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

Late this afternoon a US District Court judge ordered all Ohio counties to preserve all 2004 ballots. / Poll watchers on Guam report that ballot boxes have two doors on them. One has a padlock installed and the other has 'twist-ties'. Poll watchers were kicked out of at least one polling place by Election Commission staff for 30-minutes with no explanation. / Voters who chose to vote on paper ballots in some predominately African-American and Democrat precincts in Duval Co Florida found that the precincts ran out of paper ballots early in the day. The county blames the mistake on human error. / State required vote-sorting software seems to have failed all over Florida on Tuesday night....

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

For those who were not aware, Warren Mitofsky 'exited' last Friday. Our best wishes go to his family and friends. / The major failure reported in Florida's primary, so far, seems to be the failure of getting speedy results from the polling places to the counties. Problems were reported in several counties. / Mahoning Co. Ohio still owes ES&S over $400,000 for services previously provided. ES&S refuses to provide new batteries to replace those that are beyond their useful life span. The county refuses to pay the bill, not because of anything to do with ES&S but because of a completely different matter. The county is now in a position where they may have problems running an election in Nov. / Texas has named the Univ. of Texas baseball coach as the new spokesman for the SoS's VOTEXAS program. Unfortunately the coach has never voted in his ten years living in the state....

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

A lawsuit has been filed against Shelby Co. Tennessee and Diebold alleging that the Diebold AccuVote Machine is subject to tampering, that workers in some cases were not properly trained in the use of the machine and that the machines denied voters the right to cast secret ballots. / Problems with ES&S voting machines not counting the votes on Guam has led to the election commission not to certify the election. / Sequoia issues a PR that touts their accessibility though it does not say that, in fact, it forces voters with disabilities who are sighted to vote as if they were blind; a very real handicap to those voters, and one that will make it nearly impossible for those voters to vote in privacy....

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

A Georgia State Elections Board member has stated his concern that touch-screen voting machines count accurately and he will be calling for hearings around the state. He says it is his guess that Nov. will be the last election in the state on DREs. / It appears that no matter who is the majority winner in any Congressional races in Nov. if there is any doubt that would lead to a recount or challenge those actions are up to the branch of congress that is affected if the nominal winner has been sworn into office....

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

Humboldt Co California is being forced to purchase $804,000 worth of Hart Intercivic for their accessible voting rather than use the $65,000 worth of Vote-PAD. The SoS certainly did this county a big favor when they unfairly rejected Vote-PAD. That gift from the SoS to the county is also a gift that keeps on giving as the county will have to pay the hidden costs annually while Vote-PAD was a one-time only fee. / The Tennessee GOP rejected a primary candidates request for a recount. Apparently the parties run their primary in the state. / A federal judge has ruled the Ohio registration laws as being unconstitutional. ...

Let me preface this with a statement. I am not an attorney. I'm just a retired "knuckle dragger" (marine machinist). While I'm not an academic I do have the ability to read something and know what it says especially when it is written in clear English. I've also got a bit more common sense than most academics because I've had to exercise it throughout my life.

Any reader of The BRAD BLOG is familiar with the court decision from San Diego County. Essentially the judge ruled that he did not have jurisdiction in an election contest of the Busby/Bilbray CA50 U.S. House Special Election because Bilbray was already sworn in as a member of Congress and the US Constitution gives the Legislative Branch jurisdiction over elections of their members.

Today's Nevada Appeal has an article regarding a court challenge that stemmed from problems in the GOP primary election for Congress. That race between Dean Heller, present Secretary of State, and Sharron Angle, was closely contested and Ms. Angle filed the challenge based on what she thought to be possibly illegal practices in Washoe County.

But then they played the Busby/Bilbray 'Constitutional Jurisdiction' card. Just as in Busby/Bilbray...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Tonight we had two segments on voting issues. The first on the lawsuit in Ohio against Ken Blackwell, will help to ensure the 2004 voting records are saved for longer than may be the whim of Blackwell. The suit also asks that Blackwell be removed from the ability to oversee his own election for governor. Also HR-550 is discussed by Congressman Rush Holt and a representative of Election Science Institute.
Note: While they reported that the bill has 159 co-sponsors the number is actually 211 or 209 when you discount one co-sponsor who is now a Senator and the District of Columbia delegate who has no real vote.

