Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
It appears that Advanced Voting Solutions (AVS), vendor for the WinVote DREs, may be in financial trouble. A report from PA, where WinVote is widely used, relates that AVS has failed to pay their bill for testing of their newest version of system. The testing lab has stopped testing and will not certify the system until they are paid. AVS is the same vendor who was just warned by the EAC for swapping out the motherboard in the new system without notifying either the test lab or the EAC. That notification is mandatory. If you have not seen the Dan Rather Report on voting issues the full program is now on-line. It is a powerful indictment of the vendors….
NAtional: Voter Action Calls For A Full Congressional Investigation Of Voting Systems Companies LINK
NAtional: DAN RATHER REPORTS VIDEO: The Trouble with Touch Screens LINK
NAtional: First in the “Fooled Again” Series: Interview with Nancy Tobi LINK
NAtional: Sequoia Voting Systems Responsible for 2000 Presidential Debacle? LINK
NAtional: EAC Issues Voting System Certification Guide LINK
NAtional: President Urges Effective Election Audits LINK
AZ: Tucson – Touchscreen Voting Machines Won’t Be Part of City Elections LINK
CA: Alameda County – State rules risk to early voting
Security requirements threaten county’s advance ballot casting LINK
CA: Nevada County – Diaz: All-mail ballot possible
Foresees voting machines ready for 2008 primary LINK
CA: Siskiyou County – Voting machine changes mandated LINK
FL: Sarasota County – Finally, an election victory
Approval of voting system gives Sarasota County voters a break LINK
MS: Natchez – Malfunction postpones vote certification LINK
NH: Is it constitutional to outsource the state’s vote counting?
Lawyer objects to optical scan machines LINK
NY: Editorial: Push plan on new voting machines LINK
OR: Jackson County – County unveils state-of-the-art voting equipment
It will take the guesswork out of which pencil to use LINK
PA: Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties – TV report questions Westmoreland, Allegheny voting machines LINK
PA: Northampton County – Electronic voting machines might be out for some Nov. races LINK
WV: Kanawha County – More Uncounted Ballots Found LINK
WV: Kanawha County – Public confidence wavering after more bags of ballots found LINK
Philippines: ‘Defective’ machine supplier in U.S. also figured in past ARMM polls LINK
**”Daily Voting News” is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in “Daily Voting News” may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or BradBlog.Com**
It appears that Advanced Voting Solutions (AVS), vendor for the WinVote DREs, may be in financial trouble. A report from PA, where WinVote is widely used, relates that AVS has failed to pay their bill for testing of their newest version of system. The testing lab has stopped testing and will not certify the system until they are paid. AVS is the same vendor who was just warned by the EAC for swapping out the motherboard in the new system without notifying either the test lab or the EAC. That notification is mandatory. If you have not seen the Dan Rather Report on voting issues the full program is now on-line. It is a powerful indictment of the vendors….
Things are building up to a head, what with the Bowen California revelations and now the Dan Rather revelations.
These come at a stressed out time in Washington, with political polarization at a max, the stock market declining, and a disheartening war in Iraq and Afghanistan tiring the troops and everyone else out.
Probably not the best time for passage of good federal laws to reform the garbage infested system currently in place.
Even though such reform is a must.
Of course to pass good federal (election) reform laws some congresstypes have to first write and sponsor some good federal (election) reform laws…
… and no, Dredd, none the current assortment of proposed bad-to-worse federal (election) reform laws fit that particular requirement just because they each have a few good ideas.
Hmmm… will Holt and company make their play just as soon as Congress reconvenes, trying to hide the moves in the bustle of returning Congresstypes facing the mess they made before the August recess? Is some serious backchannel arm-twisting being tried by the House leadership during the recess?…
I predict that the republicans will break the record for filibusters this year. They are at about 50 now. And so, if S. 559 comes around, as the text now reads, it will be filibustered by the republicans. They are very against the open source code provisions.
However, with all the war stuff, budget stuff, and contempt of congress stuff coming up, it may not make the floor this year.
That is why I am neither for it nor against it. It is a waste of time to advocate for or against it in the sense that it is a pipe dream under current conditions.
We can’t agree as to what it says, and being for or against something that has a ambiguous meaning is spitting into the wind anyway. The more intellectually honest practice is to say “if it means this I am for it, but if it means that I am against it”.
That being said, it is good to exercise and practice up on legal hermeneutics (statutory construction) and try to estimate how the judiciary would construe it.