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May 09, 2008 Providing legal resources and election news to California election officials and the attorneys who represent them. |
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« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 » October 30, 2006 Glitches cited in early Florida voting"After a week of early voting, a handful of glitches with electronic voting machines have drawn the ire of voters, reassurances from elections supervisors -- and a caution against the careless casting of ballots. Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen -- the final voting step. Election officials say they aren't aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don't know how widespread the machine problems are because there's no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems. In Miami-Dade, incidents are logged and reported daily and recorded in a central database. Problem machines are shut down. ''In the past, Miami-Dade County would send someone to correct the machine on site,'' said Lester Sola, county supervisor of elections. Now, he said, ``We close the machine down and put a seal on it.'' Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 12:04 PM | Permalink. . . "Twelve Arrested In Orange County Voter Fraud Scheme""The Orange County District Attorney is expected to reveal details Monday in a case in which 12 people are charged with switching registered Democrats and others to registered Republicans without their consent. Officials were tight-lipped about the arrests, saying more details will be released at a news conference with Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. Republican McPherson is in a close race with Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, who is seeking his job in the Nov. 7 election. Those arrested were paid as much as $10 for each voter they registered as Republicans, according to the Los Angeles Times. The area includes the district represented by Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, whose opponent, Republican Tan Nguyen, is being investigated separately for a letter his campaign office sent to Hispanic voters telling them it is illegal for immigrants to vote. The registration fraud cases were filed Tuesday, and at least three of the defendants were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday, according to The Times. Prosecutors refused to release any information about the defendants, including names and charges, pending Monday's news conference. Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro issued a statement commending prosecutors for charging the defendants following a probe into complaints of voter registration fraud filed over the last seven months by the Democratic Party. "After many months of waiting for action, it is encouraging to see that District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has filed charges relating to over 500 verified complaints of voter registration fraud filed by the Democratic Party," Barbaro said. "It is also encouraging that Republican Party officials and their candidates will join District Attorney Rackauckas on Monday to hear details of these arrests. Hopefully, this is a clear sign that both parties fully support the integrity of our voting processes in Orange County." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 10:14 AM | Permalink. . . October 26, 2006 "O.C. supervisors decline to send letter reassuring Latino voters""Orange County supervisors on Tuesday refused to send a clarification letter to 14,000 Latino Democrats who received a mailing linked to a Republican congressional candidate warning immigrants they could be jailed and deported if they vote in next month's election. The four Republican supervisors overrode the request of the lone Democrat, Lou Correa, that the letter be sent out and instead passed a resolution condemning the campaign mailer. The California secretary of state's office has already said it will send a corrective notice to recipients of the original letter. The state attorney general's office has traced the mailer to the campaign of Tan Nguyen, who is running in an underdog bid to unseat Rep Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) in the 47th District. Nguyen has said his office manager was involved in sending the mailer but denied any knowledge of it." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 10:52 AM | Permalink. . . October 25, 2006 "Judge rejects hearing on Brown's eligibility""A judge Tuesday rejected a request by Republican activists for a preelection hearing on their bid to bar Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown from becoming attorney general if the Democrat wins Nov. 7." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:52 AM | Permalink. . . "Officials see significant errors in electronic voting test run""Numerous human errors reported during pre-election tests of new electronic voting machines have voting advocates worried that similar mistakes will be repeated by county voters in two weeks. With the election scheduled for Nov. 7, test votes cast by trained personnel Thursday, which was the first day of pre-election tests of the new equipment, failed to match up to the voting "scripts" they were given by elections officials 40 percent of the time, David Tom, county elections manager, said. The number of errors in the so-called Logic and Accuracy tests dropped to 25 percent on Wednesday and about 14 percent on Friday, with all errors eliminated by Monday morning, Tom said. All of the errors were attributed to tester error, most often caused when a tester failed to select the predetermined candidate in the "script" they were following or mistakenly skipped a race altogether, Tom said. "The equipment