistics raise the question: did the voters decide this election, or did software or hardware errors tip the result in favor of a candidate who would otherwise have lost?" David Dill "Is Florida Ready for Democracy?" on HuffPo....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

One episode highlights the success of vote-by-mail in Tillamook Co Oregon, where 13 inches of rain on Election Day sent many citizens scrambling to the safety of shelters under a declared state of emergency. Despite the fact that many roads were impassable and parts of the county were inaccessible --- conditions that would have crippled turnout in a state that relied on conventional polling places --- 70 percent of the voters cast ballots. Only voting by mail could have led to this outcome. / Sarasota Co., Florida elections director Kathy Dent has declared in her official election certification documents that there were no errors caused in the general election by voting machines. Clearly the courts will have to make that decision and VoterAction will be at the forefront of any court case brought for the voters of the county. They need help to help those voters. VotersUnite does not ask for donations for the work we do but VoterAction needs your support. Please consider visiting www.voteraction.org/donate.html and helping them a little. Our democracy needs it....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There must be a stop to corporate involvement in the elections process. Reports like those coming from Delaware Co, Indiana, where the vendor sells, maintains, programs, and tests the equipment and then does the tabulation, are all too prevalent. An attorney for the company has even gone so far as to suggest that county officials and candidates sign a document to release the company from any fault caused by their work. Simply unbelievable! / Next week the court will be brought further into the Sarasota Co., Florida, issue. Expect to see challenges filed by the Dems. for their candidate, Jennings, and also VoterAction, CommonCause, ACLU Florida, EFF, and others for the voters. VoterAction needs help with the work they are doing in Florida right now. Please visit them at www.voteraction.org/donate.html and consider helping them to help our democracy....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

If a recount in Sarasota Co, Florida fails to award Democrat Christine Jennings a seat in Congress, she has a final recourse: The newly Democratic-controlled U.S. House. A little-known provision in the U.S. Constitution gives the House the final decision on who sits in its chamber. The CA-50 special election to replace Randy "Duke" Cunningham was decided by decision of the majority party in the House and according to the US Constitution Article 1, Section 5. FL-13 may be decided in the same way. / VVPAT: The printer that was added on to the DREs to allow the voter to review the ballot and to allow the counties to have something to audit/recount instead of software. What good has it been? Voters don't review it. On some models of machines the printer is covered by an opaque cover that must be lifted by the voter so they can review the ballot. They don't do it. Poll sites ran out of replacement spools for the printers and, where the printers are mandated by law, the machines had to be taken out of service. We need to rethink this idea....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Officials in Denver Colorado estimate that as many as 18,000 voters walked away from the polls without voting in the Nov. 7 general election. These are disenfranchised voters just the same as those voters who have been removed from voting registers for no reason or those who were intimidated, in the past, when poll sites had police officers stationed just outside the doors. We cannot continue to use voting systems (in this case it was an untested, kludgey Sequoia poll book that was the cause) that keep people from the polls and cause long lines. When DREs fail no one can use them. When precinct-based optical-scan machines fail, ballots can be put into a ballot box....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

One friend in the activist community asked me this morning if we are making the case enough that unverifiable/unverified DREs give some the "temptation to cheat." Based on the close elections this year (eight House races are still not decided and there are a few recounts and contests still in the process) aren't we in a position where there is a "temptation"? My simple answer is: Yes. The country is so evenly divided and that division is contentious to say the least. I would also add that we are in danger of desensitizing ourselves to questionable elections. It's just another questionable election on questionable machines and only a few of us die-hards really seem to care that the voters will not have been heard in large and small races across the country. The Sarasota County story with over 18,000 undervotes is now relegated to the back pages, if it is mentioned at all, in the national media. So, Yes! In an atmosphere of tight races and now normal election contests the "temptation to cheat" is very real and very dangerous because it can be done with no one knowing and the vendors denying it will ever happen....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Will the main stream media (MSM) continue to report on voting issues as they did in the long lead-up to the election? My guess is that they won't. Oh, there will be some follow-up on local issues but the networks and the cable news channels will surely forget that there is an issue with regards to voting machines. I expect to see even Lou Dobbs stowing the "Democracy at Risk" graphic away. It now goes back to the thousands of citizens who work in obscurity to try to convince our election officials that electronic voting machines should not have any place in our elections. This year's national election proved that fact though the national media immediately ignored the melt-down and blessed the election as having "wide-spread failures". As expected the MSM was joined by the Election Assistance Commission, electionline.org, the vendors, and many election officials. / Sarasota County and other Florida CD-13 counties have begun two days of recounts and number crunching without really recounting the voters' wishes....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As should be expected by anyone who follows elections as closely as we do, the news today is again full of articles from Sarasota Co., Florida where the counties paperless ES&S voting machines failed to register over 18,000 votes for a 13th Congressional District race. ES&S and the county elections director are, of course, blaming the problem on the voters just not wanting to vote in the race. Meanwhile the media is full of anecdotal evidence that the machines failed to register votes in that race. The lesson is that Never, NEVER should the decision of who wins a race come down to a decision made by a voting machine. Never! NEVER should a voting machine be part of the decision. If the voters don't want to vote in a race then it's their decision and there should be no doubt that was their decision. A paper ballot gives us that information. A box with circuitry and software gives us nothing. We need to take the box out of the decision process....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Faced with election results that show over 18,000 voters were disenfranchised by her voting machines, Sarasota Co. Florida Elections Director Kathy Dent has changed her mind about DREs. Dent has now come out in favor of a referendum that was on the ballot, and that she fought hard against, that would require the county to change to a paper based voting system. The referendum won overwhelmingly. ...