Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

I got an email today that asked me why the voting machine companies are not refunding money spent by counties on voting machines. Of course the answer is that very few counties or states are taking the vendors to court and demanding their money back. I don’t know why West Virginia and Arkansas and Indiana threatened to take ES&S to court but never followed through. Or, maybe they did and it was never publicized? I think part of it is that we have entrusted these officials with hundreds of thousands of tax payers’ dollars and they spent that money on insecure, inaccurate, and unreliable voting machines. And they gave the checks to people who are every bit the snake-oil salesman and, in many cases, used to run elections in neighboring states or counties. Now that the systems are not what they were told they would be they have to admit they wasted the tax payers’ dollars. That’s a hard thing to admit to. It’s time election officials got together outside of the influence of the vendors and their apologists and began to support each other.

And with that, links to today's notable voting news stories follow below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Last week the Netherlands did away with e-voting and their DREs made by a company called “NEDAP.” These same machines were sold to Ireland under the brand name “Liberty.” “Liberty” is now being marketed in New York. Ireland paid 51.3m Euros to purchase their machines then they found out they were insecure and had many problems. The machines have been in storage since they were purchased. They have never been used. Instead of taking NEDAP to court for restitution, or scrapping the machines; the Irish have now decided to take out 25-year rental leases for storage facilities. The government has taken a lease for the 288 machines in storage in County Monaghan for over 27,000 Euros a year.

If you want a copy of the book featured in the first link below you can get one signed by the author at VotersUnite.Org as a premium on a donation....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Broward Co Florida began testing their new ES&S optical-scan system allowing citizens and the media only two hours to view the process before removing them from the area. What are the county and ES&S afraid of?

Vigo Co Indiana just wrapped up their Logic and Accuracy Testing. The Tribune Star reporter who wrote about the testing reported that they ran “at least 10 ballots” through each optical-scan machine. In an email response to an email I sent her where I essentially said, “Huh!?” she reported that they ran 13 or 14 through most of the machines and 10 or 11 through another because they didn’t want to overload that machine. Logic and Accuracy testing was complete within 45 minutes according to the reporter. Again I ask, “Huh!?” and pass on a well deserved “Enemy of Democracy” award to Patricia Mansard, Vigo County Clerk....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Voters in five California counties will have to wait a couple weeks, at least, for a decision from the Secretary of State as to what action the state will take against ES&S for selling the counties uncertified AutoMark ballot markers. My guess is that with primary season so close the state will provisionally certify the machines the counties have and then severely fine the vendor for violating state law. That’s just my guess though.

In another indication that the voting machine vendors are gouging their customers and the tax payer, Luzerne Co Pennsylvania signed a four-year contract with ES&S to provide warranty services. The contract is for $60,550. Originally ES&S offered the county a three-year contract for $320,000. The difference? The county will pay shipping and labor costs for whatever breaks. It just took county officials willing to stand-up to ES&S and tell them “NO! We aren’t going to be gouged”....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

On Oct. 13 I led off DVN with a graf concerning an “Alert” that was on the Maricopa County Democratic Party website. If you waited until Saturday morning to go to the link provided you would not have found the “Alert.” It had been removed. I followed up today and talked to the County Recorder and the Executive Director of the county Democratic Party. What I wrote in that graf was true to some extent. In fact, a contractor for the state Democratic Party pays $4 per registration for each registration turned-in to the County Recorders. Maricopa County has received 26,000 new registrations. Of those 26,000 only 5,000 were any good. The reasons for the rejected forms were varied and among those were some forms for legal aliens. The County Recorder has met with the contractor and a representative of the state party. She has also talked to Immigration on behalf of those who were taken in by the scheme. Is there a problem with the way legal aliens are being treated and the possibility that they may lose their ability to file for citizenship? Yes, very much so. The overriding problem, however, is paying people to gather registrations. That practice needs to stop.

There was a public hearing in California today. There are no reports yet about whether ES&S will be punished for selling uncertified voting machines to some counties. I’m sure we will hear more tomorrow....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Legal aliens living in Maricopa Co Arizona are being targeted by an insidious fraud. Unscrupulous people are picking people with Hispanic surnames from the phone book, calling them or visiting them and asking if they wish to become citizens. They then tell them, falsely, that they must register to vote as a part of the citizenship process. The voter registration form is then filled out, either with help from the alien or by the person. When turned in the registrations are denied. When the alien files for citizenship they are asked if they have ever attempted to register to vote. Citizenship is denied because the attempt to register is a felony. Update: The report on this issue was carried on the Maricopa County Democratic Party website. It has been removed with no explanation. I will be checking to find out why it was removed and if the original report was bogus.

The computerized voter registration system being used in Virginia appears to be ready to melt-down. The system was used last June and the state claimed success while some registrars were less than happy. Now voters may be disenfranchised and counties will be forced to use provisional ballots for many voters who would otherwise be allowed to vote normally....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a press release Project Vote announced the release of a new report, “Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate.” The report finds a continuing problem with the U.S. electorate: those who are registered and vote are not representative of the overall U.S. population eligible to vote. The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that does vote is highly skewed towards whites, the educated and the wealthy. Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate.

