Thread: Special Advisory: How to report election problems

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Tulare County vote totals may be delayed
Security measures issued to prevent hacking into machines
BY HILLARY S. MEEKS
hmeeks@visalia.gannett.com

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Tulare County results from Tuesday's election could be delayed a few hours because of state-ordered changes in the use of electronic voting machines, election officials said.

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New security measures were put in place after studies revealed that many electronic voting machines were unreliable or could be tampered with by hackers, according to the secretary of state Web site. Tulare County uses machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems.
"A lot of people don't know that California never had uniform security procedures in all 58 counties before this year," said Nicole Winger, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

Early results from absentee ballots will be released shortly after 8 p.m., said Hiley Wallis, acting elections division manager. Updates will be released every 20 minutes thereafter.

"We hope to be done by 10," Wallis said. "But chances are, it could be later."

Under the new security measures, voting tallies from each precinct will be put into cartridges and returned to the elections office. In the past, modems were used to transmit results.

The county is required to:

# Limit touch-screen machines to one per precinct.

# Hand-count all ballots from touch-screen machines.

# Reload software on the voting machines and the server at the elections office.

An extra 40 employee-hours will be required to conduct this year's election, Wallis said. She said she could not provide an estimate of the financial cost, because the process hasn't worked this way before.

Winger, asked whether counties will be monitored, said there will be "checks and balances throughout the state" but offered no specifics. She said voters are encouraged to be vigilant and report any irregularities to the secretary of state's office.

The elections office began counting absentee ballots Jan. 29 and will continue to count them as they come in, said Paul Sampietro, elections division manager. Officials have 28 days from Feb. 5 to process all absentee ballots.

It took the county three weeks to finish counting absentee votes in the November 2007 elections, he said.

"And that election wasn't this large," he said. "We could very well take the full [four weeks]."
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Comments by: Granny7 Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 1:23 pm
I have voted every election for the past 30+ years. I haven't even received a sample ballot in the mail. I tried to call to find out why, but got put on pernament hold. I'll show up to vote. Hope they didn't lose my name, hope its not in electronic heaven.
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Comments by: Wanderbird PostPosted: Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:25 pm Post subject: No Modems
Modems have NEVER been used to transmit election results in California. While legal in some states, it has never been legal in California.

[b]

Anxious Black Woman reports some voting oddities in New York State that she and other people of color are experiencing.

I’m already inconvenienced by the decision made to open the polls at noon (with closing time at 9 pm) because I showed up early in the morning, along with two other elderly white women, to cast my vote. We were all turned away and told to come back when polls open. I trust that they gave us the right information, for if it was only me, I would’ve immediately been suspicious. I already was, considering that the usual place where I show up to vote had changed buildings.

So, when I showed up at work to find that other faculty and students of color were also experiencing certain irregularities (one faculty said she showed up at her regular polling place, only to discover that - after voting in the same place for the last 14 years - it had changed to a completely new location, which she had spent a good half hour searching for!), red flags went up. All of us had also noticed that none of us received the usual notification in the mail, to remind us about voting and where to show up. [Full story]

This really kind of struck me funny, because I, too, got no voter information or voting reminder by mail. I also re-registered this year, back in the beginning of January; I never got a confirmation that I was registered. When I called to check, they said I was registered to vote regularly. When I got to the polling place, I was indeed registered, but as an absentee voter. I never received a mail-in ballot, so I had to fill out a provisional one.

After reading about ABW’s difficulty voting and hearing a similar story from another POC in town here, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because I actually listed an ethnicity this year instead of just marking “otherâ€

Mentioned this on another thread but there's so much to read here it's worth mentioning again.

Two talk radio hosts, Roger Hedgecock and Rick Roberts, have been slammed with calls and emails from thousands of southern California Republicans who went to vote and their party had changed. Many were lifetime Republicans.

If this has happened to you in the San Diego area Rick suggested you email:
chairman@sandiegorepublicans.org

However, Rick was hearing this morning from people all over southern CA, as far away as Santa Barbara. He doesn't intend to let this easily slip by. Plan to listen to Roger later to hear the latest.

I've listened to Roger Hedgecock,
he substituted for Rush Limbugh on KFI 640

Originally Posted by mkfarnam

I've listened to Roger Hedgecock,
he substituted for Rush Limbugh on KFI 640

Yes, he use to fill in for Rush but now that Roger has a national Sat. morning talk show he says he can't do that anymore.

Just talked to a neighbor who said Roger's wife tried to vote and wasn't shown as registered Rep. Wonder how many this happened too?

To: voterInfo@rrcc.lacounty.gov
I am an Independant/fail to designate voter that usually vote via an absentee ballot. This year I was instructed by mail that if I wanted to vote for a Republican Candidate
to indicate this on the form and mail it back, which I did TWICE! I did NOT get any confirmation of this in the mail and did NOT get my absentee ballot. I went to vote at my local polling place where they advised me that they would give me a provisional ballot but that I was still registrated as an independant and when I insisted on voting for a Republican Candidate I was informed that my vote would not be counted! I am quite sure that this is malfeasance and a deliberate obstruction of fair voting practices and my rights as an American citizen. Additionally, although I brought my Identification, no one really wanted to see it. I think it is interesting that our polling place is usually held at the Barbara C. Riley Community Center which is a City Of Downey facility. This year when I went to vote there I was told that the polling place had moved to the Downey Care Center at 13007 Paramount Blvd. which is a privately owned Convalescent Home. I

Originally Posted by RonaldMoyers

To: voterInfo@rrcc.lacounty.gov
I am an Independant/fail to designate voter that usually vote via an absentee ballot. This year I was instructed by mail that if I wanted to vote for a Republican Candidate
to indicate this on the form and mail it back, which I did TWICE! I did NOT get any confirmation of this in the mail and did NOT get my absentee ballot. I went to vote at my local polling place where they advised me that they would give me a provisional ballot but that I was still registrated as an independant and when I insisted on voting for a Republican Candidate I was informed that my vote would not be counted! I am quite sure that this is malfeasance and a deliberate obstruction of fair voting practices and my rights as an American citizen. Additionally, although I brought my Identification, no one really wanted to see it. I think it is interesting that our polling place is usually held at the Barbara C. Riley Community Center which is a City Of Downey facility. This year when I went to vote there I was told that the polling place had moved to the Downey Care Center at 13007 Paramount Blvd. which is a privately owned Convalescent Home. I

Wow, you got screwed royal and yes, this is against federal and state laws in your state!!!

Just heard on Roger Hedgecock's show if anyone feels they have a case for voter fraud to call to file with the Sec of State. This is due to the large # of complaints about receiving the wrong ballots.
1-800-345-VOTE (8683)
Said he would also post it on his website later.