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2006

News
  1. -07-11-06 Studies: Election Machines Reform Essential (CommonCause.org)
      "This report surveys four major studies that reviewed DRE voting machine security and reliability. Two of the reports involved extensive review of more than 80 academic, technical, and industry reports on DREs. Each report concluded DRE machines to be vulnerable to malfunction and also to tampering in which a computer-savvy hacker with minimal access to the machine could introduce malicious code to the DRE software and change the results of an election. Such manipulation could be undetectable. In machines equipped with a modem, it could even be done from a remote location.” 07-06

  2. -10-20-06 Exit Poll Pilot for 2006 (ElectionDefenseAlliance.org)
      "We will be conducting an exit poll to verify reported election results in selected precincts for the November 2006 elections. In parallel, we will be collecting registration data and election results from the precincts where we poll and tracking it up to the state level. Anomalies in this data will be an independent indication of whether irregularities have taken place. This is a pilot project so as to prepare for more comprehensive election verification efforts in future elections." 10-06

  3. -10-20-06 Video the Vote to Document Election Irregularities (VideotheVote.org)
      "In 2000 and 2004, problems plagued the polls in different parts of the country: long lines, eligible voters turned away, voter intimidation, misallocation and malfunctioning of voting equipment. They were underreported on Election Day. Days and weeks later, a more complete picture of voter disenfranchisement emerged—but it was too late. The elections were over and the media had moved on. Starting this election, citizen journalists—people like you and I—will document problems as they occur. We'll play them online, spread word through blogs and partner websites, doing our part to make sure the full story of our elections is told." 10-06

  4. -11-17-06 Landslide Denied: Exit Polls vs. Vote Count 2006 (Election Defense Alliance)
      "When we compare the results of this national exit poll with the total vote count for all House races we find that once again, as in the 2004 Election (“E2004”), there is a very significant exit poll-vote count discrepancy. The exit poll indicates a Democratic victory margin nearly 4%, or 3 million votes, greater than the margin actually recorded by the vote counting machinery. This is far outside the margin of error of the poll and has less than a one in 10,000 likelihood of occurring as a matter of chance." 11-06

  5. -11-29-06 Commissioners Want New Voting Machines (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
      "Ohio received $130 million from the federal government under the Help America Vote Act, with nearly $18 million going to Cuyahoga County to purchase 5,407 touch screen machines and the 20 scanners."

      "Commissioners spent another $5.4 million to buy 900 more touch-screen machines and other equipment because election officials were concerned that they didn't have enough to handle a large voter turnout." 11-06

  6. -12-01-06 Feds to Toughen E-Voting Standards? (InternetNews.com)
      "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending that the 2007 version of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG) decertify direct record electronic (DRE) machines." 12-06

  7. -Editorial: Will the Next Election Be Hacked? (RollingStone.com - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.)
      According to Ion Sancho, an election supervisor in Leon County, Florida, "With a few key people in the right places, it would be possible to throw a presidential election."

      Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke with a Diebold voting machine consultant who reported that in 2004 unauthorized and secret changes were made on voting machines.

      "According to [consultant] Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties [in Georgia] - the state's largest Democratic strongholds. To avoid detection, Hood and others on his team entered warehouses early in the morning."

      "The United States is one of only a handful of major democracies that allow private, partisan companies to secretly count and tabulate votes using their own proprietary software. Today, eighty percent of all the ballots in America are tallied by four companies - Diebold, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic." 09-06

  8. 01-05-06 Wisconsin Passes Law to Allow Viewing of Source Code (Wistechnology)
      "Under the law as enacted, the source code would be placed into escrow with the elections board. It would be analyzed in the case of a recount, but not open to the public." 01-06

  9. 03-09-06 No Conspiracy Needed (St. Petersburg Times)
      "Since the 2004 election, an energetic and mostly Democratic group of folks has alleged (1) the election was rigged and (2) we need better safeguards for our electronic voting machines."

      "As long as we are putting questions (1) and (2) together, we are going nowhere." 03-06

  10. 03-11-06 Election Official Finds Security Holes (Miami Herald)
      "Ion Sancho may be a hero in California, where grateful election officials have verified the ''serious security vulnerabilities'' in Diebold voting machines that the Leon County election supervisor uncovered last year."

