Clay KY vote buying contd. Cost vs Ballot integrity. Fed $ for NM voting system upkeep.

"The integrity of our ballots should supersede other considerations." ~ Mary C. Eberle, President, Coloradans for Voting Integrity op-ed in favor of keeping precinct voting in Bolder County, Colorado....Voting activist Harvie Branscomb has an OpEd about judges decision to not hear the ballot image case in Aspen...Former Clay KY official jailed for dining with witness...Budget cutbacks make voting system switch in NY tougher...Cuyahoga County to get $7.5 million in settlement over former voting equipment...Another Bill in Tennessee to Discourage Voting...


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

AL: Voters react to Birmingham election change proposal
http://www.myfoxal.com/Global/story.asp?S=12146611
BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Birmingham voters spoke out Monday night about the prospect of putting the city council and mayor's races on the same election cycle, giving Mayor William Bell an extra two years in office before he must run for re-election

CA: Plan to educate Oakland on ranked-choice vote
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/15/BANS1CF4F8.DTL
Many city leaders and activists worry that the so-called ranked-choice voting method will confuse voters
...
A proposal from council members Ignacio De La Fuente and Rebecca Kaplan on tonight's council agenda suggests taking $225,000 from the city's limited public financing program and spending it on voter education. That's on top of the $146,000 that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters will use to educate the citizenry.

CO: Guest opinion: Keep Colorado's voting integrityhttp://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14680272#axzz0iMCdFUqO
As County Clerks and Recorders around the state work to garner support for all-mail ballot elections, it is worth reviewing the vulnerabilities of this method of voting and how voting by mail weakens the integrity of our elections.

CO: 16 Colorado towns cancel municipal elections
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22849899/detail.html

CO: Bravo, Marilyn
http://bit.ly/bLWkVn
Elections are unfortunately becoming shrouded in unnecessary additional secrecy, complexity and obscurity. Evidence about election quality is regularly destroyed whether or not required by law, as it is for municipal elections.

CT: One Vote, Or Three Votes They Are All Important
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=2973
Two recent interesting stories in the Courant that relate to past posts, both point to the value of individual votes.

FL: Group sues for Spanish ballots - Suit cites voting rights of U.S.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/west-volusia/2010/03/14/group-sues-for-spanish-ballots.html
..."I've spoken to people, (and) some of them don't vote or don't vote completely because they don't understand it and they are intimidated," Rivera said. "We want them all to understand what they are voting for."

FL: County poll workers will get tested for literacy, blindness
http://www.cbs12.com/news/county-4724704-test-workers.html

GA: Thomas A. Wilson: No voter fraud (LTE)
http://onlineathens.com/stories/031310/let_589346844.shtml

KY: Ex-judge denies steering witness testimony
Maricle testifies for second day in vote-fraud trial
http://bit.ly/9yozhZ

KY: Former Clay official jailed for dining with witness
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/16/1184077/former-clay-official-to-be-jailed.html
FRANKFORT — Former Clay County school Superintendent Douglas C. Adams will spend the next several days in jail for having dinner at a Frankfort restaurant with a witness in the federal vote-fraud case against Adams and others.

NM: Federal agency pays NM’s big maintenance bill for voting machines
http://bit.ly/blmBpA
A federal agency is ponying up around $600,000 this year to provide upkeep for New Mexico’s more than 1,900 voting tabulators and voting machines.

NM: New law settles old issue of who owns NM’s voting machines
http://bit.ly/cXPJ0e
...A bill Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law in recent days renders the fight moot, state and local officials say, by requiring the state to pay for maintenance and upkeep of the voting equipment.

NM: Battle over officials resignation escalates
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1464623.shtml?cat=517

NY: Elections board says budget cuts a setback for e-vote devices
http://bit.ly/cCqMEc

OH: Dimora charges 'contract steering' as Cuyahoga County settles voting machine lawsuit
http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=132506&catid=3
Dimora claims the original purchase of the 5,700 touch-screen Diebold machines was a case of real corruption, "contract steering, blatant and obvious."

