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Legally Questionable Solution Proposed for Bickering Registrars

By Luther Weeks on February 16, 2014

The the West Hartford registrars do not get along, resulting in trading complaints, long lines at polls, and an inability to solve that without intervention by the Secretary of the State. The latest is an attempt by the town to fix the problem, despite the fact that the registrars are publicly elected officials charged with running the elections. In our opinion, best that the Town Council members can do is to work with their Town Committees to find candidates who, if elected would work together, or to find satisfactory candidates to win in primaries.

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Time to ignore Voter Id, Voting Rights Act, and other attempts to game the system.

By Luther Weeks on February 11, 2014

Yesterday, the Government Elections and Administration Committee voted to take up the National Popular Vote Agreement/Compact. Today we have a CTMirror story on the efforts of highly funded national lobbyists working with Democrats and Republicans to tout the bill. Reading the article, one would get the impression that only Republicans are against the bill

In the last year, not much has changed. Except that the risks should be more obvious given the activity in some states to suppress votes, especially after the Supreme Court effectively ended the Voting Rights Act.

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Experts demonstrate how to hack email voting

By Luther Weeks on February 6, 2014

Security researchers say they have developed an interesting trick to take over Gmail and Outlook.com email accounts – by shooting down victims’ logout requests even over a supposedly encrypted connection.
And their classic man-in-the-middle attack could be used to compromise electronic ballot boxes to rig elections, we’re told.

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Early Voting, the good, the not-so-good, and the ugly

By Luther Weeks on February 1, 2014

For Connecticut, we favor in-person early voting, if we are willing to pay for the convenience. We oppose no-excuse absentee voting for security reasons.

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American Voting Experience: A Laudable Report

By Luther Weeks on January 26, 2014

It seems we have several surprisingly refreshing Government reports in recent weeks, two on reigning in NSA spying, and now an excellent report on improving election administration, the election experience, and a contribution to realizing the ideals of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Many will find a lot to like in the report. Some parts might be taken out of context as it often points out the benefits, costs, and risks of various solutions. Some will use the report to justify doing anything, such as their favored solution, to a problem. That said, we will likely be referencing many areas in the report going forward

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How can the NSA, Microsoft, Google etc. vote?

By Luther Weeks on January 21, 2014

A post got us thinking: Every Scary, Weird Thing We Know the NSA Can Do. Lets add some corollaries relevant to voting and elections:

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Why do we ignore science and facts?

By Luther Weeks on January 16, 2014

We have often been perplexed when the public and the Legislature ignore science and simple facts. No more so than when it comes to Internet voting where there is overwhelming recognition of the risks by scientists AND overwhelming evidence that individual, business, and government computers have been repeatedly compromised.

New research provides some clues why.

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Denise Merrill does the right thing – by all voters and the CT Constitution

By Luther Weeks on January 11, 2014

Merrill has remained steadfast in her commitment to protect us from the risks of Internet voting. She is recommending a system to aid the Military in downloading blank ballots and mailing them in quicker. A system that has proven successful in other states. She also reminds the Legislature that Internet voting (including Fax and Email return) would be unconstitutional in Connecticut,

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Grand Theft Education – A Possiblity

By Luther Weeks on January 8, 2014

Electronic testing is similar to electronic voting. The form of electronic testing is only as safe as the systems chosen and the administration and controls surrounding the system itself. What we know from electronic voting is that we need voter verified paper ballots (paper test forms), a good chain of custody on that paper, before and after the votes (tests) are electronically counted, along with scientifically rigorous audits.

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Book Review: Moral Tribes

By Luther Weeks on January 6, 2014

Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and The Gap Between Us and Them, by Joshua Green, is a book about science, morals, psychology, how we make decisions, how the brain works, and how we “should” make decisions. Brain science would seem to have little to do with election integrity, yet when it focus on a discussion of how we make decisions and make moral choices, then it is relevant.

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