      "Sancho is regarded a little differently in Florida."

      "Florida's secretary of state's office disparaged Sancho's finding, demonstrating considerably more interest in propping up vendors than protecting elections." 03-06

  11. 03-11-06 Election Official Finds Security Holes (Miami Herald)
      "Ion Sancho may be a hero in California, where grateful election officials have verified the ''serious security vulnerabilities'' in Diebold voting machines that the Leon County election supervisor uncovered last year."

      "Sancho is regarded a little differently in Florida."

      "Florida's secretary of state's office disparaged Sancho's finding, demonstrating considerably more interest in propping up vendors than protecting elections." 03-06

  12. 03-20-06 Indiana's Central Voter Registration May Not Fix Problems (WishTV.com)
      "If you are a registered voter in Indiana, you still might not be able to vote in the next election. If you do vote, your vote might not count or you might be able to vote twice." 03-06

  13. 04-07-06 Counties: ES&S Electronic Ballots Rife With Mistakes (IndyStar.com)
      "Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler blasted a voting machine company this morning saying it supplied error-filled ballots for next month's primary election."

      "Meanwhile, clerks in Johnson and Hancock counties, also are upset with the company because it did not deliver absentee ballots in time and failed to program touch screen voting machines." 04-06

  14. 04-25-06 Whistle Blower or Thief in Diebold Case? (Election Administration Research Center)
      "Prosecutors say [Stephen] Heller, a 43-year-old actor and resident of Van Nuys, took more than 500 pages of Diebold-related documents, including memos from the company's attorneys at the Jones Day law firm. The memos suggested that the company might have broken state law by providing Alameda County with voting machines that had not been certified by the state." 04-06

  15. 06-23-06 National Commission on the Voting Rights Act (VotingRightsAct.org)
      "The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, in conjunction with other leading civil rights organizations, has created the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act to conduct regional hearings across the country. The goal of the National Commission is to write a comprehensive report detailing discrimination in voting since 1982, the last major reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. This report will be used to educate the public, advocates, and policymakers on this record of discrimination and its relationship to the upcoming reauthorization." 06-06

  16. 06-27-06 Riverside County, CA, Conducts a 1% Manual Tally Election Audit (Election Defense Alliance)
      Provides comments from observers of the audit. 06-06

  17. 08-26-06 Voters Want Judge to Throw Out June 6 Results (NCTimes.com)
      "County Registrar of Voters Mikel Haas and newly elected U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray were in court Friday, fighting a lawsuit brought by two angry voters who want the results of the June 6 runoff thrown out."

      "Filed on behalf of voters Barbara Gail Jacobson of San Diego and Lillian M. Ritt of Rancho Santa Fe, both of whom live in the district, the lawsuit maintains that the results cannot be trusted because poll workers took voting machines home with them before election day in violation of state guidelines." 08-06

  18. 09-01-06 The 11 Worst Places to Try to Vote (MotherJones.com)
      "We used to think the voting system was something like the traffic laws -- a set of rules clear to everyone, enforced everywhere, with penalties for transgressions; we used to think, in other words, that we had a national election system. How wrong a notion this was has become painfully apparent since 2000: As it turns out, except for a rudimentary federal framework (which determines the voting age, channels money to states and counties, and enforces protections for minorities and the disabled), U.S. elections are shaped by a dizzying mélange of inconsistently enforced laws, conflicting court rulings, local traditions, various technology choices, and partisan trickery." 09-06

  19. 09-21-06 Most Corrupt Members of Congress List (BeyondDelay.org)
      "It's the second year now that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released its list of 20 muckiest senators and congresspeople."

