Pre-Election Day Roundup
UOCAVA:
- Why Is Voting Overseas So Difficult? One voter’s story of voting from Hong Kong.
- My Voting Experience From Afghanistan:Another voter’s story of vorting in Afghanistan.
- Number of overseas voters may break records in ’08: “All measures point toward more votes coming in from the military and overseas than ever”
- Program that Aims to Help Servicemen Vote Draws Criticism: Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Michael Honda (D-CA) have introduced legislation to revamp FVAP. (HR7265)
- Election Integrity advocates block UOCAVA voting services in protest (one way to make sure votes aren’t fraudulently cast is to make sure no votes are cast)
- Clerk to allow e-mail ballots for military, overseas voters: While applaud local jurisdictions attempting to find ways to help overseas voters cast ballots it’s a very sad thing that we would ask anyone to waive their right to a secret ballot.
- More email voting.
Internet Voting:
- Futurist: One Click, One Vote: CQPolitics asks “So why not vote on the Web?”
- Internet Voting in Florida Raises Security Concerns: Florida is moving into largely uncharted waters soon…
- More people want to know “Why can’t we vote online?“
- Opinionated Q&A: How to get more people to vote?
Cryptography in elections:
- Scantegrity has relaunched their website (a nice redesign) with greatly expanded and useful content.
- Encrypting ballot papers should make elections more secure: The Economist covers E2E voting.
- How you can conduct a voter-verifiable election online, right now: Salon’s Machinist also covers E2E.
Innovation:
- Wiki-ing our way to better elections:Heather Gerken discusses innovation in election monitoring and using technology to bring attention to election in nontraditional scenarios.
- NZDF Voting Begins: New Zealand Defence Force personnel were allowed to download ballots from the Internet.
- Google helps get out the vote with new web gadgets: Google is tyring to make their mark in the election innovation game.
- Webcams add transparency to ballot count: neat
- Biometric voting machines for future elections: India is considering voting systems with fingerprint scanners.
- California will soon join Washington and Arizona as the third state to offer online voter registration.
- Orange County: Do you want fries with your vote?: Drivethrough voting? also neat
Certification:
- EAC to Suspend SysTest Labs:The Election Assistance Commission announced that the intention to suspend SysTest Labs, one of the 5 laboratories accredited to test voting systems and most recently a key player in Ohio’s EVEREST voting system review.
- CIBER, Inc. recently became the fifth accredited laboratory.
Misc:
- Alabama celebrates it’s three millionth voter
- E-Mailed Election Rumors Deceive Voters:The Internets tubes have been buzzing with election rumors.
- Your Neighbors Could Find Out, So You’d Better Vote: Political science researchers have found that making whether you vote a public affair could increase turnout.
- Florida Posts Early Voters’ Names, Parties Online: Increased ease of access to public records is going to have this affect.
- Arlington voters don’t want paper ballots
- Thousands Face Mix-Ups In Voter Registrations: While some focus on legitemate though only theoretical threats, stories like this remind us that there are actual problems every day…
- The recently released report, Insecurities and Inaccuracies of the Sequoia AVC Advantage 9.00H DRE Voting Machine
- Does this have more privacy than voting in my home?
- All Va. absentee ballots will be counted, board says: One of the most persistent rumors, and possible the one that aggravates election officials the most is that absentee ballots aren’t counted unless the election is close.
- Diebold Walks Alone: United Technologies is no longer interested in buying Diebold.
- Voting Machines as Art
- Call for papers: IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security
- The EAC has a full house once again. All commissioners have been confirmed including new commissioner Gineen Bresso Beach.
- Paper ballots won’t be the panacea: “On paper, the return to paper ballots seems a good idea. In reality, it amounts to logistical torture by a million paper cuts.”
- Voting machines go mainstream, featured in Reader’s Digest.