Election Updates

The Manila Bulletin Online reports on the Internet voting for overseas voters in the upcoming election. (Wow. Our former protectorates can do Internet voting for their citizens overseas. And what about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone our overseas citizens?....oh, never mind).

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) launched yesterday Internet voting for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with Singapore, which has 26,835 registered absentee voters, as the pilot area.

The launching, led by the Comelec Committee on Overseas Absentee Voting (COAV) headed by Commissioner Florentino A. Tuason Jr., was held at the Convention Hall of the Bureau of Treasury at the Palacio del Gobernador Bldg. in Intramuros, Manila. Tuason said the OFWs, deployed in various countries all over the world, are allowed to vote for senators and sectoral groups participating in the May 14 midterm elections under the Party-List Law.

He said almost a million OFWs are registered under the Absentee Voting Law and are, therefore, qualified to vote for senators and sectoral groups participating in this year’s elections.
Yesterday’s demonstration of how Internet voting is done was made by Scytl Consortium, a Spanish company, through its chief executive officer, Pere Valles.

Kansas is considering a voter ID bill. There is an interesting discussion of it in the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World:

Democrats also said the bill amounted to a “poll tax” because voters would be required to produce a copy of their birth certificate or passport to show proof of residency to register. A birth certificate costs $12 in Kansas, while a passport is $97.

Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew said the bill would cause many problems and solve none. Exemptions in the bill would burden poll workers with having to make numerous decisions, he said. For instance, those 65 or older, those with disabilities, or members of the military and their spouses would be exempt from identification at the polls. This would force poll workers to try to determine people’s ages or whether they had a disability, Shew said. The bill opens up the possibility of fake IDs being used because of the numerous accepted photo IDs, including shopper’s cards, he said.

If the law took effect, Shew said he would have to hire another poll worker for each polling place just to handle the identification requirement. That would cost an additional $5,695 for all polling places, he said.

• The Maryland House has ok'ed a constitutional amendment that would legalize early voting in the state. The Senate has passed a different version, and a final vote comes on Monday.

• The Elections Director of Duval County, FL, in an open letter published in the Florida Times (Jacksonville), claims that all employees have received signature verification training from "a former FBI handwriting expert" in order to avoid absentee ballot fraud.
  
  (ED Note: The problem with this, according to previous testimony given by Oregon State Elections Director John Lindback, is that "FBI quality" signature verification can take hours per signature. Better to opt for the new electronic system being tested in King County, WA, and then use individuals for the small number of flagged signatures.)
  
  
• King County, WA has announced a roll out of all by-mail voting in Spring, 2008. To see the county report on voting by mail, follow this link. (The PDF is at the bottom of the page).
  
  
• The Indianopolis Star opines in favor of early voting by mail (no excuse absentee balloting).
  

From a King County Press Release:

Voters and King County Elections are closer to benefiting from the convenience and efficiency of all mail balloting with completion of a plan unveiled today. The plan is the first in a series of elections reports that will be sent to the County Council as King County gears up for a 2008 transition to an all mail voting system, joining the other 34 counties in Washington state that already vote entirely by mail.

"Our approach to implementing all-mail voting in King County is to manage this change over the next 14 months as a transition," said Jim Buck, interim director of the Records, Elections and Licensing Services Division. "Changes and developments will be phased in throughout the implementation timeframe to allow for troubleshooting, evaluation and adjustment - with final implementation when we are most prepared and at the point of least risk and disruption."

Under the plan submitted to the County Council:

• Voters who need an accessible way to vote will still have the ability to vote in person at a limited number of regional voting centers.
• Voters will be able to verify their ballot status using the Internet.
• Voters will have the option of returning their ballot by mail or at a secure ballot drop-off location.
• Ballots will be counted more efficiently and quickly using updated tabulation equipment.
• A more automated system will enhance the efficiency of election operations and reduce human errors by eliminating manual operations.
• Security will be a high priority in evaluating and selecting systems and establishing processes

According to the Bradenton Herald:

In a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she wants a "top to bottom investigation" and is "particularly concerned" about the voting machines used in Sarasota because of the 18,000 so-called "under votes."

"Should the GAO become aware of any systems that are prone to software malfunctions, are susceptible to fraud, or use hardware design that would lead to voting system problems, I would request that you also inspect those systems," said Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

The letter follows a Senate hearing in which Feinstein expressed concern about the reliability of paperless voting machines and said she would support requiring paper ballots on machines.

Today, U.S. Congressman Charlie Norwood (R-GA) died. What is interesting here for elections is the process by which he will be replaced. As USA Today discusses, under Georgia law:

The Hill reports the following today:

The EAC is seeking public comment on three studies:

1. Study of Voter Hotlines Operated by Election Offices
   
2. Free Absentee Ballot Postage Survey
   
3. Alternative Voting Methods
   

The website containing information on each study, and the public comment process, is located here.

IFES has a media release about Sri Lanka's computerized voter registry, implemented in the two years since the tsunami wiped out their paper-based voter registration recodrs.

The UK's internet voting trials and telephone voting trials are overviewed in this article in Computing UK.

A further 12 trials of electronic voting technology systems will take place during local authority elections in May, lord chancellor Lord Falconer told Parliament today. And at the same time electronic counting systems will be used North of the border for the Scottish Parliament. The local council trials will include internet voting, telephone voting and centralised polling stations with facilities for the electorate to vote outside their local polling districts.

The Washington Post has an interesting story today about online protesting. The article discusses how the Internet can help people with similar interests bring their concerns to the establishment with more backing than would occur if each individual operated independently---or merely harbored concerns but did not see an outlet for speaking.

This is interesting for elections because the Internet has been used for both protest--for example, against electronic voting--and for facilitating vote trading (the so-called Nader Traders). As the author notes: