Unisyn voting machines for Tennessee? Secret ballot retreats in Canada

We apologize, there was no voting news sent out yesterday due to blogging burnout. We'll make it up to you.
"What happens when inmates control the asylum?" - A look at redistricting reform by William and Mary Election Law Society...NVRA Analysis by American Constitution Party is flawed, says Champaign County Clerk... "Claymates" can rest easy now: No voter fraud charges to be leveled against Clay Aiken in North Carolina...Georgia's State Board of Elections will consider rule requiring voters to prove citizenship....Some members of the Warren County (NY) Board of Supervisors may join voting machine lawsuit....

Tennessee SOS Trey Hargett's approach to implementing the new voting machine law shows the downfall of electing your election officials rather than hiring them. There's a huge learning curve and the office is administrative and requires years of experience. Hargett seems to be unaware that HAVA funds can be used not just to buy voting machines but to implement them....

...Sheesh. What next, no elections? Washington County Texas commissioners abolished the Washington County elections administrator job, meanwhile Putnam County Tennessee custs voting places cut from 44 to 25....

....Utah Commission Recommends Automatic and Portable Voter Registration... The secret ballot retreats in Canada little by little as Internet voting continues to spread in municipalities...Oh no, Ghana Inches Towards Electronic Voting System...

All this and more in today's voting news below...

CO: Election outcome may face challenge
Dec 8th, 2009 ANTONITO — No matter what Antonito voters may have decided casting their ballots in the recall election Tuesday, the outcome may be up for challenge because at least two board of trustee members feel that the legal notice of the time and location of the election was not properly advertised.
http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=75&story_id=15051

GA: Roswell mayoral results hold up in recount
Fulton County election officials completed their recount of the mayoral race in Roswell this morning, and were set to do a recount of ballots in the Atlanta runoff
http://www.ajc.com/news/north-fulton/roswell-mayoral-results-hold-232698.html

GA: Voting rule on proof of citizenship up for adoption
One proposes a need to prove citizenship to be a registered voter.
Dec. 9, 2009 ATLANTA - A controversial rule requiring voters prove their citizenship comes up for adoption Thursday by the State Elections Board.

The rule will apply to people registering to vote after Jan. 1, or as soon at the U.S. Department of Justice determines whether it is an unfair burden to minority voters. Many critics of the proposed rule plan to speak out against it during public hearings before the board decides, arguing that it is indeed a burden to African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics...
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-12-09/story/voting_rule_on_proof_of_citizenship_up_for_adoption

MA: Wellington ballot wording causes problems
Mon Dec 07, 2009 Belmont, Mass. - Officials are working to straighten out confusion over the wording of the ballot question authorizing a Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion for construction of the new Wellington School that has held up the project on the state level.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/belmont/news/education/x1964352937/Wellington-ballot-wording-causes-problems

NC: Wake Elections Board Will Not Refer Allegations Of Clay Aiken Voter Fraud To State Board
Dec. 9 RALEIGH, N.C. - The chairwoman of the Wake County Board of Elections said Wednesday that she will not refer allegations of voter fraud against singer Clay Aiken to the state board. She called it a "moot issue" and voter education issue.
http://twi.cc/0kEq

NC: Clay Aiken to change his voter registration
RALEIGH Pop singer Clay Aiken announced Tuesday that he plans to change his voter registration but still speak out against the new Wake County school board's plans to eliminate the current diversity policy.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/118/story/1103035.html

NJ: N.J. Attorney General issues subpoenas for Essex election employee records in voter fraud probe
December 08, 2009 TRENTON -- The state Attorney General’s Office issued subpoenas for the employee records of 20 or more Essex County election workers just days after last week’s indictments in an ongoing voter fraud investigation, an official said today.

