Earlyvoting

Clarifying NIST's role in evaluating voting systems

2006-12-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

Regarding my recent post about the Electronic voting systems, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), HAVA, and the EAC: I received an email correcting and amending my post, and thought I should share it here.

The reports and materials referenced in the NY Times story are available at NIST's website.

I've been told that the report which garnered so much press coverage is not an official NIST document. To quote from the email:

Though not available on the EAC site, the reports are available on the NIST site (. I want to take a minute to point out though that the original report authored by NIST and the Security and Transparency Subcommittee (STS) of the TGDC (PaperOnSIinVVSG2007-20061120.pdf), that got so much press was not an official NIST position as explained by NIST Director William Jeffrey in his testimony to the EAC last week -remarks.pdf) and by the QA website NIST posted to try to clarify some of the misunderstandings of the report information public_affairs/factsheet/draftvotingreport.htm

Most importantly though, the TGDC adopted as well as voted down a number of resolutions:
http://vote.nist.gov/AdoptedResolutions12040506.pdf

http://vote.nist.gov/failedres12040506TGDC.pdf

Thanks to the contact! We at election updates are always trying to keep things accurate and informative. We appreciate it when we're emailed corrections and amendments. Keep them coming!

Clarifying NIST's role in evaluating voting systems

2006-12-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Though not available on the EAC site, the reports are available on the NIST site (http://vote.nist.gov/). I want to take a minute to point out though that the original report authored by NIST and the Security and Transparency Subcommittee (STS) of the TGDC (http://vote.nist.gov/DraftWhitePaperOnSIinVVSG2007-20061120.pdf), that got so much press was not an official NIST position as explained by NIST Director William Jeffrey in his testimony to the EAC last week (http://vote.nist.gov/EAC-WJ-remarks.pdf) and by the QA website NIST posted to try to clarify some of the misunderstandings of the report information (http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/draftvotingreport.htm).

Most importantly though, the TGDC adopted as well as voted down a number of resolutions:
http://vote.nist.gov/AdoptedResolutions12040506.pdf
http://vote.nist.gov/failedres12040506TGDC.pdf

Thanks to the contact! We at election updates are always trying to keep things accurate and informative. We appreciate it when we're emailed corrections and amendments. Keep them coming!

Absentee ballot fraud in Texas?

2006-09-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Echoing Mike's recent post, here is a story on voter fraud from the San Antonio Express. Anti-fraud provisions in Texas make it illegal to deliver someone else's absentee ballot. Democrats charge the Attorney General Greg Abbott is selectively enforcing the law, and a civil rights suit is planned.

New blog

2006-04-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

This blog has been merged!

For more postings, please go to:

http://electionupdates.caltech.edu

Maryland battle over early voting continues

2006-04-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

The partisan rancor over early voting continues in Maryland. Republicans now promise to gather signatures and force a referendum over early voting onto the November ballot. The attorney general's office claims the measure can't go to referendum, since it's already the law.

Part of the fight is over where early voting can occur. Maryland limited the sites to one per county in 14 counties, and not surprisingly, the sites are in the county seats: more populous, more urbanized, and generally more Democratic.

Early voting sparks dispute - baltimoresun.com

More on New Orleans early voting

2006-04-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

This is a more comprehensive report on early voting, from the Time Picayune (fresh off their Pulitzer).

Looks like 3% total early voting, quite low by comparative standards.

Consolidating polling places in Maine

2006-04-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

One quarter of Bangor's voters cast their ballot absentee. As a result, election officials are consolidating voting sites.

Unfortunately, if not done carefully, research by Henry Brady of UCB and John McNulty of Binghamton indicates that precinct consolidation may significantly harm voter turnout.

In a series of papers analyzing recent elections in California, Brady and McNulty show that changes in precinct locations, independent of other effects on turnout, may increase absentee balloting and decrease overall turnout. They show this by comparing turnout in LA County in 2002, and compare it to the recall election of 2003.

See examples of their research here

10,000 + voters cast early ballots for New Orleans mayoral primary

2006-04-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

10,585 voters cast early ballots, according to early releases from the Secretary of State in Baton Rouge.

More than 2000 ballots were cast in East Baton Rouge parish, the highest number of absentees. Other regional and racial breakdowns are forthcoming.

Nola.com: NewsFlash - More than 10,000 participate in New Orleans' early voting period

Early voters in WV will use paper ballots

2006-04-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

More implementation delays for early voters in West Virginia. The touch screen vendor was unable to program the machines to handle the new ballots rapidly enough.

Interestingly, based on some reports, voters may be better off using the optically scanned ballots, an "old fashioned" technology that has proved it's mettle many times.

