Tuesday, November 4, 2008

North Carolina Nailbiter: Presidential Candidates 11,246 votes apart

Did NC's Straight ticket voting law cost presidential candidates votes? Maybe not this time. The verdict isn't in yet. Its too close to call, provisional ballots may decide which Presidential candidate carries North Carolina. Doing the math, it looks like we had about 36,031 provisional ballots. See NC SBoE website for voter turnout verses votes cast for President.

The Presidential contest had more votes cast than did the other contests. Maybe the media attention and voter education about the confusing straight ticket voting law (straight ticket doesn't include president) worked. The political parties had greeters to give voters palm cards in many areas, and most of the 100 County BoE's also had fliers for the voters. No one was handing out palm cards warning voters about straight ticket in 2004.

The margin of victory was less than the number of undervotes.

Total ballots cast . . . . . . 4,281,715
Total votes for Pres . . . . 4,245,684
Total votes for US Sen . .4,209,480
Total votes for Gov . . . . 4,206,249
Total straight ticket . . . . .2,131,732

In looking at all other contests, the Presidential contest received more votes than the Governor's race or US Senate, so what else accounts for the difference? From the NC State Board of Elections Website: http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/7937/13221/en/summary.html

Obama ahead of McCain by 11,246 votes

2008 GENERAL ELECTION
Registered Voters: 6,262,566
Ballots Cast: 4,281,715
Voter Turnout: 68.37 %

Counties Partially Reported: 0 of 100
Counties Completely Reported: 100 of 100
Website last updated 11/5/2008 1:23:28 AM EST

PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (Vote For 1)
Vote Type Summary Contest Detail Map 100 of 100 Counties Reporting
Percent Votes
Obama/Biden (DEM) 49.67% 2,108,777
McCain/Palin (REP) 49.40% 2,097,531
Barr/Root (LIB) 0.60% 25,279
WRITE-IN 0.33% 14,097
4,245,684

US SENATE (Vote For 1) Vote Type Summary Contest Detail Map
100 of 100 Counties Reporting
Percent Votes
Kay Hagan (DEM) 52.62% 2,214,883
Elizabeth Dole (REP) 44.22% 1,861,289
Christopher Cole (LIB) 3.12% 131,521
WRITE-IN 0.04% 1,787
4,209,480

GOVERNOR (Vote For 1) Vote Type Summary Contest Detail Map 100 of 100
Counties Reporting
Percent Votes
Bev Perdue (DEM) 50.18% 2,110,866
Pat McCrory (REP) 46.94% 1,974,493
Michael C. Munger (LIB) 2.87% 120,890
4,206,249

About half of the electorate used the straight ticket voting option

STRAIGHT PARTY (Vote For 1) Vote Type Summary Contest Detail Map
100 of 100 Counties Reporting Percent Votes
DEMOCRATIC 58.79% 1,253,226
REPUBLICAN 40.32% 859,443
LIBERTARIAN 0.89% 19,063
2,131,732

Joyce McCloy http://www.ncvoter.net/

Friday, October 31, 2008

US Rep John Lewis cites NC in request for emergency voting for Georgia

US Rep John Lewis cites North Carolina as an example to follow in his plea to the Georgia Secretary of State. We can be proud, and grateful of our state. Thanks go to the unsung heros: our State Board of Elections for approving extra voting hours for Saturday, our 100 Dedicated County Board of Elections for making it happen, and to the hoards of volunteer poll workers. Thanks to all counties that were able to make this work.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis offers to help clear the way for emergency weekend voting
Friday, October 31, 2008, 02:01 PM The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This from a statement by U.S. Rep. John Lewis this morning, during a state Capitol press conference to discuss those long waits to vote:

“We are requesting that the Secretary of State [Karen Handel] use Florida and North Carolina as an example. We ask that she extend early voting in Georgia through Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We believe the number of poll workers should be increased at polling sites where a large turnout is expected.

“She must increase the number of voter registration machines at locations where there is large turnout, and we are calling on Governor [Sonny] Perdue and Karen Handel to request emergency voting rights pre-clearance from the Department of Justice to clear the path for these changes.

“My office is preparing a letter right now, advising the Attorney General Mukasey of these issues in Georgia and encouraging him to grant emergency pre-clearance, when it is requested.”

UPDATE on Volatile voting situation in Forsyth County North Carolina

After noon Update:

I just got off the phone with Don Wright, the General Counsel for the NC SBoE.
The Forsyth BoE is meeting right now (12:20) to have that vote.
The SBOE sent a "Show Cause Order" to the Forsyth County Board of Elections first thing this morning, to express concern as to why they were delaying this important vote.

*******************************************************************


Well, Forsyth is the one county that actually voted to disregard the SBOE's directive to hand out the voter ed flyers about straight ticket voting.

The State Board of Elections issued two directives that the Forsyth County Board of Elections voted to disregard:

1. October 22, 2008 Straight ticket voter education hand outs directive


From: Johnnie McLean [mailto:Johnnie.McLean at ncmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:07 PM

To: Directors.boe

Cc: ElectTechs.Sboe;

Subject: IMPORTANT INFORMATION

In order to ensure that all voters receive the information about President/Vice President being voted separately from all other offices you are directed to reproduce the following message (printed four to a page to be cut) and hand/mail to each voter when the ballot/voting equipment is assigned to the voter. Any color paper may be used to duplicate this information. This measure is in addition to the verbal instructions the pollworkers are to provide

************************************************************************

The Forsyth County BoE met on October 28 and discussed straight ticket voting and opening more early voting sites. Minutes here


2. October 30, 2008 call for all County BoEs to discuss extending One-stop Absentee Voting Hours for Saturday November 1, 2008


Due to the extremely heavy voter turnout and long lines at one-stop absentee voting sites, the State Boardof Elections unanimously voted at an emergency telephone conference call meeting today at 11:15 am to direct all county boards of elections to call an emergency meeting to discuss the extension of hours for the one-stop absentee voting sites on Saturday, November 1, 2008. Any called meeting must be posted in accordance with the public meetings laws

Next the NC State Board of Elections issued a "show cause" to the Forsyth County Board of Elections.

Forsyth County Board of Elections Emergency Board Meeting - October 31, 2008, minutes here. Excerpt:


Extending One-Stop on Final Day
Mr. Elliott stated the Board is meeting as required by a "show cause order" from the State Board of Elections.
...Mr. Elliott stated he did not think the hours need to be extended. He stated he is concerned about the State Board of Elections changing things after the One-Stop plans have been approved Ms. Sutton moved to extend the One-Stop closing
time to 5:00 PM on Saturday, November 1, 2008.
Mr. Jordan stated the Chairman of the Republican Party directed him to vote in favor of the extended hours because more Republicans are in the city and more early voting sites are in Republican areas. Mr. Jordan seconded the motion to extend the hours of the One Stop locations to 5:00 PM. The motion passed 2-1. (to extend One-Stop closing time).



The Forsyth County BoE plans to make their decision on whether to extend early voting hours - one hour before the early voting sites are scheduled to close. Oh that helps voters alot doesn't it?

