All this and more in today's voting news below...
AL: Yates sues county over absentee election funds
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20100812/NEWS/100819948/1017/NEWS?Title=Yates-sues-county-over-absentee-election-funds
Etowah County Circuit Clerk Billy Yates has asked a court to order the county commission to pay him additional funds for his work as absentee election manager.
FL: Ballot snafu casts shadow over GIBA vote*
http://www.bocabeacon.com/?p=4848 A design glitch with the return envelopes provided to voters in Lee County is causing the ballots to be sent back to the voters. Not to the supervisor of elections office in Fort Myers.
MD: Elections board shores up voter registration rolls with better oversight, technologyhttp://www.marylandreporter.com/page5501215.aspx After an audit this summer pointed out that the State Board of Elections did not tightly control its voter registration system, changes have been made but their effectiveness won't be proven until Sept. 14.
MD: Rarely Used Public Campaign Funds Redirected for Voting Machines,May Be Retiring After 2010 Electionhttp://www.marylandreporter.com/page5504421.aspx
NY: New York 2011 Redistricting Will Count Prisoners at Their Residence Before Being Incarceratedhttp://www.ballot-access.org/2010/08/13/new-york-2011-redistricting-will-count-prisoners-at-their-residence-before-being-incarcerated/
TN: The Hawkins County election glitch awards a different commissioner* (video)
http://www2.tricities.com/news/2010/aug/13/hawkins-county-election-glitch-10087-vi-19032/
The unofficial winners of Hawkins County elections were announced on election night last Thursday. The next day, the administrator realized many votes were counted twice. The mishap changed the winner
TN: Stand-Off On Shelby County Voting Numbers*
Elections officials and independent auditors battle over access to number
http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-democrats-election-challenge,0,767269.story
They weren't dancing. Two lawyers were physically being kept from pounding the legal sand out of each other. Welcome to the elections of 2010, Shelby County style.
Lawyers for the Shelby County Democratic Party and the Elections Commission had an agreement. Independent auditors could look at the numbers on the Diebold Computer system. But there was an immediate problem. County Attorney Greg Garrick was basically saying hey, I'd love to help you, "But it's not up to us. There is an agreement between Shelby County and Diebold not to release certain information about the machines. "
TN: SCEC Report - Part 2* (attorneys blocked from audit log records)
http://leftwingcracker.blogspot.com/2010/08/scec-report-part-2.html
The poster log is a text file (I don't presume to be an expert but this was the explanation the experts put forth). The log keeps track of actions which could have been made to the system which would override vote totals. David Cocke was stunned that such overrides were possible, but assured Mr. Settle, as the "dispute resolver" on site, that we needed a copy of the log. The SCEC attorney consulted with Richard Holden again and announced that it was proprietary to Diebold and there was no way we were going to get it.
TN: Election Day From Hell* (precinct official in Shelby Co TN)
http://bluecollarrepublican.com/blog/?p=6234 Yesterday, August 5, 2010, I worked as a Republican Registrar at the 7200 East Shelby Road voting precinct.
...
Of course in such a circumstance, the voter is NOT turned away. Instead the voter is referred to the poll officer who calls downtown to the SCEC to verify the information. We learned quickly that there was an error in the EV record on our portable computers and the voter was permitted to vote. Soon after, we had a second voter with the same circumstance, and that is when we knew we had a problem. In operation, this was actually a minor snafu, a definite inconvenience for some of our voters who had to wait longer to vote, but NO ONE was turned away.
...
I'm sure we will hear more of the EV snafu in the days, weeks and months ahead. It really was a stupid mistake by a programmer and perhaps he or she needs to seek employment elsewhere. This was a biggee! Not only did it inconvenience voters, but it gives an excuse for others to question the integrity of the ballot itself.
TX: Testimony continues in election lawsuit
http://www.delrionewsherald.com/story.lasso?ewcd=4befdcd2bb7b3b3f Testimony continues today in the trial of an election lawsuit filed by Gustavo Flores, who claims that illegal mail-in ballots cost him the county Democratic Party nomination for a county commissioner position.
VA: Secure voting?*
Electoral board says machine area was breached; city says no
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/news/2010/aug/06/secure-voting/
A disagreement over an alleged breach of the city's secure voting machine storage area has led to the creation of new procedures to be followed by city staff when they need access to the area.
WA: Privacy upheld, money saved without ballot-envelope 'secrecy flap'(absentee)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012609237_signature13m.html
King County Elections spokeswoman Kim van Ekstrom said the county expects to save at least $150,000 a year it otherwise would have spent on more expensive envelopes and on hiring workers to remove the flaps so signatures could be verified.
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