Voting Machines

DENVER - Colorado's secretary of state has declared many of the state's electronic voting machines to be unreliable, but said yesterday that some could still be used in November if a software patch was installed. Other machines that failed could be replaced with equipment certified for use in other states, Secretary of State Mike Coffman said. Coffman met with a task force of state lawmakers to discuss what Colorado should do the day after he decertified three of the four voting equipment manufacturers allowed in the state.

Maine's first foray into ranked-choice voting is being declared a success. On Election Day, voters in Portland cast their first tallies for mayor in 88 years. And 24 hours after the polls closed, former state Sen. Michael Brennan was declared the winner of the 15-way race. The system allowed voters to rank each of the candidates, and the complicated ballots couldn't be read by voting machines. But most voters seemed to get it. The city says fewer than 150 out of the more than 20,000 ballots were discarded because someone filled out the ballot wrong.

TALLAHASSEE -- Touch-screen voting machines in 11 counties have a software flaw that could make manual recounts impossible in November's presidential election, state officials said. A spokeswoman for the secretary of state, Glenda Hood, called the problems "minor technical hiccups" that can be resolved, but critics say voting officials wrongly certified a voting system they knew had a bug. The electronic voting machines are a response to the 2000 presidential election fiasco in Florida, where thousands of punch card ballots were improperly marked.

Ballots are being counted to determine the winner of Portland's first mayoral election in 88 years. Election workers Wednesday were sorting and scanning ballots in Maine's first use off ranked-choice voting where residents are allowed to rank the 15 candidates from 1 to 15. The ballots are too complicated for the city's voting machines, so a company that deals in ranked-choice voting was tabulating the results at Portland's City Hall. City officials said Michael Brennan won the most first-place votes on the ballots, followed by Ethan Strimling and Nicholas Mavodones.

NEW YORK -- With the 2008 election season heating up, familiar scapegoats continue to take the hit for past hang-ups at the polls. Those include bad graphic design (Florida's confusing "butterfly ballot" in 2000) and software glitches in certain voting machines. But this week's edition of "Dan Rather Reports" explores other culprits: the very paper from which punch-card ballots were made, and glaring shortcuts in how certain touch-screen voting machines were produced. "Our story is not that the election would have turned out differently in 2000 if certain things hadn't happened.

Ballots are being counted to determine the winner of Portland's first mayoral election in 88 years. Election workers Wednesday were sorting and scanning ballots in Maine's first use off ranked-choice voting where residents are allowed to rank the 15 candidates from 1 to 15. The ballots are too complicated for the city's voting machines, so a company that deals in ranked-choice voting was tabulating the results at Portland's City Hall. City officials said Michael Brennan won the most first-place votes on the ballots, followed by Ethan Strimling and...

Maine's first foray into ranked-choice voting is being declared a success. On Election Day, voters in Portland cast their first tallies for mayor in 88 years. And 24 hours after the polls closed, former state Sen. Michael Brennan was declared the winner of the 15-way race. The system allowed voters to rank each of the candidates, and the complicated ballots couldn't be read by voting machines. But most voters seemed to get it. The city says fewer than 150 out of the more than 20,000 ballots were discarded because someone filled out the ballot wrong.

WASHINGTON -- A team of international observers will travel to five states beginning today to monitor preparations for the Nov. 2 presidential election. The observers, organized by the human rights group Global Exchange, will meet with voters, voting-rights groups, and local officials to discuss voter disenfranchisement, the security of electronic voting machines, and the influence of money in politics. Four years after the Florida recount exposed major weaknesses in US election systems, they hope international pressure will help boost voter confidence and head off potential problems.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The League of Women Voters rescinded its support of paperless voting machines yesterday after hundreds of angry members voiced concern that paper ballots were the only way to safeguard elections from fraud, hackers, or computer malfunctions. About 800 delegates who attended the nonpartisan league's biennial convention in Washington voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that supports "voting systems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable, and accessible.