The Herald-Mail ONLINE

Election Law: More Praise for EAC Commissioner Martinez

2006-04-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

Add my praise to that from Hasen, Alvarez, and Tokaji

Election Law: More Praise for EAC Commissioner Martinez

Election administration is hard and thankless work, and Ray Martinez has done a great service bringing the EAC into the forefront of election reform. I hope the Commission finds a suitable replacement.

Early Voting Begins for New Orleans Primary

2006-04-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

The New York Times provides a report on early voting for the New Orleans mayoral primary.

This unique situation retains a grim fascination for those of us concerned with election reforms, economic and social inequalities, and trust and confidence in government.

How not to merge data

2006-04-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Another computer glitch in Texas inflated vote totals by as much as 100,000 ballots. Sounds like someone doesn't know how to do a data merge.

Interesting thought: new complex voting procedures means that match/merge/update procedures--always tricky in data management--will become very important.

Optical reader glitch snarls absentee voting in Indiana

2006-04-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been coming across lots of reports like this regarding a badly designed optical scan ballot for absentee voting in Indiana.

The Feds are overseeing LA elections

2006-04-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

The Justice Department will send observers to the upcoming New Orleans municipal election. Because LA is under the pre-clearance provisions of the voting rights act,presumably this is so that the voting rights of displaced minority voters are not violated by the unprecedented early and absentee voting procedures.

Of course, if the Feds had provided FEMA relief lists to election officials in Louisiana, we'd be much more assured that everyone's right to vote was being guaranteed.

It's not clear what the Federal government expects to find. They aren't even saying where the observers will be.

The Shreveport Times, which published this story, is profiling the election this Sunday.

Election Updates: Improving the EAC's surveys

2006-04-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

Another follow up on Mike and Thad's blog posting down at CalTech.

In
Election Updates: Improving the EAC's surveys, Mike discusses a new and improved data collection initiative that is underway at the EAC. I cannot voice my support more strongly.

The EAC Election Day survey is an wonderful tool. I have already used it to help advise election administrators in Cook County, IL and Louisiana, both of whom wanted information about prior early and absentee voting efforts. We learned an awful lot from the first election day survey, and the EAC seems very interested in learning how to improve their data collection efforts in 2006 and beyond.

The EAC has a vital role to play as a centralized repository of information on best practices, data on election administration, and advocate for more efficient and equitable election procedures in the United States.

I have also been impressed with how rapidly the EAC has been able to build an administrative apparatus. This agency is only a few years old, is underfunded (in the opinion of most in the election reform community), yet is under tremendous public scrutiny. In the face of all of this, they have managed to initiate a number of invaluable research initiatives and issue a series of reports. And I have found the EAC very receptive to partnerships with the many outside organizations who are interested in these questions--there is no turf battles that I have witnessed.

I hope in the next few years, as the budget noose continues to tighten, Congress doesn't lose sight of how important legitimate, accurate, and efficient elections are to our democratic system.

Continued pressure on LA voting rights

2006-04-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's nice to see Mike Alvarez , among others, keep the spotlight on absentee voting efforts for the upcoming elections in Louisiana.

It's a pretty sad situation when you can be polled by the NY Times (March 22, 2006 Story: Evacuees' Lives Still Upended Seven Months After Hurricane), using Red Cross records of who received assistance; or you can receive ongoing relief checks from FEMA, but you can't be contacted regarding your fundamental constitutional right to vote.

Perhaps this is something that was not anticipated by Congress? Perhaps FEMA, the FEC, and the EAC need to talk to one another (they are, after all, located just a few blocks apart)?

I guess, in the new age of security / terrorism / internet / electronic records, voting rights are low on the totem pole.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Military -- Senators ask Rumsfeld to smooth military voting process

2006-03-24T10:25:00.000-08:00

Twelve US Senators have written Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to urge changes in the way that members of the US military cast their ballots. The Senators claim that the military voting system is still fundamentally unchanged from the Korean War.

You can read a story on the letter here. I have been unable to track down the text of the letter.

Those in the election reform community are probably aware of the work by Mike Alvarez on this for the 2004 election (see comments by Hall and Alvarez here ). The plug was pulled, probably too soon, on this project due to security concerns.

Who voted early in Illinois's primary

2006-03-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

First reports are coming out of Illinois regarding early voting rates in the March 21st gubernatorial primary.

A story out of Park Ridge reports that it ranked second out of 137 county voting sites ( this is sites in Cook County )in terms of early voting, "according to figures released by the Cook County Clerk."

The Clerk's website ( Cook County Clerk ) does not report these results yet and I cannot find any press release.

While searching around for these results, I found this interesting website: http://www.fidlar.com/results/us/il/ . This looks like a private company that reports the official Illinois election results. Can this be true? This may be the case at this point because official results are not being reported until April 21st. The Fidlar Company varies in what it reports by county. Some counties show under and over votes. Others show just vote totals. None that I have seen contain early vs. day of election votes.

