Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today Sequoia announced that they are marketing a new optical scan voting system in New York. They claim it is in process to be certified to the 2005 voting system standards. Sequoia has no system presently in the process that is being tested to the 2005 standards. Could they actually be selling the Dominion voting system as their own in New York? The new system reportedly makes an image of the voter hand-marked ballot at the same time it is reading that ballot. Why is this necessary except to add more software and another process to voting systems that are already beyond these companies' abilities to design and build? Of course, more software equals a higher cost. The press release also describes a new “Audio Tactile Interface” (ATI) for blind and sight-impaired voters. The description leaves out any mention of how the blind and sight-impaired voters verify that the ATI has correctly marked their ballots. Failure to provide that verification would seem to be a violation of the Help America Vote Act....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As reported by a Dutch outlet in their English translation; “We do not trust voting computers' demanded that every single vote would be retained on its own piece of paper in the polling station. And that is what will happen from now on. On September 27, 2007 the Korthals Altes Committee issued its 'Voting with confidence' report. The state secretary for the interior immediately announced that 'Regulation for approval of voting machines 1997' will be withdrawn. As a result all Dutch voting computers will be decertified. Elections in the Netherlands will be held using paper ballots and red pencil for a while. After that, likely using 'vote printers' and optical scan counting computers.” The machines that will no longer be used are made by NEDAP and marketed in English speaking countries as “Liberty.” Ireland spent millions of Euros to buy the machines, then they were found to be insecure so Ireland is spending millions of Euros annually to store the machines that have never been used. Liberty is being marketed in New York....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Advanced Voting Solutions has now told three Pennsylvania counties that they have decided not to go any further with federal testing of their voting system, a requirement by the state before any voting system can be certified for use there. The question is all about a change to software that was required by the state. Rather than not take the path required by PA law, AVS has decided to argue with the state that the change is not consequential and does not require federal testing and certification. Rather than scream bloody-murder county election officials seem ready, willing and able to give AVS a pass as they talk about how much they like AVS’s voting machines. What is wrong with these people and when will they wake up and realize AVS is scamming them?...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Pinellas Co Florida had an open house of all certified Optical Scan Systems for the public to test, view and evaluate. They are also creating a Citizen Selection Committee to decide which system they want to purchase. Meanwhile Broward Co has issued a no-bid, sole source contract to ES&S. No open house. No citizen involvement in the decision. One county official claims that there are no choices because there is only Diebold/Premier, ES&S and Sequoia. However, they have overlooked the fact that a fourth player is in the process of getting their op-scans certified for use in the state; Dominion Voting Systems, a Canadian company with sales all over Canada. Of course part of the story may be the fact that one of the Broward Co Commissioners is married to a former lobbyist for ES&S. All of this makes Broward Co Florida officials today’s winner of the “Enemy of Democracy” award....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There are more reports from Pennsylvania today regarding county’s mitigations for the failure of their voting system vendor, Advanced Voting Solutions, to get necessary changes through the federal test and certification phase. The problem is not with the counties or the state; the problem is all AVS. Yet the counties are trying to figure out what to do until their machines are alright for use and how they are going to pay for it. The state is commiserating with the counties and offering to pay the tab or a large part of the tab. Why is the bill not being paid by the people responsible for the failure? Why is AVS not being told to pay for any necessary actions by the counties? And why aren’t the League of Women Voters, Common Cause PA, and local and state election integrity groups joined together to demand that AVS pay the bill or get out of the state?

It looks like the Democrats may have failed again. The nomination of Hans von Spakovsky, and three other nominees, has passed out of the Senate Rules Committee with a “no recommendation.” His nomination now goes to the floor for debate (maybe). Sen. Nelson (D-NE) told the committee chair, Feinstein, that he would vote for von Spakovsky, thus going against a whole list of civil rights organizations and members of the House who are against the nomination of von Spakovsky. I guess von Spakovsky can share today’s “Enemy of Democracy” with his new bestest friend, Sen. Ben Nelson....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today finds a mixed bag of articles. There is more about the Ohio study that is beginning right away according to the SoS Office.

See below for links to today's mixed bag...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We were encouraged earlier this year when two states announced their plans to do a complete review of their voting systems. California has now completed their “Top-To-Bottom Review” and has taken action on all but the three Document Review papers that have yet to be released. Ohio got off to a slow start with their “Evaluation and Validation of Election Related Equipment, Standards and Testing” (EVEREST). It’s hard to figure out what is happening and how valid this project will now be. The State Controlling Board has now given SoS Brunner the money she needs to conduct the project but they have thrown in some questionable requirements. Local election officials now have an advisory role in the testing and a say in any recommendations. The Board has also provided the technical testing standards that will be used and requires participants in the study to have insurance to make sure counties don't have to pay to repair or replace any machines damaged by tests. Two weeks ago they were concerned about the bias of some academics who were involved in the project. Now they are building bias into the whole system.

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In Nevada ex-Secretary of State and now Congressman Dean Heller likes to tell anyone who will listen why he dislikes HR-811 and all about the amendments he has added to the bill. He falsely claims to have “inserted” amendments that would exempt Nevada from the requirements of the bill and another that would require English-only instructions on the voting machines. Heller also falsely claims that Nevada is the only state that has established a paper-trail on its voting machines, avoiding lawsuits. He then goes on to claim that passage of HR-811 would erase all of the advances made by the state; advances that were taken when he was SoS, by the way. It appears that Congressman Heller has no problem at all misleading his constituents and the local media who report his false statements. Congressman Dean Heller, today’s “Enemy of Democracy.”

