The "I thought it was Thursday" Late Ed. - Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday, 1/04/2008

[Mnemosyne]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Friday, 1/04/2008






All members welcome and encouraged to participate.







Please post Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News on this thread.



If you can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web.





2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240



3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.





4. Start a discussion thread by re-posting a story you see on this thread.








Please Feel Free to "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below). Thanks!



Yes, I am becoming senile! I thought the entire day was Thursday until a moment ago. :crazy: Holiday season always throws me off.

Hope everyone has a safe new year.:hi:

[Mnemosyne]

1. AL: Court should uphold voter photo ID law

Court should uphold voter photo ID law

Friday, January 04, 2008

THE U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether the electoral process deserves as much protection as banking, air travel and a number of other routine activities in a modern society.

Next week the nation's highest court will hear arguments in a dispute over the constitutionality of Indiana's voter identification law. As a safeguard against fraud, Indiana requires voters to present a state photo ID at the polls. Georgia passed a similar voter ID law in 2005.

Alabama has a weak voter ID law that allows voters to present one of about two dozen forms of identification. The Press-Register editorial board agrees with most Americans that states should have strong voter identification requirements.

A survey conducted by two professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that 77 percent of respondents favored voter ID laws. Support for ID requirements designed to prevent voter fraud cuts across racial, geographical and ideological lines, the survey showed.

http://www.al.com/opinion/press-register/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1199441744138260.xml&coll=3

Discussion started by rumpel here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x488550

[Mnemosyne]

2. NY TIMES MAGAZINE TO RUN 'MASSIVE, SCARY' COVER STORY ON AMERICA'S E-VOTING DISASTER THIS SUNDAY

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 1/4/2008 2:50PM

NY TIMES MAGAZINE TO RUN 'MASSIVE, SCARY' COVER STORY ON AMERICA'S E-VOTING DISASTER THIS SUNDAY

Cover Graphic Said To Show Exploding Voting Booth with 'WARNING' Label: 'Your vote may be lost, destroyed, miscounted, wrongly attributed or hacked'

One key passage: "The earliest critiques of digital voting booths came from the fringe --- disgruntled citizens and scared-senseless computer geeks --- but the fears have now risen to the highest levels of government."

The entire debate over e-voting may well be just about to change. Hopefully for the better. Big time.

Editor & Publisher's editor Greg Mitchell, has tipped off The BRAD BLOG late this afternoon, that the New York Times Magazine is set to run a "massive" cover-story this Sunday, on the entire e-voting disaster titled "The Bugs in the Machines."

Better late than never?


http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5513

Discussion started by kster here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x488568

[Mnemosyne]

3. CO: With Few Options, Colorado Considers All-Mail Vote

With Few Options, Colorado Considers All-Mail Vote


By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: January 4, 2008

DENVER — Colorado’s crash course in how to hold an election has begun.
Matt McClain/Rocky Mountain News, via Associated Press

On Election Day 2006, people waited in long lines in Denver to vote after computers were balky.

With less than year before the November balloting, and the current system mostly in shambles after testing by the secretary of state last month found problems in voting machines across the state, the legislature is braced for a fight over what to do next. County clerks, who administer the elections, are counting the days, and the dwindling options.

Joe Richey, a researcher from Boulder, spoke for many in trying to sum up the difficult mix of political calculus, logistics and psychology that lies ahead.

“How are we going to pull this off?” Mr. Richey asked Tuesday at a public hearing on the question at the Capitol.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/04voting.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

[Mnemosyne]

4. CA: State puts Inkavote system on notice

State puts Inkavote system on notice

By Harrison Sheppard, Sacramento Bureau
Article Last Updated: 01/04/2008 01:34:34 AM PST

SACRAMENTO - Just a month before the presidential primary, Secretary of State Debra Bowen imposed a series of new security measures on Los Angeles County's voting system Thursday to thwart hackers and others who want to tamper with the results.

Bowen had decertified the county's Inkavote Plus system in August based on security concerns, casting doubt on the ability of the nation's most populous county to conduct the February presidential primary.

