Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Two elections so far this year and Cuyahoga Co Ohio is 0-2 in successful recounts. Both recounts were in small municipal elections and in both cases the recounted voter verified paper trail (vvpat) votes failed to match the official machine results. Why? Mistakes in counting? Not according to the county. The problem is that the vvpats are at times difficult and sometimes impossible to read. These vvpats along with audits of those vvpat ballots are supposed to be an acceptable solution to the problems with DREs. Cuyahoga Co is now concerned that they may have a close county-wide race that will require many days of trying to decipher what is on the vvpat tapes. Remember that in Ohio the vvpat is the vote of record in an audit so any damaged or unreadable ballots may be lost ballots and they could affect the results of an election. This, again, is proof that adding a vvpat printer to a DRE is like adding a seat belt to a Pinto. Let’s “Rage Against The Machines” and recall them all....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today the Daytona Beach News Journal reports that 25,000 Diebold optical-scan machines used across the country may have a defect that causes failures in the memory cards. Apparently Diebold has known about this problem for some time. One election official claims that she THINKS no votes have been lost. Diebold says that around one percent of the memory cards are affected but the News Journal has found that some counties have reported over nine percent failure. There will be an election in Florida next week but the state is not requiring any beefed-up audits to ensure there are no lost votes. Diebold says they will inspect machines outside of Florida on a “case by case basis.” In other words, they are not going to warn their customers, and they won’t inspect anything unless a customer forces their hand. This is just another reason to recall all voting devices qualified by NASED and inspected by ITAs paid by the vendors to look the other way. It is time to “Rage against the machines”....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In an article in today’s Alternet, Steven Rosenfeld has said, more eloquently, what we have been saying for awhile now:

It’s just that simple. The vendors know they are selling defective, poorly designed, and insecure voting systems and previous attempts to inspect and qualify them for use have been nothing more than rubber stamps to get these systems out to unsuspecting customers. We need to support groups like VoterAction who are in the forefront of this “rage against the machines.”

That story, and today's other notable voting news, all linked below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Last Nov. 55% of the voters in Sarasota Co Florida spoke with their votes for optical scan voting and for a meaningful audit of the ballots. Before the measure went on the ballot the county and state went to court and argued that the charter amendment would result in a violation of the state constitution. The court disagreed and the voters won. Yesterday a state appeals court decided against the will of the voters and for the county Supervisor of Elections and the SoS. The ruling was partially moot because the county is going to optical-scan machines, as is the state due in part to the pressure from passage of the amendment. However, the voters lose the ability to have an audit that will mean anything at all. They voted for an audit of 5% of all precincts. Instead the state is working on an audit of 1 to 2% of the precincts in each county and one race on those ballots AND this audit cannot happen until AFTER the election is certified....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Ciber Labs teamed with Wyle Labs to test voting system code while Wyle tested hard and firmware. Under the NASED run [federal] voting system qualification process, Ciber inspected and tested about 70% of the voting systems presently in use. Ciber Labs has not been accredited by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to test voting systems under the EAC’s voting system certification program because the EAC found that Ciber did not do tests that they had claimed to do and did a lousy job of documenting those tests they did do. So we have no idea if the code used on about 70% of the voting systems presently being used in the United States meets the voting systems standards. In fact, we know in many situations that the code violates the standards and those are only the systems that have been tested or inspected by other labs or by Universities. States and counties are using untested voting systems that violate the voting systems standards. Let’s just recall all voting systems qualified by NASED and start over with good standards and labs that will do their jobs.

Today's notable voting news stories, related to the above and everything else, are all linked below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

What is going on in Colorado? One has to wonder if the Colorado Secretary of State is truly looking out for the voters. On one hand Secretary Coffman sent a suspension letter to ES&S but on the other hand the Colorado Statesman points out that John Gardner is still employed in his old job, testing and certifying voting systems. Gardner’s lack of any experience with voting systems was one of the reasons that the court found that Colorado must test and recertify every system used in the state. Instead of being replaced by someone actually familiar with testing and certification of voting systems or other technical experience Gardner is still in his job.

As a check on Gardner the state has hired two consultants to look over his shoulder and review his work. The consultants are Paul Craft who has a degree in Restaurant and Hotel Management and who was, in part, responsible for the qualification of most of the failing voting systems used in the US at this time. He was on the NASED voting systems panel that rubber stamped the reports from the ITAs that were bought and paid for by the vendors. Also a consultant is Glenn Newkirk. Newkirk reviewed and approved many systems for different states. Included in his failures are the Advanced Voting Solutions voting machines that were recently found to have 1,946 anomalies in their source code. Neither consultant has met a vendors product he does not like. I ask again, “What is going on in Colorado?”