OH: Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora casts himself as public watchdog
http://bit.ly/aI6AE3

OH: Cuyahoga County to get $7.5 million in settlement over former voting equipment
http://bit.ly/awcwi7
...The plan also would give the elections board eight years of free software and free maintenance for its voter registration system.

OH: CAC seeks help to secure voting for homebound
http://bit.ly/dezecP

OH: Cuyahoga BOE: 715,995 mail-in ballot applications on their way
http://bit.ly/cg0r0h

TN: Another Bill in Tennessee to Discourage Voting
http://bit.ly/8YkE9g
Step 1, let’s load precinct with 2,500 more voters than we allow now. Step 2, let’s allocate fewer voting machines in each of these precincts with the 2,500 more voters. Mix together and then, Viola!, long lines!

TN: Dead purged from rolls
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20100316/OPINION01/3160308
And yet, the dead voted in a 2005 Shelby County special election to fill the vacant 29th state Senate District seat.

TX: Another Rankin Election - Will Same Voting Machines be Used?
http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=18479
On the heels of the technical error that added 600 extra votes in the primary election tally, voters will decide on a rollback election Tuesday.

TX: Texas Rangers investigate possible voter fraud in Starr County (absentee ballots)
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=430386

WA: King County’s Secret Ballot
http://horsesass.org/?p=25326
The world’s stupidest election has come around again, with the King County Conservation District giving new meaning to the term “secret ballot.” Dozens of voters will gather today at seven libraries throughout the county to cast ballots in a race that nobody but dedicated environmentalists and self-interested developers even know exists

WI: Area couple convicted of voting twice
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime_and_courts/article_a1d3878e-3090-11df-b6b3-001cc4c002e0.html

National

The American Voting Public Won’t Fall for it (ACORN and Voter Registration)
http://bit.ly/b1UyQ6
Voter registration fraud is more annoying than anything else. But you could fill out one thousand fake forms out to be registered ' but on voting day, none of those one thousand will actually go to the polls and cast a vote. Each person would not get more than one voter registration card. Any suspicious voter registration forms would be frozen and a voter registration card would not be made or sent out.

"Democratic Party Launching $20 Million Redistricting Effort In Key States"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015502.html

Restoring voting rights to millions
http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/restoring_voting_rights_to_millions/
Today Congress is listening to 4 million silenced Americans. Leaders of the House Judiciary Committee are holding a hearing on the Democracy Restoration Act, legislation that seeks to restore the right to vote to people with a criminal records who are out of prison, living in the community.

"Do electronic voting machines improve the voting process?"
Summary of Positions (at ProCon.org)
http://votingmachines.procon.org/source-biographies.php

Internet Voting

Canada: Worldwide ballot box
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2493814
The bilingual municipality of Clarence-Rockland (population 23,000) will be using Internet voting for the third time in the forthcoming election and phone voting for the fourth time after successful past experiences.
...
There were a couple of minor glitches with voter ID but other than that the change went smoothly, she said.
...
It appears Internet voting is mostly used by people who would have gone to traditional polling stations.

UK: A form of madness: trying to vote online
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100317/LIFE/703169962/1197&template=columnists
It is quite possible that the form is designed to put off people too thick to be allowed a vote at all.

What do the Targeted Attack emails look like?
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001908.html

International

Philippines: Security of PCOS machines in jeopardy, says Joey de Venecia III
http://bit.ly/cYy4q2


Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
Archives here at http://votingnews.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to Voting News at this link:
http://tinyurl.com/votingnews
To assist with Daily Voting News, please send links to news articles to us at votingnews@earthlink.net
=============================================
"The Voting News is a free service made possible in part by support from Verified Voting Foundation. You can help support the Voting News by sending a check to Verified Voting Foundation, PO Box 4104, Carlsbad, CA 92018. Be sure to note "for Voting News" in the memo line of your check! Your contribution is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law."
Donate online at this link: http://tinyurl.com/donate-vn

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.