HAVA scary Halloween. In DC internet voting test, hackers were the GOOD guys

In D.C.'s Web voting test, the hackers were the good guys...HAVA Scary Halloween: Ten years older and deeper in debt, yet far from credible elections.."Ballot boxing: The problem with electronic voting machines" interview w/natl experts..THE UNDEAD UNDEAD VOTER CLAIM...Overdone "undervote" warning in 67 Illinois cnties using Diebold scanners..N. Carolina voting machines hearing today. Court docs are fascinating..iVotronic expert offers insights on “Vote-Flipping”...Google tools to help you vote...Voting probs? See 866-OUR-VOTE..

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

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AK: Alaska Supreme Court Issues Revised Order, Now Says Regulation Against Showing List of Write-in Candidates to Voters is Unlawful
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/10/30/alaska-supreme-court-issues-revised-opinion-now-says-regulation-against-showing-list-of-write-in-candidates-to-voters-is-unlawful/ On October 29, the Alaska Supreme Court issued a revised order in State of Alaska v Alaska Democratic Party and Alaska Republican Party, S-14054.

AZ: Threat of voter suppression rears ugly head in Arizona
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/102810_voter_suppression_op
What sets us apart is the fact that they've been instigated by the very man who is charged with maintaining law and order at… you guessed it…the polls. Sheriff Joe Arpaio recently sent out an email entitled "6 Days to STOP Illegals from Stealing the Election!" ..

CA: Absentee ballot misprint discovered*
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101030/A_NEWS/10300323
STOCKTON - A couple living in the Morada area found a misprint in an absentee ballot, a mistake elections officials say is a rare occurrence among the tens of thousands of mail-in ballots sent out in San Joaquin County in the lead-up to Election Day.

CO: Larimer County Clerk works to fix election glitch* (wrong ballot)
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20101029/UPDATES01/101029013/1002/
NEWS01/Larimer+County+Clerk+works+to+fix+election+glitch http://tinyurl.com/2c82shx
the 52 registered voters in the complex at 321 E. Troutman Parkway should be able to vote for the House District 52 race, but got ballots that listed House District 53,

CT: HAVA Scary Halloween: Ten years older and deeper in debt, yet far from credible elections http://www.ctvoterscount.org/hava-scary-halloween-ten-years-older-and-deeper-in-debt-yet-far-from-credible-elections/ Two years ago we posted a Halloween preview: eTRICK or reTREAT? Nightmare of Elections Future. Lets look at where we are this year, and then we will calibrate (not celebrate) how far we have come.

DC: In D.C.'s Web voting test, the hackers were the good guys (xposted in Internet Voting Watch) http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2010/10/in_dcs_web_voting_test_the_hac.html Even companies such as Google, with vast resources and expertise, have been unable to protect themselves from remote penetration attacks from China. There is no reason to believe that states and localities can do better.

IL: COUNTY CLERK: UNDERVOTED BALLOTS WILL KICK OUT*
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=469&NewsID=989164&CategoryID=7026&on=1
Bacon County...Sixty seven counties in the state use the Accuvote OS system. Since the state law mandates ballots kick out if a voter does not vote for a Constitutional State officer presents Bean with a bigger problem.

With the Accuvote system with GEMS the ballot will kick back if the voter fails to vote for any issue or candidate field.
...
During the Absentee and Early voting period in the office a majority of the ballots kicked back.
...
If they are happy with what they have voted for, all they do is ask the election judge to override the system

MN: Volunteer to Observe Minnesota's Post-Election Audit!
http://ceimn.org/2010-mn-audit In partnership with the League of Women Voters Minnesota we are organizing our third, state-wide non-partisan observation of the post-election audit. The audit is conducted in every county. Most audits last 2 - 5 hours. We will provide training for volunteer observers. The 2010 audit dates are between November 4 - 19.

NC: State GOP to appear in court Saturday over voting machines (court docs & video)
http://triangle.news14.com/content/632096/state-gop-sues-election-board-over-voting-machines/
( At bottom of article there are links to fascinating legal documents including complaint, affadavits by a digital forensic examiner licensed by the state in counterintelligence and affadavits of voters, as well as other documnents.)

Take the poll on lower right hand side, "How confident are you in the accuracy of electronic voting machines?"

NC: Accord may be near on voting machines
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/30/769876/accord-may-be-near-on-voting-machines.html
The state Republican Party and North Carolina elections officials may have worked out an agreement that will provide voters who use touch-screen voting machines with written advice to double-check their votes.

