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

This week the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School issued a report that says that millions of voters in seven states may be disenfranchised due to the type of voter registration databases used in those states, including Iowa and Washington. Florida has told Leon County that their backup plan for this year may jeopardize federal compliance and the state may end up suing the county. In Georgia, Secretary of State Cox has been found to have violated the National Voter Registration Act. Summit Co., OH is still having problems with memory cards supplied by ES&S (Is anyone warning ES&S's other customers? Surely not the EAC.). Counties in Pennsylvania who have opted for AVS WINvote may have problems as AVS is telling them they may not be able to meet delivery dates....

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

It's been a very busy day today. Summit Co., Ohio found that 30% of the memory cards in their ES&S optical scan machines have failed. Apparently ES&S has no quality control. Will they tell the rest of the country about these problems? It's probably too late for counties in Texas that have had major failures in their primary last Tuesday. Tarrant Co., TX reported that 100,000 votes were added to the totals on their Hart Intercivic DREs. The solution? Remove 50,000 per candidate and call it good enough. In Pinellas Co., FL voters reported that their votes on Sequoia Edge machines were being swapped to the default candidate. We've heard that one before. Of course, ES&S and Hart are both calling the elections a huge success with only a few human problems....

Texas held their first round of Primary Elections last night since adding new electronic voting equipment to loads of counties around the state. It was one of the first Primary Elections to occur since the Help America Voting Act (HAVA) kicked in this year.

If today's 'Daily Voting News' by John Gideon is any indication, America is in for one hell of a mess this year. Take a look at just a few of the headlines from just the Texas section of today's DVN...and keep in mind that usually the real problems held in 'E-Lections' don't even begin to surface until some time after Election Day...

We have a feeling it's gonna be a very long year...

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

It's been a busy day today. Lot's of news from Texas where they had their statewide primary yesterday and they had some problems; nothing too big though. Many Texas counties gave the voters a choice between voting electronic and voting on paper. It sure looks like a majority of the voters chose paper. And in Florida, Ion Sancho has decided to take action against Diebold in court so he is suing them for breach of contract. Meanwhile TrueVoteMD has released documents that purportedly prove that Diebold has violated state law and failed in elections....

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

Today is election day for state primaries or local elections in Texas, New Mexico, California, Missouri and probably elsewhere. There have been very little reports of problems so far but those will probably come in late tonight and tomorrow. One county in Nevada announced that they cannot afford to buy voting machines for all precincts so one precinct will have to be all-mail in their August primary. Forcing counties to use voting machines is a good idea?...

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

The big news for the day today is that Georgia; the bastion of paperless voting, one of the last of Diebold's paperless frontiers; may actually have a vvpat very soon. The state senate, today, voted 51-0 to require a voter verified paper audit trail. And, Cathy Cox has left her counterpart Linda Lamone, of Maryland, to fend for herself as she has now come out in support of this bill. Speaking of Maryland, Gov. Ehrlich has again spoken out, more clearly this time, against paperless voting. My! My! Will wonders never cease....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The February 28 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

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

The state of Florida has decided that just maybe they need to do something about security and the Diebold machines. They issued a technical advisory that tends to vindicate Ion Sancho. In New York advocacy groups, individuals and civil rights groups have filed to intervene in the DoJ suit against the state. And it appears that Burlington, Vermont will be the first US city to elect it's mayor using "instant run-off voting"....

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

Many of us worked long and hard with folks in Mississippi to keep out the Diebold TSx machines their SoS was pushing on them. One of our cautions was that cash-strapped counties would end up having to buy more machines in order to have enough. That concern is being borne out in counties across the state. Humboldt Co., California gets a look at the Vote-PAD and likes what they saw. In Iowa there is talk that Gov. Vilsack may take a cue from New Mexico Gov. Richardson and push for a paper ballot....

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

Today's news emphasis has moved from California to New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. The news about the DoJ suing New York was expected and now it's here. The DoJ seems to want chaos in elections and they may get it. In Pennsylvania the state 'supremes' have decided that state law can be followed or ignored when it suits officials and they have allowed counties to go ahead and change voting systems. In Florida a bill has been introduced to require a voter verified paper ballot. And in Maryland it seems that the Governor is not convinced that the Diebold code question has been answered satisfactorily and he is concerned. Meanwhile there are protesters in California and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signs the paper ballot bill into law....

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

Today the hammer finally fell on New York as the DoJ did as they have been promising and filed a suit against the state for voting rights failures. Meanwhile in Pennsylvania the "Kuznick Suit" is being heard by the State Supreme Court. New Mexico Governor Richardson has sent a letter to officials in all 50 states to ask them to support an all paper-based voting system. And, finally, California got the Ciber ITA report from Diebold. It did not address the fact that 'interpreted' code is banned by the voting systems guidelines so, again, the ITA only did the bare essentials and did not do their job to ensure our voting systems meet all of the guidelines. ...

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

Vote-PAD has been accepted for use in Wisconsin after the state got a favorable opinion from the DoJ. California is now looking into contingency plans so they are not caught "with their pants down" if the Diebold interpreted code decision goes against the vendor. (Note: I have been told no decision has been made yet by the ITAs and EAC) The new Hart Intercivic was proven to have 'bugs' in testing in Illinois. New lawsuits are being added to the list in Pennsylvania and support for these lawsuits is growing. Action Alerts are being pointed toward legislation in NM, VA and WA. ...

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

The news has been full of ES&S having problems delivering optical-scan machines and now Diebold seems to have a problem delivering promised DREs to customers in Ohio. For the third time, the New York Times has editorialized in favor of optical-scan voting. In Alaska Diebold is doing all they can to cover-up the failures of their machines in 2004 by not allowing the state to release some files. Maryland's SoS is finally showing 'great concern' about the Diebold machines she has been touting for years....

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

After making claims for over 6 months that CT state law requires a voting system that will handle a full-face ballot the Secretary of State is now surprised that there is no such law. ES&S backed out of promises made to Leon Co., FL as they pull the rug out from under the counties plans to replace their present Diebold system. Vermont has now finalized plans to use their telephone voting system for disabled voters. Citizens have generated more than 15,000 emails and over 2,000 letters from concerned citizens across the country. VoteTrustUSA has been told by the EAC that NASED will release a report by the end of the month responding to the issues that we and others have raised about interpreted code in voting systems. We look forward to reading the report....

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

While a dozen Northern California counties consider going vote-by-mail in order to get themselves out of the 'voting machines morass' Riverside Co. decides to pay over $6M to upgrade their present Sequoia voting machines to newer machines. These 'newer' machines are federally qualified to 1990 standards and do not meet HAVA mandates for accessibility. Those of you who have responded to the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA have sent 15,097 emails to the EAC along with 1870 letters demanding the ITA be made to do their job....