Voting Problems for Troops

The AP, by way of USA Today, ran an article yesterday about the voting struggles of many military members.

Although communities in 13 states will send ballots by email and at least seven states allow the return of those ballots electronically, thousands of troops in remote bases still rely on regular mail to cast their vote -- often at the last minute due to ballot preparations.

Allowing at least part of the voting process for the military to be carried out electronically would help ease these problems but raise concern of privacy and security.

Pentagon officials are urging more states to take the electronic route before November in order to alleviate the problem of thousands of troops asking for ballots who either ended up not voting or having their ballots rejected because of flaws.

I don't see too much of a problem of at least delivering a blank ballot via email. Potential issues arise when sending a completed ballot back through the internet. The postal service and FedEx are offering discounted or free postage to military members, so it would appear the voting process could wrap up in half the time -- while still maintaining privacy and security -- if one were emailed a ballot then returned it via post. Faxing is also worth exploring.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Super Delegate Transparency Project

The Super Delegate Transparency Project Wiki

Lots of talk concerning super delegates on the intertubes these days.

Some folks are downright pissed that approximately 800 "super delegates" -- who's "votes count approximately 100,000 times more than yours and mine" -- could decide the Democratic nomination and not the people -- the voters.

So some decided to do something about it by calling for transparency among the super delegates. Jennifer Nix and Mark Myers of LiteraryOutpost.com in collaboration with Chris Bowers from OpenLeft.com have set up a wiki aptly named the Super Delegate Transparency Project. The aim is "to provide citizens with visibility to how the Super-Delegates could impact the outcome of the primary."

The meat and potatoes of the wiki is the main table. It lists:

• The State
• The districts in each state and each district's:
• Obama vote
• Clinton vote
• If there is a super delegate and who it is
• If the super delegate has pledged Obama or Clinton
• Super delegate status
• Disparity
• Totals

This project appears new, containing little data. But anyone can join and contribute:

To join, simply create a wikidot account and send your wikidot user name to mark.c.myers@gmail.com. Please also include a brief note on how you heard about the project.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

US Electoral Votes Per Million Citizens for Each State

Here is a idea and interactive map whipped up by Tim Showers. Just like the title says, this map shows the electoral votes per million US citizens for every state.

For example, in Missouri there are 1.896 electoral votes for every one million Missourians.

The map's purpose is to provide an easy way to visualize inequalities in the electoral college system at a glance.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Stupid Election Facts

The following is swiped from Something Awful:

Percentage of population who believe Barack Obama is a Muslim: 29%

Percentage of population who believe moon landing faked: 28%

Percentage of population with IQ scores lower than 90: 25%

Amount of personal wealth Hillary Clinton loaned her campaign: $5 million

Net worth of Barack Obama: $1.3 million

Net worth of Dennis Kucinich: $200,000

Elizabeth Kucinich's hotornot.com rating: 8.4

Ron Paul's hotornot.com rating: 9.6

Laps Rudy Giuliani's bus took around Daytona while blasting the theme from "Rudy": 1

Delegates won by Rudy Giuliani: 1

Money spent by Rudy Giuliani during primary campaign: $49.8 million

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Polling Place Photo Project from The New York Times

Blogger shows that this is post number 100 for PoliticalReps.com. Instead of faking a celebration with a diatribe about how far the site has come, or by even posting past highlights, I am bringing YOU, the reader, more content. Or at least trying to pass off other people's content as my own.

The above screen capture is the Polling Place Photo Project from the New York Times. They want everyone to take photos of their polling place and send them in for display. From the project web page:

We are looking to collect photographs of every polling place in America during the 2008 elections. You are welcome to participate no matter where you vote, how large or small your polling place is, what kind of ballot you use, or what your party affiliation is.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Super Duper Tuesday Polling Times

You'll probably hear this a lot today: "Go Vote". So when can you vote today? I couldn't find a definitive list of polling times for all the the states today, but did find the polling hours for the "top five states to watch" according to ABC News:

California:

Democratic primary – open (independents can vote)

Polls open: 10 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 11 p.m. ET

370 delegates at stake, awarded proportionally

Republican primary – closed (independents cannot vote)

