Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
A group of political scientists from the Universities of Maryland, Rochester and Michigan have done a study and written a book to let us know that touch screen voting leaves the voter satisfied and confident. They have decided that most critics have been focusing on the wrong issues. The wrong issues? They begin by blaming recent election problems on the inability of the voter to correctly cast their ballot. According to the information in their press release they seem to ignore ballot programming errors, voting machines that will not start on election morning and shut down on polls closing. They ignore vote switching and voting machines that are supposed to be accessible but will not allow most voters with disabilities to vote without assistance. They ignore over 18,000 undervotes in Sarasota Co Florida and 108 blank ballots cast in a one-contest election in Florence Co South Carolina. It’s not security so much as the problem is poor, amateurish design of voting machines made cheaply and sold expensively. They also found that usability concerns cannot be addressed by adding a paper trail. No argument here but no one has been claiming that they would be. The paper trail is not for usability but for verifiability. …
- NAtional: Touch Screen Voting a Hit; Critics Miss Mark on Security
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/537110/ - NAtional: Wed: Ohio Secretary of State to Talk Live With Citizens on Radio and the Internet & Important News from S.C.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_mary_ann_080122_wed_3a_ohio_secretary_.htm - NAtional: Every Vote Counts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-belzer/every-vote-counts_b_82704.html - AL: Morgan County – Probate judge secures voting machines, makes changes for elections
http://www.decaturdaily.com/stories/3752.html - AR: Sec. of State’s office says voting problems possible
http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/articles/2008/01/22/news/news03.txt - CA: Superior Court Decision In San Diego v Bowen
https://bradblog.com/Docs/FinalDecision_SanDiegoCo_v_Bowen.pdf - CA: Les Scharnberg: A hands-on solution to election hackery
http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&tid=2&topic=4&func=viewpub&pid=818&format=full - CA: Instant Runoff Voting Probably Dead for Oakland, San Leandro
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=01-22-08&storyID=28985 - CA: Riverside County – Forget About Privacy with Absentee/Vote-by-Mail Ballots in Riverside County, CA
https://bradblog.com/?p=5588 - CA: San Francisco County – SF settles lawsuit with voting machine vendor; city to collect $3.5 million
http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/01/22/chronicle/archive/2008/01/22/MN4AUJQ2D.html?tsp=1 - CA: San Francisco County – City, e-voting vendor settle multimillion dollar suit
http://www.examiner.com/a-1173519~City__e_voting_vendor_settle_multimillion_dollar_suit.html - CO: Boulder County – Clerk, council to talk voting machines
http://www.timescall.com/News_Story.asp?id=6009 - CO: Frisco goes to mail-in voting
Residents must make sure they are registered in time to receive ballots
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080122/NEWS/167636918 - CT: Connecticut: Coalition Says Changes Needed in Election Audits
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2719&Itemid=113 - FL: Opinion – Our view: Another major snafu
More problems with Florida’s messed-up election system must be corrected fast
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/OPINION/801220319/1004 - FL: Pinellas County – Early voting locations unfair to North Pinellas
http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/22/Northpinellas/Early_voting_location.shtml - FL: Sarasota County – County likely to schedule two mail-in special elections
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080122/BREAKING01/972631227/-1/newssitemap - GA: Habersham County – Opinion – Habersham must improve voting process
http://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/articles/2008/01/22/news/opinions/opinion.txt - MD: Election officials: Voting problems will not reoccur
http://www.examiner.com/a-1171902~Election_officials__Voting_problems_will_not_reoccur.html - NH: Response to factual errors in Salon: “Was the New Hampshire vote stolen?”
http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/response_factual_errors_salon_was_new_hampshire_vote_stolen - NH: Results largely the same after recount
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/NEWS01/572585355/-1/YOUTH - NH: NH Election Contest Update: 7.5% Vote Count Discrepancy Found in Nashua, Ward 4 for Clinton, Edwards
https://bradblog.com/?p=5591 - NH: NH Recount Uncovers Discrepancies — Result of Human Error Officials Say
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/nh-recount-unco.html - NJ: Bill Would Help States Ditch Electronic Voting
http://www.extremenano.com/article/Bill+Would+Help+States+Ditch+Electronic+Voting/223702_1.aspx - NY: Krueger calls on elections commissioners to choose new voting machines
http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20080122-4.html - NY: New York: Breakthrough at the Board?
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2720&Itemid=113 - OH: Questions about voting machines linger as primary approaches
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=30390 - OH: Cuyahoga County – ACLU Challenges Ohio’s Unequal Voting Technology
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2008/01/21/ohio_unequal_voting/ - OH: Cuyahoga County – Frantic preparations for March Election in Cuyahoga County
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=81856&provider=gnews - OH: Hamilton County – ‘Why does my ballot smell like Marley?’
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/COL05/801220313/1009/EDIT - PA: Wayne County – Replacing Wayne County’s Voting Machines Could Cost $500,000-$650,000
http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x142933055 - SC: SC Voting Machines Prompt Calls for Federal Action
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200801/POL20080122a.html - SC: Results are in: McCain wins
[Florence Co reveals they had the same close-out problem as Horry Co.] http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/322852.html - TX: Mistrust of voting machines on the rise
Texas sticking with electronic balloting despite reports of flaws
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5473152.html - TX: Texas Debates On Electronic Balloting System For Presidential Election Use
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009794741
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Strangely enough scientists have also determined that taking various opiate alkaloids before voting will leave the voter satisfied and confident even when it turns out that the voters actually cast their ballot on a slot machine.