The Voting News for 06/11/2011

The Voting News for 06/11/2011

Vote count glitch probed in Sussex County - ES&S iVotronic | New Jersey Herald

The unofficial results from Tuesday's primary election are in, again, and there are no official winners, yet, but the numbers all match up, unofficially. The computer problems that shut down the counting of votes were solved the next day when a consultant from Elections, Systems & Software, the software provider for the county's election board, suggested the board should just start over. And that is just what it did.

… The number of voters matched the number of voters recorded on the paper records that poll workers keep at each polling place, McCabe said. And there were no surprises or recall of winners with Wednesday's tabulations, now unofficially being reviewed by the Sussex County Clerk's Office, which must confirm the totals before they become official.

The one thing that was officially confirmed Tuesday is that the county has a glitch in the election process, and no one knows what causes it.

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New Hampshire: House, Senate pass photo IDs for voters | Boston.com

Voters would have to show photo identification to vote in New Hampshire under legislation passed by the House and Senate. It now heads to the governor but the bill's future there looks uncertain.

The version approved 14-9 by the Senate on Wednesday allows for provisional ballots for those who do not have official identification, allowing them to vote if they come back to municipal officials within three days with a government-issued photo identification.

Voters also could get a waiver from the photo identification requirement from the Secretary of State or request and receive a voucher to cover the cost of getting photo identification from the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

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Colorado: Secretary of State backs Marks in Colorado election suit | Aspen Daily News

Colorado’s chief election official says he believes that an unsuccessful Aspen mayoral candidate deserves to win a lawsuit against the city demanding access to ballot images from the 2009 municipal election.

The suit filed by City Hall critic and ‘09 candidate for mayor Marilyn Marks was dismissed last year by local District Judge James Boyd. Marks has appealed the dismissal.

Judge Boyd agreed with city attorneys that allowing the public to inspect photographic images made of the ballots cast in the May 5, 2009 election would violate state law protecting secret voting. City Clerk Kathryn Koch denied an open records request from Marks to view the ballot images, prompting Marks to sue for access.

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North Carolina: Asheville-area politicians weigh in on North Carolina voter ID bill | The Asheville Citizen-Times

Debate over legislation requiring voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot has been passionate, with the House Republican majority prevailing on the bill.

But experts like Gibbs Knotts, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, question whether the law's impact will match the rhetoric's heat.

The GOP contends the measure is needed to root out voter fraud and keep elections honest, while Democrats maintain it's a politically motivated scheme to disenfranchise voters who traditionally vote Democratic.

“I think the evidence from people who have studied this is that maybe both sides exaggerate the effect,” Knotts said.

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Australia: It wasn’t him, it was me, admits man behind Pauline Hanson email leak | thetelegraph.com.au

A married father of three has been outed as the man who used a fake identity to leak an email to Pauline Hanson alerting her to "dodgy" vote counting by NSW Electoral Commission staff.

In a bizarre twist to the former One Nation leader's appeal against her loss in the March state election, the case was urgently resumed yesterday as former history teacher Sean Castle, from Glendenning, in Sydney's west, came forward to admit he had been posing as a man called Michael Rattner all along.

Michael Rattner was nominated in court as the man who leaked an email to Ms Hanson mentioning "dodgy electoral staff" wrongly placing 1200 votes cast in her favour in a blank ballot pile. But he did not appear in court on Wednesday as required, leading Justice Peter McClellan to issue a warrant to bring him in to give evidence.

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Wisconsin: Democrats may join GOP in fielding ‘fake’ candidates in recalls | JSOnline

Wisconsin's unprecedented recall elections could soon get even more complicated. A coalition of union groups active in state Senate recalls now advocates that Democrats field fake Republican candidates to run in primary elections against GOP state senators - just as Republicans are fielding fake Democrats to run against those who challenging GOP incumbents.

Friday evening, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued a statement that neither endorsed nor ruled out the idea, saying the party will "review the options available."

The proposal from We Are Wisconsin, described in an email from Kelly Steele, communications director, was sent earlier Friday. The email argued that it was necessary to keep Republicans from hijacking the election process, and called on interested Democrats to contact the state Democratic Party and volunteer to run as Republicans in the districts of six GOP senators subject to recall elections.

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Wisconsin: ‘Protest’ Democratic candidate surfaces in Darling recall election | JSOnline

A member of the Republican Party of Ozaukee County has surfaced as a possible Democratic candidate in the recall election targets Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).

Gladys Huber, listed on the Ozaukee GOP's website as a member at large — presumably of the county party's executive committee — has filed a registration form to run as a Democrat against Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay).

The candidacy is part of the state GOP strategy — described by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald — to run "protest" candidates against Democrats challenging six Republican senators in recall campaigns.

