NMelections

Casting doubt on a voting plan

Link: Casting doubt on a voting plan.

Seventy-two days from now, when an estimated 122 million Americans will vote for our next President, nearly every crucial part of Election Day machinery - from the operation of the machines to the clarity of the ballot choices - will be, in many places, a confusing mess. The coming chaos is a testament to the indifference with which so many treat the yawning cracks in the foundation of our democracy. Consider this your wakeup call. Just last week, following years of complaints, a company called Premier Election Solutions - a division of Diebold, Inc. - made the startling announcement that boards of elections in 34 states should be on the lookout for a software glitch that sometimes causes votes to be dropped from its machines. The problem caused at least 1,000 votes to vanish from the final tallies in nine Ohio counties since 2006 - including this year's presidential primary. That's consistent with a report I wrote about last year, in which Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Bruni concluded that machine flaws meant that "the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote could be as simple as tampering with the paper audit trail connector or using a magnet with a digital assistant."

Audit questions election spending - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Audit questions election spending - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

A federal audit questions whether the secretary of state's office properly paid more than $6 million in federal election money over three years for a voter education program, including television ads.

The Inspector General's Office of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found several potential problems with New Mexico's handling of the $19 million in federal money received under the Help America Vote Act.

Much of the audit, which was released Wednesday, focused on nearly $6.3 million spent from 2004 through 2006 on a voter education program when Democrat Rebecca Vigil-Giron was secretary of state and in charge of administering the federal dollars. An Albuquerque advertising company, A. Gutierrez & Associates Inc., received the payments for television, radio and newspaper ads and other work intended to educate New Mexicans about voting issues. Vigil-Giron was featured in some of the ads. The firm also produced a video for training poll workers.

Finance board gives voting-machine upkeep a boost - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Finance board gives voting-machine upkeep a boost - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

The secretary of state has received a $153,000 emergency loan to help pay for maintenance of the paper ballot voting systems used for elections in New Mexico.

The loan is to address complaints from counties about high prices for maintenance charged by the sole vendor of the voting equipment, Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software, known as ES&S.

The state Board of Finance approved the loan Tuesday but Gov. Bill Richardson urged Secretary of State Mary Herrera's staff to work with counties to have them pay a share of the maintenance costs rather than the state picking up the full tab.

The loan will cover six months of maintenance and support for software and firmware for more than 3,000 voting machines, including optical scanners in polling places that tabulate paper ballots and ballot marking machines for people with disabilities.

Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo told the board the office might have found enough money to pay for a full year of maintenance — about $306,000 — but a short-term loan was needed to immediately implement maintenance agreements for all counties until budget analysts could verify adequate money was available. The state will hold its primary election June 3.

Trujillo said interest had not been credited to a fund that previously held election money provided by the federal government. The interest is estimated to total $166,000. That, along with other state money in the fund, could pay for the software maintenance.

Missing $2 million hangs over Vigil-Giron - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Missing $2 million hangs over Vigil-Giron - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

A draft of a federal audit of the Secretary of State's Office says a Democratic consultant paid by the state to produce TV spots about the Help America Vote Act can't account for more than $2 million paid to him, and the state might be responsible for repaying some of the funds.

However, former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who is running for Congress in Albuquerque, calls the release of the Election Assistance Commission draft audit a politically motivated attack on her to damage her before the June primary.

She blamed current Secretary of State Mary Herrera. A spokesman for Herrera denied it.

Vigil-Giron said some of the issues raised in the preliminary audit — which apparently was leaked to The New Mexico Independent Web site — can be explained, though she said she doesn't know why the A. Gutierrez & Associates Inc. consultant company could substantiate only $2.6 million of the $4.8 million budgeted for voter education television spots.

Funds to fix campaign finance reporting system sit idle - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Funds to fix campaign finance reporting system sit idle - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

Secretary of State Mary Herrera's office hasn't used hundreds of thousands of dollars the New Mexico Legislature allocated over the past two years to fix a troublesome campaign finance reporting system.

The current electronic filing system, which dates to the 1990s, remains slow, difficult to use and doesn't allow data searches. Candidates, the public and journalists have long decried the software, which state law requires office seekers to use when filing campaign reports.

Office spokesman James Flores said the agency hopes to bank the money allocated by the Legislature and seek additional funds to eventually buy a new computer system. "We're going to be lobbying aggressively for those funds," he said of the proposed new system, which he estimated could cost between $800,000 and $1 million.

The latest round of complaints came this week, when the office announced it won't be able to post campaign reports on its Web site — including reports that candidates filed online — until May 26.

Monday was the most recent filing deadline for candidates in the June 3 primary elections.

Staffers blame the delay on the slowness of the existing system and say they need more time to scan in and post about 30 reports from candidates who asked for waivers from the online reporting requirement and filed on paper.

The state Board of Elections decided to post all candidate campaign finance information online at the same time, Flores said, to be fair to candidates.

Indiana ID law keeps nuns from voting - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Indiana ID law keeps nuns from voting - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

WASHINGTON — At least 10 retired nuns in South Bend, Ind., were barred from voting in Tuesday's Indiana Democratic primary election because they lacked photo IDs required under a state law that the Supreme Court upheld last week.

John Borkowski, a South Bend lawyer volunteering as an election watchdog for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said several of the retired nuns had been voting all of their lives but were told they lacked the required identification cards and could only file provisional ballots.

Since 2005, Indiana's toughest-in-the-nation law requires every voter to produce a state or federal photo ID card. The Supreme Court, after weighing scores of legal briefs from conservatives who backed the statute and liberals who opposed it, upheld the law by a 6-3 vote, saying there was little evidence that it was unduly burdensome for voters.

Katharine Q. Seelye - On Line - The New York Times - Politics - Election 2008 - New York Times

Link: Katharine Q. Seelye - On Line - The New York Times - Politics - Election 2008 - New York Times.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- For all the bellyaching about the current presidential primary system -- it starts too early, goes on too long, is insanely expensive and gives undue influence to two small states (and you know who you are) -- it is possible that the same system will be in place for the next presidential cycle.

Advocates: Court's ID ruling may deprive some voters - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: Advocates: Court's ID ruling may deprive some voters - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

The Supreme Court's refusal to strike down an Indiana law requiring government-issued photo identification at the ballot box could disenfranchise minority and elderly voters at next week's primary and prompt other states to pass similar laws, voting advocates said Monday.

The court, in a splintered 6-3 ruling Monday, said Indiana's law, which took effect in 2006 and requires voters to present a state or federal photo ID card at the ballot box, does not violate the First or 14th amendments. The court said the law served as a justifiable protection to the electoral process.

County clerks unhappy with voting machine vendor - SantaFeNewMexican.com

Link: County clerks unhappy with voting machine vendor - SantaFeNewMexican.com.

Secretary of State Mary Herrera assured lawmakers Thursday that her office was prepared for the June primary election, but county clerks worry about the possible failure of memory cards in voting machines used across New Mexico.

Representatives of the state's 33 county clerks said they need extra memory cards to protect against failures during the election. The cards hold ballot information and are necessary for vote tabulators to operate.

Ballots must be hand counted — a potential source of delays in reporting the outcome of races — if tabulators aren't working.

Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » California review of the ES&S AutoMARK and M100

Link: Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » California review of the ES&S AutoMARK and M100.