Sarasota Election Sup silence on issues. NH Town bans e-voting. Ventura on e-voting. Colombia hack contd

"Silence isn't golden for election issue" writes Tom Lyons, FL Herald Tribune. Kathy Dent failed to announce that she would not conduct the charter mandated pre certification election audits. Other examples of Dent's silence: when she left an entire Republican's primary state Senate race off some absentee ballots that had been mailed; and the 2006 Fl 13 Congressional race - Dent ignored advice to warn voters about a problem with the touchscreens that could cause some voters choices to go unrecorded...New articles on Colombian vote hack which might be a denial of service issue and vendor says of course that no votes were changed....

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


CA: Tentative Ruling in Ni v. Slocum Issued By Superior Court
http://bit.ly/bd65Hz
...the Court stated: “The digital image of a purportedly completed initiative petition stored on a USB flash drive does not constitute a petition or paper for purposes of determining what the Elections Office must process.”

CA: Morales pleads guilty to voter fraud
http://bit.ly/d8Zb79 ...Prosecutors say Morales received two mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 special election: one addressed to Molly Janice Morales and another addressed to Molly M. LaPointe

CA: Oakland mayor may break tie on campaign finance
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_14698787
...casting a tiebreaking vote that would preserve $100,000 for the city's public campaign financing program while diverting another $100,000 for voter education, his chief of staff said Wednesday.

FL: Lyons: Silence isn't golden for election issue
http://bit.ly/dpdqG3 Maybe Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent really believed there wasn't time, for the March 16 election, to obey the Sarasota County charter.
...
Why did she dare keep this problem a secret? Why didn't Dent and the county attorney announce that, despite the court ruling, they would still not be complying with the law this time, and explain why?

GA: Georgia debates online voter registration
http://bit.ly/dcRCQe ...SB 406 would help voters, save taxpayer dollars and help prevent voter fraud

GA: Polling places set to move; other Montgomery precincts face consolidation http://bit.ly/b0pJj9 ...Probate Judge Reese McKinney is asking the Montgomery County Commission to consider adopting a comprehensive reorganization plan that would consolidate smaller precincts into super precincts.

NH: Voters: Count ballots by hand
Petition article to prohibit computerized vote counting passes
http://www.ledgertranscript.com/article/voters-count-ballots-by-hand
LYNDEBOROUGH — By approving a petition warrant article at Saturday’s Town Meeting, Lyndeborough voters made their town perhaps the first in the nation to formally prohibit computerized vote counting and ensure the tradition of hand counting paper ballots.

NM: Interesting Ballot Access/Qualifications Issue in New Mexico
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015510.html

NY: Governor may call for special election by Friday
http://bit.ly/dhPVVS ... the old lever machines will be in use for the last time in the special election - except in Allegany, where the districts took part in a pilot plan using the new electronic voting machines last year. The lever machines will be used because not all election workers have been trained in the use of the new electronic voting machines, which scan marked ballots and provide handicapped voters with a viewing...

National

Pew Center Issues Updated Cost Report http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2010/03/18/pew-center-issues-update-cost-report/
Champaign County Clerk I’ve written much about the battle by some to radicalize the voter registration process. Part of the battle has been to decry the high cost of maintaining the current voter registration system.

"Citizens United to stop the Citizens [who are] United Against Citizens United"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015505.html

Do electronic voting machines prevent voters from verifying their ballots?
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura wants a receipt.
http://bit.ly/bkgQt4

Colombia Vote Hack (internet transmission of votes disrupted)

Cyberattack Prevents Transmission of Election Results in Colombia
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=353896&CategoryId=12393
He added that a coordinated attack from a network of computers was found to have been orchestrated “to try to crash the Web site of the Registrar’s Office,” which organizes Colombia’s elections.

New company replaces UNE for ballot-counting duties
http://bit.ly/aMtCh1 The official announced that the new company, ASD, will be recounting the votes from last Sunday's election, as well as working on Colombia's presidential elections in May.

Colombian election flaws
http://www.joshuafrens-string.com/2010/03/colombian-election-flaws.html
...include problems with keeping votes secret, vote buying, a confusing and complex voting system, and the potential for distorted preliminary results...


Internet Voting Watch

Canada: Council upholds decision on new voting method
http://www.stratfordgazette.com/news/article/87228
...
At last week’s meeting, council defeated a motion to reconsider the implementation of telephone and Internet voting for this November’s municipal election.
...
Bringing up the issue as new business, Nickel expressed concern that it may be easier to cast a fraudulent vote over the Internet than it would be in person at a polling station.

Europe: Letters: Crucial decisions for the modernisation of our voting system
http://bit.ly/d4gABf ...should be wary of all forms of absentee voting.
...
The evidence is also that online voting is probably impossible to secure fully.

To Battle Computer Hackers, the Pentagon Trains Its Own
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1972896,00.html

Nato help needed to fight cyber war
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/7465535/Nato-help-needed-to-fight-cyber-war.html

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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