Would you like to know how many people have visited this page? Or how reputable the author is? Simply
sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.
(3 comments) Monday, December 11, 2006 The EAC Has Failed To Meet Its Own Mission StatementSHARE
The EAC was established by HAVA to oversee the implementation of HAVA. Their oversight has been minimal and irresponsible. Instead of providing the informed leadership and guidance the states needed as they purchased and deployed new voting systems, the Commissioners have deferred to the wishes of vendors, propagated preconceived notions of election officials, and acceded to popularly-disseminated misinformation.
(3 comments) Sunday, October 1, 2006 'Pollworkers for Democracy' is Looking for a Few (Thousand) Good CitizensSHARE
Pollworkers for Democracy (P4D) is a non-partisan, direct citizen action campaign built in response to broken elections and plummeting voter confidence. P4D taps into widespread election integrity concerns to recruit a new wave of informed - and observant - American pollworkers in the 2006 elections.
(3 comments) Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Cuyahoga Co. OH: ESI Report Bastardized By Anti-VVPAT PunditsSHARE
Election Science Institute (ESI) of San Francisco California was hired to investigate and report on problems with the May primary election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The 240-page report was just released this month (August), and some in the elections community have ignored a large majority of the report.
(3 comments) Thursday, June 8, 2006 Soaries to Rolling Stone: Where are the Standards?SHARE
As Robert F.Kennedy Jr.'s recap of the events in Ohio in 2004 gains readership, we find that Rolling Stone's National Affairs Daily has interviewed the Rev. DeForest Soaries, the former Chairman of the Election Assistance Commission who resigned in frustration a year ago.
(3 comments) Friday, February 17, 2006 California: Secretary of State Bruce McPherson Grants Certification to Diebold with ConditionsSHARE
Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (pictured at right) today announced his decision to certify with conditions the Diebold TSX and Optical Scan (OS) voting systems for use in California’s 2006 elections. The decision comes after months of thorough review of both voting systems, their compliance with both state and federal laws and the completion of an additional security analysis by independent testers from computer labs at the University of California, Berkeley.
(3 comments) Wednesday, February 15, 2006 Maryland: Governor Ehrlich's Letter To State Board of ElectionsSHARE
The following letter from Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich (pictured below at right) to Gilles Burger, Chairman Maryland State Board of Elections was released on February 15, 2006.
(3 comments) Wednesday, February 15, 2006 PAPER: Ann Coulter Commits Vote Fraud Felony!SHARE
According to the Palm-Beach Post, it looks like Ann Coulter, everyone's favorite hate-monger, may now be facing felony charges. For Voter Fraud!
(3 comments) Sunday, February 12, 2006 Illinois Violates State Law In Desperate Effort To Certify SequoiaSHARE
According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois State Board of Elections in an eleventh hour decision on Friday approved five voting syustems that will be used in Chicago and suburban Cook County in early voting for the March primary that starts in just over two weeks. The Board granted two-year interim certification to the Sequoia 400-C ballot scanner, the Insight in-precint optical scanner, WinEDS central count system and the Card Activator which also combines the totals of the DREs and optical scanners. The article also noted that The Chicago and Cook County are “Sequoia's biggest piece of business in the nation.”
(3 comments) Friday, February 10, 2006 Maryland Moving Toward Reliable Voting SystemSHARE
On February 7, SB 713, a Senate companion of the 'paper trail' bill was introduced by Maryland State Senator Paula Hollinger (pictured at right) along with with 22 co-sponsors of both parties. The bill will require only 24 to pass when it reaches the Senate floor. All the members of the Senate Committee responsible for election issues support the bill. On the House side, Delegates are expressing confidence that HB244 will pass in a near unanimous vote. Civic organizations covering a wide range of interests support voter verified paper ballot legislation. Hollinger's bill is a companion to HB 244, introduced by Delegate Sheila Hixson last week.
(3 comments) Thursday, February 9, 2006 New Jersey Appeals Court Reinstates E-Voting LawsuitSHARE
In its decision, the Appellate Division reinstated a lawsuit filed by the clinic in 2004 that challenges the ability of New Jersey’s electronic voting machines to count votes accurately, in compliance with voting rights laws. The Court reinstated the lawsuit even though, as a result of judicial and legislative efforts led by the clinic, all voting machines in the state must be equipped with a voter verified paper ballot component by 2008. The Court was concerned with protecting the hundreds of millions of votes that would be cast on voting machines between now and 2008. The Court also expressed its concern that the Attorney General’s office would use a loophole in the statute and issue waivers to the 2008 voter verified paper ballot requirement – further jeopardizing the franchise.
(3 comments) Thursday, February 9, 2006 Washington Elections Division Ignores Voting Systems Test Failures In Other StatesSHARE
Most election officials are competent and hard working, and they truly care about the voters in their states and jurisdictions. On a state level they have to make tough decisions on what voting systems will serve their state the best. On the other hand there are some who are incompetent. They don't seem to want to do any more than is absolutely necessary to gather the information to make decisions. They would prefer to just talk to the vendors, naively expecting to get accurate information from those who stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of their systems. If these officials have a chance to check the accuracy of what the vendors say, they ignore that chance and simply believe the vendors.
(3 comments) Wednesday, February 8, 2006 Florida Grasps At Straws To Prevent Paper BallotsSHARE
The Florida Division of Elections is determined to thwart counties in the state that want to retain paper based voting. According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, David R. Drury, chief of the state's Bureau of Voting Systems Certification, sent an e-mail to all 67 election supervisors Wednesday saying his agency "cannot recommend certification at this time" for the Automark ballot marking device. Marketed by Election Systems and Software, the Automark is an assistive device that provides an interface that allows disabled voters to mark an optical scan ballot. The device, which is federally certified to the current voting system standards and will be used in well over half the states has been languishing at Florida's Division of Elections for a full year. Meanwhile, the Diebold TSx was certified in just 29 days (application on March 1, 2005; certification on March 29, 2005), despite numerous problems that showed up during testing, none of which have ever been addressed.
(3 comments) Monday, February 6, 2006 Bradbury and McPherson Call For Non-Partisan Election AdministrationSHARE
Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a Democrat, and California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, a Republican, today responded to public demand for greater integrity in elections administration by signing a five-point pledge to remain neutral, independent and fair in their oversight of elections. "When public confidence in elections suffers, our democracy suffers," said Bradbury. "It is our responsibility as Chief Elections Officials to restore that confidence and to conduct our elections with the highest level of integrity."
(3 comments) Monday, February 6, 2006 Questions for The Election Assistance CommissionSHARE
The following letter was delivered to the Election Assistance Commission at the joint NASS/NASED meeting on Monday, February 6, 2006.
(3 comments) Wednesday, February 1, 2006 Vote-PAD Approved for Use by State of Wisconsin after Conferring with U.S. Dept. of Justice!SHARE
Vote-PAD, the simple plastic and paper voting device meant to assist voters with disabilities and provide a countable paper ballot as an alternative to the expensive, insecure, un-recountable, hackable Electronic Voting Machines made by companies such as Diebold and ES&S, has just been approved for use by the state of Wisconsin!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Wisconsin Approves the Vote-PAD Assistive DeviceSHARE
After meeting with U.S. Department of Justice attorneys, Kevin Kennedy, Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Elections Board, announced the state’s approval of the Vote-PAD. Mr. Kennedy said the attorneys spent considerable time looking at the device and asking questions about its use in the voting process. It was indicated, he said, “that they did not see anything that should stop Wisconsin from proceeding with approval.”