The subpoenas -- for records documenting vacation, sick time and the like -- were delivered Friday to the county’s human resources department, Essex County counsel James R. Paganelli said...
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/nj_attorney_general_issues_sub.html

NY:
12/10/09: CEMAC meeting
Important! Come to the: Citizens' Election Modernization Advisory
Committee Meeting Thursday, December 10, noon NYS Board of Elections
40 Steuben Street Albany
http://lever-voting-machines.blogspot.com/2009/12/121009-cemac-meeting.html

NY: County leaders may join voting machine lawsuit
Dec 9, 2009. A number of members of the Warren County Board of Supervisors plan to be plaintiffs in a lawsuit that will challenge the legality of the state's decision to force counties to use new electronic voting machines.
...
it does not appear the county itself will be part of the action.
...
"It's just outrageous," Monroe said. "It's a worse system than what we currently have."
http://www.poststar.com/news/local/article_04096a3a-e510-11de-8f96-001cc4c002e0.html


TN: Tennessee Secretary of State Says Up-to-Date Voting Machines Available for TVCA But Costs Still Prohibitive
Dec 9, 2009 ...The good news first: “I think we’ve got a 2005-quality machine
...Hargett would go on to identify the apparatus in question as one about to be marketed by Unisyn Voting Solutions, a California-based company
...
“I understand that the Senate is going to go back in January and take the necessary steps to protect the taxpayers, throughout the state,” Hargett said
http://www.memphisflyer.com/JacksonBaker/archives/2009/12/09/tennessee-secretary-of-state-says-up-to-date-machines-available-for-tvca-but-costs-still-prohibitive

Voting places cut from 44 to 25
Dec 08, 2009 PUTNAM COUNTY -- Putnam County election commissioners formally voted Monday morning to consolidate several voting precincts, dropping the number of polling places in the county from 44 to 25.
http://www.herald-citizen.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=6F6A6849-19B9-E2E2-67D0EC57420283E9

TX: County cuts positions to tighten budget
December 8, Washington County commissioners today abolished the Washington County elections administrator.
http://www.brenhambanner.com/articles/2009/12/08/news/news02.txt

UT: Utah Commission Recommends Automatic and Portable Voter Registration
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014893.html

National

NVRA Analysis Flawed
Champaign County Clerk. There is so much swirling in the legislative air regarding election administration reform that it’s hard to keep up. I’m doing my best.
...
Where the paper goes terribly awry is with its analysis of list maintenance procedures. While purporting to be an analysis of the NVRA 15 years on, the paper basically ignores HAVA and the advances that have been made in the last 5 years on the HAVA requirement for a statewide voter registration database.
...
As a policy blue print for improving the NVRA, the ACS report is lacking. More disappointing, the actual arguments that it brings to the discussion are sometimes misleading, inaccurate, or incomplete.
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2009/12/09/nvra-analysis-flawed/

Redistricting Reform #3
So what happens when we allow partisan redistricting? The short answer is “bad things.” Here’s the longer answer:
http://electls.blogs.wm.edu/2009/12/09/redistricting-reform-3/

ACORN report says group needs reforms
December 8, 2009 (CNN) -- Community organizing group ACORN needs wide-ranging reforms after an embezzlement scandal, but broke no laws when conservative activists posing as a prostitute and a pimp approached members in a videotaped "sting," an attorney's report concludes.
...
It urged the group, which has branched out into a variety of fields, to return to its "core competency" of community organizing; to replace its affiliate-dominated governing board with one made up mostly of independent members; to beef up its internal controls and accounting staff; and to hire an independent inspector general.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/08/acorn.report/

"Gavin: 'Staggering' Number of Lobbyists Are Failing to Report Political Contributions"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014892.html

International

Canada. North Grenville to feature internet and phone voting in 2010 election
December 09, 2009
http://www.yourkemptville.com/article/19491

London e-counting: Boris doesn't want to know
Jason Kitcat, 08 December 2009...The question now becomes, how do we hold the Greater London Authority’s Chief Executive to account about election arrangements if the directly elected Mayor won’t?
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2009/Boris-doesnt-want-to-know

Ghana Inches Towards Electronic Voting System
http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/200912/33878.php

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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