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….
NAtional: Professor tells lawmakers paper print-out of votes needed LINK
CA: San Benito County – Electronic Voting Comes to SBC LINK
CA: San Francisco County – Talks fail over voting machines. City lacks contract with Oakland firm for June primary (Sequoia) LINK
CA: San Francisco County – San Francisco Stays All Paper LINK
CA: Diebold’s Revenge LINK
CO: Editorial – Vote machines on quick ship LINK
CO: Boulder County – Should Sunshine rule? LINK
CO: Chaffee County – Commissioners approve buying new vote machines LINK
FL: No conspiarcy needed to support paper trail LINK
FL: Alachua County – Mastrodicasa, Henry win seats (Problems reported with Diebold and modems) LINK
FL: Leon County � Legal Proceedings Launched Against Diebold In Florida! LINK
FL: Leon County – Ion Sancho Fights Back LINK
FL: Leon County – Thank you, Ion Sancho, guardian of voting integrity LINK
FL: Leon County – Sancho having trouble buying machines LINK
GA: Opinion – Paper voting trail a good proposal LINK
IN: St Joseph County – Polling place decision due today LINK
MD: TrueVoteMD Releases Documents Detailing Diebold Failures, Violations of State Law LINK
MD: Opinion – Our say: Voting switch likelier to cause problems than avoid them LINK
NY: Vote machine fiasco ripped LINK
NY: Cayuga County – County looking for more space LINK
NY: Ulster County – The future of voting LINK
PA: Centre County – County picks machines for May vote. Optical scan or touch-screen systems approved to be leased (ES&S) LINK
PA: Northampton County – Northampton voters challenge machine purchase (AVS WINvote) LINK
PA: Westmoreland County – Officials prepare for primary (ES&S iVotronic) LINK
TX: Most voters give the system a thumbs up (It’s apparent that where voters are given a choice between e-voting and paper they go to the paper) LINK
TX: Galveston County – New voting system, same problems (Hart eSlate and eScan) LINK
TX: Jefferson County – Voting woes mar debut of electronic ballots (ES&S iVotronic) LINK
TX: Jefferson County – Confusion mars new voting process LINK
TX: Potter and Randall Counties – Electronic voting goes smoothly – not tallying (Potter � ES&S iVotronic Randall � Hart eSlate) LINK
TX: Robertson County – Robertson County vote tallies delayed (ES&S AutoMark) LINK
TX: Tom Green County – Computer problems delay election returns (Hart eScan) LINK
TX: Tom Green County – Election official: Paper ballots will stay despite delays LINK
TX: Webb County – Cuellar defeats Rodriguez in congressional grudge match (Counting problems � ES&S) LINK
TX: Webb and Bexar County – ‘Glitches’ get blame in Webb (ES&S) LINK
TX: Willacy County – Tracking the primary elections (The county claims the new touch screens are a huge hit but only 30% of the voters are choosing to use them) LINK
**”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**
John, I have been wondering why election officials are fundamentalists when it comes to computerized voting issues.
Their modus operandi is to say "trust us", or in other words have faith in us. It really is a faith based approach to voting.
But we know that faith based things are for religion, not electoral government.
I think I have a clue for voters to consider. A recent Gallup Poll indicates that only 12% of Americans believe in evolution. The majority believe in the bible text indicating how humans arrived on this planet.
Perhaps the politicians are playing to these underlying faith feelings when they apply electronic voting machine rhetoric.
The notion that "faith is good" may work fine for religion, however, our ancestors told us that it is not a good way to do government, and establishment of religion within governmental dynamics has been disastrous in the past.
Dredd –
Just my opinion from talking to elections officials and reading the media. Most elections officials are hardworking, honest, and truly want every vote to be counted and to be counted correctly. However, most elections officials are also not very technical and they believe everything that they are told by others in the trade and by the vendors.
So they go blindly into the night and spend tax payers money (our money) to buy voting systems that do not work or that fail and then they have to defend their decisions or realize what we have been saying is correct. Some are learning from us now and I expect that number to grow.
Good news John, in the sense it is naivete rather than corruption, for the most part.
Of course the Ken Blackwell situation shows us that not all of it is innocent.
It would be so great if there were a million Ion Sanchos out there, and zero Ken Blackwells.
One day they will see that we have their best interest in mind too.
After all they vote too and their vote will be protected too if our mission is accomplished.
It is not us v them, it is us v bad voting machines.
Very good site. You are doing great job. Please Keep it up… .!