Browse: Home / Index / Skulduggery and Errors

Skulduggery and Errors

Welcome to Post-Confidence Elections

By Luther Weeks on June 2, 2011

Laws and procedures which are not enforced for elections in the name of “trust us” and “it would be too much work”, are no more real than the laws and Constitutional provisions ignored in the name of national security. “It is time to learn from this recount, fix the problems it uncovered and ensure that future elections are different.”

Posted in , , | Leave a response

“Wisconsin is no Minnesota” (Psssst: neither is Connecticut)

By Luther Weeks on May 4, 2011

Many of the problems in Wisconsin are similar to those we are led to “expect” in states like Connecticut. One unique concern in Wisconsin is several coincident actions of one of the candidates.

Posted in , , , | Leave a response

Wisconsin: Democracy In The Gap: Between Impatience And Incompetence

By Luther Weeks on April 11, 2011

The best outcome of a recount would be to determine the correct winner of the election, leading to an improved system in Wisconsin, and serving as an example to other states. Yet, Democrats should not get their hopes up for a change in the result.

Let us hope that something good comes from the election error and concern in Wisconsin.

Posted in , , , | Leave a response

Laws interact – be careful what you legislate

By Luther Weeks on March 28, 2011

Earlier this month we cautioned the legislature about enacting the UMOVE Act without providing election officials an opportunity to check for conflicts with existing laws. We highlight an example of a similar conflict in existing state and local laws that frustrates officials and disenfranchises voters.

Posted in , | Leave a response

Once again, myth of accurate official vote counting debunked

By Luther Weeks on March 3, 2011

South Carolina voting system audited by citizens shows votes lost, images of ballots do not support numbers. Like Bridgeport, this is an example of where transparency, FOI, and independent citizen investigation eventually provided the facts. Yet, again where government and the official system failed to certify accurate election results. Machines, hand counting, and communication procedures should be expected to occasionally breakdown, but the official system should be expected to find and correct those errors.

Posted in , | Leave a response

WFSB: What It Takes To Be A Registrar – Politics Play Out In Registrar’s Office

By Luther Weeks on February 23, 2011

Connecticut is the only state where a registrar from each political party is elected into office. Many registrars told the I-Team while this may seem inefficient, it has worked literally for centuries.

Posted in , , | Leave a response

Absentee Ballot Fraud In Ohio

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 , , | 1 Response

Coalition Report: Bridgeport Recount and Recommendations

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 , , , | Leave a response

Bridgeport Registrar offers fix, Secretary responds

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 , | Leave a response

Why We Need Audits and Recounts: AccuVote Missed 0.4% of Ballots in Aspen Elections

By Luther Weeks on December 28, 2010

How do we know that our Dieblod/Premier/Dominion AccuVote-OS voting machines count ballots and votes accurately in each election, in each polling place? Maybe sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.

Posted in , , , , | Leave a response