US House Likely to Vote on Paper Trails Next Week

May 25th, 2007
It is likely that the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on HR 811 during the last three days of May. This is Congressman Rush Holt’s bill to ban vote-counting machines that produce no paper trail. Congressman Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) recently introduced a somewhat similar bill, HR 2360, to counteract HR 811. HR 811 would take effect before the November 2008 election, but HR 2360 would put off implementation until 2010.

Also, on May 25, U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Christopher Dodd introduced S1487, which also outlaws machines with no paper trail starting in 2010. It is co-sponsored by Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Patrick Leahy, Edward Kennedy, Dan Inouye, Robert Menendez, Sherrod Brown, and Bernie Sanders.

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New Voting Machines Helped Write-in Candidates in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
May 25th, 2007
Pennsylvania held primary elections on May 15, 2007, for statewide judicial office, and local partisan office. Luzerne County was using electronic vote-counting machines for the first time. Previously the county had used old-fashioned mechanical voting machines.

At the May 15 primary, 32 candidates won enough write-ins to be considered nominees of either the Democratic or Republican Parties. Luzerne County elections officials said the large number of write-ins was due to the fact that it is so much easier for voters to cast write-ins with the new machines, compared to the old machines. The new machines have an electronic keyboard which not only makes it obvious how to do a write-in, but eliminates the problems of poor penmanship.

The most important office for which voters nominated a write-in candidate was Luzerne County District Attorney. Republican write-in candidate Jackie Carroll needed 250 write-ins to be considered nominated, and received 455 write-ins.
www.ballot-access.org