was new to them, so there was a higher number of errors than we would like," Tom said. Voting advocates, however, said the high prevalence of errors in using the machines — which required the elections department to extend the number of test days from three to six — raises concerns about whether voters will be able to operate the eSlate machines, made by Hart InterCivic. "I witnessed two adults at each of the eight test machines whose sole purpose was to input test votes correctly and for there to be such a high rate of human error is hard to believe," said Brent Turner, founder the San Mateo Election Integrity League and a member of the California Election Protection Network. A roaming elections official was also present to assist with questions during the test, officials said. The mistakes were made in spite of eSlate voting machine protocol that questions voters on their selections - including races they left blank - and provides a printed verifiable ballot, said Dennis Paull, a county poll inspector and election observer for the Democratic Central Committee." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:44 AM | Permalink. . . October 24, 2006 "Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates' Names"From the Washington Post: "U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday. Although the problem creates some voter confusion, it will not cause votes to be cast incorrectly, election officials emphasized. The error shows up only on the summary page, where voters are asked to review their selections before hitting the button to cast their votes. Webb's full name appears on the page where voters choose for whom to vote. Election officials attribute the mistake to an increase in the type size on the ballot. Although the larger type is easier to read, it also unintentionally shortens the longer names on the summary page of the ballot. Thus, Democratic candidate Webb will appear with his first name and nickname only -- or "James H. 'Jim' " -- on summary pages in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, the only jurisdictions in Virginia that use balloting machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic of Austin. "We're not happy about it," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said last night, adding that the campaign learned about the problem a week ago and has since been in touch with state election officials. "I don't think it can be remedied by Election Day. Obviously, that's a concern." Every candidate on Alexandria's summary page has been affected in some way by the glitch. Even if candidates' full names appear, as is the case with Webb's Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. George F. Allen, their party affiliations have been cut off. Jean Jensen, secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, who said yesterday she only recently became aware of the problem, pledged to have it fixed by the 2007 statewide elections. "You better believe it," Jensen said. "If I have to personally get on a plane and bring Hart InterCivic people here myself, it'll be corrected." Posted by Randy Riddle at 11:59 AM | Permalink. . . "Democrats point fingers at GOP"From the Orange County Register: "A host of statewide Democratic candidates gathered at the old county courthouse Monday and accused Republican officials for creating a climate that contributed to a controversial mailer advising immigrants against voting. "It's part of a national strategy," gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides said. "We've seen it time and time again." Angelides pointed to a GOP tactic from 1988 in which uniformed guards were posted outside polling stations and advised voters that illegal immigrants could not vote. Monday's rally came just as county supervisors are preparing today to debate whether to send a clarification to the 14,000 Latino Democrats targeted by a mailer sent out by the campaign of Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen. Nguyen ended nearly a week of silence on Sunday by holding a press conference blaming the controversy on a bad English translation of his mailer. Nguyen's attorney said the word "emigrado" in the letter should not be taken to mean immigrant, but instead someone in the process of legalization." Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:49 AM | Permalink. . . October 20, 2006 "FBI probes voting machine software theft""A former Maryland lawmaker said the FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment. Former state Del. Cheryl Kagan, D-Olney, says the FBI contacted her after three disks apparently containing key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems were delivered anonymously to her office, The Washington Post reported. The disks, bearing the logos of companies that test Diebold equipment, were packaged with an unsigned letter saying they were from the Maryland State Board of Elections and had been "accidentally picked up." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 09:19 AM | Permalink. . . October 19, 2006 "Yolo finds glitch in e-voting""Yolo County election officials are skeptical that many vision-impaired voters will use the county's 150 electronic voting machines in next month's election. They're even more skeptical that many of those same voters will need to hear instructions in Vietnamese. Yet two weeks ago, when officials began programming the machines, the directions for use by voters with vision disabilities came out in Vietnamese. The timing of the discovery -- about one month before the Nov. 7 elections -- lessened the shock. But the county's top elections official said the error shows just how sticky the move toward electronic voting can be. "We thought it was extremely charming, but on account of the county not having many blind Vietnamese voters, we e-mailed the company and they sent us the right software," said Freddie Oakley, the Yolo County clerk recorder. If not for her self-described "paranoia," Oakley and other Yolo County election officials might not have discovered the glitch until Election Day. "It would have been a horrible surprise," she said, adding that Hart, the Austin, Texas-based company that provides the software, sent the correct program within 36 hours. Several states across the nation are moving toward electronic voting machines and away from paper ballots. The move has become a political issue and has many election officials bracing for a hectic Nov. 7. Oakley has recruited a few dozen computer science graduate students from the University of California, Davis, to help with the machines next month. The technology will be available in each of the county's polling locations. Voters without disabilities will use optical-scan ballots. Proponents of electronic voting say the machines are the only technology that provides voters with disabilities equal access to the voting process and are particularly useful in counties where several languages are spoken. Opponents argue the systems are complicated and expensive. "These machines are, for the most part, not state-of-the art in terms of electronic-based appliances, and they are very expensive for what they are," Oakley said. "I think any of these machines is vulnerable to attack by hackers, so I think time will show that these have not been the wisest investment for the United States." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:52 AM | Permalink. . . October 17, 2006 Secretary of State Orders Counties to Provide Paper BallotsFollowing the lead of former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, current Secretary Bruce McPherson has issued a directive to all County Registrars requiring them to provide paper ballots at the polling place for any voter who requests them. The memo is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:38 AM | Permalink. . . "Judge extends Shorecliffs ban while looking at petition issue"A court order barring second-story construction in the Shorecliffs neighborhood of San Clemente was extended Monday by Orange County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey T. Glass. Glass said it appeared that those circulating a referendum to nullify the city's construction ban in the 505-home community may not have been eligible San Clemente voters, a possible violation of state election law. The controversy arose several years ago as a neighborhood dispute over protecting ocean views but has escalated into an issue that has divided the community. Bradley W. Hertz, a lawyer for the second-story proponents, said "educators" from outside the city convinced many San Clemente residents to sign the referendum and then had some of those city residents who signed the petitions also sign as the solicitors. He said the practice was routine and accepted throughout the state. Each page of the petition has room for 12 signers, and on the back it must be signed by the person who solicited the signers, the judge said. "The law says that the person soliciting the signatures must be eligible to vote in the district that the referendum is for. Why have those rules if it doesn't matter?" Glass said. Amy E. Morgan, a lawyer for single-story advocates, said the practice of using paid signature collectors who are not city residents and then having petition signers also sign as solicitors is an attempt to circumvent the law. San Clemente City Attorney Jeffrey Oderman told the court that there were 3,948 valid signatures on the referendum petition, but that several hundred were in dispute if the court rules that the solicitors acted improperly. The referendum needed 3,727 signatures." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:28 AM | Permalink. . . October 11, 2006 "Alameda County elections chief promises 'secure' voting""Alameda County's election on Nov. 7 will be among the most secure in California, election chief Dave Macdonald said Monday during a display of procedures intended to safeguard the vote. Steps include shrink-wrapping the county's new vote scanners before distribution to polling stations and securing the polling equipment with bar-coded security tape that poll workers must match to a separate list. "We are not just doing the minimum," Macdonald said. "We are going above and beyond what's required." The announcement comes a week after a handful of Alameda County voters filed a lawsuit to block the county's use of its new Sequoia voting system this November. The nonprofit Voter Action organization said Alameda County has not performed independent, expert security vulnerability testing on the system's equipment. But Macdonald said the county's security analysis had been under way well before the lawsuit and believes much of the voter groups' concerns have been addressed. Macdonald plans to submit Tuesday the results of an independent security analysis to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. The study concludes that all potential security risks can be handled with appropriate countermeasures and declared the Sequoia system secure. Alameda County was forced to dump its old touch-screen Diebold voting machines after the Secretary of State banned the use of electronic voting machines that lacked a paper audit trail." The story is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:31 AM | Permalink. . . October 05, 2006 Election Bills Vetoed by the GovernorThe Governor has vetoed the following three election-related bills: SB 1598: This bill would have required initiative, referendum and recall petitions to specifically indicate whether they were being circulated by a volunteer or by a paid circulator. It also would have required the petition to disclose the names of large contributors. Posted by Randy Riddle at 11:13 AM | Permalink. . . "Secretary of state rivals differ on voting machines""Minutes after Bruce McPherson was sworn in as secretary of state last year, he made a promise to employees of the agency that oversees California elections: "I will not let you down." The Santa Cruz Republican assumed a troubled office after the resignation of Democrat Kevin Shelley amid allegations of misspending and mismanagement that prompted investigations but no criminal charges. McPherson said he has kept his promise -- restoring stability, creating a statewide voter database, overseeing two elections, setting standards for electronic voting machines and persuading the federal government to release $169 million in election funds. "I'm running on a series of significant accomplishments, as well as a clear vision for the future," he said of his campaign for a new four-year term. His opponent, state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina del Rey, sees it differently. "He's been a major disappointment," she said. Bowen characterizes McPherson as an administrative bumbler whose missteps could jeopardize faith in accurate ballot counting as the state wrestles with performance, auditing and security issues surrounding electronic voting machines. Bowen noted that McPherson initially dropped the Peace and Freedom Party from the June primary ballot, then reversed himself days later. He initially imposed rigid voter database standards, then loosened them under fire, but not before up to 26,000 Los Angeles County residents were denied registration or re-registration for the primary, she said, citing figures provided by the county. "He's made a series of major errors," Bowen said. Ashley Giovannettone, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office, said Bowen's account leaves out some important facts: Anyone whose registration was clouded during the database's creation could cast a provisional ballot. No voters complained, she said. "All evidence supports the fact that every ballot cast by an eligible voter was counted and recorded," she said. McPherson said he tries hard to listen and respond to legitimate concerns. "God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason, because you should listen twice as much as you talk," he said. Bowen said voters have a clear choice on Nov. 7. "I'm an innovator, not a caretaker," she said. The article is here. Posted by Randy Riddle at 08:49 AM | Permalink. . . October 04, 2006 Election Bills Signed by the GovernorThe following election-related bills have been signed by the Governor and will become effective January 1, 2007: AB 2430: Requires the Secretary of State to provide a translation of the ballot title and condensed statement of the ballot title to the local election official whenever the Voting Rights Act requires that a translation be provided, and requires the local election official to use that translation in the sample ballot and on the official ballot. AB 2769: Provides that the mandatory 1% manual tally of ballots include absent voters' ballots. AB 2770: Requires that for any statewide election or certain special elections, votes cast by absentee ballot and votes cast at the polling place be tabulated by precinct. AB 3059, 3061, 3062, 3063: These bills were sponsored by the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting and generally involve clean-up or technical changes. SB 1258: Requires that if the nomination documents for an incumbent members of Congress are not delivered by 5 p.m. on the 88th day before the direct primary election, any person other than the person who was the incumbent on the 88th day has until 5 p.m. on the 83rd day before the election to file nomination documents for that office. SB 1276: This an omnibus clean-up bill by the Senate Committee on Elections. SB 1348: Requires paid voter registration circulators to provide their name, address, and other information to those they are registering, and makes it a misdemeanor to violate this provision. Also makes it a misdemeanor for a person to misrepresent himself or herself as having assisted a voter to register when another person actuall provided the assistance. SB 1519: Requires the Secretary of State to adopt regulations no later than January 1, 2008, for each voting system approved for use in the state, and specify the procedures for recounting ballots using those systems. SB 1654: Authorizes delivery of an absentee ballot to the absentee voter’s child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling, or a person residing in the same household as the absent voter, who is 16 years of age or older. SB 1725: Requires election officials to establish procedures to track and confirm the receipt of voted absentee ballots and to make this information available to the voter by way of the internet or toll free telephone. This appears to be similar to a requirement imposed by HAVA for provisional ballots. SB 1747: Authorizes each qualified political party and any bona fide association of citizens or a media organization to employ not more than 2 representatives to be present at the central counting place, provided that the election official may limit the total number of representatives to no more than 10. SB 1760: Prohibits the Secretary of State from approving any voting system, including a direct recording electronic voting system, unless the paper used for its voter verified paper audit trail is of sufficient quality that it maintains its integrity and readability throughout the required retention period.
Posted by Randy Riddle at 01:48 PM | Permalink. . . |
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