Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In an AP article we learn:

I've mentioned Senator Gallegos here a couple of times now. Texas law requires that two-thirds of the State Senators must agree before a bill can come to the floor for debate. The Democrats have just enough members to block the bill. The bill now appears to be in trouble because the bill must come to the floor by midnight tonight in order to be considered. Senator Gallegos is a true hero.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT FROM BRAD: The Gallegos story is extraordinary. A must read. I don't have anything substantive to add, but I just wanted to underscore John's thoughts on what a champion this man is. For both Texas and America.

More on that mess in Texas, and many other voting news stories of note today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The media is now beginning to question the hiring of Michael Vu as the second in command of elections in San Diego County. Vu, who quit under fire from his job as the elections director for Cuyahoga Co. Ohio, has a poor record. Under his supervision absentee ballots were never sent to thousands of voters, voters were removed for no reason from the voter registration rolls, the county election budget was taken into the red, and two of his senior assistants were convicted of manipulating the recount of ballots in 2006 and received sentences of 18 months in prison. Vu refuses to speak with the media but the county supports his hiring and says that Vu has acted honorable and professionally.

Links to that story (including video) and other notable voting news stories all below...

RELATED NOTE FROM BRAD: Back in April I wrote an article for ComputerWorld on the Vu situation in San Diego, titled "San Diego Registrar Goes from Worst to Worster to Worstest". Due to a technical problem at CW the story never ran. So I've gone ahead and posted it here, backdated to April 12th (when it was supposed to have run), just for the historical record, if you're interested in my take on it at the time.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

When counties are left to make their own decisions many of them take the right road. Harrison Co. Mississippi is replacing their Diebold TSx DREs with optical-scan machines. Three counties in Iowa have also decided to come together so they can bargain as one with Diebold for optical-scan machines and AutoMark. And when one goes looking for heroes they only need to look at Texas State Sen. Mario Gallegos. Gallegos had a liver transplant earlier this year. The State Senate is deciding whether the voters in the state need to have a Voter ID. The only way to block the legislation is for all of the Democrats to vote alike (they will) and to be available for a vote. Sen. Gallegos had a hospital bed set-up in an office less than a hundred feet from his desk on the floor. The bill has been blocked so far....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

New Jersey is taking a small step toward ensuring the voting machines their citizens use are reliable and work as advertised. The state Attorney General has asked New Jersey Institute of Technology scientists and students to test printing systems that will be required on all voting machines used in the state after next January. Activists have pointed out, correctly, that this new development does not go far enough and they turn to California for proof. California has begun a top to bottom inspection and testing of all voting systems used in the state.

Links to that story, and many more, all follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The arrogance of some election officials is stunning. Voters in Alameda Co California disputed election results from a 2004 initiative. A group of voters asked for all records from the machines. The county denied that request. The group went to court and a Superior Court Judge found in favor of the voters and instructed the county to turn over all information from the election, including information from the voting machines. The county has continued to refuse to turn anything over, to the extent of sending the machines back to Diebold. The county now faces sanctions and fines. Why would they refuse a court order? What does the county have to hide?...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today, like yesterday, the majority of the news is from Pennsylvania. Voting machine problems were scattered and long lines seemed to be prominent in some counties even with a turnout of less than 30%. The excuse for the long lines is being blamed on the large number of write-in candidates but the fact is that election officials just didn't put out enough DREs. In Florida Gov. Crist has announced that he will sign the VVPB bill next Monday. Maryland's Gov. O'Malley signed that state's VVPB bill this morning. And, back in Florida, it is important to note that the reports about the "Slammer" worm are in no way linked to the reports of any security vulnerabilities reported by the FSU team.

The stories mentioned above, and many more, are all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

That story, and many more notable voting related articles today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

According to reporter Ian Hoffman there will be a delay in the California voting machine inspections and tests. Los Angeles County is regarded as a vendor by the state because its voting system is unique and custom-made. The county and several vendors are concerned about the extent of the review that will be accomplished. According to the article the vendors are concerned about the scope of testing on security. Only Sequoia has turned over their system to the state but the rest are sure to follow suit. It would look bad for them if they just walked away from this project and the state....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today has been a slow day which is probably a good thing because there are elections happening in different states around the country. No news means there was nothing reported to the media so everything went smoothly or no reports of failures leaked out.

See below for notable voting news stories which are rolling today...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In his column in the Washington Post columnist David Broder reports on HR-811, its status and opposition from state election officials. Oddly the National Association of Secretaries of State has taken no public position according to Broder. However other national organizations representing state legislators and counties have voiced opposition. Broder also mentions opposition from the American Association of People With Disabilities. Strangely congressional aides discount the opposition from AAPD because they think People for the American Way speaks for the disabled community and PFAW is in full support of the bill. What is especially bothersome about this column is that Broder admitted to needing information from an expert so he turned to Doug Lewis of the Election Center for his biased, vendor influenced opinion. It's too bad that a man who can't see a conflict of interest in allowing vendors to sponsor events at his semi-annual meetings, is the only person a non-expert can turn to for information and not know that information will be biased....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Michael Shamos is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, the Pennsylvania state voting machine examiner, and a proponent of paperless voting systems. He is also the man who offered a reward to anyone who could hack a voting machine. In late April the university held student-body elections but all 1,933 votes are inaccessible because someone, either on purpose or by accident depending on who is being asked, tampered "with the electronic key used to encrypt and decrypt the results." Professor Shamos had this to say, "It doesn't say anything about electronic voting systems in general, except that amateurs shouldn't build them." We agree totally. Amateurs like Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Hart Intercivic, Danaher, Liberty, Dominion, Advanced Voting Solutions, MicroVote, and the rest shouldn't build our voting systems....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

An article in Arstechnica correctly points out that the Lofgren amendment to HR-811:

Even with this change to the bill we are pleased with the way the bill came out of committee. Unfortunately the lack of wording that requires paper ballots for all tallies, recounts and audits keeps us from supporting the bill. Let me be perfectly clear though; we are not anti-HR811. We are, instead, neutral and will continue our fight to ban electronic ballots from US elections.

Ed Note: The above comments represent the position of VotersUnite.org, not necessarily those of The BRAD BLOG.

For more of today's most notable voting news stories, see all the links below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

On the same day that a committee of the House of Representatives met to pass a marked-up HR-811 out to the floor for a full House vote, the voters in Indiana counties went to the polls. Today the reports of the failures began to come in from Allen, Hancock, Lake, Marion, and Morgan counties. Under votes in Hancock, failure of poll workers to show up at the polls in Marion, and other counties with similar problems have led to another failure and disenfranchised voters....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Brian Chess, chief scientist of Fortify Software [United Kingdom] has gone on record as saying:

California SOS Debra Bowen asks and answers [PDF]:

Those stories and more, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today HR-811 was marked-up. We can only guess at what the bill looks like now and we should know before tomorrow's DVN. From what I have heard the bill seems not to have suffered from the mark-up process and amendments. In fact, it may now be better than it was when it was filed. The bill was voted out of conference by a party-line vote of 6-3 and will go to the floor for a vote sometime within the next two weeks.

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