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

According to the AP, "Activists filed a civil-rights lawsuit Thursday claiming Secretary of State Ken Blackwell deprived people of their voting rights during the 2004 presidential election and seeking to have him removed from overseeing the general election in November." / Florida's primary is next Tuesday. The following Tuesday is Arizona, Delaware, DC, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. / Georgia's repressive voter ID requirements are back in effect....

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

Under pressure from activists Blackwell has decided to stop any plans to destroy 2004 voting records for several months at least. This seems to be a win for those who are still looking going through the mounds of data. / Ballot access (whether a person or party have the right to be named on the ballot) issues seem to be picking up in the courts. / Summit Co. Ohio has no money left to run the Nov. general election. They are asking for $1.7M from the county but they are getting a lot of questions in return. ...

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

Foreign-born, US citizens have filed a suit in Ohio against a law that could require that they provide citizenship papers at the polls when they go to vote. This seems to be a violation of their right to equal protection. Included in the group bringing suit is the wife of an ex-Governor. / In Missouri a state auditor candidate has requested a state-wide hand recount of his race. The state and county clerks want to do a machine recount only. / Ex-GOP Congressman Bob Barr speaks out against voting machines ...

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

A federal judge ruled against Florida governor Jeb Bush and struck down a Florida law that imposes hefty fines on third parties that take too long to submit voter registration forms, saying it threatens free speech rights and unfairly exempts political parties. As reported by the Brennan Center this ruling may affect similar laws in Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and Georgia. / It appears that Franklin Co. Ohio intends on putting all voting files on line so anyone who wants can download all of the ballots and audit the election themselves. Of course, this is probably subject to change if they find that their ES&S machines had problems and it will happen following all audits and election certification. ...

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

Today we have articles in the Washington Post and New York Times and a release of another Brennan Center Report. / A Republican state senator in Arizona is highly upset that the Arizona Secretary of State has not been able to do everything necessary so a mandated hand-counted audit can be done in the September 12 primary. / Vote-PAD was denied certification in California based on unfair and unreasonable test and test results....

It was a Queen of Hearts sort of a day in California on August 9, 2006. The Secretary of State's advisory panel was hearing public comments regarding the pending certification of the Vote-PAD, a non-electronic assistive device designed to help voters with disabilities mark and verify a paper ballot independently.

Voting integrity advocates held signs supporting the certification of Vote-PAD. They told of countless failures of computerized voting systems. They spoke about recent discoveries of easily hackable "back doors" into the vote totals on those systems, which have been certified. By contrast, "Vote-PAD is no more hackable than a #2 pencil," said one.

Notwithstanding this and the letters praising the Vote-PAD from dozens of people with visual and motor disabilities, the Secretary of State's staff was recommending against certifying the Vote-PAD for use in California.

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

A Maryland court has found the state's 'early voting' provision to be illegal and one candidate has been removed from the ballot. This will probably require new ballots to be printed and reprogramming and re-testing of the state's DREs in order to be ready for the Sept. 12 primary. It also means that overseas and military voters will again have problems. / Why is Sequoia being asked for an estimate to do a state-wide recount in Nevada? They quoted $175,000 for their part in doing that recount. What work do they have to do? The state is supposed to have a VVPAT. This large charge is, in part, forcing the candidate to challenge the election in court rather than ask for a recount. Just who is conducting elections in Nevada?...

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

Diebold machines failed in the state of Alaska requiring hand counts of ballots in some locations. / Arizona is supposed to have a hand-recount law for this year's primary, however, the SoS has not managed to do her duties that will lead up to implementation of that law. She is not sure that the state will be ready to implement the mandated audits for the primary. / It seems that questions about the validity of any pronouncements in favor of ES&S are flying around the state / In Maryland the state Court of Appeals found that early voting was against the state constitution and told the state they had to cancel it for this year....