Black Box Voting

The great thing about the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline is that you will get a live person to help you on election day.  This hotline also coordinates with many others, so there is no need to worry about duplicate efforts. 

All you need to remember is 1-866-OUR-VOTE and www.866OURVOTE.org . You can get help at the hotline, and you can share your voting experiences at the website. This helps identify problems and trouble spots.

Nation's Largest Election Protection Coalition Launches Hotline, Website By Kat Zambon, electionline.org. Posted September 29, 2008.

More than 100 partner organizations prepare to help voters for November

With record voter turnout expected at the polls this November, the Election Protection coalition, which includes the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Rock the Vote say they have prepared the largest and most comprehensive election watch effort ever undertaken.

"We’re confident that we can help millions of Americans overcome obstacles to make sure their votes count," said Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, part of the Lawyers’ Committee.

The primary tool will be a toll-free phone number, 1-866-OUR-VOTE (and its Spanish counterpart 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA), a nonpartisan confidential voter services hotline.... more at the link 

Common Cause is worried that the internet will be used for dirty tricks and deceptive election information.  They are asking that you report any misleading or deceptive emails or websites to them so that they can track and expose these scams. Please pass this on.

We've already seen how misinformation spread over the Internet can have an impact on the political campaign: the emails falsely claiming Obama is a Muslim; fake Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani websites with misleading statements; a website offering to register people to vote for $9.95, a process that is free; and the head of the NAACP having to release a statement that an email listing "10 Reasons Not to Vote for Hillary Clinton" supposedly authored by him was a hoax.

Will we see similar online misinformation campaigns regarding how to vote, who can vote, where to vote, and when to vote?
Think about how fast rumors and misinformation can circulate on the Internet. We can't afford to have this year's election called into question because of online dirty tricks.

If you see a website or receive an email with questionable voting information between now and Election Day, please let us know about it. 

We're on the lookout for:
* Emails that appear to be from the Secretary of State or other election official, advocacy organizations, or some other supposed authority that contains false information about the voting process.
* Spoofed election administrator, government or advocacy organization websites with misinformation on the voting process.
* False information about how, when or where to vote spread through social networking sites like Facebook.

We're not looking for:
* Emails containing false information about a candidate, his/her record, or his/her policies.

Please let us know about any online deceptive practices that you see by going to www.commoncause.org/DeceptivePractices or forwarding suspect email messages to DeceptivePractices2008@gmail.com.  And please share this message with your friends.

Rady Ananda has posted a review of The Clint Curtis Story over at OpEdNews that has me heading right over to Link TV to watch it. It has appearances by Attorney Bob Fitrakis, computer security expert Harri Hursti, Gore Vidal, Mavis Georgalis, Cynthia McKinney, and Richard Hayes Phillips. Read Rady's view over at OpEdNews and you'll want to watch this movie.

I saw Clint in the movie Uncounted, so I know I want to see this movie.  Clint Curtis is a fascinating and compelling figure in the e-voting movement, a computer programmer, hired to develop some vote switching source code. He is notable chiefly for making a series of "whistleblower" allegations about his former employer and about Republican Congressman Tom Feeney, including an allegation that in 2000, Feeney and Yang Enterprises requested Curtis's assistance in a scheme to steal votes by inserting fraudulent code into touch screen voting systems.  Read the review and you'll want to see the movie.

Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story

WARNING:  Graphic images included. 

Released on DVD and now airing on Link TV, Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story, is the most explosive documentary produced in recent memory, involving murder, espionage, coverup, electoral cyber fraud and a United States Member of Congress with ties to the Bush Administration.... more at the link

Ohio voters will get to both register and vote in person during a one week period through October 6 thanks to a ruling by the State Supreme Court AND a Federal Judge. This is a huge improvement in access for voters who 4 years ago faced waiting in line for as long as 13 hours!  The State Supreme Court voted 4-3 that SOS Brunner was right and the early voting and registration was constitutional. This is a bi partisan vote, given that the 6 of the state justices were republican, and 1 was Democrat. U.S. District Judge George  ruled that party poll observers must be allowed during early voting in the state's 88 counties. Brunner appealed that decision to a federal court in Cincinnati.

State, federal courts uphold early voting in Ohio By STEPHEN MAJORS Monday, September 29, 2008

State and federal courts cleared the way Monday for a weeklong period in which new voters can register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day in Ohio, a defeat for Republicans who challenged it.

The early voting window, which begins Tuesday, became a partisan battle in this swing state where President Bush narrowly clinched re-election in 2004.

The court decisions were a victory for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat who was criticized by Republicans for telling county election boards to allow same-day registration and voting through Oct. 6.

