Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
According to reports from Vigo Co Indiana, where there is a recount being held for Terre Haute mayor, a court-appointed recount commission is seated to oversee the process. State law, according to the news report, requires that one of the three members of that commission be a representative of the voting system vendor. So ES&S is overseeing the recount of ballots. It is time the people take back our elections. No vendor should be allowed to be contracted to take over counting votes or sitting on commissions that make decisions in our elections.
Is Cuyahoga Co Ohio being set-up to fail yet again? That is the question being asked and answered in a blog from a county voter. Just why is Brunner suggesting to the county that they totally overhaul their voting system before the March primary?…
- NAtional: Rep. Holt To Offer New Election Reform Proposal
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2682&Itemid=26 - NAtional: Paralyze The FEC? Splendid.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/10/AR2007121001559.html - NAtional: The U.S. Government on Voter Photo ID: The Argument from “Corruption”
http://www.moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com/news.html?AID=1152 - NAtional: DoJ Argues for Voter ID Law in Supreme Court Case
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004878.php - NAtional: Karen Handel jumps into the U.S. Supreme Court case on voter ID
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2007/12/11/karen_handel_jumps_into_the_us.html - NAtional: EAC Releases 2006 Election Day Survey Results
http://www.eac.gov/News/press/eac-releases-2006-election-day-survey-results - CA: Five counties may use contested voting machines in February
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7692959?nclick_check=1 - CA: Solano County – Vallejo mayor to request hold on race he lost by 2 votes in recount
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/11/BA21TRL76.DTL - CA: Solano County – Vallejo recount results opposed
http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_7691018 - GA: At least 57 lacked photo IDs in November elections
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/251/story/196329.html - GA: Primary to gauge ID rules
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/121107/news_20071211033.shtml - GA: Coalition opens voter hotline in advance of GA’s primary
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/12/11/votebrief_1212_web.html - IA: Washington County – Fredrick says voting equipment is good
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19102253&BRD=1142&PAG=461&dept_id=568956&rfi=6 - IN: Vigo County – Recount commission gets new member
http://www.tribstar.com/news/local_story_344232733.html - MA: Worcester – Election technology needs update
Vendor won’t service city’s current system
http://www.telegram.com/article/20071211/NEWS/712110652/1008/NEWS02 - MN: Minnesota’s Election Day Registration Draws Young People To The Polls
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1576132/20071210/index.jhtml - MO: Boone County – Federal mandates raise local election costs
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Dec/20071211News006.asp - MS: Greenville – Problems at polling places make election a nightmare for some voters
http://www.ddtonline.com/articles/2007/12/11/news/news3.txt - OH: Cuyahoga County – Has Cuyahoga been set up for failure?
http://citizensboe.blogspot.com/2007/12/has-cuyahoga-been-set-up-for-failure.html - TN: Voters: Demand a verifiable voting process
http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2007/12/11/voters-demand-a-verifiable-voting-process/ - WV: Belmont County Considers Voting by Mail
http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/503279.html
**”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**
NAtional: Rep. Holt To Offer New Election Reform Proposal
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2682&Itemid=26
Actually, although the details are sketchy, what there is just makes the much-touted core provisions of Holt’s original H.R.811 truly optional… it’s the Hoyer version writ large, but with funding for the states that opt in:
So… going by just that it’s not necessarily a bad thing…
As to details, surely Holt consulted with a variety of election integrity advocates…?
… oh. Now taking bets that Holt only discussed it with the capitulation masters Hoyer and Rahm and perhaps some members of the previous pro-811 crowd…
Theoretically, of course, the always-problematic EAC need have no part of such a bill… but, sure enough, they pop up in the article anyway:
The last time the EAC issued “nonbinding nationwide guidelines” the corrupt and partisan incompetents at the EAC told everyone that would listen that e-voting was mandatory… period. And have spent the intervening years screwing over voters, screwing up elections, and lying their collective asses off as a result.
But Holt just loves them, of course…
Now… maybe Holt is smart enough to actually leave overt EAC backdoors out of the new bill, since such a backdoor is already built into Whitehouse’s current Caging Prohibition Act, but there is not a chance in hell that he’ll give up on it altogether… so… also taking bets now that his new bill plays “camel’s nose” and mandates an eventual bridge to 811’s worst features through his or other’s legislation…
… surely someome here will take up the mean-spirited and cynical zapkitty up on his wagers this time…?
Here’s racism, bigotry and misogyny on display from an election official in Georgia!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and BTW, this man dares to speak to “removing politics from elections” when he went from Chair of the Republican party to Voter Registrar in one fell swoop. (doc here:
http://www.countthevote.org/gary_smith/gary_smith_article_2002.pdf )
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http://www.cumminghome.com/news30041/newsflash/gary-smith-responds-to-audit-findings.shtml
Speaking at the North Forsyth Rotary Club on Tuesday December 11th, Chairman of the Board of Elections, Gary Smith responded to several of the issues brought forth in the audit recently conducted on his office spending practices.
The EAC issuance of “findings” from their survey of election officials regarding November 2006 elections has now been released. If you read only the executive summary, it tells you NOTHING about any problems, just statistics like how many people were registered, how many voted, etc. Nice bland vanilla data. I’ve not taken the time to read the 100+ page report, but I have serious doubts it will reveal any issues related to transparency, security, chain of custody, auditability, etc. You know, the boring stuff!
Virtually nothing of the voting machine disaster in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Anybody know why?
A new proposal may be good. Just lets hope we dont have another nightmare like 2000
… Bob ebook said…
“A new proposal may be good. Just lets hope we dont have another nightmare like 2000”
Strangely enough… invoking the Supremes a la 2000 is one of the Holt Noise Machine’s favored scare tactics, actually.
Unfortunately Holt’s 811 got so screwed up in the capitulation process that one or more Supreme Court appeals seemed inevitable no matter what.
In other words… just glad-handing Holt and passing the bill as it was would almost certainly have guaranteed Supreme intervention.
And if that old noise machine should start up with the same unthinking crap again in regards to the new “optional” bill…
“Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!”
Holt’s deliherately divisive backroom machinations to advance passage of his legislation was not the high point of his career… and the Election Integrity community members who unthinkingly swallowed the divisive BS of that noise machine didn’t cover themselves with glory either.