FL: CRIMINAL INQUIRY Into Missing Voting Footage-That & Other Election Reform, Fraud & News 2/28/07

[kpete]

FLORIDA: Vote Tape Prompts CRIMINAL INQUIRY-That & Other Election Reform, Fraud & News 2/28/07

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings."....JFK

Vote tape prompts criminal inquiry

The state attorney will look at how camera footage was removed from elections office and whether staff acted properly.

By MATT GALNOR, The Times-Union
February 28, 2007

A criminal investigation is under way into two aspects of a video showing a woman putting two separate ballots into a voting machine within 45 minutes during early voting last summer.

State Attorney Harry Shorstein said his office will look into how the security camera footage was removed from the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office and if elections staff acted properly in trying to correct their own mistake. The city General Counsel's Office is also working with Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland to answer questions about the legalities.

The investigation was requested by Holland, who on Tuesday called a news conference to explain what is seen on the video. The Times-Union received a copy on Monday from a supporter of City Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins, who is running against Holland in the March 20 election.

Holland said that because of a computer error, the voter was mistakenly given the wrong ballot and noticed the error when her son said he voted in a race she did not have on her ballot. The woman notified election officials, who removed her ballot from a voting machine and gave her a second one.

Her first ballot had already been counted electronically, and Holland said on the second ballot she was allowed to vote only in the missing race. Elections spokeswoman Bennie Seth said the ballot was marked with a pen to invalidate the other races on the second ballot. The missing race was for a state House of Representatives seat, but Holland said he did not know which race it was.

VIDEO and more at:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/022807/met_8268576.shtml

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[kpete]

1. Election Assistance Commissioner's Qualifications Questioned

Election Assistance Commissioner's Qualifications Questioned

By: Kenneth P. Vogel
February 27, 2007 09:27 PM EST


Voting rights activists and election lawyers are upset about the confirmation of a former Republican Party official with no election administration experience to an embattled federal panel that could play a key role in administering the 2008 election.

In a move Democrats acknowledge was driven as much by political necessity as by qualifications, the Senate -- without a committee hearing or a roll call vote on the floor -- this month approved the nominations of Republican Caroline Hunter and Democrat Rosemary Rodriguez to the bipartisan, four-member Election Assistance Commission.

Both are expected to be sworn in to their $145,000-a-year jobs within the next couple of weeks.

Rodriguez, a member of the Denver City Council who will fill a Democratic commission seat vacant since last year, was an election commissioner in Denver.

more at:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2918.html

[kpete]

2. CA: Test of Riverside County voting machines called limited

Test of Riverside County voting machines called limited
February 27, 2007

By KIMBERLY TRONE
The Press-Enterprise

California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen said a proposed hacking test of Riverside County's voting machines fails to address the larger issue of security among people with access to the machines outside polling hours.

A letter from Bowen distributed to county supervisors Tuesday was sent in response to an inquiry from Supervisor Jeff Stone about the legality of his proposal to allow critics of electronic voting 15 minutes to hack into a machine.

Bowen said there was nothing prohibiting the type of test Stone proposed conducting.

Stone was traveling Tuesday and unavailable for comment. In the past, Stone said the test would disprove naysayers, whom he said have launched unfounded accusations against the integrity of the county's Sequoia voting machines. The machines were first used in 2000.SAVE R VOTE, a Temecula Valley elections watchdog group, accepted Stone's hacking challenge earlier this year but insisted that more time be given.

more at:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_C_challenge28.3dbe0e1.html

[kpete]

3. CT: Bysiewicz to ask this week for vote audits

Bysiewicz to ask this week for vote audits
By Keith M. Phaneuf, Journal Inquirer
02/27/2007

HARTFORD - Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz will ask a legislative committee this week to make Connecticut a national model in terms of voting safeguards.



The state's chief elections official is scheduled to testify Wednesday for her plan to mandate random voting audits in 20 percent of all precincts statewide, each year, starting in 2008.


"This is very important to ensure the integrity of the voting process going forward," Bysiewicz said today. "Voters should feel confident that we have a fair and transparent election process."

The secretary's plan, submitted to the Government Administration and Elections Committee, would require a ballot-by-ballot hand recount of the vote one-fifth of the state's 769 voting precincts, or 154, each year. Precincts would be selected randomly.

more at:
http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17902613&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6

[kpete]

4. FL/Sarasota County: New vote machines may be delayed

New vote machines may be delayed
By PATRICK WHITTLE


SARASOTA COUNTY -- Sarasota County might not be equipped with paper ballot voting machines until next year's presidential primary.

