Guest Blogged by John Gideon

In this segment from yesterday, Kitty Pilgrim reports on Florida and their failure to provide recountable ballots for half of the voters in the state. Congressman Wexler wants to do something about that and he has now taken his case to the US Supreme Court.

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Two Senators have introduced a bill in the Senate that will reimburse counties for paper ballots if they are provided along with DRE voting machines in precincts. This bill was begun as an idea from a blogger and shows the power of the blog. / Diebold claims to have solved a design flaw that caused their e-poll book to crash constantly while being used in Maryland's primary. One has to wonder how that fix was made and put on the Maryland machines without ever going through federal certification testing. / Denver Colorado seems to have purchased second-hand Sequoia "card activators" from Chicago. They were used in the failed Chicago primary. The equipment then failed in Denver last month. Good plan and they saved a whole $10,000....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

In Monday's "Democracy at Risk" segment Kitty discusses the ruling from the judge in Colorado (as broken originally by The BRAD BLOG last Friday) against the state's "abysmal" voting machine certification process. Of course, the Secretary of State is trying to make it a partisan political issue.

Says Dobbs in yesterday's report: "[M]any state governments across the country are finally awakening to the threat that electronic voting machines pose to our upcoming midterm elections --- and our democracy."

Says Pilgrim: "[A] judge found the secretary of state's office had violated the law, saying there were no minimum standards. It failed to meet its statutory requirements for testing. It failed to adopt rules and failed to adequately test the machines...In many cases, the state simply allowed the manufacturers to vouch for the safety of the machines."

Says the plaintiff's attorney in CO: "The deficiencies in the testing was an utter lack of competence, and an utter lack any scientific method, and utter lack of any recordkeeping."

Says the Secretary of State: "Colorado voters should not be concerned about the security of the November election...I ask voters to ignore the political rhetoric by a few seeking to destroy that confidence in the election."

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

MicroVote seems to be in trouble in Indiana again. They have still not settled with the state on violations from the primary earlier this year that could bring fines of $300,000 per incident. Now they have admitted disabling the straight-party feature on their Infinity machines because of a software error and they told no one in the state about the action. They are scrambling to fix the software and get the fix reinstalled. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

From an article on the Colorado lawsuit; "Whenever you hear an assertion from an election official of why you should trust their machines," [Expert witness Dan] Wallach said, "inevitably it boils down to 'because they are federally certified."' The reliance on federal testing for computer vulnerabilities was called into question during the case. "The evidence is that there were pretty significant areas at the federal level where such testing simply wasn't done," Judge Manzanares said in his ruling. / Why has Sequoia misled in a recent press release concerning their products and the Brennan Center Report? ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Most of today's news is on the Colorado court decision. This was a resounding win for the voters of the state. The state's DREs will be used in Nov. but they will be decertified immediately after and may not be re-certified. Great job by the legal team including VoterAction. / Mississippi will be disenfranchising absentee and overseas/military voters by not allowing them to vote in a special legislative election that will be held on Nov. 7 along with the general election. / Two excellent articles in today's NYTimes. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

On last night's Lou Dobbs Kitty Pilgrim reported on what the media is just awakening to, problems with e-voting machines are nationwide and a threat to our democracy. Some of us have been telling all who would listen that this was the fact for years now. Finally some state's are listening and acting.

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

San Mateo Co California planned on using all Hart eSlate machines at polling sites. They are concerned about the voters and poll workers not having enough time to get acclimated to the machines so they will now have just one machine and ask the voters to use paper ballots. Warren Slocum, the county's Chief Elections Office, should be applauded for caring. / Connecticut has now announced plans to do random audits of their LHS (Diebold) optical-scan machines / Today is the last state primary (Hawaii) this season. / A judge in Colorado has found that though the state can still use DREs in Nov. they will only be used with increased security and that they will all be decertified following the election and reports are that the new certification may make it impossible to get DREs certified in the state in the future. This sounds like a resounding success and there will surely be a lot more....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Last night Lou and Kitty tackled the argument in Maryland over whether Linda Lamone should just let Diebold do an investigation of what went wrong last week or whether Gov. Ehrlich should get his way and have the voters vote on paper ballots.

