Virginia: Secrets, Lines, and Preventing Coercion

The state of Virginia looks like a state-full of Election Day trouble spots, to many elections experts and activists. I agree with one of the main concerns (long lines at the polls) but I also wanted to share the beneficial flip side of the VA scene, recalled to me by the eloquent words of colleague Doug Jones of University of Iowa.

Denver Goes "Back to Paper" -- Sort Of

A news article from Denver notes that the city is reversing its experiment from its last election, and going "back to paper."

It's Back to Paper Ballots, Precincts, For This Year's Elections 

This only sort of true. Yes, it's true that Denver is using a voting method that election officials say they're more comfortable with, and that some voters will likely view as more trustworthy. 

Test results on New Jersey e-voting machines will be released

Good news from New Jersey! A judge there has reversed her earlier decision that test results on Sequoia voting machines could not be made public -- a story that we discussed a few months ago here. The new ruling means that conmputer experts at Princeton University will be able to analyze the machines starting next week, and publish their results in late September before the November election.

Real Viruses, Real Voting Systems, Real Concern

The notable election systems snafu news items of the week is a virus infection of Windows-based election systems sold by Premier Systems (Diebold) and used in Florida's Pinellas county.

As a cause for alarm, the incident is pretty low, in that the infection was by ordinary Windows OS viruses, which can cripple a Windows system in a generic way. That's not the much-speculated "targeted malware" that acts to change election data in the cases where the virus gets a foothold on an actual voting system machine.

Arkansas E-Vote Flipping: Force 9 Gale?

It seems like e-voting snafus are like weather: there’s always a bit of a storm somewhere, and now and then you get a big one. Although we can thank our lucky stars that we haven’t had a real hurricane, an electronic equivalent of Florida in 2000, the recent Arkansas vote-flipping snafu might qualify as a force 9 gale.

And because this time it is clear the outcome of the race was also flipped, this case of Arkansas State House District 45 in 2008 might

Can the Federal Government Help Repair the Election System?

I've said before that one factor in U.S. election complexity is the variety of requirements and practices in the balkanized election system. But people still (rightly!) ask, could the federal government do more to help?