Sarasota Group: investigate Kathy Dent's no-audit decision. ACORN to end operations. Election integrity v costs

The Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections wants the state attorney and sheriff to investigate Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent's decision not to have a spot-check audit last Tuesday of the school tax referendum results. "We must hold our elected officials accountable," ~alliance co-founder Kindra Munt....The value of paper ballots demonstrated in Pelham MA after public recount of the March 9 election. "Neither side can say anything. Here it is, this is it. Everybody that's important witnessed it,"~ Mike Pietrillo,resident...Costs: The Indiana SOS wants consolidated Vote Centers in all 92 counties and says they will save money. That may be true but Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes says more study is needed first: “If the election process fails, it doesn't matter if it saved us money or not.”...Al Kolwicz of Colorado Voter Group to Boulder County on the need for preserving polling place voting: "...it is vital that election cost is not awarded a higher priority than election integrity and voter confidence."...

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

CA: Oakland ordinance to set-aside campaign aide money hurts Libby Schaaf
http://bit.ly/czEKXn

CA: The real cost of a special election to replace Newsom ($6.5M counting public finance funds) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?&entry_id=59517
San Francisco: Momentum for a special election to replace Mayor Gavin Newsom if he wins his bid for lieutenant governor has slowed considerably, largely because of its $3.5 million price tag.

CA: Internal Affairs: San Jose council rolled the dice and lost
http://www.mercurynews.com/internal-affairs/ci_14714886?nclick_check=1
...Back in August, the San Jose City Council reached a crossroads in its effort to limit "soft money" in elections by capping contributions to independent political groups...On a 6-5 vote... the council voted to keep the cap.

CO: Ivan C. Meek: No all-mail elections
http://bit.ly/dtRT4r ..."Do we really want to argue that we can’t afford real elections because all-mail is cheaper? If real democracy cost a little more, do we just skip it for an administrative procedure?"~ Ivan C. Meek Louisville

CO: Polling place voting is more secure and more accurate than mail ballots
http://bit.ly/9FS1za

CO: Bullet Voting in Aspen's IRV Election - Memo by Millard Zimet
http://bit.ly/cQ1AAm ...purpose of this memo is to observe the actual voting data generated by Aspen’s May 2009 Mayoral and City Council IRV elections with regards to bullet voting, and to observe whether bullet voting impacted the outcomes...

DE: Delaware Minor Parties Get Publicity for Complaint Against Implementing Tougher Ballot Access Rules in 2010
http://bit.ly/abCjWg ...The bill instantly removed several minor parties from the ballot, including the Constitution, Green, and Working Families Parties

FL: Group wants action on no-audit decision
http://bit.ly/aiGqGP SARASOTA COUNTY - The Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections wants the state attorney and sheriff to investigate Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent's decision not to have a spot-check audit last Tuesday of the school tax referendum results.

FL: Florida Files U.S. Supreme Court Brief in Case on Petitioning at the Polls
http://bit.ly/bFNagE

HI: Hawaii Considers Law To Combat Obama 'Birthers'
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/Hawai.obama.birth.2.1568916.html
If Passed, State Would Be Allowed To Ignore Repeated Requests For President's Birth Certificate

IN: Election costs to rise if pilot vote center program dies
http://bit.ly/axWxGE

KY: Testimony ends in Clay vote-buying trial
http://bit.ly/cCxwrg With that accomplished, prosecution and defense attorneys will present closing arguments Monday and Tuesday, and jurors will begin deliberating Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves said.

KY: No conflict of interest for Grayson (he can oversee his own election)
http://www.state-journal.com/news/article/4791736

MA: Pelham recount upholds outcome
http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_078024835.html
About 40 people sat at tables in a cordoned off area in Pelham High School's library to recount the two warrant articles from the March 9 ballot...

MD: Thefts of laptops mistakenly sent to election center remain unsolved
http://bit.ly/aYHVWL It is still a mystery two years later exactly what happened to 60 laptop computers that were stolen from the Montgomery County Election Center.

NC: Felons For Sheriff
http://bit.ly/a2EWST An election is coming up for all 100 sheriff's in the state. Six of the people running for the position are convicted felons.
The North Carolina Sheriff's Association just voted to support a bill that would keep felons from running

NC: Officials want tighter TV rules
http://bit.ly/9KbVnL Weinbrecht, Frantz compromise on public access squabble.
CARY - Town officials want to keep some politicians from hogging air time on Cary's public access television station.

NH: VIDEO: Lyndeborough bans computerized voting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXOg3OZfGpw

NH: Trujillo named new state elections director
http://tinyurl.com/yd8xmzd

WV: Mountain Party of West Virginia Has Five Candidates This Year
http://bit.ly/c00tY0
The Mountain Party of West Virginia is that state’s affiliate of the Green Party.
...
Five individuals filed, either for the state legislature, or for partisan county...

WV: Constitution Party Petitioning for one West Virginia U.S. House Seat
http://bit.ly/c3hHsl

WV: Tennant Discusses International Voting Summit Live From Germany Via Skype
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/state/100321-staff-statevotingsummit.html
Tennant delivered a presentation on West Virginia's online voting pilot program for military and overseas voters. Five counties - Jackson, Kanawha, Marshall, Monongalia, and Wood - are participating in the pilot program.

National

BREAKING: ACORN Announces Intentions to 'Bring Operations to a Close'
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7757
Just one day after the New York Time's Public Editor Clark Hoyt finally admitting that both he and his paper were "wrong" in the way, for the last six months

NYT PUBLIC EDITOR FINALLY ADMITS: 'TIMES WAS WRONG, I WAS WRONG' ON ACORN COVERAGE
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7755

"Acorn on Brink of Bankruptcy, Officials Say"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015533.html

Ex-Offenders and the Vote
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/opinion/22mon3.html?ref=opinion
...Congress held hearings last week on a bill, the Democracy Restoration Act, that would allow released ex-felons to vote in federal elections. It would also require the states, which administer elections, to give them appropriate notice that this right has been restored.
...
There is no good reason to deny former prisoners the vote. Once they are back in the community — paying taxes, working, raising families — they have the same concerns as other voters, and they should have the same say in who represents them.

International

Canada: Mayor floats online voting
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2496835
Sarnia...Mike Bradley has asked city council to give staff the go-ahead to investigate Internet and mailin voting as a way to shake off voter apathy

Guam: Vendor's billing dispute led to hand-counting (ES&S)
http://www.kuam.com/Global/story.asp?S=12176853

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.