Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A recount has been requested by a candidate for Senate in Indiana. / Riverside Co. California has announced an intent to form a panel to investigate their voting problems. / Ron Rivest visited Georgia on Nov. 7 and has recently reported on what he saw as he visited with the head of the state's elections and some polls in different counties. He was told by Kathy Rogers, the state elections boss, that the state did illegally use uncertified software in 2002. Rivest also found that the state seems to have decided it's OK to violate federal law as they turn voters with questionable registrations away from the polls without offering them a provisional ballot....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

"The Commission will receive presentations on public comments received for the DRAFT Procedural Manual for Voting System Testing and Certification Program and the proposed final document will be considered for approval. The Commission will receive presentations from election officials, community interest groups, academicians and technology experts regarding the 2006 election. The Commission will elect officers for 2007 and consider other administrative matters." Notice of a Public Hearing of the Election Assistance Commission. The meeting, on Dec. 7 in Washington DC. That's Pearl Harbor Day. Let's hope the EAC doesn't do more to torpedo our election process....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

"One of the great hazards of the way electronic voting has been introduced in the United States is that it could end up undermining democracy by producing unreliable election results that cannot be truly audited or corrected. This month, that nightmare became a reality. Voting machines in a Congressional race in Florida — where else? — may have swallowed about 18,000 votes, far more than the nominal winner’s razor-thin margin of victory. Because those votes were in the loser’s strongest county, if there was a computer glitch it probably changed the outcome of the race." NYTimes Editorial. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

“If the success of an election is to be measured according to whether each voter’s voice is heard, then we would have to conclude that this past election was not entirely a success,” said Doug Chapin, director of Electionline.org, a nonpartisan election group that plans to release a report Wednesday with a state-by-state assessment of voting. “In places where the margin of victory was bigger than the margin of error, we looked away from the problems, but in 2008 we might not have that luxury.” The preceding from an article in the NY Times....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

A majority of today's news is about the audit to be held by the state in Florida's 13th Congressional District and the controversy over the people who will do that audit. I'll leave it to the readers to decide for themselves. / In North Carolina there is more testimonial to the fact that accessible voting systems are, in fact, not accessible for all voters who are supposed to be able to use those machines. / New York is the last state to make a decision about a voting system for their voters. Let's all hope the people who will be making the decisions have seen what DRE voting does to destroy voter confidence. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! / The disaster of an election in Denver, Colorado cost the tax payers over $4M or $20 for each voter who went to the polls. This is an amazing cost and it is being borne out all over the country as counties begin to tally up the costs of HAVA. Many counties are now spending two and three times more for elections than they have spent in the past and the cost can only go up once the first year contracts go away and the counties begin to realize they have the extra costs of maintenance, licensing, technical support, and the other hidden costs. And to add to the misery, many counties are beginning to complain about the cost of purchasing accessible voting machines that were not used in the last election and may never be used. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We at VotersUnite.Org want to express our hopes that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our best wishes to all. / We warn anyone who will listen that our election system is being privatized. Private companies use private software to count our votes. There is very little transparency in the system. So it is extremely disconcerting to learn that some counties in Indiana have hired MicroVote to tabulate their votes for them. The counties buy MicroVote's machines, software, technical support and now even MicroVote employees to do the vote counting. MicroVote is the same company that knowingly installed illegal software on the machines in Indiana, and possibly in other states, prior to the primary. MicroVote is that same company that is being investigated for their practices in the state and has been investigated for illegal business practices and successfully sued for selling faulty equipment in the past. And yet this company is still being trusted to count votes? ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Elections officials, including the EAC, wring their hands in worry over "Voter Confidence." Voter confidence won't come about because we cover up or minimize the fact that there are failures all over; that people are having to stand in lines so long that some give up and go home. Voter confidence will not come about as long as voters see their votes 'flipping' on the screen before their very eyes. Voter confidence will not come about as long as voters know there were problems with the machines they voted on but election officials tell them it's alright, "no votes were lost." Voter confidence WILL grow when the problems are fixed and when all voters can go to the polls and have a good experience. Making a pretty picture out of a disaster helps no one except a few elections officials who want the truth hidden and the vendors. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Doug Chapin of electionline.org 'said for all the flaws, Colorado was fortunate on two fronts. First, the problems were largely what he called ‘‘hassle factor,’’ and had nothing to do with allegations of inaccuracy, fraud or large-scale disenfranchisement. Plus, Florida grabbed the headlines again with a congressional race that has wound up in court.' I wonder how the fact that over 18,000 voters stepped out of lines over 4 blocks long and did not vote in Denver is not, arguably, 'large-scale disenfranchisement'? It is certainly "large-scale voter suppression" and much more than just a "hassle factor". / In Florida today the Jennings campaign has filed their election challenge. Groups representing the voters in Sarasota Co. have also announced a press conference for tomorrow morning. This PC will be followed by a lawsuit filed by those groups; VoterAction, PFAW-FL, ACLU, EFF....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

"Florida needs to demonstrate that it is a functioning democracy by getting to the bottom of the problem in the District 13 Congressional Race in Sarasota County. Republican Vern Buchanan now leads Christine Jennings by only 369 votes. But voter complaints and anomalous statistics raise the question: did the voters decide this election, or did software or hardware errors tip the result in favor of a candidate who would otherwise have lost?" David Dill "Is Florida Ready for Democracy?" on HuffPo....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

One episode highlights the success of vote-by-mail in Tillamook Co Oregon, where 13 inches of rain on Election Day sent many citizens scrambling to the safety of shelters under a declared state of emergency. Despite the fact that many roads were impassable and parts of the county were inaccessible --- conditions that would have crippled turnout in a state that relied on conventional polling places --- 70 percent of the voters cast ballots. Only voting by mail could have led to this outcome. / Sarasota Co., Florida elections director Kathy Dent has declared in her official election certification documents that there were no errors caused in the general election by voting machines. Clearly the courts will have to make that decision and VoterAction will be at the forefront of any court case brought for the voters of the county. They need help to help those voters. VotersUnite does not ask for donations for the work we do but VoterAction needs your support. Please consider visiting www.voteraction.org/donate.html and helping them a little. Our democracy needs it....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

There must be a stop to corporate involvement in the elections process. Reports like those coming from Delaware Co, Indiana, where the vendor sells, maintains, programs, and tests the equipment and then does the tabulation, are all too prevalent. An attorney for the company has even gone so far as to suggest that county officials and candidates sign a document to release the company from any fault caused by their work. Simply unbelievable! / Next week the court will be brought further into the Sarasota Co., Florida, issue. Expect to see challenges filed by the Dems. for their candidate, Jennings, and also VoterAction, CommonCause, ACLU Florida, EFF, and others for the voters. VoterAction needs help with the work they are doing in Florida right now. Please visit them at www.voteraction.org/donate.html and consider helping them to help our democracy....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

If a recount in Sarasota Co, Florida fails to award Democrat Christine Jennings a seat in Congress, she has a final recourse: The newly Democratic-controlled U.S. House. A little-known provision in the U.S. Constitution gives the House the final decision on who sits in its chamber. The CA-50 special election to replace Randy "Duke" Cunningham was decided by decision of the majority party in the House and according to the US Constitution Article 1, Section 5. FL-13 may be decided in the same way. / VVPAT: The printer that was added on to the DREs to allow the voter to review the ballot and to allow the counties to have something to audit/recount instead of software. What good has it been? Voters don't review it. On some models of machines the printer is covered by an opaque cover that must be lifted by the voter so they can review the ballot. They don't do it. Poll sites ran out of replacement spools for the printers and, where the printers are mandated by law, the machines had to be taken out of service. We need to rethink this idea....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Officials in Denver Colorado estimate that as many as 18,000 voters walked away from the polls without voting in the Nov. 7 general election. These are disenfranchised voters just the same as those voters who have been removed from voting registers for no reason or those who were intimidated, in the past, when poll sites had police officers stationed just outside the doors. We cannot continue to use voting systems (in this case it was an untested, kludgey Sequoia poll book that was the cause) that keep people from the polls and cause long lines. When DREs fail no one can use them. When precinct-based optical-scan machines fail, ballots can be put into a ballot box....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

One friend in the activist community asked me this morning if we are making the case enough that unverifiable/unverified DREs give some the "temptation to cheat." Based on the close elections this year (eight House races are still not decided and there are a few recounts and contests still in the process) aren't we in a position where there is a "temptation"? My simple answer is: Yes. The country is so evenly divided and that division is contentious to say the least. I would also add that we are in danger of desensitizing ourselves to questionable elections. It's just another questionable election on questionable machines and only a few of us die-hards really seem to care that the voters will not have been heard in large and small races across the country. The Sarasota County story with over 18,000 undervotes is now relegated to the back pages, if it is mentioned at all, in the national media. So, Yes! In an atmosphere of tight races and now normal election contests the "temptation to cheat" is very real and very dangerous because it can be done with no one knowing and the vendors denying it will ever happen....