Cancel the Voting Machines? Lost Voters, Lost Votes. MontCo PA blames voters

In "Cancel the Voting Machines?" The Brian Leher show discusses NY voting machine problems...RivCo CA gets more voting machines, keeps registrar...MontCo PA officials blame voters for lost votes...Huffington Post is running internet vote vendor Scytl's press release as an editorial. The "piece" touts internet voting as getting rid of hanging chads or any other problem. The piece doesn't mention Scytl's involvement in Finland's failed i-voting experiment in 2008....Lost voters, lost votes? In 2008, an estimated 1.9 million voters did not cast a ballot for one simple and solvable reason: they did not know where to go...

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

AZ: Computer glitch causes errors in Mesa voter information
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/07/14/20100714mesa-voter-information-glitch.html
A glitch in a computer program created inaccurate information in voter registration records at the Maricopa County Recorder's Mesa office in recent weeks.

Yvonne Reed, communications director for the Maricopa County Elections Department, said the problem was traced to a program installed in the Mesa terminals and has been corrected.

CA: REGION: Riverside County to invest in election equipment
SUPERVISORS CONSIDER VOTE COUNTERS FOR EACH POLLING PLACE
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/swcounty/article_f2b4e23b-a22d-5008-85ed-ef17fc0b2ef7.html

CA: Registrar to stay, $650,000 to go
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100714/NEWS0301/7140314/Registrar+
to+stay+++650+000+to+go http://is.gd/dtC4i

CA: District elections blocked by San Mateo supervisors
http://www.examiner.com/x-1891-San-Mateo-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d13-District-Elections-Blocked-by-San-Mateo-Supervisors ...denying county voters the option to vote on a local ballot measure to change the way in which supervisors are elected..

DC: Moten urges Fenty to veto vote-buying bill
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2010/07/moten_urges_fenty_to_veto_vote.html
...ally of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) is calling on the mayor to veto a D.C. Council bill approved Tuesday that would make it a local crime to pay someone to vote.

FL: Seminole County amps up voting technology
http://www.seminolechronicle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2010/07/14/4c3e22269aac2

GA: St. Marys voters to consider majority elections
Plurality decides races now, but a referendum could change all that.
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-07-13/story/st-marys-voters-consider-majority-elections

IL: Illinois Republican Party is Victim of 2009 “Anti-Slating” Law
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/07/15/illinois-republican-party-is-victim-of-2009-anti-slating-law/

IL: Polling place privacy -- a good idea, long overdue
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2010/07/primary.html

IL: State's attorney election trial begins
http://register-news.com/local/x536262299/States-attorney-election-trial-begins
MT. VERNON — The Jefferson County State’s Attorney election contest trial started on Tuesday, with a parade of witnesses who voted in the Nov. 4, 2008, election being called by former candidate Nicole Villani.
...
During his opening statements on Tuesday, Villani’s attorney, Morris Lane Harvey, claimed there was “such a pervasive practice of irregularities in that precinct from start to finish ... that Mt. Vernon 12 precinct in relation to votes cast on election day, should not be counted at all.”

MD: Baltimore County Man Cited For Election Sign
http://www.wbaltv.com/politics/24250565/detail.html
County Says Campaign Poster 'Too Big'
...
Stouten got creative and cut the big sign down into four pieces -- each under 8 square feet -- and put the sign back up.

MI: Tea Party Appears to Qualify for the Michigan Ballot
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/07/14/tea-party-appears-to-qualify-for-the-michigan-ballot/

MN: Pawlenty: Investigate felon votes in Senate race
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/98472564.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUqEiaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

MN: DID ENOUGH ILLEGAL FELONS VOTE IN MINNESOTA IN 2008 TO TIP THE BALANCE TO AL FRANKEN? http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016422.html

MN: Doc, Elvis or Santa: When is a nickname OK on ballot?
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/98470854.html

NC: Local company unveils mobile voting site
http://www.enctoday.com/news/voting-89005-nbsj-mobile-carolina.html
Developed by Dunn Office Solutions – Print Elect of New Bern, the all-American looking 38-foot Winnebago has an interior designed to hold elections officials and as many as 15 voting machines and voters.

NY: Cancel the Voting Machines? (The Brian Lehrer Show Podcast)
http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2010/jul/14/cancel-voting-machines/
Wendy Weiser, counsel in The Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and Monifa Bandele, senior programs & outreach manager at The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, discuss a recent lawsuit which attempts to block the use of voting machines in New York, claiming they lead to the cancellation of tens of thousands of votes.