There's something seriously wrong there:

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/oct/30/301442/nc-elections-board-extends-early-voting-hours/news/

"The Forsyth County Board of Elections will meet at noon Saturday to decide whether to keep the polls open, one hour before the polls are scheduled to close, said Rob Coffman, the Forsyth elections director."

Background information on North Carolina straight ticket voting problem:

This Year's Butterfly Ballot New York Times October 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/opinion/27mon2.htmlNorth Carolina Straight Ticket Confusion

Voting Straight Ticket in North Carolina does NOT include the Presidential contest.
NC Coalition for Verified Voting 10/17/08
http://www.ncvoter.net/straightticket.html

How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad By Lawrence Norden & Margeret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice 10/21/08
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00348.htm

It May Be Harder to Vote in Swing States By: David Rosenfeld Miller-McCune 10/22/08
http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/799



Thursday, October 30, 2008

Saturday Nov 1 NC Voters last chance to register or correct registration problems

One last chance. Saturday. November 1st.
Early Voting.
Extra Hours.
Same Day Registration,
Correct problems with your registration.

"NC elections board allows early voting extension" By MIKE BAKER – RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Early voting sites in North Carolina can stay open an extra four hours Saturday to help deal with record turnout, the state Board of Elections ruled Thursday

Are you registered to vote?

These students weren't!!!
Warning. Anyone who wants to vote must check online to make sure they are registered. Saturday is your last day to clear up any registration problems. You need to be registered to make your vote count! Some voters have fallen off the rolls due to glitches or for other reasons. If you have moved out of your county and didn't update your registration, you may have fallen off the rolls.

In their report, 2008 Primary in Review , Electionline advised that in NC, 69.3% of provisional ballots issued that could not be counted were for voters who were not registered to vote. 14.2% of voters whose ballots were not counted had been removed from the rolls. Electionline did not provide the number of provisional ballots.

Check! Check the State Board of Elections voter look up or call your County Elections Office. If your name doesn't isn't in the voter rolls, you can vote early and register to vote if you want a regular ballot. Find your early voting site, and bring some form of ID. Same Day Registration has been a boon to voters, including those who were registered but fell off the rolls. In the May 2008 primary, according to the State Board of Elections, about half of the people who used same day registration were correcting registration issues.

You must be registered to vote for your ballot to count. Saturday is your last chance to register or correct problems. On November 4, election day, voters will not have the opportunity to use same day registration in the event that they have fallen off the voter database, or to correct any problems with their registration.

If you have a problem with your registration and do not correct it, you may be issued a provisional ballot. These ballots are not counted on election day and have to be reviewed and approved by your County Elections Board. The Board has up until canvass day (about 10 days later) to count these ballots.

North Carolina issued 31,381 provisional ballots in May 2008. That is a big decrease compared from 92,621 provisional ballots issued in the 2006 General Election, with similar turnout numbers. Correct registration problems and get a regular ballot.

The State Board of Elections explains how to register during early voting and what are acceptable forms of ID:

To use this process, a citizen must (1) go to a One-Stop Voting Site in the county of residence during the One Stop Absentee Voting period, (2) fill out a voter registration application, and (3) provide proof of residency by showing the elections official an appropriate form of identification with the citizen’s current name and current address. The new registrant may vote ONLY at a One-Stop Absentee Voting Site in the county of registration during One-Stop Absentee Voting period and not on Election Day.

Acceptable forms of identification include:
A North Carolina driver’s license with current address
A utility bill with name and current address
A telephone or mobile phone bill
An electric or gas bill
A cable television bill
A water or sewage bill
A document with name and current address from a local, state, or U.S. government agency, such as:
A passport
A government-issued photo ID
U.S. military ID
A license to hunt, fish, own a gun, etc.
A property or other tax bill
Automotive or vehicle registration
Certified documentation of naturalization
A public housing or Social Service Agency document
A check, invoice, or letter from a government agency
A birth certificate
A student photo ID along with a document from the school showing the student’s name and current address
A paycheck or paycheck stub from an employer or a W-2 statement
A bank statement or bank-issued credit card statement
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/content.aspx?ID=32

Warning NC Student Voters: ARE YOU REALLY REGISTERED TO VOTE? These students weren't!!!

WARNING! Anyone who wants to vote must check online to make sure they are registered. College Students are at HIGH RISK of not being on the voter rolls. You need to be registered to make your vote count! See the State Board of Elections voter look up . If your name doesn't show up in the voter rolls, you must go vote early and register to vote. Find your early voting site, and bring 2 pieces of ID.

Read this account in Huffington POst about students at UNC who registered to vote but were not registered:

Students Turned Away from Polls in Wilmington, NC WILMINGTON, N.C. --- Students here are reporting being turned away at the polls. Yuna Shin October 28, 2008

The problems mostly seem to concern the fact that on campus students often have seperate mailing and residential addresses. On UNCW's campus, for example, students reside at a dorm and receive mail at a university Post Office box.

When addresses could not be verified by poll workers, students were turned away. Some students also say that they never received voter registration cards and they could not find their registration status online.... more at the link

TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO CORRECT THIS! NOV 1 is your last chance to register and vote early . Do everything you can to avoid a provisional ballot, as provisionals are not counted on election night and about 30% are rejected.

The Wilmington Star News explains how voters can register and vote during early voting:

College voters face obstacles, but won't be denied
By Chris Mazzolini Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008

...Anyone who comes to early voting sites to register and vote must fill out the registration form and show an approved type of identification before casting a ballot.
New voters must provide ID. Even voters with a valid registration card may need to bring ID to the polls.

The state requires new registrants in a county to provide valid ID when registering. If you don’t, voters need to bring one of the aforementioned forms of ID when they come to vote.
If you have problems with your registration, don’t wait until Election Day to deal with it. The best thing to do is to take care of any issues before early voting ends on at 1 p.m. Saturday, Williams said. If you don’t show identification during early voting, you can leave, gather up what you need and come back.

On Election Day, voters who did not provide the required identifying information during registration will either have to show that proof then and there or cast a provisional ballot, which gives a voter until 11 a.m. on Nov. 14 to bring identification documents to the county board of elections.

....read more here

Sunday, October 26, 2008

NY Times: North Carolina's Butterfly Ballot

The New York Times has an editorial about North Caroline's confusing straight ticket voting law today:

NY Times October 27, 2008 Editorial This Year’s Butterfly Ballot

In Florida’s “butterfly ballot” debacle of 2000, voters in Palm Beach County were so confused by the odd layout that many appear to have voted for the wrong candidate by mistake. At the time, there was a lot of talk about improving ballot design. Eight years later there are still far too many badly done ballots. North Carolina may have the country’s worst. It is already causing confusion with early voters. And if the presidential race is close, it could change the outcome.

Like a number of states, North Carolina allows its voters to choose a straight-party ticket. To do that, voters can mark one box and cast votes for all of the nominees of their preferred party. But North Carolina’s ballot has an unexpected twist. Even if a voter checks the straight-party box, he or she must vote separately for a presidential candidate.

...more at the link

Meanwhile, the State Board of Elections has responded to national concerns about NC's straight ticket voting problem by sending an advisory to all 100 County Boards of Elections. The email was sent Wednesday, at 5 PM 10/22. (Forwarded to us today). The email urges all County Board of Elections to have poll workers give handouts about straight ticket voting to all voters showing up to vote. It is not clear that all counties are complying.