Polls open: 10 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 11 p.m. ET;

170 delegates at stake, awarded via congressional district and winner take all



Missouri

Democratic primary – open

Polls open: 7 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

72 delegates at stake, proportional

Republican primary – open

Polls open: 7 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

58 delegates at stake, winner take all



New Jersey

Democratic Primary – open to Democrats and new Democrats who have never voted in a primary

Polls open: 6 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

107 delegates at stake, proportional

Republican Primary – semiclosed (open to new party members and new registered voters who have not voted in a primary)

Polls open: 6 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

52 delegates at stake, winner take all



Tennessee:

Democratic primary – open

Polls open: 7 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

68 delegates at stake, proportional

Republican primary – open

Polls open: 7 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

52 delegates at stake, congressional district winner take all




Connecticut:

Democratic primary – closed

Polls open: 6 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

48 delegates at stake, proportional

Republican primary – closed

Polls open: 6 a.m. ET;

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET;

27 delegates at stake, winner take all

Check vote411.org if you don't know where you polling place is.

Here is a list of all the Super Tuesday states, their number of delegates and when the polls close:

• West Virginia -- Republican-only caucuses (30 delegates) ; polls close 12:30 p.m. EST
• Georgia -- 87 Democratic delegates, 72 Republican; polls close 7 p.m. EST
• Massachusetts -- 93D, 43R; polls clsoe 8 p.m. EST
• Connecticut -- 48D, 30R*; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• New Jersey -- 107D, 52R*; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Delaware -- 15D, 18R*; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Alabama -- 52D, 48R; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Tennessee -- 68D, 55R; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Illinois -- 153D, 70R; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Missouri -- 72D, 58R*; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Kansas -- Democratic-only caucuses (32 delegates); polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Oklahoma -- 38D, 41R; polls close 8 p.m. EST
• Arkansas -- 35D, 34R; polls close 8:30 p.m. EST
• New York -- 232D, 101R*; polls close 9 p.m. EST
• Arizona -- 56D, 53R*; polls close 9 p.m. EST
• Colorado -- 55D, 46R; polls close 9 p.m. EST
• New Mexico -- Democratic-only primary (26 delegates); polls close 9 p.m. EST
• North Dakota -- 13D, 26R; polls close 9 p.m. EST
• Minnesota -- 72D, 41R; polls close 9 p.m. EST
• Utah -- 23D, 36R*; polls close 10 p.m. EST
• California -- 370D, 173R; polls close 11 p.m. EST
• Idaho -- Democratic only caucuses (18 delegates); polls close 11 p.m. EST
• Alaska -- 13D, 29R; polls close midnight EST
• Montana -- Republican-only caucuses (25 delegates); polls close midnight EST

[via WSJ.com]

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Find Out Who Contributing to Campaigns with HuffPo's FundRace 2008

The above screen capture is of HuffPo's Fundrace 2008, which is yet another political interactive web tool. This one basically allows the look up of campaign donations, to see where they are coming from. Users may search by any of the following:

• Address/Zip
• City
• Name
  
• Occupation
  
• Employer
  

The results -- the donor's name, title and address along with the candidate donated to and the amount -- appear in a column on the right. Simply mouse over results to plot donors on a Google map.

Also worthy of mention is "The Horserace" section. Click on any main candidate's picture to compare total funds raised and chance of winning -- according to intrade.com.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Old American Voters Somehow Being Duped

Big news. In case you didn't know, a good chunk of voters are old people. And apparently they could possibly be at risk of getting their votes stolen from people with malicious vote stealing intentions! That is according to Jason Karlawish, a professor of medicine and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, who testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging Thursday.

Karlawish says 29 states have no guidelines for voting accommodations for residents of long term care facilities. Staff at these facilities are totally controlling voting -- via a well recognized mechanism for voter fraud: absentee ballots -- and not election officials, he said. Mobile polls could help alleviate the issue.

While the AP article doesn't really exactly explain how ancient voters are swindled, it does offer up the searing statistic that by 2040, about 40 percent of voters will be 65 or older. Also, the chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, Sen. Herb Kohl wants to break down barriers to elderly voting.

