Election Reform & Related News for Friday, 03-10-06

This is the Election Reform Daily Thread, otherwise known as the "Daily Thread". 7 days a week the Daily Thread is assembled by a volunteer. The Daily Thread is looking for volunteers to assist the Daily Editor in finding & posting news stories that have something to do with Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News. Volunteers will be adding posts to the already started Daily Thread. Please PM me, FogerRox.


Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.

PLEASE, please

will you please:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.

2. Post stories using the "Election Fraud and Reform News Sources" listed here:
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3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.


If you want to know how to post "News Banners" or other images, go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=371233#371391

for MAC users-- IIRC its hold down control- and click on the image to view its source.

Judicial Election Reform Delayed
3/5/2006 11:56 AM
By: Associated Press

New York state will get more time to come up with a new method for electing trial court judges.

A federal judge who struck down the state's practice of using political conventions to select Supreme Court jurists stayed his ruling yesterday until after the November elections.

State election officials had worried there wasn't enough time to develop the new system in time for September primaries.


Story-

http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=170850

MARCH 10, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The state of Maryland stands poised to put its entire $90 million investment in Diebold Election Systems Inc. touch-screen e-voting systems on ice because they can’t produce paper receipts.
The state House of Delegates this week voted 137-0 to approve a bill prohibiting election officials from using AccuVote-TSx touch-screen systems in 2006 primary and general elections.

The legislation calls for the state to lease paper-based optical-scan systems for this year's votes. State Delegate Anne Healey estimated the leasing cost at $12.5 million to $16 million for the two elections.

Healey is the vice chairwoman of the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee, which recommended the passage of the bill.

story--

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legislation/story/0,10801,109436,00.html

Ion Sancho may be a hero in California, where grateful election officials have verified the ''serious security vulnerabilities'' in Diebold voting machines that the Leon County election supervisor uncovered last year.

Sancho is regarded a little differently in Florida.

Florida's secretary of state's office disparaged Sancho's finding, demonstrating considerably more interest in propping up vendors than protecting elections.

California, alarmed by Sancho's report, dispatched its independent, expert-laden Voting Systems Technology Assessment Advisory Board to conduct its own investigation.

Florida, meanwhile, threatened to sue Sancho.


Story-
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002525.htm

State: Leon backup voting system jeopardizes federal compliance
JENNIFER KAY
Associated Press

The state has requested a meeting with Leon County officials regarding contingency plans for helping disabled people vote without assistance in the event of a special election, saying the county puts Florida at risk for a federal lawsuit over noncompliance.
Secretary of State Sue Cobb sent letters Thursday to Bill Proctor, chairman of the county's board of commissioners, and Ion Sancho, the county's supervisor of elections, requesting a meeting Monday to discuss the county's progress in securing an accessible system.
The backup plan that Sancho proposed would require borrowing equipment from Polk County if a vacancy occurred this year and required a special election.
Leon County Attorney Herb Thiele notified Cobb's office this week that Sancho's plan was invalid because Polk County's software licensing agreement with industry giant Diebold prohibits lending Polk's upgraded equipment.


story--

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/breaking_news/14061289.htm

Voting failure may prompt suit
County to meet with state officials
By Jeff Burlew and Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITERS


Threatening a lawsuit over Leon County's failure to get voting machines for disabled citizens by a state deadline, Secretary of State Sue Cobb summoned county officials Thursday to a meeting next week to explain themselves.

"As you know, we have the authority to file suit to enforce state law," Cobb told Commission Chairman Bill Proctor.In a letter to Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho, she did not mention going to court but said County Attorney Herb Thiele notified the state of "a potential problem with the contingency plan" Sancho proposed for getting the equipment. Cobb invited Sancho and Proctor to her office for a session with Division of Elections Director Dawn Roberts at 11 a.m. Monday "to discuss the county's progress in timely procuring a certified accessible voting system" for the 2006 elections.

Sancho, who said he welcomed the meeting with Cobb, had tried to get the voting equipment by the deadline, but all three companies certified to sell the equipment in Florida refused to do business with him. He says he's being blacklisted by the companies, and he has questioned whether there's a movement afoot to get him out of office.

