6/23 Audit-Maryland Elections Board 'sloppy'. Show Me State's 'Trust Us Elections'

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Audit-Maryland Elections Board 'sloppy'. Show Me State's 'Trust Us Elections'

June 23 2010

Linda Lamone has been Maryland's election chief since 1997. With 13 years of Lamone's leadership, a state audit has found so many flaws in the elections board's oversight of local boards & financial management that Lamone will have to file quarterly progress reports with an auditor. The audit report cites "deficiencies", "lax oversight", “sloppy” internal controls, " flaws in monitoring voter registration databases","short $2 million." ...Missouri, the "show me" state has "Trust-us elections"...DOJ Urged to Preserve S.C. Election Records...Georgia sues feds over voter ID, challenges voting rights act...

All this and more in today's voting news below...

AL: ACLU Moves To Intervene In Alabama Voting Rights Act Challenge
http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/aclu-moves-intervene-alabama-voting-rights-act-challenge
Section 5 requires certain jurisdictions like Shelby County that have a history of racial discrimination in voting to obtain advance approval from the federal government before changing their election laws.

CA: Uncounted ballots in legal limbo
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_supes23.1ebac92.html
Riverside County will delay certifying results of the June 8 primary to see if possible legal action will resolve the fate of 12,500 mail-in vote

CA: RivCo supervisors may take up legal action to review election ballots
http://www.swrnn.com/southwest-riverside/2010-06-22/news/rivco-may-take-up-legal-action-to-review-election-ballots The Riverside County Board of Supervisors is considering legal action to prevent 12,500 ballots found after the voting deadline in the June 8 primary from being thrown out.

GA: Another challenge to Section 5 (of Voting Rights Act)
http://electionlawblog.org/archives/016259.html
The complaint seeks judicial preclearance of its voter verification process under Section 5 and, in the alternative, asserts that Section 5 is unconstitutional.

GA: Georgia sues feds over voter ID
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/062310/new_660035693.shtml

MD: Audit finds problems with elections board
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics
/2010/06/legislative_audit_finds_proble.html http://is.gd/d1fpn The state Office of Legislative Audits has again found "deficiencies" in the state elections board's oversight of local boards and in its financial management, the agency said in a report released Tuesday morning.

MD: Audit report of State Elections Board
http://www.ola.state.md.us/Reports/Fiscal%20Compliance/SBE10.pdf

MD: Audit finds lax oversight by State Board of Elections *
Felons remain on voting rolls despite requirement for local agency removal
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-elections-audit-20100622,0,834777.story
Of the 14 findings in the audit, six — including flaws in monitoring voter registration databases, local boards and cash receipts — appeared on the agency's previous audit report three years ago and were not corrected. Legislative auditor Bruce A. Myers said that's one uncorrected problem over the limit...
...
The report said the state board did not have an audit performed on maintenance and security of the centralized statewide voter registration system, which is maintained by a contractor. Auditors said the elections board was "essentially relying on the contractor's assertion that this critical database is secure and properly functioning."

MD: Audit finds serious flaws at Maryland elections board
http://www.marylandreporter.com/page55042.aspx “SBE had $5.1 million they were supposed to pay but they only had money in their budget to cover $3.1 million.” Myers said. “So they are short $2 million,” representing both budget and financial reporting problems at the election board. He described the board’s internal controls as “sloppy.”

MD: Linda Lamone elections chief since 1997
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_8145/is_20040807/ai_n51378001

MO: Trust-us elections
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/
story/B810AB1675A506F98625774A005AE175?OpenDocument http://is.gd/d1frh
...However, since the purchase of direct-record touch-screen voting machines (called DREs) in 2006, these efforts at making elections transparent — and election results thereby believable — have been nullified.
...
The continued practice of "just trust us" elections puts Missouri at risk of becoming the next South Carolina.

