Md. needs to switch to paper ballots. A Decent Proposal - for voting machines

"if Maryland is truly concerned about election results that are not only verifiable but also available much more quickly on election night, we would move as quickly as possible to the optical scan voting system mandated in the law passed by the General Assembly in 2007." ~ Rebecca Wilson, SAVEourVotes.org ..Shelby County Tennessee Election Commission, Democrats prepare for trial over voting irregularities...An Important New Proposal for Voting Machines - create a searchable national database of voting machine problems to be created and made available to the public.

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

AK: Murkowski's Write-in Bid Could Test Alaska's Dubious Diebold E-Voting System
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8078 The three-way race, along with Democratic candidate and Mayor of Sitka Scott McAdams, could prove to be a serious challenge for Alaska's historically-dicey optical-scan voting system made by Diebold. Given the shortcomings of the system which otherwise employs the concealed vote-counting of centrally tabulate ballots, the need to hand-review write-in votes this November could present a unique opportunity for citizens of the 49th state to oversee at least some of their own electoral system --- for a welcome change.

CT: LGWCT: Voters Guide to Secretary of the State Candidates
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/lgwct-voters-guide-to-secretary-of-the-state-candidates/
The League of Women Voters have published a guide to the Secretary of the State Candidates, listing their qualifications and their responses to two questions

HI: Hundreds of Maui voters assigned to the wrong voting district *
http://www.staradvertiser.com/elections/2010/primary/Hundreds_of_Maui_voters_ assigned_to_the_wrong_voting_district.html http://tinyurl.com/27yncxh
Hoylman said the error could've affected yesterday's election as well as previous elections. "It bewilders me that all these years went by and no one challenged it," he added.

IL: Court fight possible over early-voting site on UI campus
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/politics-and-government/2010-09-16/court-fight-possible-over-early-voting-site-ui-campus.html

MD: Md. needs to switch to paper ballots
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-paper-ballot-letter-20100920,0,417348.story In response to your editorial, "How the Votes are Counted"

MN: Revamped voting procedures, meant to avoid 2008 recount hassles, begin today for general election
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2010/09/17/21534/revamped_voting_procedures_ meant_to_avoid_2008 _recount_hassles_ begin_today_for_general_election http://tinyurl.com/2a9b29j

Given the recent polls, and yet another three-way race for a statewide office, some officials are preparing for another 2008-style recount in an election that's sure to attract 2 million voters.

NM: County Clerk concerned by lax third-party voter registration rules
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_16099262
LAS CRUCES - Doña Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins said this week he remains concerned about the laxity of a law that allows non-county groups to register voters.

NY: 71 New York poling stations opened late Tuesday *
http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/new-york-news/2010/09/71-new-york-poling-stations-opened-late-tuesday/ According to the New York Times, 71 polling locations opened late due to missing or malfunctioning machines. With polls scheduled to open at 6 a.m., some voters experienced a delay of up to 4 hours.

OH: Lawsuit seeks end to Cuyahoga voters' edge in casting ballot by mail
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/09/lawsuit_seeks_an_end_to_cuyaho.html
They want to block counties like Cuyahoga and Franklin from mailing absentee ballot applications to all registered voters, from paying return postage on the applications and from paying return postage for the completed ballots. Or, they argue, the state should help pay to offer that same service in all 88 counties.

SD: Early voting in Shannon County encounters roadblocks
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_bf831c0e-c2df-11df-a9e0-001cc4c002e0.html
Early voting for the Nov. 2 election begins Monday throughout South Dakota.
But in troubled Shannon County, voters cannot cast an early ballot without traveling to Hot Springs in Fall River County or applying by mail for an absentee ballot.

TN: Shelby County Election Commission, Democrats prepare for trial over voting irregularities *
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/sep/19/commission-dems-prepare-for-election-trial/
Pynchon and Harris have released long subsequent reports claiming many problems. They say records show that election commission officials improperly accessed voting databases, that officials misused computer identities in order to access databases inappropriately and even manipulated data in order to "hide" things from the public.

Last week, they released a report in which they claimed that there were 3,221 more "votes cast" than recorded "participating voters."

The election commission says those so-called "over votes" are connected to three-page long absentee ballots, and that the report misinterprets voting data.

Internet Voting Watch

Interpol chief's identity stolen on Facebook
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/201358/interpol-chiefs-identity-stolen-on-facebook
Interpol secretary-general Ronald K. Noble recently disclosed that criminals had impersonated him twice on Facebook in attempts to access information on the anti-crime organization's secret operations.

National

An Important New Proposal for Voting Machines
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/09/20/842
A report released last week by the non-partisan organization, Voting System Failures: A Database Solution, found that in the absence of requirements to report malfunctions, vendors do not keep election officials informed about voting system defects. The report recommends several remedies for this pervasive problem. Among other conclusions, it calls for a searchable national database of voting machine problems to be created and made available to the public.

Officials In The Dark About Voting Machine Glitches
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129866551
One reason is that election officials are often unaware of previous problems with the equipment they use, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

International

India: Flap over Indian Electronic Voting Machines
http://quicktake.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/flap-over-indian-electronic-voting-machines/
Fears of the Vindictive State seems to have been misplaced. Instead, we had a judge who echoed, pretty much what 2ndlook said. The judge said,

"if the machine was possessed by the accused for demonstrating only that it could be tampered with, then the accused committed no offence. On the contrary, he has done a great service to the democracy,” the Judge said in the bail order.

UK: Data matching to identify Britain's 3.5 million 'missing' voters
http://www.ukauthority.com/Headlines/tabid/36/NewsArticle/tabid/64/Default.aspx?id=2907
TOWN halls will be urged to take part in 'data-matching' trials in a bid to find Britain's 3.5 million 'missing' voters. The move to plug the gaps on electoral registers was revealed alongside plans to speed up the introduction of compulsory individual voter registration.

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