Is your County complying with this directive? Some are not. And the voters will suffer as a result. It is important that every single county, every single polling place - in early voting and on election day comply.

In North Carolina, straight ticket voting does not count for President. Many voters do not realize this and as a result, our state has one of the highestundervote rates for President in the US. In 2004 we lost 92000 votes for President, and in 2000 we lost 75,000 votes for President because of this counter-intuitive law. See NC Straight Ticket Confusion.

Below is the email sent to all counties, are they all complying?
From: Johnnie McLean [mailto:Johnnie.McLean@ncmail.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:07 PM
To: Directors.boe
Cc: ElectTechs.Sboe;
Subject: IMPORTANT INFORMATION

In order to ensure that all voters receive the information about President/Vice President being voted separately from all other offices you are directed to reproduce the following message (printed four to a page to be cut) and hand/mail to each voter when the ballot/voting equipment is assigned to the voter. Any color paper may be used to duplicate this information. This measure is in addition to the verbal instructions the pollworkers are to provide

****************************************************************************************************************NOTICE: E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized state official.
***************************************************************************************************************
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by anauthorized county official. If you have received this communication in error , please do not distribute it. Please notify the sender by E-mail at the address shown and delete the original message.

[Attachment]

PLEASE NOTE:

A "straight party" vote does not include the office of president or
any nonpartisan race or issue. You must vote for president/vice
president separately from the other offices. Nonpartisan offices
and issues also must be voted separately. More detailed instructions are
on your ballot. For paper ballots, be sure to turn the ballot over.

#

Background information

North Carolina Straight Ticket Confusion - Voting Straight Ticket in North Carolina does NOT include the Presidential contest. NC Coalition for Verified Voting 10/17/08

How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad By Lawrence Norden & Margeret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice 10/21/08

It May Be Harder to Vote in Swing States By: David Rosenfeld Miller-McCune 10/22/08

Thursday, October 23, 2008

North Carolina: Vote Early and Vote Often? Is Early Voting Safe?

North Carolina offers early voting as an option for voters, in addition to election day voting. With North Carolina being considered a battleground state, voters worry about about voting machine fraud or malfunction, voter registration glitches, and voter fraud.

Is early voting risky, is it safe, is it prone to fraud? I believe that early voting does have the checks and balances needed to make it as safe as voting on election day. A voter wrote to ask me: "What documentation do poll workers use to verify that someone who has voted early or by absentee ballot does not vote again in their assigned precinct?"

Here is the answer:

The state has checks and balances in place. Up front, we have the poll book records to keep track of who has voted already. Some counties use electronic poll books or laptop computers, and others use paper poll books. To ensure that no one casts a ballot twice, the "one stop" ballots cast are "retrievable" ballots.

An election director explained this to me in some fairly simple language, which I will share with you:

The ballots are retrievable and can be removed from the machine if necessary.

What reasons dictate the removal of a early vote ballot from the machine?

The vote is tied to the voter even on optical scan/paper ballots - we are required to put the ID number on the ballot itself (or enter it into the DRE before the voter votes). The same process is designated on absentee ballots. The reason for this is that absentee ballots including one-stop voters must be approved by the board and can be challenged by any voter. So at the absentee meeting, if it is determined by the board that the voter is ineligble for whatever reason, the ballot could then be removed. Also if the voter votes on election day (which shouldn't happen but sometimes does) the absentee or one-stop ballot can then be removed and the vote subtracted so that the voter does not have their ballot counted twice.

There is no question that people voting absentee or one-stop give up some of the privacy of the ballot. It is marked with a number that can identify the ballot. However, every effort is made to protect the secrecy of the ballot because for instance if the board is looking at it, they are only seeing the number not a name.

You can also review North Carolina election law, although the references to one stop voting probably need to be updated to reflect that all of our voting systems have "retrievable" ballots, since we passed our paper ballot law in August 2005.

For more detailed legal language see this file of NC Election Laws (rather large PDF) and refer to page 236.
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/getdocument.aspx?ID=249

Remember, whatever the process, whether it is casting a ballot, registering to vote, or voting early, its all about checks and balances. And remember, each of the 100 Counties in North Carolina have non partisan Election Directors to administer elections, and they have bi partisan Board of Elections Members, appointed by your political parties to oversea policy decisions. This setup provides great oversight of the process.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Brennan Center: How Bad Is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw?

Lawrence Norden and Margaret Chen of the Brennan Center for Justice warn about North Carolina's confusing straight ticket ballot. In 2004, when NC Verified Voting warned the media, activists and voters, the feedback was - surprise. In 2006, we got the same reaction - surprise.
That reaction, combined with NC's high undervote rate for President (one of the highest undervote rates for President in the US., worse than Florida) says that we need to warn voters each day of early voting and on election day, and we need to re-consider how to approach this voting method and ballots in the future.

North Carolina threw away 92,000 votes for President in 2004, and 75,000 votes for President in 2000.


How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad
By Lawrence Norden & Margaret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice10/21/08

Some of you may have read about North Carolina's very confusing straight-party voting rules and ballots. If history is any guide, this has the potential to have a huge impact on the outcome of the presidential contest in North Carolina.

... read the full report here

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

NC Robo Calls Cost Women's Voices Women Vote $100,000

It is about time. Women's Voices, Women Vote broke NC law by making anonymous robo calls to voters during early voting of the primary. They also sewed confusion by mass mailing official looking voter registration forms to voters who were already registered or who were ineligible to vote. In dozens of states, during the primary, and since then, WVWV' s confusing mailers have caused registered voters to think they weren't registered, and has clogged registrars' offices with duplicate and sometimes inaccurate voter registration forms. WVWV was sending "registration forms" to small children, deceased people, and already registered voters in dozens of states. Several states are seeking to create new laws to prevent this type of chaos again, since WVWV has repeatedly ignored officials complaints about the group's practices. WVWV cannot "work" in North Carolina again until or unless it provides a written plan to the Attorney General's office on how WVWV would comply with the law.

Political group to pay $100,000 for robo calls October 21, 2008

RALEIGH - A group that made political robo calls before the May primary that violated state law has agreed to pay $100,000 in penalties and is barred from operating in the state before the November election, the State Attorney General's Office announced today.

The group, Women's Voices Women Vote, today agreed to pay $100,000 in civil penalties, the office announced. The money will go to North Carolina schools.
The organization also agreed not to resume any voter registration, education, turnout or similar activities in the state until after the Nov. 4 election. Future voter activities would have to comply with state law, and the group would have to provide the Attorney General's Office with a written description of how it would ensure its compliance with the law.

The Attorney General's Office began investigating Women's Voices Women Vote after it began calling people shortly before the primary

The prerecorded calls told people that they would soon receive voter registration forms in the mail, which they should fill out and submit. But the deadline to register by mail had passed, and some call recipients already were registered to vote, causing confusion, according to the Attorney General's Office.

...more at the link

North Carolina and the ACORN Voter Registration Drive

I wanted to get the straight facts about the North Carolina Acorn voter registration story, so I interviewed one of the North Carolina County Election Directors who reported some of the bad ACORN forms.

