Meanwhile Virginia lawmakers still considering bill to allow purchase of some paperless machines... CO. election integrity expert Harvie Branscomb pleads the case to keep in-person voting in Eagle County Co...
All this and more in today's voting news below....
CO: Court Requested to Permit Video Recording of Marks v. Koch (Aspen Election Transparency Suit)
http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2010/02/court-requested-to-permit-video.html
CO: A plea for in-person voting in Eagle County
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/letter-editor/139384
Voters deserve to retain their choice of voting in person or by mail. Precinct polling places keep elections more secure, are likely to produce better accuracy, are less subject to mischief, and provide many natural opportunities for citizen oversight and correction of errors.
CT: Hearing On Public Financing – Ad Hoc Testimony On Voting Integrity Issue
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2907
Yesterday the Government Administration and Elections Committee held hearings on proposed fixes to the Citizens Election Program which has been ruled unconstitutional and is currently under appeal.
FL: Ensure uniform voting (opinion)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/22/na-ensure-uniform-voting/
But even with the importance of home rule, counties should not be allowed to create their own standards for recounts, audits and other procedures when it comes to statewide and national elections. One code must fit all.
GA: Bill would end touch-screen voting
http://bit.ly/ad8sWE
GA: A bill to ban paperless ballots dropped — Kemp opposes on economic grounds
http://bit.ly/cW14x3
Just before the Legislature went on a two-week, budget-driven hiatus, state Rep. Tim Bearden (R-Villa Rica) dropped HB 1215, would would mandate an end to the use of Georgia’s paperless voting tabulators, in favor of an optical scan system whose ballots could be recounted by hand in any dispute.
GA: Georgia may abandon electronic voting
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-02-22/story/georgia_may_abandon_electronic_voting
House bill would return state to paper ballots
The bipartisan legislation, House Bill 1215 by Rep. Tim Bearden, R-Villa Rica, would require paper records and hand recounts in contested elections. The touch-screen machines in use across the state now only record votes electronically.
GA: Will This Be the Case That Gets a Supreme Court Majority to Overturn Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act?
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015334.html
MI: Whiteford seeks township hall
http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100221/NEWS01/702219971
OTTAWA LAKE...one of the voting machines that township residents will be using in the election is stored in the supervisor’s bedroom.
...
If voters okay a five-year, 1-mill levy Tuesday, storing election machines and boxes of township records and holding office hours will get a little easier in Whiteford Township.
MO: Police investigating theft at Board of Elections office in St. Louis
http://www.fox2now.com/news/sns-ap-mo--electionsboard-theft,0,4584342.story
Items taken include a laptop, a satellite radio deck, a radio, a TV converter box and a small amount of cash. There was no sign of forced entry.
NM: San Juan County complains of state voting requirement
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_14452520
...San Juan County was the only county in New Mexico to store data on its own computer server until the state forced it to store data on its Santa Fe server this month. The New Mexico Secretary of State's Office required the county to join New Mexico's 32 other counties that have stored information in Santa Fe for years.
TN: New machines in store for 2010 election (paper ballots optically scanned)
http://bit.ly/daJCf2
TN: Election Commission ratifies federal court settlement
http://bit.ly/9B6irE
The Rutherford County Election Commission voted Monday to accept an agreement that would end Administrator of Elections Hooper Penuel’s participation in a federal lawsuit.
VA: ‘Hardships' in House, Senate budget (bills still actively under consideration)
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=1105
HB 1225: Allows localities to continue to purchase touch-screen voting machines in order to maintain one such machine per voting place. A prior state law prohibited local governments from replacing old machines in order to facilitate conversion to optical scan paper ballots.
VT: Letters to the Editor: Instant Runoff Voting
http://bit.ly/cmIE7h
5 pages of letters in favor or opposed to the Mar 2nd ballot measure to repeal IRV
WA: Don’t violate integrity of military vote
http://heraldnet.net/article/20100220/OPINION02/702209997
To say that the bill does not institute Internet voting is inaccurate. E-mail is the Internet. The same security concerns that caused the Pentagon to abandon Internet voting in 2004 pertain to this bill.
National
Exclusive: NYT Public Editor Concedes O'Keefe 'Jounalistically Unethical', But No Correction Recommended
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7715
Activists pin hopes on the Academy
http://www.congress.org/news/2010/02/19/activists_pin_hopes_on_the_academy
For some Oscar viewers, the excitement this year is not which movie wins Best Picture, but how it will win.
Hart, Avante Resolve Voting Machine Patent Suit (registration required)
http://bit.ly/awZCLI
Law360, New York (February 23, 2010) -- Voting machine company Hart InterCivic Inc. has agreed to a settlement in its patent infringement suit against Avante International Technology Inc. over electronic voting systems
International
India: There’s a Trojan in the EVM!
http://www.dailypioneer.com/237973/There%E2%80%99s-a-Trojan-in-the-EVM!.html
Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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Personally, I believe that there is too much of a chance for a flaw, or hacked electoin if there are touchscreen voting machines. What we should do count the ballots with extra precuations taken for human error. No matter what a error in counting can always be done again, but a hacked election with no physical evidence would be disasterous. The chance for a problem to occur electronically are much higher than there are for human error.
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