'Daily Voting News' For August 14, 2008

 

If I lived in Butler Co Ohio I would be very concerned about whether my vote was going to be counted this November. If you recall Butler Co uses Diebold/Premier DREs and in the March primary and April recount over 200 votes nearly went uncounted. The cause of the problem proved to be a conflict between the voting system software and anti-virus software. Rather than take action against Diebold/Premier, as recommended by EI attorneys, the state sat back until the vendor sued them and nearly forced the state to counter-sue. But the county, and many others in the state, will be using the same voting system with the same software in November. Diebold/Premier claims to have a software patch but also claims it will be years before they can use it because it has to have federal approval. Meanwhile, Secretary of State spokesman Kevin Kidder says, "We've never lost a vote because of the problems we cite in the counterclaim because election officials have caught them. We can't prevent it. We can only catch the problem and correct it." As good as election officials may be they cannot and will not catch everything and when they don’t find a problem it means votes are lost or incorrectly tabulated. The solution should have been to force the counties involved to go to paper based systems. It’s too late for that now.

 

Featured - OH: Butler County - Will all votes be counted in election?

http://www.middletownjournal.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/08/13/hjn081408VotingMachines.html

 

National: Coming election to test statewide voter registration databases

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/UPDATES01/808140349

 

National: Preparation Is Key To Election Reform

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/ii_20080812_4924.php

 

National: Support the Troops; Prevent Them From Voting

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/08/support_the_troops_prevent_the.php

 

National: Film Review: Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections

http://www.motherjones.com/arts/film/2008/08/uncounted.html

 

CO: Mail Dents Voter Turnout Election Officials See Major Shift in State Balloting

http://www.redorbit.com/news/politics/1520795/mail_dents_voter_turnout_election_officials_see_major_shift_in/

 

CO: Denver - Counting pace a worry

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10194731

 

FL: Editorial - Vote early? Not often

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/08/14/a12a_leadedit_elections_0814.html

 

OH: Franklin County - Forget the school gym, vote in your pajamas

http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2008/08/14/front/doc48a32f67b00a1656012099.txt

 

PA: Bucks County - Bucks decides to alter voting districts

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-08142008-1576807.html

 

TN: Dyer County - Commission waiting on software fix to certify August elections

http://www.stategazette.com/story/1452902.html

 

TX: Editorial - A lesson not learned from hanging chads of 2000

http://www.caller.com/news/2008/aug/13/a-lesson-not-learned-from-hanging-chads-of-2000/

 

VT: Vermont 3rd in primary vote turnout percentage

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/NEWS01/808140379/1002/NEWS01

 

**Articles and commentary included in “Daily Voting News” may not all reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or its allied organizations. The articles are all included for the information of the subscribers of “Daily Voting News” though we realize that the subscribers may not agree with the opinions given in all articles or in the commentary**

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