6/15 SC-Greene voters blues.1000s of CA mail ballots dont count. HAVAs real scandal

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

SC-Greene voters blues.1000s of CA mail ballots dont count. HAVAs real scandal

JUNE 15, 2010

A Greene voter admits: "I had just never heard of either of these guys and it never occurred to me that anything like this could happen or my vote and that...our votes would contribute to South Carolina being the butt of a joke again.."..Thousands of California mail ballots too late: Riverside Co.-20,000, Sacramento- 2,053, El Dorado -750, Yolo- 408, Napa- 125, LA - 653...Iowa mispent $575K of HAVA funds."But the real scandal was the money that was 'properly' spent on touchscreen voting machines that have since been scrapped." says Jerry Depew, IowaVoters.."..the rush to adopt paperless, non-auditable electronic voting machines has subverted trust in the process and outcome of elections." ~Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Network World

All this and more in todays voting news below...

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AL: Recount, runoff cause controversy
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20100614/NEWS/100619921/1017/NEWS
MONTGOMERY — A recount of the June 1 Republican gubernatorial primary will begin in Etowah County and in other counties today but the recount and a July 13 GOP runoff are mired in controversy by the parties involved.
...
James’ campaign spokesman Brett Hall said the campaign is sending checks to all 67 counties to cover the expense of a recount, estimated to be about $200,000.

CA: Thousands of mailed ballots too late to be counted in California *
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/15/2822821/thousands-of-vote-by-mail-ballots.html
(Late by county breakdown)

CA: Verifying vote-by-mail ballots is vital but time-consuming
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100615/OPINION02/6140335/Verifying-vote-by-mail-ballots-is-vital-but-time-consuming As of Friday, more than 50 of the state's 58 county elections offices had more than 1 million ballots combined still to verify

CA: More mail-in votes counted, election results largely unchanged
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15296026?nclick_check=1
Santa Cruz. At least 11,000 ballots still need to be counted, County Clerk Gail Pellerin reported Monday. The county has until July 6 to report official results, and elections officials don't expect to update the tally until closer to that deadline.

CA: Miscommunication with post office cited for 12,500 late ballots *
http://www.pe.com/politics/gang/stories/PE_News_Local_D
_ballots15.246469b.html http://is.gd/cQNzh
A miscommunication between Riverside County and the U.S. Postal Service may have led to as many as 12,500 ballots arriving too late to be legally counted, officials said Monday.

CA: In our opinion - Bring back the polls
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_15300744 If anyone needed any more proof that mail-in balloting is not needed or wanted in Mendocino County, check the numbers.
Some 10,559 voters who no longer have a polling place to go to actually took their mail-in ballots and dropped them at a polling place on Election Day.
That's over half (55.5 percent) of the mail-in ballots used in this election

CA: Stanislaus County clerk reviews ballots
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/14/2822933/stanislaus-county-clerk-reviews.html
It's also reviewing about 1,900 provisional, military, damaged and absentee ballots. It's unlikely that the tallies will sway any races

CA: Count continues
http://www.record-bee.com/ci_15298009
LAKE COUNTY -- The registrar of voters said there's no "funny business" going on and it's normal to have unprocessed votes after Election Day, in this case 3,766 votes, including provisional ballots.

The Registrar of Voters Office is continuing to count 3,081 vote-by-mail ballots turned in at the polls and office or received in the mail on Election Day or the day before, Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said. Another 148 votes cast on the electronic voting machines are waiting to be processed and counted along with 537 provisional ballots

CA: Registrar's resignation sought over vote-counting delay (Riverside)
http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=14704
Forty-three percent of the votes cast in the election remained to be counted the day after the election. Most were vote-by-mail ballots that voters put in the mail the prior weekend. 20,000 were ‘quarantined’ and not counted because they failed to reach the county election headquarters by the time the polls closed Tuesday evening.

