Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Today is a mixed bag of articles. Officials in South Carolina have been told to have the proper amount of emergency paper ballots at the polls for the Democratic primary election this Saturday. It seems that Republicans were forced to vote on any scrap of paper available in Horry Co last Saturday.
The Registrar of Voters of Sacramento Co California, Jill Lavine, has revealed that the county’s ES&S M-100 precinct-based optical-scan machines failed “Logic and Accuracy” testing for the Feb 5 primary:
Many of the county’s M100 machines, which have been tested and used for several previous elections without incident, had a variety of problems. With some machines, the ballot could not be loaded at all, or only accepted if loaded in backwards. In some cases, Democratic votes were not being recorded by a scanner. With other machines, it would be Republican votes that were not recorded. And with some machines, there were no problems at all. With the election within two weeks, Lavine decided to fore go using the scanners altogether, and count the ballots centrally at the county election office.
We applaud Lavine and her staff for doing a thorough L&A test and for making the correct decision. One can only wonder as to whom ES&S will blame for this problem.
Meanwhile Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has changed his mind again and he is now backing the state’s county clerks association which wants vote-by-mail. The governor and legislative leaders today announced legislation that will require all counties to keep poll site voting but do away with the state’s DREs and require paper ballots. It cannot be long before Coffman changes his mind again and announces his support for paper ballots at the polls.
Those stories, and all the other notable voting news today, linked below as usual…
- NAtional: Editorial – Voters don’t need photo identification
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/OPINION01/801230342/-1/OPINION21 - NAtional: Report: Touch Screen Ballot Design Can Cause Voter Errors
http://www.nbc4.com/news/15115761/detail.html - NAtional: Columnist – Servatius: The chads are still hanging
America’s democracy is flawed at the most fundamental level
http://media.www.dailyutahchronicle.com/media/storage/paper244/news/2008/01/23/Opinion/Servatius.The.Chads.Are.Still.Hanging-3163003.shtml - NAtional: Why We Need Democracy Promotion at Home
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=274167 - AR: Benton County – Democratic poll watchers to be on hand for Feb. 5 vote
http://nwanews.com/bcdr/News/58025/ - CA: Judge rules against counties in vote count dispute
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_vote23.339ccb2.html - CA: Kings County – South Valley Voting Machines Gathering Dust
http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?S=7759741&nav=menu612_2_6
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CA: Monterey County – Panel observes voting process
Elections Department: Group formed to meet state requirement`
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_8052167?nclick_check=1 - CA: Sacramento County – Long election night likely
Sacramento County machine flaws to delay results
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/654559.html - CA: Sacramento County equipment problems will delay primary election results
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/653553.html - CA: Sacramento County – Voting equipment problems in Sacramento lead to change of plans
http://calvoter.org/news/blog/index.html - CA: San Diego County – Judge rejects county’s election recount challenge
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/top_stories/1_03_281_22_08.txt - CA: San Diego County – Hand counting of ballots can increase, judge rules
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080123-9999-1m23b2briefs.html - CA: San Francisco County – S.F. settles suit with voting machine vendor
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/23/BA4AUJQ2D.DTL&type=politics - CA: San Francisco County – City may get $3.5M from e-voting company
http://www.examiner.com/a-1174440~City_may_get__3_5M_from_e_voting_company.html - CA: Solano County – Election oversight proposal rejected
http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_8054120 - CO: Ritter backs paper ballots at polls
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8055547 - CO: Ritter proposes paper ballot
http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/jan/23/ritter-proposes-paper-ballot-election-system/ - CO: Paper Ballots Will Be Used In This Year’s Elections
Electronic Voting Equipment Was Disqualified In December
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/15121967/detail.html - CO: Ritter: State should use paper, not electronics, to vote
http://www.9news.com/news/top-article.aspx?storyid=85021 - CO: Federal election official talks about Colorado voting problems
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/23/federal-election-official-talks-about-colorado-vot/ - CO: Garfield County’s clerk and recorder says she needs an answer on voting machines
http://www.postindependent.com/article/20080123/VALLEYNEWS/63551398 - CO: Weld County – Weld clerk calls Ritter’s paper ballot proposal “step back”
http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20080123/NEWS/238954928 - FL: Pinellas County — Editorial – Plan for early voting snubs half the county
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/23/Northpinellas/Plan_for_early_voting.shtml - FL: Sarasota County – Sarasota backs off mail-in election A special vote this spring will be done traditionally, just to be on the safe side
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080123/NEWS/801230396/-1/newssitemap - IA: Mauro: Update all of Iowa’s voting machines
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS/80123030/-1/NEWS04 - MA: Swampscott set to debut new voting machines
http://www.thedailyitemoflynn.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/news17.txt - MD: Study Author Pans Scrapping of Maryland’s Touch-Screen Voting Machines
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325031,00.html - NM: Ballot Busters
Will the state’s election software be reliable?
http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-012308-ballot-busters.php - NY: Brennan Center to New York State Board of Elections: Don’t Even Think About It
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2722&Itemid=113 - NY: Opinion – Voting machine deadline approaching
County election commissioners face crucial choice by Feb. 8.
http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/OPINION03/801230325 - NY: Republican resigns from state elections board
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–votingmachines0123jan23,0,2622783.story - NY: Illness might delay state’s choice of new voting machines
http://www.uticaod.com/homepage/x254751523 - OH: Brunner’s election plan given rebuff
Secretary of state hoping elections officials will compromise on replacing touch screen machines with paper ballots.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/22/ddn012308vote.html - OH: Brunner: Security over cost
Most counties want to stick with touch-screen voting
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS01/801230369/-1/CINCI - OH: Brunner wants officials to compromise
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/UPDATES01/80123010/1002/ - OH: Ohio’s vote machines lacking controls
http://www.irontontribune.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/local05.txt - OH: Lake County – Lake officials estimate cost of changing voting equipment
http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19222425&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6 - PA: Editorial – Could online voting be far in the future?
http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2008/01/23/editorial/editorial/daily671.txt - PA: Lawrence County – County to address voting machine complaints
http://www.ncnewsonline.com/local/local_story_023102553.html - PA: Wayne County – Wayne considering leasing machines for April primary
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19222833&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6 - SC: Legislators call for more paper ballots after Horry Co. primary problems
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7762177 - SC: Officials working to fix voting machine problems from GOP primary
http://www.thestate.com/scpolitics-wire/story/294599.html - SC: Horry County – Staff changes not expected over primary
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/324050.html - SC: Orangeburg County – School election appeal before Supreme Court
http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/12927206.txt - UT: Utah’s AccuVOTE Proves to be Safe and Successful
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/67064
**”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**
Oh, my my my…!!!
Slowly but surely, the powers that be in your country are beginning to wake up to the horror that is your voting system……hallelujah and amen…!!! And may I add that it’s not before time.
Many thanks to you John for your tireless devotion in bringing to the people of the U.S. and us in the rest of the world, the latest tidbits on the election process front.
During my sometimes thrice daily visit to this awesome blog, I’ve noticed that at times, your little corner here goes unrecognised by the hordes stampeding to check out the latest threads handed down by the boss, but please don’t feel slighted………it wouldn’t be the same good ole bradblog without your valuable input.
Many thanks, and go get ’em tiger…!