Entries tagged as John McCain
Friday, November 7. 2008
Numerous incidents of vote flipping, voter purges, and voter supression were reported during the 2008 Presidential election. And of course the "experts" say that the same old thing - that " the outcome of the election was not affectee" (by inaccurate counting?). Psych! But a group of 60 international observers have monitored our elections and found that US Democracy is basically in good health. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had an election observing mission to the United States. Press release US elections showed all fundamentals of a democratic vote, but electoral reform efforts should continue WASHINGTON, 5 November 2008 - Yesterday's elections in the United States demonstrated the essential principles of a pluralistic democracy characterized by transparency and the respect for fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, but efforts to enhance public confidence in the election process should continue, the observer mission deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) concluded in a statement released today. Voters were able to make informed choices in a competitive and vigorously fought election. Free and pluralistic media and extensive campaign activities provided voters with a wealth of information about the candidates, their platforms and the election process. These elections generally met OSCE commitments. But the observers also said that the concerns that arose during previous elections have not been fully addressed in some states. "We have seen an election that displayed all the fundamentals of a genuinely democratic vote," said Ambassador Audrey Glover, the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission....
Thursday, November 6. 2008
Its time to bring out that old photo of a Florida voting machine, because Florida still can't count votes: 
2 days after election Diebold still "counting" votes in Florida County. The governor of Florida has been asked to intervene in Hillsborough County Florida's elections. Election officials in Hillsborough County Florida are having to feed 80,000 ballots into optical scan machines made by "Premier Election Solutions" (Diebold). The election also didn't go so well for Hillsborough Election Supervisor Buddy Johnson, whose election was tied to those uncounted ballots. Johnson ended up conceding the election and county officials are considering a lawsuit against Diebold er I mean "Premier". (We're supposed to be fooled by the name change.) Oh, and isn't it time that Florida started hiring or appointing election directors, instead of creating the conflict of interest of running their own elections? Governor asked to intervene in Hillsborough elections Thursday, 06 Nov 2008 TAMPA – Two state senators are calling on Governor Charlie Crist to get involved in Hillsborough County’s election mess. Senator Charlie Justice, District 16, and Senator Arthenia Joyner, District 18, sent a letter to the governor Thursday requesting he intervene since there are still thousands of uncounted votes and unresolved issues with the optical scan machine software-- two days after the election. ... Elections workers began re-entering nearly 80,000 two-page ballots into the machines Thursday morning. It’s expected to take at least ten hours to complete, then another two hours to upload the results into the system....
An election in Florida without major screwups is like a day without sunshine.... |
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Tuesday, November 4. 2008
When a touch screen voting machine tried to steal Oprah Winfrey's vote for President last Thursday, the public and media noticed. Oprah was voting on a touchscreen voting machine paid for by funds from ironically named "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA). This week, Tim Robbins found to his shock and anger that his name had been purged from New York's voter rolls. His right to vote was being stolen by the voter registration databases - also required by HAVA. Robbins refused to vote an "affadavit ballot" or similarly named provisional ballot, because he felt that (rightly so) such a ballot might not be counted. Robbins went to court, and after a few hours obtained a court order stating that he was indeed a registered voter. Robbins had voted regularly and at the same location for years, and had not changed residence. Robbins was then able to cast a regular ballot. Most of us would not be able to do this. "This is just one example of how difficult it is to vote in the United States," he said. There seems to be a common thread in these federal laws with the catchy names, like the "Clean Skies Act", "No Child Left Behind Act", and others. The common thread - these acts do the opposite of what their name says.
Tonight's blog is a last minute reminder to voters everywhere in the United States. Voters, please be prepared before you go to the polls. If you want to make sure your vote counts, then go to the correct polling place. Know your state's voter ID requirements, and if your state doesn't require ID, you might want to bring some anyway, in case there are voter roll problems. If you have a problem voting, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. They have trained staff to answer your questions, supply help, and document the problems. You can see those reports as they happen, at OURVOTELIVE.
Friday, October 31. 2008
In an article by Todd Weiss at Computerworld, Are design issues to blame for vote 'flipping' in touch-screen machines? - a Diebold spokesman admits that his company isn't designing or improving any touchscreen voting machines. He notes the growing popularity of paper ballots across the US. "Since new touch-screen machines aren't being designed, no usability studies are being done to improve existing designs, he said. Of course Riggal, like makes sure to blame voters for the problems with touch screen machines. What about a possible Oprah effect? Oprah may have helped put another nail in touch screen voting's coffin - when she voted yesterday, electronically, the machine didn't record her vote for President at first. "It didn't record my presidential vote." Charles Stewart III over at Election Updates says that DRES (touch screens) are not gone for good, that "While DREs are declining, they aren’t going to disappear..." Well, I am still hoping that our entire country ends up ditching touch screen voting and goes to simpler more reliable and more transparent systems.
