Internet voting helps WHO? Groups clever strategy forces India to use paper ballots

Much on internet voting today. Internet security expert Eric Riscorla makes the case "Against internet voting pilots." Technologist Collin Lynch addresses claims that i-voting is convenient: "It bears mentioning that we have to ask, convenient for whom?" and points out that under-served groups are least likely to have easy access to a PC or internet... Vote by Mail, Save $ Lose Democracy? ...DO try this at home? Groups who oppose e-voting in India found a way to force the use of paper ballots: run more candidates than the machines can handle...

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

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AL: McAliley: Berry to be prosecuted
http://www.troymessenger.com/news/2010/jul/08/mcaliley-berry-be-prosecuted/
...Berry was removed from office in October 2009 when a Pike County Circuit Court ruling deemed she won the November 2008 illegally.

CA: Court-ordered vote count begins
http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=15048
RIVERSIDE – A 24-hour around-the-clock effort has been mounted to count the 12,500 late vote-by-mail ballots that were quarantined after the June 8th election.

Mrs. Dunmore says she’s will work closer with the Postal Service to circumvent ballot delivery problems in future elections.
...
Meantime, county supervisors will consider buying more equipment to speed up future ballot counts
CA: RivPE: Revamp of vote count urged
http://inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/07/09/rivpe-revamp-of-vote-count-urged/ A probe released Thursday into Riverside County’s June 8 primary calls for $650,000 in additional equipment to speed future vote counting and better communication between elections officials and the public.

Supervisors ordered the examination June 15 amid revelations that 12,563 mail-in ballots missed the legal deadline due to a mix-up with the U.S. Postal Service and criticism that Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore took too long to count the more than 240,000 votes cast in the election.
...
Still, formal procedures for handling mail on Election Day are needed, the report concluded. Dunmore already is working on a written agreement with the Postal Service, according to the report.

CO: Computer Glitch Causing Online Voter Registration Errors
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/24190432/detail.html Voters Who Have Updated Driver's License Information Since April, May Find Error Message Online

CT: What Do YOU [still] Want?
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=3337
I said voters want five things and what Connecticut could do about them in the short run (three steps over two years). The two years have past and little has changed:

CT: Unaffiliated voters need to register with a party to vote in primaries
http://www.thehour.com/story/488673

GA: Voting Rights Watchdogs Cite Ethics Issues, Call on Handel to Withdraw
http://bludgeonandskewer.blogspot.com/2010/07/karen-did-what.html
ATLANTA, GA – Leaders from two of Georgia’s largest voting rights watchdog groups personally appealed today for former Secretary of State (SOS) Karen Handel to withdraw her gubernatorial bid on grounds of unethical conduct during her tenure as Secretary of State.

GA: Minority Groups Join Voting Fight
http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/07/08/minority-groups-join-voting-fight
“The State implemented this matching data base system and we found out that it was having an adverse impact on language and racial minorities,"

NC: The latest on the Citizens United response law in North Carolina
http://politicalactivitylaw.com/2010/07/09/the-latest-on-the-citizens-united-response-law-in-north-carolina/

NM: NM settles lawsuit over voter registration law
http://www.newswest9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12769986
Washington, D.C.-based Project Vote is among the groups that sued the state, claiming it has failed to comply with a law requiring the opportunity to register at state agencies, including the Motor Vehicle Division.
...
But, the agreement settles only part of the suit. The groups say the New Mexico Human Services Department hasn't distributed voter registration cards along with applications for public assistance as the law requires.

NM: MVD Voter Registration Process Raises Concerns
MVD Only Providing Forms, Officials Say
http://www.koat.com/news/24188652/detail.html

SC: Atlantic Beach residents file $50 million suit, fraud alleged
http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/07/09/2299632/atlantic-beach-residents-file.html The 41-page complaint, which was filed July 2 in the U.S. District Court in Florence, cites several allegations including election fraud, stripping residents of their voting rights, and trying to eliminate the town.

WV: Lincoln Voter Fraud Case Gets New Judge
http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=82631
Supreme Court reassigns case to Raleigh County.

Internet voting watch

Against Internet voting pilots
http://www.educatedguesswork.org/2010/07/against_internet_voting_pilots.html
No matter what the outcome, then, this kind of pilot doesn't tell us anything that useful about Internet voting. If it's attacked in some serious way, well, we already knew that was possible. If it's not attacked, that doesn't tell us it was secure, just that nobody bothered to attack it. If it fails for some non-security reason, that just means there were some development mistakes and the system wasn't tested enough before being rolled out.

Natl Assoc of Manufacturers letter to Natl Labor Relations Board on July 10
http://www.nam.org/~/media/FA3067C2206B4E13BB0321B9181D9C77/NAM_
Response_to_the_NLRB_Electronic_Voting_Services_Request_for_Information.pdf
http://is.gd/dma9x "Voting methods that utilize web-based technologies and telephone-based balloting do not allow the necessary levels of observability and transparency that exist within the current election process."

Even iPhone-Using Cowgirls Get the Blues
http://votingmatters.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/even-iphone-using-cowgirls-get-the-blues/ (Collin Lynch quoted in article) ...when some folks advocate for voting via the internet and suggest that iPhones could allow voters to cast their vote anywhere these pushers of internet voting are simply being unrealistic about the reach of technology.

National

VOTEAGAIN2010.COM
http://www.blog.rockthevote.com/2010/07/2961.html
To all the first-time voters in the 2008 election: Rock the Vote and over 30 youth organizations want you to vote again in 2010! Check out voteagain2010.com to hear from your peers on issues you care about and learn how you can get involved. You can even tell your friends to vote again in 2010 right there on the site

Passing the Fair Elections Now Act
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/passing_the_fair_elections_now.html With the House experience in the back of his head, I don't like the odds for actual passage there.

Groups launch effort to change campaign finance laws
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/jul/08/FINGAT08-ar-267232/
Two groups that have long advocated public financing of elections plan to spend at least $8 million this year to prod Congress to vote on proposed legislation aimed at reducing the influence of big donations in politics.

The joint effort by Common Cause and Public Campaign, called the Campaign for Fair Elections..

Vote by Mail – Save Money, Lose Democracy?
http://nonprofitvote.blogspot.com/2010/07/vote-by-mail-save-money-lose-democracy.html
...it has the potential, also evident in all mail elections in California, to compromise the franchise of an entire class of people, particularly lower income, younger and new voter populations – making it a flawed step towards the goal of a complete participatory democracy. It should never be adopted as a stand alone system if it strengthens the franchise of some while disenfranchising others.

International

India: Telangana polls: Hundreds of candidates, intentions suspect
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/telangana-polls-hundreds-of-candidates-intentions-suspect-36572 There's no shortage of candidates. The Warangal (West) constituency alone has 117 candidates...Sources say parties want to ensure that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), famous for being tamper-proof, cannot be used. An EVM can deal with a maximum of 64 nominations. Hence, the surging numbers.

Ballot papers in 11 constituencies
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/10/stories/2010071059660100.htm
HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti's strategy of forcing the Election Commission to revert to ballot papers instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the byelections is likely to pay off since a record number of 986 candidates filed nominations as independents till Friday, the last day.

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