New OR voting machines hit delay

2006-03-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

New voting machines, intended to increase disabled access to the ballot, have hit a snag in Oregon. This will put Oregon out of compliance with HAVA.

The story reports a last minute dispute between the state and the manufacturer on some of contract provisions.

Full story is here: New voting machines hit delay

Lousiana early voting period to begin

2006-03-19T19:58:00.001-08:00

The much discussed and debated April election in Louisiana is starting, with early voting kicking off on March 27th.

Parish early voting to begin Monday

9% vote early in Belarus

2006-03-19T19:58:00.000-08:00

Reports on early voting in Belarus. 9% of ballots came in early. Belarussians were also able to cast early ballots in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

ITAR-TASS

How to conduct an election after a disaster?

2006-03-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

The plans for widespread absentee balloting are becoming clearer in Louisiana.

In order to accomodate widespread absentee (really, in-person satellite) voting, the state is making creative use of the new statewide registration database (required by HAVA). By using the database, state officials hope that registrars in outlying counties can verify the eligibility of New Orleans residents who may show up to vote (The Shreveport Times).

Meanwhile, a number of groups are criticizing the Secretary of State for sending out "incomplete and misleading" information to more than 700,000 displaced voters ( Time-Picayune).

Unanticipated costs of early voting in Ohio

2006-03-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

Early voting is often sold as a cost-saver.

But as this report from Ohio shows, sometimes early voting can be more expensive.

Particularly when first being adopted, when the numbers of early voters are unknown, counties are having to shoulder extra costs. They have to order some unknown number of absentee ballots (and you HAVE to overorder) as well as man some unknown number of early voting stations.

Elias oped: "Cal ought to give all-mail voting a whirl"

2006-03-07T00:37:00.000-08:00

This recent op ed by Tom Elias, who wrote for the Scripps-Howard chain for 15 years before becoming a syndicated columnist in California, trots out some of the standard arguments in favor of all-mail voting, being debated in the California state legislature.

Elias gets some parts of the argument right, but unfortunately, in most parts he is dead wrong and promote misinformation about how by-mail voting operates.

Elias is right about the number one reason pushing by mail voting in CA, as well as in Washington and some other states--with new paper audits being required by many states, and HAVA requirements for disabled access to the ballot, counties are finding it easier and cheaper to go straight to all-mail voting rather than purchasing new electronic voting machines.

But is this a good enough reason to go to all-mail voting? Elias seems to think it is, but interestingly, argues that by mail ballots 'get counted more slowly.'

Not sure where this comes from--there is no lag in election reporting from states with high numbers of absentee ballots, or from Oregon (which uses all by mail) then from states with high levels of precinct voting.

The reason, at least in Oregon, is that the ballots have to arrive on election day, not be postmarked by election day (as Elias seems to believe).

And Elias misrepresents how accurately signatures are checked in by-mail elections. Would any state be satisfied with a "random sampling" of signatures, or would they expect (as they do in Oregon) a check of each ballot signature?

Elias actually gets these points that are favorable toward vote by mail backwards.

On other points, points that he thinks are evidence in favor of vote by mail, Elias once again drives in the wrong direction.

There is no evidence that vote by mail is cheaper--he mistakenly thinks that vote "by mail" means everyone mails their ballot in. For Oregon, the percentage of ballots that arrive by post office delivery can be as low as 60%. The rest are dropped off at satellite locations.

And while it is true that counties don't have to rent polling places, they do need a large staff to verify every signature and do the ballot counting over a longer period of time.

Paper ballots take longer to count (Elias argues) ... therefore more expensive ... yet Elias also argues they are cheaper ... (which is it?)

Finally, he is wrong to believe that the bulk of by-mail ballots would be cast early. In our state, as many as half of the ballots are brought in by voters on election day. This is pretty common knowledge among anyone who knows absentee and "early" voting systems--lots of voters actually choose not to vote "early" after all!

Earlyvoting

Clarifying NIST's role in evaluating voting systems

Clarifying NIST's role in evaluating voting systems

Absentee ballot fraud in Texas?

New blog

Maryland battle over early voting continues

More on New Orleans early voting

Consolidating polling places in Maine

10,000 + voters cast early ballots for New Orleans mayoral primary

Early voters in WV will use paper ballots

Election Law: More Praise for EAC Commissioner Martinez

Early Voting Begins for New Orleans Primary

How not to merge data

Optical reader glitch snarls absentee voting in Indiana

The Feds are overseeing LA elections

Election Updates: Improving the EAC's surveys

Continued pressure on LA voting rights

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Military -- Senators ask Rumsfeld to smooth military voting process

Who voted early in Illinois's primary

New OR voting machines hit delay

Lousiana early voting period to begin

9% vote early in Belarus

How to conduct an election after a disaster?

Unanticipated costs of early voting in Ohio

More on the Illinois Early Voting controversy

Elias oped: "Cal ought to give all-mail voting a whirl"