Sunday, November 14, 2010

Broken voting machine seals in Putnam TN raise doubts. Clash over recount for NY 1st

In Alaska, the write in votes favor Murkowski so Miller awaits the military ballots..Another bad idea for elections in the Ohio Dayton Daily News: "Unused paper ballots are big waste for Ohio". The Dayton DN editors should read the New Haven Register editorial: "Scrimping on ballots proved foolish"...Tennessee GOP requests investigation of possible voting machines tampering in Putnam Co...Clash over vote recount for NY 1st Congressional Dist...Philippine officials learn to use "glitch" now that they have computer vote counting...

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


AK: Alaska Senate Race Ballot Madness: The STRANGEST Write-In Votes (PHOTOS)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/12/alaska-senate-race-write-in-ballots_n_782724.html#s180931

AK: Little Ammunition Found in Fight Over Alaska Votes
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/us/politics/14alaska.html?_r=2&ref=politics
JUNEAU, Alaska — The lawyers have started leaving.
...
With each passing day that election workers here in the state capital manually count write-in votes cast for Senator Lisa Murkowski, it appears increasingly likely that Alaskans spell too well for Mr. Miller’s math to work

AK: GOP Senate hopeful awaits military vote
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/14/politics-scene-360299773/ GOP nominee Joe Miller said he won't spend a lot of time, energy and effort fighting over ballots in Alaska's undecided U.S. Senate race if the math doesn't add up in his favor.

But Mr. Miller said Saturday that he won't make any announcements until after absentee ballots arrive next week from military voters - a constituency the Army veteran thinks could go heavily for him.

AK: Enough already–Miller campaign adviser has endless allegations but no evidence
http://newsminer.com/bookmark/10305887/Enough%20already%E2%80%93Miller%20campaign%20adviser%20has%20no%20evidence%20of%20election%20fraud

CA: Progress Update (Humboldt County Election Transparency Project)
http://democracycounts.blogspot.com/2010/11/progress-update.html
Scanners have now reached the 100,000 images count for the November 2010 election.

CA: NEW VOTE COUNTS INCREASE CASSIDY'S LEAD
http://www.sanleandrobytes.com/archives/012501.html
This gives Cassidy 50.57% of the continuing ballots cast to 49.43% for Santos. There were 2,134 exhausted ballots out of 23,493 ballots cast and a total of 20,321 continuing ballots in the final round.

Santos has not conceded the race and has recommended that the San Leandro City Council revoke the ranked choice voting ordinance and that the City return to run-off elections.

KY: Recount Hearing Set in Boyd County
http://www.wsaz.com/home/headlines/Boyd_County_Races_106585618.html There were only six votes separating him from the candidate who won the final commission seat.

MN: With Dayton's big lead, recount so far not mirroring '08
http://www.startribune.com/politics/recount/107613378.html "This number is virtually unchanged," said Ken Martin, Dayton's recount manager. "It will be mathematically impossible for Tom Emmer to overturn these results, barring some unforeseen problem."

MO: Voting Group Challenges State Senate Election; Wash. U. Students Turned Away at Polls http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/11 / v oting_group_challenges_state_senate_election_missouri.php
http://tinyurl.com/3ysen26

In a statement yesterday on behalf of Advancement Project, St. Louis attorney Denise Lieberman (former legal counsel for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri), questioned why Washington University students who voted in the 2008 presidential election were turned away from the polls on November 2.

"We received reports that students who were duly registered and voted at the polling site on Washington University's campus as recently as two years ago could not be found on the voter rolls at all, were turned away without being directed to their correct polling location and were expressly refused provisional ballots," said Lieberman.

NC: Etheridge still trails Ellmers by 1,489 votes
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/13/799425/etheridge-still-trails-ellmers.html
Historically, recounts have rarely changed election results in North Carolina, especially when the margin was as wide as that facing Etheridge.
...
Johnnie McLean, the deputy director of the State Board of Elections, said planning for a recount will start on Monday. A winner will not be formally declared until Nov. 23.

NJ: Maybe this time a new script for voter fraud probe: Political Insider
http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index.ssf/2010/11/maybe_this_time_a_new_script_f.html
Board officials started the investigation when they received -- a tweet by Mayor Dawn Zimmer. Imagine the power of Twitter.
Well, considering the long history of laughable investigations into elections in Hudson County, this probe had better come up with some convictions.

NY: Clash over vote recount (for 1st Congressional Dist)
Republicans fight Dems’ push for hand recount in close LI races
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/newsweek.11.10.10.pdf
As Suffolk officials began the arduous process of auditing election results, the
first skirmishes began over whether to conduct hand recounts in Long Island’s
close races.
Attorneys for Assemb. Marc Alessi (D-Shoreham) yesterday obtained a court
order from State Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hazlitt Emerson setting a Nov.
15 hearing into Alessi’s request for a hand recount. Alessi trails Suffolk Legis.
Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham) by 890 votes, according to unofficial returns
...
Attorneys for Rep. Tim Bishop (DSouthampton),
who in unofficial results trails Republican Randy Altschuler by 383 votes,
say they plan to ask a judge for a hand recount of the 1st Congressional District votes.

