Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
I got an email today that asked me why the voting machine companies are not refunding money spent by counties on voting machines. Of course the answer is that very few counties or states are taking the vendors to court and demanding their money back. I don’t know why West Virginia and Arkansas and Indiana threatened to take ES&S to court but never followed through. Or, maybe they did and it was never publicized? I think part of it is that we have entrusted these officials with hundreds of thousands of tax payers’ dollars and they spent that money on insecure, inaccurate, and unreliable voting machines. And they gave the checks to people who are every bit the snake-oil salesman and, in many cases, used to run elections in neighboring states or counties. Now that the systems are not what they were told they would be they have to admit they wasted the tax payers’ dollars. That’s a hard thing to admit to. It’s time election officials got together outside of the influence of the vendors and their apologists and began to support each other.
And with that, links to today’s notable voting news stories follow below as usual…
- NAtional: Obama: Fire Voting Rights Chief
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004507.php - CA: Nov. 6 vote to offer practice for primary
http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_H_vote19.11a6266.html - CA: Marin to borrow voting machines from Contra Costa County
http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_7227109 - FL: Palm Beach County — Editorial – Election storm warning
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/10/19/m22a_voting_edit_1019.html - NJ: Voting machine controversy continues
http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2007/10/19/sparta_independent/news/11.txt - OH: We Know How You Voted
Voting machine records—and Ohio laws that make them public information—put voters’ privacy in jeopardy
http://www.theotherpaper.com/top10-18/coverstory.htm - TN: Opinion – State needs to move forward with paper trail
http://dnj.midsouthnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071019/OPINION01/710190317/1016 - WA: Kitsap County – Mobile voting machines visit Kitsap County
http://www.centralkitsapreporter.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=93&cat=23&id=1086987&more=0
**”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**
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