Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
The Connecticut House has voted 150-1 to follow the unanimous “yes” vote of the Senate to require audits in 10 percent of randomly selected polling districts during state elections starting in 2008. Only 13 states require audits of election results, and most stipulate far less than 10 percent of polling places. Our congratulations go to the voters in the state of Connecticut.
The Sarasota County, Florida Commissioners decided that not only will they follow the mandate from the voters to dump their ES&S iVotronic DREs but also to dump ES&S. One commissioner said, “I’ve lost faith in ES&S entirely”. The county will now turn to Diebold to provide their optical-scan voting system.
Links to those stories, and many other such notable voting news items from today, all follow below…
NAtional: Voter Supression? LINK
NAtional: Model for the Nation: New Jersey May Do Audits Right (And Other Needed Reforms) LINK
NAtional: The American Way of Voting Needs a Major Tune-up: Part Two LINK
AZ: Pima County ““ Opinion – Kimble: Does the RTA vote really add up? LINK
CA: Monterey County – Just what does ‘No’ mean?
Sides differ on interpretation of election results LINK
CA: San Diego County – County’s registrar Deborah Seiler says she hopes to win over critics LINK
CA: San Diego County – Ballot-machine review could change primary LINK
CT: House approves lawmaker employment disclosure, voting audit program LINK
CT: New Britain – Voting machines wind up costing city LINK
FL: Sarasota County – Sarasota scrubs touch-screen voting LINK
FL: Sarasota County – Sarasota backs voting machines with a trail LINK
FL: Sarasota County switches vote machines LINK
FL: Sarasota County – Sarasota endorses Diebold voting machines LINK
MI: Opinion – Sensible path to paper trail LINK
MS: Pearl River County – Poll worker training to be held LINK
NJ: Report: Disabled voters face challenges LINK
NJ: Warren County – Paper-trail voting printer gets a test run in Warren LINK
NJ: Warren County Experience with Voter-Verified E-Ballots Bodes Well for State LINK
NY: State will continue to use current voting machines LINK
TX: Counties look to state for funds
Texas to reimburse for election LINK
UT: Counties hone plan for primary LINK
UT: Covering Costs of November Election Still Uncertain LINK
WA: Opinion – Election errors must not be repeated 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**
Don’t be too quick to congratulate Connecticut.
In combined State and Federal races only three races are audited, and the same in Municipal races. Also consider that if any race is recounted or contested then the districts involved are exempted from the audit. So, if there is a close or contested statewide race there is no audit. And all audit decisions are made by a single person, the Secretary of the State, who has the most to lose if problems are found.
These audits will show that the machines can work. But will likely fail to find errors or fraud in programming elections, which in CT is all farmed out to a Diebold sub.