Voter registration is the subject of today’s three “Featured” articles. First, nine Senators have introduced S-3308 to require the Department of Veteran Affairs to help veterans to register to vote. We welcome this new legislation but it may be too little too late. Also, voting rights groups have accused Louisiana, Michigan, and Kansas of violations of the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) by removing legally registered voters from the rolls. It is imperative that every voter in these states, especially, check to ensure their registration is still good. And, voting rights advocates have also filed suit in New Mexico state court over the state’s harshly restrictive voter registration law. ...

In today’s featured article Bo Lipari of New Yorkers For Verified Voting opens, “It’s become obvious that New York State’s new voting systems will not be able to complete New York State certification testing in time for the scheduled 2009 rollout. The state sets the highest bar in the nation for approval of voting machines, one that vendors have never been required to meet before. Their performance in New York demonstrates that they are a long, long way from understanding that the public will not stand for poorly designed, badly tested and outrageously overpriced equipment, and a business philosophy of let the customer be damned.”...

I have spoken many times in this space about voter registration. People ask where they can go to check their registration or what is the final day for registration in their state. VotersUnite has now provided a data base that tells the voter the final date to register to vote before the general election and who to call to ensure you are still registered. We have also provided information on who to call to find your polling site and some other useful information HERE...

“It seems incomprehensible for me that VA does not want to assist veterans to register. It is despicable,” said Jim Dickson, vice-president of American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD). “I am trying hard to not express how angry I am.” On this I will agree 100% with Dickson. Also in our featured articles several Senators have stepped up in support of our veterans as they have introduced a bill to require the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to do the right thing. One of those Senators, Patty Murry (D-WA), said, "The right to vote is at the very heart of the democracy that our nation's veterans have fought so hard to protect,” Senator Murray said. “The VA knows first-hand how much our veterans have sacrificed and should make every attempt to make voting easier – not harder – for them. This legislation breaks down barriers to voting for our veterans and helps keep our commitment to protect the rights of those who have fought for us."...

“I’m concerned about the weak spots,” said Rosemary E. Rodriguez, the chairwoman of the United States Election Assistance Commission, which oversees voting. “So much depends on whether there will be enough poll workers, whether they are trained enough and whether their state and county election directors give them contingency plans and resources to handle the unexpected.” That is, in our opinion, an understatement. Today’s featured article goes on to tell a bit more of the story. Eleven states will use new voting systems this year, as compared to 2004, moving from DREs to paper based systems. One more item can be added to what are most certainly concerns of the EAC and that is discussed in our second featured article. The Brennan Center has produced another excellent paper. This time it is about ballot design; the issue that gave us the infamous “butterfly ballot” and the recent “Double Bubble Trouble” from Los Angeles Co. By all reports voter registration is way up this year. Turnout will be huge and problems are going to be rampant unless election officials are prepared and they have plenty of volunteers....

Voters in the state of Hawaii filed a lawsuit on July 14, 2008, asking the Court to order the Hawaii Chief Elections Officer to stop using telephone lines or the internet for transmitting ballot counts and election results for final tabulation until such time as administrative rules can be legally promulgated in accordance with Hawaii Administrative Law, Chapter 91, HRS, and all other laws can also be legally followed. Also note in today’s featured article that at the end election day all memory cards are taken to the Maui County central location and given directly to an employee of Hart Intercivic. This employee, not election officials, then downloads the information from the cards to a laptop and then sends those votes over the internet to Honolulu. ...

Today is one of those days where there are many big stories. The list of Secretary of States who have joined together to demand that Veterans Administration facilities be opened to allow non-partisan voter registration drives has risen to 19. Meanwhile, Indiana’s Secretary of State, Todd Rokita, has shown that he does not care about the veterans in Indiana as he has sent a letter to the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs to express his support for the disenfranchising rules.

Also, a whistleblower has stepped forward and stated that a patch was installed in two Georgia counties in 2002 before the Governor and Senatorial elections. He says, in part, that a “computer patch was installed in person by Diebold CEO Bob Urosevich, who flew in from Texas and applied it in just two counties, DeKalb and Fulton, both Democratic strongholds. The source states that Cox [then Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox] was not privy to these changes until after the election and that she became particularly concerned over the patch being installed in just those two counties.”

The Georgia news stems from a press conference held in Ohio where attorneys announced that they were filing documents with the courts to lift a stay on the 2004 Election fraud case. This case, according to the attorneys, has the potential to take down some very powerful people in this country....