Voters tossed out touch-screen voting system last year, and the county has until January to replace the system with paper ballots. Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent has said she would like to use a local November election as a dress rehearsal before the high-profile primary. The primary is scheduled for March, but state lawmakers are considering pushing it up to late January or early February.

Sarasota County Commissioners said Tuesday they do not want to approve a new voting system until the state Legislature next month takes up the issue of replacing voting machines statewide.

That might not give the county enough time to order and install new machines by November, Deputy County Administrator Susan Scott said.

more at:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/NEWS/702280374/1060

[kpete]

5. OH: Outside monitor criticizes election board's security

Outside monitor criticizes election board's security

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The elections board in Ohio's most populous county failed to provide adequate security for the November election in terms of equipment, staffing and electronic voting, an outside monitor said.

The Cuyahoga County elections board failed to secure keys to vote-counting rooms, did not comply with state laws governing bipartisan staffing, left computer users unaccountable by allowing a shared password and experienced an unexplained cable connection to vote-counting computers, according to the critique by Cleveland State University's Center for Election Integrity.

County commissioners hired the center to review the work of the election board after a botched primary in May in which one polling place opened hours late, some vote-holding computer cards went missing and some poll workers were inadequately trained or absent.

Executive Director Michael Vu, facing criticism for election foul-ups, announced his resignation Feb. 6, effective Thursday, after months of uncertainty about his future.

Board members said Tuesday they took the issues seriously and are addressing them.

more at:
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070228/NEWS01/702280321/1002

[kpete]

6. States work on proposals to make voting easier

States work on proposals to make voting easier
Updated 2/26/2007

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Proposals designed to make voting easier and ballots more secure are beginning to advance in several states.
The proposals range from allowing voters to register until Election Day to expanding the use of absentee ballots and early in-person voting. Several states and Congress also are promoting paper trails for electronic voting machines.

The trend follows several years in which states passed tighter restrictions, such as requiring photo identification and proof of citizenship. Opponents of those restrictions, some of which were blocked by court action, are behind the push to bring more voters to the polls.

"There will be some legislatures that will be more receptive to those ideas," says Doug Chapin of Electionline.org, a non-partisan news and research organization.

The trend toward making it easier to register and vote could help Democrats in 2008, particularly in battleground states that will decide who wins the White House. Minorities and the poor would benefit the most, and they tend to vote for Democrats, says Kimball Brace of Election Data Services, a political consulting firm.

more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-26-voting_x.htm

[kpete]

7. Sarasota: Could a Bug Have Lost Votes?

Freedom to Tinker
… is your freedom to understand, discuss, repair, and modify the technological devices you own.

Sarasota: Could a Bug Have Lost Votes?
Tuesday February 27, 2007 by Ed Felten

At this point, we still don’t know what caused the high undervote rate in Sarasota’s Congressional election. There are two theories. The State-commissioned study released last week argues that for the theory that a badly designed ballot caused many voters to not see that race and therefore not cast a vote.

Today I want to make the case for the other theory: that a malfunction or bug in the voting machines caused votes to be not recorded. The case sits on four pillars: (1) The postulated behavior is consistent with a common type of computer bug. (2) Similar bugs have been found in voting machines before. (3) The state-commissioned study would have been unlikely to find such a bug. (4) Studies of voting data show patterns that point to the bug theory.

............

Conclusion

What conclusion can we draw? Certainly we cannot say that a bug definitely caused undervotes. But we can say with confidence that the bug theory is still in the running, and needs to be considered alongside the ballot design theory as a possible cause of the Sarasota undervotes. If we want to get to the bottom of this, we need to investigate further, by looking more deeply into undervote patterns, and by examining the voting machine hardware and software.

more at:
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1126

[philb]

17. there have been hundreds of similar problems documented for touch screens

widespread irregularities, switching, machine caused undervotes
2006
www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html

2004
www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html
www.flcv.com/summary.html

[philb]

18. Over 20% undervotes in many precincts & voters described disappearing votes-clearly machine problem

www.flcv.com/sarasot6.html

But there were even higher undervotes in 3 counties in the Florida attorney general's race- which clearly also was hacked or suffered major glitches.
over 50% undervotes in some precincts. Are they really suggesting such could be voter error- by half the voters.
If those ballots were so confusing it should be clear that the election results were not valid and a revote should be held.
Either way, neither race had a valid election.