CA: Coachella Valley political organizations call for registrar's resignation
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100614/NEWS0301/100614028/Coachella-Valley-political-organizations-call-for-registrar-s-resignation-
The Palm Springs Lincoln Club and Democrats of the Desert are calling on Riverside County Registrar of Voters Barbara Dunmore to resign after years of slow returns and complaints alleging election law violations.

CA: Supe runner-up too close to call
http://www.gilroydispatch.com/news/266495-supe-runner-up-too-close-to-call
Last Tuesday's primary election for Santa Clara County Supervisor District 1 has gotten a second wind in the race for second best.
With roughly 7,000 provisional ballots in Santa Clara County left to be counted..

CA: As California Counts More Votes, Proposition 14 Margin Drops
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/06/15/as-california-counts-more-votes-proposition-14-margin-drops/

CO: PitCo needs citizens’ help to correct voter rolls
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/141046

CT: New London cure? – Something old and something new: Strong Mayor and Instant Runoff Voting? http://www.ctvoterscount.org/?p=3264

FL: Lake Asbury service district gets Clay elections office's first by-mail-only balloting http://jacksonville.com/community/clay/2010-06-14/story/lake-asbury-service-district-gets-clay-elections-offices-first-mail

IA: State misspent $576,000; feds say
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/06/14/state-misspent-576000-feds-say/ Michael Mauro, the current Secretary of State, emphasized that none of the spending occurred under his watch.

IA: HAVA Grant Audit: Culver 98% Right
http://iowavoters.org/2010/06/15/hava-grant-audit-culver-98-right/
If anyone wants to criticize then SoS Chet Culver, it should be for that foolish purchase, taken when the flaws of paperless voting were well known and public skepticism was running high.

MO: Military voting improvements planned
http://www.therolladailynews.com/newsnow/x1350926476/Military-voting-improvements-planned Under the new state law, local election authorities will be able to send blank applications and un-voted ballots by secure email. Other related forms, such as voter registration applications and absentee ballot applications, will also be available electronically.

After receiving their ballot, military voters will be able to use free expedited mail service to return it to their local election authority.

NC: Pamlico investigates questionable names on voter registration rolls
http://www.enctoday.com/news/registration-88223-nbsj-bayboro-rolls.html
BAYBORO — A formal voter registration challenge hearing is scheduled today for four former Pamlico County residents.

NJ: Elections chief smells fraud * (absentee by mail fraud)
http://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/passaic_politics/
96272338_Elections_chief_smells_fraud.html http://is.gd/cQNAN
Currie's observations come amid questions about the rapid rise in use of mail-in ballots and the new law's provision that registered "messengers" are permitted to help voters fill out vote-by-mail ballot applications and to deliver their votes to county elections officials on or before election day.
...
Last September, former Attorney General Anne Milgram obtained an indictment of a Atlantic City councilman on charges that campaign workers were paid based on how many ballots they collected by messenger. The workers allegedly were told to direct voters to vote for his ticket, or simply have the voters sign ballots so the workers could fill them out as votes for the candidate.

NY: United States Eastern District Court Sides With Lever Advocates
http://sites.google.com/site/evoterproject/files/nc_v_nysboe_remand_decision.pdf

NY: Justice Department to Monitor Election in Port Chester, New York
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/14/2822070/justice-department-to-monitor.html

SC: SC Election Commission Hoodwinks Local Media
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7895
NBC affiliate WBCD reports, inaccurately, that state's ES&S touch-scfreen voting machines include 'independent paper back up'...

SC: Alvin Greene voter says it was the name that swayed her (video and transcript)
http://www2.wsav.com/news/2010/jun/14/alvin-greene-voter-says-it-was-name-swayed-her-ar-350549/ "I voted for him because his name sounded like the singer and I'd never heard of Vic Rawl,” Gail Westerfield of Beaufort said. "I didn't have name recognition-- so I went with the person who had the most...famous name. It's so bad."
...
...she does wish that the Democratic Party would have put as much vigor in informing voters about the candidates as they have in the post-game of the primary.

