Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org
Today’s primary election in Vanderburgh Co., Indiana is expected to attract about 10,000 voters to the polls to choose major party nominees for November’s general election. With the primary expected to cost the county more than $130,000, that is about $13 per voter. ES&S has missed another deadline, this time in Arkansas, which means that absentee ballots will not be sent out to qualified Arkansans on time and as per the state law. A local paper in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania is touting the accessibility of the county’s Hart eSlates because they were tested and found to be accessible by 20 deaf or hearing impaired voters. Jefferson Co., Arkansas announced that they would leave their new iVotronic machines in storage and bring out their old lever machines for the May primary and June runoffs. Good news from DC today is that both houses of congress and both sides of the aisle agreed on a deal to renew the Voting Rights Act….
AR: Train Wreck – Ark. drafts contingency plan for voting machine problems (Daniels blames ES&S and makes excuses for them at the same time) LINK
AR: Train Wreck – Daniels Says Software Company to Blame for Voting Problems LINK
AR: Train Wreck – Ark. drafts contingency plan for voting machine problems (ES&S) LINK
AR: Train Wreck – Absentee ballots no-shows (ES&S) LINK
AR: Train Wreck – 14 Arkansas Counties Miss Deadline For Delivering Absentee Ballots (ES&S) LINK
AR: Jefferson County � Train Wreck � Touch-Screen Machines Won’t Make Election Debut LINK
IN: Train Wreck – Service problems, other concerns cloud primary (ES&S and MicroVote) LINK
IN: Marion County � Train Wreck – Some problems reported at polls (ES&S) LINK
NC: Train Wreck – New voting machines have few problems (Only 5 memory card failures in Wake County and 20 statewide) LINK
NC: Wake County � Train Wreck – New voting machines create problems across Triangle (ES&S M-100) LINK
OH: Train Wreck – Candidate Requests Extension For Voting Hours LINK
OH: Cuyahoga County � Train Wreck – A judge ordered the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to keep the polling location at Garden Valley Neighborhood House at 7100 Kinsman Ave. open until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (Diebold) LINK
OH: Franklin County � Train Wreck – New voting machines cause delayed start in Columbus (ES&S) LINK
OH: Franklin County � Train Wreck – Voters Experience Problems at the Polls LINK
PA: Train Wreck – Electronic voting hits snag in W.Va.; Pa. officials not worried (ES&S) LINK
TX: Tarrant County � Train Wreck – Ballot problems mark 1st day of early voting (Hart) LINK
TX: Wichita County � Train Wreck – Delay adding to costs. Outlying county cities may have machines today LINK
WV: Train Wreck – Touch Screen Voting Machines Not Ready for Every County LINK
WV: Kanawha County � Train Wreck – Carper files complaint over voting machines LINK
NAtional: Election “Dirty Tricks” � Business as Usual or Treason at the Ballot Box? LINK
NAtional: Congress reaches deal on voting rights law LINK
AL: Justice Department sues state over voter database LINK
AZ: Sec. of State Office…Misinforms…Radio Listeners About Diebold Hack, Help America Vote Act LINK
CA: Alameda County – County elections chief resigns (Elaine Ginnold resigns ROV position to become ROV in Marin County) LINK
GA: Opinion – Move slowly on voting machines LINK
IN: 5-term congresswoman Carson runs into snag with voter ID law LINK
IN: Porter County – County promises smooth election despite obstacles LINK
IN: Vanderburgh County – Primary election may draw 10,000 voters today LINK
NC: Cumberland County – Few voters use touch-screen machines (ES&S iVotronic) LINK
NY: A Mini-Rebellion Averted As Town Transfers Voting Keys LINK
OH: Cleveland – Poll Rage? Man Breaks Machine At Polling Location LINK
OH: Cleveland – E-Vote Meltdown: Rage Against The Machine! LINK
OH: Franklin County – Teens pitching in at Franklin County polls LINK
OH: Hamilton County � New Vote Machines Popular (optical scan) LINK
OH: Montgomery County – Officials forecast smooth Election Day today LINK
OH: Summit County – Vote optical scanners seem to be working; test will be final counts (ES&S) LINK
PA: Lancaster County – Accessibility of e-voting system tested LINK
WV: Ready For Election Day 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**
No mention anywhere that some of these
"Train Wreck" states recently passed VVPB laws and were trying to do the right thing.
No credit given to the voter verified paper ballot whatsoever.
What IT project of such a massive scale would be 100% successful?
What qualifies an election to be a train wreck?
I thought it was lost or irretrievable votes –
I thought it was paperless voting –
I thought it was votes changed, subtracting voting machines, stolen or lost voting machines.
Yes widespread failure of memory cards is outrageous.
What did that state do when they discovered the problem?
Was the problem addressed properly?
Is the system in place to prevent problems, deal with problems, hold accountable those contributing to the problems?
Were there contingency plans (i.e VVPB)?
This story is incomplete.
What constitutes a failure?
If there were no voter verified paper ballots, now that WOULD be a trainwreck.
It appears that we are becoming our own worst enemy.
We know that there are no perfect voting machines, that QC is poor or nill, but what do you recommend?
IT IS THE FAULT
OF THE GREENS
AND INDEPENDENTS
FOR NOT STOPPING THIS
Train Wreck – Nice nick.
The issue is not vvpb. The issue is that vendors are selling counties garbage and we the voter are being expected to vote on that garbage.
The voting systems standards say that a voting system must be able to operate without any problems at all for 163 hours. That’s mean time between failure (MTBF). An incandescent light bulb is built to last 1,000 hours MTBF. None of the voting systems described in the articles as Train Wrecks met the mandated MTBF; not one of them.
You complain because no credit is given for the vvpat? Well, in every case except maybe one, there was no vvpat required. In every case except maybe one the answer was that "no votes were lost".
You want to know what constitutes a "train wreck". It’s a failure of the voting system that causes a problem of any kind. We have no idea if there were lost or changed votes yet. Ohio won’t do any audit and North Carolina’s random audit is not random because the races and machines to be audited were selected previously and everyone knows which they are.
A failure is any disruption caused by a voting machine and that requires that the machine be out of service for over 30 seconds. That does not include normal operations like changing the paper spool on the vvpat printer when it is full.
You ask what I recommend. I recommend that the EAC do it’s job and stop the proliferation of voting systems that do not work as they are advertised to work. The EAC has been sitting on their hands saying nothing about what is happening. They should be decertifying systems until the vendors can prove the damn things work.
John #3
You said "The issue is that vendors are selling counties garbage …"
As I have said, I think the issue is that the counties are buying garbage. That should be illegal, unless a county is running a land fill. County election officials are not charged with the duty to buy garbage and call it "electronic voting machines for great American voters".
Let’s face it, your "the counties" are actually election officials that should not be in power, in leadership, or anything else that requires the public trust.
They have corrupted their oath, they are liars, they are traitors, and they deserve to be labeled as such.
To be sure the companies that produce garbage and call it truthy candy suck too.
But we must put the blame where it belongs. Dorky feds, dorky state legislatures and dorky local politicians.
Get rid of them and the lame companies producing garbage will have to go back to selling defective used cars to the witless.