National News

NCSL predicts that voting technology will be a growing concern for state legislators in 2013—and that it will continue as a concern for the next several years. Why? Because most jurisdictions bought new voting equipment in the mid-2000s and now that equipment is limping along and may need to be replaced....

http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/the-canvass-january...

Groups Warn Against Hasty Action on Internet Voting in Response to Long Lines, Technical Glitches in November

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights

New State Voting Laws: Barriers to the Ballot?

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=2072649339b2bb3b19d3...

David Carroll Cochran | AUGUST 1, 2011

(Associated Publication

• What's Wrong with this Picture?: New Photo ID Proposals Part of National Push to Turn Back the Clock on Voting Rights April 7, 2011

USA Today Opinion

Call it the Board of Elections' prayer: Let the weather be clear, let the turnout be heavy and let everyone who wins, win big.

The desire for clear-cut victories reflects election officials' awareness that razor-tight races magnify the foul-ups at the polls — late openings, lost ballots, machine malfunctions — that disenfranchise voters.

So where does the art of vote-counting stand a decade after the mother of all foul-ups, the Florida recount that left the nation without a president-elect for five weeks after the 2000 election?

By Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post

Last week, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics opened a new Internet-based voting system for a weeklong test period, inviting computer experts from all corners to prod its vulnerabilities in the spirit of "give it your best shot." Well, the hackers gave it their best shot -- and midday Friday, the trial period was suspended, with the board citing "usability issues brought to our attention."

Sharon Machlis
Machlis Musings, Computerworld

If there's a question whether votes were counted properly but voting machines don't have a voter-verified paper trail, how can there be a meaningful recount? If someone suspects that vote-counting software has malfunctioned, how can we ensure results were accurate without an independent backup?

With national Congressional elections less than three months away, this is not a theoretical question.

By M. Mindy Moretti, Electionline Weekly, a project of the Pew Center on the States.

Seventeen years after Congress approved the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) — otherwise known as “Motor Voter” — the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released a set of guidelines for implementation as part of its enforcement of the Act.

“The Voter Registration Requirements of Sections 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), Questions and Answers,” detail what states must do in order to offer the voter registration services required by the law.

American Statistical Association Statement on Risk-Limiting Post-Election Audits

Poorly marked ballots, computer glitches, and voting system configuration errors can make machine vote counts diverge from voters' intentions. By comparing hand counts of randomly selected ballots with machine tallies, we can judge whether a full hand count would show the same winners. Such audits can improve trust in our elections. Statisticians can help design efficient audits that save taxpayers' money and election officials’ time.

Jeff Clements American Constitution Society Blog Jan 21 2010

New York Times Editorial

Diebold announced last week that it has sold its United States voting machine division to its main rival, Election Systems & Software.

Given Diebold’s troubling record, it is hard to lament its departure from American elections, but this sale could make a bad situation worse. Regulators should take a hard look at the anticompetitive implications. And Congress, the states and cities need to push a lot harder for fundamental reforms in the voting machine business and the way Americans vote.

 To read the complete article: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/42021712.html?elr=KArksc8P...

by Elizabeth Heichler, PC World

U.S. jurisdictions using electronic voting systems this November would do well to implement routine post-election auditing and press for open-source software to help ensure fair votes in the future, said e-voting experts at the Technology Review EmTech conference on Thursday.

By VotersUnite.org

“As we approach the 2008 general election, the structure of elections in the United States — once reliant on local representatives accountable to the public — has become almost wholly dependent on large corporations, which are not accountable to the public,” states a report released today by VotersUnite.Org, entitled “Vendors Are Undermining the Structure of U.S. Elections.”

This editorial is published in the August 3, 2008 New York Times.

Congress has stood idly by while states have done the hard work of trying to make electronic voting more reliable. Now the Senate is taking up a dangerous bill introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Robert Bennett, Republican of Utah, that would make things worse in the name of reform. If Congress will not pass a strong bill, it should apply the medical maxim: first, do no harm.

The New York Times Editorial

Electronic voting is notoriously vulnerable to technical glitches and vote theft. By now, most states have passed good laws requiring paper records of every vote cast — an important safeguard. But that is not enough. States also need strong audit laws to ensure that machine totals are vigilantly checked against the paper records. That is the only way that voters will be able to trust electronic voting.

While Court Leaves Door Open For Future Challenges to Restrictive ID Laws, Center Calls on Lawmakers Across Country to Enact Laws That Protect the Right to Vote

Today the Brennan Center for Justice criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold Indiana's voter identification law  the strictest in the country  but noted that the decision did not give other states a blank check to block eligible voters.  The Brennan Center called on lawmakers across the country to reject similar laws and to pass affirmative legislation protecting the right to vote.

By PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report by electionline.org details how five states that implemented electronic voting have chosen or are considering statewide paper-based optical scan systems.

"Back to Paper" explores the process by which California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Ohio -- having adopted electronic voting systems -- subsequently decided to de-certify, re-examine or re-think their use.

By Clive Thompson, The New York Times Magazine

Jane Platten gestured, bleary-eyed, into the secure room filled with voting
machines. It was 3 a.m. on Nov. 7, and she had been working for 22 hours
straight. "I guess we've seen how technology can affect an election," she
said. The electronic voting machines in Cleveland were causing trouble
again.

by Tim Padgett, Time Magazine  

By Warren Stewart, VerifiedVoting.org
 

As they prepare to spend millions of dollars in re-election campaigns, members of Congress should be asking themselves “Do I want to be Christine Jennings?”

by Warren Stewart, Verified Voting
 

Dan Rather Reports - The Trouble with Touch Screens - Watch Video

Transcripts & Documents from the report

Through the American Statistical Association’s Science and Public Affairs Advisory Committee and special interest group on volunteerism, a number of statisticians are working to improve the accuracy of elections. What follows is a summary of the role of statistics in elections. Work is ongoing to address these points in detail.

David Marker, John Gardenier, and Arlene Ash
President's Invited Column for Amstat.org

Seattle, WA- A statement prepared by Noel Runyan and endorsed by a growing number of signatories shows that many in the disabilities community oppose the use of Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting systems, thus challenging the claim that this constituency supports DREs.

By Lowell Finley, Deputy Secretary of State of alifornia,Voting Systems Technology and Policy