"As people live longer and acquire disabilities associated with age, many of them need help, and we need to make sure we take into consideration that people who have disabilities, whether they're physical or some level of mental disability, that we don't provide barriers in their ability to vote," Kohl said.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

More Examples of Flawed Election Machines

In addition to the above Lou Dobbs video about a flawed Diebold voting machine, the New York Times reports that "all five voting systems used in Ohio . . . have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election."

Here is Democracy Now's report on the Ohio voting machine situation, an interview with Harvey Wasserman, author of “What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election.”

And Brad Blog reports that "Colorado's Republican Secretary of State, Mike Coffman, has announced that a number of Colorado's e-voting machines have failed state certification testings, and will not be allowed for use in the 2008 election cycle."

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Bruce Schneier on Electronic Voting

Bruce Schneier's website describes the man as "an internationally renowned security technologist and author. . . When people want to know how security really works, they turn to Schneier."

So what does this have have to do with politics? Well, in a post on the New York Times' Freakonomics blog today, Mr. Schneier answers questions on security. Two questions focus on electronic voting:

Q: What is the future of electronic voting?

A: I’ve written a lot about this issue (see here and here as well). Basically, the problem is that the secret ballot means that most of the security tricks we use in things like electronic funds transfers don’t work in voting machines. The only workable solution against hacking the voting machines, or — more commonly — innocent programming errors, is something called a voter-verifiable paper trail. Vote on whatever touch-screen machine you want in whatever way you want. Then, that machine must spit out a printed piece of paper with your vote on it, which you have the option of reviewing for accuracy. The machine collects the votes electronically for a quick tally, and the paper is the actual vote in case of recounts. Nothing else is secure.

Q: Do you think it will ever be feasible to vote for public officials via the Internet? Why or why not?

A: Internet voting has the same problems as electronic voting machines, only more so. That being said, we are moving towards vote-by-mail and (for the military) vote-by-fax. Just because something is a bad security idea doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Florida Voting Machines Still Flawed

According to a government ordered study obtained by the AP Tuesday, optical voting machines in Florida are still flawed despite efforts to fix them.

Theoretically, someone with only brief access to the machines could swap out the memory card with a preprogrammed one allowing one candidate's votes to count towards another. In other words, it would switch up the vote making the loser actually win the precinct. A successful "attack" in this manner assumes there are infrequent paper audits.

Diebold Election Systems, the company of the machines in question, stated they would address the problem before next year's primary election.

Currently, swapping memory cards is not a matter of walking up to the machine and popping it out. Only a few people have keys to access them. Even then, screws must be removed and a seal broken before the card can be replaced.

Some bloggers see this situation as the continuing demise of our current voting system and call out for change. Badtux the Snarky Penguin:

So how do we get out of this situation? Well, first we need national standards. Real national standards, that require voting machines to meet the same accounting standards when accounting for votes that their business counterparts are required to meet when accounting for dollars. I don't care if the dimwit Registrar of Voters in Palm Beach County makes the decision to buy a particular machine, as long as the machine is guaranteed to work properly via some national body that has full authority to audit the thing. Secondly, we need to educate local voter registrars that just because it's a computer doesn't make it great. You'd think that anybody who had regularly experienced the Blue Screen of Death under Windows would have been cured of the notion that technology is necessarily a good thing, but a lot of these people still think technology is magic, not a bunch of cranky machines that humans programmed and often mis-programmed that do stupid things like, say, crash and lose votes, which is why you need that paper trail. And finally we need more folks like in Florida and California who are willing to stand up to powerful forces and say "We aren't gonna buy stuff that doesn't meet our standards, and if your stuff doesn't meet our standards, you either fix it or you're out of here."

Greg of Rhymes with Right doesn't seem to have much of a solution but asks all the right questions:

So, what is the solution? Do we rely on these new technologies, despite the flaws? Do we return to the punch cards, which had a relatively low error rate and are relatively easy to use? Or do we go back to hand-counted paper ballots, eschewing the technological fixes but introducing the element of human error?

No system is perfect, no system is fraud-proof, and no system will satisfy everyone. The question therefore becomes "which one will be seen as conferring the greatest legitimacy on the results?"

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation