Last Friday a group of volunteers for a non-partisan veteran’s organization went to a Veterans Administration facility in San Francisco to meet with veterans and to provide them with an opportunity to register to vote. Just a couple weeks ago the Department of Veterans Affairs relented under pressure from state and national election officials, veteran’s advocacy groups, and legislators and agreed to allow non-partisan voter registration drives in their facilities. Contrary to assurances from the DVA the volunteers were stopped and told that for them to meet with residents they would have to go through a back-ground check to ensure they were, in fact, non-partisan and each visitor would have to submit to tuberculosis screening, a process that requires two medical appointments. A federal judge has already found that the DVA cannot impose special limitations on visitors simply based on their message. The DVA, at least in San Francisco, has decided to ignore the court and impose those special limitations. ...

Voter registrations and voter registration data bases have been a huge problem during the primary elections. There is no reason to believe that they will not be a huge problem in November. One of the only ways to ensure a voter is registered is for that voter to check their registration. We recommend every voter check now and then check again just before the voter’s state registration closes before November. We urge voters who find themselves purged from the registration roles to write a letter of complaint to their local Board of Supervisors, especially their own representative, with a CC to their SoS, the local newspaper Editor, and their congressional members. If those responsible for representing the citizenry start receiving such letters they might act to eliminate the cause. You can find out the date that your state is closing registration and who to check to ensure your registration is still good HERE: ...

In today’s featured article the Brennan Center for Justice and the Advancement Project have reported that thousands of Florida voters may be disenfranchised by a last minute decision by the Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, to enforce a “no match, no vote” law. “No match, no vote” essentially says that if a voters name or information on their registration does not exactly match their name or information on their ID they cannot vote or they can vote a provisional ballot and take the same ID to the county election office after the election to prove they are who they say they are.

"This 11th-hour decision is an ill-advised move to apply a policy the state has never enforced in its current form, at a time when registration activity is at its highest," stated Beverlye Neal, director of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, a plaintiff in a lawsuit that challenges Florida's matching law. "The Secretary's decision will put thousands of real Florida citizens at risk due to bureaucratic typos that under the 'no-match, no-vote' law will prevent them from voting this November," said Alvaro Fernandez of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, another plaintiff in the case.

"Voters who do everything right, who submit forms that are complete, timely, and accurate, will suddenly find themselves unregistered when they go to vote, just because someone somewhere punched the wrong letter on a keyboard," said Myrna Pérez, counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. "The no match, no vote policy is unjust and unnecessary, and Florida voters will pay the price this fall," stated Jean-Robert Lafortune, president of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, another plaintiff in the lawsuit...

In early reporting of the Washington DC primary one Sequoia memory cartridge reported what appeared to be thousands of write-in votes that officials say did not exist. Of course, these inaccurate results created chaos at the elections headquarters.

Just after an election, officials use ‘turnout’ as a yard-stick of success. If turnout is low they tend to make negative comments about the voters as do other officials. If turnout is not high the voters are blamed for just not caring enough. However, in the months leading-up to a national election some election officials do all they can to keep voters from going to the polls. In today’s DVN there are articles on voter suppression from Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan. ...

A couple days ago in this space I mentioned a newly posted video and report from the good folks at UC Santa Barbara with some of their findings from their work on the Calif. Top-To-Bottom Review. This report has gotten a lot of press and the video is very much worth viewing. A few of the articles are linked below.

There is also a report of a potential problem in Johnson Co Kansas where election officials are reporting that Premier/Diebold software causes their TSx DREs to time-out after 2.5 minutes of no activity. So if a voter takes too long to read or think about their next choice the machine begins to warn them and then after 2.5 minutes the voter card is kicked-out and the ballot is cancelled. The voter then has to start over, after some assistance from poll workers. This is a national problem that is probably being ignored or worked-around in most counties.

There are also reports from Pennsylvania and Indiana, The Brennan Center and the New York Times concerning student voting issues and what seems to be a concerted attempt to make it harder for students to vote. ...

After months of pressure from state election officials, voting rights groups, veteran’s organizations, members of the US Senate, and citizens, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs has decided that it will be alright for veterans who live in VA facilities or are patients in VA facilities to be visited by non-partisan folks who want to help them register to vote. Unfortunately this decision comes just a month from the voter registration deadlines in most states. Now those groups who have fought hard to get permission to register veterans need to go do the job.

Ohio is becoming a battle ground for voter registrations. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is going to battle against the state legislature over a law that was passed in 2006 that allows counties to remove voters from the rolls if election notices sent by the counties to the voters are returned for any reason. This is a violation of state law and federal law and the US Constitution according to her lawyers. Any voter removed from the rolls must be given due process. ...

• National: V.A. to Allow Voter Signup for Veterans at Facilities
  http://www.nytimes.com/2...=slogin&oref=slogin
• National: Senators Feinstein and Kerry Welcome Changes in Voter Registration Policy at the Department of Veterans Affairs
  http://feinstein.senate....egion_id=&Issue_id=
• National: Helping Veterans Register to Vote
  http://blog.newsweek.com...ns-register-to-vote.aspx

In this space we have mentioned voter registrations many times and asked that everyone check with their state to ensure they are still on the voter rolls. Now the EAC has added their voice with ours. The EAC has also provided a new tool to give the voter more information on who to check with and when is the deadline for registration in each state and territory.

Today the Security Group of University of California at Santa Barbara released a report and a movie on their part in the Top-To-Bottom Review of the Sequoia Voting System....

Today’s featured article is, again, from Palm Beach Co Florida. The quotes in this article make it clear that failing elections supervisors are going to blame the transition from DRE voting systems to optical-scan voting systems for any failures they encounter this election season.

“It was extremely challenging to make the transition" from touch screens to optical scanning of paper ballots in just three months, Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said”. Yes, I’m sure it was a challenge. Just as much a challenge as the successful move from DRE to Optical-Scan accomplished by the state of New Mexico a couple years ago or the same change made by Cuyahoga Co. Ohio prior to this year’s presidential primary. New Mexico and Cuyahoga Co didn’t seem to have anywhere near the problems that Palm Beach Co had.

“[County Judge Barry] Cohen said there were no numbers on the documents he signed to certify the judicial race on Tuesday. County Commissioner Addie Greene said she didn't notice whether vote totals were listed.” This judge has now admitted to signing legal documents without having all of the numbers filled-in. Now, I’m not an attorney but this seems to me to be an admission of misfeasance on the part of a county election official and probably the whole canvassing board on which Mr. Cohen serves.

And then there is this gem; "I decided whatever system (Palm Beach County) buys next time, I'm not buying it," joked Kay Clem, elections supervisor for Indian River County, the only other county in the state with Sequoia equipment. "I feel bad for them, it's tough. I can't imagine dealing with all those paper ballots. It must be a nightmare." This quote from an elections supervisor who allowed an experiment to be done with real votes in a real election and that resulted in over 10,000 votes being mis-reported....

In this space yesterday I mentioned that the Colorado state Election Director, Holly Lowder, had resigned and no reason had been given at that time. It seems that an investigation shows that she shared an address and phone number with a vendor of software services to her office and to 30 counties in the state. Of course everyone is telling the media that she just retired but the fact that this retirement happens just two months before a national election raises many eyebrows.

In previous DVNs we talked about Indian River Co, FL and the idiocy of doing an experiment in the middle of a real election. If you will recall the experiment led to an error which caused some ballots to be double-recorded. The Supervisor of Elections had reported 5,189 votes had been counted twice but yesterday she claims that she “misspoke” and that the total is actually over 10,000 votes.

And finally Palm Beach Co, FL has essentially admitted to a total disaster in election administration. The state has certified the primary election except for the one judicial race in question in Palm Beach Co. Every candidate in every race probably has good reason to question the results in their particular race. The state will probably now step in and oversee the election in November. There is no longer any confidence in that office. ...

Palm Beach Co had first responders joining with election officials and other volunteers out searching polling places looking for 2,500 lost ballots. Meanwhile the state has certified the state-wide primary election except the one judicial race that has been at the center of the incredible problems in the county. One question must be answered; if there are 2500 ballots missing and that one race is still in question then what about every other race on the Palm Beach ballots that is within 2,500 votes? They should all be in question and any candidate in any of those races who does not file a complaint is not giving their supporters their due.

In a surprise report we have learned that Holly Lowder, the Colorado State Elections Director has resigned. No reason has been given for that action and no one is talking but we are hearing the story will be told tomorrow.

Yesterday in this space I pointed out, incorrectly, that in the audit in Broward Co seven precincts disagreed by as much as 95 percent. What I should have said is “The results in seven precincts resembled original results by 95 percent or more”....

Readers will recall that as of yesterday Palm Beach Co Florida officials had lost well over 3,000 ballots sometime between the primary election and an election recount. Earlier today there were announcements that over 2700 ballots had been found. Late this afternoon the officials were supposed to meet to announce whether they had found all of the missing ballots and why those ballots went missing in the first place.

Were the ballots run through the high-speed optical scan machines during the recount and did the machines pick-up two or more ballots at a time thus not counting all of the ballots? Or, were the ballots in bins that were never counted?

The media is not clear on this issue yet so we are going to have to wait to find this out. If the machines were, in fact, grabbing two or more ballots at a time jurisdictions around the country need to be made aware of this possibility.