NY: NEW VOTING SYSTEM BRINGS NEW COSTS TO COUNTY
http://www.ccscoop.com/news/10july/11-voting/voting.html

OH: Could It Be The Wave Of The Future? (2% voter turnout)
http://www.whiotv.com/politics/24262050/detail.html
It was the very first use of the voting center concept in the state. A new law allowed its use in the special election that featured three Democrats in the race for Congress.
...
A few voiced complaints of having to drive farther to cast their ballot.
The vote turnout was less than two percent in Montgomery County.
Turnout was even lighter in the one county that had all of its precincts open throughout the day.

OK: Felony charges filed against Adair County man in voter fraud case
http://oklahoma.watchdog.org/928/felony-charges-filed-against-adair-county-man-in-voter-fraud-case/ Cates, 73, of Westville, Okla. had four counts brought against him July 13th in the District Court of the 15th Judicial District of Oklahoma: two were for false affidavit in voting registration and two for false notarization of absentee ballot.

OR: ‘Fusion voting’ links D’s and R’s with I’s on ballots
Oregon’s Independent Party voting might mean endorsements for candidates
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=127908156463941400

PA: Voter issues target of study (voting machines not user friendly)
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer/the_intelligencer_
news_details/article/27/2010/july/09/voter-issues-target-of-study.html
http://is.gd/dtC5G The Montco election board plans to take steps to be sure voters hit the "cast vote" button on election machines before leaving the booth.

Montgomery County will create several new election initiatives designed to cut down on discrepancies between the number of voters tallied on its electronic voting machines and the number hand-recorded at the polling places.

SC: Florence County Council OKs $1 million bid to build elections facility
http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news/local/pee_dee/article/florence_county_
council_oks_1_million_bid_to_build_elections_facility/224339/ http://is.gd/dtCcs
Florence County Council has approved a nearly $1 million bid for construction of the new Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Commission building.

TX: Mail-in voter fraud subject of election administrators’ forum
http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2010/07/mailin-voter-fraud-subject-of-election-administrators/1279054846.story Voters and officials discouraged by the free reign held by vote harvesters, or politiqueras, have mostly given up asking Austin for help.

UT: Bernard sues over election results
http://www.sunews.net/article.cfm?articleID=609 The petitioner (Bernard), alleges that illegal votes were received and legal votes were rejected in the election sufficient to change the result of the election; ...that a correct tally will change the result of the election;

WA: WA election officials investigate initiative fraud
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_initiative_fraud.html
State Elections Director Nick Handy says it appears to be "an isolated problem" of one signature-gatherer submitting 20 petitions with possibly falsified signatures.

WV: Special judge appointed for election contest; Absentee applicants hauled voters, held signs http://www.lincolnjournalinc.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=5390&wpage=1&skeyword=
&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=
&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=2186&hn=
lincolnjournalinc&he=.com http://is.gd/dtCdX

Internet Voting Watch

Huffington Post: Digital Democracy: Scytl, MySociety Secure Funding
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheila-shayon/digital-democracy-scytl-m_b_646034.html

Finnish E-Voting Results Annulled By The Supreme Administrative Court
22 April, 2009 http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.8/evoting-annuled-finland
[2% of results missing. Scytl was involved.
Finnish EVoting CoE Comparison
http://www.effi.org/system/files?file=FinnishEVotingCoEComparison_Effi_20080801.pdf
Scytl website http://www.scytl.com/categoria_ing_10.htm

National

Lost Voters, Lost Votes
http://www.votinginfoproject.org/blog/index.cfm/2010/7/15/Lost-Voters-Lost-Votes
The New Organizing Institute (NOI) – a project partner and key member of the Voting Information Project team -- has recently released an important white paper analyzing the shamefully high number of voters who don't vote solely because they cannot find their polling place location.
...because of redistricting following the 2010 Census, the 2012 presidential election could make finding polling places even more difficult for voters:

DEPT. OF UNDERSTATEMENT
WaPo: "It's turning into the year of setbacks for campaign finance regulations."
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016424.html

Pew Center Commends Uniform Law Commission for Military and Overseas Voters Act
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/07/15/717

2008 voter-intimidation case against New Black Panthers a political bombshell
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/14/AR2010071405880.html

International

Indonesia: E-voting needs special precautions, judge says
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/07/15/evoting-needs-special-precautions-judge-says.html

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