      "In the following report, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) documents the unethical activities of 25 members of Congress: 17 House Members and three Senators and five members whose known conduct isn’t severe enough for them to make the list, but bears notice. The biggest problem: the members on this list have abused their positions for the financial benefit of themselves, their friends and their families. Some do this by hiring unqualified family members, some allow family members to lobby them and many use the legislative process to earmark for the financial benefit of themselves and specific individuals. Members need to be reminded that a career in public service is not intended to be lucrative. If members want to get rich, they should become lobbyists." 09-06

  20. 10-11-06 Report: New Laws Not Based on Voter Fraud (USA Today)
      "At a time when many states are instituting new requirements for voter registration and identification, a preliminary report to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission has found little evidence of the type of polling-place fraud those measures seek to stop." 10-06

  21. 10-20-06 Arizona Will Require Photo ID's from Voters (ABC News)
      "The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona may require voters to provide photo IDs when they cast their ballots next month." 10-06

  22. 10-28-06 U.S. Investigating Venezuela Influence on Electronic Voting Machines (New York Times)
      "The federal government is investigating the takeover last year of a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems by a small software company that has been linked to the leftist Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chávez." 10-06

  23. 11-02-06 Yellow Button Allows Multiple Votes (BBVForums.org)
      "Anyone who can get at the yellow button can ruin the election. It takes no password, no computer knowledge, no equipment."

      "The formula is printed in materials that have been distributed to thousands of people. The machines will count millions of votes."

      "Citizens -- not scientists or certifiers or testing lab authorities -- identified the problem and have now notified the California secretary of state, and emergency measures are reportedly being taken in California, but not yet in Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, or any other state using Sequoia Voting Systems, the third-largest voting system vendor in the U.S." 10-06

  24. 11-09-06 Success Cost an Extra $17 per Voter (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
      "After the mess of the May primary in Cuyahoga County, where results were delayed for a week because of technological glitches, county commissioners opened their checkbook to make sure the general election would go well." 11-06

  25. 11-09-06 The 2006 Elections Were Under Intense Citizen Scrutiny (Christian Science Monitor)
      "Intense scrutiny of the process has helped poll workers stay on their toes, say experts."

      "This year, a new initiative called 'Video the Vote' enlisted amateurs to film poll irregularities. The idea: to bring attention to voting problems even in elections where the winning margin was large enough that they would normally receive little attention.

      'There's so much focus on calling the winners and losers ... that we lose sight of whether the voter was a winner or loser,' says Ian Inaba, one of the leaders of the project that has posted hundreds of interviews at videothevote.org. 'You look at those lines in Denver and Missouri or listen to some of those voters in Maryland or even New Jersey - things were not OK [Tuesday]. There were a lot of frustrated people.' " 11-06

  26. 11-15-06 Over 30 Percent of Votes Still Uncounted in Riverside County (Californian.com)
      "Riverside County elections officials said Tuesday they have yet to count an estimated 120,000 ballots, nearly double an earlier estimate and about one-third of the total votes cast in the Nov. 7 election." 11-06

  27. 11-25-06 Serious Ballot Problems Persist (New York Times)
      "After six years of technological research, more than $4 billion spent by Washington on new machinery and a widespread overhaul of the nation’s voting system, this month’s midterm election revealed that the country is still far from able to ensure that every vote counts." 11-06

  28. Election Reform Bill by Clinton, Boxer and Jones (PFAW.org)
      Describes election reform bill, the Count Every Vote Act of 2005 (H.R.939/S.450).”

      Editor's Note: Requires that 2% of precincts or polling places are audited by counting paper ballots, a method designed to reveal incorrect results within those precincts. Fails to support the "statewide election verification" method that tests whether the results of national races have identifed the correct winner within a 99% level of certainty. Don't we want independent verification on who actually won rather than to find out if a few precincts had errors in them? 07-06

  29. Election Reform Bill by Holt (Library of Congress - Thomas)
      Describes election reform bill, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005 (H.R.550).”

      Editor's Note: Requires that 2% of precincts or polling places are audited by counting paper ballots, a method designed to reveal incorrect results within those precincts. Fails to support the "statewide election verification" method that tests whether the results of national races have identifed the correct winner within a 99% level of certainty. Don't we want independent verification on who actually won rather than to find out if a few precincts had errors in them? 07-06

  30. Logic and Accuracy Test Requirement (SOS Texas)
      "Pursuant to Section 125.002 and 129.001 of the Texas Election Code, a DRE voting system must go through both a hardware diagnostic and logic and accuracy test to verify that the system is functioning accurately." 04-06

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