Sancho is in talks with the Louisville, Ky.,-based company IVS for its "Inspire Vote-by-Phone" device, which has a telephone-like device for blind voters to use at their precincts. Sancho turned to IVS after the companies certified to sell voting equipment refused to do business with him.

story-

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060310/NEWS01/603100365/1010/NEWS01

Georgia Secretary of State Cox Violated Voter Rights, Judge Rules

By Sarah Epting

3-10-06

(APN) ATLANTA – A Senior US District Judge found that Georgia Secretary of State (SOS), Cathy Cox, violated voter rights by undermining voter registration drives, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. Cox, a Democrat who is currently running for Georgia Governor, is already under criticism for her stewardship of the state’s electronic voting contract with Diebold.

"The Court finds and hereby DECLARES that the rejection of voter registration applications on the ground that they were submitted in a bundle, or by someone who was not a registrar or deputy registrar, violated the NVRA ," the Consent Decree states.

Meanwhile, a new Georgia Senate Bill 590 introduced by Democratic Minority Leader Gloria Butler would further codify the rights of private groups to conduct voter registration throughout the state. However, private groups always had that right, the courts have recently found.

"These volunteers drive our voter registration in this state and we should make it easier, not harder, on them to help Georgia citizens complete the voter registration process," Butler said during a Feburary 24, 2006, press conference on voter rights sponsored by US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA).

snip

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/2925/1/32/


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416478

Will Bradford County's new voting machines create inaccuracies?

By LISA R. HOWELER Times Reporter
Pennsylvania recently certified computerized and electronic voting machines aimed at eliminating voting inaccuracies, but many voters wonder if the inaccuracies will actually increase.

Even Sen. Roger A. Madigan, R-Luthers Mills, has his concerns. In February he commented on voting changes by saying: “We're facing a major fiasco with our elections with new machines that may or may not be working properly.”

The Bradford County Commissioners in February approved the purchase of computerized voting terminals from Advanced Voting Solutions. The voting system offered by this company meets the state's standards, which is the main reason Bradford County chose them. Bradford County officials based their decisions on what the state allowed, said Commissioner Chairwoman Nancy Schrader in February.

While a quick Internet search doesn't raise as many red flags about Advanced Voting Solutions as a search of Diebold Election Systems, for example, does, there are documented cases of failures with the WinVote terminals, which is the system that was purchased by Bradford County.





story-

http://www.eveningtimes.com/articles/2006/03/10/news/news2.txt

State asks for info on disabled voting machinery

By MARC HUMBERT
AP Political Writer

March 10, 2006, 10:34 AM EST


ALBANY, N.Y. -- State election officials, while still battling the federal government in court, is going ahead with preparations to buy machinery that will allow people with disabilities to vote this fall, a Board of Elections spokesman said Friday.

Robert Brehm said the board has issued a request for bids, the first step to purchasing about 10,000 devices that will allow the disabled to cast ballots in the 2006 elections, a requirement under the Help America Vote Act adopted after the disputed 2000 presidential election.

New York was sued March 1 by the U.S. Justice Department for failing to comply with HAVA requirements. New York lags all other states in meeting the HAVA requirements.

Under HAVA plans, New York is supposed to replace its 20,000 lever-action voting machines with modern devices. But state officials have said they will have to use the lever-action machines again this year and won't have new machines available in all parts of the state until the 2007 elections.

The federal lawsuit charges that New York has failed to provide for disabled voting and to compile a centralized voter registration database.

story--

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--votingmachines0310mar10,0,3474752.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Optical-scan cards show improvement

By Lisa A. AbrahamBeacon Journal staff writer


A new shipment of computer memory cards for voting equipment at the Summit County Board of Elections continued to experience failures Thursday -- but at a lower rate than those tested earlier in the week.

Testing was expected to continue today on the latest batch of memory cards received by the elections board from Election Systems & Software, the Omaha, Neb., company that manufactured the county's new optical-scan voting system.

County residents are expected to vote using theoptical-scan system in the May 2 primary.
After success with the initial 177 cards tested this week, the remaining 348 cards began to experience a failure rate as high as 30 percent. The company has since shipped hundreds of new cards to the county this week.

The most recent shipment, which arrived Thursday, had a 10 percent failure rate, said Bryan Williams, elections board director. The new voting equipment should include 525 of the cards, which are loaded into machines that read ballots.

Story--


http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/community/14064693.htm

Ortiz files for secretary of state race

By Dan Smith -- Bee Capitol Bureau

March 10, 2006
Page A5 of The Bee

State Sen. Deborah Ortiz on Thursday filed papers to launch her candidacy for secretary of state.

