Friday, January 19, 2007
Voter intimidation alleged in North Carolina
The Smoky Mountain News has this story:
Later in the story there are some informative comments about fraud allegations in North Carolina from the state election board director:
I'll leave it to Paul to comment on the whether the "irregularities" this story digs into regarding absentee voting relative to precinct voting are significant.
Two Swain County residents claim they were victims of illegal voter intimidation during the November election.
Ron and Rhonda Bedsaul say they were forced to apply for an absentee ballot and then vote a straight Democratic ticket or be evicted from their trailer park in the Alarka community, according to sworn affidavits taken from the Bedsauls. The complaint has been turned over the N.C. Board of Elections for further investigation.
The Bedsauls claim the owner of the trailer park, Phillip Smith — along with Swain County Commissioner Chairman Glenn Jones — went door to door in the trailer park getting residents to register to vote. A few days later, the men returned and made the Bedsauls fill out requests for absentee ballots. When the absentee ballots arrived in the mail, the men appeared a third time, told them how to mark the ballots and then took the ballots with them.
Later in the story there are some informative comments about fraud allegations in North Carolina from the state election board director:
The first step is to determine whether the complaint has merit. A preliminary inquiry will be conducted, akin to a probable cause hearing, according to Gary Bartlett, director of the state election board.
The state will then decide whether to conduct a full-blown investigation. If criminal charges are warranted, the election investigators will turn the evidence over to the district attorney. Not every complaint of election fraud is founded.
“Most of the complaints we have investigated turn out to be rumor,” Bartlett said.
The state election board investigated accusations of vote buying in Yancey County after the recent election, but found it wasn’t true. Bartlett said the mountains are more prone to these complaints than other areas of the state.
Complaints are more likely to crop up when there has been an aggressive voting drive. Observers from the opposite political camp will exaggerate the actual circumstances of the campaigning.
“The closer the election is and the more competitive each side is in their campaign, these things tend to come up more,” Bartlett said.
I'll leave it to Paul to comment on the whether the "irregularities" this story digs into regarding absentee voting relative to precinct voting are significant.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Updates from the News Bag
The Philippines commission on voting will allow citizens ho live in Singapore to vote absentee via the Internet. (Story)
The first bill introduced in the Maryland Senate will change the constitution to allow early voting. Looks like that battle is far from over. (Story)
The Nashville Tennessean reports that the legislature is considering a bill that will extend early voting by one week and allow 17 year olds who will be 18 by the general election to vote in the primary. Both actions are being proposed as a way to increase turnout.
The first bill introduced in the Maryland Senate will change the constitution to allow early voting. Looks like that battle is far from over. (Story)
The Nashville Tennessean reports that the legislature is considering a bill that will extend early voting by one week and allow 17 year olds who will be 18 by the general election to vote in the primary. Both actions are being proposed as a way to increase turnout.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
2008 and Beyond Conference: First Report
Report from the preconference dinner at the 2008 and Beyond: The Future of Ethics and Election Reform conference in Columbus OH. Tonight, we all convened at the Marriott and headed out for a pre-conference drink at a wonderful restored pool hall, the "Elevator." An absolutely beautiful building, this one is not to be missed. There are period tin ceilings, pool tables, and a nice selection of home brews, even for this Portland beer snob. And to top it off, a political scientist not to be named had a nice run at the blackjack tables in Vegas, and bought us all drinks. Thanks MM!
I just read Rick Hasen's post telling us that he can't join us in Columbus. He'll be missed. His fellow blogger Dan Tokaji was one of the dinner speakers, along with organizers Vernon Sykes (Kent State) and Caroline Tolbert (Iowa). Governor Ted Strickland couldn't attend--and that's too bad. It would have been nice to hear what the Ohio governor has to say about election administration in his state, given that it's under such heavy scrutiny.
Dan was uncharacteristically brief, given all the verbiage on his blog, but that's OK. If Dan would have talked too long, we would have literally eaten him alive! I thought Dan made a number of excellent points, including a pitch for interdisciplinary work (especially between law and political science--or was that just a bone for all the political scientists in the room) as well as a call for working with elections officials.
More to come tomorrow for sure. My presentation is sitting in the hopper--I'm speaking on early voting reforms and turnout, something that was a topic of regular interest among the reporters which I spoke to this Fall.
I said at the time that there was little evidence that early voting reforms are associated with higher levels of turnout, and my results bear this out. More on this tomorrow.
I just read Rick Hasen's post telling us that he can't join us in Columbus. He'll be missed. His fellow blogger Dan Tokaji was one of the dinner speakers, along with organizers Vernon Sykes (Kent State) and Caroline Tolbert (Iowa). Governor Ted Strickland couldn't attend--and that's too bad. It would have been nice to hear what the Ohio governor has to say about election administration in his state, given that it's under such heavy scrutiny.
Dan was uncharacteristically brief, given all the verbiage on his blog, but that's OK. If Dan would have talked too long, we would have literally eaten him alive! I thought Dan made a number of excellent points, including a pitch for interdisciplinary work (especially between law and political science--or was that just a bone for all the political scientists in the room) as well as a call for working with elections officials.
More to come tomorrow for sure. My presentation is sitting in the hopper--I'm speaking on early voting reforms and turnout, something that was a topic of regular interest among the reporters which I spoke to this Fall.
I said at the time that there was little evidence that early voting reforms are associated with higher levels of turnout, and my results bear this out. More on this tomorrow.
EAC calls upon voting system testing labs and vendors to adopt conflict of interest and partisanship bias policies
The EAC released this statement last week, and here is one paragraph quoted from the statement:
I wonder, if such policies had been adopted years ago, how might the debates about voting technology and election reform been different?
No doubt, these are good suggestions; vendors and testing labs should heed this advice.
Federally accredited test laboratories and certified voting machine systems play an important role in our nation’s elections and public confidence in those elections. In the interests of maintaining public trust in the integrity and fairness of the election process, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission strongly encourages testing laboratories and voting equipment manufacturers to adopt policies that prohibit the organization and its employees from engaging in activities that may create the appearance of a conflict of interest or partisan bias.
I wonder, if such policies had been adopted years ago, how might the debates about voting technology and election reform been different?
No doubt, these are good suggestions; vendors and testing labs should heed this advice.
Labels: ethics, testing laboratories, voting system vendors, Voting technology