But the evidence supports both machine manipulation as well as deliberately biased ballot design.

This is not the first time such has occurred in Florida, in very similar fashion.
It happened in several counties in 2004: www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html

and there was major manipulation in the 2000 election as well(though not using touch screens)

[kpete]

8. "El presidente de que?"

February 28, 2007
Quote of the Day
"El presidente de que?"

-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's mother, quoted by the Chicago Tribune, when told by her son he was running for president. (Translation: President of what?)

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/02/28/quote_of_the_day.html

[kpete]

9. TX: New Voting Machines Are 'Colossal Mistake'

February 28, 2007
New Voting Machines Are 'Colossal Mistake'


It is intriguing to see the current news about the Texas Democratic Party suit against the electronic voting machines. Here in Lubbock County, we had a series of public hearings and one seminar to examine potential voting machine choices.

I spoke during these hearings, and received a lot of criticism about my opposition to the new machines. We could best characterize Lubbock County's purchase of the eSlate voting machines as a rush to judgment.

Unfortunately, that rush to judgment is a mistake that cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money. Now it is becoming increasingly apparent that these machines are a colossal mistake, and should be retired to the dustbin of history. Spending even more money to fix the electronic machines is money down the drain. Even with paper trails, these devices are clearly more trouble than they are worth.

The best system? The old-fashioned hand-counted paper ballots, using neighborhood volunteers instead of corporate minimum wage workers...numerous jurisdictions have returned to this system, including our neighbor to the west, New Mexico.

more at:
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/022807/let_022807033.shtml

[kpete]

10. Kane clerk scolded for buying voting machines

Kane clerk scolded for buying voting machines
County panel unhappy $201,880 was spent when it wasn’t in the budget

By Lisa Smith
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, February 28, 2007



Despite discussing the issue at two back-to-back meetings Tuesday morning, Kane County officials are no closer to patching a $200,000 hole in the clerk’s budget.

In a special joint meeting of the county board’s public service and finance committees, finance committee chairman John Noverini blasted County Clerk Jack Cunningham for purchasing $201,880 in election equipment without seeking board approval. The expenditure was not included in the board-authorized 2007 budget.

“We’re trying to build a $57 million jail and things are tight,” said Noverini, a Carpentersville Republican. “Where is this money going to come from?”

A miscalculation by Cunningham’s office led him to believe the department was $187,000 in the black when actually it was $40,000 in the red.

more at:
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/kanestory.asp?id=285984&cc=k&tc=&t=

[kpete]

11. ABC's 2008 Coverage

Wednesday, Feb 28
ABC's 2008 Coverage
From the release:


Continuing an election year tradition, ABC News today appointed a group of new reporters to cover the 2008 presidential candidates. The off-air political team will report extensively from the campaign trail as they travel with the 2008 candidates and their spouses. Their reporting will appear on all ABC News broadcasts and platforms including ABC's political daily internet digest "The Note."

This announcement comes on the heels of the announcement that ABC News will host six 2008 presidential forums and debates, and following the first presidential forum of the 2008 election in Carson City, Nevada last week moderated by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

"Each presidential election, our off-air reporters assigned to cover individual campaigns from beginning to end are a cornerstone of ABC News' political reporting. We are fortunate to have so many talented, dedicated people whom we can commit to giving our audience all the stories of the campaign," said ABC News President David Westin.

more at:
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/networks/abcs_2008_coverage_53998.asp#more

[kpete]

12. Bob Fitrakis: E-voting on trial in Columbus, Ohio: The Squire Case

Bob Fitrakis

E-voting on trial in Columbus, Ohio: The Squire Case
February 27, 2007

written by Victoria Parks & Paddy Shaffer, Free Press guest contributors
The Squire v. Greer case is more than just a mere election challenge lawsuit; the reliability of electronic voting was on trial last week in a small courtroom in Franklin County, Ohio. Voting rights activists see the issues before the court as going to the heart of democracy itself and whether or not election results obtained through the computerized voting machines can be trusted.

Former Franklin County Judge Carol Squire is contesting the victory of her opponent, Chris Geer in a challenge that has shed new light on the problems with e-voting machines.

