Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Next Tuesday is “Tsunami Tuesday,” in which 22 states will participate and of those 15 states will hold primaries. The primary states are: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CT, DE, GA, IL, MA, MO, NJ, NY, OK, TN, and UT. Whether these states will have successful elections or total meltdowns should be based, in large part, on their past history in elections using the same voting systems. Using only data such as whether a state requires a vvpat or post election audits tells only a small part of the story. Have the states experienced large numbers of machine failures, ballot programming errors, tabulating errors, long lines, and/or disenfranchised voters for instance? For instance, looking at VotersUnite’s “Election Problem Log — 2004 to Date” there have been no reported problems from Oklahoma. The risk of any major meltdown in Oklahoma is small when compared to Georgia with 13 machine malfunction reports or California with 24 machine malfunction reports. States that have a real risk of meltdown based on past record are Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Utah. Those will be the states that get our extra attention….
- NAtional: Elderly Voters — Some Improvements in Voting Accessibility from 2000 to 2004 Elections, but Gaps in Policy and Implementation Remain
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08442t.pdf - NAtional: Report: Voting Machines In Some States Could Malfunction On Super Tuesday
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009906426 - NAtional: Your Vote Will Be Thoughtful, But Will It Be Counted?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_sw_080131_your_vote_will_be_th.htm - NAtional: Super Tuesday states face hurdles
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NEWS07/802010340/1009/NEWS07 - NAtional: A Far-Fetched Fix for E-Voting Woes: Open Source
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/A-Far-Fetched-Fix-for-E-Voting-Woes-Open-Source-61474.html - NAtional: Percentage-Based versus Statistical-Power-Based Vote Tabulation Audits
http://verifiedvoting.org/downloads/TAS_paper.pdf - CA: California registrars predict a long vote count
Use of Paper Ballots Means Slow Voting Results
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_8137237 - CA: Los Angeles County – L.A. County sees no big delay in local vote
http://www.dailybulletin.com/politics/ci_8134554 - CA: Napa County – Switch from e-voting may slow results for weeks
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/02/01/news/local/doc47a2c7177b876276071812.txt - CA: San Diego County – San Diego’s Registrar Urges Absentee Voters to Get Ballots in Soon
http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=10801 - CA: San Diego County – Registrar: Expect slow vote-counting
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/01/elections2008/alerts/doc47a1109d90b04714647360.txt - CA: San Francisco County – SF Registrar Expects Smooth Sailing Next Week
http://www.kcbs.com/SF-Registrar-Expects-Smooth-Sailing-Next-Week/1575593 - CO: The politics of paper
Rift between clerks, Coffman continues over next election’s voting methods
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=18288 - CO: Boulder County votes up in the air
Clerk waiting on decertification details
http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/feb/01/boulder-county-votes-up-in-the-air/ - CO: Boulder County – County clerk shares vote uncertainties
http://www.timescall.com/News_Story.asp?id=6264 - CO: Broomfield – Election uncertainty not weighing on Broomfield
http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/feb/01/election-uncertainty-not-weighing-on-broomfield/ - FL: Palm Beach County – Urgent to Tallahassee: SOE: Save Our Election
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/02/01/s18a_leadedit_elections_0201.html - HI: State picks voting machines
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NEWS05/802010361/1009/NEWS05 - MA: Watertown Town Council asks Secretary of State to investigate election
http://www.wickedlocal.com/watertown/news/x142941457 - NH: Republican NH Primary Candidate Demands Secretary of State Allow All Ballots to be Counted in Ongoing Election Contest
https://bradblog.com/?p=5636 - NJ: N.J. judge gives voters a do-over
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1201844155300760.xml&coll=1 - NY: Voting-machine firm takes state to court over its disqualification
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NEWS01/802010357/1002/NEWS01 - NY: Advocates Say City Doesn’t Have Enough Disabled Voting Machines
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=78031 - NY: Chemung County – New Voting Machines Selected
http://www.wetmtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f4f9243a-226f-4d3c-8822-ec99d988decf - NY: Monroe County – Exit poll on new voting machines: A mixed reaction
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/NEWS01/802010362/1002/NEWS - OH: We NEED Our HAVA Money Back
http://www.progressohio.org/page/community/post/OEJC/C3pQ - OH: Brunner Should Cancel Mandate
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/505229.html - OH: Cuyahoga County will lease voting equipment for $1.5 million
Cuyahoga won’t be reimbursed, Jones says
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1201858502166590.xml&coll=2 - OH: Cuyahoga County – Vote Approves $1.4 M to be Spent on New Voting System
http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5642802&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 - PA: Fayette County – Paper voting ballots possibility in Fayette
http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19253315&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6 - PA: Fayette County – Fayette commissioners consider new voting machines
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_550329.html - PA: Wayne County – County Chooses Paper Ballot Alternative
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x1151558551 - TN: Editorial – State should try to achieve paper trail for November
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/OPINION01/802010427/1008 - TN: Opinion – Bills would put vote in people’s hands
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/OPINION01/802010424/1008 - TN: Opinion – Rush to new system could create a crisis
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/OPINION01/802010429/1008 - TN: Other states are going to paper ballots this year; why can’t we?
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/OPINION01/802010426/1008 - TN: Film’s showing to inspire interest in electoral process
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080201/COMMUNITY/802010332
**”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**
Is it too late to switch to paper ballots hand counted by citizens, after extreme care has been taken to preserve a pristine chain of custody?
In other words is it too late for true elections?
Did anyone see this article:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/ar...405/1417/RSS02
TALLAHASSEE — A little-known legal opinion issued days before Florida’s presidential primary has slammed the door on public oversight of the final vote tally in Florida elections.
The closure comes because of questions posed by Sarasota County Election Supervisor Kathy Dent, whose controversial District 13 congressional race drew national scrutiny in 2006.
Attorneys for the Florida Department of State say county election supervisors can eject outside observers from central computer rooms as they receive and add precinct results.
Their ruling hinges on where votes are actually counted, a process that state law requires be open to observers. They contend that “tabulation” occurs at individual precincts and that computers in the central room are merely “accumulating” those results.
What is more, the opinion states, observers and the public can be excluded from watching the local canvassing boards that must certify those vote counts — as long as there is alternative access, such as listening over a speaker system.
“Anytime you move something behind the curtain, people are going to get suspicious,” said Florida election law expert Mark Herron, who advised the Gore team in 2000.
Read it all.
John, you said that there is little chance of an OK meltdown based on no reports coming out of OK. Is the system for reporting problems a trusted and robust system?
Statistically, would a system that has never had an error be up at bat?
I am curious because I know nothing about OK’s system, but I know that e.g. the Center for Disease Control does not have a program for counting CJD (human form of mad cow) and it is claimed that there are “no problems” — the problem is that without a means of counting them, we won’t know.
End of analogy — just trying to understand better if all is really quiet in Sparkle City, OK or if somebody has made sure that no news is good news.
Creid
What I know is that in 1992 the state of Oklahoma purchased a full state-wide optical scan voting system from ES&S. Once they took delivery of the machines and tested everything there were some legal issues with ES&S so Oklahoma kicked them out of the state. Since that time the state has done all of their own ballot printing, ballot programming, maintenance, code updates, etc. They don’t have vendor representatives in the counting room on election night while citizens are kept out. In the over four years that I have been catalogueing voting machine problems I have never heard of any problems. That could mean that they keep everything from the media. I think they have a system that they know intimately and they don’t have problems.