Meanwhile a report from Broward Co of the result of their state-mandated audit is a bit troubling. The county appears to have hand-counted one race on ballots from 16 precincts. The media is reporting that nine of the precincts hand-count matches the machine results. Seven precincts resembled original results by 95 percent or more. That is a huge number and should raise red flags.

Instead one official said, “When you're dealing with people and paper, that's the best you're going to get.” How about agreeing 100% and you keep counting until you are sure that the people and paper are not the problem and then you find out what problem the machines had?...

Just as an example of how screwed-up are Florida election laws yesterday Indian River Co.’s Canvassing Board approved the primary election results. Hopefully the reader will recall that Indian River had over 5000 ballots that were counted twice because someone decided to do a test in the middle of a real election and then failed to properly remove the results in that test. The result was ballots from 40 polling sites that were counted twice. Luckily an observant poll worker realized the totals for her site were double what they should have been. She pointed out the mistake and the county found their error.

Tomorrow the board must do a state mandated audit to ensure their voting machines were correctly counting the votes. If the poll worker hadn’t been observant and if this audit were to find the problem, or any other problem that might exist with the vote count, NOTHING can/could be done because the results have already been approved by the Canvassing Board.

One has to wonder what some officials in Florida are thinking when they make stupid rules. This audit is newly mandated. Why didn’t they mandate it to happen before canvassing the election? Post election audits are great. We need them everywhere and following every election but they have to be timed in such a way as to mean something if problems are found. If they don’t have a purpose (to ensure the votes were properly counted) then they are a waste of tax money....

The news from Palm Beach Co Florida is not getting any better. The official recount is complete as required by the state. By state law they have exactly one week to count ballots, rectify any problems, do any required recounts, and certify that everything is correct. Of course that is all without any court orders and it looks more and more like this election will be going to the courts.

The original election evening count seems to have been 102,523 and the final recount total was 99,045. The only race that was recounted was a race for a judicial seat and the winner flipped from one candidate to another from the original to the final recount. The original difference was 17 votes and the final was 60 votes.

The big question is what happened to over 3,400 ballots. The losing candidate will be going to court to ask that question among others. And now any candidate in any other race who lost by less than 3,400 votes is also being encouraged to go to court and demand a recount or re-election.

There is a lot wrong with this situation. The state is wrong in forcing a quick handling of the ballots. No wonder mistakes are made and more seem to be made in Florida than most other states. A complete investigation must be held inside the county to figure out what happened and why it happened. Was it administration issues or the voting system? And why did members of the county canvassing board sign an official document that had no final numbers on it? The voters need to know that and they need to know before November....

• Featured - FL: Palm Beach County - Election officials stumped by about 3,400 missing ballots
  http://www.palmbeachpost...8/09/02/recount0903.html
--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

A friend and fellow Election Integrity activist and Florida voter reminded me that in this space yesterday I neglected to mention that the two counties I discussed, Indian River and Palm Beach, were the only two customers in the state for Sequoia Voting Systems. Now, I’m not saying that Sequoia is to blame for the problems of the past week. Unlike Sequoia I don’t set blame until I have evidence to back it up. Besides the Indian River plan of testing a modem down-load system in the middle of a real election was bone-headed and seems to be the fault of the administrators.

On the other hand the situation in Palm Beach County is still up in the air. The media can’t seem to get all of the facts correct and that is probably the fault of the county and probably the media representatives who just don’t know enough to ask the right questions like; what happened to over 3,000 ballots? Were they physically lost? Is anyone trying to find them? Or, is the whole problem a difference in how the poll site optical scans work as compared to the central optical scan machines?

Hopefully we will get a true accounting for this problem. After all, only 12% of the registered voters turned-out for the primary last week; what is going to happen when there is a 60 to 70% turnout? I shudder to imagine....

True to form Florida is in the midst of another election nightmare. Is it a few less than honorable election officials in a couple counties; or, is it the simplistic process the state uses for certifying and accepting voting systems for use; or, is it vendors who have no problem at all selling counties voting systems that should never be used in elections work and that they don’t even warrant as being manufactured to be used in elections? Or, is it all of the above? I suspect it is all of the above. Indian River Co. decided to test a new system that would modem results from the poll sites to the main tabulating room. They decided to do this test in the middle of an election and they ended up doubling results from 40 polling sites. The results from Palm Beach Co are still a mess big enough to boggle the mind but there seems to have been thousands of votes that went uncounted originally while the final total vote count went down by over three thousand votes in one race after a machine and manual recount. And there is still a recount underway in Broward Co. Who knows what reports of problems will come from that recount. Is this a portent of things to come in November? It very clearly is that. ...