Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Some things stay the same and some things change. It keeps things interesting. The Associated Press is reporting the following from Cuyahoga Co., Ohio; “Vote totals couldn't be pulled from memory cards of some electronic voting machines used in a special election, forcing poll workers to transport the machines to Cuyahoga County's election headquarters for results to be counted.” This happened the day that the county’s election director, Michael Vu, was resigning under duress. The failed memory cards have failed before. No one has yet got a clue that they need to change the way they are holding elections and the first step should be to get rid of the Diebold TSx machines. // Meanwhile in Sarasota Co, Florida the county Supervisor of Elections and constant proponent of paper-less voting, Kathy Dent, is pushing to get rid of her failed ES&S iVotronic DREs so she can get the optical-scan system that the voters demanded. My how people suddenly change their tunes when the voters speak loudly in an election. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

As related by John Bonifaz of Demos and the National Voting Rights Institute, in a blog on BradBlog.Com, “[Yesterday], Congressman Rush Holt introduced H.R. 811, a bill trumpeted as requiring 'a voter-verified permanent paper ballot.' But before we all jump on this train as the new guarantee that our votes will be properly counted in future elections, we ought to beware of the warning flag. A paper trail from DRE (Direct Recording Electronic, usually touch-screen) machines cannot protect the integrity of our elections.” And “the Holt bill tries to say it is requiring a paper ballot even for DREs, but, in the end, a DRE 'paper ballot' is nothing more than a paper trail, which requires voters to verify their votes after they have cast them in the DRE machines. Studies show that most voters will not spend the time to verify their votes after casting them into DRE machines. Thus, the 'voter-verified paper ballot' is a fiction when it comes to DREs.”

In the wake of the resignation of Cuyahoga Co Ohio’s election director is the news that memory cards used in local elections in the county failed again.

Officials in California and Idaho are calling for legislation to allow counties to use the Oregon Vote-By-Mail plan....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today has been a huge news day. Two bills were filed in Congress; one that we support (HR-756) and one that we don’t. HR-811 (the new HR-550) was filed, with 168 co-sponsors, and became the new Holt Bill. Newspapers began writing editorials and voicing their opinions before any of them could have read the bill. Many groups tripped over themselves in a race to endorse the bill; some without ever having read its contents. One group began, two weeks ago, asking their members to begin making calls to support the bill which was then changed more than once in the ensuing period. VotersUnite will not support this legislation because of its allowance for the continued use of DREs and its corruption of “paper ballot.” At this time, we will also not work against those groups who wish to support the bill. Instead we will stand neutral and report the facts, and an occasional opinion, as we have always done. // It appears that beleaguered Cuyahoga Co. Ohio elections boss, Michael Vu, is to be removed from his job. // Also being reported from Ohio is that the new SOS has asked the state auditor to do a complete audit of the SOS office over the past two years. Blackwell seems to have left a mess and a few problems....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

According to an ‘Opinion’ in the New York Times today, “Governor Crist is asking the Legislature to finance the purchase of new optical-scan machines, and it is expected to agree. Choosing optical scans is Governor Crist’s second good move. In optical-scan voting, voters mark a paper ballot that is then read by a computer. Polling place lines are shorter, because many voters can fill out ballots at the same time. These paper ballots are the official ballots, and can be recounted by hand to resolve a dispute. More than half the states — including large ones like California, New York, Illinois and Ohio — require computerized voting machines to produce a paper record. The addition of Florida would be a major defeat for election officials and voting-machine companies that have stubbornly opposed paper-trail requirements.”...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

ABC News reports this quote: "This is the wave of the future, that states are looking to scrap their electronic touch screens and move to some other system that has a paper trail," said Michael McDonald of the Brookings Institute. "It's not always good to get ahead of ourselves," he said. "The best way of doing elections is just the old-fashioned way, by paper." To which I say: “This wave is the result of the unprecedented work of thousands of Election Integrity activists around the country. Aided by the Internet and new means of communication the Election Integrity community has grown and its voice is being heard. The fight is not over but we have them on the run." // U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) announced that the U.S. Senate Rules and Administration Committee has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, February 7 on "The Hazards of Electronic Voting – Focus on the Machinery of Democracy." The hearing will focus on concerns related to the security and auditability of voting systems used in federal elections, with an emphasis on reported problems in the 2006 federal elections....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

According to an article in Hometown Annapolis; “Addressing the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee yesterday, state Elections Administrator Linda Lamone conceded that a paper voting record will be a part of future Maryland elections, although she still believes in the integrity of the state's current system. "After meeting with you and other policy-makers over the past several days, it is clear that there is a consensus to take the next step towards a voter verifiable voting system," Ms. Lamone said. "As we move forward, I want to work with you to ensure that we do not lose the advantages that we have gained - a secure, accurate and reliable system - or make mistakes that will undermine the rights of voters with disabilities or diminish usability."” Lamone will continue to ‘jibber-jabber’ about her paperless Diebold machines until they pry them from her control....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

According to a BradBlog article [see below] by Michael Richardson, “CIBER, Inc., the nation’s largest so-called “independent test authority” (ITA) of electronic voting machines is at the center of a growing scandal about lax testing of voting equipment. The recent release of a long-kept secret assessment of the company by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) detailing a shocking record of sloppy, incomplete or non-existent testing by CIBER led the test lab’s CEO, Mac Slingerlend, to call the report “old news” in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News. While CIBER’s shortcomings may be “old news” to Slingerlend, unaware election officials around the nation are angered at not being informed by the EAC prior to the November 2006 elections when voting machine models “tested” by CIBER were used by 68.5% of the registered voters in the country.” // The big story continues to be the total change of opinion in Florida where the Republican Governor has joined with a vocal Democratic Congressman (Wexler) to recommend the state change to optical-scan voting by 2008. They are now being joined by the Speaker of the State House of Representatives and some DRE county election officials. // “The price of freedom is not cheap. The importance of a democratic system of voting that we can trust, that we can have confidence is, is incredibly important.” Florida Gov. Charley Crist....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The news today was overwhelmed by the announcement that Florida’s Governor has said he will recommend replacing all of the state’s Direct Recording Electronic voting machines with optical-scan machines. According to the Miami Herald [see below] Gov. Charlie Crist will recommend on Thursday that Florida's problem-plagued touchscreen voting machines should go the way of the butterfly ballot --- the trash heap --- and his proposed budget will recommend replacing them all with optical scan machines, which produce a paper trail, at a cost of up to $35 million....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today the Atlanta Journal Constitution [see below] reported, “Some key components of one of Georgia's most sacred institutions — that had been discovered in discarded office furniture — were recently auctioned on eBay. About 40 voter access cards and three electronic ballot encoders belonging to DeKalb County were purchased earlier this month on the auction Web site, according to Secretary of State Karen Handel. Another seven supervisor's cards, used to activate the encoders, also were up for bid.” // The revolving door is in effect in Williamson Co. Texas where an ex-Hart Intercivic and Sequoia employee has just been named to be their county elections chief. // According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel [see below] the new Florida Gov. Crist will recommend that DRE voting systems be replaced by optical-scan voting systems throughout the state....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Michael Richardson, in an article posted to The BRAD BLOG, writes, “Hours after reports last week on threatened subpoenas against the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and its banned voting machine test laboratory, CIBER, Inc., by the New York State Board of Elections, the company supplied information concerning its lack of accreditation to New York officials. Enraged NY State Election Commissioner Doug Kellner called the secret reports “soiled laundry” that both the company and EAC had been trying to hide. Friday, the EAC reacted to the disclosure by CIBER of confidential EAC documents by releasing the assessment reports upon which last summer’s decision for non-accreditation of CIBER was based. The documents, kept secret by the EAC for half a year, reveal a shocking level of incompetence and negligence by the “independent testing authority” (ITA) lab which tested electronic voting machines used by 68.5% of the registered voters in the November 2006 election.”...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The Election Assistance Commission and Commissioner Paul DeGregorio make every attempt to convince the voter that 98% of them had confidence in the last election, even pointing to a fictitious exit poll as evidence. The Fort Worth Star Telegram [see below] correctly reports, “After a year in which voters across the state expressed a lack of confidence in election returns, several lawmakers are pushing measures including a backup system for electronic voting machines, last-minute registration and required proof of citizenship.”...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

According to an article in the Albany [NY] Times Union, Ciber has decided to give to the NY State Board of Elections, under the threat of subpoena, paperwork that shows why they were denied interim accreditation by the EAC. Even as the EAC obfuscates and stonewalls all efforts to get this paperwork, Ciber turned it over to officials yesterday. According to the article the paperwork shows that Ciber was understaffed and failed to correctly document its testing. What is the EAC hiding? Is it that both Executive Director Wilkey and Commissioner Davidson served together on the same National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) board that had previously certified Ciber’s work? A board that had an “ex-officio” member, Shawn Southworth, who is the only Ciber staff? // Then today the EAC, having been shown-up by Ciber, posted all of their documents on their website. The documents include a letter from the EAC to Ciber, dated today, that clearly chides Ciber for providing the documents to New York. The documents can all be found here...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

According to “End The Veil Of Secrecy” “At the New York State Board of Elections meeting on January 23, 2007 Commissioners Kellner and Aquila came out strongly for issuing a subpoena to the EAC and Ciber to force them to give up any information and paper work they have related to Ciber's failure to be accredited. This has resulted from Ciber and the EAC's refusal thus far to offer any information to the State of New York about the problems reported by the New York Times. As I've reported earlier, the State Board had told Ciber earlier this month to officially halt New York's certification testing until the situation is clarified.” // CNetNews.com confirms yesterday’s revelation about the Diebold key, “In a telephone interview, Diebold spokesman Mark Radke said the photograph had been removed because of the blogosphere buzz. He acknowledged that a single key can unlock every voting machine within a particular Diebold model but defended the decision.”...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The collusion on the part of some national elections officials is beginning to come to light due to the hard work of some researchers like Michael Richardson who reports [see below] “Election Assistance Commission Executive Director Thomas Wilkey moved to the EAC after serving on the National Association of State Election Directors Voting System Board, which he chaired. Wilkey's current boss at the EAC is Donetta Davidson, Chair of the federal commission. Davidson is a former president of NASED and served with Wilkey on the Voting System Board, which was tasked with certifying "independent testing authorities" to perform tests on electronic voting machines used throughout America.” Richardson also mentions that an “ex officio” member of that board was Shawn Southworth, the voting systems tester for Ciber labs. // According to an article in TheHill [see below] “A new academic study of voting in Florida’s 13th district congressional race refutes the prevailing opinion of experts that the large undervote in the race in November was likely due to poor ballot design. The new study points to an error message that the experts say correlates with the undervotes, as well as to voting patterns that show unusually high undervote rates for Democratic voters. The study’s authors say more information, specifically the secret software used by the voting machines, is required to draw any real conclusions.” // Today was also a big news day. Two election workers in Ohio were found guilty of misdeeds during the 2004 presidential recount and Virginia has taken one step closer to ridding themselves of DRE voting machines....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

According to a Michael Richardson article posted at OpEdNews [see below]; “Although the public was not informed by the Election Assistance Commission about its decision to not issue interim accreditation to Ciber, Inc., one of the nation's three previously certified test laboratories for electronic voting machines, the company executives were very aware they had lost a hold on the lucrative testing business. While unknowing election officials around America continued to incorrectly claim their voting machines were properly tested and certified in the months leading up to the November 2006 elections several Ciber honchos quietly began a stock sell-off. // And according to a newspaper in St. Louis [see below], an Illinois state representative has filed a bill that calls for the state of Illinois to study the idea of using Internet voting as early as 2010....