Franklin County Board of Election’s Chief Elections Officer Karen Cotton told the court that in an audit of the Squire/Geer race she was unable to balance the audit books, and could not state why. She said multiple staffers of both parties spent the previous Saturday, a full two months after the initial audit, conducting a hand recount of some books that were called into question in the Squire challenge. Cotton conceded that critics claim“our elections are all whacked up,” referring to accusations about election irregularities. Percy Squire, representing his wife, Judge Squire, noted that the public count does not balance even after last Saturday’s new audit.

In a December 2006, an independent audit conducted by voting rights activists trained in signature count audits, found that 86% of 206 Franklin County precincts would not balance with certified results. Most of these were off by significant margins when comparing poll book data and signatures to machine totals

more at:
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2007/1500

[kpete]

13. Voting Rights & City-County Consolidations

Voting Rights & City-County Consolidations

KRISTEN CLARKE
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Houston Law Review, Vol. 43, p. 621, 2006


Abstract:
This article confronts a very timely question: whether city-county consolidation, an increasingly popular form of regionalization, dilutes minority voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Cities and counties throughout the country have recently merged or are now considering merging their respective governing bodies. Likewise, a significant body of scholarship has emerged in the last several years touting city-county consolidations as a tool to help distressed and struggling cities. Indeed, consolidations have tremendous appeal in that this reorganization may afford struggling urban areas the opportunity to tap into desperately needed social capital and fiscal resources that are often underutilized and readily available. Often, though not always, when governments consolidate their functions and power, there are considerable gains and significant losses that are evident along racial lines. This Article explores the extent of those losses by focusing on the impact of consolidation on racial minorities and other insular communities impacted by this type of government reform and reorganization. Specifically, I argue that consolidation must be undertaken with more exacting scrutiny in areas where there are stark racial and demographic differences between respective urban and suburban communities. I consider the impact that city-county consolidations have on the voting power of racial minorities while examining the effect that such reorganizational shifts have on the political equality and self-determination of these groups. I illustrate some of the problems with reorganization through an empirical analysis of a recent large-scale city-county consolidation. Further, I offer a proposal on how the Voting Rights Act might be used as a tool to challenge regionalization efforts that impair political equality. Finally, I suggest alternative tools and governance models that governments might adopt in order to avoid or alleviate any resulting impact on minority voting strength.


Keywords: voting rights, city-county consolidations, mergers, regionalization, Voting Rights Act, vote dilution, minority voting strength

JEL Classifications: R58, H70

Accepted Paper Series
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=940987

[rumpel]

14. IN: La Porte County Voter Registration Office is removing approximately 4600 names

Herald Argus

Posted Online: 2-28-2007

Derek Smith, 1-866-362-2167 Ext. 13863, [e-mail]

For the second time in seven months, the county board of elections is being asked to expunge inactive and duplicate voters

LA PORTE -- County residents who haven’t voted in a while may find themselves re-registering in the near future.

In response to a federal mandate, the La Porte County Voter Registration Office is removing approximately 4,600 names from its roll of registered voters. There are currently 78,723 registered voters in the county.

Voters who have been labeled inactive since before Aug. 5, 2004, or have not voted within two consecutive federal election cycles since November 2004 will be eliminated from the county’s voter registration list.

http://heraldargus.com/archives/ha/display.php?id=371726

[seafan]

15. FL: Early-voting videotape raises a few questions (February 27, 2007)

Early-voting videotape raises a few questions

By MATT GALNOR, The Times-Union
February 27, 2007 - 12:53 AM

A security video from the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Office shows a woman who appears to slide a piece of paper into a voting machine twice within 45 minutes during early voting last August.

Also within those 45 minutes, the video shows a top elections official opening the back of a voting machine and appearing to hand something to someone in an office in which Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland can be seen walking into moments earlier.

The official then walks to get another piece of paper from a rack behind a counter and consults with Holland and the woman. The woman then leaves the view of the camera. When she returns into view, she places a piece of paper in the machine, the second time she had done so in less than 45 minutes, according to the video.

The Times-Union received the video Monday afternoon from a supporter of Holland's opponent, City Councilwoman Suzanne Jenkins.

When asked by the Times-Union to watch the tape, Holland said any video from inside his office was obtained illegally and that he would not view it until he was able to contact an investigator from the State Attorney's Office.

The tape is dated Aug. 28, during the early voting period for the gubernatorial primary election.

According to state law, "no photography is permitted in the polling room or early voting area."

.....

[1monster]

16. Harry Shorstein is a jerk, but he can be a bull dog. I don't know if

his being in charge of the investigation is a good thing or a bad thing...