Acorn submitted about 28,000 registration forms in North Carolina. Contrast that with nearly 700,000 new registrations in the state. Readers, please remember, we have bi-partisan members on every County backing up our Election Directors as watchdogs. They are looking out for you. In the news article NC election officials investigate voter forms , few forms were considered suspect; there were about 120 for Durham County and about 30 from Wake County. These are the only counties that complaints have been reported in. "Durham elections director Mike Ashe said ACORN helped the county develop a system to trace problems."

Yesterday, I called up Mike Ashe, Director of Elections in Durham County, who reported some of the fraudulent registration forms that were submitted by ACORN. I felt that Mr. Ashe would be the best source of information on this issue, given that he had first hand experience.

I have paraphrased the first part of Mike's answers to my questions, (hence no quote marks) in order to make the answers less conversational and clearer to those who aren't versed on voter registration issues. The last half are direct quotes.

Question to Mike Ashe: What happens when you get ACORN forms?

Answer: (paraphrased)

We have several processes to screen them. Forms must be complete in order to process them. Voters must supply their birth date, a drivers license number or the last 4 digits of their social security number. Voters must sign the forms.

We run matches of the applicant's last 4 digits of their social security number or their drivers license number against corresponding govt databases. Any form that doesn't get a match, is coded must show ID the first time they vote. If the form does not provide these numbers, then the registration is flagged and the voter must provide ID the first time they vote.

Answer: (Direct Quote) "The ACORN issue was not ever voter fraud, but voter registration fraud trying to steal money from ACORN. Trying to get their quota. Lots of bogus to defraud their employer.

Durham got several applications for the same guy. The county doesn't turn in dozens of apps for the same guy. ACORN is required by law to turn in all apps. They (ACORN) flag the ones that they think are suspicious, they provide a cover sheet.

(We election officials) Have ability to reject , we are required to process all the forms, some go directly into the reject queue because of missing info, alot of them are very obvious. Many took pages out of the phone book. Alot don't have the date of birth, missing alot of required information."

Commentary: I hope that knowledge of the screening process provides some reassurance to you. I feel that we would hear more about this from election officials or their Board of Elections members, the members being appointed by the political parties themselves, if we didn't have the needed controls to prevent actual voter fraud.

Remember, your County's Director of Elections is a non partisan employee of the County. In addition, both political parties have a representative on each County's Board of Elections. These Board of Elections members are appointed by the county's political party Chairmen. These members sit in on canvassing meetings and policy meetings on a regular basis. They would see and hear about any questionable voter registration forms.

To find out who your County's BoE members are, you can go to your County Board of Elections website , visit this link

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Times story on voter databases gets it wrong on North Carolina

Times story on voter databases gets it wrong on North Carolina
Rumor control. New York Times article misleading. The NY Times yesterday ran a thinly researched article on voter purges in several states including North Carolina, “States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal” (10/08/08) . It uses lots of vague talk like “seems,” “appears,” or “may have . . .,” without much elaboration or direct reporting. The NY Times reporter did not cite comments from any North Carolina election officials or any local advocacy groups.

The NY Times reporter even seems to clear North Carolina in his response to my email asking what was going on.

The NY Times reporter even seems to clear North Carolina in his response to my email asking what was going on. Read it here:

From: Ian Urbina
To: joyce mccloy
Subject: RE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
Date: Oct 9, 2008 9:03 AM

From what we can see in the data, NC does not seem to have any major redflags. Best we can tell, it looks like the number of people coming off therolls would roughly correspond with the number of people leaving the stateor dying during that period (both of which are legitimate reasons to removepeople within 90 days before an election).

Ian

Read more here

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

North Carolina: Straight-ticket omits presidential race

Its good to see that someone is raising the alarm. Too bad there's nothing about the dangers of straight ticket voting in the voter guide sent to millions of North Carolina voters. Actually, it is too bad that North Carolina has this convoluted straight ticket-does-not-count-for-President law in the first place. Every four years NC ranks in the highest undervotes for the presidential contest. An undervote occurs when people people cast a ballot, but either chooses not to vote in a particular contest, or for some reason the vote is not recorded and tallied.

In 2004, Scripps Howard News Service reported that voters who mark the "straight-party-ticket voting" option must also vote separately for president. Every four years, tens of thousands of voters in both states (North Carolina and South Carolina) apparently forget to do this.

Straight-ticket omits presidential race
By James T. Hamilton Special to The Observer
Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008

Hundreds of thousands of new voters have been added to North Carolina's voter registration rolls this year. The candidates, parties and interest groups will spend millions to get N.C. voters to the polls. Once these voters are in the voting booth, however, thousands will be disenfranchised by the design of the ballot.

Imagine, for example, you are a first time voter with a desire to vote straight party – to vote for all the candidates of a particular party. If you look at the official ballot that Mecklenburg County and all other counties are set to use on Nov. 4, you'll find the following sentence: “A Straight Party vote is a vote for all candidates of that party in partisan offices. Individual partisan office selections are not necessary if you select a Straight Party below.”

If you followed those directions, filled in the Democratic or Republican oval in the Straight Party Voting section and then left, you might think you'd just voted for president.
But you would be wrong.

Obscure change to the law

On North Carolina's ballot, the presidential contest is not included in the list of “Partisan Offices.” In order to cast a vote for president and a straight party vote, you need to make two marks – one in the presidential contest and the other in the straight party section. (And a straight-ticket vote does not cast a vote in judicial races, because those are nonpartisan.)
A state law passed in 1967 prohibits the combination of the vote for the president with any other office on the ballot. Why would a General Assembly controlled by Democrats in 1967 pass such a law? Straight party voting reduces the time it takes people to vote. It also means more votes are cast for offices lower on the ballot because people can simply register their vote for all partisan offices with one mark.

But for Southern Democrats in the 1960s, the specter of increasingly liberal candidates at the top of the ticket raised a problem. If the vote for president were included in the straight party option, Democrats who did not like the presidential nominee might be less inclined to vote straight party. The solution – separate the vote for president from the straight party vote.
Unfortunately, this ballot design introduces confusion. Some voters check the straight party option without realizing the need to vote separately in the presidential race. In studying the effect of ballot design on voting outcomes in North Carolina in 1992, Duke professor Sunny Ladd and I estimated that the straight party voting option caused nearly 1 percent of voters who went to the polls to fail to cast a vote in the presidential race.

Enough to make a difference?

If the ballot design causes about 1 percent of voters to fail to register their preferences, should we worry? In many elections, the presidential vote in North Carolina is not close. But in 1992, George H.W. Bush narrowly defeated Bill Clinton in North Carolina by getting 43.34 percent of the vote versus 42.65 percent for Clinton. Polls indicate this year, for the first time in many years, the presidential race in North Carolina might be similarly close.

Election officials know the straight party voting option is confusing. The ballot for 2008 contains reminders that you need to vote separately for the office of president.