"This ruling is a victory for all Ohio voters," Brunner said in a statement. "It should send a message to the forces of confusion and chaos that our top goal must be protecting Ohioans' voting rights."

The Ohio Republican Party didn't say if it would appeal....

Florida SOS Kurt Browning puts lipstick on a pig in his Oped Even the unverified can vote Browning is talking about decision to enforce the "No Match No Vote" law during the last few weeks of voter registration.  The "No Match No Vote" law orders that a registrant provide either a drivers license or the last four digits of their social security number, and then the Elections dept tries to match that against the DMV or the Social Security databases. 

By waiting until the last minute, Florida makes it harder for voters who don't match - to clear up the bureaucratic mess.

The law will only apply to the newest voters - only those registering after Sept 8 are singled out for this database "verification".  Many through no fault of their own will fail to match.  The law won't apply to the 10.7 million voters who registered before September 8. Arbitrary? Unfair? Bad Law? Exactly! Boneheaded!  45 other states either never adopted the "no match no vote" law, or abandoned it. Browning says that no one is disenfranchised because the those who didn't get the matching problem cleared up can always vote a "provisional ballot".  What Browning doesn't tell you is that provisional ballots are not counted on election day, in fact often arent counted for several days, or that as many as 30% are rejected and not counted. He didn't mention the recent report by the Advancement Project outlining how states like Florida and Ohio had disenfranchised voters by over using provisional ballots, ballots which often don't count!

Funny, Florida will let you clear this up BEFORE the election, or up to 2 days AFTER the election, but WON"T let you clear it up ON election day.  Your ID is not good enough! But you must have it or you can't vote!  Hipocrisy anyone?  Aribitrary law, anyone.

Provisional Voting – Fail Safe or Placebo? 

““Our investigation reveals that instead of functioning as a fail-safe means of voting, provisional voting often creates a serious risk of disenfranchisement,” Elizabeth Westfall, Voter Protection Program deputy director, Advancement Project.   

The Advancement Project just issued a report on how Provisional ballots, rather than helping voters, may in some cases be disenfranchising thousands of voters.  The report focuses on Florida and Ohio in particular, noting that there was an over use or perhaps an inappropriate use of provisional ballots in those states. In some states (Florida is one) a provisional ballot only counts if the voter is at the “right” precinct. In those cases, giving a voter who is at the wrong precinct a provisional ballot will disenfranchise them.  Many voters could vote a regular ballot instead of accepting a provisional ballot, if all they needed to do was go to the correct polling place or perhaps bring ID. Few voters realize that a provisional ballot will not be counted on election night, and will have to be reviewed and approved before it can be counted. Not all will be approved, and the rate of approval varies by state. 

Advancement Project Report Shows Provisional Ballots May Disenfranchise Voters

September 24, 2008 (September 24, 2008, WASHINGTON DC) — Today, Advancement Project, a leading voter protection organization, released “Provisional Voting: Fail-Safe Voting or Trapdoor to Disenfranchising Voters.”...

Bad timing or last ditch effort to supress new voters? A recent alert by the Social Security Administration announces that the agency plans to shut down its databases for maintenance from October 11 through October 13. How will this hurt new voters?  Election officials would lose 4 days of processing time needed to handle new registrants.  Elections staff are already overworked at this time of the year and this is another straw on the camel's back.

This 4 day shutdown occurs at a critical time for most states - it is just past the average cutoff date to turn in new voter registrations. (25 days before the election). Thanks to the "Help America Vote Act" passed in 2002, officials now must check either the registrant's last 4 digits of their social security number against the government database, or the voters drivers license number against the DMV. This shut down would mostly hurt voters who do not have a car or drive.

Voter Registration Shut Down? By Wendy R. Weiser – 09/24/08

Updated (5:30pm): Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) writes to Social Security Administration seeking delay of shutdown. A copy of the letter is here. 

A recent alert by the Social Security Administration announces that the agency plans to shut down its databases for maintenance from October 11 through October 13. While this might not sound like an election issue, it turns out that this could significantly impede registration of first-time voters as well as the re-registration of eligible citizens.

I have seen email after email warning Obama supporters that if they wore their "Obama Gear" to the polls, that they would be blocked from voting. Or they would be told they could stay and vote if they "turned their shirts inside out" or other rubbish. 

None of those rumors are true, but please don't take my word for it. If you wear your Obama t-shirt, McCain t-shirt,  Bob Barr t-shirt, or Cynthia McKinnie t-shirt, will you get turned away from the polls? To clear matters up, I emailed Don Wright, the General Counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections today.  He replied in a matter of minutes:

From: Don Wright

To: Joyce McCloy

Subject: RE: electioneering question

Date: Sep 24, 2008 3:16 PM

This rumor has been circulating for several days.