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Over the past week the media and the blogs have been filled with articles in support of a report negative on voter-verified paper audit trail requirements. Though the articles have found fault with parts of the report from the new on the scene Information Technology and Innovation Foundation they all agree on one thing; more technology added on to DRE voting machines is good and vvpat is bad. This new think-tank, ITIF, wants more software and gimmicks to be added to the present DREs. They say it will make the machines verifiable. In fact, it’s nothing more than software and gimmicks. It’s more expense for the counties who must pay more for licensing, updates, bug repairs, certification costs, etc. I have an innovation. Let’s recycle the DREs, use paper-ballots, and let the fine folks at ITIF think about how they can improve some other aspect of our lives like the long waits at the airport or global warming. This all makes the ITIF today’s “Enemy of Democracy” award winner.

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

What is more important; verified accurate elections or results reported on election night? San Francisco election officials would have us believe election night reporting is the most important as they whine about how the decertification of their voting system will cause them to have to spend weeks counting the ballots; a clearly childish and false claim. Why isn’t the verified accurate count of our votes more important than election results being announced on election night or even the next morning?

The Secretary of State of Washington and the County Auditor’s Association argue against any audit of the votes counted on optical-scan machines. We are a vote-by-mail state so well over 70% of the ballots are all counted by optical-scan. I find it to be amazing that they would argue against ensuring every vote is counted correctly. The only reason they would make those arguments is cost or early results. Neither of those reasons should take precedence over my vote being counted accurately.

Those stories, and all of today's other notable voting news, linked below as usual...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Early voting is taking place in Shelby Co, Tennessee but the Memphis mayor wants the voting to stop and he seems to have convinced the city attorney that he is correct. The issue is that the county’s Diebold TSx voting machines seem to be flipping votes and numerous calls from voters to the mayor (a candidate) have convinced him that there is a problem. The city attorney actually went to one of the early voting sites and verified that touching just inside the lines separating the candidates would cast a vote to the name just above or below the voter's selection of choice. Amazingly the Shelby County Election Board chair had this to say, “…..we're comfortable with the fact that we tested those machines and there is nothing wrong with the way the machines are recording the votes. Apparently it's an issue of public education. If people press in the wrong area they're going to get the wrong result.” She also said that voters have a chance to correct their vote on the screen before they submit it. That’s the screen with the small writing that you didn’t do any voter education about? Is it any wonder that today’s “Enemy of Democracy” award goes to Myra Stiles for blaming the voter instead of the machines for the machines failures.

Coverage of that story "Meltdown '07" story, and today's many other voting news articles, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

First some business. I thought it was readily apparent that comments that I write and post in this lead ‘graf’ are comments and opinions on what has happened during the day or what may be happening in the future. What I write here is not news. Apparently a handful of readers failed to recognize that fact.

Now on to my comments. What is going on in New Jersey? The legislature passed a law in 2005 that any voting system used in the state would have to provide a voter verified paper audit trail. The state elections people were given until January 2008 to make that happen. There were no printers developed for the state’s full-face DREs so they had to be built and tested. The state chose to take that avenue rather than go with a state-wide change to optical scan and the state waited until the last minute and now is asking for extensions from the legislature and the court. This is a parallel to HR-811 which will require an as yet undeveloped printer for DREs and probably four years to develop that printer. This is Holt’s home state. They didn’t change systems. Why should anyone believe that his legislation, that does not ban DREs, would cause any state to change systems to get rid of their DREs?

Those stories and more voting news from today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

HR-811/Microsoft-811 may be going to the floor for a vote sometime this week. Maybe not. Does it all really matter though? The bill will almost definitely get a majority of the votes, though it may be closer than some have thought. Then what? Then comes the Senate. The 811-clone, Sen Nelson’s bill, is still just sitting in a holding pattern and S-1487, Senator Feinstein’s destructive bill, is waiting on hearings before it is finalized, if it gets that far. Then what? It seems with the Senate, bills don’t get voted out of committee without having at least 60 votes. That’s to ensure they are filibuster-proof. A source in the Senate Admin Committee (Feinstein’s committee) has said that the minority has already said that no election-related legislation will go to the floor this session. Can deals be made? Sure. Anything can happen. I’m just not holding my breath. Today was supposed to be the court hearing in New Jersey to decide what actions would need to be taken regarding vvpat printers. As of press time there have been no reports from New Jersey....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It seems to be about time that I explain the loose rules that I use in selecting what goes into DVN and what stays out. First, though I have a position with regard to legislation I am very careful to not let my position cloud my decision as to whether an article on legislation is posted or not. I have posted just as many articles that are pro-legislation as I have that are anti-some aspects of that legislation. I will not post what is very apparently misinformation no matter on which side of the issue the article falls. I know the subscribers of DVN come from all sides of the issue so I try to cater to them all. I post news articles and blogs that I get from searches of the net. I don’t post articles that are older than a few days. I don’t post LTTEs. I don’t post data bases or .pdfs that are not posted somewhere. Ultimately the disclaimer at the bottom of the list of articles says it all.

And with that out of the way, the weekend's notable voting news stories are linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, is going to battle against ES&S over maintenance contracts and annual fees. The county has a plan that will save them $200,000 and they want annual contracts. ES&S wants a three-year contract and they claim that they are not bound by any promises made by their sales staff because they think that’s a “little unfair.” ES&S has also told the county that they are going to raise their cost for machine coding and ballot preparation by up to six percent. ES&S has given the voters and tax payers of Luzerne Co. a gift that keeps on taking; sucking tax payers’ money away from the county. ES&S: today’s “Enemy of Democracy.”

Clearly Ohio state’s Republican lawmakers are going to do all they can to put up roadblocks to stop SoS Brunner from doing any inspection of the state’s voting machines. Payback for Brunner firing the state Republican Chair and County Board of Elections boss, Bennett?

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