County officials said they worked closely with Bowen's office on the new measures and believe they can meet the requirements in time for the vote.

"The timeline, of course, is tight," said Dean Logan, Los Angeles County's acting registrar-recorder/county clerk. "We're 30-odd days away from the presidential primary ... but it does finally put us in a position where L.A. County has a certified and compliant voting system. So we're able to move forward with the February election without that hanging over our heads."

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_7876632

[Mnemosyne]

5. Voter ID Court Challenges Expected to Have Big Impact on 2008 Elections

CQ TODAY – LEGAL AFFAIRS
Jan. 3, 2008 – 1:37 p.m

Voter ID Court Challenges Expected to Have Big Impact on 2008 Elections

By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

A pair of closely watched voting rights cases headed to the Supreme Court next week could have a greater effect on the 2008 elections than anything happening in Iowa or New Hampshire.

The high court will hear oral arguments Jan. 9 in two cases challenging the validity of an Indiana law that requires voters to produce photo identification in order to cast ballots.

Court watchers say the high court’s opinion will center on the question of what standard should be used in balancing individual voter rights against Indiana’s interest in conducting fair elections.

Opponents of the law argue it is an unconstitutional burden on voters. They say the Supreme Court should give the law “strict scrutiny” and reject it because Indiana cannot cite a single instance of voter fraud that the statute would have prevented.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=3&docID=news-000002651471

[Mnemosyne]

6. OH: Brunner issues paper-ballot requirement

Brunner issues paper-ballot requirement
Counties must provide one to any voter who asks

Thursday, January 3, 2008 10:12 AM
By Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is ordering Franklin County and all other 56 Ohio counties that use touch-screen voting machines to provide enough paper ballots for voters who request them in the March 4 primary.

Brunner issued a directive late yesterday with the order, which is a response to concerns raised in a report last month that concluded the touch-screen systems have insurmountable security flaws.

Brunner wants to scrap the touch-screen systems by the fall election and have all 88 Ohio counties use paper ballots that are counted by optical scanners at a central location such as a county board of elections.

Because there is not enough time to make wholesale changes before the March primary, the order is meant to give voters in counties with touch-screens the option of requesting a paper ballot counted by optical scanners to “avoid any loss of confidence by voters that their ballot has been accurately cast or recorded,” according to Brunner's directive.

http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/01/03/paper_ballots.html?sid=101

[Mnemosyne]

7. Ohio to Offer Paper Ballots in March

Ohio to Offer Paper Ballots in March


By BOB DRIEHAUS
Published: January 4, 2008

CINCINNATI — All 57 counties in Ohio that still use the touch-screen voting machines that were found to be unreliable in a statewide study must provide paper ballots to any voters who request them for the presidential primary in March.

The Ohio secretary of state, Jennifer L. Brunner, issued the directive on Wednesday night as part of an effort to restore confidence in the state’s voting systems, which the study found to be vulnerable to computer hackers and other saboteurs using devices as rudimentary as magnets and personal digital assistants. The study recommended that by the November presidential election all counties replace touch-screen machines with paper ballots.

Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for Ms. Brunner, called the directive “an interim step” to give voters concerned by the study “another option.”

The counties were also ordered to provide secure containers for the ballots and private areas for voters to fill out the paper forms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/us/04ohio.html?ref=politics

[Mnemosyne]

27. Discussion started by flashl here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x488558

[Mnemosyne]

8. OH: Election officials have mixed reaction to Brunner plan

Election officials have mixed reaction to Brunner plan
Secretary of State has called for a voting machine switch, but some are worried about the cost.

By Lynn Hulsey and William Hershey

Staff Writers

Friday, January 04, 2008

DAYTON — Offering voters paper ballots as an alternative to electronic voting machines in the March primary would be fairly easy, but the counting of those ballots may create election night logjams, area elections officials said.

But what has county officials even more worried is the other part of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's proposal to eliminate electronic voting by November's General Election because of what she believes are unsolvable problems with the machines used in 57 Ohio

County officials look at her plan and see mounting bills and wasted taxpayer money on machines that are typically less than three years old.