Links to that story, and the other notable voting news stories today, follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

ES&S voting machines have failed over and over again in Guilford Co North Carolina and, not to break the string, they failed again during early voting over the weekend. Of course the county claims there were no lost votes but they removed all five machines from one early voting site and replaced them. Why does this county continue to use machines that have failed them over and over again? If the county election director is not willing to take action why are the voters not outraged and taking action? It is time to recall all of the substandard voting systems being used across the country. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Colorado SoS has issued a letter to ES&S to inform them that state certification testing of their voting machines has been suspended due to a lack of concern and inaction taken by the vendor. In that letter the Secretary accused the vendor of “changing project managers multiple times since April, providing incorrect programming of required databases for testing, providing incorrect ballots for testing, failing to provide required documentation of Federal testing, and test failures requiring extensive machine servicing”. Meanwhile election officials in Mesa Co Colorado have decided that they will just ignore what is happening at the state level and they are going to buy more machines from ES&S for another $500,000. What are these people thinking? Where is the outrage from the citizens whose money is being wasted by these same election officials? Rather than buy more products from this company that is arrogant beyond belief they should be taking ES&S to court to get back the original $2.7M they spent....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The utter arrogance of ES&S has been revealed again with the revelation of a letter from the Colorado SOS to the company. It seems that ES&S is dragging its feet and obstructing the court-ordered recertification of their system used by two Colorado counties. One paragraph from that letter says it all about ES&S and its lack of any partnership with its customers:

Today’s quotation is from an Editorial in the Redding (CA) Record Searchlight: “In person or by post, though, it's more and more obvious that the smartest way to run elections is with dumb technology. Your ink might run dry, but nobody has ever hacked a pen.”

Those stories, and today's other notable voting news items, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“There has been much complaining about the Iowa caucus this year: It is too early—it might even be in December of 2007. Iowa is not representative of the rest of the country in terms of demographics or policy concerns. It has a disproportionate influence on which candidates win the nomination. In a new issue brief from The Century Foundation, Tova Andrea Wang discusses caucuses: Because of their exclusionary nature, they go against some of the core values we express when we talk about voting rights, such as the fundamental nature of the right, equality of opportunity to participate in the process, and fair access to the ballot.”...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Recently a frustrated elderly voter from Albuquerque, New Mexico, wrote a letter to his local newspaper to relate his experience on a recent election day. The city had a 10% turnout of voters for a city-wide election and had a problem understanding why. This voter and his wife went to their normal polling place, where they had voted since they moved to the city. They were told their polls had been moved two miles away. They went to the new polling place, which was not marked by an American flag, only to find that their polling place was really a half-block away. They went to this venue, again not marked by an American flag, and voted. The writer is legally blind, uses a white cane, and a special lighted magnifying glass. He voted with a lot of trouble and as he was leaving the polls noticed a machine set up in a corner. He asked a poll worker about the machine and was told that it was there for voters with disabilities. Apparently none of the poll workers had used the white cane and lighted magnifying glass as a sign that the writer was sight impaired. This all points to poor election administration and gives an indication that some people just don’t care if we vote. At least not until a few days later when they add up the participation percentage and realize how low it is and blame the voters for not caring about our democracy.

Links and headlines for today's notable voting news stories follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“Please Vote For Me” is a documentary filmed in Wuhan, China. For the first time ever, the students in grade three at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China, have been asked to elect a class monitor. Traditionally appointed by the teacher, the class monitor holds a powerful position, helping to control the students, keeping them on task and doling out punishment to those who disobey. The film follows the candidates in their first immersion into democracy including campaigning and then the election. Will democracy work in China? The film is shown as part of “Independent Lens” on PBS.

As to democracy in the United States (and even a bit in Scotland), see today's notable voting news stories linked below, as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today’s news is varied widely but includes a transcript of testimony given by a representative of American Enterprise Institute to a subcommittee of the House Administration Committee. This subcommittee met last week and then again today to hear testimony regarding absentee voting and vote-by-mail.

That, and today's other notable voting news, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Butte Co California Clerk/Recorder is going to tell the county supervisors that elections will be more costly and complicated because of an “abuse of political power” by the SoS, Debra Bowen. The clerk, Candace Grubbs, uses the same arguments that her vendor, Diebold, used. She talks only about the security portion of the “Top-To-Bottom Review” and totally ignores that the review found her voting system to not be accessible. Source code and document reviews also found numerous violations of voting systems standards and numerous reasons why Ms. Grubbs's voting system should never have been certified by the state. I am pleased to present Candace Grubbs with today’s “Enemy of Democracy.”

That story, and the rest of today's notable voting news stories, all linked below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Amodio Worldwide Moving & Storage of New Britain Connecticut has a contract to move the city's voting machines. Gerry Amodio is a candidate for alderman-at-large. The Secretary of State has told the city, "Unequivocally, candidates should not be involved in touching the voting machines in any way." State law is clear that a candidate may not touch voting machines or be in polling places during the election. However the city has decided that Amodio won’t be moving the machines; his employees will be, therefore Amodio’s company will take custody of the voting machines and the city is satisfied that nothing at all will happen. I guess we wait and see....