Yet the ballot instructions are still hard to follow. The McCain and Obama campaigns should experiment now with different get-out-the-vote instructions that are phrased so voters actually cast their ballots for president when they go to the polls. After the 2008 election, the state should also engage in focus groups and other research to make sure future ballots are less confusing.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain are promising to bring change to Washington. It would be highly ironic if the version of change N.C. voters select is based not on their views of the candidates in 2008 but on the design of the ballot selected by the General Assembly in 1967.
James T. Hamilton is the director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University.


Monday, September 29, 2008

North Carolina Elections Rumor Control: Wearing political t-shirts, hats etc. to the polls is not against NC law

This rumor has been spotted mostly amongst the Obama camp. Emails are warning supporters that wearing political gear, hats, t-shirts, buttons etc - that feature a political candidate to the polling places is against the law. It is FALSE.

The rumor comes in an email entitled "Please advise everyone you know not to wear Obama gear to the polls". The claim is that this is considered "electioneering" or campaigning and no one can campaign within 100 feet of the polls, so wearing political gear will get you turned away.

None of those rumors are true, at least not for North Carolina. but please don't take my word for it. If you wear your Obama t-shirt, McCain t-shirt, Bob Barr t-shirt, or Cynthia McKinnie t-shirt, will you get turned away from the polls? To clear matters up, I emailed Don Wright, the General Counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections today. He replied in a matter of minutes and explained:

From: Don Wright
To: Joyce McCloy
Subject: RE: electioneering question
Date: Sep 24, 2008 3:16 PM

This rumor has been circulating for several days.We allow voters to wear items inside the polling place in North Carolina. But other states may differ (I understand Tenn. does not allow it)A NC voter may enter a voting place to vote wearing political items as long as they...

proceed to vote in a orderly and timely manner, and do not attempt to electioneer within the voting place. A voter wearing a t-shirt saying "Vote for X"that shouts "vote for X" or places his T-shirt in the sightline of voters asking support for "X" is obviously electioneering and will be asked to refrain from the conduct at once, and if they continue will be removed.

A voter that has a political cap, T-shirt, or button and does not electioneer within the polling place will be allowed to vote in a normal matter. A voter wearing a political item does not violate GS 163-166.4
Don Wright
General Counsel

§ 163 166.4. Limitation on activity in the voting place and in a buffer zone around it.
(a) Buffer Zone and Adjacent Area for Election Related Activity. - No person or group of persons shall hinder access, harass others, distribute campaign literature,place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election related activity in the voting place or in a buffer zone which shall be prescribed by the county board of elections around the voting place. In determining the dimensions of that buffer zone for each voting place, the county board of elections shall, where practical, set the limit at 50 feet from the door of entrance to the voting place, measured when that door is closed, but in no event shall it set the limit at more than 50 feet or at less than 25 feet. Except as provided in subsection
(b),the county board of elections shall also provide an area adjacent to the buffer zone for each voting place in which persons or groups of persons may distribute campaign literature, place political advertising, solicit votes, or otherwise engage in election related activity.
(b) Special Agreements About Election Related Activity. - The Executive Director of the State Board of Elections may grant special permission for a county board of elections to enter into an agreement with the owners or managers of a nonpublic building to use the building as a voting place on the condition that election related activity as described in subsection
(a) of this section not be permitted on their property adjacent to the buffer zone, if the Executive Director finds all of the following:
(1) That no other suitable voting place can be secured for the precinct.
(2) That the county board will require the chief judge of the precinct to monitor the grounds around the voting place to ensure that the restriction on electionrelated activity shall apply to all candidates and parties equally.
(3) That the pattern of voting places subject to agreements under this subsection does not disproportionately favor any party, racial or ethnic group, or candidate.An agreement under this subsection shall be valid for as long as the nonpublic building is used as a voting place.
(c) Notice About Buffer Zone. - No later than 30 days before each election,the county board of elections shall make available to the public the following information concerning each voting place:
(1) The door from which the buffer zone is measured.
(2) The distance the buffer zone extends from that door.
(3) Any available information concerning where political activity, including sign placement, is permitted beyond the buffer zone.
(d) Buffer Zone at One Stop Sites. - The provisions of this section shall apply to one stop voting sites in G.S. 163 227.2, except that the notice in subsection
(c) of this section shall be provided no later than 10 days before the opening of one stop voting at the site. (2001 460, s. 3; 2003 365, s. 1; 2007 391, s. 13.)

-----Original Message-----

From: Joyce McCloy Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 3:08 PM
To: Don Wright
Subject: electioneering question

North Carolina State Board of Elections
Don Wright, General Counsel
Dear Don;

Can you clear something up for me.Is there a restriction against voters wearing t-shirts, hats etc to the polls, while voting - that bears the likeness of a political candidate or in other ways shows support for a candidate?

There are several rumors about this circulating around the state and I also heard discussion on a radio show.Some rumors say that you won't be allowed in the voting area if you wear such attire, or that you won't get to vote unless you change clothes etc. None of these rumors are substantiated in any way by citing NC law.

Please advise.Regards;
Joyce McCloy
NC Coalition for Verified Voting
http://www.ncvoter.net/

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Registration mailers from Women's group can disenfranchise you

Not so innocent. They're at it again. Women's Voices, Women Vote, aka The Voter Participation Center. Sending out registration forms to people already registered, sometimes with incorrect information, mispelled name or incorrect address.

We all thought that besides the illegal and very misleading robo calls in North Carolina that WVWV was basically "harmless" except for them swamping election officials with redundant forms for voters who were already registered. And that they were only inconsiderate jerks for sending registration forms to people who had been deceased for 5 years or more, or for sending registration forms to 8 year olds, or to people who are already registered.

IF people aren't careful, and send in the WVWV registration form, they may be sending in a form that misspells their name or has a small detail wrong, has a wrong address, or other mistake which in turn could get that person kicked off of the rolls.

Election directors tell me that voters often don't notice if/when WVWV has put the wrong address on the registration form. The voter sends the form in, and the BoE changes the voters address to match the one on the WVWV form. This could change your polling place location or even cause you to get a provisional ballot or even get you kicked off the rolls.
Considering that Florida and 4 other states are requiring strict matching for new registrations or they block your registration, this is awful.

WVWV goes by the name of http://www.voterparticipationcenter.org/ also.

Here's a note from a Florida voter who got 2 of the scam registration forms, posted to one of my blogs:

I got a fake voter registration form twice from http://www.voterparticipationcenter.org/ instructing me to send my registration to Florida Department of State-Divison of Elections in Tallahassee,Fl I am registered to vote in my county just like everyone else. First big envelope was large and offical looking the second using my middle name came from Boston Mass. Some stinky pooh is going on here Wish I had not thrown first envelope away,but I have the second piece of misleading caging garbage.so there is a concerted effort to mislead voters.It says if you are not sure call 1 866-308-6739

Who is WVWV trying to help? Many of their Board members are former or current staffers for either of the Clintons. Many of the BoE have businesses that receive contracts from WVWV.
Perhaps friends of the Clintons could address this potentially disenfranchising scheme.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New: Fake Voter Registration Letter in Florida Misleads Voters

Bill Bucolo in Florida received a phony voter registration letter. The purpose of this letter was to confuse voters, not cage them, as the envelope did not say "do not forward". The forms can cause problems for the voter if he follows the instructions. The mailers also incorrectly tell voters that in Florida senior citizens do not have to present ID at the polls.

