Lou Dobbs ran an interesting story during his program last night. Apparently, because of a record amount of citizenship applications in Florida, those who have applied recently are facing delays in the process, forcing some to sit out this election. Here are the story highlights from CNNPolitics.com:

• 1.4 million immigrants have applied to become naturalized citizens
• Amount is double the number that filed naturalization applications last year
• Processing time has risen from seven to 18 months
• Immigrant advocacy groups angered by delay, says government can do more

Full story here. (more…)

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Posted in Election Reform, Election 2008, Florida, Electronic voting | Comments Off

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA — Greetings from the press filing center at the Progress Energy Center. We’re on the lookout for questions about our voting system, just like we were last time around at the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate. Stay tuned for updates. Watch the question we submitted, and follow along with the debate, after the jump. (more…)

Posted in Election Reform, YouTube, Florida | Comments Off

Following the messy 2000 election that made Florida’s punchcard voting system famous, many of the Votomatic machines at the center of the controversy got a glamorous second act, Abby Goodnough writes in today’s New York Times. Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, the Smithsonian Institution and even New York art galleries made an effort to get ahold of the machines.

Seven years later, the Votomatic’s replacement, the touch-screen voting machine, is losing favor amongst election administrators, voting rights and research groups nationwide because of security concerns. In Florida, the machines will all but disappear by the 2008 election. Goodnough says that unlike their predecessors, these machines may not get the same star treatment on the way out the door. Possible destinations: a Veterans Affairs hospital and the scrap pile. (more…)

Posted in Election Reform, Optical scan machines, Florida, Electronic voting | Comments Off

Massachusetts driver’s license photos from Massachusetts DMV (via The Heritage Foundation)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week that a judge who previously overturned a voter ID requirement has now upheld a revised version of the same law.

[U.S. District Court Judge Harold] Murphy noted that his previous injunction hinged in large part on the fact that many voters who lacked a photo ID had no real notice of the requirement or knew how to get one or vote absentee. But the judge said recent evidence showed the state “made exceptional efforts” to contact voters in the 23 counties planning to hold local elections this month.

Amongst those who filed suit to block the law included Common Cause/Georgia and the League of Women Voters of Georgia. Back in February, the New York Times reported that a study commissioned by the federal government highlighted a link between voter ID laws and lower turnout. At the time, the paper noted where ID requirements were in place.

Only two states, Indiana and Florida, now require all voters to show photo ID, and voters without it are allowed to cast only provisional ballots. Indiana officials have said voter turnout increased by 2 percent last November, compared with the 2002 midterm election, despite the enactment of a photo ID law in 2005.

Three states — Hawaii, Louisiana and South Dakota — require voters without photo ID to sign affidavits to cast regular ballots.

We’ll stay on top of this.

Posted in South Dakota, Louisiana, Election Reform, Hawaii, Georgia, Indiana, Voter ID requirements, Florida | Comments Off

Singer/songwriter Ellen Bukstel wrote the song They Lost My Vote with former National Organization for Women Ft. Lauderdale president Nancy Wuerzburger after the 2006 election in Florida. During that contest, Christine Jennings lost a race for Florida’s 13th congressional district by several hundred votes — and over 18,000 votes went missing! Just spotted this music video version here. You can watch it below.

The Christine Jennings story was a part of Dan Rather’s report last week on HDNet.

Posted in Election Reform, Florida | 1 Comment »

Threat Level is a blog in the WIRED blog network. It’s a blog about “privacy, security and crime online,” but many of the posts are about the technological side of election reform. I just bookmarked it, and will be visiting often. Here are a few recent posts that will be of interest to the Why Tuesday? audience:

• Senate to Hold Hearing on Security of Voting Machines (Today)

In the wake of the California report released last week showing that Red Team security researchers were able to hack voting machines from three of the top voting machine companies, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) announced today that the Senate Rules and Administration Committee will hold a hearing in September to examine the report’s findings.

[snip]

One wonders where the senator has been the last four years that she’s surprised by the findings revealed in the report. Feinstein introduced a bill earlier this year that would require voting machines nationwide to produce a paper trail, but the bill has received little support in the Senate thus far.

• CA Releases Results of Red-Team Investigation of Voting Machines: All Three Systems Could Be Compromised (July 27)

The team found that it could compromise all three of the top voting systems used in the state made by Diebold Election Systems, Hart Intercivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems, with the caveat that many, but not all, of the attacks they were able to accomplish on the machines could be mitigated with proper physical security of the machines, security training of staff, and contingency planning.

• GAO Briefs House on Investigation into Disputed Florida Election (July 27)

The Government Accountability Office will be providing a closed briefing to Congress today regarding the progress of its investigation into last year’s disputed election in Sarasota County, Florida. You’ll recall that the race in question, in Florida’s 13 Congressional District, is under investigation due to questions about more than 18,000 ballots that registered no vote in that race and complaints from numerous voters that touch-screen voting machines used in the election failed to respond to their touch.

Click here for all of the Threat Level posts about E-Voting. All that I’ve seen are written by journalist Kim Zetter.

* A new post from Kim: CA Releases Source Code Review of Voting Machines — New Security Flaws Revealed; Old Ones Were Never Fixed

Posted in Election Reform, California, Florida, Electronic voting | Comments Off

The dust is settling, and all speculation is about the impact of this year’s election on national and foreign policy. If you’re reading this blog you’ve probably read a lot about this year’s elections already: about your own local or state contests and the national issues that galvanized the voter base.

Without being unduly negative, it seems like a good idea to attach some numbers to the adjectival discussion of this momentous midterm. The most straightforward one is this: according to the non-partisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate (CSAE), national turnout was around 83 million this year, or 40.4% of the population. There are some interesting details: despite strong/record turnout in states like Virginia and Tennessee, not all states with hot races saw turnout bumps- Maryland, Minnesota, and Florida all reported drop-offs, despite each having competitive races. Click here to read the full report.

It’s also interesting to see what effect Montana’s experiment with EDR had. Despite causing some delays, it seems to have run very smoothly. Did it increase turnout? A look at the CSAE’s numbers casts some doubt. Montana’s turnout in 2002 (the last mid-term election) was 48.02%, compared to 55.58% in this year’s election. That’s a healthy jump of 7.56%, compared to a 0.7% increase nationally. BUT, if we compare Montana to seven other states with races that were either tight or widely publicized (Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia), we see that they on average enjoyed a 6.55% increase in participation. Amongst that pack, then, it’s not clear that EDR had a dramatic effect.

Which isn’t to say that it’s not a good idea: even a small impact is good, so long as the integrity of the process isn’t compromised, as is any measure that makes voting more convenient for those who fulfill their civic responsibility.

What seems most important to us is to remember- amidst all the comparative values- that the numbers we’re dealing with are still very low. A look at the CSAE’s report shows that, even in states celebrating record turnout, we’re dealing with participation in the low 40- and 50-percent range. Even if one takes the higher numbers offered by political campaigns and various state offices you’re still in the same ballpark.

Bottom line: there’s still work to do. And there’s a big election in a couple of years. So we’re gonna keep on asking why, and trying to figure out how to get as many citizens into the voting booths as possible.

Posted in Maryland, Minnesota, Election Reform, Tennessee, Virginia, Election 2006, Election Day registration, Florida | 1 Comment »