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

Today there is a mixed-bag of news and opinion. We have more on Connecticut canceling plans to purchase Danaher machines because Danaher could not get anything federally qualified. There is also additional information on the hold-up in New Mexico due to the temporary restraining order that is stopping the state from buying Sequoia DREs. Virginia's legislature is getting closer to putting the state into the vvpat column. And Debra Bowen, in California, is going to hold hearings on open source voting. In the meantime, those of who have responded to the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA have been making a lot of great noise! Keep it up! 12,272 Emails and 1620 letters sent so far!...

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

Today Arizona SoS Jan Brewer, who is buying Diebold for her voters, was shouted down by voting activists as she announced that she was running for another term in office. She called us "anarchists". I'll proudly wear that badge though she misused the word unless she used it as Bertrand Russell used it; "He was inclined to anarchism; he hated system and organization and uniformity"

In the meantime, those of who have responded to the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA have been making a lot of great noise! Keep it up! 14,000 Emails sent so far!...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

We are happy to join the Action Alert from VoteTrustUSA and ask that the EAC do their job and demand that the ITA reinspect the Diebold software looking for banned 'interpreted' code. Diebold has admitted that it is there. Now the ITA needs to find it and, if necessary, withdraw the qualification of Diebold software until the 'interpreted' software is removed. So far 36 organizations have signed the VoteTrustUSA petition. Concerned citizens have sent 9465 emails and 1175 letters so far. There is a lot of good that has happened today. Nearly 6000 emails were sent to the EAC and nearly 700 letters. Besides that Connecticut decided to wait a year and keep their levers. New Mexico announced they were going to wait on any further purchases of Sequoia Edge. And, Wisconsin is now a vvpat state but with the added bonus of having a 'disclosed source code' mandate....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

I want to take this opportunity to wish all of the readers of "Daily Voting News" a wonderful holiday season. As long as there is voting news over this weekend DVN will continue to publish it. It is with a mixture of sadness and immense pride in my associate of over two years that I post this announcement regarding VotersUnite: "December 23, 2005. After two years of providing the public with accurate information about voting systems and related issues, Ellen Theisen is now working toward election transparency in a different way - by offering the Vote-PAD as an accessible alternative to computerized voting devices. To avoid any potential conflict of interest, Ellen is terminating her association with VotersUnite.Org, effective immediately." In today's news the AP has announced that the SoS of CA has warned ES&S about problems with their voting machines and has threatened that proceedings to decertify will begin if the problems are not solved....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

North Carolina counties continue to make their decisions on how their voters are going to vote. There are questions being asked in Alaska about the results of the 2004 general election as they were counted on the states Diebold machines. Finally a county shows that they have actually read and understand what HAVA really says. Benton Co., Arkansas wants to use central-count optical scan machines and they realize they need to augment that with an education program to cut down on over-voting. Benton County gets my award for doing what no one else seems to have done; they read the law and ignored the rhetoric....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

The news today, for a great part, was about Diebold and the lawsuits and Leon Co. test failure. The news day ended with the news that Volusia Co., Florida has decided to join Leon Co. in dumping their Diebold machines. How many counties will be joining in the march away from Diebold? The Ohio House of Representatives was not able to agree on part of the regressive HB3 legislation. It was not a disagreement over disenfranchisement of voters, or making it near impossible for anyone to request a recount, or restricting voter registration drives. It was a disagreement between Republicans over whether local government employees should be able to donate to their bosses political campaigns....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

It is apparent that the PR machine has been cranked up and is working overtime. The Associated Press picked-up the Leon County story and the always available David Bear of Diebold is suddenly refusing to speak. Diebold did speak through a letter to Florida and Ion Sancho in Leon County. Of course, they made it all Mr. Sancho's fault. Florida just threw up their hands and said they had nothing to do with anything. In California, two Diebold counties have come out in support of Diebold and say that it can't happen there. That message will surely be repeated in "Diebold counties" across the nation as Diebold and their customers try to save the day. In the meantime there is an excellent OpEd from Centre County, PA below....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Today was a big news day. The Election Assistance Commission announced that they have adopted the new 2005 voluntary voting system guidelines. Diebold is very prominent in the news. We now have a pretty good reason for the sudden resignation of their CEO and President, Wally O'Dell. A securities fraud lawsuit was filed in federal court in Ohio against the corporation and 8 present and former officers. Also, late this afternoon (in fact so late that there is nothing yet in the news about it) it was reported that a security test was done of the Diebold voting system in Leon County, FL. The system failed miserably to stop the intrusion and changing of votes and no record of the intrusion was given though votes were changed. This has resulted in the county elections director to say that he would never use Diebold in an election again. (See BlackBoxVoting.Org for more information)...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of Voters Unite.org

(NOTE FROM BRAD: I've asked John to post VotersUnite.org's excellent "Daily Voting News", a comprehensive list of the day's major election and voting related stories, directly on BRAD BLOG each day. He's agreed to do so. And today's busy Election Day seems a great day to start. The articles that John chooses to include in the DVN are not necessarily opinions that we agree with, but rather, they're meant as a comprehensive listing of the each day's major Voting-related news, no matter which side of the political aisle they may fall on. I'd like to thank both John and Ellen Theissen, of VotersUnite.org for agreeing to share the listings each day with BRAD BLOG readers!)

Today has been a normally busy election day. There have been spotty problems reported in the media all over the country. Of course, almost every machine failure/error has been blamed on the voter or poll worker...

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of Voters Unite.org

(NOTE FROM BRAD: I've asked John to post VotersUnite.org's excellent "Daily Voting News", a comprehensive list of the days major election and voting related stories, directly on BRAD BLOG each day. He's agreed to do so. And today's busy Election Day seems a great day to start. The articles that John chooses to include in the DVN are not necessarily opinions that we agree with, but rather, they're meant as a comprehensive listing of the each day's major Voting-related news, no matter which side of the political aisle they may fall on. I'd like to thank both John and Ellen Theissen, of VotersUnite.org for agreeing to share the listings each day with BRAD BLOG readers!)

Today has been a normally busy election day. There have been spotty problems reported in the media all over the country. Of course, almost every machine failure/error has been blamed on the voter or poll worker...