The scramble to save SC election data

The scramble to save SC election data. Paper, Please! GAO clears ACORN

Verified Voting Calls for Recountable, Auditable Voting Systems Following South Carolina Primary...SC Progressive Network scrambles to preserve voting machine records..Lawmaker: Don’t blame Greene...From the "making things worse" dept: Riverside County CA Sup's odd "solution" to county's problem in processing absentee ballots on time? Bring back touchscreen voting machines...Reports of absentee mail ballot fraud in New Jersey and Texas..The irony of the DISCLOSE Act...

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

AL: Bentley disputing primary recount methods
http://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/news/2010/jun/15/bentley-disputing-primary-recount-methods/ “Any discrepancies between the total number of votes cast in the recount and cast on election night need to be fully explained and understood and must not include hand counted undervotes or it will be impossible to have any confidence in the accuracy of the recount,” Sanders added.

CA: Delayed vote results prompts probe (touchscreens to speed up absentee count?)
http://www.pe.com/politics/gang/stories/PE_News_Local_D_vote16.2263e3e.html
RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Delay in vote count leads to inquiry into last week's election.
But Supervisor Bob Buster said state lawmakers should be pressuring Secretary of State Debra Bowen for the renewed use of touch-screen voting machines. The electronic machines generally are quicker at tallying results.

MI: Editorial: Election errors in Allegan County are unacceptable
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/06/editorial_election_problems_in.html But local election officials failed to deliver a reliable result. This is the second close election in Allegan in the last two years where a fair recount could not occur because basic protocols were neglected.

NJ: Informant aided vote-fraud case against Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small, report says http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/communities/atlantic-city_pleasantville_brigantine/article_5fcff138-78f7-11df-9dc5-001cc4c03286.html
Edward Colon Jr., assigned by the campaign to collect messenger absentee ballots from the city’s Hispanic community, recorded telephone conversations and secretly videotaped discussions with the councilman and other campaign workers, the report says.

NY: Worries About E-Voting Persist As Primary Looms
http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4059/worries-about-e-voting-persist-as-primary-looms Twenty counties have raised concerns about the shift from lever machines to electronic voting devices, which the state is belatedly supposed to make for the upcoming statewide primary.
...
In New York City, however, the major concern is that changing the machines properly is going to be too expensive for the Board of Elections to afford amid budget cuts.

NY: Hispanic apparent winner in unusual NY election
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuYztkfrDc_f76DaA40jU-IXWS9AD9GC6DQO0 PORT CHESTER, N.Y. — An unusual election in a New York City suburb, in which voters could cast six ballots for one candidate, apparently resulted Wednesday in the first Hispanic elected to the village Board of Trustees.

OH: Former elections board director cleared of wrong doing
http://putnamsentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=7187
"Once again, I am a victim of a reckless accusation," said Price on June 14. "Once again, the investigation was conducted and once again, I was totally exonerated. How much should one person have to put up with? This is getting ridiculous.

SC: Verified Voting On the South Carolina Primary
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/06/15/638 Whether specific reports of irregularities in this election are confirmed, the most important fact about South Carolina’s voting system is that most ballots cannot be effectively audited or recounted. Serious concerns about the integrity of the primary (and of other elections conducted using the same technology) are inevitable, and legitimate.

SC Progressive Network scrambles to preserve voting machine records
http://blog.verifiedvoting.org/2010/06/16/660
If the 46 county election offices are not stopped, within days they will erase the most critical data from the memories of all the voting machines, warns SC Progressive Network Director Brett Bursey.

SC: S.C. Sen. Phil Leventis wants voting machines impounded
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20100615/NEWS/306150015/S-C-Sen-Phil-Leventis-wants-voting-machines-impounded Chris Whitmire, a spokesman for the State Election Commission said no machines will be impounded.

SC: Clyburn: SC's E-Vote Computers May Have Been 'Hacked'; Rawl: 'Systemic Problem in Software' http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7896

SC: Paper, Please
http://votingmatters.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/paper-please/ No, this isn’t about your choice at the supermarket checkstand. Nor is this post about the controversial ID law in AZ – that would be a whole different post. Instead this is about the recent Democratic Senate primary in South Carolina, where all the ingredients for an election disaster were present.
SC: SC Dems to hold hearing on Greene tomorrow
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/16/4517878-sc-dems-to-hold-hearing-on-greene-tomorrow

SC: Election 2010: South Carolina Senate (Rasmussen Polling)
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/
election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/south_carolina/
election_2010_south_carolina_senate http://is.gd/cS4xx
South Carolina Senate: DeMint 58%, Greene 21%

SC: South Carolina 2010 Democratic United States Senate Primary Election
http://kathydopp.com/wordpress/?p=98 Of the three Democratic primary elections, the greatest difference between the winning margins in the two different types of voting (absentee paper ballots and Election Day electronic ballots) occurs in the US Senate contest between candidates Greene and Rawl.

SC: Lawmaker: Don’t blame Greene
Kennedy says Democratic chairwoman should resign
http://www.thestate.com/2010/06/16/1334349/lawmaker-dont-blame-greene.html
Rep. Ken Kennedy, D-Williamsburg, called on state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler to resign as party leader Tuesday over her handling of the U.S. Senate race in which a political unknown, Alvin Greene, won the June 8 Democratic primary.

S.C. House OKs photo ID bill (now it goes back to senate - again)
http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/06/16/1535146/sc-house-oks-photo-id-bill.html

TX: Texas lawmakers talk voter fraud, but no focus yet on mail-in ballots
http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2010/06/texas-lawmakers-talk-voter-fraud-but-no-focus-yet-on-mailin/1276634131.column
The state Attorney General’s office has spent thousands of dollars on chasing down and prosecuting mail-in ballot fraud cases, mostly in South Texas.

WA: Initiative drives = more voter registrations
http://blogs.sos.wa.gov/FromOurCorner/index.php/2010/06/initiative-drives-more-voter-registrations/

National

"WHEN A PARTY SEEKS A ROLE IN PRIMARY OF ANOTHER"
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016218.html

The irony of the DISCLOSE Act
http://politicalactivitylaw.com/2010/06/15/the-irony-of-the-disclose-act/

ACORN Vindicated of Wrongdoing by the Congressional Watchdog Office
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/15-7
On Monday, June 14, a preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years.

New Report Calls for Elimination of 'Prison-Based Gerrymandering'
http://www.civilrights.org/archives/2010/06/1000-prisonsers-counted.html

International

Use of EVMs in 2004 & 2009 Lok Sabha polls was Illegal
http://www.indianevm.com/blogs/?p=253

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