11/28 A 'toxic' idea for Florida elections. CT Post, advocates to recount Bridgeport election

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

I guess you'd call this the "late night" edition. Sorry, been goofing off this week end. Been a long election season, with no days off for awhile.

A 'toxic' idea for Florida elections. CT Post, advocates to recount Bridgeport election

Nov 28 2010

Palm Beach CO Commish Karen Marcus wants to lobby for return to touchscreen voting. FL Voters Coalition Pres Dan McCrea:"We all understand the pretty picture that is painted of a clean electronic push-button election that's over and gives everybody an early night and reliable results..It remains fantasy with today's technology."..Illegal 6-foot barrier blocks CO poll watchers..Bridgeport recount starts Monday..Wikileaks: China's politburo directed hacks on Google. Still think internet voting a good idea?..

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

AK: Despite Alaska Senate race results, Joe Miller presses on in principle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/27/AR2010112702896.html
Miller, a tea party favorite who beat Murkoswki in the GOP primary, has alleged bias on the part of state officials as well as voter fraud, arguing that some of the ballots have suspiciously similar handwriting.
...
And he has asked for a hand recount of all the ballots saying the machine-counted votes that went largely for him should receive the same scrutiny - and potentially benefit of the doubt - as the write-in ones cast for Murkowski

AK: Joe Miller Lawsuit Over Lisa Murkowski Write-ins Gets Tangled Up in Side Issues
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/11/26/joe-miller-lawsuit-over-lisa-murkowski-write-ins-gets-tangled-up-in-side-issues/

AZ: 'Early' voting causes count delays
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/article_ed24dc19-b440-5953-880b-95b1a970a9ea.html
Ballots Dropped Off at Polls Need to be Verified, Then Recorded

CA: San Leandro mayor won't challenge election, but won't concede, either
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_16718681

CA: On the perils of 'Instant runoff' voting
A blindfold and a dartboard
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/27/INQT1GEP3A.DTL

Co: Illegal 6-foot barrier blocks Colorado poll watchers
http://coloradovotergroup.blogspot.com/2010/11/illegal-6-foot-barrier-blocks-colorado.html

CO: What if "none of the above" were to win an election?
http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_16718136

CT: How the recount will take place
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/How-the-recount-will-take-place-836087.php
Who are the counters? How can I help?
The point man for the recount is Luther Weeks, the executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition, which formed in 2007 after the state switched to optical-scanning voter machines.

FL: Is Palm Beach County's voting system too much paper?
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/is-palm-beach-countys-voting-system-too-much-1075923.html (Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus)says touch screens should be made legal again, which she says is a better system with fewer problems. She wants the county to lobby for the law to be changed and says she will bring it up with the rest of the commission Tuesday.

MN: Will ballot-challenge warfare be waged again? Even with new rules, it's complicated - Recent decision may cause trouble
http://www.twincities.com/ci_16722404?nclick_check=1

MT: Legislator wants to cut 2 paid holidays (Election day and Columbus day)
http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_6490dada-01c9-5eea-8bad-b93a1dcdc9bf.html Sands said she intends to tie her proposal to another legislator's separate bill to change Montana's current election system to a statewide vote-by-mail system.

NC: Instant runoff not so quick
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/instant-runoff-not-so-quick-182937
The county’s elections board and staff will meet at 10 a.m. Monday inside the auditorium of the Nash County Agriculture Center to count tallies for Court of Appeals Judge candidates Cressie Thigpen and Doug McCullough. They are the two leading vote-getters in this year’s judicial race, which had 11 other candidates.
...
Thigpen garnered 20.3 percent of votes cast, or 395,220 votes, while McCullough captured 15.2 percent, or 295,619 votes

TN: EDITORIAL: Election hiring to be closely watched
http://www.dnj.com/article/20101128/OPINION01/11280314
Rutherford County Republicans face an arduous task in restoring transparency and trust in the County Election Commission following the resignation of Chairman Tom Walker.


Internet Voting Watch

WikiLeaked Diplomatic Cables Confirm China’s Politburo Was Behind Google Hacking Incident http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/28/wikileaked-cables-china-google/
The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said.

National

The Big Campaign Finance Story of 2011: An Effective End to Public Financing
http://summaryjudgments.lls.edu/2010/11/it-is-with-great-pleasure.html
As I explained in a June post at the Election Law Blog, I expect the Court to not only take this case, but to reverse the Ninth Circuit and strike down the Arizona public financing system.

International

Egypt: Elections Monitor: Violence and voter fraud proliferates
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/elections-monitor-violence-and-voter-fraud-proliferates

Haiti: Many Haitians have no way to vote
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-522810?ref=feeds/oncnn
many Haitians are having trouble voting because their names are not on the voter rolls.

Taiwan arrests 130 on alleged vote-buying
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/48606?tid=146

UK: Open Rights Group - It's our birthday! Celebrating 5 years of ORG (video)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/its-our-birthday-celebrating-5-years-of-or g
Famous author Neil Gaiman explains what Open Rights Group does
We're in a digital world, we need to protect our civil rights.

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[Stevepol]

1. Why stop with touch screen?

Obviously it makes things very simple and easy to administer when a touch screen is used. It's quick, easy to use, and easy on the election officials who don't have to make any personal decisions. But the problem is the cost. You still have to have a pretty large number of election officials to plug the machines in, go thru the motions of certifying the machines, where that is required, and standing around to refer the voter to a vendor rep when there are questions or when (as often happens) the vote is flipping wildly from one candidate or choice to another.

So why stop there? The machine takes the pressure off the election officials but why even have the officials when they don't have anything to do? It would be much less expensive if there were no election officials at all or as few as possible. These extra officials are an obvious drain on the budget of states, especially those states strapped for cash (partly because of the purchase of the voting machines). And finally, why have the machines? Since the machines are unverifiable anyway, why not just let one or two people decide the outcome and post it soon after people vote? If you're choosing between unverifiable modalities, wouldn't it be better to rely on actual people who can be held accountable for their decisions?

Think of the savings. The counting could take place in no time and the posting of the results could be done almost immediately, certainly more quickly than would be the case with any other method of counting. It could be called the Single Sayer system. One person or at most two or three would immediately "say" what the result is. Get rid of all the middle men and middle machines as well.

I think it's an idea whose time has come.