Guest blogged by Ellen Theisen, VotersUnite.Org

Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who oversaw New Mexico elections for ten years, was indicted last Wednesday on 50 counts including fraud or embezzlement, money laundering, tax fraud, tax evasion, illegal kickbacks, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy.

Like last year's indictment of 13-year Monterey County, CA, Registrar of Voters, Tony Anchundo on 43 criminal counts, and last March's indictment of six Clay County, KY election officials [corrected from "KS"] for changing votes at voting machines and showing others how to do it, Vigil-Giron's indictment reminds us that democracy thrives on checks, balances, and transparency --- and is threatened by conditions that force us to trust in election officials.

Ion Sancho, Leon County Supervisor of Elections in Florida, and Freddie Oakley, Yolo County Registrar-Clerk in California understand that threats to elections come from the insiders. They warn us --- in their speeches and writings --- not to trust election officials. Vigil-Giron's indictment warns us in a more sensational way...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

John Washburn, Dave Klein, and I have decided that, starting tonight, Daily Voting News will be on an indefinite hiatus. After realistically evaluating the situation, we are forced to accept that current resources alone are insufficient to continue DVN while we are also exploring possible models that will be viable and still retain the quality that DVN readers have rightfully come to expect. Since now is a slow time for election-related news, clearly this is a good time for a hiatus. We are grateful for the opportunity to have participated in the continuation of DVN and very much appreciate the kind words and support expressed by those of you who responded to our survey....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Debate rages in Tennessee over the Secretary of State’s ever-growing reasons why the state can’t implement the law requiring voter-marked paper ballots by 2010. The Philippines and Smartmatic finally put pen to paper for automating the 2010 election.

Correction: In our previous DVN, we included an article about Hart InterCivic, which we have since found out was from April 2008. We apologize for any confusion we caused....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Two of the major voting system vendors in the U.S. are expanding into new arenas. Hart InterCivic has acquired a company that produces Geographic Information Systems software for local governments, and Premier (formerly Diebold) is getting into the vote-by-mail game....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

How can we get a fair and honest election? In the Philippines, citizens worry about paper-ballot fraud; in India, they worry about electronic-voting fraud; in Iran, many question the results of their recent paper-ballot election; in Colorado, the Arapahoe County Clerk extols the virtues of DREs and decries paper ballots. Maybe the way to get a fair and honest election lies not in our technology, but in our transparency.

In 1896 the New York legislature and the courts agreed that to permit an essential step of the electoral process to be within the exclusive control of the State, outside of public view, renders “voting a useless formality as it depends upon the will of the [state] as to who shall hold office, and not upon the vote of the people.”

Could open, public observation of the vote count put election questions to rest?...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

While the goals of the U.S. and the Philippines seem to be the same regarding elections --- fair and fraud-free, their methods are diametrically opposed. The Philippines is desperate to get away from paper ballots and automate their elections, and the U.S., having been there done that, is heading in the opposite direction.

Happy Independence Day! We're taking the weekend off....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

As the continuation of John Gideon's valued creation, The Daily Voting News, nears its two-month anniversary, those of us who have been fortunate enough to carry on John's work are beginning to understand what will be necessary for its existence to continue into the indefinite future. At this point, we need to create a "budget" of the potential resources--volunteer time, computer resources, or direct financial donations--that can be devoted to continuing DVN.

Please respond to our survey to help us determine how to proceed. Based on the responses we received from DVN subscribers, the resources we could expect would support a drastically minimized form of DVN, if it were able to continue at all....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

As is so often the case, just when everyone had given up all hope of some resolution of the issue, the MN Supreme Court ruled unanimously to affirm the election contest decision made by a lower court and reject the appeal of the non-prevailing candidate, Norm Coleman. In another violation of expectations, Coleman conceded the November 2008 U.S. Senate race to Al Franken....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

In Pierce County, WA, indications are that Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) may be a failed experiment. 63% of the voters didn’t like it, and the auditor says scrapping it would save the county $600,000. The County Council voted to amend the county charter to repeal the mandate for RCV; the voters will make the final decision in November.

Smartmatic still hasn’t submitted its incorporation papers to the Philippines Comelec, and its local partner, TIM, has pulled out of the joint venture.

Internet voting is now being considered in Canada and Nova Scotia. Is there no end to the wack-a-mole of unobservable ballots? Prove in one place that Internet ballots are an exercise in unjustified trust, and the idea pops up its head in another.

Today's articles about the Voting Rights Act deal with how to minimize future challenges....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

The Tennessee Senate’s defeat, last week, of a bill that would have delayed a switch from paperless e-voting machines to optical scanners is already having an effect. Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy is pressing the county election commission to begin the switch. Some counties in New York will be switching from levers to optical scanners this year, too – testing the uncertified scanners on 1.4 million real voters in real elections in a ‘pilot program.’...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

On a day in which celebrity deaths will capture headlines, we mourn the loss of FL Elections Supervisor, Phyllis Busansky, and honor her lifetime of public service as "an election official with integrity."

No it's not a typo, ACORN brought a lawsuit and won....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

A glaring innaccuracy in the New York Times article about Congressman Holt's new election reform bill is pointed out in today's BradBlog article. The NYT says, "Mr. Holt's bill would require paper ballots to be used for every vote cast in November 2010." But according to the bill's text, e-voting machines that merely produce a voter-verifiable paper record are grandfathered in until 2014.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning and ES&S have both responded to the report from Florida Fair Elections Center.

Comelec says: We're ready to go forward with the automation. The Philippines Senate is asking: Who exactly is Smartmatic and are they really able to do the automation? And Business World responds with "A recipe for disaster."...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Smartmatic, the company, is under fire in the Philippines.

“Why did Florida have high "invalid votes" in 2008? An important new report from Florida Fair Elections Center (FFEC) finds that certain optical scan voting systems contributed significantly to Florida's high invalid vote rate in the 2008 election, while other optical scan systems did not. Invalid votes, which are the combination of overvotes, undervotes and invalid write-in votes, were expected to drop with the statewide use of paper ballot optical scan voting systems. Instead, they increased.” Thus begins the press release for today’s featured item....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

The Supreme Court handed down its decision regarding Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Iran’s Guardian Council admits that over 50 cities had a turnout greater than 100% and denies voting irregularities....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Congratulations to the election integrity advocates in Tennessee. Yesterday, the Senate blocked an effort to delay implementation of a 2008 law requiring a "paper trail" on all voting machines in all 95 counties by 2010....