"More evidence tonight that many of this nation's elected officials remain somewhat out of step or just completely in the dark as far as their constituents are concerned. At least half the states in this country are now requiring a paper trail for electronic voting machine ballots. But in Maryland, that kind of common sense and concern about our democracy has hit a roadblock."

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

A new report, from the National Research Council, is out and it "Blasts Cost, Inadequate and Compromised Testing of E-Voting Systems and Inappropriate Involvement of Voting Machine Vendors". "This is a moment of truth for electronic voting" warns former Republican Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Attorney General, Richard Thornburgh. "The report confirmed many of the concerns that voter advocacy groups have been voicing for years and even acknowledged the influence that such groups have gained in the electronic voting debate. “Many of these groups focus on security issues and play an increasingly important role in focusing public attention on the conduct of elections and in stimulating state legislative action intended to mitigate security risks.”"...

The Treasury Department has told Lou Dobbs that they are finally looking into the sale of Sequoia Voting Systems to a company owned by Venezuelan nationals.

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

In Parke Co. Indiana a candidate canceled his election complaint but only after the county agreed to address some issues including a thorough testing of voting machines and software before the election; an adequate number of voting machines to allow for efficient operation of the polls; and thorough training for all poll workers on the use of electronic voting machines. Also, the parties acknowledged that several votes on one of the machines had not been counted election night because of a “systemic failure”. Why would it take a threatened election challenge for a county to agree to do their jobs? / The Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) has announced that they, for the first time, are reviewing the sale, as regards to national security, of a company to foreign interests – Sequoia Voting Systems....

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

One result of the exorbitant cost of purchasing and maintaining DRE voting machines is that counties must now find ways to save money. Texas will have a pilot project in Lubbock Co. that will allow voters to vote in any of 35 super precincts within the county in November. This is already being done in states across the nation and it may open up a new set of, as yet unforeseen, problems. / "Most computer scientists have long viewed Diebold as the poster child for all that is wrong with touch screen voting machines. But we never imagined that Diebold would be as irresponsible and incompetent as they have turned out to be." From "The Diebold Bombshell"...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

The following shocking information just came in to "Train Wreck Central" from Brad who is on the road, lord knows where. A special hat tip to Thom Hartmann and Rich McClear of KUDO1080, the Air America Radio affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska.

As readers of The BRAD BLOG know, Diebold and the State of Alaska have been doing all they can to keep the State Democratic Party from looking at the data from the machines used by the voters to register their choices and by the local officials to tally the votes. The BRAD BLOG has reported that questions began to arise about results from the 2004 election, including the reported revelation that "district-by-district vote totals add up to 292,267 votes for President Bush, but his official total was only 190,889." The Democrats asked for election data from the Diebold machines and the state has 'flip-flopped' on whether they would release it or not. This resulted in claims by the state that any data they released would be proprietary and would belong to Diebold Elections Systems Inc. (DESI).

The above led the state Democratic party to file a lawsuit to get the data they have been requesting.

The following is from an email from Rich McClear:

So the state and Diebold have stalled, flip-flopped, obfuscated and misled while they kept the Democrats from proving that there were huge problems with the election results in 2004. One can only hope that the court will decide that the stall needs to stop now, but it might be best not to hold your breath.

UPDATE 11/28/06: Alaska is at it again. They're refusing to release the 2006 election database despite a court order to do so. Details now here...

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

David “None of the Above” Gatchell is challenging the Tennessee Election Commission in court to get his middle name listed on ballots. He is running for governor and US Senate. / Concerned voters in 15 Florida counties are closely watching Sarasota Co.'s paper-ballot referendum this fall before considering similar initiatives....

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

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has released their written opinion explaining the seven justices' March ruling that allowed electronic voting statewide last spring despite a local group's contention that voters should have decided for themselves. / Meanwhile in Ohio the 6th Appeals Court has given approval, at the request of the state, for rehearing a case that found that voters who used punch-card did not have the same rights as voters who used other voting systems. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

According to an article in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer the recent Cuyahoga County primary fiasco was the result of widespread dysfunction in the county's election offices, where officials ignored specific warnings of the looming calamity, according to a report also released today that blames election chief Michael Vu and deputy chief Gwen Dillingham.

According to the paper:

In a companion article the Plain Dealer reports on the 13 warnings and gives some examples:

Tonight's "Democracy At Risk" featured a discussion of Wednesday's congressional hearings on electronic voting.

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

Today the release of two much awaited reports has been in the media. One report on the Arkansas and ES&S and the other report is on the failures in the primary election in Cuyahoga Co., OH. / An Arkansas election official wrote about ES&S and the recent state primary, "This was the most disorganized bunch ever to run an election in Arkansas. They were untruthful in their responses. Their performance left the burden of this election on us and greatly increased the cost." / A report prepared by InfoSentry for the state of Arkansas said this about vvpat printer failures, "Such an occurrence could cause a very serious problem in the event of an audit or a recount in which the verified voting paper audit trail becomes an official ballot," the report said. "There would be some unknown number of ballot transactions that would print on a single, unreadable, and unverifiable line."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Readers of The BRAD BLOG know that the state of Arkansas had a "Train Wreck" in their primary election and that much of the blame was laid at the feet of their voting machine vendor Elections Systems and Software. Now the Associated Press and The Arkansas Democrat Gazette both report that an independent study has been done at the request of the state and the study agrees with what The BRAD BLOG has said all along.

According to the Associated Press article:

and they go on to report:

ES&S has the largest slice of the voting machine business in the country. They found it impossible to support a string of state primaries held over a 5 to 6 week time span. How are they ever going to be able to handle a general election where all 50 states vote at the same time?

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

While Tuesday's primary in Georgia was not a "train wreck" it certainly was not error free. There were many memory card, modem, and other equipment failures. There were also statements about "vote switching" on DRE touch-screens. All of those problems were ignored by the Baltimore Sun in an article that was surely written as propaganda pointed toward voters in Maryland. / Salon did a good job with an article on yesterday's successful congressional hearing on voting systems standards....

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

Today the House Science Committee held hearings on the voluntary voting systems guidelines (VVSG). "We've seen security defects that allow a single person with insider access and some technical knowledge could switch votes, perhaps undetected, and potentially swing an election," Prof. David Wagner testified. "These problems should be weeded out by the independent testing process, but it is clear that this system isn't working." / "We're looking at every aspect of elections," said Donetta Davidson, a member of the Election Assistance Commission. "We haven't found any problems with equipment. The problems we find are human error. The more elections officials train their people, the fewer problems we will have." Meanwhile hearings are being held around the country to find out why machines failed and what needs to be done to fix them....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon...

Just reported by VoterAction.org, the great group led by attorney Lowell Finley, is that a US District Court Judge has sent the lawsuit, Holder v. McPherson et. al. back to state court. This is a victory for the voters of the state of California and is the first giant step in stopping the use of Diebold touch-screen voting machines in the state. VoterAction's press release follows in full...