Guest Blogged By John Gideon

Vote-PAD is a low-tech, voting assistive device that was developed with input from the disabilities community. Because it is inexpensive to purchase and maintain, Vote-PAD is a threat to electronic voting systems. Vote-PAD also makes voting a possibility for a wider range of voters with disabilities than do almost all of the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) or touch-screen voting systems.

Even though some northern California counties had already purchased Vote-PAD for use in their elections as their HAVA compliant voting system for voters with disabilities; the Secretary of State decided that they would have to certify Vote-PAD for use with the optical-scan systems that are in use in each of the user counties.

The state then wrote a test plan that was totally unfair to the voters with disabilities who were expected to test the Vote-PAD. The state did not use a Human Factors Usability Testing Expert, an expert in writing test procedures for disabilities access. Instead they wrote a procedure that would have been better suited to testing a computerized voting system and they appear to have done this without really understanding how voters with disabilities actually use the device.

It is important to note that the state of California has certified for use many voting systems produced by Sequoia, Elections Systems and Software, Diebold, and Hart Intercivic. These devices have been certified by the state as being HAVA compliant and usable by voters with disabilities. Yet, not one of the electronic voting systems has been tested specifically by the disabilities community or even advocates for that community. Instead, a cursory inspection was made by unqualified staff and/or unqualified consultants and they were all accepted for use.

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Jan BenDor, a Pittsfield Township Michigan deputy clerk, is so concerned about the Diebold machines used in her township that she filed a formal complaint with the Washtenaw County Election Commission on Monday. Ten percent of machines failed in a recent test, she claimed. She also cited changes Diebold made to the machines, including installing modems, without providing written documentation of the work. "I'm a voice in the wilderness," she admitted, saying that some have accused her of paranoia. "I'm more concerned about normaloia than paranoia. That's when you think everything is OK, no matter what." / Washington Co. Arkansas has decided to put ES&S out the county's ballot programming business. They will buy their own equipment and do the job themselves. / Ohio is holding special elections in 27 counties, including Cuyahoga, on Tuesday....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Carteret County, North Carolina is selling their old Unilect Patriot voting machines back to the vendor for $3000 total for over 200 machines. / Tennessee counties faced an overly long ballot of up to 21 screens and a projected large turnout of voters yet many polling places had as few as two DREs resulting in two hour waits to vote. / Next Tuesday is Primary Election Day in Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan and Missouri. / Pima Co. Arizona Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 1 to use Diebold TSx machines for accessibility along with a 100% hand count audit of the vvpat / It looks like Williamson Co., Tennessee may have gotten bit by the ES&S Ballot Programming bug where votes swapped between candidates....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Chris Zachmeyer, executive director of the Catskill Center For Independence, said Tuesday that voting-machine manufacturers have tried to contribute money to her organization, which has given testimony on which voting machines Otsego County should buy. / The final results of the Connecticut primary, on Aug. 8, may not be reported until Aug. 25 depending on how close the races are. The reason is an agreement between the state and the DoJ over late mailing, or lack of mailing, of ballots to the military voters. / A federal judge agreed with the DoJ and stripped voter registration duties from the Alabama SoS and gave them to the Gov. This was done because the state does not yet have a viable voter registration data base. When will the same happen in other states where there is no viable data base, i.e. Washington, California, Maine, New York? / Tennessee Governor Phil Brednesen when asked about the new voting machines he used for the first time today, "I'll probably hear about that from whoever makes the machines, but I voted this morning. I have to be honest, I didn't care for it that much. The machines were complicated. I'm fairly computer-literate, and there were a couple issues that I found confusing, and I think there's going to be some elderly people who have trouble with it. More than that, I didn't like the lack of privacy. I was just standing there, kind of in the middle of the floor voting at my voting place. At one point, one of the poll workers walked behind me and certainly could see whatever I had on the screen at that point. I really believe in the secret ballot, and people are entitled to that. I think that's very fixable, but something I didn't like about it this morning"....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Today Oneonta, NY's The Daily Star reported that Chris Zachmeyer, executive director of the Catskill Center For Independence, said Tuesday that voting-machine manufacturers have tried to contribute money to her organization, which has given testimony on which voting machines Otsego County should buy.

But with "millions of dollars at stake" it may well be that "back-door deals" may have been made as Voting Machine companies may be paying disabilities groups to testify on their behalf. It wouldn't be the first time.

