Diebold $100M e-voting contract in Brazil, An unhealthy monopoly, Internet voting quagmire

Correction: Headline on Dec 23 should have said investigation into DETROIT's election, not Chicago. We corrected that headline here.

Diebold's sale to ES&S an "Unhealthy Monopoly"and meanwhile Diebold still selling voting machines - in Brazil?

Internet voting: Wood Co. WV has volunteered to test voting project that "would allow overseas, military absentee voting online". Meanwhile the "FCC Wanders into the Internet Voting Quagmire" writes The Open Source Digital Voting Foundation...Is the internet secure for voting? Recent media reports that "Hackers' attacks rise in volume, sophistication..U.S. defense officials revealed in April that hackers have stolen thousands of files on one of the military's most advanced fighter aircrafts."...

All that, some videos, podcasts and more in today's voting news below...

CA: Republican Party Sues to Overturn San Diego Law Making it Illegal for Parties to Contribute to Candidates for City Office
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/12/24/republican-party-sues-to-overturn-san-diego-law-making-it-illegal-for-parties-to-contribute-to-candidates-for-city-office/

CA: Learn all about Voting by Mail! YouTube Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzkmgZPBRY4
Created by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. From signing up, to completing and returning your ballot, to how your ballot gets verified and counted - this overview will explain how Voting by Mail is Easy, Convenient, Safe, and Secure.
For Tagalog, Vietnamese or Spanish, visit this link
http://www.youtube.com/user/sccvote

CO: Public Radio - KAJX - reports on Aspen election satire (podcast and blog)
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/kajx-covers-better-bad-news-lampoon-of.html

CO: Election questions (lte by Harvie Branscomb electon integrity activist)
http://bit.ly/6QSiwg What might a citizen risk by asking questions? From my perspective, two voluntary commissioners were recently dismissed following an unjust smear campaign that prevented their pursuit of election quality improvements. It appears to me that their principal error was to ask difficult questions.

CO: Aspen City Attorney Jim True and Mayor Mick Ireland separately respond to my letter (Harvie Branscomb)
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/aspen-city-attorney-jim-true-and-mayor.html

FL: An unhealthy monopoly
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1396762.html
12.24.2009. OUR OPINION: McCollum right to conduct anti-trust inquiry into voting-machine owners' merger.
The only people who benefit from monopolies are their owners. For the rest of us, monopolies mean being powerless because we have no choices.

GA: Three Complaints Filed Against Georgia Sec. of State Inspector General
http://electiondefensealliance.org/GA-Inspector-General-complaints
The complaints filed against the Inspector General's office allege that investigations involving electronic voting machine defects and controversies were improperly handled.

NH: EDA Exit Polls Generally Match 2008 Election Results, But Find "Wide Disparities" in NH Vote Counts
http://electiondefensealliance.org/EDA-Exit-Polls-2008

TN: The Logic of Voting WREK radio show (podcast)
http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/31396
Wednesday Dec. 23th noon-1pm Voting activist Bernie Ellis, who joined us previously to talk about how high tech voting machines aren't always the best solution, returns to our show. He will provide us with an update on what is going on in Tennessee regarding this important issue.

TX: Boerne may face challenge of single-member voting districts
http://boernestar.com/articles/2009/12/26/news/doc4b364cd062fa5729254884.txt
December 26, 2009 Residents challenging the Boerne City Council’s recent decision to create single-member council districts say it violates the city charter and the Texas Constitution.

TX: Texas Democratic Party Finally Gets Relief Against Vote-Counting Machines
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/12/22/texas-democratic-party-finally-gets-relief-against-vote-counting-machines/
December 22nd, 2009 The ruling does not say these machines violate the Constitution. Rather, it says that when Dallas County started using that type of machine in 1998, that was a voting procedure change and it should have been submitted to the U.S. Justice Department for pre-clearance.

National

FCC Wanders into the Internet Voting Quagmire
http://www.trustthevote.org/fcc-wanders-into-the-internet-voting-quagmire
Dec 25th, 2009 by Greg Miller. “Why, oh why?” you’re wondering (given our teaser title, that is). Well, at first we were we also wondering why.

OSDV Answers FCC About Internet Voting – E. John Sebes and Greg Miller Respond
http://www.trustthevote.org/osdv-answers-fcc-about-internet-voting

Decade Brought Change To Campaign Finance (podcast available)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121872329
December 25, 2009 In January, the Supreme Court is expected to redefine how far corporations can go in spending money on federal elections.
...
Rick Hasen, who teaches campaign finance and ethics at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, says things are marginally better because Congress has tightened up the laws.
...
"The way that the Supreme Court has been interpreting campaign finance law could well lead us into a spiral, where we end up with a deregulated campaign finance system,"


National Conference of State Legislatures Has Useful Database of Pending Election Law Bills
http://www.ballot-access.org/2009/12/23/national-conference-of-state-legislatures-has-useful-database-of-pending-election-law-bills/
December 23rd, 2009 ...One can choose to look at all the election law bills introduced in any single state, in any recent year. Or one can choose to see bills in all states on particular election law subjects, or any combination.

Effort Begun to End Voting for Judges
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/us/24judges.html?_r=1
December 23, 2009 A group of judges, political officials and lawyers, led by the retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, has begun a campaign to persuade states to choose judges on the basis of merit, rather than their ability to win an election.

International

Canada: You Need To Know: Electronic Voting Coming To Huntsville
http://www.moosefm.com/cfbk/news/1040-you-need-to-know-electronic-voting-coming-to-huntsville
It's official. Huntsville residents will be able to vote on-line or over the phone during next year's municipal election. Councilors opted in favor of the method Monday night at their meeting.

Diebold awarded $100M contract from Superior Electoral Court of Brazil
http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/DBDid1178390
Diebold said in an SEC filing that on December 18, 2009, after a public bid process, the Superior Electoral Court of Brazil awarded a contract for the purchase of up to 250K electronic voting machines to Procomp Amazonia Industria Eletronica S.A., a subsidiary of Diebold

Philippines: Much misgivings over automation?
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/235663/much-misgivings-over-automation
December 25, 2009... As must have been observed from the beginning, the idea of automated voting, while favored by most as the answer to the recurrent charges of rigged-up voting and counting after every election, has been under public scrutiny and sneaking suspicion.

Just the other day, Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential standard bearer Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. chided the Comelec for its continued failure to make categorical statement on the reliability of automation as next year’s new instrument for voting.


Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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