8/17 Waukesha WI clerk keeps vote data on her PC, El Paso CO invites public oversight

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Waukesha WI clerk keeps vote data on her PC, El Paso CO invites public oversight

Aug 17 2010

A tale of two election offices: "WI's Waukesha County Clerk to Keep Elections Results on Her Personal Computer Really, really dumb...What part of 'public official' and 'public elections' to these sorts of folks not get???" ~Brad Friedman...Contrast to this good example: "Coloradans For Voting Integrity Citizen Volunteers Audit Primary Election Ballots in El Paso County, CO." Robert Balink, El Paso Cnty Clerk, & Liz Olson, MGR—Election Dept, welcomed the citizens & embraced transparency... Also in WV more reasons not to vote absentee if you don't have to...

All this and more in today's voting news below...

Editor's note - news is a little slow but be glad, yesterday was overload!

AZ: Pueblo Politics: Elections director says outcome should be known more quickly
http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/pueblo-politics/article_b4fc2cac-a990-11df-97f8-001cc4c03286.html (Pima County)

CA: State elections official praises county ballot-counting upgrades
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/16/state-elections-official-praises-county-ballot/

CO: Coloradans For Voting Integrity Citizen Volunteers Audit Primary Election Ballots in El Paso County, CO
http://www.glassballotbox.org/journal/2010/8/17/coloradans-for-voting-integrity-citizen-volunteers-audit-pri.html
Robert Balink, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder, and Liz Olson, Manager—Election Department, welcomed the group to reinforce the message that transparency and verifiability of elections are fundamental elements of our democracy.

CT: See That Your Vote Counted: Sign-Up for the Post-Election Audit Observations Now!
http://www.ctvoterscount.org/see-that-your-vote-counted-sign-up-for-the-post-election-audits-observations-now/ The Coalition will need 50% more volunteer observers to fully cover this election audit.

CT: New Haven Register Carries Op-Ed Critical of Connecticut’s Discrimination Against Independent Candidates in Public Funding
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/08/17/new-haven-register-carries-op-ed-critical-of-connecticuts-discrimination-against-independent-candidates-in-public-funding/

GA: Election Complaint Filed In Clayton County
http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/08/16/election-complaint-filed-in-clayton-county
State officials are reviewing complaints made by candidates who lost the primaries in Clayton County, to see if an investigation is necessary.
...
They accuse the county elections supervisor Annie Bright of unprofessional conduct and they want an examination of the ballot computing process and the voting machines.

IN: Lawsuit Filed Against Indiana Law that Cancels Voter Registration for Anyone Sent to Jail for a Misdemeanor http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/08/16/lawsuit-filed-against-indiana-law-that-wont-allow-anyone-in-jail-for-a-misdemeanor-to-vote/

MI: Reaction mixed to election's electronic poll book
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20100815/NEWS08/8150432
Electronic poll books were supposed to speed up things, but many city clerks across the state instead found delays election night.

RI: State police take over voter registration card investigation
http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2010/aug/17/state-police-take-over-voter-registration-card-inv-ar-196432/
Correction fluid was used to blank out phone numbers on 45 voter registration cards. Phone numbers are not required on the cards, and Grebian said a volunteer might have been trying to protect the privacy of new voters.

TN: REPORT: Rutherford violated state election law*
http://www.dnj.com/article/20100816/NEWS01/100816029
The Rutherford County Election Commission may have violated a state law by not having polls open on a Saturday during three weeks of early voting in July, News Channel 5 reported tonight.

Elections Administrator Hooper Penuel told Channel 5 the polls were mistakenly closed on the first Saturday during early voting.

WI: WI's Waukesha County Clerk to Keep Elections Results on Her Personal Computer
Really, really dumb: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7988

WV: Judge throws out Lincoln ballots, declares Brumfield winner* (absentee ballots)
http://wvgazette.com/News/201008160566
A circuit judge threw out more than 300 contested absentee ballots Monday in Lincoln County's primary election and ordered county officials to declare incumbent Circuit Clerk Charles Brumfield the winner of the clerk's race in the May 11 primary.
...
Harvey Peyton, Brumfield's lawyer, said more than 200 of the absentee ballot requests were partly or completely filled out by someone other than the absentee voter, and should have been thrown out. Another 100 or so absentee voters gave questionable reasons for wanting to cast absentee ballots.

National

A bunch of academic papers are now available online from the USENIX
conference on voting:
http://www.usenix.org/events/evtwote10/tech/

"Target's PAC donation a wake-up call for reform"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016735.html

Opinion: The public has the right to know who finances campaigns
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=z1xt6trzabp40v&xid=z1w0fb3mjytpmt&done=.z1xt6trzacd40v

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