Thursday, October 30. 2008
A much needed stress reliever. Enjoy. Kim Zetter, the award winning journalist at Wired News has this treasure. At first I thought it was a joke, but this is a serious video, showing Mr. Rogers voting on a lever machine. This is so nostalgic. Sigh. Here's the Wired News Story Mr. Rogers Has a Voting Machine Mishap By Kim Zetter  October 30, 2008 Tired of electronic voting machines and all of the new problems they've created? Take a nostalgic trip back to 1974 as Mr. Rogers demonstrates how to cast a ballot on a 30-year-old mechanical lever voting machine and experiences a little glitch.... more at the link
Wednesday, October 29. 2008
Techdirt has the "dirt" on how a West Virginia elections clerk demonstrated how "well" the touchscreen machines work. Clerk Jeff Waybright showed how a machine acts when not calibrated, and then he meant to show how the machine worked when calibrated. Watch Waybright manage keep a straight face when the "calibrated" ES&S iVotronic touch screen takes a straight ticket choice for Obama and converts it into a vote for McCain. Big credit goes to Video the Vote who captured this event. One thing this demonstrates to me is that the machines could be calibrated this way on purpose, at least when you see it happen consistently as it has in West Virginia. On October 27, just two days ago, the national organizations Verified Voting and the Brennan Center for Justice both sent a letter to 16 Secretaries of States "r/e iVotronic Vote Flipping" . The letter was sent to 16 Secretaries of State where iVotronic voting machines are in use. These states are: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. On Oct 25, 2008 we blogged about the reports of vote flipping in North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. In North Carolina, the votes flipped from McCain to Obama, in the other states it was McCain to Obama.
Monday, October 27. 2008
Demos has a warning about provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are conditional ballots issued to voters who have registration problems. Some election officials like to describe provisional ballots as "Fail Safe". Demos warns that many states reject tens of thousands of these ballots. What many voters do not realize is that provisional ballots are not counted on election night, have to be approved before they can count, could go uncounted for several days after the election,and in some states a high rate are rejected. Provisional Ballot Problems Loom As 2008 Election Approaches, New Report Finds Oct. 27 NEW YORK, Oct 27, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Some States Reject Tens of Thousands of Provisional Votes in 2006; Provisional Ballots May Play a Significant Role in 2008 Provisional ballots could play a significant role in the 2008 Election, frustrating voters and leading to possible post-election wrangling, according to a study published this week by the non-partisan public policy center Demos. "Provisional Ballots: Where to Watch in 2008" ( http://demos.org/pubs/provisionalballot_brief.pdf) identifies eight states where there is significant concern over provisional ballot implementation and the high risk of many of those ballots going uncounted in this election. ...High rates of provisional ballot usage and rejection suggest persistent shortcomings in election administration. More than one in three of the nearly 2 million provisional ballots cast in 2004 election were ultimately rejected.
Voters should do everything they can to get a regular ballot, and that means making sure they are registered to vote, clearing up any registration problems before voting, and voting at the right polling place on election day. Do your best to get a regular ballot, but if the only way you can vote is by provisional, then accept it. If you have a voting problem at on election day, don't leave anything to chance, get help - call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
Sunday, October 26. 2008
The New York Times has an editorial about North Caroline's confusing straight ticket voting law today: NY Times October 27, 2008 Editorial This Year’s Butterfly Ballot
In Florida’s “butterfly ballot” debacle of 2000, voters in Palm Beach County were so confused by the odd layout that many appear to have voted for the wrong candidate by mistake. At the time, there was a lot of talk about improving ballot design. Eight years later there are still far too many badly done ballots. North Carolina may have the country’s worst. It is already causing confusion with early voters. And if the presidential race is close, it could change the outcome.
Like a number of states, North Carolina allows its voters to choose a straight-party ticket. To do that, voters can mark one box and cast votes for all of the nominees of their preferred party. But North Carolina’s ballot has an unexpected twist. Even if a voter checks the straight-party box, he or she must vote separately for a presidential candidate.
...more at the link
North Carolina, October 27. 2008 NCVVNewswire/NC Coalition for Verified Voting
The State Board of Elections has responded to national concerns about NC's straight ticket voting problem by sending an advisory to all 100 County Boards of Elections. The email was sent Wednesday, at 5 PM 10/22. The email urges all County Board of Elections to have poll workers give handouts about straight ticket voting to all voters showing up to vote. It is not clear that all counties are complying.
Some North Carolina Counties are choosing not to comply with this directive. And the voters will suffer as a result. It is important that every single county, every single polling place - in early voting and on election day in North Carolina comply.
