Accord may be near on voting machines

[struggle4progress]

The state Republican Party and North Carolina elections officials may have worked out an agreement that will provide voters who use touch-screen voting machines with written advice to double-check their votes. But no one is talking about it until a rare weekend court hearing today before a U.S. District Court judge ... GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer .. =filed a lawsuit Friday asking a judge to require poll workers to tell people using the electronic machines about problems that could lead them to make selections they don't intend. The suit gives examples of voters who said they had to correct machines three times to cast their votes for Republicans, as they intended, rather than Democrats. According to the State Board of Elections, 35 counties use the iVotronic machines for one-stop voting. Wake, Durham, Orange, Johnston and Orange counties still use paper ballots read by an optical scanner ... http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/30/769876/accord-may-be-near-on-voting-machines.html
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/30/1797307/voting-machines-hearing-today.html

Election system questioned
by Philip D. Brown
4 hrs 53 mins ago
... “The N.C. GOP has recently learned that, with respect to the iVotronic voting machines, the machines may have default settings that improperly benefit Democratic Party candidates,” a letter from the state GOP to the state elections board reads. “The N.C. GOP is informed and believes that, if a voter, for example, unintentionally presses the screen halfway in between the Republican and the Democratic candidate, the iVotronic automatically records that as a vote for the candidate on the top line” ... In some counties, the N.C. Republican strategy of aggressive observation of the polls hasn’t been popular. The News and Observer of Raleigh ran an article about the workers annoying voters. In the state board’s response to the Republican charge, the party is accused of essentially trying to hijack the legitimacy of the election. “Your letter e-mailed to this office this afternoon is apparently intended to elevate isolated occurrences with touch screen voting equipment into a crisis of confidence in the legitimacy of the election,” the state’s response reads. “Please let me assure you, the members of your party and all voters in North Carolina that election officials, as always, are doing everything we can to give every voter in the state the opportunity to cast a ballot with confidence that it will be properly counted” ... http://www.yourdailyjournal.com/view/full_story/10100480/article-Election-system-questioned?instance=home_news_lead

New allegation of voting machine malfunction in Meck
Posted: Oct 29, 2010 10:45 PM
Updated: Oct 29, 2010 11:48 PM
MATTHEWS, NC (WBTV) - For the second time in three days, Republicans in Matthews say there's been trouble at the early voting location at the town's library. The GOP says several people at that location have tried to vote straight Republican, only to find when they reviewed their vote that the machine said they were voting straight Democrat. A handful of similar complaints around the state led the state GOP to file a lawsuit Friday against the state board of elections. One complaint in Matthews came on Wednesday and the other on Friday. In both cases the Mecklenburg Board of Elections says they checked the voting machine that was being complained about and it appeared to be working fine ... http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13414420

GOP files suit against use of touch-screen voting machines
October 29, 2010
The N. C. Republican Party filed suit in Federal Court Friday (10-29-10) charging that the touch-screen electronic voting machines used in about a third of the counties in the state are bugged with programing errors. There have been reports from several counties using the iVotronic machines that when voters attempted to vote a straight Republican ticket that the machine marked a straight Democrat ticket. Elections officials blame the problem on voter error, with one election officials blaming old people who can't push the correct button ... http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-c-2010-10-29-248416.112112-GOP-files-suit-against-use-of-touchscreen-voting-machines.html

PUBLISHED FRI, OCT 29, 2010 01:57 PM
MODIFIED FRI, OCT 29, 2010 02:11 PM
GOP files suit, saying electronic voting machines are flawed
Republicans say the machines cause votes to be cast for Democrats that voters wanted to cast for Republicans. According to the State Board of Elections, 35 counties use the iVotronic machines for one-stop voting. The lawsuit asks the court in counties that use the machines to stop unless the board files an affidavit assuring software errors are corrected; that voters using the machines be told about the problems and to check their ballots; and that elections officials keep all voting machines and electronic data ...
www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/29/769020/gop-files-suit-saying-electronic.html

Friday, Oct. 29, 2010
NC GOP, Dems lodge late election complaints
By EMERY P. DALESIO - Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's two major political parties traded allegations Friday that the other side was unfairly gaining advantage in the hard-fought midterm elections. The state Democratic Party said in order to qualify for discounted TV ad time Republicans were masking that the party paid for commercials that 10 GOP state Senate candidates claimed as their own. The state Republican Party sued the State Board of Elections in federal court, alleging that touch-screen machines are thwarting voters trying to cast ballots for GOP candidates ... http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/10/29/1781450/nc-gop-dems-lodge-late-election.html