But no one is talking about it until a rare weekend court hearing today before a U.S. District Court judge.

NC: iVotronic Expert Offers Insights on North Carolina “Vote-Flipping”
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/10/29/1226 In an open communication, Douglas Jones, a world-renown voting technology expert who has done extensive study of the ES&S iVotronic, offers his insights on reports of straight-party voting problems on iVotronics in multiple North Carolina counties that allegedly benefit one party. Jones notes the human factors that can lead to apparent “vote-flipping,”...

NC: New allegation of voting machine malfunction in Meck*
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13414420
MATTHEWS, NC (WBTV) - For the second time in three days, Republicans in Matthews say there's been trouble at the early voting location at the town's library.

The GOP says several people at that location have tried to vote straight Republican, only to find when they reviewed their vote that the machine said they were voting straight Democrat.
...
One complaint in Matthews came on Wednesday and the other on Friday. In both cases the Mecklenburg Board of Elections says they checked the voting machine that was being complained about and it appeared to be working fine.

The board of elections says in both cases the machines were recalibrated just to be safe.

NY: Bloomberg Hanging On Chads
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/10/bloomberg-hanging-on-chads.html
... here's what Bloomberg said yesterday: "I think one of the great disgraces and one of the things that's hurting democracy is this new voting system. To not have a computer system, to go back to chads and paper, is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard."

OH: How & why we have filed racketeering charges against Karl Rove's election operations. http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2010/3981
Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck has filed a two-count complaint against The Partnership for Ohio's Future, an affiliate of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

UT: Utah voting machines left unattended in lobby -- even after authorities were notified* http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/10/utah-voting-machines.html Windley, who co-founded iMall with a partner in the late '90s and sold it to Excite for $450 million, isn't so sure the lack of memory cards make unattended voting machines incapable of being tampered. "I disagree with Hogensen," he told The Times via e-mail. "There are many ways the machines could be compromised without the memory cards. Updating the firmware, for example or installing a card skimmer [that writes rather than reads]."

Internet Voting Watch

DC: In D.C.'s Web voting test, the hackers were the good guys (xposted) http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2010/10/in_dcs_web_voting_test_the_hac.html Even companies such as Google, with vast resources and expertise, have been unable to protect themselves from remote penetration attacks from China. There is no reason to believe that states and localities can do better.

National

Handy tools to help Americans vote
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/handy-tools-to-help-americans-vote.html

Overseas Vote Foundation OVF's Susan speaks out -- again -- on the MOVE Act on local TX radio show. Overseas listeners should DOWNLOAD to listen. http://ht.ly/31wIa

PRB Show - Ballot boxing: The problem with electronic voting machines (video)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/ballot-boxing-the-problem-with-electronic-voting-machines/4746/ Ten years and billions of tax dollars later, the way America votes is still something of a mess. It’s vulnerable to human error, hardware and software crashes – and, yes, bad-guy hackers. We asked Need to Know correspondent Rick Karr to investigate.
(Interviews Ed Felton, Andrew Appel, Larry Norden report, mention of Verified Voting database, and praise to Minnesota.)

2010 Election Watch: Security of Your Electronic Voting Machine
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/computer-security/security-of-your-electronic-voting-machine?src=rss#fbIndex 1 This November voters will confront a dizzying array of systems that employ scanners, touchscreens, even audio recordings. Here's your guide to today's voting booth.

THE UNDEAD UNDEAD VOTER CLAIM
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/017683.html#more
Such "false positives" -- improper assumptions that two people with the same listed information are actually the same person -- are far more statistically common than most people think, even when the matching exercise isn't sloppy. But conclusions from a "match" aren't the only issue. Sometimes the "dead voter" isn't dead. Sometimes she didn't vote. Follow-through on wild claims, it appears, is an even more effective way to whittle down the zombie voter hordes than a shotgun.

Brennan Center - Investigator’s Guide to “Voter Fraud”
http://brennan.3cdn.net/825822846f649d6d5c_0cm6bxcba.pdf
We urge reporters, analysts, advocates, and scholars interested in the election process to ask the following questions when confronting a claim that voter fraud has occurred.

NY Times: Drowning in Campaign Cash
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/opinion/31sun1.html?_r=1 Voters say — again and again — that they want to break the hold of special interests and end pay-to-play politics...Four billion dollars and one particularly ugly campaign later, there can be no more excuses.

International

India: Election Commission flunks on EVMs
http://rajeev2007.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/election-commission-flunks-on-evms/
Rajeev Srinivasan wonders whether EVMs as they are today are a fundamental threat to India’s democracy

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