The Obama campaign will have to take action themselves, no one else is going to act swiftly enough. They MUST launch a vigorous phone call campaign to counter the mis-information that is being mass mailed to voters in Florida. We can't wait for Rep Conyers to launch an investigation that will go nowhere. When we had misleading robo calls in North Carolina during the primary, the Obama campaign set the record straight by giving many voters correct information by phone. The Obama calls prevented the fake robo calls from working. *

Here is Bill's email sent far and wide:

Subject: Tell me- did you get a fake vote registration letter too?

My Friends (as John McCain would say), I just received a genuine collector's item... one of the phony voter registration letters the GOP is sending to hundreds of thousands of voters throughout the swing states. See it below.

Let me know if you got one too.

The cheaters who send these want to trick people into screwing up their status with local Supervisors of Elections (images attached). With the encouragement of our Republican owned Secretary of State Kurt Browning, most of these SOEs would probably be only too happy to knock you or me off their books should we make a mistake on the form... or provide information a little differently from what they now have.

My letter supposed to come from the "Department of Children and Families," and was mailed to me with an E middle initial... mine's an F. It was mailed out of the Miami Cuban-Republican stronghold of Hialeah, FL. It arrived in a somewhat official looking slightly oversized window envelope with an official looking return address with the word "Circuit," and the letters DCF.
In addition to a wrong initial in my name... enough to knock me off the polls if anyone sends it in, much less me, the poorly copied registration form also says I don't have to show an ID if I'm over 65. (that part was real clear). I'm pretty sure that's not true also. I believe everyone has to show ID if they appear at the polls... but of course I went to the state's Election's web site and the link to those rules comes up black... a convenient "glitch."

But of course voters don't need to show any ID if they just mail their ballots in. That's another illogical rationale of the ID law. If I were going to be a phony voter with a slightly different name than the SOE has on their records, I'd just vote by mail. Any court that blesses this stupidity has to be complicit in the fraud- and it certainly seems like intent to fraud by the people who foisted this law. What are the odds that judge is a Republican and/or a fool?

Some people think these letters have "do not forward, return to sender" messages which, if returned tell the GOP who to challenge at the polls. Personally I think that's an unlikely strategy because it's so labor intensive. I don't think they have enough people to do that sort of thing effectively. Letting unsuspecting voters screw up their own registration or show up without ID would be far more efficient for these scum.

Now since this is an obvious vote fraud on a state-wide level, any self respecting state law enforcement agency should be onto this immediately... checking out the commercial mail houses to see exactly who the customer is, etc. But no... on local television today Florida Sec'y State Kurt Browning said the state police were overloaded with too many other kinds of criminals to chase. I guess felony vote fraud for a national election comes after whatever else they do. So we can expect the criminals to avoid repercussions for now... but there's always later. And a lot of us have a long memory.

Just make sure all of you and your friends and family members verify your registration records carefully. It's a shame most voters won't, and a real shame that this plan, along with whatever else the cheaters try may, little slice by little slice, cost us the state... and the other states where ID laws are now in effect. For now.

So, the letter's a keeper for sure because eventually we're going to nail these slug perpetrators for the treasonous unAmerican vote suppressors and vote thieves that they are. When this wave of vote stealing and fraud is put in the history books for the social sciences classes that will someday be reinstated in our schools, evidence like my letter will surely be an item worth showing off.

One last thing... If the State and National Dems don't fight this stuff with prominent advertising, multiple news releases, calls and letters to authorities and media, and in the courts with everything they have, they are flat out incompetent fools, and deserve what ever happens with this latest GOP trick.

Copies of the letter portions I described are below.

(Click on this link to see the letter)

# # # # # # # # #

Comment: Activists in Florida say they have determined that this mailer is outdated with incorrect instructions regarding permissible ID's. (But) Also under some circumstances people over 65 are in fact exempt from needing to show an ID... we trying to figure out if that's for mail-in ballots or at the polling place. The law seems ambiguous to us so were asking others.

I have sent this to the Brennan Center for Justice asking them for an investigation or clarification of the law. Millions of dollars are being spent on sending these confusing mailers out.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

NC State Elections Office update on McCain Mailer Confusion

An email from the North Carolina State Board of Elections brings good news today regarding the McCain campaign/absentee ballot requests confusion.

Voters will not be disenfranchised as a result of the form leaving off some personal information. At issue - the SBoE asks voters to provide their birthday on requests for absentee ballots - but it turns out that this is not an absolute requirement. Furthermore, if for some reason the Board of Elections cannot verify that the request is coming from the correct voter, they will send a "request for a request" to that person. Other states, like Ohio, are not so fair to voters.

Background: McCain campaign mailers invoked outrage among suspicious democrats in North Carolina (and other states) who were recipients of the unsolicited absentee ballot requests from the republican candidate. Many expressed fear that this was an thinly veiled attempt at voter caging or that the requests would not be accepted by local boards of elections The voters were especially concerned because of reports that the McCain campaign had sent out mailers with incomplete or inaccurate information in at least 9 other states.

Greg Flynn of Wake County wrote about the mailers on Sept 11, 2008 in McCain Confusing NC Republican Voters:

......McCain is telling people to request a ballot on a postcard using their own handwriting with their name, residence, phone number and signature..The critically missing piece information is the date of birth...At first blush this looked like a voter caging exercise but upon review it just seems sloppy. The pre-sorted mailing rate does not allow for returns.


Don Wright, the General Counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections advises today in an email:

It is not required in North Carolina that the date of birth is included on the request for an absentee ballot. It is useful to a county board of elections if there is trouble determining who is actually requesting an absentee ballot (Parent/child with same name at same address, voters with the same name) See the statute below.

§ 163‑230.2. Method of requesting absentee ballots.

(a) Valid Types of Written Requests. – A written request for an absentee ballot as required by G.S. 163‑230.1 is valid only if it is written entirely by the requester personally, or is on a form generated by the county board of elections and signed by the requester. The county board of elections shall issue a request form only to the voter seeking to vote by absentee ballot or to a person authorized by G.S. 163‑230.1 to make a request for the voter. If a requester, due to disability or illiteracy, is unable to complete a written request, that requester may receive assistance in writing that request from an individual of that requester's choice.

(b) Invalid Types of Written Requests. – A request is not valid if it does not comply with subsection (a) of this section. If a county board of elections receives a request for an absentee ballot that does not comply with subsection (a) of this section, the board shall not issue an application and ballot under G.S. 163‑230.1.

(c) Rules by State Board. – The State Board of Elections shall adopt rules for the enforcement of this section. (2002‑159, s. 57(a).)

If the request does not meet the above requirements we send the requesting person the standard request form used by the counties for the requestor to fill out and return. This has been our policy for years.

On September 10th and e-mail went out to the counties reminding them of the policy. That e-mail is set out below.

"We are aware that postcard requests for absentee ballots are being received by county boards of elections. Hopefully this will provide answers to most questions.

