Touchscreens recycled as PacMan games.Verified Voting Internet Voting Pt 1

Florida Voters Coalition encourages citizens to observe poll closing procedures...Shelby Co TN blames technician for election fiasco, local DEM party launching own investigation...J. Alex Halderman has found a good use for touchscreen machines - reprogram them as PacMan consoles...Mason County WV to volunteer overseas vote for internet vote experiment...Bo Lipari has Part I of Verified Voting's new series on concerns with Internet Voting...

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

AL: Bessemer, Ala: mayoral candidate uses fake photo and endorsement; campaign manager confesses to hoax http://www.votelaw.com/blog/archives/006428.html

FL: Spend an Hour - Make a Difference on Election Night
http://floridavoterscoalition.blogspot.com/2010/08/spend-hour-make-difference-on-election.html
Hot dog! This is your chance to spend an hour on election-night to help secure Florida's elections. Observe poll-closing procedures in any precinct near you, and help gather important compliance data we can use to improve future elections.

NC: Local judicial candidates at odds over fall election ballot
http://www.mountainx.com/news/2010/local_judicial_candidates_at_odds_over_fall_election_ballot
Dreher takes the position that all five candidates should be included under only one ballot listing “without designation as to vacancy.” The state’s instant-runoff voting system would then be implemented to determine two winners from the list of five.

PA: Team 4: Non-US Citizens Removed From Voter Rolls
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/r/24679152/detail.html

PA: Editorial: Cash clouds image of judges
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20100819_Editorial__Cash_clouds_image_of_judges.html When it comes to spending money to elect state Supreme Court justices, Pennsylvania is No. 1.
Unfortunately, this is not a top ranking to boast about. That's because the river of money that flows into judicial elections creates the perception for many that justice isn't always blind.

TN: Shelby County Election Commission Releases Its Findings On Election Day Problems * http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story/Shelby-County-Election-Commission-Releases-Its/gpBzJPliuk2KvChu9lvK3g.cspx
Commissioners say on August 5th, Computer Analyst Dennis Boyce loaded the wrong data files into the Electronic Polling Books (EPB). The data he loaded reflected people who voted in last May’s election and as a result people like Thompson went to vote on August 5th, only to be told they voted already.
...
Turner says he’s come across voters who say they didn’t vote in the May election, but were still turned away on August 5th. The Shelby County Democratic Party is also conducting an investigation and will release its own report and recommendations.

TN: Democrats Claim Voting Machines Can Be Altered
http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story/Democrats-Claim-Voting-Machines-Can-Be-Altered/nDhkxvpg50q8aJOlSQvtpw.cspx
MEMPHIS, TN—The Head of the Shelby County Democratic Party believes investigators have found a way to change votes after they have been cast. Investigators for the Democratic Party have been at the election commission digging for information since the August 5, 2010 election.

“We’re pulling down databases, records, looking at machines and trying to figure out what is going on,” said party chairman, Van Turner, “what records reveal, I think is just the tip of the iceberg.

TN: Pair of votes on same day no problem
Morgan County prepared for concurrent special, general elections Nov. 2
http://www.decaturdaily.com/detail/66788.html A special election in Hartselle on the same day as the Nov. 2 general election will not cause problems for Morgan County, officials said.

TX: New election ordered in commissioner race* (absentee ballot fraud)
http://www.delrionewsherald.com/story.lasso?ewcd=40438f4ce48b3ec6
Flores charged in his suit that he lost the election by 29 votes to the then-incumbent, Jesus “Cheo” Ortiz, because of illegal mail-in ballots.


Internet Voting Watch

Internet Voting Verified Voting's Internet Voting Series
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/08/18/752
In a wired world, it was inevitable that the subject of Internet Voting become a hot topic sooner rather than later. But more than just a topic of discussion, this year eighteen states will allow overseas ballots to be returned via email in November’s elections. Yet according to security experts, voted ballots sent via Internet simply cannot be made secure, and make easy and inviting targets for attackers ranging from lone hackers to foreign governments seeking to undermine US elections.

WV: Commission adopts Internet Voting Pilot Project
http://www.mydailyregister.com/view/full_story/9199869/article-Commission-adopts-Internet-Voting-Pilot-Project?instance=secondary_news_left_column POINT PLEASANT — Mason County has adopted a new computerized voting program, which will take effect during the upcoming general election.

During Tuesday’s Mason County Commission meeting, County Clerk Diana Cromley discussed the Internet Voting Pilot Program. According to Cromley, the program is free to Mason County, and is for anyone overseas, such as military personnel.

National

J. Alex Halderman: The Future of DRE Voting Machines (video and blog)
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/jhalderm/future-dre-voting-machines
Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that such machines can be reprogrammed to steal votes, so when we got our hands on a DRE called the Sequoia AVC Edge, we decided to do something different: we reprogrammed it to run Pac-Man.

Researchers Reprogram Voting Machine To Run Pacman
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/08/19/1253234/Researchers-Reprogram-Voting-Machine-To-Run-Pacman

Report probes state Supreme Court spending (overview plus full report avail)
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/228362-report-probes-state-sc-spending
Spending on state supreme court elections more than doubled from $83.3 million from 1990-1999 to $206.9 million from 2000-2009.
...
"For more than two centuries, Americans have counted on judges to ignore political pressure. But the flood of special-interest money is changing that. Without reforms, there is a real risk of irreversible damage to public confidence in our courts."

Federal Election Commission General Counsel leaving agency
http://politicalactivitylaw.com/2010/08/19/federal-election-commission-general-counsel-leaving-agency/

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