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

Today has been another busy day. There has been a lot of fallout from the court decision in Pennsylvania and that has caused a lot of counties to question what they can or cannot do as far as buying new machines. Some are just ignoring everything and they plan on continuing to sign contracts. There is also talk of an appeal to the courts ruling by the state. In Alaska the state is delaying releasing any election records to the state Democrat party. In New Mexico a paper ballot bill has passed the House and is near to going for a signature and to becoming state law. And Utah has turned their back on 'Early Voting'. And late breaking from Maryland is news that the Governor has joined Reps and Dems in the state legislature who are all asking for a voter verified paper ballot....

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

Smartmatic paid up to $35M for Sequoia Voting Systems last year, depending on performance. This year they contracted with Cook County and Chicago, Illinois to sell them voting machines worth $50.2M. For that amount of money the state of Illinois could have bought the whole company. A court in Pennsylvania found that at least one county needed to go to the people and ask them, via referendum, how they want to vote. The Arizona legislature rejected a hand audit. Regular readers of DVN will recall that VoteTrustUSA has been sponsoring an Action Alert to ask voters to notify the EAC and demand that they take action with regards to the use of banned software on some voting systems. You all are responsible for 20,113 Emails and 2220 letters sent so far!...

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

Jefferson Co., Kentucky election officials have told the local media that they will be 'testing' their new accessible voting machines in tomorrow's election. This is the same thing we are going to be seeing from jurisdictions all across the country this year. "Testing"! We, the voters, are going to be asked to test these new machines, which will fail more than they should, in real elections. Training for election workers is scarce. Training for the voter is non-existent. I hope I am wrong but I fear not....

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

Election officials in Cambria and Somerset Counties in Pennsylvania "know" they will have touch-screen voting machines (DREs) in place for this May's primary election even though no contracts have yet been signed. They stupidly think they can take custody of completely new technology, train election workers and the voters and have a trouble free election all with a few weeks preparation. This is pure incompetence. Also Illinois violates their own state laws to help out Sequoia and Sequoia gets an attempted assist in New Mexico....

This just out minutes ago from Associated Press...

UPDATE FROM BRAD: Several sources (Fox, CNN, Reuters) confirming incident, but reporting it took place yesterday (Saturday) at 5:30pm Texas time. Why was the story withheld from the media until now? Almost 24 hours later? The man is reported to be in stable condition, apparently, at this time. Did they wait until they could report that he would be fine before releasing it at all? Would we have found out about it at all, therefore, if the man had died? Did they wait until after it was too late to be discussed discussed on the Sunday News shows?

Just some of the questions I expect we'll be hearing shortly.

FURTHER UPDATES...

Cheney on hunting...

On the Armstrongs, on whose ranch the incident occurred, and their relation to Cheney et al...From WhiteHouseForSale.org...

Katherine Armstrong is the daughter of Anne, and was the one who witnessed the incident, quoted in the stories.

MORE... Shakespeare's Sister has details on Cheney's victim, Harry Whittington, and his long-standing crony-hood with Boy Bush...

DETAILS FROM HOSPITAL ON WHITTINGTON'S CONDITION... As Josh Marshall points out, details on Whittington's condition has so far only been reported by the property owner, Katharine Armstrong who has, by-and-large, downplayed the injury as no big deal.

CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital spokesperson, Yvonne Wheeler, tells The BRAD BLOG that the only information currently given to them by doctors is that Whittington is in "stable condition."

She's not able to say whether or not his condition has been worse previously when he was admitted to the facility at 8:15pm CT on Saturday, and then upgraded more recently.

News reports have said that Whittington was shot at 5:30pm CT, but Wheeler had no explanation for the apparent delay in his admission, other than she understands he was initially treated on-site. While the hospital is a two-hour drive from Armstrong's ranch, Whittington was transported to the facility by the hospital's own helicopter, so the reason for the apparent two-hour time-delay is still unclear.

No word yet on when Whittington may be released from the hospital.

Wheeler said that the media has requested a doctor there give a briefing on hunting accidents in general, and they will be doing so shortly.

