Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org and VoteTrustUSA.Org
Chris Zachmeyer, executive director of the Catskill Center For Independence, said Tuesday that voting-machine manufacturers have tried to contribute money to her organization, which has given testimony on which voting machines Otsego County should buy. / The final results of the Connecticut primary, on Aug. 8, may not be reported until Aug. 25 depending on how close the races are. The reason is an agreement between the state and the DoJ over late mailing, or lack of mailing, of ballots to the military voters. / A federal judge agreed with the DoJ and stripped voter registration duties from the Alabama SoS and gave them to the Gov. This was done because the state does not yet have a viable voter registration data base. When will the same happen in other states where there is no viable data base, i.e. Washington, California, Maine, New York? / Tennessee Governor Phil Brednesen when asked about the new voting machines he used for the first time today, “I’ll probably hear about that from whoever makes the machines, but I voted this morning. I have to be honest, I didn’t care for it that much. The machines were complicated. I’m fairly computer-literate, and there were a couple issues that I found confusing, and I think there’s going to be some elderly people who have trouble with it. More than that, I didn’t like the lack of privacy. I was just standing there, kind of in the middle of the floor voting at my voting place. At one point, one of the poll workers walked behind me and certainly could see whatever I had on the screen at that point. I really believe in the secret ballot, and people are entitled to that. I think that’s very fixable, but something I didn’t like about it this morning”….
NAtional: Control Alt Delete Democracy LINK
NAtional: Election Monitoring Shows Commitment to Democracy LINK
AL: Judge Denies Motions to Intervene by Dems and Appoints Riley Special Master LINK
AL: Editorial – Strong-Arming the Vote LINK
AR: Committeee Accepts Election Report’s Recommendations LINK
AZ: Security of Vote Machines Still In doubt LINK
CA: Voting Security Attacked In Court Again LINK
CA: Do The Secretary of State’s Voter Registration Database Restrictions Violate Federal Law LINK
CA: Kern County – Locals appear before state elections panel, discuss primary voting woes LINK
CT: State Tries To Avoid Florida-Type Chaos LINK
IN: 1 million voters may not live at registered address LINK
IN: Nearly 5,000 duplicate voter registrations eliminated LINK
IN: Wayne County – Pilot program would reduce polling places from 31 to 4 LINK
KS: Crawford County – Things go ‘very well’ with new voting machines (AutoMark) LINK
KS: Douglas County – New voting machines perform well on first test LINK
KS: Sedgwick County – Provisional votes delay decisions in four races LINK
ME: Maine Chooses UVS Vote-By-Phone LINK
MI: Ingham County – Officials Warn There May be Problems During Voting (ES&S and AutoMark) LINK
NY: Are Electronic Voting Machine Vendors Paying Disabilities Advocates Under The Table In New York? And Elsewhere? LINK
NY: Otsego County – Advocate for disabled says group didn’t take voting-machine money LINK
OH: Cuyahoga County – What if we aren’t ready for an election? LINK
TN: Governor Doesn’t Like New Voting Machines LINK
TN: Waiting For “The Perfect Storm” On Primary Day LINK
TN: Davidson County – Longest ballot in state history awaits voters (13 screens) LINK
TN: Knox County – Lengthy ballots greet voters at polls today (12 screens) LINK
TN: Rutherford County – Voters introduced to new machines (MicroVote Infinity)(12 screens) LINK
TN: Shelby County – How To Speed Up Voting On Election Day (17 to 21 screens) LINK
TN: Shelby County – Agents probe election wrinkle LINK
TN: Shelby County – Stolen ballot box a mixup (See above) LINK
TN: Sullivan County – County may not put live election returns on Internet – computer security issue may also mean no precinct totals until 10 p.m. LINK
TN: Williamson County – Voters face glitches with new voting machines in at least one Williamson precinct (ES&S iVotronic) LINK
WA: Voter Rolls: Pesky citizen rights LINK
WA: Federal Judge Strikes Down Restrictive Registration Rules 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**
I voted in the Tennessee primary today. Although I didn’t find the machine that complicated (in spite of the 10 PAGES of candidates I had to slog through), I agree about the lack of privacy – the pollworker was standing a couple of feet in front of the machine the entire time, and when, at one point, I took what I suppose was a little longer than he thought I should (I saw a name in the judge’s races I didn’t recognize, was trying to recall it), he started to come around and assist me.
I asked the pollworkers if they’d had a good turnout so far (this was just a little over an hour after the polls opened), and they said yes, been busy so far. I was one of only five voters in the community center at the time, and even with only two machines I only had to wait about 5 minutes – but then, when we had paper ballots, I NEVER had to wait.
I asked the pollworker who showed me how to use the iVotronics machine if there had been any crashes, and he said no (and was it just me, or was he slightly irritated at my question?) When I was done, I said, “Well cool, it didn’t crash” – he didn’t seem amused.
The majority of the people who vote at my polling place are farmers and ranchers, and very few of them have computers or even know how to use one. I’ll be keeping my ears open at the co-op, farmer’s markets, and art galleries and coffee shop over the next few weeks, will be striking up conversations with the locals to see if I can get some idea of how it went in other parts of the county.
Hats off to the Governor of Tennessee!!!!!
Well, my home state of Alabama makes the news again appearing as usual to be less than equal in it’s governance of the people. A proper place for Republicans to try a new tactic concerning control of voter rolls. And they won. Who says Alabama is not a leader in reform? We are on the leading edge, giving you such outstanding people as Judge Roy Moore, who made a name for himself by placing a Ten Commandments monument in his courthouse in the middle of the night.
I recommend everyone read John Dean’s book “Conservatives Without Conscience” for a great look at the winning strategy of the neocons. The better we understand our opponents, the better we are to defeat them. Unfortunately, Mr. Dean concludes his book by basically saying our only hope is to vote them out. Exactly why Brad and all the awesome people here are so important in their relentless work to assure an honest vote count. Carry on my Patriotic Heroes!
John
“Control Alt Delete Democracy”
Funny … in times past we had a joke around the software developer area …
One felt like a test pilot in those days … cause Windows would hang or crash far too often.
Tom DeLay
If you are the darling of the republicans, why are they so desperately fighting to keep your sweet little tush off the ballot this November (link here)?
I hear them begging papa Alito, Thomas, and Scalia “Please don’t make us keep TD on the ballot” … and also pleeze … can we leave the Scarlet Letter “R” off the ballot next to our names?
“D” seems to be much more American you know.
Here is a link to the DeLay decision in the 5th Circuit (mentioned in post #5) if anyone is interested (Republicans v Democrats).
John
The “Federal Judge Strikes Down Restrictive Registration Rules” link may be one of the most important judicial decisions going on.
I will watch this one as it goes up to the Ninth Circuit, assuming there is such an appeal.
This was one principle the republican dictatorship was going to use in California … as they did in Ohio and in Florida.
Could be the end of that discriminating crap!
DaveM #3
Dean seems to be an honorable, gutsy guy, but that quote is unsettling:
“Mr. Dean concludes his book by basically saying our only hope is to vote them out.”
He has said publically that he thinks there isn’t any problem with the voting machines!