In fairness I need to clarify my statement, in this space, of yesterday. There are many national organizations that are working, behind the scenes mostly, in many states. That does not change my opinion that we need to stop our emphasis on trying to get federal legislation passed through Congress. It is just not going to happen. Not only has it become a partisan issue, though it should not be, but the House and Senate leadership does not seem to be on the side of transparent, verifiable, audited elections. We should change our strategy to stop any damaging federal election legislation while working hard in the states to change their mind-sets. The state strategy has already worked in many states. And just today Centre Co., Pennsylvania, announced it is moving from DREs to optical-scan. ...

Yesterday another bill went to the floor of the House of Representatives and, like the last time, failed to get enough votes. It is time that the national organizations and their supporters change their strategies to a state-by-state strategy. We are NOT going to get any legislation through congress this year, and very possibly not next year. We can make a difference at the state level though. While many have concentrated on spending their time and money in Washington DC lobbying for the various bills that have come up, activists in Tennessee, New York, New Mexico, Florida, and other states and many counties have been successful in new laws being passed and DREs being replaced. Rather than spend the time and money in Washington DC, we need to spend it in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Annapolis Maryland, and Atlanta Georgia....

In today’s “Featured Article” I relate how the EAC is getting bad advice from their very own Board of Advisors. This board includes officials who are either under the influence of the voting machine vendors or who have taken funds from those vendors. The board has sent the commission a resolution that asks the commission to cut corners in the voting system certification program. They actually want the EAC to make the system more like what was the previous system as administered by NASED. That is the system that tested and qualified all of the trash that is running our elections now. That is the system that has allowed the vendors to beta test their voting systems in real elections. The EAC would do well to ignore this bad advice....

In this evening’s “Featured Article”, Kim Zetter of “Threat Level Blog” at Wired reports about the failure of new Sequoia voting machines to get through state and local testing. So far about 50 percent of the voting machines delivered to the state have problems. Doug Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections, is quoted as saying something that the Election Integrity community has known for a long time. He said, “There's no way the vendor could be adequately reviewing the machines and having so many problems. What it tells us is that the vendor just throws this stuff over the transom and does not do any alpha- or beta-testing of their own before they apply for certification testing. Then they expect that we'll identify technical glitches and then they'll correct those glitches. But correction of those glitches is an extraordinarily time-consuming process. And it’s very disappointing that this equipment is not ready for prime time.” The vendors have used real elections to beta test their products without regards for the voters and this has been an ongoing process for years....

It has been a couple weeks since we reminded all of our subscribers that 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. You can find out the date that your state is closing registration and who to check to ensure your registration is still HERE...

Yesterday members of Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) filed papers in US District Court in Ohio asking a judge to begin criminal contempt proceedings for the destruction of ballots, against his orders, from the Nov. 2004 election. In King Lincoln, et al. v. Brunner, et al., Civ. No. C2 06 745 (S.D. Ohio), the judge had ordered all 88 counties to preserve all ballots from the election until a decision was rendered in the case. At least 56 counties decided that they did not need to follow the court order and destroyed a portion of the ballots they had. Seven counties assert they have destroyed all ballots. The complaint also asks the judge to impanel a special grand jury to investigate the destruction of the ballots....

Today Senator Akaka (D-HI) called on the federal Department of Veteran’s Affairs to lift their ban on voter registration drives on Veteran’s Administration property. He pointed out that the VA's policy is unnecessary and insulting to veterans who have made enormous sacrifices for our country. He was joined by Sen.s Kerry and Feinstein. Also late today Connecticut Secretary of State Bysiewicz and Washington Secretary of State Reed joined in a bi-partisan campaign to overturn the VA ban, along with the Secretaries of State from Ohio, Montana, Vermont, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Maine, to the DVA. ...

Today the Secretary of State of Ohio, Jennifer Brunner, announced a call to a meeting of the State Board of Voting Machine Examiners. The subject of Friday’s meeting is to be whether modifications made by ES&S to AutoMark machines used in many Ohio counties are enhancements or significant adjustments. If the modifications made to the machines in Ohio are the same that were made to machines in California then they are clearly significant adjustments that required a model designation change. The modification in California was done without any notice to the state or counties and has resulted in a $15Million lawsuit against ES&S. There will be more on this story over the next couple days....