Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Diebold seems to have convinced the Florida Sec. of State that they have fixed security problems found on their optical-scan systems during a review by Florida State University. It’s amazing how they did that in just a couple weeks. Or maybe not. The Attorney General of New Jersey has denied certification for use of any voter verified paper audit trail printer on the state’s voting machines. State law requires these printers be used by January 2008 but testing of the printers has shown they do not work as advertised. No printers; no DREs. There is still much more news coming from California....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In an interview by Mary Ann Gould on “Voice of the Voters” last night Congressman Dennis Kucinich said, “There is a question of validity of an election. People have to know their vote counts and is counted. People cannot be guaranteed that with the present DRE system.” Meanwhile another overall election failure has been reported by the Mississippi media. The Kentucky Attorney General has told the Secretary of State that doing nothing is not an option as he sends letters to Hart Intercivic and Diebold and demands they do the same for his state as they are required to do for California. And, of course, the rhetoric is building in California.

All of those stories, and today's other notable voting news articles, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

California is still the big news. Counties are beginning to realize that they have some decisions to make and some planning to do. While most counties take on the challenges one or two Registrars have decided that rather than do any planning they would rather whine and threaten. These will probably be the counties who are not ready in February. Meanwhile there is more news from Kentucky where the Secretary of State is traveling around the state talking with local officials about the California reports and what they mean to Kentucky’s voting machines. Tuesday was primary day in Mississippi and the media is talking about the many failures, both with voting machines and administratively, in their election....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today we have much more from California including the first talk about counties filing a lawsuit to stop Bowen from forcing them to meet new requirements. The Houston Chronicle has editorialized about the CA decisions and the fact that officials in Harris Co Texas should look into using some of the security measures newly mandated in California. The Kentucky AG has requested that the SoS re-examine voting machines used in that state. A New York newspaper is gloating because the state has yet to decide what system they are going to use for elections and they will save millions by not going down the same path as other states. Meanwhile the Miami Herald points out that the vendors are making money by putting out garbage, forcing jurisdictions to change systems. In Mississippi elections are happening today. The vvpat printers on the state’s Diebold DREs are jamming and at least one county is blaming the humid weather. A call to a paper products wholesaler proved what I thought was true; thermal paper as is used in vvpat printers is NOT affected by humidity.

Links to all of those stories, and the other notable voting news, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“With gratitude, VotersUnite! applauds Secretary of State Bowen's decision to decertify voting systems in California and recertify them for limited use with extensive conditions and safeguards intended to mitigate their shocking vulnerabilities and inadequacies.

We appreciate that she has her priorities in order and is protecting the voices of voters, rather than deferring to the complaints of those election administrators who prefer convenience over accuracy, or bowing to the protestations of vendors who have misrepresented their products.”

And, as ever, the huge list of notable voting news stories today are all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Of course today’s news is overwhelmingly about the “California Decisions”. After this weekend we will probably hear a lot more from the county officials and the vendors. Diebold appears to have had a press release ready to roll out upon the decision from Secretary of State Bowen. They seem to have decided that terminology changes needed to be made so they are now calling their DREs “touch-screen voting solutions”. I’m not sure what they are trying to solve by the use of their machines. We now know it’s not security problems or accessibility. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

My apologies for the lateness of DVN this evening. I, as many in the Election Integrity community, waited to provide the news of the actions of California Secretary of State Bowen with respect to the voting systems used in California. In a clear victory for the EI community and the voters in the state Secretary of State Bowen has announced the following actions: ES&S InkaVotePlus used only in Los Angeles County has been decertified. Hart Intercivic version 6.1 was withdrawn from use in the state by the company. The other systems by Diebold, Sequoia and Hart all had approval for use withdrawn with conditional reapproval for use in the state primary election on 5 February 2008. The conditions for reapproval are tough and thorough with Diebold and Sequoia limited to one DRE per polling place for use by voters with disabilities on election day....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Officials in Mississippi are the first to speak out and tell their voters that even though the voters are forced to use the same Diebold Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines that recently failed security testing in California and Florida, there are no problems in Mississippi. It probably has to do with an upcoming primary election next Tuesday. What a tangled web we weave...

