"Halderman's Hackers": How safe, online voting? Vote by mail - 1 in 5 ballots 'lost'

“Halderman’s Hackers”: How Safe is Online Voting?..Consider the hidden costs to voting by mail. A study of 2008 election shows a "lost rate" of 20% for vote by mail ballots...Small Improvements & New Problem in Connecticut Post-Election Audits..Travis County officials OK change to paper ballot after 2012..WA State Under Fire for Emailed Overseas Ballots..Afghanistan rules 1.3m parliamentary votes invalid..Security of India's electronic voting machines is questioned..

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

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CA: Ranked-choice voting may delay results
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16380203?nclick_check=1
Macdonald said his office will release regular vote tally numbers starting late Tuesday night in all races, like it always does, but will not run the first ranked-choice voting algorithm until Friday -- when most of the votes should be in and counted...

CO: Judge won't reinstate 6,000 purged voters(voters would get provisional ballot)
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16382570 When a new voter registers in Colorado, the secretary of state mails a nonforwardable notice of disposition that the voter's registration has been received. If the notice comes back undeliverable in the mail, then clerks deem the voter's registration inactive within 20 days.
...
James Finberg, an attorney representing voting and labor groups, said voters are harmed because sometimes the voter cards are returned through no fault of their own.

CO: IRV: Thanks, but no thanks (LTE)
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/letter-editor/143158

CT: Coalition Finds Small Improvements and New Problem in
Connecticut Post-Election Audits
http://ctelectionaudit.org/aug-10-election-observation-report-incremental-improvement-new-integrity-issue/ Citizen observation and analysis shows some improvements along with a newly uncovered problem with the random selection process

NC: Voters, candidates continue talk of voting problems*
http://www.wwaytv3.com/voters_candidates_continue_talk_voting_problems/10/2010
Some New Hanover County voters have complained about voting machines not registering their votes correctly. One voter, who did not want to go on camera, told us he raised his hand for help, but it never came.

NC: Editorial: One seat, three votes
http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/10/20/article/one_seat_three_votes
In better circumstances, the special election for a seat on the N.C. Court of Appeals wouldn't be happening. Bad timing and an unwise provision in the state constitution put it on the ballot.

NM: New Mexico Pay to Play: Ending the Corruption? (passed House but not Senate)
http://electls.blogs.wm.edu/2010/10/20/new-mexico-pay-to-play-ending-the-corruption/
The text of NM House Bill 118 widely prohibits lobbyists and government contractors from donating to a political candidate or any political committee. It also prohibits “seekers of targeted subsidies” from political donations.

NY: Missing deadline for military mail, election boards hope for the best
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/niagara-county/article224177.ece
“New York State should have an earlier primary. We don’t have a heck of a lot of time between certifying our primary elections to the state Board of Elections, given the variables of contested primaries and vote recounts,”

TX: Travis County Commissioners OK change to paper ballot after 2012
http://impactnews.com/northwest-austin/256-recent-news/10224-travis-county-commissioners-ok-change-to-paper-ballot-after-2012
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir told the court she believes the system is secure, but said the county is looking to purchase a paper ballot system as soon as possible.

TX: All eyes on Houston, Pt. 2: Lawsuits, fraud & huge ballot challenge elections
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-houston/all-eyes-on-houston-pt-2-lawsuits-fraud-huge-ballot-challenge-elections

TX: DOJ Probes TX Voter Intimidation Complaints During Tea Party Anti-Voter Fraud Drive (video)*
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/the_texas_democratic_party_expanded.php
Poll watchers in Harris County, Texas -- where a Tea Party group launched an aggressive anti-voter fraud effort -- were accused of "hovering over" voters, "getting into election workers' faces" and blocking or disrupting lines of voters who were waiting to cast their ballots as early voting got underway yesterday.
[video interview of voter turned away even though he brought 2 forms of voter id]

TX: Dallas County to have election monitors Nov. 2
http://www.newschannel10.com/Global/story.asp?S=13355216

