US Burgers, Ballots, Bogus Polls. Diebold-ing Brazil. Mexico's Bullets and ballots

San Joaquin Co California may adopt 100% vote by mail, meanwhile 12,500 mail ballots in Riverside co, in limbo. Assemblyman Brian Nestande introduced AB 2642 to address mail-ballot problems...Indiana online voter reg starts July 1...New York voting machines need simple fix to save 1000s of votes...Supreme Court Reaffirms Ban on Soft Money...Burgers & ballots & election transparency as mainstream issue...Brazil buys Diebold voting machines...In Mexico,"intimidation and corruption will likely lead to the courts ultimately ruling on the results of up to half of the races"...Protect the Internet, but How?

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

CA: Bill would allow outstanding election ballots to be counted (AB 2642)
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100629/NEWS0301/100629026/Bill-would-allow-outstanding-election-ballots-to-be-counted- Bill would allow outstanding election ballots to be counted

CA: Hearings for important election bills are scheduled as follows:
http://www.projectvote.org/blog/?p=669
California - Convenience Voting bill, S 970; Voter Registration Drive bill, A 2101 & Election Day Registration bill, A 1531

CA: Report: Replace polling places with mail-in ballots
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100629/A_NEWS/100629833/-1/NEWSMAP STOCKTON — Ditching polling places in favor of mail-in ballots would save San Joaquin County $500,000 a year, according to a grand jury report released Monday.

CT: Merrill, Garcia discuss contributions, increasing participation, and DeRosa’s exclusion from debate http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=3319

IN: Indiana will begin online voter registration July 1
http://www.wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=12727182

ME: Portland Charter Commission to take up two key issues Thursday
Commissioners could propose ranked-choice voting and veto power for the city's mayor.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/changes-to-citys-charter-must-be-proposed-thursday-_2010-06-29.html

NC: Bladen commissioner cleared of voter fraud allegations
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2010/06/28/1009889?sac=Home
Blanks acknowledged that she asked poll workers at the second site if she could vote, but she told investigators she was trying to test the computer system's ability to prevent such fraud.

NJ: Passaic County Elections Chief Battles Union Over Firing of Four Workers
http://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/passaic_politics/
97366864_Election_chief_to_challenge_rehirings.html http://is.gd/d9lwC
Freytes has appealed arbitrator Robert T. Simmelkjaer's May 14 finding that her decision to fire the four voting machine technicians was "motivated by anti-union animus," and not simply a cost-cutting move as she maintains.

NY: New York’s New Voting System Procedure Could Cost Tens of Thousands of Lost Votes And Disproportionately Impact Communities of Color
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/06/28-19
Brennan Center, Hazel Dukes, and Others Call for Simple Fix this Monday at City Hall

NY: Ballot Squabble Becomes A Federal Case »
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/06/ballot-squabble-becomes-a-fede.html
The voter disenfranchisement suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court today against the New York State Board of Elections basically boils down to voters being asked to play a game of "Red Light/Green Light" -- where the rules make no sense.

PA: Hearings for important election bills are scheduled as follows:
http://www.projectvote.org/blog/?p=669
Felon Voting Rights bill, H 1072 is scheduled to be heard on the House floor today. This bill provides released prisoners with voter registration materials

SC: Associated Press Sees No, Hears No, Speaks No E-Voting System Fraud Nor Failure
100% unverifiable e-voting 'not the droid you're looking for'..
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7918

SC: SC bill on voter ID and early voting could die
http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/06/29/1560302/sc-bill-on-voter-id-and-early.html

SC: SLED and the 5th Circuit solicitor's office to investigate Alvin Greene's finances http://www.examiner.com/x-46109-Augusta-Religion--Politics-Examiner~y2010m6d29-SLED-and-the-5th-Circuit-solicitors-office-to-investigate-Alvin-Greenes-finances

WI: Forum on the Wisconsin redistricting process
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fairelectionswisconsin/message/2389

WV: Death Sets Up Special Election In Two Years
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003692355
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III (D) will appoint a replacement to fill the seat of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D) until November 2012, when both a special election and a general election will take place on Election Day.