Matt Blaze, the leader of the California Source Code Team that looked at Sequoia code, had this to say about the results from inspection of all three vendors' code:

Those stories, and boatloads of more voting news today, as the avalanche of e-voting failures continue, are all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today has been another busy day in the news. Building on top of the California reports from Friday and Monday and the Florida report on Tuesday we now have an important report from the Brennan Center just released today. This new report discusses audits and why they are needed and points out that states are not doing enough to ensure their vote count is accurate. On top of all of this one county in Utah has decided to buck the trend in that state and they are returning to hand-marked paper ballots and optical scan machines this November. Also in a town election in one small South Carolina town, 149 voters voted on the town’s provided ES&S iVotronic machines. The election was to select a person to sit on the city council. The machine broke down once during the day and 15 voters had to use paper ballots. The 149 votes could not be retrieved from the machine until the next day due to a problem with passwords. It is not good to use a DRE for any election but for an election with only one race and a small expected turnout it is insane. What are these people thinking?...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Sen. Diane Feinstein has announced a hearing in the Senate Rules Committee to be held in September. In her press release she says:

If she really feels states and counties should consider a move to optical scan then why not say so in her legislation instead of doing all she can to protect Direct Recording Electronic machines? It’s time to step up and match the rhetoric with action, Senator.

Today is a big news day with big stories breaking nationally. King Co. Washington’s county commission decided to take the voters advice and not use tax-payers money to purchase an untested, uncertified high-speed optical scan system from Diebold. Florida State University has released a new study that discusses problems with the Diebold optical-scans used in the state. We are still trying to get that report. Plus the heat is being turned-up in congress.

All of those stories and many more today, all exhaustively linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As expected today’s news is mostly from California in response to the “Top-To-Bottom” Review. In their response to the California “Top-To-Bottom Review” Sequoia had this to say about accessibility:

The fact that they can say their machines comply with all requirements is amazing. The Sequoia Edge I and II tested in California has a toe-to-knee distance of 26.5 inches. The 2002 VVSG require 30 inches minimum. We can’t expect either of the other two vendors to be any more factual in their defense of their systems.

Links to Sequoia's excuses, and a great deal of coverage of California's landmark reports and other voting news from around the country, is all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Naturally nearly all of the news is from California in regards to their “Top-To-Bottom” review. However for those of you who are concerned about election audits there is also a great report from a group who have been working with VerifiedVoting.

Also reported is that scientists, under the GAO, may get a chance to look at the source code from the machines used in Sarasota Co last Nov.

Back to the “Top-To-Bottom” review; only one of the articles listed, the SF Chronicle article, mentions anything about the accessibility report that was also done by the California researchers, and they gave that report one sentence. The accessibility report says, “Although each of the tested voting systems included some accessibility accommodations, none met the accessibility requirements of current law and none performed satisfactorily in test voting by persons with a range of disabilities and alternate language needs.” In other words if a jurisdiction uses any of the three machines tested for accessibility they are violating federal law (HAVA).

All of those stories, and more, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today I had to write two ledes for DVN. The California “Top-To-Bottom” Review reports were supposed to be released at Noon Pac. It got to be 3PM Pac. and everyone was still waiting for the reports to be released. Note: The California reports came out too late for any comments here.

So without those reports to discuss let me talk about four reports from New York that have national implications. There are presently two reports hosted at VotersUnite that discuss how the voting machine vendors who are trying to do business in New York state are not fit to do business according to state law. The other two reports discuss the cost of actually holding elections on optical-scan machines and with paper ballots. It does not have to be expensive and is certainly cheaper in the long-run when compared to using Direct Recording Electronic voting machines. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Tomorrow is a big day for the state of California and the rest of the nation. The Secretary of State will be releasing the reports from their “Top-To-Bottom Review” of voting systems used in the state. These reports will give the results of the code review, “red team” hack test, document review, and accessibility review. On Monday morning the Secretary of State will give the “Teams” an opportunity to officially present their reports and the vendors a chance to comment. The public will then be given an opportunity to speak their piece. One week later the Secretary will announce her decisions with respect to any actions to be taken. Her options appear to be to decertify the systems, decertify the systems and recertify them with new requirements for use, or do nothing....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It appears that the Senate will go the way of the House and move any requirement for a voter verified paper audit trail to at least 2010. Reports on testimony given to the Senate Rules Committee today are that there was a lot of “kissing a**” and hand wringing.

Election officials in Montgomery Co., Ohio, had a grand idea. They decided to solve their problem recruiting poll workers by allowing companies and groups to wear their logos on shirts while they work the polls. For example, “Mom and Pop’s” burgers could man a poll site and the poll workers could all wear their uniforms while they helped voters. This was a bad idea made worse when people began to complain that one of the groups who would be manning the polls would be wearing their “Dayton Right To Life” T-shirts and, according to the head of the group, “We will be there to answer life questions.” This came up originally in a story from Utah. This is a bad idea that needs to stop. We can do something about it by getting involved and volunteering to work on elections on election day.

Links to those stories, and the other notable voting news items today, all below...