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Maine: GOP chairman’s charge that Democrats ‘steal’ election causes stir | Bangor Daily News

Tempers flared in the state Senate on Friday after the chairman of the Maine Republican Party suggested Democrats “steal elections” by taking advantage of Maine’s policy allowing voters to register at the polls on Election Day.

A proposal to end Maine’s 38-year-old policy of same-day voter registration was already one of the most contentious of the legislative session. Lawmakers have spent hours debating whether the bill would improve the integrity of Maine’s election system — as Republicans insist — or disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters — as Democrats suggest.

On Friday, the partisan tensions boiled over in the Senate thanks to comments from Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster.

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Missouri: State voting bill lessens workload for Missouri county clerks | SouthCountyMail.com

If people think all legislative bills are designed to make people’s lives harder, an introduction to Senate Bill 282 should dispel that myth. This new piece of legislation would make it unnecessary for county clerks to go through absentee ballots to make sure no ballot cast by a recently-deceased voter is counted on election day.

Under the old rules, absentee voters, who may have cast their ballot up to six weeks in advance, must be alive when polls open on election day. Clerks had to check obituaries for votes cast by the recently deceased, confirm the death with the Department of Health, then throw those ballots out.

If Gov. Jay Nixon signs the bill, it will be welcome news to Webster County Clerk Stan Whitehurst, who worried that the rules were not always evenly applied.

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Minnesota: Board approves technology to make life easier for Anoka County election officials | ABC Newspapers

New technology designed to make life easier for election officials throughout Anoka County has been approved by the Anoka County Board. The board accepted a two-year subscription contract with InTech Software Solutions, Inc., for use of MODUS Election Manager software. The cost to the county is $31,582 for this year and $67,180 for 2012.

Essentially, the new software system will store in one data base election information needed not only by county election officials, but the city clerks who run the elections in the county’s municipalities. According to Cindy Reichert, county elections manager, the system is designed to manage only logistics and election operations.

“It does not contain data concerning votes cast or voter information,” Reichert said.

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Iowa: Democrats file ethics complaint against Iowa Secretary of State | Iowa Caucuses

The Iowa Democratic Party today filed an ethics complaint against Republican Secretary of State Matt Schultz, alleging he used public resources to advocate against a candidate.

Schultz earlier this week issued a statement criticizing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for saying he plans to skip the 2012 Iowa caucuses if he runs for the Republican presidential nomination.

Democrats believe that Schultz’s release attacks specific policy positions of Huntsman and violates state law that prohibits the use of public money to advocate political purposes. Democrats filed their complaint with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

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Moldova: Communist MPs allege election fraud | Morning Star

Communist MPs and their supporters rallied outside parliament in Chisinau on Thursday over alleged irregularities in elections which gave a boost to the country's ruling pro-European Union coalition.

Protesters chanted: "Down with the Central Election Commission" and "Down with the Alliance," referring to the governing three-party Alliance for European Integration (AEI).

The election commission says that the AEI won about 57 per cent of the vote in local councils last Sunday, while the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) took nearly a third of the vote - more than any other single party.

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Jamaica: Electoral Commission of Jamaica to get power to prescribe electoral boundaries | Jamaica Information Service

The House of Representatives has adopted a proposal to amend existing legislation to empower the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to prescribe electoral division boundaries, and prohibit the publication of a new list of electors between nomination day and Election Day.

Piloting the proposals, which are contained in an ECJ report to Parliament, Leader of Government Business in the House, Hon. Andrew Holness, on June 7, explained that this would require amendments to the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act; the Parish Councils Act, and the Representation of the People’s Act.

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Tanzania: Kikwete promises to resolve National Electoral Commission hitches — highlights need for more election workers | ippmedia.com

President Jakaya Kikwete has promised to solve four challenges facing the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in order to enable it to improve its performance.

Kikwete made the commitments yesterday in Dar es Salaam soon after he received the report on last October’s General Election which was handed to him by the NEC Chairman Judge (rtd) Lewis Makame during a short ceremony held at State House. Speaking soon after receiving the report, Kikwete thanked Judge Makame and members of the Commission.

While commending the commission for the job well done during the elections where CCM emerged the winner, the President said: “The work was done very well; it was a great job. We thank and congratulate you for it.”

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India, Nepal: Indo-Nepal election management pact signed | The Hindu

A Memorandum of Understanding for mutual cooperation in election management between India and Nepal was signed by Chief Election Commissioner of India S.Y. Quraishi and his Nepal counterpart Neel Kantha Uprety in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

The agreement covers exchange of knowledge/experience in the electoral process, exchange of material and expertise, training of personnel, production and dissemination of materials, voting technology and conducting voters' education and awareness programmes.

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