We've so far been unable to receive comment from Cheney's office.

According to AP, Armstrong had said about the shooting:

THE LEFT COASTER POINTS OUT... That apparently it's all Whittington's own fault --- not Cheney's! --- that he got shot...At least according to Armstrong...

BRAD BLOG commenter Bonnie reports...

JAMES AND SARAH BRADY RELEASE COMMENT... And a hilarious one at that...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The February 07 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

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

Alaska is planning on finally turning over the voting files to the state Democratic party. It is hard to believe that what the party will get is going to prove or disprove anything now. In Florida the National Federation of the Blind lawsuit against Volusia Co. has been kicked out of the court. In New Mexico their voter verified paper ballot bill continues to move through the state legislature even against the scorn of some in the legislature and one stubborn county election official who may have staked her political future in her battle against verifiable elections. And the spigot of dis- and mis-information is wide open in Pennsylvania....

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

John Fund, writing in the WallStreetJournal, attacks the Maryland legislature for not taking action against voter fraud and for not doing like other states and making it harder for some voters to vote. Fund continues to think that voter fraud is a big problem while there is not evidence to prove this but he ignores election fraud which is a huge problem. An Appeals Court in New Jersey has reinstated a lawsuit filed by a Rutgers University Law Clinic in 2004 that challenges the ability of New Jersey's electronic voting machines to count votes accurately, in compliance with voting rights laws. This may be huge news....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

In a just released press release the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers School of Law in Newark, NJ has announced that all electronic voting machines used in New Jersey may violate New Jersey's Constitution and election laws.

The press release goes on to say:

This lawsuit could have an impact on lawsuits in other states. Paul Lehto, who is a complainant in a suit against Sequoia in Washington state because using secret software to count votes secretly is contrary to the Washington state Constitution, is very interested in the opinion in this case.

We will keep an eye on this and report back when more is known.

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

After yesterday's reports from electionline.org and the large number of articles that were the result, today has been pretty quiet. The big news is the update of an AP article from yesterday that discussed Diebold and possible actions to be taken to save the corporation. The update includes more quotes from their CEO and plainer language regarding the possibility that Diebold will divest themselves of the money losing elections unit. Another blow to Diebold was announced today as the largest county in Washington state announced that they were going to go all vote-by-mail next year, thus not needing all of the Diebold TSx's they would otherwise need to purchase....

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

As reported by The BRAD BLOG and then, just a few minutes later, the Associated Press, the CEO of Diebold is making overtures about possibly pulling the plug on their e-voting unit. States and counties need to be aware of this possibility before they make any decisions. Electionline.org has published their report on the state of elections around the nation. California counties are talking about ignoring the state vvpat law for the June primary. Another 'red state', Missouri, has joined the list of states that are working on regressive voter ID bills....

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

USAToday and AP report that election officials fear the 'year of the glitch'. However, when a 'glitch' is defined it has nothing to do with machine failures. Apparently they are going to stick by the misinformation from the vendors about the reliability of voting technology and they are preparing to blame all errors on elections workers and the voter. I wonder who was responsible for Diebold TSx counting more votes than voters who cast votes in Montgomery Co., OH or in Alaska?...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The January 30 edition can be found here. The selection of what will be the "Top 5" for each week and where it goes on the list is all mine. The fact that you may disagree with my choices is great because it shows that you have been reading the DVN articles that I've posted throughout the week here on The BRAD BLOG!...

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

CommonDreams has now voiced their concerns over regressive and restrictive voting rights legislation in GA, OH, and PA. Newspapers in PA are now editorializing against the VoterID bill that will reduce turnout and ensure some voters do not vote. Officials in Vanderburgh Co., IN are now talking about a probe into why 46 machines sat unused in a warehouse in Nov. 2004 while voters waited in long lines to vote....

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

VoteTrustUSA has provided us an excellent article on effective testing of election software. We also have an article on HR-4666, the House bill to slow up the implementation of HAVA. Is the state of Florida manipulating the certification of AutoMARK to ensure it is not used in the state? (February 3, 1959 "The Day The Music Died")...