WA: State Under Fire for Emailed Overseas Ballots (audio podcast available)
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1715073/KPLU.Local.
News/State.Under.Fire.for.Emailed.Overseas.Ballots http://tinyurl.com/26negk8
The groups Voter Action, Common Cause and Verified Voting have sent Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed what amounts to a cease and desist letter. They say Reed should stop accepting ballots from outside the country - including from members of the military - in PDF form via email. Holly Jacobson with Voter Action says even though this isn't technically on-line voting, it still jeopardizes ballot integrity

WI: Tosa woman sentenced to prison for illegal vote
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/105302508.html
A Wauwatosa woman who voted illegally in the 2008 presidential primary was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison after a stern lecture from the judge about the impact of voter fraud, even if doesn't turn an election.

Internet Voting Watch

“Halderman’s Hackers”: How Safe is Online Voting?
http://thefightback.org/2010/10/haldermans-hackers-how-safe-is-online-voting/#more-1039 Jeremy Epstein is a computer security and voting systems expert with SRI International. After testifying alongside Halderman at the D.C. Council, he said, “Internet voting is inherently not a good idea. There’s just too many problems… Every system, every website is just too easy for the bad guys to get in. We don’t have the technology today to provide the level of security that you need for an honest election.”

India: State EC floats SMS voting idea in Gujarat
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/state-ec-floats-sms-voting-idea-in-gujarat/699896/
Ahmedabad Gujarat, which set up the country’s first e-voting insfrastructure, is now ready for voting from mobile phones, according to the State Election Commission (SEC).

Though just 124 persons in the state opted to use e-voting facility set up at a a cost of Rs 37 crore during the last civic polls, SEC K C Kapoor said the state is now fully equipped to go a step farther from online voting to enabling voters to text their votes in through mobile phones.

WA: State Under Fire for Emailed Overseas Ballots (audio podcast available)
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1715073/KPLU .
Local.News/State.Under.Fire.for.Emailed.Overseas.Ballots http://tinyurl.com/26negk8
The groups Voter Action, Common Cause and Verified Voting have sent Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed what amounts to a cease and desist letter. They say Reed should stop accepting ballots from outside the country - including from members of the military - in PDF form via email. Holly Jacobson with Voter Action says even though this isn't technically on-line voting, it still jeopardizes ballot integrity

National

More Voting by Mail? First, Consider the Hidden Costs
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/index.php?ID=7717
In these difficult economic times, isn’t a cheaper, administratively simpler method of voting a no-brainer?

Not if the policy costs outweigh the savings. Unfortunately, the policy costs — which come in the form of lost votes, decreased legitimacy, and a further skewing of the composition of the electorate — are real.
...
Still, what if the “real” lost vote rate for absentee ballots wasn’t 20%, but just 2%? It would still be greater than the in-precinct lost vote rate.

Today’s foreign money round-up
http://politicalactivitylaw.com/2010/10/20/todays-foreign-money-round-up/

International

Afghanistan rules 1.3m parliamentary votes are invalid
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11582690
"Turnout is around 5,600,000, the valid vote is 4,265,347, and the invalid vote is around 1,300,000," Fazil Ahmad Manawi, head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), said on Wednesday.
...
Meanwhile, the UN-backed Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission is investigating more than 4,000 formal complaints.

India: Security of India's electronic voting machines is questioned
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/19/AR2010101907602.html
Ram Kishan Yadav lost a race for Teekli village council head in July. He and others allege tampering with an electronic voting machine.
...
But a growing number of critics are questioning the reliability of the machines, and some voters complain that buttons stick and lights flash on the wrong candidate when they cast ballots electronically. Some politicians have expressed doubts about the results of elections in the past two years.

UK: Under pressure David Cameron faces calls for a new EU vote
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322019/David-Cameron-faces-calls-new-EU-vote.html
David Cameron was under fresh pressure to hold a referendum on Europe last night - as France and Germany called for the controversial Lisbon Treaty to be redrawn.




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