TX court: only disabled to e-vote in Webb Co., IL undervote law shames some voters

A Reminder: You Don’t Want Voting Controlled By One Company...Kansas SOS Issues New Instructions About Interestate Database Matching...The 49th District Court in Texas ruled that only disabled voters will use the touchscreen voting machines....
Election integrity expert Dr. Charles E. Corry hopes to administer elections and is running for El Paso County Clerk and Recorder. Corry has the online book "Vote Fraud and Election Issues" and served on the (IEEE) voting equipment standards committee from 2001-2009...See Tom Barrow video account of his candidacy in the 2009 Detroit Mayoral election, recount process and discussion on history of vote rigging...

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

CA: Rethinking elections
Amid budget shortfalls, can we afford all these special elections?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-logan16-2010feb16,0,7617068.story?track=rss

CO: Voting transparency expert Dr. Chuck Corry is running for El Paso County Clerk and Recorder
http://corryforclerk.com
Corry's online book about Vote Fraud and Election Issues
http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting.htm

CT: Denise Merrill formally enters SOTS race
By Luther Weeks on February 15, 2010
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2875

IL: Legislators offer ideas to improve election process
http://bit.ly/b5bmWg
The ideas range from making it easier for young people to vote to improved methods for election officials to keep dead voters off the registration rolls.

IL: Under-vote law limits right to secret ballot
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_07ba6d18-1900-11df-af83-001cc4c002e0.html
This new law should be abolished. It serves no practical purpose except to shame some voters and erode our right to be entirely left alone in the voting booth.

IN: 2 plans to ease voting stumble
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100216/NEWS07/302169990
INDIANAPOLIS – Two major election proposals – no-fault absentee voting by mail and allowing counties to use vote centers – have hit roadblocks
...
Battles thinks the legislature should learn from the pilot counties and set minimum standards for the model, including the size and speed of computer servers and technology for an electronic poll book, before opening it up statewide.

KS: Kansas Secretary of State Issues New Instructions About Interestate Database Matching
http://bit.ly/csizE3
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In response to concerns expressed by national voting rights groups Project Vote and the Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN), the Kansas Secretary of State has issued new instructions to county election officials to ensure that eligible voters are not wrongfully removed from the rolls under an ongoing program to update voter registration databases based on interstate matching.

MI: Tom Barrow's engrossing account of his candidacy in the nonpartisan 2009 Detroit Mayoral election and recount process
http://blip.tv/search?q=tom+barrow (video)
The speech video is in 3 parts. You will learn about the long history of insider election rigging in Detroit, and how the same methods are now used around the state

MT: Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch Discusses Records Management, E-Voting
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/745690
We're very excited about online voter registration. One barrier, more than anything, is it costs money to implement this system

NH: New Hampshire Ballot Access Bill Passes Committee
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/02/16/new-hampshire-ballot-access-bill-passes-committee/

NY: New election system takes shape in Port Chester
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100215/NEWS02/2150333/-1/newsfront/New-election-system-takes-shape-in-Port-Chester
PORT CHESTER — Attorneys are working out details of a new kind of ballot to be used in the June 15 village election, which will fill all six trustee seats under a court-ordered cumulative voting system.
...
The village has hired FairVote and a full-time coordinator to help organize the voter education effort.

NY: Racial Roots Underlie Debate on Felons’ Voting Rights
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/a-call-for-voting-rights-for-parolees/

NY: Brennan Ctr for Justice Report: Jim Crow in New York
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/jimcrowny
Together, targeted criminalization and felony disenfranchisement stripped African Americans of their voting rights – and suppressed African American’s political power for decades. The discriminatory impact of these laws and practices continues to this day.

TX: 49th District Court Decides on Voting Machines (uses optical scan and DRES)
http://www.laredosun.us/notas.asp?id=3919
Webb County. "By law only people with a disability can use these machines, especially people with a sight problems"...

WA: Wash. House says all elections should be via mail (bill heads to senate next)
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_xgr_mail_in_ballots.html
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state House says Pierce County should get in line with Washington's other 38 counties and switch to all-mail voting.

WA: R-71 petitions: Supreme Court sets April hearing
http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/FromOurCorner/index.php/2010/02/r-71-petitions-supreme-court-sets-april-hearing/
The U.S. Supreme Court has set an April 28 hearing date for a nationally watched public records-elections case arising from Washington’s practice of allow public release of initiative and referendum petitions under terms of the state’s voter-approved Public Records Act.


National

A Reminder: You Don’t Want Voting Controlled By One Company
http://jenkinsear.com/2010/02/15/a-reminder-you-dont-want-voting-controlled-by-one-company/
This merger is terrible. On face, we certainly don’t want one company controlling virtually all of our voting. Political cronyism and potential abuse aside, ES&S’ subpar track record also reinforces the aforementioned point.

New option for states on inmates in the Census
http://nonprofitvote.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-option-for-states-on-inmates-in.html
“The census is going to say where the prisons are and how many people are in them, which will enable states the practical choice of counting them in the wrong place or not counting them at all.”

Stuart Taylor Writes Extensive Review of Thernstrom's "Voting Rights--And Wrongs"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015293.html

Not Reauthorizing Things, Including the EAC
http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/?p=3113
Scott Adler (Associate Professor at the University of Colorado) and I have an opinion piece in Roll Call today about how Congress has basically given up on the basic work of running the government.


International

Afghanistan's government seeks more control over elections
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/14/AR2010021401698.html
Monday, February 15, 2010 HERAT, AFGHANISTAN -- The Afghan government has drafted proposed changes to election law that would remove all three foreign members from the body that investigates fraud, limit the number of women in parliament and establish a host of new qualifications for candidates to run for office.
...
Presidential candidates would also have to deposit 5 million afghanis (about $100,000), which would be refunded only if the candidate wins or receives at least 20 percent of the vote. Of the 32 presidential candidates listed by the election commission in the final results of last year's vote, only two cleared this threshold.

India: Indian EVMs cannot be trusted: BJP President Gadkari
http://janamejayan.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/indian-evms-cannot-be-trusted-bjp-president-gadkari/
New Delhi: Urging members across the political spectrum to initiate a debate on the ’sanctity’ of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in India ‘which are the easiest to hack’, BJP President Nitin Gadkari said paper back-up during elections was ‘necessary.’


Iraq: Only 1 in 5 blacklisted Iraqi candidates to run
http://bit.ly/a1mcSq
BAGHDAD — A controversial Iraqi political panel has banned all but 93 of the hundreds of the candidates it blacklisted as being loyalists to Saddam Hussein from running in next month's elections.

UK: Goldman Sachs accused of rigging tax vote (internet voting)
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26716188-5015825,00.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.