NC: Runoff Election Comes With A Price
http://www.ncnn.com/content/view/6039/26/

NM: New Mexico Green Party Submits 4,000 Signatures for Its U.S. House Nominee, but Secretary of State Rejects The Petition
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/06/23/new-mexico-green-party-submits-4000-signatures-for-its-u-s-house-nominee-but-secretary-of-state-rejects-the-petition/

NY: Nassau Election System Lawsuit Sent Back To State Court!
http://electiontransparencycoalition.org/2010/06/21/nassau-election-system-lawsuit-sent-back-to-state-court/

NY: Voters Claim Difficulties at Manorhaven Polls;
Recount Scheduled for Wednesday (write in vote problems)
http://portwashington.patch.com/articles/voters-claim-difficulties-at-manorhaven-polls-recount-scheduled-for-wednesday

NY: On Port Chester’s Election
http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/on_port_chesters_election
_and_counting_minority_votes/ http://is.gd/d1fzI On Tuesday, June 15, 2010, the Village of Port Chester, NY, elected its first Latino candidate to public office. With just over 10 percent of the vote, Luis Marino, a Peruvian-born custodial worker and long-time Port Chester resident, earned a seat on the Village’s six-member Board of Trustees.

NY: Something's wrong about this election (LTE)
http://www.lohud.com/article/20100623/OPINION/6230313/1016/OPINION01/
Something+'s%20wrong%20about%20this%20election http://is.gd/d1fC0
Now you be the judge. Have we gone too far? A federal judge authorized each voter to cast six votes in last week's village board elections in Port Chester, one vote for each seat on the ballot.

SC: Was Alvin Greene picked by voters trying to eliminate errors on their ballots?
http://ballotusability.blogspot.com/2010/06/was-alvin-greene-picked-by-voters.html
...usability of a voting system may have influenced yet another election.

SC: DOJ Urged to Preserve S.C. Election Records
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-abrahams/doj-urged-to-preserve-sc_b_620875.html
Despite disparities and statewide reports of lost votes, broken equipment and missing names on the ballot, the South Carolina Democratic Party voted against former state legislator and Circuit Court Judge Vic Rawl's calls for a new primary election against opponent Alvin Greene.
...
If the results are erased, the South Carolina Board of Elections will be in violation of federal law. But Friedman points out, it's quite common to see federal election results destroyed.

SC: South Carolina: Conestee voters cast ballots in back of minivan
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20100622/NEWS/306220025/
1004/NEWS01/Conestee-voters-cast-ballots-in-back-of-minivan
http://is.gd/d1fDm

UT: Utah Approves Electronic Signatures in Electoral Process
http://www.acluutah.org/PR062210ESig.html

WI: Attorney General Charges Two Men With Election Fraud
http://www.wisn.com/news/23995412/detail.html Men Voted In 2008 Presidential Election While Under Supervision As Convicted Felons

Internet Vote Watch

Rop Gonggrijp, Election Transparency Activist (Part 2) problems with internet voting
DEBATE: Online, Internet-based Voting for Overseas and Military Voters. Team Con - What's the rush, what's the risk? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83eyTFwIGD8
...its about transparency and basic democratic hygiene...We've introduced alot of technology in elections.. it has generated 10 times as many problems so far... If you have election anomalies, you need to be able to answer the 'why' question... In paperless systems...you will not be able to answer the 'why' question...This is the most important thing...
About Rop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rop_Gonggrijp

DC: DC works on project to put overseas voting online
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/congress/voters-can-soon-send-secret-ballot-from-overseas-96893139.html Washington voters who are overseas during an election — many of them military — could soon be able to vote online in a project that makes the city one of the few places experimenting with online ballots.

Oregon Independent Party to Hold Internet Primary
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/06/23/oregon-independent-party-to-hold-internet-primary/
The party is sending a postal letter to every member, giving him or her a unique ID number. That number can then be used by that voter to vote in the party’s on-line primary during July. For more information about the process, see the party’s web page at http://indparty.com.

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1. Fixed link for Missouri Trust Us Elections

Sorry about the problem.

MO: Trust-us elections
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/article_0ef48e72-be15-5678-a727-af6d1b028631.html
Missouri's county election directors go to considerable lengths to ensure the integrity of elections, hiring one staffer from both major parties to oversee critical points in the election process and putting double locks on rooms holding sensitive voting supplies.
These and other measures have been in place for decades because experience has taught that when power and money hang in the balance, the temptation for manipulating an election outcome is too great to rely on a "just trust us" approach.

However, since the purchase of direct-record touch-screen voting machines (called DREs) in 2006, these efforts at making elections transparent — and election results thereby believable — have been nullified.

Votes — particularly in populous areas such as St. Louis — now often are collected on DREs. There is nothing transparent about this voting method. The machine's software is secret; and contrary to what most voters believe, it is not reviewed by public officials at any level of government.

....more at the link

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/article_0ef48e72-be15-5678-a727-af6d1b028631.html