The Sacramento Democrat will face a Senate colleague, Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, in the June 6 Democratic primary election. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson is not expected to have significant opposition in the Republican primary.

Ortiz, who turns 49 later this month, served two years in the Assembly and is in her eighth and final year in the Senate under the state's term limits law.

"It is critical that we restore confidence in our electoral system and convince voters that their voices do count," Ortiz said in a statement.

snip

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14228312p-15051757c.html


How nice of her to say. So why, in May '04, did she oppose OpScan and in favor of DRE's WITHOUT VVPAT? :shrug:

Here's a pdf
http://www.naleo.org/PRA/EAC_testimony_5-04.pdf


Discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x416484

Come May, in Trenton, if no candidate receives a majority of 50 percent of the votes plus one, a runoff election will be held the following month between the top two vote-getters. The two finalists will have to resume the stress of campaigning. The extra election will cost thousands of dollars. And the voter turnout is virtually certain to be smaller than it was the first time; some of the voters may not even be the same people.

In Burlington, on Tuesday, even though no candidate received a majority of the votes in the first count, the voting system that was in use there incorporated an "instant runoff" that enabled one of the five candidates to receive a majority vote on a subsequent tally. There was no need for a costly and anticlimactic second election.

>snip<

In an IRV election, voters are given the option of ranking the candidates in order of choice -- first, second, third and so on. If one candidate receives a majority of first preferences, that person is elected. However, if no one is the first choice of at least half the voters plus one, the re-tabulation begins. The candidate with the fewest first preferences is eliminated, and the second choices on his or her ballots are distributed to the remaining candidates. This process of eliminating candidates and re-tabulating the votes continues until just two finalists remain. Whichever one has the most votes is the winner.

>snip<

Many elections in New Jersey and the United States provide for no runoff process at all. Victory simply is awarded to the candidate with the largest numerical vote count, whether it is a majority of the total vote or not. In a large field of candidates, the winner can and sometimes does emerge with as little as 30, 25, or even 20 percent of the total votes. That's an affront to the bedrock democratic principle of majority rule.

March 10, 2006

Dear MoveOn member,

Over the last year, together we helped restore integrity to voting machines in states across the country. More than half of the states now require all voting machines to keep paper records of every vote. But some states are still ignoring the documented problems with unverified voting—we need Congress to act.

In April, you'll have a rare opportunity to meet with members of Congress to ensure every single voting machine in the country is secure and reliable. You can make the greatest impact by going to Washington, D.C. to meet with legislators from your state. If you can't travel to the Capitol, there will also be local meetings set up in some places. A coalition of groups, including Common Cause, VerifiedVoting.org, and VoteTrustUSA, is arranging these meetings.

Tell Congress to get serious about the security of our voting machines. Click here to sign up:

http://www.icountcoalition.org

Constituent meetings like this are the most effective way to convince members of Congress they must act. Many MoveOn members traveled to D.C. last June, and they helped convince dozens of representatives to co-sponsor Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)'s Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550). Voting machine experts consider this bill the gold standard for election integrity.

Since then, one of the bill's most powerful opponents was forced out of his leadership post because of his involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. This, along with concerns about voting machine security raised by the Carter-Baker election reform commission and the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, has opened a new window of opportunity for H.R. 550.

Now's the time to show members of Congress how serious we are about the integrity of our nation's voting machines. As one of the MoveOn members who cares most about election integrity, can you attend a constituent meeting?

Meet with members of Congress this April in D.C. or locally. Click here to sign up:

http://www.icountcoalition.org

Thanks for all you do.

Complexity causes 50 percent of product returns

Kim Alexander

Friday, March 10

If election officials in California and elsewhere decide to return their new voting equipment to manufacturers, they will be in good company. According to research by Elke den Ouden at the Technical University of Eindhoven, half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices.

Read more about her research in this article from Reuters. Excerpts are below.

-----------

Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as "nuisance calls," Elke den Ouden found in her thesis at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands.

snip

She said most of the flaws found their origin in the first phase of the design process -- product definition.

snip

http://calvoter.org/news/blog/2006_03_01_blogarchive.html#114201865649332179

Have you ever read the Election Reform Daily Thread, otherwise known as the "Daily Thread". 7 days a week the Daily Thread is assembled by a volunteer. The Daily Thread is looking for volunteers to assist the Daily Editor in finding & posting news stories that have something to do with Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News. Volunteers will be adding posts to the already started Daily Thread. Please PM me, FogerRox.