We allow voters to wear items inside the polling place in North Carolina. But other
states may differ (I understand Tenn. does not allow it)

A NC voter may enter a voting place to vote wearing political items as long as they...

In John Gideon's Daily News today, he says the Palm Beach County Florida nightmare is FINALLY over.  I can't say it better than John, and frankly it was getting WAY too confusing, so here's John: 

"The election nightmare may be over in Palm Beach Co Florida. After seven
recounts, machine and hand, the election for a county circuit court seat
has been certified. The losing candidate, of course, is considering
legal actions. Still not explained is how ballots were lost then found
and how the machines just couldn’t seem to get an accurate count.
Sequoia should have some explaining to do beyond just “No, no, no, it
wasn’t us”.

Here's the latest media report:

Recount gives Abramson Palm Beach County Circuit Court seat Canvassing board certifies judicial race after third recount  By Brian Haas | South Florida Sun-Sentinel  September 24, 2008

Our long electoral nightmare is over.

Twenty-nine days after Palm Beach County voters actually went to the polls, members of the election Canvassing Board wiped their hands clean of a disputed judicial race and certified the election.

Challenger William Abramson unseated Circuit Judge Richard Wennet by 61 votes — the same margin Wennet was once winning by after one of three sets of recounts the election has endured. The board ended up not being able to account for only four votes, a far cry from the 3,500 that were thought to be lost in the days following the Aug. 26 primary.

"I'm overwhelmed," Abramson, a lawyer, said by phone Tuesday night. "This is why we're the greatest country ... We were faced with adversity and we all rose to the challenge."

I was getting overwhelmed too.  We tried to keep up with the Palm Beach counting and recounting fiasco here, but it got more and more frustrating:

September 12. 2008 Palm Beach Elections Goes from Missing Ballots to Having too Many This could all change, but here's the latest update on the Palm Beach Elections mess:

September 12, 2008 Palm Beach Fiasco: Officials Say Ballots Not Trashed Palm Beach County Florida still can't account for 3,400 missing ballots.

September 10. 2008 Florida Voters Coalition Calls on State to Secure Palm Beach Elections The Florida Voters Coalition, The League of Women Voters, and Democratic and Republican leaders call on the State of Florida to take emergency action to secure November’s General Election.

September 4. 2008 Palm Beach Election Desperation Part III - 2500 ballots missing now Well, things have just gotten worse, perhaps coming to a head. The new number of missing ballots as of today is 2,500. 

September 4, 2008 Palm Beach Election Fiasco - 2+2 now = 3 1/2: 2,700 ballots found overnight I guess someone checked the "lost and found" department last night, and discovered 2,700 of the 3,478 missing ballots we discussed yesterday...

September 3. 2008 Palm Beach Elections: 2+2 = 3 or The ballots are missing, so start finding answers In Palm Beach County Florida, 2 + 2 = 3 if you are counting votes, and it gets worse from there.  The editors of the Palm Beach Post want to know where the 3,478 missing votes went...

September 2. 2008 Oops - 3,400 votes disappear in Palm Beach County Fl recount Maybe Florida elecions are just plain cursed. Even with brand new paper ballot based machines in Palm Beach County Florida, they can't count votes.  In the initial contest, the two candidates in the judicial contest were a mere 17 votes apart...

So we should all thank John Gideon of www.VotersUnite.org for providing the best election integrity related news content in the United States.  You can receive the Daily News for free by emailing DVN@votersunite.org

Another puzzling McCain mailer.  This time it seems really strange.  The Florida Republican Party mailed an absentee ballot request (for a Sarasota Florida ballot) to a Democrat in Murfreesboro Tennessee. The form has one name, Mr. William R. “X” with the person having two addresses, one in Tennessee, and one in Sarasota Florida. In actuality, these are two different men with the same first and last name. They both use the same middle initial, but upon further research, they have different middle names. The Mr. X in Tennessee is William Randy X  .  The Mr. X  in Florida is William Rob X. Ms. "X" in Tennessee wondered if this was a scheme to somehow void voter registrations for some people.  (Last name and street addresses redacted for privacy. ).

See Ms. X's email and our findings after the jump:

Even Sequoia's disabled accessible optical scanner is easily hacked - the old fashioned way by physical stuffing through a gap in the ballot box. On August 18, Rady Ananda showed how you could stuff the Sequoia optical scanners like a Thanksgiving turkey. This combo optical scanner/ballot marking gizmo is not alone in bugs, a new bug in Pierce County Washington's Sequoia machines was reported Sept 14.  An earlier bug, a different one, was found there in May this year with the result that Pierce cannot use the precinct scanners at this time.

