New York City BoE finds 200,000 more votes. Bridgeport CT recount chugs on

Kudos to Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition & CT Post for cosponsoring Bridgeport recount..Losing KY mayor sues,says voting machines set with wrong time...NYC finds 200K machine votes..EAC's Dec 2 mtg is on webcast..Internet voting a good idea? See UK article: "China is waging cyber warfare on Britain..they’re carrying out most cyber attacks remotely, mining information that is stored on servers in the UK, from all over the world – making anything from the national grid to the banking system vulnerable..".. Putin criticizes US elections...

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

AK: Judge sets expedited schedule for Senate vote-count lawsuit
http://www.adn.com/2010/12/01/1582468/alaska-judge-to-take-up-senate.html
Judge William Carey, in setting arguments for next Wednesday, also urged attorneys to file any legal actions they felt necessary -- such as discovery requests -- as quickly as they could

AK: Alaska Court Lets Lisa Murkowski Intervene in Joe Miller’s Lawsuit Over Vote Count http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/12/02/alaska-court-lets-lisa-murkowski-intervene-in-joe-millers-lawsuit-over-vote-count/

CA: Humbold County Transparency Project:Some Preliminary Results for November 2010 http://democracycounts.blogspot.com/2010/12/some-preliminary-results-for-november.html I've run the set of Transparency Project scans through the counting software and have preliminary results.

CO: SOS nixes hand count of contested races (Seguache)
http://www.centerpostdispatch.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=1397&page=72 On Monday, canvass board members were forbidden by the Secretary of State’s Office (SOS) to hand-count the contested commissioner and clerk races.
...
Several canvass board members were reluctant to use these totals as a baseline because, on Monday, the machine produced different totals when counting ballots and malfunctioned in other ways.

CT: Day Three: Recount chugs on in Bridgeport (Kudos to CTPOST and CCEAC)
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Day-Three-Recount-chugs-on-in-Bridgeport-852008.php "We had two teams of counters today and we've got three teams of counters coming tomorrow," said Luther Weeks, chairman of the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition, which is co-sponsoring the recount with the Connecticut Post.

KY: Losing mayor files lawsuit over election results*(Hart Intercivic EScan &Eslate)
http://www.local12.com/news/state/story/Losing-mayor-files-lawsuit-over-election-results/vktntvJLwESKz2snj9EMEw.cspx (Pike County)
ELKHORN CITY, Ky. (AP) — An eastern Kentucky mayor who lost his bid for re-election has filed a lawsuit asking that the results be thrown out and a new election held.

Attorney Steve Owens, who represents Elkhorn City Mayor Billy Powell, told WYMT-TV that voters were allowed to use city ballots without verifying their addresses. The suit also alleges that voting machines were on central time instead of eastern, meaning votes cast during the first hour may not have been counted.

KY: Part of Ky. vote-buying conviction dismissed
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/12/01/1548804/part-of-ky-vote-buying-conviction.html
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves found Wednesday there was insufficient evidence that former Clay County election commissioner Charles Wayne Jones' attempts to get money from a candidate were based on an agreement for him to use his official position to help the candidate.

MN: Hennepin elections chief Rachel Smith shoots back; Canvassing Board to meet Friday http://www.minnpost.com/politicalagenda/2010/12/01/23836/hennepin_
elections_chief_rachel_smith_shoots_back_canvassing_board_to_meet_friday
http://tinyurl.com/2a42gc5 In an interview with MinnPost, Smith said: "I don't work for either party, I work for the citizens of Hennepin County. I am trying to do the best job I can to get through a half-million ballots in the allotted time, and do it as fairly and expeditiously as I can."

MN: Anoka and Hennepin Counties
http://mnrecount.org/2010/12/anoka-and-hennepin-counties.html
there were a total of 50 non-frivolous challenges and 1818 frivolous challenges from the Emmer reps and 14 from Dayton reps

MN: Wadena County votes recounted
http://www.reviewmessenger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8149:wadena-county-votes-recounted&catid=41:rotator-news At the end of the first day, nearly 45 percent of the ballots had been hand-counted statewide. According to the Secretary of State’s website, 2,587 of the state’s 4,136 precincts completed their recounts on day one...

In Wadena County, it took less than three hours for the county’s 5,474 ballots to be counted by hand. There were eight tables set up, with three table judges and two campaign representatives at each table. The atmosphere was less tense than it was during the 2008 recount for the U.S. Senate race and the process went smoothly, with few challenges being made.

NC: NC counties still counting instant-runoff ballots
http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/8717450/
unofficial counts have been completed in 62 of 100 counties. Partial results show incumbent Judge Cressie Thigpen leading Doug McCullough by about 60,000 votes.