In North Carolina, straight ticket voting does not count for President. Many voters do not realize this and as a result, our state has one of the highestundervote rates for President in the US. In 2004 we lost 92000 votes for President, and in 2000 we lost 75,000 votes for Presidentbecause of this counter-intuitive law. See NC Voters' page on Straight Ticket Confusion
Below is the email sent to all counties, are they all complying? From: Johnnie McLean [mailto:Johnnie.McLean@ncmail.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:07 PMTo: Directors.boeCc: ElectTechs.Sboe;
Subject: IMPORTANT INFORMATION In order to ensure that all voters receive the information about President/Vice President being voted separately from all other offices you are directed to reproduce the following message (printed four to a page to be cut) and hand/mail to each voter when the ballot/voting equipment is assigned to the voter. Any color paper may be used to duplicate this information. This measure is in addition to the verbal instructions the pollworkers are to provide
****************************************************************************************************************NOTICE: E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized state official.
***************************************************************************************************************
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by anauthorized county official. If you have received this communication in error , please do not distribute it. Please notify the sender by E-mail at the address shown and delete the original message. [Attachment]
PLEASE NOTE:
A "straight party" vote does not include the office of president or
any nonpartisan race or issue. You must vote for president/vice
president separately from the other offices. Nonpartisan offices
and issues also must be voted separately. More detailed instructions are
on your ballot. For paper ballots, be sure to turn the ballot over.
#
Background information
North Carolina Straight Ticket Confusion - Voting Straight Ticket in North Carolina does NOT include the Presidential contest. NC Coalition for Verified Voting 10/17/08
How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad By Lawrence Norden & Margeret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice 10/21/08
It May Be Harder to Vote in Swing States By: David Rosenfeld Miller-McCune 10/22/08
Saturday, October 25. 2008
Is there a "party default" setting for these machines? Laugh or cry. You know how in Texas ,and WV the touchscreens are flipping votes from Obama to McCain? Well, in Tennessee there were reports of touchscreens flipping from McCain to Obama. Today I read that in Guilford County some machines were flipping from McCain to Obama. Surprised? It happened before in Oct 2004, in Craven County NC some votes saw their votes switched from Bush to Kerry Perhaps TX and WV have a republican default, and NC, and TN have a democratic default? Anyway, isn't it time to ditch these touchscreens now that we are all pissed off, in a bi partisan way? Some machines scramble voter choicesBY DAVID NIVENS dnivens@hpe.com Oct 25,2008 GUILFORD COUNTY - Laurie Edwards of Thomasville heard a strange voting story from her mother this week.
Turns out it's a fairly widespread problem with touch-screen voting machines.
Edwards said her mother, Liz Odom of Greensboro, had problems getting a voting machine in Jamestown to accept her presidential vote on Friday. She cancelled the vote until the machine accepted it.
"I have had several complaints of this happening, with the machines giving the Democratic vote when the Republican was selected," Bill Wright, chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party, told elections officials Friday. "These machines should be calibrated every day so this does not happen."
Election officials agreed to check the iVotronic machines more carefully and urged voters to study the review screens to make sure all their selections are correct before casting the electronic ballot.
"We know not everyone is pushing that review screen button," Wright said.
West Virginia voters have reported similar problems with touch-screen machines manufactured by Election Systems & Software, which is North Carolina's only machine vendor. Experts acknowledge that the machines can scramble vote selections if they are uncalibrated, causing a touch in the wrong place and an incorrect vote selection.
"Voters should tell us if they are having any problems," said Guilford County Elections Director George Gilbert. "If they don't tell us, then we can't know. I don't know how many of these are calibration problems. Some people touch the wrong spot."
Gilbert said older machines present the most problems. Election workers test voting machines before deploying them to voting sites.
"The new ones do not get out of calibration in two weeks of use," he said. "We will find the ones that are out of calibration."
dnivens@hpe.com
Friday, October 24. 2008
You vote, the machine decides. This time in Texas it is ES&S iVotronic Touchscreens flipping votes. One of the voters who complained also insisted that the machine be taken out of service immediately. Don't select the straight party option on the ballot or machine, there is too much that can go wrong. October 24, 2008 Concerns raised over electronic voting Two say machines tried changing their straight-party Democratic votes to straight Republican choices. By Libby Cluett lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com
At least two Palo Pinto County residents say they experienced early voting problems when the touch-screen voting machines they used kept switching their straight-party vote from Democratic to Republican.
“When I cast an early vote [Wednesday] at Palo Pinto County Courthouse, my vote was switched from Democrat to Republican right in front of my face - twice!” reported Lona Jones, a Precinct 1 county resident.
Intending to vote straight party on the Democratic ticket, Jones said she was surprised Wednesday when the electronic voting machine “on the left as you face the machines” in the courthouse basement asked her if she wanted to cast her vote for a straight Republican ticket.