"Who's going to pay for all this? The taxpayers," said Tracy Smith, director of the Greene County Board of Elections. The federal government provided most of the money for the voting machines, but officials aren't confident they'll get that kind of help again if they're forced to switch to another system.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/03/ddn010408brunnerinside.html

[Mnemosyne]

9. OUR VIEW: Double trouble invited into primary election with Brunner directive

OUR VIEW: Double trouble invited into primary election with Brunner directive

01/04/2008
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's new directive affecting the March 4 presidential primary is ''a recipe for disaster.'' That's the description used by the American Civil Liberties Union, and it fits perfectly.

In her zeal to fix a voting system that isn't particularly broken, Brunner on Wednesday ordered 55 counties using touch screen voting machines, like those in Lorain County, to let people vote on paper ballots instead if they choose.

As a result, only 60 days from today, with the nation watching closely, election officials in more than 60 percent of Ohio's counties will have to keep track of two kinds of voting results -- touch screen and optically scanned paper ballots -- and then add the two subtotals together to get the total unofficial vote count.

ACLU official Carrie Davis correctly concluded, ''The directive by Secretary of State Brunner ensures that counties across Ohio will be mired in confusion. This order presents nothing short of disaster for any Ohioan hoping to cast their ballot in 2008.''

http://www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19167894&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46368&rfi=6

[Mnemosyne]

10. OH: Paper ballots could delay election results, officials say

Paper ballots could delay election results, officials say

By John Higgins Beacon Journal staff writer

POSTED: 12:37 p.m. EST, Jan 04, 2008

A directive by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to provide paper ballots in the March 4 primary and count them at election board offices instead of in each precinct could delay results on election night.

The directive applies to 55 counties, including Stark, Medina, Portage and Wayne, that use touch-screen voting machines.

Voters in those counties must be given the option of using paper ballots with bubbles to be filled in by hand with a pencil. Those ballots then must be counted at the elections board using ''optical scan'' computers.

Summit County already uses optical scan.

http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/13043637.html

[Mnemosyne]

11. CO: Many say paper

Many say paper

By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer
Thursday, January 3, 2008 8:38 PM MST

On Thursday morning, politically involved Iowans prepared for the state's presidential caucuses - while a number of Coloradans debated how the state's 2008 elections should be conducted.

Perhaps 150 people packed the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the State Capitol in Denver to attend a public hearing on election issues. In short, Colorado's Secretary of State Mike Coffman announced the possibly temporary decertifications of a number of voting systems used in the state on Dec. 17, 2007, and officials announced during a Dec. 18 meeting that citizens would get a chance to speak their mind.

State Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, and Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, co-chaired the meeting, and Gordon started off by offering citizens kudos for showing up.

“Not enough people care about the nuts and bolts of how democracy works,” said Gordon.

http://www.coloradodaily.com/articles/2008/01/03/news/c_u_and_boulder/news1.txt

[Mnemosyne]

12. CO: Many vote for polling places

Many vote for polling places
At public hearing, residents and county officials question the security of mail-ballot-only tallies

By ED SEALOVER
THE GAZETTE
January 4, 2008 - 5:31PM

DENVER - Election watchers and county officials from across the political spectrum asked legislators Thursday to hold polling-place voting in August and November rather than require a mail-ballot-only election in all 64 Colorado counties.

The comments came at a public hearing 2½ weeks after Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified equipment from three of the four private vendors that provide voting machines in the state. About 10 counties are certified to conduct elections in November with current equipment, including El Paso and Teller counties.

A number of county clerks have called for Coffman to hold a mail-ballot-only election for the primary and presidential tallies, saying it is the most cost-effective and secure way to conduct a public vote. While decertified voting machines are required at each ballot drop-off location under federal law and scanners must be recertified to count ballots, mail ballots would eliminate the need to fix and recertify most of the machines, the clerks have said.

But activists testified Thursday that holding a traditional polling-place paper-ballot election is the only way to ensure votes will be recorded and counted properly. Speakers cited several other states that have outlawed touch-screen voting machines, questioned security surrounding a mail-ballot election and noted that a constitutional amendment to require mail ballots was rejected by 58 percent of state voters in 2002.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/election_31595___article.html/ballots_machines.html

[Mnemosyne]

13. CO: Voting machine maker accuses Colorado of shifting standards

Voting machine maker accuses Colorado of shifting standards

By: STEVEN K. PAULSON - Associated Press

DENVER -- A spokesman for a voting machine maker accused Colorado Thursday of continuously changing its testing standards and said voter confidence was damaged when the state barred some electronic election equipment.

"The election regulatory process is broken," Peter Lichtenheld of Hart InterCivic told a packed hearing at the state Capitol. "Testing in Colorado is flawed."

Colorado's election plans were thrown into disarray three weeks ago when Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified Hart ballot-counters and most other electronic voting equipment used in the state. Coffman cited security weaknesses, programming errors and inaccuracies.

In Hart's case, Coffman said the company's optical scanners, used as ballot counters in some counties, had an error rate of one out of every 100 votes during state tests.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/03/news/politics/13_44_341_3_08.txt

[Mnemosyne]

14. OH: Choosing how to vote

Choosing how to vote

John Arthur Hutchison

[e-mail]
01/04/2008
Lake voters might select electronic voting equipment or optical-scan for March 4 ballot

Lake County voters who plan to cast ballots for the March 4 primary might have the option to use the electronic voting equipment or optical-scan paper ballots.

Elections Board Director Janet F. Clair informed county commissioners Thursday that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive for counties using electronic voting equipment to have optical-scan paper ballots as an alternative method to vote, if the voter requests it.

Brunner wrote in her directive, issued Wednesday, she was implementing the change "due to the concerns raised by the EVEREST report, and to avoid any loss of confidence by voters that their ballot has been accurately cast or recorded."

The change is effective for the March 4 primary.

.http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19167928&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6

[Mnemosyne]

15. IL: Paper or Touch-Screen? Air Ballot Concerns Tonight

THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2008

Paper or Touch-Screen? Air Ballot Concerns Tonight

By TOM ROBB

Journal Reporter

As Illinois gears up for the February presidential Primary election, one group remains concerned with how votes will be cast.

The orgzanation, known as the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project (IBIP), will address concerns with the current and former chairs of the Illinois House's Election and Campaign Reform Committee (ECRC) tonight (Friday) at the Glenview Public Library.

The town hall meeting will begin at 6:45 p.m. with State Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-57th) and State Rep. Mike Boland (D-71st, Moline). Nekritz is the newly appointed chairwoman of the ECRC and Boland is its former chair.

The IBIP will present a short documentary, "Help America Vote on Paper", a reference to the Help America Vote Act passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential elections, and hold a discussion with Nekritz and Boland about electronic voting and bills in the state legislature addressing campaign finance reform and audits of election equipment. The group is skeptical about the use of electronic voting machines.

http://www.journal-topics.com/gv/08/gv080104.1.html

Did anyone attend this event? Would be interested in hearing any consensus reached. tia!

[Mnemosyne]

16. TX: Jilted touch-screen voting vendor prefers low-key reaction

Jilted touch-screen voting vendor prefers low-key reaction

By M.R. KROPKO Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press

CLEVELAND — The company that provides touch-screen voting to Ohio's most populated county has stayed low-key following a decision to stop using the machines.

The reason: Premier Election Solutions believes Cuyahoga County and the state may eventually decide that electronic voting is the best option for voters, a company executive said Friday, even though Ohio now has the opposite view.

"It might have appeared we have taken a back seat," Kathy Rogers, Premier vice president of government affairs, said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "But we've had numerous conversations with the board in Cuyahoga County and the Ohio secretary of state's office. We've tried presenting options and what our thoughts were if they move to optical scan."

Some states, Ohio among them, have been increasingly favoring the optical scan voting system, in which paper ballots filled out by hand are tabulated by scanners.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5429079.html

[Mnemosyne]

17. PA: Voting Machine Questions

Voting Machine Questions

For the last two years..Mercer County has used touch-screen machines, which are also similar to ones now being used in Mahoning County.

However, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner claims these electronic machines could be corrupted, possibly allowing hackers to tamper with the outcome.

Local election officials like Jeff Greenburg are now asking for help from Harrisburg, "We really have to wait until we get some guidance from the department of state..And they have told us they are going to address the report. They are going to look at it. They believe its enough of a concern that they can't ignore it either..."

This is the second voting system purchased by Mercer County since 2000, at about a million dollars each.

http://www.wytv.com/news/local/13025817.html

[Mnemosyne]

18. CO: De-certified voting machines: what does it mean?

De-certified voting machines: what does it mean?

January 04, 2008
By Michelle Nauer,

Ouray County Clerk & Recorder

On Dec. 17, Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman declared many of Colorado's electronic voting machines "Decertified." What does this mean and how does this affect Ouray County?

In 2002, Congress made sweeping reforms to the nation's voting process by passing Help America Vote Act, (HAVA). HAVA implemented many changes to how we vote.

Just a few of these changes addressed were the implementation of Statewide voter registration systems, discontinuation of punch card or lever machines and the required use of Direct Record Electronic machines (DREs) for the disabled communities to be able to vote independently, and in compliance with the Americans with Disablities Act.

In 2006, all 64 counties in Colorado purchased Electronic Voting Equipment. Ouray County purchased equipment from HART Intercivic, along with 46 other Colorado counties. At that time the HART equipment used was certified based on Federal and State mandates.

http://www.ouraynews.com/Articles-i-2008-01-04-169722.112113_Decertified_voting_machines_what_does_it_mean.html

[Mnemosyne]

19. PA: State will reimburse Wayne for voting machines

State will reimburse Wayne for voting machines

BY MEGAN REITER
STAFF WRITER
01/04/2008

When shopping around for a new voting system, Wayne County officials can depend on up to $253,000 in reimbursements from the state Department of State.

The county was informed Wednesday that the state will recompense it for the purchase price of 100 Advanced Voting Solutions electronic machines that are now decertified and therefore useless in future elections. Lackawanna and Northampton counties have also received similar news regarding their purchases of the AVS machines.

Because the AVS manufacturer failed to obtain federal certification for the machines, the county had to use paper ballots in the November election. On Dec. 28, the state, which had previously suspended the AVS machines’ certification, revoked it altogether.

Now the clock is ticking for Wayne, Lackawanna and Northampton counties to have new voting systems in place by the April 22 primary election.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19168092&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

[Mnemosyne]

20. IL: New voter's family says she's city's oldest - Cool story! 114 yo lady!

New voter's family says she's city's oldest

By Azam Ahmed | Tribune staff reporter
January 4, 2008


On what family said was her 114th birthday, Virginia Call gave the gift of publicity to Chicago's election board.

Hemmed in by dozens of people and a line of lighted news cameras, she registered to vote for the first time in about 20 years by marking an X on her registration card, her frail hand guided by a family friend.

Dressed in a white head wrap and baby-blue fleece, Call said almost nothing to the crowd. If Call is 114—a figure that's difficult to prove—she would easily be the oldest registered voter in the city.

Seated in her wheelchair, she squinted her cloudy eyes and beamed as family and officials congratulated her.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-oldvoter_04jan04,1,2086929.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

[Mnemosyne]

21. IL: Absentee ballots are flooding in

Absentee ballots are flooding in

January 3, 2008 - 8:25AM

WEST MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - America is on the verge of entering a whirlwind of presidential primaries and caucuses.

It all begins Thursday with the first in the nation Iowa caucus. Then the others will follow in line: Wyoming, New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and Maine.

It is all leading up to Super Tuesday on February 2nd.

Before Michigan can have its say on January 15th we have to wait and see what Iowa decides.

http://www.wwmt.com/news/vote_1345937___article.html/ballot_michigan.html

[Mnemosyne]

22. NH: Voters should not fear lines, lengthy wait for Jan. 8 primary

Voters should not fear lines, lengthy wait for Jan. 8 primary
Changes to polling location and 300 voting stations will alleviate headaches from 2004

By Carolyn Dube
Published: Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008

Bedford voters needn’t worry about long lines and lengthy waiting times to vote on Jan. 8, said Assistant Town Moderator Ryk Bullock. Extensive planning and the addition of voting stations should alleviate the two and a half hour wait that hundreds of voters experienced four years ago.