NY: Election Update: Clash Of The Titans In NY 1st Congressional District*
http://www.hamptons.com/News/Politics/12505/Election-Update-Clash-Of-The-Titans-In-NY-1st.html On election night in New York's 1st Congressional District, Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop seemed to have a more than 3,400 vote lead over his opponent Republican Randy Altschuler.
...
After the Suffolk County Board of Elections reviewed voting machine memory cards, the tables turned, and Altschuler gained a 383 vote lead, with more than 9,500 absentee ballots still uncounted.


NY: Losquadro Doubts Enough Evidence for Hand Recount Will Mount by Monday
http://northfork.patch.com/articles/losquadro-doubts-enough-evidence-for-hand-recount-will-mount-by-monday

(for 1st Dist in NY Assembly)
With an 892-vote lead holding over incumbent Democratic Assemblyman Marc Alessi, Republican Dan Losquadro said that the voting machine auditing process is taking too long for Monday's court case on Alessi's paper ballot hand recount request.

NY: Counting Continues in New York’s 7th Senate Race
Earliest a recount could take place is Nov. 17
http://northfork.patch.com/articles/losquadro-doubts-enough-evidence-for-hand-recount-will-mount-by-monday
Counting of absentee ballots continued in the contentious race for New York's 7th senatorial district between Mineola Mayor Jack Martins, R, I, C, and incumbent Sen. Craig Johnson, D-Port Washington Friday and so did did arguments between attorneys for both sides inside State Supreme Court Justice Ira Warshawsky's courtroom.

OH: Unused paper ballots are big waste for Ohio
http://www.ohio.com/news/107874994.html Brunner stands by her order, part of a settlement of a 2005 lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Ohio after major problems with long lines and too few voting machines in the 2004 election.

''This is not an expense that is frivolous, because it ensures people's right to vote,'' Brunner said.

(Rerun) New Haven Connecticut: EDITORIAL: Scrimping on ballots proved foolish
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/11/08/opinion/doc4cd768b331db8348435098.txt

TN: Broken Voting Seals Could Lead to Broken Voter Trust*
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=13494837 Election leaders in Putnam County held a specially-called meeting on Friday morning to report broken seals on voting machines and one candidate who was inside a polling place on election day.

The meeting revealed evidence of tampering: five red, plastic seals, placed on the hinge device of each voting machine to provide a serial number, had been cut; nine of the voter machines had stickers on the underside punctured, as if someone had planned to unscrew the faceplate...


TN: I’m not saying there were, but IF there were …. there’s gonna be hell to pay!
http://politics.nashvillepost.com/2010/11/12/im-not-saying-there-were-but-if-there-were-theres-gonna-be-hell-to-pay/ (Putnam County) The Tennessee Republican Party is calling on the State Election Commission to investigate several reports of voting irregularities in State Senate District 15 where State Senator Charlotte Burks narrowly received more votes than Republican nominee Gary Steakley.

TX: State approves Ortiz’s recount petition
http://www.newmediablog.com/2010/11/state-approves-ortizs-recount-petition/
State officials have accepted U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz’s request for a manual recount of the 27th Congressional District election...counties in the district have seven days to initiate the recount...Voting methods in the district’s six counties vary, with some cast by hand and others electronically...

TX: Rockwell refutes voter fraud reports (Titus County)
http://www.dailytribune.net/articles/2010/11/14/news/sunday01.txt
"I would like to clarify reported comments about suspected voter fraud. Nobody got two ballots," he said. "In one case, a husband and wife put their ballots in the same envelope….No one registered in more than one precinct."

WA: New iPhone app a big elections winner
http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/FromOurCorner/index.php/2010/11/new-iphone-app-a-big-elections-winner/

One big winner in Washington’s recent General Election was the new Election Results iPhone app

WI: Wis. judge to rule in voter discrimination case
http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=13499600
They've filed a motion arguing the state's ban on felons voting unfairly targets blacks because they're arrested more often than whites. The state Justice Department has countered state law doesn't intentionally discriminate against blacks, noting the statutes predate black suffrage in the state.

National


Frightening Experiment with Touch Screen Voting
http://democracycounts.blogspot.com/2010/10/frightening-experiment-with-touch.html
Professor Doug Jones of the University of Iowa experimented with setting up a touch screen voting machine to flip votes for Obama and McCain. He then had people "cast their votes" on the machine, and interviewed them about the experience.

Will Stealth Spending Decide the 2012 GOP Presidential Primaries?
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/11/will-stealth-spending-decide-the-2012-gop-presidential-primaries/

International

Afghans Protest Results Of Parliamentary Elections (includes video)
http://www.rferl.org/content/Afghans_Protest_Results_Of_Parliamen
tary_Elections/2216735.html http://tinyurl.com/33bf8ne
Although preliminary results for the September 18 vote were announced, the official final results have yet to be declared.
...
Protesters in Jalalabad warned that the incoming parliament would face "deadly" confrontations if the authorities failed to address the protesters' grievances.
...
Shortly after unveiling preliminary results, the Election Commission annulled more than 1 million ballots that it said were fraudulent.

Philippines: Report: Saturday's special polls off to peaceful start
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/205886/report-saturdays-special-polls-off-to-peaceful-start "Hindi naman marami ito, ilang lugar lang. Sana naman walang aberya (The polls will be held in a few places. We hope there is no glitch this time)


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