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

Three Utah counties face the possibility of having to do recounts from the state's recent primary-election. However, the state has no procedure on how to do recounts, when to use the vvpat and when not to use it. The Lt. Gov seems to want the vvpat only used in 'extreme' cases but others point out that state law suggests the paper ballot is the official ballot. / Linda Lamone, Maryland's State Elections Director, in a statement on NPR's Diana Rehm program and speaking about the Brennan Center Report said that the job of election administrators is to promote confidence in the electoral process. What happened to running elections where the voter's choices are actually counted with no doubt as to the accuracy of that count? What happened to promoting confidence by ensuring the system to be used by the voters is secure? Burying your head in the sand and ignoring security vulnerabilities does not promote confidence....

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

A losing incumbent in Polk County Iowa has filed all necessary paper work and a surety bond in order to qualify for a contest of the election. This was based on a ballot-counting malfunction in Pottawattamie County that prematurely named nine losing candidates as winners. County officials there acknowledged last week that they had failed to properly test their new machines prior to Election Day. (I spoke to a reporter last week who told me that the county had admitted not doing any L&A test at all.) / If you read the article from Winston Co. Mississippi you will come away with a warm and fuzzy feeling about their use of Diebold TSx machines recently. Diebold and the state have spared no expense in passing out disinformation and obfuscation....

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

A report from Ireland says, "The Independent Commission also says that the traditional paper method is moderately better in terms of secrecy and accuracy than the proposed e-voting system in its current form." The e-voting system is the same Liberty voting machines being touted for some east coast states. / Happy 4th. Please be Safe and Sane....

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

So what do you do when a voting system you want to use doesn't meet the standards you have set up? If you are Colorado you certify it anyway and then when questions begin to be asked you change the standards to meet your actions. / "If, as a practical matter, [the electronic voting machines deployed prior to an election] can't be secured, then perhaps they ought not be used at all. Period. Until the impediment can be removed." Freddie Oakley, Yolo County Registrar of Voters. / BlackBoxVoting has released the full Hursti II report, unredacted and with more pictures than were taken during the "Alice's Restaurant Massacre". / VoterAction has announced they are filing an injunction in California against the use of Diebold TSx machines....

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

The Utah Lt. Gov. office is talking about requiring audits in Nov. and in the future. The audit in Nov. may be done by the Lt. Gov. office itself. One can only wonder what transparency there will be. They will go to the state legislature to ask for funding and a law for future audits. Perhaps the Brennan Report is getting through to a few people? One can only hope....

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

A report by a grand jury in Boyd Co. Kentucky, which met for the last time Thursday, lists nine items for the next group to review, including that the vote count from the primary exceeded the reported number of total voters, the reason behind barring the media and candidates from vote counting and whether certain elected officials became involved in the decision to keep candidates and the media out of the clerk's office. The finger for this problem seems to be pointing at the county sheriff and Harp Enterprises who is a purveyor of Hart Intercivic....

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

On the subject of audits in Utah - The lieutenant governor's office will seek expert advice on the matter this summer and add the requirement administratively, said spokesman Joe Demma. "We could just randomly take 10 or 15 machines and audit the paper trail, but what we want are professional guidelines," Demma said. "We're going to look for professionals to set some guidelines for what would qualify as an accurate statistical model." How about Hawaii or New Mexico as examples of good audit laws?...

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

"This report is based on speculation rather than an examination of the record. To date, voting systems have not been successfully attacked in a live election. The purported vulnerabilities presented in this study, while interesting in theory, would be extremely difficult to exploit." Bob Cohen, a spokesman for the Election Technology Council, a voting machine vendors' trade group speaking the party line (disinformation and obfuscation) regarding the Brennan Report. / I heartily recommend that you read the Internet news article that is the first on the list. If you thought the Elections Assistance Commission was in existence to assist and protect the voters this article might influence you otherwise. Two of the commissioners can't even get their misinformation right....