NC: Hill wins Superior Court District 12A election after instant runoff votes counted
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2010/12/01/1052292?sac=Home
Hasty finished first with 6,786 votes, or 36.3 percent. Hill finished second with 6,105 votes, or about 32.6 percent. A third candidate, Stephen Stokes, finished last.

NJ: Voter Fraud Investigation Could Reverse New Jersey Election Result -- Again
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/02/voter-fraud-investigation-could-reverse-new-jersey-election-resu/ The 11 people who were arrested are accused of falsifying absentee ballots by writing in the names of voters without their knowledge, according to The Record newspaper. One woman is also accused of voting twice, under her married name and her maiden name.

NJ: Paterson councilman is arrested in alleged voter fraud sweep (absentee ballots)
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/paterson_councilman_is_arreste.html
Councilman Rigo Rodriguez, 38, was arrested by State Police along with his wife and campaign manager, the report said.
...
They allegedly voted using mail-in ballots on behalf of voters who never received their ballots, according to the Attorney General.

NY: A Month After Elections, 200,000 Votes Found
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/a-month-after-elections-200000-votes-found/?hp The preliminary machine tally alone swelled from 1,145,826 on election night to 1,366,881 in the official version.

The largest cache of newly found machine ballots was in Queens — about 80,000, or 31 percent more than were reported on election night.
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“The unofficial election night returns reported by the press always have huge discrepancies — which is why neither the candidates or the election officials ever rely on them,” said Douglas A. Kellner, co-chairman of the State Board of Elections.

NY: Judge's first ruling bumps Bishop lead to 259 votes
http://www.riverheadlocal.com/local-news-content/1194-judges-first-ruling-bumps-bishop-lead-to-259-votes Absent "objective evidence of fraud," Mayer ruled, the law requires election officials to count the votes. Altschuler's objections to counting the unscanned ballots were centered on "chain-of-custody type issues," Mayer said. Without evidence of fraud, that's simply not enough to justify disenfranchising 161 voters, Mayer ruled.

NY: Hearing Set in New York Case Over How to Tally Votes for Two Parties Who are Running the Same Nominee
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/12/02/hearing-set-in-new-york-case-over-how-to-tally-votes-for-two-parties-who-are-running-the-same-nominee/
U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff will hold a hearing in Conservative Party of New York and Working Families Party of New York v New York State Board of Elections on Monday, December 6, at 4 p.m.

OH: Rejected ballots to be investigated
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101201/NEWS0108/12020333/1055/NEWS/Rejected-ballots-to-be-investigated It will likely be weeks before Hamilton County knows who was elected Nov. 2 to a juvenile court judgeship - in which the candidates were separated by only 23 votes - because of a federal court ruling Wednesday ordering an investigation into 849 rejected provisional ballots.

Internet Voting Watch

CT: State Judicial Branch's computer system struck by virus
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/State-Judicial-Branch-s-computer-system-struck-by-853944.php

China is waging cyber warfare on Britain. Even your laptop isn't safe
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100066372/the-west-has-built-a-digital-maginot-line-and-chinese-spies-are-sneaking-past/ “We daren’t even take our laptops into China,” one FTSE100 banking director told Fraser. “They will swipe all the information at the airport.” Even worse, they’re carrying out most cyber attacks remotely, mining information that is stored on servers in the UK, from all over the world – making anything from the national grid to the banking system vulnerable. And each attack almost untraceable.

National

Vladimir Putin Criticizes U.S. for Presidential Elections in Which 2nd Place Finisher in Popular Vote Took the Office http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/12/02/vladimir-putin-criticizes-u-s-for-presidential-elections-in-which-2nd-place-finisher-in-popular-vote-took-the-office/

EAC held a public meeting and and roundtable discussion today in Washington, DC.
http://www.yorkmedia.com/eac/webcasts.htm
Meeting topics: commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products; election official mentorship project. An on-demand webcast will be available within 24 hours

International

Afghanistan: WikiLeaks cables reveal panic after Afghan presidential elections
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/wikileaks-cables-panic-afghan-elections
It quotes three Karzai advisers as admitting they knew fraud had been committed by their side.
...
The cable says the US ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, and other senior officials warned Karzai's opponents to refrain from violence and ensure peace and stability – while also telling Karzai not to interfere in the counting process or undermine the authority of the country's Independent Election Commission.

Canada: Nova Scotia inmates couldn't vote in 2009 provincial election: ombudsman
http://www.canadaeast.com/front/article/1334604
he chief electoral officer responded by saying it was too late to set up polling booths in the province's five jails, which house about 300 inmates.

UK: The Pros and Cons of the Alternative (Instant-Runoff) Vote
http://www.suite101.com/content/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-alternative-instant-runoff-vote-a315772

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