Who Really Won?

Indy Appeal...

The Indiana Court of Appeals today declared Indiana's voter ID law unconstitutional because it does not apply uniformly to all voters.

The three-judge panel unanimously held that the requirement that voters present government-issued photo identification at the polls runs afoul of the Indiana Constitution's "Equal Privileges and Immunities Clause," which provides: "The General Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens."

Getting The Same All the Time

Four million to five million voters did not cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election because they encountered registration problems or failed to receive absentee ballots, which is roughly the same number of voters who encountered such problems in the 2000 election, according to an academic study to be presented to the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.

An additional two million to four million registered voters — or 1 percent to 2 percent of the eligible electorate — were “discouraged” from voting due to administrative hassles, like long lines and voter identification requirements, the study found.

The study found that the most common registration problems involved clerical errors, like entering voter information incorrectly in statewide databases, or voters who changed their address but failed to inform election officials. At least 4 percent of eligible voters surveyed said they requested absentee ballots but failed to receive them.

“It’s clear that the high turnout on Nov. 4 of last year simply masked persistent problems that still need to be fixed,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Rules Committee chairman. “Had the election been close, these problems would have received a lot more attention because they could have made the difference in which candidate won.”

Those Wacky Voting Machines

Are we sure this is our Supreme Court?

The Supreme Court sided Friday with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.

The justices overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.

Ohio Republicans contended the information for counties would help prevent fraud. Brunner said the GOP is trying to disenfranchise voters.

More Blame for Voters Coming This Way...

Poorly designed ballots continue to plague U.S. elections, even after Congress set aside $3 billion to overhaul voting systems to prevent a recurrence of the flawed Florida ballots that deadlocked the 2000 presidential race, a study out today concludes.

Problems with confusing paper ballots in 2002, absentee ballots in 2004 and touch-screen ballots in 2006 led thousands of voters to skip over key races or make mistakes that invalidated their votes, according to the study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

"In the big election meltdowns … where thousands of votes were lost, ballot design was the primary cause," says Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center.

Ballot designs could play a big role in mistakes made at the polls this fall because of an infusion of new voters who registered for this year's presidential race and the introduction of new voting machines in parts of 11 states with 15 million potential voters.

Just remember, a voter who can't figure out a poorly designed ballot is the one to blame for not getting the right to vote.

NYTimes Once Again Notices Our Flawed System

Big article in the Sunday Times Magazine, Can You Count on Voting Machines?

Short answer: No.

Then the tale of the voters the Republicans want to take the vote from: old ladies without photo IDs...

“Of course I threw a fit,” said Ms. Williams, 61, who was made to cast a provisional ballot instead, which, according to voting records, was never counted. Ms. Williams — who has difficulty walking — said she was not able to get a ride to the voting office to prove her identity within 10 days as required under the law, and her ballot was discarded.

They find a judge who finds it hard to believe that people who barely walk may choose not to jet around the world AND don't find themselves in court regularly:

“It is exceedingly difficult to maneuver in today’s America without a photo ID (try flying, or even entering a tall building such as the courthouse in which we sit, without one),” wrote Judge Richard A. Posner in a January 2007 opinion by the Seventh United States Circuit Court of Appeals.

Those Darned Voting Machines....

Thousands of Colorado’s electronic voting machines do not work properly and have been decertified, according to a review by the Colorado secretary of state that has left elections officials scrambling to find viable machines in time for local and Congressional primary elections in August and the presidential election in November.

and...

Last week, the Ohio secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, released a review of electronic voting systems there that found critical security flaws in systems by Hart and Election Systems & Software, as well as another company, Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.