WV: West Virginia Republican Senate Leader Says Republicans Will Sue for a Special U.S. Senate Election This Year
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/06/29/west-virginia-republican-senator-says-republicans-will-sue-for-a-special-u-s-senate-election-this-year/

Internet Voting Watch

Cybersecurity: Protect the Internet, but How?
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/5915/cybersecurity-protect-the-internet-but-how Electronic espionage and other cyber threats are at this point inevitable, whether conducted against the U.S. or practiced by it.

Chinese cyber agents rigging polls on RMB?
http://alphabets.typepad.com/alphabets/2010/06/chinese-cyber-agents-rigging-polls-on-rmb.html Nobody voted Yes. At least, not until last Wednesday, when almost all of the Yes votes we received all week arrived in the space of a few minutes from a range of IP addresses that suggests a location somewhere in Mongolia.

National

Supreme Court Reaffirms Ban on Soft Money, Once a Powerful Factor in Political Campaigns
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/06/supreme-court-re-affirms-ban-on-sof.html

Of Burgers, Ballots and Bogus Polls
Without full transparency and citizen oversight, there is almost no way to root out (election) fraud, as hopefully Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas now understands...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7919 Whether it's computer-printed ballots, Internet Voting (yes, insanely, that's next!), or "open source" computer code resulting in unverifiable elections and concealed vote counted, enough is enough.

Making Registering and Voting Easier for You
http://www.dodlive.mil/index.php/2010/06/making-registering-and-voting-easier-on-you/
This summer FVAP will also be deploying an online assistant for back-up ballots (the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot, or FWAB), usable for all States’ federal races, and for 20 States, a full online ballot delivery and marking assistant for federal, State and local races.

As We Celebrate Independence Day, Many New Citizens Still Left Out Of American
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/06/29-5 Democracy Should Be Uniformly Offered Voter Registration At Naturalization Ceremonies

AE Brookings Institute Newsletter
http://electionreformproject.org/Resources/a61cd831-f274-43bd-8d37-2adc290caa00/r1/Detail.aspx This final issue of our electronic newsletter gives us an opportunity to reflect on the state of election administration in the United States almost a decade after the extended and controversial vote count in the 2000 presidential election and to suggest how additional changes in technology, election law and administrative practices might further strengthen American elections in the years ahead.

International

Brazil Orders Diebold Machines Ahead of Schedule, JP Morgan Pulls Revenue Forward
http://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/10/06/353873/brazil-orders-diebold-machines-ahead-of-schedule-jp-morga The Superior Electoral Court of Brazil has ordered a second purchase of 30,000 voting machines from Diebold. 195,000 Diebold machines could ship in 2Q-3Q2010.

Democracy in Canada: Elections and Voting
http://www.cdnexperience.ca/read-the-series/9-democracy-in-canada-elections-and-voting/ Canada’s first federal election was hardly democratic. Voting in 1867 was limited to upper class, male, British subjects. There was no secret ballot and no law to govern campaign contributions.

In Germany, Calling for a Popular Vote Despite a Troubled Past
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/world/europe/30iht-germany.html
“History plays an important role in explaining why German presidents have been chosen since 1949 by this special assembly,” said Oskar Niedermayer, political science professor at Berlin’s Free University. “It was an attempt to curb the powers of that office but also prevent a wave of populism re-emerging.”

Mexico: Where Bullets are Intimidating the Ballot
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2000511,00.html
Last Friday, gubernatorial candidate Rodolfo Torre raised both arms to the sky in front of 15,000 cheering white-shirted supporters in a baseball stadium minutes from the Rio Grande...on Monday, as Torre left the state capital to conclude his campaign, assailants showered his convoy with gunfire from automatic rifles and heavy caliber weapons, killing him instantly.
...
Races have been dampened by arrests of candidates on racketeering charges, leaked tapes of organized vote buying and a succession of violent attacks. After the Torre killing, some politicians asked for half of the races to be suspended. "This is extremely worrying," says political scientist Maria Eugenia Valdes. "If there is fear and violence, there is no freedom. And if there is no freedom we cannot have fair elections."

Philippines: Independent probe of May polls sought
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100630-278347/Independent-probe-of-May-polls-sought MANILA, Philippines—With a poll automation champion’s bleak assessment of the system used in the May 10 elections, there could hardly be any closure on the Philippines’ experience with counting machines and compact flash cards.

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.Archives here at http://votingnews.blogspot.com/
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