By Luther Weeks on January 26, 2011
Once again we can rest assured that Connecticut, “The Provisions State”, has provided little provision in our statutes for discovering problems like those surfaced in Colorado
Posted in Chain of Custody, CT, National
By Luther Weeks on January 25, 2011
Nothing approaching these six regimes and court challenges could happen in Connecticut! Unlike New Jersey, we have no standard seal “regime”, no standard for seals or ballot containers and any election regulations and procedures going beyond the law are unenforceable. Similar court challenges in the “Nutmeg State” would be about as useful as carved wooden nutmeg seals.
Posted in Chain of Custody, CT, Electronic Vulnerability
By Luther Weeks on January 22, 2011
Today we sent the following email to nine legislators proposing a total of six bills this year in Connecticut for no-excuse absentee voting. Some of the bills state the purpose of increasing voter participation. The facts don’t seem to support the claim of increased participation.
Posted in CT, Legislature2011, Mail/Absentee Voting
By Luther Weeks on January 21, 2011
Hats off to the “Constitution State” librarians and the Connecticut Library Association for defending our rights. They have done this before.
Four years ago we were scheduled to show “Hacking Democracy” at a library. A local election official put pressure on the head librarian to cancel the showing and the discussion.
Posted in CT
By Luther Weeks on January 20, 2011
We agree that 100% of ballots may be overkill, especially in local municipal elections, primaries, and referendums. We would recommend stronger state laws, procedures, and enforcement.
Posted in CT
By Luther Weeks on January 19, 2011
Another election, followed, as usual, by reports of absentee vote fraud. This time from Ohio. The good news is that under Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, it was not the Ohio of 2004. It is an Ohio where problems are detected, investigated, and hopefully corrected, prevented, and prosecuted.
Posted in Mail/Absentee Voting, National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on January 12, 2011
Votes were miscounted and miscalculated adding votes to each candidate, but not changing winner in the race for governor
Each candidate for the governor’s race gained votes in the recount when compared to the officially reported results, as follows: Foley (+174), Malloy (+761), and Marsh (+19). These differences parallel candidate shares in the initially reported results. Counting of all ballots in the governor’s race resulted in differences in many counts, totaling 1,520 votes miscounted, of these 1,236 were initially under reported and 284 were initially over reported.
Simply printing more ballots only reduces the chance of the specific problem that occurred in Bridgeport. There are other causes that could result in a municipality having to scramble to photocopy ballots or perform hand counting such as a massive power failure or ballots lost in a fire, flood, or accident shortly before or during Election Day.
Posted in CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors, Our Editorials, Recounts/Recanvasses
By Luther Weeks on January 5, 2011
[Republican Registrar of Voters] Borges also said that the Bridgeport registrar’s office is stretched too thin.
[Bysiewicz] feels the Bridgeport office is well-staffed — it spends $551,466 annually, most of that in salaries for two registrars
Posted in CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on January 2, 2011
We agree that the legislature should give attention to election reform, but should consider carefully the reforms they choose. The history of voting is knee-jerk reactions to problems which bring more of the same. We should tread carefully, but consider a comprehensive solution for elections that might well include regionalization, higher training, qualifications, and civil service election management.
Posted in CT, CT Law, Other Editorials