Suit against Webb CO TX voting machines, Obama push for voting rights, Chinas hackers

A candidate for Webb County, TX Judge has filed a lawsuit to stop the use of voting machines except for disabled voters.... The Champaign County IL Clerk shares results of post election audits...

...When you read articles promoting internet, email or fax voting, be sure to keep in mind the risks inherent to the internet. See today's article "Cyberwar: How China’s Hackers Threaten the U.S. Armed Forces" . Daniel Darling, Defense Industry Reporter writes "the beauty of cyberwarfare is not just the favorable cost-versus-benefits ration, but the inability of the victim to provide solid proof of their involvement."...

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

AZ: Judges and Politics Don’t Mix
http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/judges_and_politics_dont_mix/
Last year, the Institute for Legal Reform of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — a group that’s not exactly known for radical, left-wing politics — endorsed Arizona’s system of selecting judges, saying that “Arizona leads the nation with the procedures it has put in place to fulfill the promise of true nonpartisan ‘merit’ selection” of judges

AZ: Arizona voters living abroad given options
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/02/12/20100212politics-overseas0212.html
Arizona voters serving in the military or living overseas will soon have some new ways to assure their ballot has been counted
...
Arizona already allows overseas and military voters to vote via e-mailand already had been close to meeting the 45-day requirement.

CA: California Top-Two Open Primary Would Increase Election Administration Costs, According to County Elections Officials
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/02/11/california-top-two-open-primary-would-increase-election-administration-costs-according-to-county-elections-officials/

CA: More California Dysfunction: Not Clear If Assembly Rejected Candidate for Lt. Gov.
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015270.html

CO: Sec. of state explores mail-in ballots
http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/ci_14387846

DE: Delaware Elections Officials Ask for Legal Advice on Whether to Disqualify Certain Minor Parties Immediately
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/02/12/delaware-elections-officials-ask-for-legal-advice-on-whether-to-disqualify-certain-minor-parties-immediately/

GA: Staton, Kemp back online voter registration
http://www.macon.com/741/story/1019584.html

IL: Good Gets Better (post election audit results)
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2010/02/12/good-gets-better/
Champaign County Clerk. After each election, we conduct a retabulation of 5% of our precincts pursuant to state law. As post election audits go, it’s not much. We’ve beefed ours up a bit by adding a redundant hand count of a race in each of the 6 precincts retabulated in Champaign County.

IL: State Board Memo On Undervotes
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2010/02/12/state-board-memo-on-undervotes/
Champaign County Clerk. Mark Mossman from the State Board of Elections has a memo regarding the Primary Election in the packet of information for next week’s SBE meeting in Chicago. It points out a number of problems with the undervote law that I and other Clerks had predicted.

MA: PRE-OWNED, PRE-VOTED BALLOTS
http://www.handcountedpaperballots.org/documents/blog.php?entry_id=1265948229&title=pre-owned%2C-pre-voted-ballots
February 11, 2010 On January 19, 2010, the MA Senate special election, there were some pre-owned, pre-voted ballots
...How many other pre-owned, pre-voted ballots were there that we did not see, because they were put in the "right" box - away from public view and there only for the counting?

PA: Ballots opened early in Robinson, elections judge says
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10042/1034961-57.stm
County official to discuss with solicitor what action, if any, to take over absentee ballot violation in Robinson

TX: Lawsuit Against Webb County's Elections Department
http://www.laredosun.us/notas.asp?id=3902
LAREDO, Tx.- Louis Bruni, who is running for Webb County judge, filed a formal lawsuit against the Department of Elections and the Democratic Party so that only disabled people can use the electronic machines in the primary elections.

TX: Texas Military and Overseas Voters, Return your Ballot for the March 2, 2010 State Primary Now!
http://www.fvap.gov/global/news/nr2-2010.html
Texas will hold its State primary election on March, 2, 2010. If you requested your ballot and have not received it, submit the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB).

National

Cyberwar: How China’s Hackers Threaten the U.S. Armed Forces
http://thefastertimes.com/defensespending/2010/02/12/scaling-the-firewall-chinas-utilization-of-cyberwarfare/
The U.S. Department of Defense network structure is reported to be constantly subjected to probes by a multitude of Chinese hackers hoping to overwhelm the system.

Obama Administration Pushes for Full Voting Rights
http://bit.ly/bgo7Tn
The Obama Administration supports full restoration of voting rights for the formerly-incarcerated. "The President's position is that, for felons, once you've served your sentence... you should have your voting rights restored,"

Felon Voting Case from Massachusetts Reaches U.S. Supreme Court
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/02/11/felon-voting-cases-from-massachusetts-reaches-u-s-supreme-court/
On January 30, a cert petition was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Simmons v Galvin, 09-920. The issue is whether the federal Voting Rights Act was meant to apply to state laws that make it illegal for ex-felons or felons to register to vote.

EAC public meeting is February 19, 2010
http://www.eac.gov/blog-postings/eac-public-meeting-is-february-19-2010
This meeting will be webcast live on the EAC Web site. See the agenda and notice for additional information.

International

Canada is a leader in implementing Internet Voting – Let’s celebrate and bring it to every Canadian
http://bit.ly/a84EIK

India: BJP Says Paper Back Up Necessary Even While Using Electronic Voting Machines
http://www.india-server.com/news/bjp-says-paper-back-up-necessary-even-21012.html

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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Disclaimer: Articles and commentary included in "Voting News" do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors of Voting News,or its allied organizations. Articles are selected for inclusion to inform subscribers'ability to draw their own conclusions based on noteworthy and credible news,research, legislation, and debate bearing on the integrity of elections.