SC: Voters Unite Database of voting machine failures in South Carolina
http://tinyurl.com/SC-Voting-Machine-Failures

SC: Senator wants voting machines impounded
http://thestatecom.typepad.com/ygatoday/2010/06/senator-wants-voting-machines-impounded-.html
A state senator has asked the State Law Enforcement Division to impound voting machines used in last week’s statewide primaries while officials consider a challenge in the Democratic U.S. Senate race.

SC: SC candidate protests primary loss to mystery Dem *
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hNyH1XTKf1Adc_-fGBAefXf8YYEQD9GB8KRO0 To get a new primary, Rawl doesn't have to prove that voter fraud happened. He just has to lay out a convincing argument.
"You have to have enough evidence that what you're asserting could have happened," executive director Jay Parmley said.

SC: CREW files complaint over Alvin Greene
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/06/crew-files-complaint-over-alvi.html?wprss=44
The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleged Tuesday that South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Alvin M. Greene violated election laws by failing to file campaign finance and other required reports

SC: June 14, 2010: Alvin Greene Wins South Carolina Primary (Daily Show Comedy)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-14-2010/alvin-greene-wins-south-carolina-primary

SC: Election speculation comes from all corners after S.C. primary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/14/AR2010061405215.html

SC: The Alvin Greene Mystery Theories, Explained
http://www.mediaite.com/columnists/the-alvin-greene-mystery-theories-explained/

SC: Graham Would Back Probe Into South Carolina Primary
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/06/15/graham_would_back
_probe_into_south_carolina_primary.html http://is.gd/cQNCh

SC: Did Voting Machines Play a Role in Alvin Greene's Win?
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/did-voting-machines-play-a-role-in-alvin-greenes-win/58198/

SC: SC lawmakers debating bill requiring photo ID
http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12653716
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina legislators are debating a compromise that would require voters to show a photo ID at the polls and allow limited early voting.

TX: Voter identification bill to re-emerge as a contentious issue in Legislature
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/14/2264149/voter-identification-bill-to-re.html

VA: Early Morning Voting Snafus Fixed (Harrisonburg E-pollbooks)
http://hburgnews.com/2010/06/15/early-morning-voting-snafus-fixed/
According to members of the city’s electoral board (Penny Paul Imeson, Sandra Price-Stroble, and Suzanne Obenshain), the software used to check voter registration status had not been properly set up by Assistant Registrar Jenny Brown. When precinct officers tried to check the status of the first voter at each precinct, the software froze. The office quickly became aware of the problem and Brown set to work setting up the software correctly and then manually going to each precinct to install it on each of the laptops being used.

National

Election hacking
Security: Risk and Reward By Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Network World
http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2010/061510antonopoulos.html
Until we have a federal, robust and consistent standard for voting machines, the best solution is paper and pencil. It is auditable, secure, repeatable, easy and robust. It's just not fast.

FEC ruling may exempt Citizens United from the DISCLOSE Act
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/14/fec-ruling-may-exempt-citizens-united-from-the-disclose-act/

Lawyers' Committee Supports Deceptive Practices and Voter Suppression Prevention Act http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/projects/voting_rights/clips?id=0155
"The Deceptive Practices and Voter Suppression Prevention Act" (S.2554B/A9250A)

Ralph Nader Sues FEC for Failing to Investigate Democratic Party Failure to Report Contributions to Anti-Nader 2004 Legal Efforts
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/06/14/ralph-nader-sues-fec-for-failing-to-investigate-democratic-party-failure-to-report-contributions-to-anti-nader-2004-legal-efforts/

Internet Voting Watch

Journal of National Security Law and Policy has a special issue on cybersecurity http://www.jnslp.com/read/vol4no1.asp

International

India: Supreme Court of India held use of EVMs was Illegal
http://www.indianevm.com/blogs/?p=248 On March 5, 1984, in the A.C. Jose vs. Sivan Pillai-1984(2) case, the Supreme Court of India had ruled that the use of EVMs was illegal and that the Election Commission had no power to use electronic voting machines

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