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

In Vanderburgh County, IN voters were forced to stand in long lines in Nov. 2004 and some walked away in frustration. The county council has been investigating prior to spending the money to buy more machines. They've now found that 46 machines were left in storage rather than to be used. PA has begun the legislative actions to keep voters from voting. On the national scene HR-550 has picked up another co-sponsor and new legislation that will slow down HAVA has been filed....

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

There may finally be some progress made in Maricopa County, AZ where the FBI has stepped in and subpoenaed to get control of the ballots from Nov. 2004. These ballots may show if there was massive election fraud or voting machine failure. A vvpat bill has been proposed for the GA Senate. Congressman Fitzpatrick (PA) has filed a new bill, HR-4666, that will allow states until Nov. 2006 to comply fully with HAVA without penalty. This bill has bi-partisan support. I also need to clarify a statement I made in the preamble to yesterday's DVN; I reported that Vote-PAD had gotten a favorable opinion from the DoJ. In fact, the DoJ did not give an opinion one way or another they just made it clear that they saw nothing to stop Wisconsin from using it....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

As we reported in January the Maricopa County, AZ elections officials and county attorney have done all they can do to keep anyone from looking at the ballots from the Nov. 2004 District 20 race. As you may recall, the matter came into question after a recount in a Republican Primary race revealed 439 ballots magically appearing and which resulted in the final results of the election being changed. The county has even gone to the lengths of refusing subpoenas from a State Senate committee to provide the ballots, even after an expert was brought in to examine the voting machinery and found the optical scan counters completely out of calibration. The expert said that examination of the ballots was the only way to determine what had actually happened.

Today The Arizona Republic announced that the FBI has now stepped in and provided a court ordered subpoena for those ballots.

The paper reports:

It seems odd that Schweikert would refuse to obey a subpoena from the state legislature and then be delighted when he got a subpoena for the same thing from the FBI. We are just going to have to continue to watch this extraordinary case and see where the twisted road continues to lead us.

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

Vote-PAD has been accepted for use in Wisconsin after the state got a favorable opinion from the DoJ. California is now looking into contingency plans so they are not caught "with their pants down" if the Diebold interpreted code decision goes against the vendor. (Note: I have been told no decision has been made yet by the ITAs and EAC) The new Hart Intercivic was proven to have 'bugs' in testing in Illinois. New lawsuits are being added to the list in Pennsylvania and support for these lawsuits is growing. Action Alerts are being pointed toward legislation in NM, VA and WA. ...

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 23 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

There is not much news on the web today. The big news may be the filing of legislation in Maryland to require a voter verified paper record. This after the news that the State Election Director is beginning to question Diebold regarding their software security problems. Note: 'Daily Voting News' will be on hiatus Sunday and Monday. We will be back on Tuesday evening....

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

Does AccuPoll have problems? They had a sure contract with Lebanon Co., PA but notified the county that they could not supply the machines required in the contract which forced the county to turn to their second choice in ES&S iVotronic. Are some of these companies over extended and might they all get to a point where none of them can supply all of the voting machines they are contracting for?...

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

In an expected move today GA Gov. Perdue signed the repressive Voter ID bill completely ignoring real election fraud in favor of minor, and mostly unproven voter fraud. In AZ the ACLU has joined the fray asking for a voter verified paper trail and also asking the SoS for an investigation in the District 20 election mess. And from PA we hear that a Republican Congressman has announced he is filing a bill that will delay some parts of HAVA in order to assist states....

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

A majority of the news is still coming from three states. Vote-by-mail is being discussed in CA and counties are making announcements of their decisions for voting machines in NC and PA. In the meantime, GA's Senate passed the VoterID bill with a few differences from what they got from the House so the bill goes back. It's still regressive....

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

The news has been full of ES&S having problems delivering optical-scan machines and now Diebold seems to have a problem delivering promised DREs to customers in Ohio. For the third time, the New York Times has editorialized in favor of optical-scan voting. In Alaska Diebold is doing all they can to cover-up the failures of their machines in 2004 by not allowing the state to release some files. Maryland's SoS is finally showing 'great concern' about the Diebold machines she has been touting for years....

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

Computerworld has just today reported on the fact that ES&S has backed out of Leon County, FL. That's ten days after the news was reported by the on-line media. In the mean time the Washington Post has done their second report in two days on voting issues. And the embattled Diebold has put out a press release that misinforms and obfuscates on the accuracy of their DREs....

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 16 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

Maybe it's good; maybe it's bad but there is very little voting news today. The article from Yolo County, CA is interesting. The article from VA talks about actions that residents can take to ensure they have verifiable elections in the future. The rest is pretty much business as usual....

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

The circus in Maricopa County, AZ is still going hard and strong. This is a true story of election fraud and cover-up. Some PA counties are starting to talk about how much money they are going to lose because the counties have not had a chance to choose their voting systems. It's clearly a scare tactic....

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

Exciting news today as Yolo Co., CA announces they are purchasing the Vote-PAD as their accessible voting device. Other CA counties are very concerned about whether they are going to have any voting system for their June primary. Tucson, AZ has announced that they are looking into using Vote-by-mail as their voting system. A judge in NM has released county elections officials from the lawsuit against the state's use of error prone Sequoia voting machines. The suit stays against the state so it looks like this suit will end up in court....