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

ES&S gave officials in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania an ultimatum, "Either accept 50 percent of your order by 5 p.m. (Wednesday) or get nothing." Buyer beware! I guess. Buyer beware, indeed. The folks in Cook County and Chicago are beginning to wish they had been better aware of what they were doing when they made deals with Sequoia. Now they are threatening to withhold any further funds from contracts due to the machines that did not work as advertised. For their part Sequoia did what the vendors always do; blame the voter and the poll workers for everything. ...

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

Today a federal court told New York state to present a HAVA plan by April 10. The court also found that intervention of LWV, NYVV and others would not be allowed. Essentially the court found in favor of chaos. Meanwhile the disaster in Illinois is continuing with thousands of votes still to be counted. Sequoia has done a good job of deflecting the machine failures into personnel errors and 'glitches'. At the same time election officials are saying that Sequoia should have to pay for the myriad equipment failures. The editorials and articles coming from Maryland are all pointed toward the state changing their voting system now....

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

It has been a busy day��.. the day that saw a lawsuit in California. �.the day that saw elections failures in Illinois. �.the day that saw Sequoia counties in California celebrate because the SoS certified their voting machines. �..the day that saw Summit Co., Ohio threaten a law suit against ES&S. �.the day that a recount in Tom Green Co., Texas is stopped by the SoS. And, the day that a potential challenge of the Texas primary is announced. Of course Sequoia decided that all of their problems in Cook Co., IL. were "operator error" typically not taking any responsibility for lack of training and poor machines....

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

Today a lawsuit was announced in California against 18 counties who are planning on using Diebold, and the state. Also announced is a possible lawsuit in Arizona. In the mean time the media reports a slow primary election in Illinois with a smattering of glitches. Meanwhile, not in the media is that one election official has said that unofficially 50% of the machines in the state have not worked at one time or another during the day. And the Texas SoS has stepped-in and halted a recount in Tom Green Co., because the eSlates will not print all ballot images. The recount is mandated by state law but may not be possible unless Hart can figure out how to fix their problem....

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

Today a lawsuit was announced in California against 18 counties who are planning on using Diebold, and the state. Also announced is a possible lawsuit in Arizona. In the mean time the media reports a slow primary election in Illinois with a smattering of glitches. Meanwhile, not in the media is that one election official has said that unofficially 50% of the machines in the state have not worked at one time or another during the day. And the Texas SoS has stepped-in and halted a recount in Tom Green Co., because the eSlates will not print all ballot images. The recount is mandated by state law but may not be possible unless Hart can figure out how to fix their problem....

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

More news is breaking about the inspection of the Diebold TSx machines in Utah. I imagine the reports will be coming out for another week or so. Tuesday (tomorrow) is the Illinois state primary and most counties are using new voting technology. ...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 13 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

Today has been a slow day for voting issues news. Humboldt Co. has taken one step closer to getting Vote-PAD for their voters with disabilities. Mississippi SoS Clark is traveling the state touting his choice of Diebold TSx. Soon the counties will realize they were duped into buy a voting system that will end up costing them large amounts of money in technical and maintenance fees....

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

The Arizona state senate is pulling the wool over someone's eyes. They have put forth a bill to do a hand count audit of all ballots from 10 randomly selected precincts in the state's two largest counties. However, the bill also says that the audit results cannot be used in place of the machine count, even if there are problems found. Maryland Gov. Ehrlich is trying to find a way to pay for a change of voting systems but some in the state Senate are doing all they can to squelch that plan. And in New Jersey a lawsuit against the use of Sequoia machines in the state is progressing....

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

In yesterday's DVN I included an article from Arizona regarding photo ID being required for mail-in ballots. The newspaper printed a correction to that story: "This story gave the wrong result for a state legislative proposal to require people who vote by mail to provide identification. The proposal was defeated." The ES&S memory card problems have spread with the report of 1000 bad cards in North Carolina. Also, there seems to be a growing list of candidates in Texas who are asking for recounts due to problems on election night. In New Hampshire two Diebold OS machines were confiscated by the police due to irregularities in the total vote count. In Maryland today the Gov. asked the state legislature for $21.8M to replace the states DREs but the Senate immediately voted to use it for a poll book to keep voters from voting twice....

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

In Palm Beach Co. Florida the headline reads, "Voting smooth despite glitches" yet we find that at times two of three DREs in one precinct were not working, cards got stuck in machines, and cards were being rejected as 'invalid'. And victory in Leon County as Ion Sancho gets a unanimous vote of confidence from the county commission. This, in no small part, due to the thousands of emails sent to the commission by Ion's supporters all over the country. Gov. Rendell of Pennsylvania vetoed the state legislature's voter ID bill. Meanwhile Arizona is looking into forcing those who vote-by-mail to provide a copy of their ID in the mail with their ballot....

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

The Florida SoS and Ion Sancho met yesterday in what was supposed to have been an open meeting. The media and public were barred from attending and the police were called to ensure no one was allowed to hear what was said. Thousands of emails have been sent and are being sent to Leon County commissioners, the Gov. and the SoS. One person on the inside has reported, "The email campaign in support of the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho is having a dramatic effect. The number of emails received by the Leon County Commission is breaking all records and is blocking the system." Keep up the great work. It is making a difference....

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

Two important reports surfaced today. First, from VoteTrustUSA, is a study on reliability of voting machines and the reliability of those machines that were batch tested by the Calif. SoS. Second is the coming forward of another whistleblower, this time from Hart InterCivic. Also, another failure in last weeks Texas primaries was announced. In a hand count audit of ballots in Jefferson Co. they found a large discrepancy in the number of votes counted vs. the number of votes cast. ES&S will pay for a recount to be accomplished....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, of VotersUnite and VoteTrustUSA

The "DVN Top 5" is a feature in the weekly voting newsletter of VoteTrustUSA. The March 6 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

Elections officials in Tarrant Co. Texas where voting machines added around 100,000 votes to the total are actually considering whether to have a recount. It should be a 'no-brainer'. Even more amazing is news from Allegheny Co., PA where they county has announced that they are happily buying used, 10-year old Sequoia Advantage machines. Sequoia has convinced them that the machines can be updated and made accessible and HAVA compliant before the PA primary in May. That includes federal and state testing and certification. ES&S has claimed that they had battery failures on their memory cards in Summit Co. OH which is why they have had a huge number of failures during testing....