If the postcard contains sufficient wording for a reasonable person to know the applicant is requesting an absentee ballot it should be treated as a compliant request and a "simultaneous issuance" absentee ballot should be issued. Date of birth is not a statutory requirement to request an absentee ballot. It is an additional piece of information to assist CBEs in identifying the correct voter.

If the request card does not comply with GS 163-230.2, consider it a 'request for a request' as in previous years.

Johnnie F. McLean Deputy Director (919) 715-1790 "

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

NC Senator will introduce bill to ease indpendents ballot access in 2009

Over at Ballot Access News, Richard Winger reports:

North Carolina Senator Will Introduce Bill to Ease Independent
Candidate Ballot Access in 2009
September 16th, 2008

North Carolina State Senator Jim Jacumin (R-Connellys Springs) has told a constituent that he will introduce a bill to ease ballot access for independent candidates next year. North Carolina ballot access for independent candidates is so severe that no independent has ever qualified for U.S. House, U.S. Senate, or Governor, in the history of government-printed ballots in that state. Ross Perot in 1992 is the only person who ever qualified as an independent candidate. District independent candidates need a petition of 4% of the number of registered voters, which is as much as 20,000 signatures in some U.S. House districts. No independent candidate for U.S. House in U.S. history has ever overcome a petition hurdle as great as 14,000 signatures.


In North Carolina, it takes alot of support to get an independent on the ballot. Once on the ballot, this candidate has to overcome the impact of "straight ticket" voting, which favors one party or another. This option is often recommended by political parties, and often is relied upon by low information voters.

However, in spite of all of that, we see, as with Ross Perot, that independent candidates actually fare much better than third party candidates.

North Carolina Voters urged to use caution with mailed offers

Voters beware! Its election season, and the mischief and misfeasance abounds!

The Richmond County Daily Journal warns voters in North Carolina to be cautious in trusting election related mailings. Offers to help people register to vote or to get an absentee ballot may be legitimate, or they may be attempts at identity theft. Some mailers are honest efforts to help voters yet contain incorrect or incomplete information that may do more harm than good.

At a minimum, the mailers can cause confusion or suspicion, at worst case, the mailers may have errors that can disenfranchise the voter, and some mailers may be efforts at identity theft.

Voters urged to use caution with mailed offers
By David Wall/Richmond County Daily Journal Monday, September 15, 2008

Voters are being advised to read carefully any election data they get in the mail regarding absentee voting.

In addition to the question of whether absentee ballot requests are legitimate, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning to all U.S. residents, to be cautious of fraudulent voter registration drives used to commit identity theft.

According to the FTC, scammers are attempting to obtain individual Social Security numbers, supposedly to register a person to vote through the use of mass mailings, unsolicited telephone calls and e-mails. In fact it is merely another way for them to steal for unsuspecting people, the agency said.

As a rule, federal officials advise organizations conducting legitimate voter registration drives either contact you in person or give you a voter registration form to fill out yourself. They will never ask for your financial information.

Read everything carefully
“As with any relay of information, concerning a citizen exercising their right to vote, please verify all information on a request for an absentee ballot or a registration form is accurate and complete,” said Connie Kelly, Richmond County’s elections supervisor.“All voter registration changes or new registrations must be completed and received by the board of elections by Oct. 10. If there is an
issue or a problem that has arisen, there is plenty of time now to handle it and correct the situation.”


...Mail-in ballot requests must be received at the board of elections by Oct. 28, and the ballots must be returned by 5 p.m. Nov. 3.

Get more information on how to request an absentee ballot here at the State Board of Elections

Make sure you are registered to vote or that your registration is up to date and you know where to vote: see the State Board of Elections voter look up

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Greg Flynn: McCain Confusing NC Republican Voters

The McCain campaign is flooding voters in many states with absentee ballot requests, in hopes of increasing his turnout. North Carolina is one. Blogger Greg Flynn has the flyers on his "spot" and a great write up.

Pushing absentee voting this way has been successful for other politicians including George Bush in 2000. The problem is, that the request forms in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina have either incorrect, incomplete or confusing information on them. This hurts... the GOP vote. Greg Flynn points out that the forms he saw in Wake County NC are missing critical fields and also have an incorrect address to mail them too. Here's an excerpt, please visit his blog to read and see it all:

McCain Confusing NC Republican Voters by gregflynn, Thu Sep 11, 2008

The Campaign of John McCain has begun sending out misleading information to North Carolina voters about absentee voting. His target audience? Republicans.

...McCain is telling people to request a ballot on a postcard using their own handwriting with their name, residence, phone number and signature. The address example actually contains two addresses. One address in the example has a non-existent zip code, 127602. The other address immediately below it is a PO Box address.

The return address given is actually that of the Wake County, NC, Board of Elections but there is no clear identification of the Board. It simply says "Director of Elections". The postcard requires a first class stamp but does not tell the recipient the actual postage required.

...The critically missing piece information is the date of birth and, to avoid the risk of identity theft, that should not be placed in full view on the back of a postcard. At first blush this looked like a voter caging exercise but upon review it just seems sloppy. The pre-sorted mailing rate does not allow for returns. Such a request to the Board of Elections would not be valid and a response would generate more expense and delay and likely frustrate the recipient.

For anyone who has received this mailing, please contact the Board of Elections in your own state (in NC your County Board of Elections) to clarify the requirements that apply to your circumstances and needs. Lord only knows what Democrats received in their McCain Mailin'....

more at the link

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Brennan Center: Students Guide to Voting in North Carolina

Many college students don't vote because of questions about residency. To cut through the confusion, the legal experts at the Brennan Center For Justice have created a Legal Guide to Student Voting that "explains the basic residency, registration, identification, and absentee voting requirements for student voters in each of the 50 states and the D.C. Individual state guides can be downloaded here.

The full North Carolina guide to student voting is here.

Student Voting in North Carolina, an overview:

ID Requirements
Generally, North Carolina voters do not need to show ID at the polls. However, voters who register and vote during the early voting period will have to show proof of their residence address. First-time voters who registered by mail who have not had their identifying numbers verified by the state have to show ID when they register or vote.

Residency Requirements
North Carolina law clearly states that students who intend to make their school address their home during school, and do not presently intend to return to their former homes, can register and vote as residents of their school addresses.
Registering to vote in North Carolina may be considered an abandonment of voting residency in your old state.

Registration Requirements
The regular registration deadline is 25 days before Election Day, but North Carolina also has same-day registration during One-Stop Absentee voting (early voting), from nineteen days before the election to three days before the election.

Absentee Requirements
Anyone registered in North Carolina can vote absentee by mail, but the procedure is somewhat complicated: first, your request for a ballot must be handwritten, and second, your ballot must be witnessed by two adults.

For a complete write-up on this state's regulations, please visit: www.brennancenter.org/studentvoting/states/north_carolina/


The Brennan Center answers some other frequently asked questions:

Residency and domicile, what do they mean, exactly?
Learn what it really means to have residency and what that entails...

The Truth About Financial Aid
Students are often warned that voter registration might affect their financial aid. This is untrue for the vast majority of students. Learn more...

Tuition
Registering to vote more than likely won't hurt your wallet. Read more about in-state and out-of-state tuition as it relates to voting...

Taxes, your parents and you
Registering to vote cannot affect your parent's ability to claim you as a dependent. But it could hit you in the pocket, learn why....

