More vote buying in KY. Berkeley WV votes counted twice. Indian EVMs ate votes.

Another KY vote buying scheme, this time in Perry Co...Berkely CO WV's early voted ballots counted twice...The City of Aspen CO claims to have spent $75K+ to keep citizens from viewing ballot images of May 5 2009 election...The EAC internet voting pilot test requirements are too weak for real elections. Joel Rothschild, Chief of Staff of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, noted: "I have reviewed the proposed requirements and do not feel they provide sufficiently robust guidelines to ensure adequate protection from the existing electronic threat environment or national level threats."...

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

AZ: Smith: Recorder should investigate vote*
http://www.yumasun.com/news/election-60941-state-smith.html
The issue of possible voter fraud became public with the release Wednesday of a letter Bennett had sent to Smith dated May 4 asking the county attorney to investigate irregularities in the San Luis primary election on March 9. His concern rose from the rejection of nearly 10 percent of early ballots for that election because they had signatures that didn't match those of the registered voters.

CA: Officials preparing to hold SD15 at 'drop of a hat'
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/05/sd15-election-o.html

CA: Editorial: Primary election 'reform' is chicanery
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20100513/OPINION/5130308

CO: The costs of transparency
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/letter-editor/140604
The city claims to have put $75,000 worth of legal resources toward fighting Marilyn Marks and keeping her from looking at scanned ballot images from the May 2009 election. And now they’ve hired a big time criminal defense attorney from Denver to keep fighting transparency issues from that same election.

CO: Why the resistance?
http://www.aspentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100514/LETTER/100519894/
The Aspen Times reports that the city attorney says that the Election Commission cannot audit the election.
...
The city has now spent over a year and barrels of cash to fight transparency, rather than allow a routine election audit. Why?

CO: Pollbook 101
http://coloradovotergroup.blogspot.com/2010/05/pollbook-101.html

FL: Federal appeals court again dismisses Duval blind voter lawsuit (9 yrs of litig)
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-05-13/story/federal-appeals-court-again-dismisses-duval-blind-voter-lawsuit
They say Duval County voting machines didn’t comply with the law.

IN: ANOTHER INDIANA ELECTION TO BE DECIDED BY A PROVISIONAL VOTER WHO MUST SHOW UP WITH ID http://electionlawblog.org/archives/015984.html

KY: Former Perry County official gets 12 months in vote-buying case*
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/05/14/1264097/former-perry-county-official-gets.html
A former Perry County circuit clerk has been sentenced to 12 months in prison in a vote-buying case.
Chester Jones, who also served a term as state representative, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in London.
...
Jones admitted he took $7,500 that was supposed to be used in efforts to boost voter turnout and instead bought votes with it.

MT: ELECTION OFFICIALS: SOME PRIMARY VOTES CANNOT BE COUNTED
http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/93734524.html Election officials say some of the first ballots to be mailed back in are heavy, indicating that the voter cast both the republican and democrat ballots. And those will be tossed out come Election Day.

NC: Recount requested
http://www.luminanews.com/article.asp?aid=6154&iid=215&sud=30
Meanwhile, another defeated Republican commission candidate, Justin LaNasa, is gathering evidence that he hopes will prod election officials into nullifying the successful quarter-cent sales tax referendum.

LaNasa, who filed an official protest of the referendum outcome on Monday that claims "statistical irregularities," alleges that turnout for the referendum was suspiciously high when compared to that of other contests

NY: Elections Board not sure if NY-29 special is legal (updated)
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/26663/elections-board-not-sure-if-ny-29-special-is-legal/

OR: Video: Unusual binary ballot offers a peek inside the process
Reporter receives two voter ballots, sets out to discover how and why it happened
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100513/NEWS/5130342/1001/news
Multiple ballots typically occur when residents have updated their voter information, such as changing their name, address or party affiliation.

PA: Election Reform Network Faults Montco Voting Machines
http://thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com/diary/2513/election-reform-network-faults-montco-voting-machines

VA: Write-in votes – from Elmo to Bernie Madoff
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/write-in_votes_from_elmo_to_bernie_madoff879/
...The beloved Disney mouse received 96 votes in Purcellville, including four misspelled versions of his name. One voter even offered up a side note: “Mickey Mouse (Minnie also accepted).”

Dianna Price, secretary of Loudoun County’s Electoral Board, said automated phone calls generated out of North Carolina at the request of an unknown individual told voters in Purcellville to write in Mickey Mouse for the mayoral seat against incumbent Bob Lazaro, who ran unopposed.

SD: Federal court dismisses voting rights lawsuit against Martin, S.D.
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9099&Itemid=109
A federal appeals court has sided with the South Dakota city of Martin in a lawsuit alleging that its city council districts diminished the voting rights of American Indians.

WV: Tally error discovered *(MARTINSBURG. uses ES&S iVotronic with RTAL printer)
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/536717.html
Berkeley County adjusts vote totals after making mistake on election night
..early voting ballots were unknowingly counted twice for each candidate's overall totals...this happened for every race and the error wasn't detected until Wednesday.


National

Champaign County Clerk: Didn’t Take Long
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2010/05/13/that-didnt-take-long/
I’ve written before about the MOVE Act, federal legislation that attempts to facilitate voting by overseas and military voters....

Internet Voting Watch

Verified Voting: Comments on EAC UOCAVA Pilot Program Testing Requirements
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/05/13/531
Despite the short time available for comment, many substantive comments were submitted, including from Verified Voting. While we do not mention them all here, there were many insightful comments and we urge you to read through them. Many of the comments expressed recurring themes...:

India: Who says Indian EVMs are failsafe? (PART 3) ‘Lost’ Ballots, EVMs ‘delete’ votes http://www.indianevm.com/blogs/?p=118
I had referred to the problem of EVMs observed in Tamil Nadu and Orissa in my previous blogs. In this post, I am listing a number of cases where the votes have been lost in the EVMs after they have been cast!

Philippines: Trooper killed as NPAs try to get poll machine
http://www.malaya.com.ph/05142010/news6.html
A SOLDIER died Wednesday in a botched attempt by New People’s Army rebels to snatch a voting machine and other election paraphernalia in Tanay, Rizal.

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