Velvet Revolution has advice on what to do if a machine flips your votes: So if you're voting on an electronic voting machine and you see your votes being flipped (or if the machine malfunctions in any other way), what should you do? Here are some suggestions from election integrity experts at TrueVote.us, and from Emily Levy of Velvet Revolution's StandingForVoters.org and Ellen Theisen of VotersUnite.org. - Get the machine's serial number, if possible
- Call over a poll supervisor to observe the problem
- Insist on filling out a problem report
- Refuse to vote on that machine
- Request that the machine be taken out of service and impounded for later forensic examination
- Tell all the voters waiting in line exactly which machine flipped your vote (third machine from the left, or whatever)
- Report the problem via election integrity hotlines, twitter, and the voter suppression wiki. Information on how to do that is here.
- Call the county, city, and state election offices and report the problem. Find those phone numbers here.
- Call reporters and tell them about the problem
Thursday, October 23. 2008
This is taking software independence to an all new level. There's a surprise ending to this movie but you'll just have to watch it yourself.
Tuesday, October 21. 2008
Thanks to Voters Unite, we now know that there are fifteen states at risk of having fouled election results due to confusing straight ticket voting rules and programming errors. In North Carolina, for example, straight ticket does NOT count for President and you must vote for President separately. North Carolina lost around 92,000 votes for President in 2004 due to the straight ticket rule. Conversely, in Texas, straight ticket DOES count for President, and if voters who select the "straight ticket" option also select President, they CANCEL out their vote for President. It has been reported that some partisans are deliberately spreading the wrong instructions to voters in Texas. Then there's the problem with voting machines handling straight ticket voting....Voters Unite warns today: Update: 10/21/08. Straight-party vote-flipping has already occurred in this election on two different e-voting machines in Texas -- the ES&S iVotronic in Dallas and the Hart InterCivic eSlate in Houston.
So what is the best advice? Don't select "straight party". If you want to vote for all candidates of one party, fine, do so, but vote for them one by one, and do not select the "straight party" option on your ballot. Doing so puts your vote at risk of mis programmed ballots or the risk that machines simply can't count according to your state's rules. The other pitfall of straight ticket voting is that each state has different rules. You need to find out your particular state's rules on what counts and how to keep from deselecting your choices. The best place to find your straight party voting instructions is at Voters Unite, who has looked up the laws and also called Secretary of States. Would you be surprised to know that at least one Secretary of State did NOT know the straight party voting rules in their state? True. So go to Voters Unite to see the handy chart and scary warning about straight ticket voting. Don't say you weren't warned!
Monday, October 20. 2008
The Ohio Secretary of State's website has hacked. This October surprise seems aimed to harrass and intimidate. The bigger concern is that the attacks could threaten sensitive records and functions of the site. And the SOS is taking precautions. In a press release Monday, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced that "the state website has been set in a static mode with limited functionality as a precaution." The press release also cites "denial of service" attacks against both phone and email, and which include threats of harm and or death, as well as a suspicous package. These attacks follow a fight by the GOP to purge voter rolls in the state. SOS Brunner's recent victory in court to prevent unfair purging of the voter rolls due to database mismatches was a blow to the state GOP party. There is a tug of war between the Democratic Secretary of State verses the Ohio State GOP Party over control of Ohio's elections. Meanwhile, the governor has accused the Ohio GOP of scare tactics. “In the last few days the Republicans have tried to instill fear in Ohio voters about whether their registrations to vote will be challenged and whether they will be able to cast a ballot,” said Strickland. "John in Cincy", a long time verified voting activist in Ohio opines that: My guess is this is at least a “denial of service” attack taking place on the Ohio Secretary of State’s website and office. The threatening package is pretty scary too. This type of operation was detailed by Republican operative and convicted felon Allen Raymond in his book, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative” (2008).
Read the SOS' press release after the jump:
Continue reading "Ohio Secretary of State Website Hacked - Death Threats and Intimidation"
Friday, October 17. 2008
Straight Ticket Confusion causes North Carolina voters to throw away tens of thousands of presidential votes away every four years. Our state has one of the highest undervote rates for President in the Country because of this. In 2004 our state through away 92,000 votes for president. I am writing to ask you for your help in making more votes count. NC is one of two states in the country where straight ticket voting does not count for President. This unusual exception trips up tens of thousands of voters every 4 years. Voters have very little reason to know about this exception, since it is not intuitive, and it was not even mentioned in the 3 million + voter guides mailed to households all over North Carolina. Now I am getting feedback from poll workers and observers that we still have voters who do not understand NC's straight ticket voting exceptions. How to make your vote count if you choose the straight ticket option
Continue reading "Confused North Carolina Voters Throw Votes Away - Straight Ticket Voting Warning"
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