With the addition of 168 voting stations — table top partitions approved by the state that allow a voter to sit while voting — to the 132 voting booths, should make for a much smoother experience than in 2004.

The stations have been used in the past, he said, for casting absentee ballots, but this year the town added dozens more to its collection. Bullock said they were able to pay for the booths with money from a town council appropriation, a school district appropriation and with money from the state.

All told there will be 300 voting stations and booths in the new polling location this year. So Bedford is still the largest single polling location in the state, the gymnasium at the new Bedford High School will be the site for voting in the 2008 presidential primary.

http://www.cabinet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/BEDFORD01/642701409/-1/bedford01

[Mnemosyne]

23. TN: Voter data was sitting duck. Laptops taken while the guard had a good time

Friday, 01/04/08

Voter data was sitting duck
Laptops taken while the guard had a good time

By MICHAEL CASS
Staff Writer

Two laptop computers containing 337,000 Nashville voters' Social Security numbers were stolen as the building's security guard listened to Christmas music, ordered food and visited the break room, failing to make his hourly rounds.

When another security guard discovered the break-in through a smashed window after noticing a drop in the building's temperature two days later, Metro officials tried to review recordings from several video cameras.


But a digital video recorder had been unplugged, erasing any chance of capturing images of the thief or thieves.

Those revelations came out Thursday as the Metro Council's Public Safety Committee grilled officials from the Davidson County Election Commission and two other Metro departments.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080104/NEWS0202/801040398/1009/NEWS

:nuke:

[Mnemosyne]

24. WA: All-mail voting in King County likely delayed

Thursday, January 3, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

All-mail voting in King County likely delayed

By Keith Ervin

Seattle Times staff reporter


King County voters who prefer to cast their ballots the old-fashioned way — at neighborhood polling places — might be allowed to do that in one more presidential election.

The likelihood that vote-counting equipment will be certified by the federal government soon enough for it to be used in vote-by-mail elections next fall appears increasingly remote.

Without that equipment, County Executive Ron Sims told the Metropolitan King County Council on Monday that all-mail voting should be put off for at least one more year.

Sims said in a letter to the council that the county was still on schedule to roll out the high-speed tabulators and larger database for use in a small May election before using them in the August primary and November general election. That optimistic view was based on election officials' claim that the equipment would be certified by early January — well before Feb. 1, the date by which the devices must be certified if the county is to test them and train workers on them this spring.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004104951_elections03m.html

[Mnemosyne]

25. W.Va. OK With Challenged Voting Machines

Associated Press

W.Va. OK With Challenged Voting Machines

By KELLEY SCHOONOVER 01.03.08, 3:41 PM ET

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -

The West Virginia Secretary of State's office is standing firm in its support of electronic voting machines, despite security and accuracy concerns raised by other states.

"We are comfortable moving forward with the voting systems we have in place," Deputy Secretary of State and agency spokeswoman Sarah Bailey said Wednesday, just weeks after top officials in Ohio and Colorado declared such machines unfit for elections.

Thirty-four West Virginia counties use Election Systems and Software's iVotronic touch-screen machines. They became widely used across the state before the 2006 primary and were purchased as part of a $3 billion nationwide conversion laid out in the federal Help America Vote Act.

There are no documented cases of actual election tampering involving electronic voting machines across the United States. But in tests, researchers in Ohio and Colorado found they could be corrupted with magnets or Treos and other similar handheld devices.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/01/03/ap4492134.html

[Mnemosyne]

26. All for now folks! Back next week less scattered! Thanks for your patience.

Happy New Year!

:hi:

[EFerrari]

28. Thanks, vickiss! I've done that before.

The holidays throw me, for sure!

[tbyg52]

29. I'm onto your little plot....

You waited so that I could be the 5th rec here on Saturday morning! :hi:

[Wilms]

30. Kick n/t