“This review of the survey data strongly points to the need for civic organizations and government officials (at all levels of government) to continue to expand access to voter registration,” says Hess. “For their part, governments should view bias in the electorate as a call to embrace voter registration as an affirmative responsibility through better implementation of laws relating to the registration of young, low-income and minority voters.” ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Recertification of voting systems for use in Colorado was supposed to be complete this past summer. Now the state says they may be ready on Dec. 1 or, more probably, later. This is all a result of a lawsuit brought by voters last year for failure by the state to appropriately certify the systems that were being used. The state is pointing to delays by the vendors as the reason for missing the scheduled certification date. Naturally county election officials are concerned that they may not have machines for use in the state’s primary next August or that they may not have enough machines. They cannot plan until the state certifies their machines. The county officials are asking the state for status but written communications with the state are going unanswered. The reason? It seems the state is concerned about another lawsuit in their future and they don’t want any communications that they would have to share with litigants or the public via public records requests. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Lani Massey Brown had this to say about her new novel:

Help us to continue to help you. Go to VotersUnite.Org and follow the links to make a donation. Any donation over $50 will receive a signed copy of A Margin of Error: Ballots Of Straw [Note: VotersUnite! is in affiliation with International Humanities Center, a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501[c](3) of the Internal Revenue Code.]

And now, links to today's notable voting news stories follow below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“Daily Voting News” has now been in existence for close to four years. VotersUnite can use some help keeping it going for a while longer. We rely on the Election Integrity Community and those who have interest in elections to keep us funded. If you rely on DVN as a source for news and information on voting issues then we need your help. Go HERE and follow the links to make a donation. Any donation over $50 will receive a signed copy of “A Margin of Error: Ballots Of Straw” [NOTE: VotersUnite! is in affiliation with International Humanities Center, a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501[c](3) of the Internal Revenue Code.]

"It's probably true that among those who don't [have Photo ID], it's primarily elderly persons. And that's a shame. Of course...our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way that white people do. They die first." - John Tanner, Chief of Civil Rights Section, Voting Unit, U.S. DoJ, today’s “Enemy of Democracy”.

Links to today's notable voting news stories follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

VotersUnite is honored to have a dozen specially inscribed and signed copies of “A Margin of Error: Ballots Of Straw” by Lani Massey Brown. Ms. Brown has worked as an election official and in the computer security field and now as a novelist. She has written a mystery novel around her experiences working for a Florida county election office. Read more about the book at VotersUnite.Org and help us out with a $50 or more donation and get a copy of the book as a premium. You help VotersUnite continue our valuable work and you get a great book....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Ohio Co., West Virginia, and Belmont Co., Ohio, both use ES&S iVotronic voting machines. Belmont Co. was recently presented with a contract from ES&S for programming, licensing, and maintenance. That contract was for $50,000 annually. The county turned down the contract. Ohio Co. will have to begin paying for their programming beginning in 2008 (the state has been paying the costs so far). West Virginia has a contract with a private contractor who will be doing the work that ES&S would do but the cost is $107 per precinct. For Ohio Co. the cost will be a little over $4,000 annually. It is time that our election officials realize that their friends, the vendors, are only out to make as much money as possible before they are found out. They gouge the taxpayers for their unreliable, insecure voting machines and then continue to gouge them for service contracts. The vendors have gotten fat off of the post-HAVA buying frenzy; now they have to keep feeding themselves by selling over-priced service contracts. And the vendors are only friends as long as everything is going along fine. When there is a problem they refuse to accept responsibility and nearly always blame the county, poll workers, or voters.

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Late last Friday, without any media, the California SoS released the last set of reports from her “Top-To-Bottom Review.” While not the same dynamite as the reports on security and code review, they are important reports that in part highlight the failure of the old NASED-sponsored voting system qualification and ITA system. The Sequoia report relates the following:

This is an echo of the information provided in the Diebold and Hart Intercivic reports.

Why were these reports kept buried for a month after the rest of the reports were released? Why was there no media release?

The rest of today's notable voting news stories are linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

An expert was included as part of a contingent present while the Kentucky State Board of Elections recertified the voting systems used in the state. His report to the state’s Attorney General is revealing and his recommendations would be good for most states.

As we reported yesterday, the GAO presented their report on the Sarasota Co., Florida, undervote to a committee of the House of Representatives. The report has been released and one researcher said, “We disagree that the prior test results adequately demonstrate that the voting systems could not have contributed to the undervote.” The GAO has been given authorization to accomplish three more tests prior to finalizing their inspection.

Those stories, and all the other notable voting news today, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported to a House Committee on the results of their investigation into the Nov. Congressional election in Florida D-13. The report is still being kept secret but the committee voted unanimously to go back and do more testing of the voting machines.

UPDATE FROM BRAD: The GAO report is now available. Details here.

For links to the rest of today's notable voting news stories, see below...