National

The Wild West: Presidential Primary “Election” Edition

By Luther Weeks on February 10, 2012

Selecting candidates for President is less safe and less democratic than most of us realize.

Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National | Leave a response

Book Review: Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

By Luther Weeks on February 5, 2012

When it comes to election integrity, we note the many articles on elections and election reform are often emotional, subjective, one-sided, or inappropriately balanced. The same lack of rigor is often present in arguments raised by and to election officials and legislators considering election reform. We ignore facts, reason, and open debate at our peril.

Posted in National, NonScienceNonsense | Leave a response

Doug Chapin: New Pew Report Details Progress on Military, Overseas Voting

By Luther Weeks on January 30, 2012

It really is remarkable how far this issue has come in about three years; Pew’s election team and its huge coalition of partners including OVF, the Pentagon’s Federal Voting Assistance Program and the Uniform Law Commission (whose Uniform Military and Overseas Voting Act is one ongoing vehicle for state and local reform) should be deeply gratified at everything they have accomplished.

Posted in Internet Voting, National | Leave a response

Coalition Nov 2011 Audit Observation Report – Data Available for Public Review

By Luther Weeks on January 26, 2012

Coalition finds continuing problems with audit integrity
Provides calculations and official data on the web for public review and verification

For the first time, in the interest of public information and transparency, we are making all official municipal audit reports and the data we complied available for everyone to review on the web. Citizens can see the reports from their own town, other towns, and perform their own audit of the Coalition’s data entry and calculations based on those official reports. The November post-election audits still do not inspire confidence because of the continued:

Lack of integrity in the random district selection and race selection processes.
Lack of consistency, reliability, and transparency in the conduct of the audit.
Discrepancies between machine counts and hand-counts reported to the Secretary of the State by municipalities and the lack of standards for determining need for further investigation of discrepancies.
Weaknesses in the ballot chain-of-custody.

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Americans Elect – A license to steal the presidency?

By Luther Weeks on December 28, 2011

This is seriously dangerous. If you don’t join Americans Elect, their vote could determine the President. If you do join Americans Elect, the vote could be manipulated in the backroom or by hackers. Or the self-appointed board could override the actual vote.

Posted in Internet Voting, National, Skulduggery and Errors | Leave a response

Concern with electronic skulduggery is Right, Left, and Center

By Luther Weeks on December 19, 2011

Hackers threaten Presidential Primary. The particular threat may or may not be real. Yet, being concerned with electronic skulduggery is Right, Left, and Center

Posted in National, Skulduggery and Errors | Leave a response

Voting machine investigation leads to serious issues and cover-up

By Luther Weeks on December 19, 2011

This is serious stuff. The words that come to mind are: Illegal, unacceptable, unconscionable, ridiculous, unconstitutional, and undemocratic.

Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National, Our Editorials, Post-Election Audits, Skulduggery and Errors | Leave a response

Scanners like ours: Optical scanner counts differ for same ballots

By Luther Weeks on November 29, 2011

There should be an investigation, however, we suggest that determining the cause is not a complete cure. I could happen again. It could have happened in the past. Maybe in Connecticut.

Posted in CT, Electronic Vulnerability, National, Post-Election Audits, Recounts/Recanvasses | Leave a response

Secrecy vs. Anonymity of ballots

By Luther Weeks on November 26, 2011

From Aspen we have a discussion of the value of anonymous ballots and the meaning of the secret ballot. What voting free from coercion requires is the secret casting of ballots and the ongoing safeguarding of those ballots along with the anonymity of the voter associated with each ballot.

Posted in Chain of Custody, CT, National | Leave a response

If banks loose billions online, why would we leave democracy to online voting?

By Luther Weeks on November 21, 2011

Even if ecommerce transactions were safe, the security technology underpinning them would not suffice for voting. In particular, the voting security and privacy requirements are unique and in tension in a way that has no analog in the ecommerce world.