Sarasota County officials "negotiated a $2.9 million deal with Diebold Election Systems to provide optical-scanning voting machines that will provide a paper trail starting August 2008," reported Stacie Eidson of the Bradenton Herald. About 18,000 votes were unrecorded for either candidate in a congressional race last November, where the winner succeeded by just 370 votes. Critics blame the old voting machines for the under-vote.
"In May, Gov. Charlie Crist signed an election reform bill into law, saying "'paperless voting in Florida is a thing of the past.'"
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin received some heat from Chinese Americans in support of a phoneticized ballot outside the statehouse on Monday, according to the Associated Press. Galvin supports phonteticizing most of the ballot, in compliance with a voting rights agreement between the City of Boston and the Justice Department, but insists candidate names remain in Roman letters. He complained last month that full translations may lead to faulty interpretation, such as "Sticky Rice" in place of the name of presidential candidate and former Mass. Governor, Mitt Romney.
"'We need a bilingual ballot; our voting rights are at stake,'" Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, said. "Transliteration, or phonetizing the names, is not that complicated."Bilingual ballots are necessary, she said, because many Chinese citizens have difficulty reading English, despite being able to speak it.
Project Vote is the leading technical assistance and direct service provider to the civic participation community. Since its founding in 1982, Project Vote has provided professional training, management, evaluation and technical services on a broad continuum of key issues related to voter engagement and participation in low-income and minority communities.
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