Daily Voting News For January 24, 2007
Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Princeton’s Professor Ed Felten said this in regards to the Sarasota Co. Florida voting machine report, “Experience
teaches that systems that are insecure tend to be unreliable as well — they tend to go wrong on their own even if nobody
is attacking them. Code that is laced with buffer overruns, array out-of-bounds errors, integer overflow errors, and the
like tends to be flaky. Sporadic undervotes are the kind of behavior you would expect to see from a flaky voting
technology. The study claims to have ruled out reliability problems as a cause of the undervotes, but their evidence on
this point is weak, and I think the jury is still out on whether voting machine malfunctions could be a significant
cause of the undervotes.”
The town of Putney, Vermont may be about ready to accept a free optical-scan machine from the state. They will no longer
count their votes the traditional way; hand counting. Gone will be the crowd of counters sharing pizza and enjoying the
community spirit. Putney is not alone as 75 of the state’s 246 municipalities have already made the decision to change
over to optical-scan. ...
CA: Riverside County – Critics feed Riverside County review panel examples of voting system issues LINK
California: San Joaquin County - Questions linger for electronic voting machines LINK
Florida: 'Paper trail' printer jams can gum up vote recounts LINK
Florida: Sarasota County – Ed Felten - Sarasota Voting Machines Insecure LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Jennings Says Florida's Audit of Election 'Flawed, Incomplete' LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Panel Cites Voter Error, Not Software, in Loss of Votes LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Missing votes in Sarasota not caused by machines LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Jennings has another loss at voting machines LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - State audit concludes Sarasota election fair LINK
Iowa: Paper trail for votes LINK
Idaho: Ada County will do away with punch-card ballots, move to optical-scan system LINK
Minnesota: Houston County - Mound Prairie to vote on election changes LINK
New York: Spitzer must protect New York voters with disabilities LINK
New York: ‘Paper’ tigers issue warnings - Greens lead fight to scrap electronic voting machines LINK
Ohio: Cuyahoga County - A Report from the Public Monitor of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections LINK
Vermont: Putney mulls buying electronic vote-counting machine LINK
Wyoming: Electronic voting study requested LINK
**"Daily Voting News" is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and
voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in "Daily Voting News"
may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or Scoop.**
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Daily Voting News For January 23, 2007
Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “A state-mandated test of voting machines before the March municipal
election went off without a flaw Friday at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, officials said. Elections
Supervisor Arthur Anderson tested 2 percent of the 830 machines that will be in use during the March 13 city elections,
running mock ballots to make sure the computerized voting systems and touch-screen machines are working.” 2 percent?
That’s not a test, it’s a spot check. // In a press release today PFAW said, “An audit report released by the Florida
Secretary of State’s office regarding Sarasota County’s November election debacle came under fire shortly after its
release today. “This audit’s a whitewash. It is the result of a flawed process overseen by people with a stake in the
outcome, and it will not be the last word on this matter,” said People For the American Way Foundation President Ralph
G. Neas. “Something went terribly wrong in Sarasota County last November—and voters have provided credible evidence that
widespread voting machine malfunctions were part of the problem. Unfortunately, this report papers over that
evidence.”...
NAtional: "The Ballad of Sarasota" captures Voters' Angst LINK
National: E-voting Testers Accredited U.S. Election Assistance Commission approves SysTest and iBeta Quality Assurance
to check machines. LINK
National: H.R. 811, the New Holt Bill LINK
Arkansas: Benton County - State says county handling election issues LINK
Florida: Palm Beach County - Voting machine test goes off without a hitch in Palm Beach County LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - March election could be last for voting machines that led to dispute LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Secretary of State’s FL-13 Audit Report Whitewashes Clear Evidence of Voting Machine Problems
in Sarasota LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - State: No problems with Sarasota voting machines LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Two reports reach same verdict: No voting machine fault LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Audit finds no evidence of voting machine malfunctioning LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - OFFICIAL FLORIDA AUDIT ON FL-13 RELEASED: Conflicting Conclusions Revealed Despite State
Claim of 'No Evidence to Suggest Official Results in Error' LINK
Illinois: Chicago - State Supreme Court says two aldermen should not be on ballot LINK
Illinois: Chicago - Ill. High Court: Ex-felons can't run for city office LINK
Kansas: Kansas Senate Passes Controversial Voter ID Bill LINK
Minnesota: Township tradition threatened New state law causing officials election headaches LINK
Ohio: Public Monitor Reports Serious, Possibly Illegal, Security Breaches During Ohio Mid-term Elections LINK
Utah: SL TRIB: Cost for Utah Presidential Primary 'Balloons' from $850k to $3.4 MILLION(!) Due to New Electronic Voting
Machines LINK
**"Daily Voting News" is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and
voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in "Daily Voting News"
may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or Scoop.**
*************
Daily Voting News For January 22, 2007
Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “San Francisco supervisors told representatives of a voting
machine company Wednesday that the firm will need to publicly display details of the software it uses to count ballots
in order to win a $12.6 million, four-year contract with the city. At a Budget and Finance Committee hearing,
Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Chris Daly urged representatives of Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland to place software
codes for touch-screen voting devices and paper ballot-scanning machines on the Internet or in another public forum, so
the public can review how the machines tabulate votes.” “Steven Bennet, a Sequoia representative, said Sequoia won't
agree to public disclosure [of source code on voting machines] since it would "jeopardize the security to all of our
customers in California and across the country."” ...
NAtional: Ask Congress to amend Holt Bill - HR 811 LINK
National: John Bonifaz makes the case for amending Holt's HR 811 LINK
National: Beyond the Voting Machine: Stealth Barriers to Voter Participation LINK
California: Riverside County - Committee looks into Riverside County's electronic-voting system LINK
California: San Francisco - Software fight delays use of high-tech ballots LINK
California: San Francisco - Supes want to know how voting machines count Company balks at public disclosure, offers
alternative LINK
California: San Francisco - Sequoia Voting Systems Spokes**** Laugh Line of the Moment... LINK
Florida: Her job is to improve Florida's voting woes Elections Director Amy Tuck will lead the change to optical-scan
machines. LINK
Florida: Volusia County - Diebold Examines Volusia Voting Machines LINK
Georgia: Concern growing for voters LINK
Illinois: Chicago - Lesson learned: Get more pens LINK
Illinois: Chicago - New procedures, tools should make election day glitch-free LINK
Illinois: Chicago - Board of Elections: Low voter turnout expected LINK
Illinois: Chicago - City Election Officials Say Voting Problems Fixed LINK
Indiana: Centers bring flexibility for voters Casting ballots in Richmond won't be Election Day-only option LINK
Kansas: Kansas Senate Passes Controversial Voter ID Bill LINK
North Carolina: Buncombe County - Princeton professor buys Buncombe’s old voting machines LINK
New Jersey: Voting activists demand constitutional paper trail: Sequoia vows to install voting-machine printers by next
January LINK
Ohio: Editorial - Making sure votes count LINK
Pennsylvania: Northampton County - Panel demands answers on voting machines LINK
Rhode Island: Bill would allow public to see rejected ballots LINK
Rhode Island: After election confusion, R.I. lawmakers unveil reform bill LINK
South Carolina: S.C. coalition to take on electronic voting machines LINK
Texas: Cost may stall ballot paper trail LINK
Virginia: GOP amendment to require ID for provisional ballot voters fails LINK
**"Daily Voting News" is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and
voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in "Daily Voting News"
may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or Scoop.**
*************
John Gideon
Executive Director www.votersunite.org and
Member www.votetrustusa.org