Sequoia's Sinking Ship  by Rady Ananda   

"Right now, there is not a single voting system on the market or in use anywhere in the country that meets current federal voting standards, and very few people realize it." ~ Douglas Kellner, New York State Board of Elections Commissioner (AP)  

From New York to New Jersey, from D.C. to Florida, Sequoia Voting Systems continue to fail.  Vendor response is, we're not at fault and don't you dare study our product.  That's because experts tell us in report after report these machines are fatally flawed by design, lacking the most basic security protocols.  Yet, election managers continue to use them, and "voter advocacy" groups continue to support their use.   A recent University of California (Santa Barbara) paper by the Computer Security Group warned that "the very core of our democracy is in danger."

...more at the link

Silence is not golden when it a federal agency knows but says nothing about voting machine failures.  The GAO reports that at least ten swing states will be using voting machines and electronic poll books with known defects in their systems. The ten states known to be affected are Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin.  These defects could skew the vote or disenfranchise voters.  The defects silence on the part of the EAC is disturbing. The Elections Assistance Commission knew but said nothing. 

State Election Officials Not Told Of Voting Machine Failures

Friday, Sep 19, 2008

A Government Accountability Office report on voting system testing shows many of the problems that plagued the last election still exist.  And Missouri is one of the states with remaining problems.

   CNN reports a study by Common Cause and the Century Foundation indicates that ten vital swing states have significant voting glitches that have not been addressed.

   It also shows that the Election Assistance Commission has failed to inform election officials around the country about electronic voting machine shortcomings....

5-Year-Old Gets Voter Registration Application In Mail September 17, 2008   
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jacksonville woman said she recently opened her mailbox 
to find voter registration documents addressed to her son -- a kindergarten student 
who won't be old enough to vote for another 12 years. Meegan Suggs said she 
became suspicious when information with the header "Voter Registration Documents Enclosed"
 
Well, does that mean that Florida will be getting back their old voting machines?
 

But seriously, could this be "Women's Voices Women Vote" at it again?

Florida is at it again, not ashamed to knowingly throw people's votes away.  No Match? No Vote! Typos to keep voters off the rolls

Who needs voter caging when you have a legal way to block the vote?  In the 11th hour before registration windows close, Florida is again enforcing a arbitrary state law that will disenfranchise thousands. At issue - the state's law that requires a voters personal voter registration information to match up with the state Dept of Motor Vehicles and or the Social Security Dept's database.  The problem - many voters do not match, through no fault of their own. Something as small as a clerk's typo, another voter with same last 4 digits of social security number, or a different way of writing the name - could keep voters off the rolls.  Election supervisors are supposed to try to contact voters when this happens, but this is the busiest time of the year and they would have thousands of voters to contact. Florida is one of about 5 states that has mis interpreted the "Help America Vote Act" to mean "Block Vulnerable Floridians From Voting Act".

  VOTER REGISTRATION 'No match, no vote' law to be enforced A controversial voter registration law that requires Floridians to have their identification match up with a state or federal database will be enforced. Posted on Tue, Sep. 09, 2008 

...Secretary of State Kurt Browning sent notice to the state's 67 supervisors of elections on Friday that the 2006 law, which has been on hold for the last year pending court rulings, would take effect again Sept. 8.

The result is that voters whose identification doesn't match with state files on Election Day will be given a provisional ballot and two days to prove their identity for their ballot to count.

Crist defends the indefensible:

Crist defends "no match, no vote law", voters leader disagrees By Bill Cotterell • Florida Capital Bureau • September 18, 2008 the head of the League of Women Voters of Florida said the new requirement will disenfranchise thousands of legitimate voters. Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho called it a "partisan manipulation of the process," aimed at reducing the impact of new voters registered this month, and League President Marilynn Wills said it will place an "onerous" burden on inexperienced voters...

Many will fail to match through no fault of their own. In fact, state election officials in Wisconsin tested out the "no match no vote" rule on their own registrations.  Four of its six members' names failed to check when the members' names were run through new voter identification system as a test. (for a match).  More than half of the state Government Accountability Board's members failed when their names were run through new voter identification checks as a test.

Background:  , September 15. 2008 McCain's Absentee Ballot Mailer Fiasco Spreads - Could Disqualify Some Voters, September 12. 2008 Unsolicited Absentee Ballot Requests Surface in Virginia, Ohio, and Florida, September 9. 2008 Florida Voter Caging Warning: McCain mailer w/absentee ballot requests 

"In the meantime, we need to tell voters—especially those registered 9/8 or later-- to check and double check their voter’s registrations with their county elections office to be sure they are good to go for November."

Late evening addition:  "We have you registered as a Republican.."