Daily Voting News For January 23, 2007 Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
Today is a mixed bag of articles. Officials in South Carolina have been told to have the proper amount of emergency
paper ballots at the polls for the Democratic primary election this Saturday. It seems that Republicans were forced to
vote on any scrap of paper available in Horry Co last Saturday.
The Registrar of Voters of Sacramento Co California, Jill Lavine, has revealed that the counties ES M-100 precinct-based optical-scan machines failed “Logic and Accuracy” testing for the Feb 5 primary. “Many of the
county's M100 machines, which have been tested and used for several previous elections without incident, had a variety
of problems. With some machines, the ballot could not be loaded at all, or only accepted if loaded in backwards. In some
cases, Democratic votes were not being recorded by a scanner. With other machines, it would be Republican votes that
were not recorded. And with some machines, there were no problems at all. With the election within two weeks, Lavine
decided to fore go using the scanners altogether, and count the ballots centrally at the county election office.” We
applaud Lavine and her staff for doing a thorough L test and for making the correct decision. One can only wonder as to whom ES will blame for this problem.
Meanwhile Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has changed his mind again and he is now backing the state’s county
clerks association which wants vote-by-mail. The governor and legislative leaders today announced legislation that will
require all counties to keep poll site voting but do away with the state’s DREs and require paper ballots. It cannot be
long before Coffman changes his mind again and announces his support for paper ballots at the polls....
NAtional: Editorial - Voters don't need photo identification LINK
National: Report: Touch Screen Ballot Design Can Cause Voter Errors LINK
National: Columnist - Servatius: The chads are still hanging America's democracy is flawed at the most fundamental level LINK
National: Why We Need Democracy Promotion at Home LINK
Arkansas: Benton County - Democratic poll watchers to be on hand for Feb. 5 vote LINK
California: Judge rules against counties in vote count dispute LINK
California: Kings County - South Valley Voting Machines Gathering Dust LINK ` CA: Monterey County - Panel observes voting process Elections Department: Group formed to meet state requirement` LINK
California: Sacramento County - Long election night likely Sacramento County machine flaws to delay results LINK
California: Sacramento County equipment problems will delay primary election results LINK
California: Sacramento County - Voting equipment problems in Sacramento lead to change of plans LINK
California: San Diego County - Judge rejects county's election recount challenge LINK
California: San Diego County - Hand counting of ballots can increase, judge rules LINK
California: San Francisco County - S.F. settles suit with voting machine vendor LINK
California: San Francisco County - City may get $3.5M from e-voting company LINK
California: Solano County - Election oversight proposal rejected LINK
Colorado: Ritter backs paper ballots at polls LINK
Colorado: Ritter proposes paper ballot LINK
Colorado: Paper Ballots Will Be Used In This Year's Elections Electronic Voting Equipment Was Disqualified In December LINK
Colorado: Ritter: State should use paper, not electronics, to vote LINK
Colorado: Federal election official talks about Colorado voting problems LINK
Colorado: Garfield County's clerk and recorder says she needs an answer on voting machines LINK
Colorado: Weld County - Weld clerk calls Ritter's paper ballot proposal "step back" LINK
Florida: Pinellas County – Editorial - Plan for early voting snubs half the county LINK
Florida: Sarasota County - Sarasota backs off mail-in election A special vote this spring will be done traditionally,
just to be on the safe side LINK
Iowa: Mauro: Update all of Iowa's voting machines LINK
Massachusetts: Swampscott set to debut new voting machines LINK
Maryland: Study Author Pans Scrapping of Maryland's Touch-Screen Voting Machines LINK
New Mexico: Ballot Busters Will the state’s election software be reliable? LINK
New York: Brennan Center to New York State Board of Elections: Don't Even Think About It LINK
New York: Opinion - Voting machine deadline approaching County election commissioners face crucial choice by Feb. 8. LINK
New York: Republican resigns from state elections board LINK
New York: Illness might delay state's choice of new voting machines LINK
Ohio: Brunner's election plan given rebuff Secretary of state hoping elections officials will compromise on replacing
touch screen machines with paper ballots. LINK
Ohio: Brunner: Security over cost Most counties want to stick with touch-screen voting LINK
Ohio: Brunner wants officials to compromise LINK
Ohio: Ohio’s vote machines lacking controls LINK
Ohio: Lake County - Lake officials estimate cost of changing voting equipment LINK
Pennsylvania: Editorial - Could online voting be far in the future? LINK
Pennsylvania: Lawrence County - County to address voting machine complaints LINK
Pennsylvania: Wayne County - Wayne considering leasing machines for April primary LINK
South Carolina: Legislators call for more paper ballots after Horry Co. primary problems LINK
South Carolina: Officials working to fix voting machine problems from GOP primary LINK
South Carolina: Horry County - Staff changes not expected over primary LINK
South Carolina: Orangeburg County - School election appeal before Supreme Court LINK
Utah: Utah's AccuVOTE Proves to be Safe and Successful 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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John Gideon Executive Director www.votersunite.org