As the article goes on to report...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Three disability advocacy groups have filed suit in California against the SoS and five counties for using voting systems that are not accessible, according to the groups. The list of systems includes AutoMark and Hart eSlate and Diebold TSx but not Sequoia Edge / "We have lousy voting machines and no results. When I voted this afternoon, there were three men standing behind me who could've seen how I voted." said Park City, Kansas Mayor Dee Stuart about Sedgwick Counties ES&S voting system. / Shelby Co. Tennessee sent their Diebold voting machines home with election workers for the night tonight, ignoring the federal certification memorandum....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

"We are headed for a train wreck on Election Day," said Republican Tom Leatherwood, who is seeking re-election as Shelby Co. Tennessee register and is calling for more machines to be stationed countywide. / Today is Kansas' primary election / A state Senate investigative panel in California queried the Asst. Registrar of Voters in Kern Co. as to why precinct workers were told they didn't need to test their machines before election day, and why volunteers weren't trained in the use of paper ballots should their machines fail and why inexperienced workers were allowed inside the elections secure area that night. / The so-called "Battle of Athens" began Aug. 1, 1946, when veterans opened fire on the local jail to stop corrupt local officials from stealing an election in Athens, Tennessee. / "The root cause of our troubled elections is that, unbelievably, the U.S. provides less security, testing, and oversight of our nation's voting equipment and election administration than it does to slot machines and the gaming industry." Steven Hill in his WaPo column....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Yesterday, according to an article in The Bakersfield Californian, a panel of California state senators held a hearing in Bakersfield to discern what happened in the county during the June 6 state primary. The panel consisted of Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach; Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield; and Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove.

The California Senate Select Committee on Integrity of Elections has launched an investigation into problems in elections in the state. That investigation started in Kern County (Bakersfield) with testimony by County Deputy Registrar of Voters Sandy Brockman, Diebold Election Systems official Mike Rockenstein, and other election workers.

Brockman stood in for her boss, Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett, who was on vacation and not available to answer questions about why some voters were not able to vote in the primary. In fact, the paper reports:

The questioning was all about mistakes:

The Diebold representative got his turn to answer some hard questions from Sen. Dunn:

The next stop by the panel has been unannounced so far. Could San Diego Co. be very far down on their list?

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version. "Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant," according to Alan Dechert. "If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS --- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver." ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Today the Arizona Daily Star printed their awaited opinion piece that has three members of the county government responding to questions that were compiled by the paper's staff from their readers' responses to the paper's ill-researched editorial of earlier in the week.

Responding to the Letter To The Editor comments and questions were County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, who allowed the county to spend over a million dollars to buy new Diebold TSx machines. Also responding are Elections Director Brad Nelson and John H. Moffatt, of the county's Office of Strategic Technology Planning. Both are proponents of the Diebold TSx. And, by the way the questions/concerns were answered, both seem willing to do nearly anything to ensure Diebold gets the Pima Co. taxpayers' money...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

The normal primary turnout in Shelby Co. (Memphis) Tennessee is right at 30%. That means that close to 110,000 voters will attempt to vote on 1300 Diebold TSx voting machines on an extremely long ballot that has as many as 141 races on it. If each voter takes only 10 minutes every voter can vote in a normal 14 hour day. If the voters average 15 minutes, the election day will stretch into 20 hours. That, of course, assumes that no voters walk away because of long lines and that no voting machines break down during the day. Of course, if the county used precinct based optical scan machines voters could mark their ballots while sitting at desks or on the floor and there would be no long lines and if machines broke down ballot boxes could be used....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

A hearing will be held on Monday in Kern Co. California to investigate problems in the recent primary election. / "We had polling places that didn't open until several hours after they were supposed to, voting machines that didn't work at all, and hundreds of voters around the state who were told to 'come back later' once the problems had been sorted out," said Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, who chairs the committee. "That's not acceptable and we need to begin addressing these problems now to ensure they don't repeat themselves in November." / When discussing expected problems in Shelby Co., Tennessee, David Bear of Diebold has already started blaming problems on the voters and the elderly, ""There's going to be hiccups,'' said David Bear, spokesman for Diebold, manufacturer of the 1,500 voting machines the county bought this year for about $4.2 million. Most troubles involve the elderly or voters unfamiliar with computers, yet that generally changes quickly once on the machines, he said."...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

Arizona readers responded to the Arizona Star editorial from July 24. The paper has passed some of the letters on to Pima County and staff will be responding on Sunday. / Early voting started on Thursday in Kansas with immediate problems with ES&S machines not starting-up in the morning or failing during the day. / August is primary election month again. Primaries in order are Kansas, Tennessee, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan and Missouri and all on or before August 8. ...

Dobbs has this to say (tongue in cheek) when talking about Diebold's denial of any problems while there is evidence of vote tallying problems, "A minor, minor consideration when one is holding an election is to be able to count the vote."

A written transcript follows...

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org

"I'd love to tell you about the technology," said Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz "but we're still sorting out the details." An announcement about what they will be using in elections will be made next week according to the news. / Officials in Huron Co., Michigan are justifiably concerned about the late delivery of some voting equipment by ES&S and the lack of delivery of other equipment....