Article: 'Daily Voting News' For January 22, 2008

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org A group of political scientists from the Universities of Maryland, Rochester and Michigan have done a study and written a book to let us know that touch screen voting leaves the voter satisfied and confident. They have decided that most critics have been focusing on the wrong issues. The wrong issues? They begin by blaming recent election problems on the inability of the voter to correctly cast their ballot. According to the information in their press release they seem to ignore ballot programming errors, voting machines that will not start on election morning and shut down on polls closing. They ignore vote switching and voting machines that are supposed to be accessible but will not allow most voters with disabilities to vote without assistance. They ignore over 18,000 undervotes in Sarasota Co Florida and 108 blank ballots cast in a one-contest election in Florence Co South Carolina. It's not security so much as the problem is poor, amateurish design of voting machines made cheaply and sold expensively. They also found that usability concerns cannot be addressed by adding a paper trail. No argument here but no one has been claiming that they would be. The paper trail is not for usability but for verifiability. ...

NAtional: Touch Screen Voting a Hit; Critics Miss Mark on Security LINK

NAtional: Wed: Ohio Secretary of State to Talk Live With Citizens on Radio and the Internet & Important News from S.C. LINK

NAtional: Every Vote Counts LINK

AL: Morgan County - Probate judge secures voting machines, makes changes for elections LINK

AR: Sec. of State's office says voting problems possible LINK

CA: Superior Court Decision In San Diego v Bowen [Word Document] LINK

CA: Les Scharnberg: A hands-on solution to election hackery LINK

CA: Instant Runoff Voting Probably Dead for Oakland, San Leandro LINK

CA: Riverside County - Forget About Privacy with Absentee/Vote-by-Mail Ballots in Riverside County, CA LINK

CA: San Francisco County - SF settles lawsuit with voting machine vendor; city to collect $3.5 million LINK

CA: San Francisco County - City, e-voting vendor settle multimillion dollar suit LINK

CO: Boulder County - Clerk, council to talk voting machines LINK

CO: Frisco goes to mail-in voting Residents must make sure they are registered in time to receive ballots LINK

CT: Connecticut: Coalition Says Changes Needed in Election Audits LINK

FL: Opinion - Our view: Another major snafu More problems with Florida's messed-up election system must be corrected fast LINK

FL: Pinellas County - Early voting locations unfair to North Pinellas LINK

FL: Sarasota County - County likely to schedule two mail-in special elections LINK

GA: Habersham County - Opinion - Habersham must improve voting process LINK

MD: Election officials: Voting problems will not reoccur LINK

NH: Response to factual errors in Salon: "Was the New Hampshire vote stolen?" LINK

NH: Results largely the same after recount LINK

NH: NH Election Contest Update: 7.5% Vote Count Discrepancy Found in Nashua, Ward 4 for Clinton, Edwards LINK

NH: NH Recount Uncovers Discrepancies -- Result of Human Error Officials Say LINK

NJ: Bill Would Help States Ditch Electronic Voting LINK

NY: Krueger calls on elections commissioners to choose new voting machines LINK

NY: New York: Breakthrough at the Board? LINK

OH: Questions about voting machines linger as primary approaches LINK

OH: Cuyahoga County - ACLU Challenges Ohio's Unequal Voting Technology LINK

OH: Cuyahoga County - Frantic preparations for March Election in Cuyahoga County LINK

OH: Hamilton County - 'Why does my ballot smell like Marley?' LINK

PA: Wayne County - Replacing Wayne County's Voting Machines Could Cost $500,000-$650,000 LINK

SC: SC Voting Machines Prompt Calls for Federal Action LINK

SC: Results are in: McCain wins [Florence Co reveals they had the same close-out problem as Horry Co.] LINK

TX: Mistrust of voting machines on the rise Texas sticking with electronic balloting despite reports of flaws LINK

TX: Texas Debates On Electronic Balloting System For Presidential Election Use 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**