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

While we don't shy away from talking about the corrupt, the wrong thinking, the un-caring elections officials in our country we don't often get a chance to recognize those who actually do a good job and show that they really do care. I would guess that 90% of the elections officials fall into the category of the caring but it is that 10% who get talked about. I want to change that a bit and talk about one who has made a good decision.

Warren Slocum is the Chief Elections Director of San Mateo County, California. The county has recently decided that they will use Hart Intercivic eSlate Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines at the polls from now on. That's not a good decision because the eSlates are just as bad as the rest, but it was a decision made and we have to move on.

It has just been reported in the San Mateo Daily Journal that Slocum has decided that there is not enough time for him to be assured that his voters and poll workers can become acclimated to the new voting machines by the general election in November. The polls were supposed to have three to six of the eSlates but now voters will find only one eSlate and paper ballots. Slocum is giving up quick results reporting for integrity and we applaud that.

If only Cuyahoga County, Ohio elections officials had decided on integrity instead of rushing out voting machines that were unfamiliar. If only Maryland elections officials had decided on integrity instead of rushing out an unproven and ripe for failure e-poll book device. And the same "If only..." can be echoed all over the country this primary season.

Thank you Warren Slocum for having integrity and for putting your voters and poll workers first.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

In Maryland Diebold TS voting machines, the same machine recently hacked by Princeton University, were left in polling places on election night and, in some cases, for days after the election with all memory cards and paper tapes still inside the machines. / A selected handcount of precincts and races in Pima Co. Arizona found one discrepancy that was explained away and took about 3 hours yesterday afternoon. They do not have to be cumbersome, huge tasks. / 29 disabled voters used accessible voting machines in New York City last week. That's $52,000 per voter. / Write-in votes from 8 Boston precincts were not counted after last week's primary. The court has told the city to unseal and count all votes not counted. / Why did Sequoia Voting Systems put out a press release that misrepresents conclusions of the Brennan Center Report? / Why are Diebold voting machines sold in Connecticut as LHS AccuVote OS? Why is no mention of Diebold ever made in the media. Is someone trying to keep secrets?...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Tonight Kitty and Lou discuss the cost of e-voting to the taxpayers. The announcement of a new report from the Brennan Center is welcome.

The text-transcript of tonight's segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight follows in full...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

CNN's Lou Dobbs, "When voters lose confidence in our elected representatives, we can vote the bums out. But what is the recourse if American voters lose confidence in our electoral system?" / Pima Co. Arizona had 4 DRE and 3 Optical-scan machines turned in with evidence of tampering with security seals. This was election night. What do they do now, ignore the votes in the machines? Ignore the security issues? / Montgomery Co. Maryland has 10 to 12 thousand provisional ballots to count due to their voting problems. It will be next week before final results can be announced. / Voters who do not want to use e-voting machines in the Netherlands can get a voting pass and go to a municipality that allows voting with a paper ballot and pencil. This right has sparked a whole new industry called, "Voting Tourism". ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Today is primary day in Washington and Massachusetts. / The Sebastian Co. Arkansas clerk will be telling the SoS that ES&S iVotronic voting machines are NOT accessible. / Boulder Co. Colorado expects to have long lines in Nov. due in large part to the size of their ballot which for absentee voters will be up to 4 11×17 inch pages. The time to vote a ballot this size on touch screen voting machines will cause a huge back-up and send many people home without voting. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The Princeton Report is being reported on, favorably, all over with demonstrations on CNN and Fox and recent articles in US News and World Reports, Information Week, and the UKs SC Magazine. Verified Voting Foundation has an excellent article with quotes from Dr.s David Dill and Doug Jones. / Do you have a file cabinet or office desk? Then you probably have a key to the Diebold memory card door. / "How many machines will Bucks County [Pennsylvania] receive for $5 million? Attachment B of the contract references 650 machines. Attachment E of the very same contract references 800 machines. When those who signed the contract are asked which number is correct, one is told “Neither. The county will receive 700-some machines.” No specific number is forthcoming." I have confidence. Not! ...