Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In testimony presented today to a House subcommittee, computer scientist and voting system expert David Wagner said, in part:

Links to that, and many more related stories today, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There are elections in many jurisdictions around the country this week so we will be keeping our eye on the media for any reports of problems.

A report on the recent French e-voting catastrophe opines:

... And follows-up with this:

That, and links to other notable Voting News stories --- including problems in Scotland as well --- all follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Voters in Randolph Co Indiana are being asked to vote on a system made by now defunct Voting Technologies International; the same system that has failed in the last two elections and that failed in pre-election day set-up. Meanwhile an election this week in Scotland has been a disaster. High-speed ballot scanners failed, hundreds of thousands of ballots were spoiled, and postal ballot delays all added up to one huge mess. Also a new judge’s ruling in Alameda Co, more from Florida and a fun deposition taken from Linda Lamone in Maryland....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The headlines from Florida say it all today. The Miami Herald said, “Lawmakers ditch touch-screen machines” while the Sun-Sentinel said, “Bill to replace touch-screen voting with optical scanner sent to Gov. Crist.” In a press release, the Florida Voters Coalition said in part, “In a historic vote, the Florida House today unanimously passed CS/HB 537, already passed in the Senate that provides almost all voters paper ballots in time for the 2008 Presidential election, and bans paperless DREs outright by 2012. The bill now goes to the Governor where he’s sure to sign it since it’s his initiative.” Also, the EAC gave the state permission to use their HAVA funds to make the switch-over. And still in Florida, a House committee has now asked the GAO to investigate the District 13 debacle and report back to them....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

While the voters in Florida have received good news from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) which has told them they can spend HAVA funds for new optical-scan machines to replace their DRE machines, all is not golden. The interplay with the EAC has revealed that the state only reimbursed the counties with 20% of the funds they had coming when they bought new voting systems. Where did the rest of the money go and why are the counties still making payments for something that should have been paid for? Also, the state House of Representatives has taken the just passed Senate bill that would have given the voters optical-scan systems and they have begun a ‘slice and dice’ job on the bill. The House just needs to pass the Senate bill and fund the change and not play political games that will only harm the voters, again. Meanwhile a committee in the US House of Representatives has voted on party lines to investigate the FL-13 congressional election and what happened to 18,000 votes.

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today finds a mixed-bag of articles but nothing earth shattering.

See today's notable stories as linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Tune in to Voice of the Voters this Wednesday, May 2 at 8PM EDT (5PM PDT) to listen to an hour devoted to three American heroes - whistleblowers, who, based on their experiences on the ground, will paint a comprehensive picture of electronic voting in America, the deceptive practices of corporations, the often misguided relationships between election officials and electronic voting machine vendors, the various system inadequacies and how the voice of the citizen is left out of the elections process. Go here to find out how to hear Ion Sancho, Bruce Funk and Stephen Heller live this Wed.

That, and more on the voting news front today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The state of Texas has taken action to close the elections office in Waller County. The state will be providing monitors who will be closely watching the election process in the county. This as a result of numerous complaints from citizens of the county, including students of Prairie View A&M University, who were disenfranchised last November. Meanwhile yesterday the Florida state Senate passed a bill that may finally give the voters a paper ballot and end the use of DREs.

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Yesterday we provided a link to an opinion piece by Dr. David Dill of Stanford University and Verified Voting. Dr. Dill gave his opinion on why he supports HR-811. Today I have provided you a link to Dr. Dill’s article as posted to OpEdNews and a counter opinion from Nancy Tobi of Democracy for New Hampshire. Read them both and make up your own mind.

And for links to many of the other notable voting news stories today, see below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a statement today, Tova Wang of the Century Foundation says in part:

Links to that story, and other notable voting news today, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

While legislation that would essentially do away with DRE touch-screen voting in Florida in favor of optical scan voting, sailed through the House without problem a Senate bill has been amended 14 times with amendments that try to help some legislator’s agenda to make it harder for people to vote. Added to the bill were unheard amendments that would limit the ability of groups to register voters and that would prohibit unions from political activity. Support for the legislation was immediately withdrawn by the Democratic party, League of Women Voters, ACLU, AFL-CIO and many others. So why this change? Is it an act to put in a poison pill to kill the bill or is it a hope that there is enough strength in the bill that it can carry these restrictive, disenfranchising amendments?

That voting news story, and many more, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

According to an article in USA Today this morning:

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In an article on the EAC, Congressional Quarterly had this to say:

And the National Journal reports:

Links to those stories, and more, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Pensacola [FL] News-Journal begins an editorial this way:

That, and links to other notable voting news stories from over the weekend, linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It is amazing that different media sources can read a report (or not read it) and report on it and those reports are totally different. The recently released Cuyahoga County, Ohio report told that vote-memory card totals failed to match electronic voting machine ballot tallies in more than one quarter of the samples checked. The report also found that hundreds of votes were lost, that others were recorded twice and that software used to count the ballots was vulnerable to data problems. The New York Times reported the problems. Meanwhile the local Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the audit is good news for touch screen and that the audit showed that a tally matched the official record. It makes one question who read what in the report....