Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In written testimony presented to the US House Information Policy, Census, and National Archives Subcommittee, Government Accountability Office representative Randolph Hite said in part:

That story, and many other voting related stories from today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Associated Press reports:

That voting news story, and many others from today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a "Wired News" article today, Kim Zetter reports in part:

As ever, links to that story, and today's other notable voting news, all below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As reported by BRAD BLOG:

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

What is it about elections administration that the names never change, just their jobs? Tom Wilkey moved from the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to the Election Assistance Commission. Donetta Davidson was on NASED panels and now she is Chair of the EAC. Brit Williams and Steve Freeman were both working for Wilkey at NASED and are now consultants for the EAC. And then there is Michael Vu who was under fire and a complete failure as an election administrator in Cuyahoga Co., OH. He finally resigned before he got fired and now he is the assistant registrar in San Diego Co., CA with a $10,000 a year raise. And these people all talk about voter confidence. We are supposed to have confidence in them? The EAC? Michael Vu? I don't see how....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A press release from the office of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) begins:

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Yesterday the New York Times reported:

Why is it that the main-stream media can report this yet the supposedly bi-partisan Election Assistance Commission refuses to release a report that says the same thing?

Also late yesterday San Diego Co, CA announced that they had hired Michael Vu to be their assistant registrar of voters. Vu resigned under fire from his last job as the election director of Cuyahoga Co, OH where two of his employees were convicted of election fraud for pre-counting precincts in a scheme to cherry-pick precincts to be recounted with no problems. Vu still refuses to believe that the employees did anything wrong. Perhaps Michael Brown will be San Diego county's next emergency preparedness director?

And today voters in Pennsylvania won a suit brought by the state who attempted to stop a suit brought by 26 voters. The original suit challenges the use of electronic voting machines "that provide no way for Electors to know whether their votes will be recognized" through voter verification or independent audit.

Those voting news stories, and many others on a busy day, all lined below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Election Assistance Commission has again taken deserved flack for hiding commissioned reports that do not meet the political aims of some. Instead the commission has released versions of the reports that more closely represent those aims. The New York Times reports:

Meanwhile Congressman Hinchey (D-NY) has said:

Those stories, and many many more today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Yesterday the Maryland legislature voted unanimously to ban the use of paperless voting machines by 2010. The legislation requires an optically scannable paper ballot marked by hand or with the help of a ballot marking device. This news leaves one questioning the demise of MD's State Board of Elections head Linda Lamone who has sworn that the state would go to paper "over my dead body."

"Newer isn't always better. The Harrison County [Mississippi] Board of Supervisors has decided the new touch screen voting system isn't worth the hassle, the expense, or the nightmare it would create in a contested election. The board voted Monday to revert back to scanning machines on the recommendation of Circuit Clerk Gayle Parker. There are several reasons why Parker is no fan of the touch screen system. She says she'd rather stick to what works well than sit on the cutting edge of technology under a flawed system." Among those reasons are that the Diebold TSx DREs are not "user friendly" and the system is "a headache."

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In his article, "Electric Boogaloo", Art Levine begins:

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

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A few years ago the government of Ireland purchased Liberty voting machines, the same machines that are being marketed, unsuccessfully so far, in New York and other eastern states. After receiving the machines from the vendor Irish computer scientists found that http://www.belfasttelegr...ics/article2430307.ece\">the machines were not secure. Unlike in the US where we continue to use DREs that are insecure, the Irish government put the machines into warehouses. So far the Irish tax-payer has spent 51 million euros for this scheme. Some local jurisdictions have purchased leases of up to 25 years for storage of machines and now the government wants to bring all of the machines in the country together into an unused aerodrome for storage. This means buying out leases and no one knows yet how much all of this is going to cost.

That voting news story, and other notable ones today, all linked below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Voters of the United States have certain rights as American citizens. Among those rights is the right to vote for people who represent us in the local, state or federal government and to have our vote counted as we cast it. We also have the right to have our vote cast in secret. Presently our rights are in danger due to HAVA and its promoting the use of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines which are not accurate and may not maintain the secrecy of our vote. HR-811 does nothing to safeguard our rights, in fact it helps to remove those rights by allowing the further use of DRE voting machines. Some in the Election Integrity community speak about compromises that would allow the continued use of DREs but with some restrictions. Any compromise of a right is a violation of that right. (With a tip of the hat to Paul Lehto)...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today's top news item, in my mind anyway, is a column written by Bob Koehler who is an editor for Tribune Media Services and is a friend and fellow Election Integrity activist. Today Bob wrote an article about another friend and activist who many of you know, Bernie Ellis. Bernie was one of the movers and shakers in the EI movement in Tennessee and one of the organizers of the "Gathering To Save Our Democracy" in Nashville in 2004. I hope you read and enjoy Bob's article and that it moves you to help Bernie. Thank you.

In other news the Virginia House of Delegates rejected a proposed amendment from the Governor to a bill that would require a phase-out of DRE voting machines and replacement by optical-scan machines. The Governor wanted the legislation to not take effect until July, 2008. If Virginia can vote to ban DREs why is Congress dragging their feet?

Those, and links to other worthy voting news stories, follow...

As recently as October of 2004, the first voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) printer was qualified for use on Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines used in this country. These printers came about due to the insistence of the voters that there be a means of auditing elections. However, even in that short time, we have found that the printers often do not work as we expected them to. The printers have proven to be a placebo rather than a reliable tool. In fact the printers fail as often as the DREs they are mounted on and because of those failures they cannot be relied upon to produce ballot printouts to be used for audits.

It is clear that VVPAT printers don't serve their purpose. Why were there problems in Cuyahoga Co.? Why didn't the voters notice that their votes were not being recorded on the VVPAT's? That's the problem. Voters tend not to look at the VVPAT tapes for a number of reasons. A new, improved VVPAT printer will be no different and if the voter doesn't verify the paper audit trail the paper audit trail may be worthless. The answer is to use only voter marked paper ballots and ban the use of electronically marked electronic ballots that unverifiable because no one can review internal data inside a computer.

Note: There are many handy items that you can use to learn more about the danger of DRE voting machines and why they should be banned here: http://www.votersunite.o...11AmendmentResources.asp

Links to many more voting stories from today follow below...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

In a March 30 news release reposted today on VoteTrustUSA, ProjectVote reports:

Just why is the commission that is supposed to be a "clearinghouse" for information about elections only a "clearinghouse" for information that meets their narrow political viewpoint? Why is it that projects that show that voters are disenfranchised by Voter ID laws, or that voter fraud is nearly non-existent, get minimized by the EAC? Is it because the EAC is partisan? It clearly appears that is the case and its time the EAC do what's best for the voters and not for one political view point.

That, and many more voting stories today, linked below...