All this and more in today's voting news below...
Correction: Monday's article "Electoral Reforms In Victoria Will Increase Voter Participation" occurred in Australia, not Canada. (We apologize, see Intl section)http://www.thegovmonitor.com/civil_society_and_democratic_renewal/electoral-reforms-in-victoria-will-increase-voter-participation-32811.html
AR: Garland County cluster#@%*
click here
garland-county-cluster http://is.gd/cHJEq
The mess that Garland County Election Commission made has come to full flower. A voting rights activist reports long lines and parking problems at the two -- count 'em, two -- polling places that the Commission decided to open for runoff voting. It closed 40 other polls to save money despite the fact that every voter in the county, where some 12,000 voted in the first primary, has three statewide races to consider.
...
Tapp made the poll decisions unilaterally, without a vote from the two other members of the Election Commission. I was also told he was informed in time Friday to call back the dogs on a special day of early voting Saturday meant as a makeup for the reduction in polls
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7881
...the bizarre decision/behavior by the Garland County Election Commissioner Charles Tapp could come into play tomorrow, depending on the reported results of the hotly contested Democratic U.S. Senate primary run-off election between incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter
AR: Garland County, Arkansas...Democracy on a Dime causes Wrecks! (youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvc0IZF-eb0(2 polling places instead of 40)
June 08, 2010 -- Well as of this report I am told there have already been two wrecks in the parking lot, tickets issued to voters that forgot to put money in the meters and the cops are now directing the voters in and out of the parking lot..
AR: Garland County, Arkansas, Illegal Election makes Democracy on a
Dime Repression!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IszvA0gAP1Q
At 8 AM parking lot congested already
AR: Halter, Lincoln in war of words to the finish
http://arkansasnews.com/2010/06/07/lincoln-halter-make-final-push-before-runoff/
"We certainly are concerned that Garland County, which has over 80,000 Arkansas citizens and had approximately 40 polling sites for the primary, has now been reduced down to two polling sites," Halter told reporters today during a campaign stop in Little Rock's River Market district.
Garland County was the most populous county Halter won on May 18. He received 44 percent of the county's vote to Lincoln's 40 percent.
AR: Lincoln expects her voting to go smoothly this time
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/jun/07/lincoln-expects-her-voting-go-smoothly-time/
AZ: US Supreme Court blocks Ariz. campaign finance law
click here
AsUfJyd5LkaBoCRCDCQAD9G777BG1http://is.gd/cHCdA PHOENIX -- The U.S. Supreme Court derailed a key part of Arizona's campaign finance system on Tuesday by at least temporarily blocking extra money for publicly funded candidates outspent by privately financed rivals or targeted by independent groups' spending.
CA: Video: Voting Problems Arise in Venice, Some Voters Reportedly Turned Away *
http://laist.com/2010/06/08/video_voting_problems_arise_in_veni.php
Several voters in Venice this morning were either turned away or voted provisionally, reports John Wellington Ennis of Video the Vote. "At the Venice Methodist Church on Lincoln and Victoria in Venice/Mar Vista, there are two tables for two different precincts," he explained. "This morning, only one of those precinct tables was set up and serving voters, while the superintendent of the other table apparently quit and did not deliver the necessary materials -- poll books, voting machines, ballots, more."
CA: Odd-sized ballots cause some Sacramento County polling concern*
http://blogs.sacbee.com/election-2010/2010/06/odd-sized-ballots-cause-some-sacramento-county-polling-concern.html
Workers at a few polling places in Sacramento County hit a snag today when they tried to feed some Republican ballots into ballot-counting scanners...
The initial report came shortly before noon from Arcade Middle School in Sacramento, where a caller alerted The Bee that some of the Republican ballots cast at that precinct would not fit into the county's M100 scanner for the automated count. The scanner serves as the first round of tally, which is then backed up with a follow-up assessment of the voting data.
CA: Few glitches with eSlate voting machines * (Orange County)
http://totalbuzz.freedomblogging.com/2010/06/08/few-glitches-with-eslate-voting-machines/36173/
There were few problems reported countywide with the eSlate machines. Some of the machines at Oak Knoll Clubhouse in Ladera Ranch went down. The problem was reported in a tweet by Gary Kephart, a Democratic candidate for State Assembly District 71.
The machines have paper ballots as a backup, so voting wasn't interrupted, said the county's Registrar of Voters.
CA: Scanner problems will slow Nevada County ballot count *
http://www.theunion.com/article/20100608/NEWS/100609726/1053&parentprofile=1053
"It was due to human error while creating the ballot point file," Smith said. Although Smith was unsure exactly what the incorrect information was, it was enough to stop the votes from being instantly scanned at precinct polling places across the county.
"The scanners are not reading the bar coding on the ballots," said Precinct 26 Inspector Randy Cox at the Grass Valley Veterans Memorial Building. "They'll scan them all in at the elections office tonight."
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