Travis TX judge nixes paper ballots. Philippine source code disclosure ordered

DoD Announces Absentee Voting Week..The Persistence of Partisan Election Administration..Shelby County TN expands whistleblower law, but leaves out reference to elections..Overseas Vote Foundation AK, MI, VI overseas voters: Want to #vote in Nov.? Oct. 3 is your Registration deadline...Court orders Philippine Elections Commission to Disclose source code used in May elections...

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

AL: Federal judge keeps Voting Rights Act challenge moving
http://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2010/09/27/federal-judge-keeps-voting-rights-act-challenge-moving/ A federal district court judge ruled Sept. 10 the federal government must move quickly in contesting Shelby County’s challenge against the constitutionality of sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

CA: Obstacles challenge election reform bid (City of Los Angeles)
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_16181638
Several council colleagues have already voiced qualms about some of the proposals.
They are particularly concerned about the instant runoff process – in which voters rank candidates in a weighted system instead of holding separate primary and general elections – fearing the top-spending candidate would get the most attention.

CO: Mixed prognosis
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20100928/LETTER/100929848/
1020&parentprofile=1061 http://tinyurl.com/2467d5s
“Why spend so much energy on election integrity issues?” “Why not focus on something popular then run for office?” After all, it's “not nice” to raise these issues so very publicly.

Until fair and transparent elections can be restored in Aspen, I believe that we are stuck with the status quo. Without major reform, running for office merely adds unearned legitimacy to an illegitimate process.

FL: Lawyer: Voter Fraud Accusations Against Client Unfounded
http://www.wesh.com/news/25198192/detail.html (video available)
Daytona Beach City Commissioner Under Investigation
...The supervisor of elections said that before the primary, she got a request for dozens of absentee ballots from an e-mail address traced to Henry.
The request included names and addresses for each voter.
Damore said his client didn’t realize the requests were against the law and that the form doesn’t make that fact clear.

IL: The Hotsheet of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project
http://ballot-integrity.org/hotsheet

IN: Parker: I’m convinced White committed voter fraud (with video)
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/politics/parker-i-am-convinced-white-committed-voter-fraud
The current Secretary of State, Todd Rokita, has made voter fraud prevention a priority and Dan Parker thinks he should get to the bottom of it.

IN: Hoosiers can use cell phones to register to vote this year for the first time
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/67f027f7466045ca92815eae1b14e179/IN--Mobile-Voter_Registration/ Residents have to have a valid Indiana driver's license or state-issued ID to use either registration service.

MA: Committee will make recommendation on electronic voting machines for Hampden
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/committee_
will_make_recommenda.html http://tinyurl.com/28ec4k5 At a selectmen’s meeting on Monday James Gillen, former city editor of The Republican, echoed the sentiments of Selectman Vincent Villamaino that the town follows an antiquated process in counting the votes by hand.
...
Wiseman said the only complaints she has ever received about Hampden’s late results have come from the media.

MD: Guardsman, D.C. group sue Md. elections board
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2010/09/guardsman
_dc_group_sue_md_elec.html http://tinyurl.com/2cb2cqx Ross Goldstein, deputy director of the elections board, declined to comment directly on the lawsuit. But he said the Justice Department and military authorities signed off on the office’s plan to send out ballots for congressional offices quickly after the primaries.

MS: Another guilty verdict in local voter fraud case
http://www.wtva.com/news/local/story/Another-guilty-verdict-in-local-voter-fraud-case/dpIliu5aqkmTM2cWVMOzUQ.cspx
King will be sentenced October 8 for paying someone to vote for him in the 2007 election.

