Article: 'Daily Voting News' For January 13, 2008

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org I have editorialized quite a bit lately about the "mash-up" in Colorado. Secretary of State Coffman has made a mess of a court ordered recertification of voting machines. The state hired consultants and test labs to test the machines. The results from those tests were that none of the systems used in the state met state requirements for voting systems. Coffman then decertified every system except the Premier/Diebold system and immediately people pointed out that the lobbyist for the vendor is also Coffman's advisor for his planned run for Congress. Then Coffman began to "flip-flop" as he began telling counties to retest the machines themselves or just to appeal his decision and he would change his mind. Then, this past week, the state legislature, including the Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, began talk of new legislation that would make it easier for the state to certify their voting systems. Essentially the legislature wants to protect Coffman from any further lawsuits about voting machine certification. Ken Gordon, by the way, ran against Coffman for Secretary of State in 2006. It is truly unbelievable that these politicians are cutting corners with elections. They don't seem to care if the voters use secure, accurate, accessible voting machines. They do seem to want to protect themselves from voter's lawsuits. I would argue that the voters should stand and vote these bums out of office but it's hard to do when the voting system is corrupt....

CO: Columnist - Greenlee: Not every vote should be counted LINK

CO: Editorial - Priority No. 1: retest voting machines LINK

CO: Opinion - Hand-counting of election ballots is the tried-and-true method LINK

FL: Paperless voting machines get last try LINK

IL: Hancock County - Illinois County Asks for Federal Investigation of ES&S Pushback as Strongarm Voting Machine Company Up to Same Old Tricks in Land of Lincoln... LINK

NH: Doth The Courant Protest Too Much? LINK

NH: Diebold Voting Machine 'Glitches' Reported in Stratham, NH Failure Caused Officials to Hand Count Ballots, While Questions Remain About Details of the Problems LINK

NH: Diebold Voting Machine Failures Found Across State During New Hampshire Primary Election Officials Confrim that Employees from LHS Associates, Diebold's Sole Programmer, Vendor, and Service Provider in NH, Were Allowed to Access Vulnerable Optical-Scan Systems Throughout Election Day LINK

NY: Costly stopgap looms in voting-machine changeover LINK

OH: Opinion - Don't Scrap Voting Machines in Ohio LINK

OH: Voting centers seem like a good idea but could be a problem LINK

OH: Cuyahoga County - Cuyahoga elections director Platten racing toward March primary LINK

OH: Hamilton County - New ideas may test voters LINK

OH: Lucas County ? Editorial - Making votes count LINK

OH: Tuscarawas County - Electronic vs. paper: Choice of ballots will cost county money LINK

PA: Northampton County - County weighs voting options Five companies vying to supply county with electronic machines. LINK

SC: South Carolina officials see no problems with touch-screen voting machines LINK

TN: Sevier County - Chancellor denies injunction LINK

WA: Reckless Plan: There is No Plan 'B' LINK

**"Daily Voting News" is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in "Daily Voting News" may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or OpEdNews.Com**