Fix New York voting machines flaw. Tanner: Why Voter ID won't fly in Texas

ACLU Intervenes In Georgia Voting Rights Act Challenge...The Progressive Network wants audit of South Carolina election results...New York's new voting machines could disenfranchise thousands if not fixed. "What's striking about this problem is that it is easily avoidable. Election jurisdictions are able to control whether the machine 'warns' voters, or not." ~ James Hicks, EVIC...

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


CA: L.A. Registrar Issues Report on My Recent E-Vote failure, Appears Tonight on Malloy http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7932

CA: 'Human Error', 'Design Weakness', 'System Limitations' Blamed for Failures I Encountered (Again) This Year on L.A. County's E-Voting System
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7931
Registrar issues 5-page report, offering explanations for the no-less-than-6 different problems that occurred when I attempted to cast my ballot on the ES&S voting system last month..

CA: Salas-Vargas count dispute continues
http://www.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/all-in-favor-politics/2010/jul/06/salas-vargas-count-dispute-continues/ Only 12 votes separates leader Juan Vargas from Mary Salas in the 40th state Senate District Democratic primary election -- the one that was supposed to be over on election day, June 8.

Now it looks like the results will be in limbo at least until Friday, when a Riverside County judge has set a hearing to consider whether 12,500 uncounted ballots can legally be counted.

GA: ACLU Intervenes In Georgia Voting Rights Act Challenge
http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/aclu-intervenes-georgia-voting-rights-act-challenge
"The many U.S. citizen minority voters in Georgia who were incorrectly flagged as non-citizens under the state's voter-verification procedures can attest to the fact that discrimination in voting continues and the need for Section 5 remains," said Laughlin McDonald of the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

IL: Quinn signs legislation on early voting; controversy continues
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2010-07-06/quinn-signs-legislation-early-voting-controversy-continues.h
Gov. Pat Quinn has signed a controversial bill aimed at increasing voting on Illinois' public university campuses this fall, but that won't end the controversy

NC: Supreme Court decision affecting N.C. elections law
http://charlotte.news14.com/content/local_news/triangle/627804/supreme-court-decision-affecting-n-c--elections-law A bill is being built in a Senate judicial committee which would bring state law in line with this ruling. The bill is working to make sure disclosures on the ads are as informative as possible.

NY: Make sure every vote is counted
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100707/OPINION/7070304/Make-sure-every-vote-is-counted
"Numerous sources, including the state board, the voting machine vendor and independent computer scientists, have confirmed to us that requiring the machines to return overvote ballots requires only 'checking a box' in the setup file for these systems," said Lawrence Norden, senior counsel at the Brennan Center. He added, "It will not cause delay to do the right thing."

The glitch should be remedied before the machines are put into statewide use.

NY: Does not compute: Board of Elections needs to fix glitch in new voting machines
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/07/06/2010-07-06_does_not_compute.html
A dangerous glitch in New York's new electronic voting machines could disqualify thousands of ballots this fall.
...
This is idiotic. The clunky old lever voting machines New Yorkers have used for decades make it physically impossible to choose two candidates for a single office. As it should be.

NY: BoE Says It Cannot Afford To Pay For Primary And General Elections
Budget battle set against backdrop of executive director stalemate
http://www.cityhallnews.com/newyork/article-1366-boe-says-it-cannot-afford-to-pay-for-primary-and-general-elections.html (New York City)

NY: Limiting over-votes in New York state
http://www.earlyvoting.net/blog/2010/07/limiting-over-votes-new-york-state

NY: Did You Split Your Vote? Experts Scrutinize Port Chester Vote Data for Trends
http://portchester.patch.com/articles/did-you-split-your-vote-experts-scrutinize-port-chester-vote-data-for-trends
Using a wealth of data from exit polls and surveys, political scientists want to know how Port Chester voters used the new cumulative voting system

OH: Officials seek compensation for bad ballots
Printing error blamed on incorrect settings
http://www.ohio.com/news/97917264.html A printing error shifted the ovals filled in by voters in the May primary on 82 absentee ballots, making it impossible for the scanners to read the ballots. Board employees checked more than 9,000 absentee ballots by hand to make sure every vote was counted.

SC: Watchdog group wants audit of election results (AUDIO)
http://www.wrhi.com/2010/07/watchdog-group-wants-audit-of-election-results-audio/
A watchdog group in South Carolina has filed a complaint in federal court focused on requiring the state to preserve its voting records in federal elections. The Progressive Network is also working to arrange an audit of the entire June 8th primary.

SC: Alvin Greene: America's most unlikely politician
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/06/alvin-greene-south-carolina-senate
Last month, an unknown, unemployed former soldier astonished America by becoming the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's upcoming senate election. How on earth did he do it?

TX: Tanner: Why voter ID won't fly in Texas
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/tanner-why-voter-id-wont-fly-in-texas-788809.html
The Supreme Court has made clear that anti-ID forces can and will prevail if they can produce actual individuals whose right to vote will be denied or abridged by an ID requirement.

WV: Governor seeks AG opinion on Byrd replacement process
http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=15601

WV: Tennant defends state code interpretation
http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/531676.html?nav=5061
West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant defended her interpretation of the state code as it relates to filling the state's vacant U.S. Senate seat.

National

IS DOJ "ENGAGED IN A MASSIVE COVERUP OF ITS POLITICIZATION OF VOTING RIGHTS CASES"?
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016366.html

New Officers Selected for EAC Standards Board
http://idevmail.americaneagle.com/message.aspx?d=237&m=501&e=jmc27106@earthlink.net&r=3294&f=HTML
The new chair is Jim Silrum, North Dakota’s deputy secretary of state. Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division, is vice chair. Leslye Winslow, senior counsel to the Missouri Secretary of State, is secretary.

International

India: EVMs: TRS plan may put EC in a fix
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/EVMs-TRS-plan-may-put-EC-in-a-fix/articleshow/6136616.cms
HYDERABAD: Implying that manipulating the result is possible through electronic voting machines (EVMs), the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is putting in place a strategy by which it can force the use of paper ballots for the bypolls to the 12 Assembly seats in Telangana to be held on July 27.

The limitation of the EVM is such that it can accommodate a maximum of 64 candidates on the electronic board of the machine for each constituency. If the number of candidates goes beyond that number, the Election Commission would be forced to use paper ballots for casting the votes.

Philippines: Credibility requires transparency
http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=13841
In the untransparent poll automation system selected by our Commission on Elections -- supplied by favored supplier Smartmatic -- we voters had no way of telling if our votes were actually counted and if the votes were being accurately tallied.

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