MS: 3 more plead guilty to voter fraud in Benton Co.
http://www.sunherald.com/2010/09/27/2509410/3-more-plead-guilty-to-voter-fraud.html

NC: IRV? WTF? Durham elections director explains Oct. 12
http://www.indyweek.com/triangulator/archives/2010/09/28/irv-wtf-durham-elections-director-explains-oct-12

NJ: New judge will preside over voter fraud trial of Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small and others http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/communities/atlantic-city_pleasantville_brigantine/article_2b08584a-cb46-11df-a278-001cc4c002e0.html
Small and 13 others were indicted last September on charges they disenfranchised voters in Atlantic City’s 2009 Democratic mayoral primary by filling out absentee ballots themselves or changing people’s votes on the ballots. Since that time, two defendants have pleaded guilty, leaving a dozen defendants to stand trial.

NY: Millman Voting Machine Bill Becomes Law
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=38340
BROOKLYN — Last week, the Governor signed into law a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman. The bill, A. 8692 (in the Senate, S. 5447), gives local boards of election the authority to ensure poll sites have an adequate amount of voting machines, poll workers and other resources.

OH: Counties can mail absentee ballots, judge rules
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/09/27/absentee-case-web.html?sid=101 Franklin, Cuyahoga and certain other counties are mailing absentee-ballot applications to every active voter and providing return postage to send back the completed ballots in some cases but not all 88 counties are doing that.

RI: R.I. Supreme Court to review Russo's complaint
http://politicsblog.projo.com/2010/09/supreme-court-t.html
The complaint in part seeks to halt the printing of Nov. 2 election ballots without a name for a GOP candidate for lieutenant governor until the court completes its review. It asks that the court review whether there should be a blank on the ballot for the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor

TN: Shelby County expands whistleblower law, but leaves out reference to elections
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/sep/28/county-expands-whistleblower-law/
"What kind of message does it send to say, 'Yeah, we talked about protection to election whistleblowers but we took that out?'" Mulroy asked during the meeting.

TN: E-mail eases voting for military and others overseas
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136084&catid=2
"Now what they can do is they can e-mail the request and we can e-mail the ballot out to them which they print out and mail back to us,"

TX: Travis County (Texas) judge says NO to paper ballots this November…
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2010/09/travis-county-texas-judge-says-no-to-paper-ballots-this-november/

WA: Spin Control: Cooler head prevails in voter fraud probe
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sep/26/cooler-head-prevails-in-voter-fraud-probe/ Christensen didn’t remember voting twice. But unfortunately for the recent Marine Corps retiree who left the service in 2008 after his second tour in Iraq, he couldn’t definitively say he didn’t.

He was charged with “making a false declaration as a voter,” a class C felony.

Christensen’s story isn’t a story of Chicago-style ballot box stuffing, but an example of how efforts to make it easier to register and vote can contribute to confusion and possibly bad balloting.


WV: Dispute over W.Va. ballot strains supplier
http://www.dailymail.com/ap/ApTopStories/201009270220
A Spencer company that programs and prints the state's ballot stock is awaiting the outcome of a dispute over the ballot for the Nov. 2 general and special U.S. Senate elections.

Casto & Harris faces an Oct. 5 deadline to deliver ballots to county clerks. President John Denbigh told the Charleston Daily Mail that there's no time for a protracted legal battle.

Internet Voting Watch

Canada: City voters won't be marking 'X' on paper
http://recorder.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2775365 Brockville...Rather, this electronic election will give people three options for exercising their democratic duty: the Internet, the telephone or a touchscreen at help stations in either of two locations in the city.

National

Overseas Vote Foundation AK, MI, VI overseas voters: Want to #vote in Nov.? Oct. 3 is your Registration deadline. See all state deadlines here: http://ht.ly/2KFGV

DoD Announces Absentee Voting Week
http://www.ameriforce.net/news/?p=219

The Persistence of Partisan Election Administration
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/index.php?ID=7645
This state of affairs is directly contrary to an emerging international consensus that election administrators should be insulated from partisan politics

International

Court orders Comelec: Disclose source code used in May elections
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=615720&publicationSubCategoryId=63
Granting the petition of election watchdog Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG), the SC said the poll body is required to allow CENPEG and all other interested political parties or groups to conduct an independent review of the source code or human readable instructions.

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