Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Miscellaneous articles about IRV mistabulation, Internet voting, election auditing, Voter ID issues, fraud, and more....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Hillsborough County, Florida Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky released her 9-page report on 2008 election problems. A notable quote: “Although it was not the main focus of this report, it should be noted that many of the problems that occurred were caused by inadequacies in the Premier system which they have acknowledged and are working to correct.” We hope she submits the report to the EAC, so other election officials have access to the information....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

More New York counties join the resistance to switching from lever machines to optically scanned ballots. Smartmatic brought the wrong cable to its all-important demo in the Philippines and caused a short circuit in the optical scanner. Voter ID and Internet voting continue to be in the news. And an error was discovered in TrueBallot’s counting of the votes in Aspen’s IRV election – but it didn’t affect the outcome....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Various aspects of Voter ID are in the news today. Texas Democrats defeated their bill. In Kansas, a candidate for Secretary of State claims it’s essential to prevent fraud....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

A bill introduced into the Oregon House of Representatives in February provided for submission of completed ballots over the Internet for the military and Americans living abroad. Last week amendments made in the House changed the bill, removing the authorization for Internet voting and providing instead for faxed ballots if the voter waives the right to a secret ballot. The bill, as amended, passed the House and is headed for the Senate....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Texas ratified the 45-year old constitutional amendment to eliminate the poll tax and continues its voter ID debate. The Internet and phone election in Hawaii came to a close on Friday; Warren Stewart of Verified Voting Foundation points out that "Web voting cannot be used in city council or state elections because state law bars voting systems that do not include a vote verification process."...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Yesterday Jessie Jane Duff, Retired Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps and spokesperson for Military Voting Rights USA, testified before Congress on the issue of military and overseas voting. Her testimony told what it is like in the field – that the military does more to assist soldiers to pay taxes and give to charity than it does to help them get their ballots cast. She pointed out that the Internet is not readily available in the field (contrary to what many proponents of Internet voting say). She proposed a well-thought out solution and explained the many benefits. The federal government should provide an Express Mail program for the return of ballots, more training for people who assist during the election cycle, and accessible voter registration and absentee ballot request locations. We hope Congress acts on her wise recommendations.

The Voter ID bill is scheduled to come to the floor in Texas tomorrow....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

The debate on photo voter ID in Texas continues to slow cook, and the particular question of Asian names and voter ID may have nationwide implications. Also in today’s news are two government actions (in IL and HI) that show the necessity of citizens’ persistence in demanding that the law be upheld. Andrew Appel writes about the testimony of the plaintiff’s witnesses in the NJ lawsuit, and plans to follow up with testimony of the defendant’s witnesses....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Three interesting personal accounts: one from a voter in CA who found that the state-certified InkaVote Plus won't accept write-in votes; another from a candidate in PA who tried three times to vote and didn't get to cast a ballot; and the third from an activist in Brazil who tells about vote-selling, biometric voter IDs, spy pens, and e-voting machines....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

The 15-week NJ trial challenging the use e-voting machines concluded today; a ruling is expected by the end of the year. Low turnout in today's CA and PA elections. CO and IN are making good use of the Internet for voters, unlike the IL legislature. More NY counties resist the move from levers to optical scanners. Last, but not least, RI joins the photo voter ID debate....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

In spite of a plethora of reports from experts explaining its inherent insecurity, lack of transparency, and non-auditability, online voting continues to be proposed as a viable method of holding elections. The EAC is holding a public hearing tomorrow on counting the votes of military and overseas voters (where online voting is sure to come up). An Alabama bill to allow such voters to return ballots by email died in the state senate, but only because of some "bad amendments."

And Hawaii is currently in the process of holding its first-ever digital online and telephone election (even though the state has a requirement for a voter-verified paper record and audits). The Chief of Products and Partnerships with the company that got the contract for the online Hawaii election claims, not surprisingly, that the system is "faster, more reliable, and more secure than if they had voted on paper."...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Today I'd like to introduce you to the two men who leapt forward to assist me (Ellen) in continuing Daily Voting News on an interim basis while we work on getting a permanent plan in place: John Washburn and Dave Klein. Their brief bios, which they wrote, not only tell a bit about them but should also give you a sense of where some of the flavor of the DVN intros are coming from.

John Washburn has been working in the software field since 1985; as a software developer from 1985-1994 and as a software tester from 1994 to the present. He fully slipped down the rabbit hole and into the wonderland of elections and election integrity in December of 2004. At that time he was attempting to reconcile simple elections numbers (for example, number of ballots counted to number of ballots distributed to voters) for the November 2, 2004 general election. The inability to examine election records or reconcile election numbers once he had the records set him on the three paths he has walked since; open records activism, election auditing by citizens, and the testing and certification of voting machines.

Some the achievements since then have been: Washburn v, Edman, Testing guidelines for pre election testing, Testimony before the US House and EAC, Sunshine Trouble Maker of the Week for Messin’ with Texas and the Sunshine Blogger project which resulted in winning the James Madison award.

Dave Klein dreamt as a child of having some form of involvement with election administration and integrity; however, living in Ohio in 2004 undid years of therapy that had ended those nightmares. In 2006, he applied for a job offering whatever assistance he could provide to new SOS-elect, Jennifer Brunner, and to his great surprise, she accepted. From 2007-2008, he served as Elections Research & Operations Specialist at the Ohio Secretary of the State’s Office directing and leveraging expert scientific, analytic, and technical resources.

The transition to this form of public service was natural given his educational background and his prior private-sector work, which included implementing best practices/systems to support optimal customer-service at Limited Brands. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he received a National Science Foundation Fellowship to attend graduate school at Ohio State University where he studied persuasion, emotion, statistics, psychometrics, experimental methodology, and social neuroscience.

Supporting his wife's pursuit of her dreams, in the fall of 2008 he left the big-stage election drama of Ohio and moved to Minnesota, an election Eden. Or so he thought. He now serves on Minnesota Citizens for Election Integrity Organizing Committee and on the advisory boards of NSF ACCURATE and the Ohio Center for Election Excellence.

And now onto the voting news. ...

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Washington State recently enacted a law joining the pact for a National Popular Vote, bringing the total to five (MD, NJ, IL, HI, and WA). Currently, it is also being considered in CT, NV, and MA. While many recent articles are largely favorable toward the NPV, the National Popular Vote is not universally popular: Efforts are underway in MD, NJ, and WA to repeal the pact. See also the second National article below....

Today we have post-election reports from Connecticut on the accuracy of the optical scanners. There's an interesting contrast of voting methods between Canada (voting on paper ballots) and India (hauling e-voting machines up the Himalayas)....

Co-Editors: Dave Klein and John Washburn

Concerns about military and overseas voters headline the national voting news. Senator Schumer held a hearing to discuss a report showing that, in 2008, nearly one-fourth of the absentee ballots requested by these voters (1) were undeliverable, (2) weren’t returned to the local elections office, or (3) were rejected due to a missing signature or failure to notarize. The report says these voters were disenfranchised but fails to mention that high percentages of absentee ballots sent to ordinary citizens go uncounted for the same reasons. Senators Inhofe and Cornyn are re-introducing a bill they hope will help military and overseas voters return their ballots to their local officials in a timely manner, while ensuring the privacy and secrecy of the ballots.

On a more local note: A voter registration database error assigned 12 voters in a Mississippi Democratic primary to the wrong Wards. With only a 2-vote margin between the two candidates in one of the Wards, the result of valid votes couldn’t be determined, and the party decided to hold a re-vote, which flipped the outcome....