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

Today was the release of the Brennan Report which calls into question the security of e-voting machines. News services across the country have picked-up this story and it was big news on Lou Dobbs this evening. Lou Dobbs asked why none of the vendors have been on his program to defend their machines. Kitty Pilgrim said that Diebold has not returned calls, ES&S denied there are any problems and Sequoia said that the Brennan Report was not just about them so they didn't feel a need to respond. / Lou Dobb's on-line 'QuickPoll' question is "Do you believe that e-voting machines should be disallowed until their integrity can be assured?" 98% of the voters answered 'yes' as of the time of this report....

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

Most states rely on national certification/qualification of voting systems. They tend to tout the fact that voting systems have been inspected and tested by some Independent Test Authority, though they ignore the fact that the tests are bought and paid for by the vendors. Then they point with steadfastness to the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED) who reviews the ITA findings and gives a voting system its final 'stamp of approval'. Now we learn that the people applying that 'stamp of approval' are not even qualified to put ink on the stamp, let alone review the paperwork and give their approval. Imagine how the states will feel about this information. On the other hand, don't waste your time because the truth is inconvenient so they will just ignore it....

By John Gideon, Executive Director VotersUnite.Org

There is, for good reason, much concern and a lack of confidence in the process for federal qualification/certification of voting systems. Independent Test Authorities (ITA), who test the systems against federal standards, are not really 'independent' because they are paid to do testing by the vendors who also provide the test parameters. They look where they are told to look and go no further than that.

The next step in the process is review of the ITA test and the voting system by a panel of 'experts' called the Voting Systems Board Technical Committee. This committee is under the auspices of the National Association of State Elections Directors (NASED). One might think that this part of the process would be free and clear of any reason for concern. One would be wrong...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon while Brad takes care of other important business related to the Busby/Bilbray fiasco

Many Riverside County California voters went to the polls on primary election day, June 6, with the plan that they would use their right to request paper ballots instead of voting on the Sequoia Edge Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, touch-screen) voting machines.

Those voters will probably be surprised to learn that the county Registrar of Voters thumbed her nose at them. The paper/absentee ballots they were given --- Xerox copies of the ballot on 8 1/2×11 paper --- were then punched into the DRE's by election workers later. On the same touch-screen systems the voters had wanted to avoid by requesting a paper ballot in the first place. This was all done without their knowledge, without their permission, and without their ability to verify that their ballots were recorded as they had voted them.

Moreover, the voters were forced to attach their names and addresses to the ballots! So much for private voting in Riverside!...

UPDATE: Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore responded to the story by Art Cassel with a 'Letter To The Editor'. See the text of the letter at the end of this article.

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

The Pottawattamie Co. Iowa vote counting problem from earlier this month has now spread to Polk Co., where a five-term incumbent lost by a wide margin to a newcomer. The incumbent is now demanding a hand recount to prove one way or another whether the Polk machines had the same problem as the Pottawattamie machines. Unfortunately, the Polk Co. Auditor is campaigning to be Secretary of State so some don't want the hand count because it may make the Auditor look bad. Since when is it OK to not ensure every vote is counted correctly? If there is any dispute, a hand count must be done....

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

CommonCause's report on voting machines seems to have stirred-up the hornet's nest, as it were. States are scrambling to defend their machines and their elections. If they would only spend as much time listening and learning, everyone would be much better off. / South Carolina may have some problems being ready for their run-off elections as ES&S has not delivered ballot programming to some counties yet. / Qualifications of the people who certify our voting systems have now been questioned and rightfully so it appears. Why is it that some will listen to people with experience in bars and restaurants but not listen to computer scientists and elections experts? ...

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

Imagine this! A recount from the memory of 8 Sequoia DREs in Monmouth Co. New Jersey gave the same results as the original count. Of course, no one can say that either count is accurate just that they agree. / States designated as high risk in a newly released CommonCause report, because they use DREs with no paper backup, are: Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. / A statewide primary on Diebold TSx machines will be held in Utah next Tuesday. ...