Thanks to erstwhile election texpert Dan Wallach for bring attention to the burglary of an early voting center in Houston, and to the Houston Chronicle’s Chris Moran for coverage of the story including good quotes from Dan! But I have to add that in addition to theft of computers containing voter records, there were also [...]

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The reports of computer viruses in NY voting machines — though spurious — cause me to return to a basic mantra of TrustTheVote: we do technology development so that election tech helps inspire public confidence in elections, rather than erode it.
The NY case is a great example of erosion, but also a cautionary tale for [...]

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Check out No Voting Machine Virus in NY-23 Election(from Bo Lipari – Essays and Images:
“Finally, the good news – because New York votes on paper, everybody’s vote was counted. When the scanner stopped working, the ballots were removed and counted, so no votes were lost. Paper ballots, a software independent record of the vote, proved [...]

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Election officials in Myrtle Beach, SC, noted the absence of about 260 votes in the recent election there. Fortunately, the votes were found, and the reason for the error discovered — and both before the election was certified. It’s a good thing that Myrtle Beach election officials were making their lists and checking them twice, [...]

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Pennsylvania has ordered a statewide recount of the race for Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge – a recount that is similar in scope and significance as the Minnesota Franken/Coleman recount (though one hopes less acrimonious), as the result will decide who will be making durable rulings in law for the whole state.
It’s an interesting story, for [...]

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A good question re-surfaced for us as we participated in the National Civic Summit recently. The issue was and remains about identifying a “gold build,” that is, when there is a particular system/version that is certified for use as a voting system, how should election officials know that the systems that they deployed are systems [...]

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Today’s news yielded another pair of oddly juxtaposed news items. Starting with news from the world’s largest democracy, India, where voting machine tampering is in the news, following a recent election in Orissa province.
Strange things have happened in many states including Orissa and a lot of complaints, allegations and cases have been lodged, observed the [...]

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I’d like to call your attention to this week’s electile dysfunction news, which is about a mini-Minnesota situation in Fairfax County, Virginia. I think it’s instructive because it illustrates how some problems with "paperless" voting are actually quite similar to a more old-fashioned form of voting, "paper only" voting, and a mooted new-fangled kind of voting, Internet voting.

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The dust has settled – sort of – in the “lost ballots snafu”
in Palm Beach County Florida, enough that I can correct a very serious
mis-reading of the events, and briefly summarize the two completely
contradictory “outcomes” of investigation: (1) it’s an accounting problem, not
a technology problem, and (2) it’s a technology problem. Either way, the result
is a failed election – not just a clouded outcome, but a completely failed
election. The very short story: a recount was needed, 3000+ ballots couldn’t be

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As a sad example of suspicion arising from current e-voting systems, I’d like you to read a story that I don’t really know how to believe — which is my point.

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