NEW YORK -- Even in this election off-year, the potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling some state officials, as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with new standards for the machines' reliability. Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders, or other ills that beset computers. This isn't just theoretical; problems in some states have led to lost or miscounted votes.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Poll workers will not be allowed to take voting machines home for safekeeping in the days before the November presidential election because the practice known as "sleepovers" is an unacceptable security risk, the state elections chief said yesterday. Taking machines home makes it nearly impossible to keep track of what happens to a machine or memory card once it goes into the custody of a poll worker, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said. The changes are meant to address actual security concerns - including the fear that machines could be tampered with...

DENVER - Colorado's secretary of state has declared many of the state's electronic voting machines to be unreliable, but said yesterday that some could still be used in November if a software patch was installed. Other machines that failed could be replaced with equipment certified for use in other states, Secretary of State Mike Coffman said. Coffman met with a task force of state lawmakers to discuss what Colorado should do the day after he decertified three of the four voting equipment manufacturers allowed in the state.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers have come full circle after devoting more money to high-tech voting machines following the 2000 election debacle in Florida. They now say a return to the paper trails of old is the key to an honest vote, exasperating state election officials. Legislation pending in the House would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast in national elections beginning with the November 2008 ballot. It also would require random audits in federal elections and specifies that the paper ballot is the vote of record in all...

NEW YORK -- With the 2008 election season heating up, familiar scapegoats continue to take the hit for past hang-ups at the polls. Those include bad graphic design (Florida's confusing "butterfly ballot" in 2000) and software glitches in certain voting machines. But this week's edition of "Dan Rather Reports" explores other culprits: the very paper from which punch-card ballots were made, and glaring shortcuts in how certain touch-screen voting machines were produced. "Our story is not that the election would have turned out differently in 2000 if certain things...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Representative Robin Hayes is calling on his Democratic challenger to give up the fight for a hand recount in the nation's closest US House race. Hayes's call in his contest against Larry Kissell was made after an unofficial vote count, an official one, and a machine recount -- all which showed Hayes leading by a slim margin. "We've counted the votes three times now, and each of those three times the numbers have shown Robin Hayes the winner of this election," Carolyn Hern, Hayes's spokeswoman, said after a recount completed Tuesday...

Voting is always a matter of faith: You give up your ballot to the dark machine and hope to avoid human error, or worse. I used to live in a state where it was rumored that the dead took part in municipal elections; given the risks, there's something comforting about leaving the counting to a cold, impartial machine. Unless the machine is disturbingly easy to compromise, too. That's the message of "Hacking Democracy," the HBO documentary that premieres tonight at 9, timed to stir up maximum ire before next week's election.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Representative Robin Hayes is calling on his Democratic challenger to give up the fight for a hand recount in the nation's closest US House race. Hayes's call in his contest against Larry Kissell was made after an unofficial vote count, an official one, and a machine recount -- all which showed Hayes leading by a slim margin. "We've counted the votes three times now, and each of those three times the numbers have shown Robin Hayes the winner of this election," Carolyn Hern, Hayes's spokeswoman, said after a recount completed Tuesday cut Hayes's lead to 329 votes out...

Voting is always a matter of faith: You give up your ballot to the dark machine and hope to avoid human error, or worse. I used to live in a state where it was rumored that the dead took part in municipal elections; given the risks, there's something comforting about leaving the counting to a cold, impartial machine. Unless the machine is disturbingly easy to compromise, too. That's the message of "Hacking Democracy," the HBO documentary that premieres tonight at 9, timed to stir up maximum ire before next week's election.

NEW YORK -- Even in this election off-year, the potential perils of electronic voting systems are bedeviling some state officials, as a Jan. 1 deadline approaches for complying with new standards for the machines' reliability. Across the country, officials are trying multiple methods to ensure that touch-screen voting machines can record and count votes without falling prey to software bugs, hackers, malicious insiders, or other ills that beset computers. This isn't just theoretical; problems in some states have led to lost or miscounted votes.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio delegation to the Electoral College cast its votes for President Bush yesterday, hours after critics of the election asked the state Supreme Court to review the outcome of the state's presidential race. As members of the Electoral College met across the nation to affirm the results of last month's election, the 20 GOP electors in Ohio voted unanimously for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "The vast majority of people understand this election is over," said Governor Bob Taft, who was at the electors' voting session in the state Senate...