Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Today, amongst the reports of failures in elections across the country, there was good news from Wisconsin where their Assembly voted nearly unanimously for a vvpat. One newspaper in New Jersey reported that Sequoia Voting still had to verify the election before it could be certified. Have they really turned over their elections administration to a private company? And, election poll printouts have reportedly been found in the weeds outside a gas station in Lucas Co., OH. Is this a sign of a problem? Something illegal? Just a human error?…
AR: Washington County – Election Commission will test ballot equipment before choosing
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CT: Electronic voting machines are on the way
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CT: Voting machines to be tested. Southbury voters to help decide on electronic ballots
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IA: Muscatine County – Root will ask for a recount
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MO: St. Louis County – Voting system bids are in, but price is tough to decipher
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MO: Greene County – Thank inept voters, yahoos in Congress for needless expense
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NJ: Hudson County – All of Tuesday’s votes still not counted (Sequoia)
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NJ: Morris County – Poll workers in Dover may be voted out
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NJ: “Representatives from Sequoia Voting Systems, the electronic voting system company, will verify the results later this week. The final tally will be made official Monday.”
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NY: Board of Elections is a rusty machine
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OH: Election Poll Printouts Found at Gas Station
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OH: Judge removed from lawsuit over deadline to pick voting machines
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OH: County officials embarrassed by slow count
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OH: Montgomery County – Poll workers share ballot box woes
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OH: Montgomery County – Carlisle levy vote may have to go to a judge (77 Phantom votes)
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OH: Machine problems slow down vote count (Diebold, which made the machines, and Dayton Legal Blank, which supplied the ballots, accepted blame for the delays.)
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OH: State to study late vote counts
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OH: Medina County – Touch screens’ electoral debut in Medina not without glitches
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OH: Ohio’s Election Problems Not Limited to Lucas County
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OH: Lucas County – Vote board defends its slow count
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OH: Lucas County – Board Of Election To Be Investigated
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OH: Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005’s referenda defeats?
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PA: York County – Dover school board candidate contesting election
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PA: Cumberland County – DJ race still up in the air (ES&S Programming Error)
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SC: Georgetown County – Ballots didn’t allow straight party vote (ES&S Failure)
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SC: Georgetown County – Voting machines draw Georgetown protests
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VA: Pasquotank County – Count on recount in E. City mayor’s race (Excess undervotes)
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VA: Roanoke County – Digital voting undermines democracy
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WI: Assembly OKs voting paper trail
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**”Daily Voting News” is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in “Daily Voting News” may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or BradBlog.Com**
The voting thing, interestingly enough, seems to be following the same pattern as the torture story.
I mean the vice president’s office has been actively lobbying for torture.
They won’t admit it but they demand that McCain’s "torture is illegal" addendum to the bills be removed.
They want the option of torture when under american law, torture is not an option.
The bulk of political sentiment is against Cheney on this. Witness the 90-9 vote on the issue.
I think non-verifiable voting machines are in the same category.
Cheney types like Feeney and Delay want low-quality easily hackable, and unverifiable vote machines used.
But the sane people want fair and verifiable election records, just as sane people do not want torture used.
I have not heard of any voting problems in the area of San Francisco that voted to discourage the use of military recruiters at local high schools there.
Bill O’Reilly has nullified all that, however, because he feels that al-Qaida should be allowed to bomb those voting precints (link here).
Uh … this gives new meaning to "voting problems".
Fitrakis and Wasserman have an essay at freepress.org that must be read. The various ballot initiatives that were defeated in Ohio (by large margins) were either favored to be approved in pre-election polls or considered a toss-up.
The differences between the polls and the recorded vote are so wide as to be impossible. The obvious conclusion drawn by Fitrakis and Wasserman is that the new electronic machines used to count the votes were hacked in the Republicans’ favor.
Surprise, surprise. Other states are banning these machines, yet Ohio uses them to defeat measures that, among other reforms, would lead to cleaner elections. Also "defeated" was a proposal to remove districting questions from the political process…an idea that had only merit on its side.
Ohio residents, this is a great idea from a friend in CA.
Encourage everyone you can to vote absentee. You must submit an application to request an absentee ballot. (In OH one of the amendments that was "soundly defeated" would have made absentee voting easier…)
As a form of protest we should refuse to vote on DIEBOLD touchscreens.
The process for requesting and obtaining an absentee ballot is HERE.
Please pass this on to any Blue Ohioans!