Insuring your health and car
Registering to vote will have almost no affect on your insurance, car or health. Read more...

Driver's Licenses and Car Registration
Registering to vote may entail a trip to the DMV afterwards. See why...

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

AUDITING YOUR ELECTION 101 By Andy Stephenson

Will your vote count in 2008? Are you worried about inaccurate or fraudulent election results? You should be - because we know that errors are made and the stakes are high. Just this May, at least three North Carolina counties reported incorrect results on election night, and that is what the media went with. (SeeMecklenburg, Wake find vote flaws News 14 Carolina, NC and Thousands of votes missed in Tuesday tallies Jacksonville Daily News, NC May 9, 2008) .You can help protect electionsL email, call or otherwise ask your county and state political parties or other groups to AUDIT the elections. Send them this blog post. Here are the steps:

AUDITING YOUR ELECTION 101 By Andy Stephenson
In 2005, Andy Stephenson (RIP) gave a "teach in" in Ohio in 2005 on how to audit your elections. These procedures can and must be used to protect this year's elections whether your jurisdiction has has paper ballots or not. These "audits" help to check that correct procedures were followed, to check against tampering, and whether votes were counted correctly. Andy's lesson plan for elections is after the jump:

Andy Stephenson, "1962-2005 A good man, a tireless activist, and for too short a time, a friend." - David Allen, BlackBoxVoting.com

AUDITING YOUR ELECTION 101 By Andy Stephenson
Submitted by Forrester on Fri, 07/15/2005


The following document contains Andy's course notes for the class he gave at the CASE-Ohio "Teach-In" on May 7, 2005. This course basically contains the complete instructions for auditing an election conducted on a Diebold Optical Scan system, however Andy said that most of these instructions could also apply to ES & S or other vendors' equipment.

AUDITING YOUR ELECTION 101by Andy Stephenson

What does that mean when I say "audit an election"? Well, an election audit looks at the election results to ensure that all proper procedures were followed, and that the votes were recorded correctly. In an audit, you can see if any votes are missing, or if any votes have been tampered with. While you're auditing, you will need to look at every document that the system produces, from the audit log, to the poll tapes, to the numerous reports that are generated during the election. It may sound like a difficult process to audit an election, but really it's quite simple. It comes down to following certain procedures, gathering the right materials, and taking good inventory of your records. It's a methodical and detail oriented task that takes some time and energy, but other than that, it's not that hard to manage. By the time you leave here today, you will have all the tools you need in order to audit your local election successfully.

Part One: Background information regarding electronic voting and terminology.
Electronic voting occurs in nearly every state to some degree. This might not be directly evident when you visit your polling site. Most ballots are counted electronically, whether the votes were cast on a touch screen computer or on paper ballots.

Election night procedure:

Once the polls have closed, paper ballots are collected and then counted with an optical scan machine. The optical scan machine then records all of the data onto a memory card. Absentee ballots are also recorded on separate memory cards. The memory cards are then delivered by hand to the central tabulator, or the data is uploaded remotely into the tabulator by modem. Then reports and vote totals are generated, and sent to the canvassing board. The canvassing board is a group of about 5-13 appointed members, who service the election. The canvassing board then certifies the results of the election, and makes them official.

Terminology:

There are a number of terms that I will be referring to in today's presentation regarding voting equipment, and voting reports. Here I'll give you a brief explanation of some of these terms.

Voting Equipment:

GEMS: Global Elections Management System. "GEMS is a state of the art election management software package that runs on Microsoft's Windows operating system." (let me editorialize a bit here...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

Unity Election System. This is the central tabulator software. ES&S product

The ES&S Model 100 is a precinct-based, voter-activated paper ballot counter and vote tabulator. Utilizing advanced Intelligent Mark Recognition (IMR) visible light scanning technology, the Model 100 is a proven mainstay for jurisdictions worldwide utilizing precinct-level voting and tabulation.

The AccuVote-OS Tabulator: The tabulator is a multi-functional terminal that counts and tabulates the ballots at precincts on election day and communicates with the host computer at Election Central for accurate and timely jurisdiction-wide results.

Voting Reports:

Statement of votes cast (SOVC): It is a breakdown by precinct of the number of votes cast in each race in every election.

Audit Log: is equivalent to the "black box" on an aircraft. It contains everything that happens in the voting system, and tracks the times and dates of all activity that takes place within the GEMS server.

Modem Log: Records the dates and times that any external communications commenced with the server.

Windows Event Log: Shows if any changes or patches were made to Windows, which could affect the operations of voting software.

Poll Tape: A printout, similar to a cash register receipt. Zero tapes are printed before the election, showing zero votes on the machine, and at the end of the election, the tape is run again to show the results of each race in the election. Zero tape and poll tape is signed by elections workers after they are run.

Interim Report: A report printed each hour on the hour during election night, that shows the breakdown of votes cast in each precinct. These are usually timed and dated stamped automatically.Printing of this report will create an entry in the audit log.

Part Two: Overview of the public records disclosure laws'

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)/Public Records Request: State and Federal laws that you will use to obtain the documents you need for an audit.

Background info. on FOIA:

What to ask for in your public records request:
1.Zero tapes and poll tapes, date and time stamped, from the precinct you are auditing.
2.Statement of votes cast
3.Modem logs
4.Audit logs: from two weeks prior to the election, to two weeks after
5.Windows event log
6.Names of all poll workers
7."Key" log and names of everyone who had access to the central tabulator
8.Names of all pollworkers
9.Copies of all "trouble tickets": any recorded malfunctions, reported by pollworkers.
10.Copies of absentee totals and provisional totals
11.Copies of all e-mail and correspondence between elections office and hardware/software vendors, and their contractors.
12.Certification documents for the AccuVote and certification documents for the GEMS software being used in the county.
13.Lists of all precincts
14.Absentee and provisional reports. (Call Susan T. to get details)
Overview of public records disclosure laws, including Ohio statute.Also, an example of public records request. And a review of the FOIA,its guidelines and processes.

Part Three: Auditing the Election

Steps:

1. Inventory the materials obtained from your public records request/(FOIA). Look to see if anything is missing. Any missing materials are most likely your most important ones. Look at the audit logs for any gaps or lapses in time. Check poll tape totals against the statement of votes cast. Check the statement of votes cast against the interim reports. Check poll tapes against the interim reports. Regarding interim reports, they can be obtained through FOIA, but it is best to obtain one from the central tabulator on election night. That way it establishes a benchmark, and if any changes take place later in the process, you will have a document to compare to. Also,look at the modem log to ensure that the modem was functioning properly on election night. Look at the trouble tickets to see what kind of problems were encountered on election night. Pay particular attention to hardware issues such as modem errors, memory card failures, and transmission problems. Transmission and hardware failures will appear on the audit logs and modem logs.

Note any and all discrepancies.

2.Find errors, make a list of the problems that you found. Present this information to the candidate you are working for, and recommend further action. This action includes investigation of precincts where anomalies have been found, and a hand recount of the ballots from the

3.This is people intensive and you MUST organize groups now to train . You are going to need people in every precinct and at a minimum 5 people watching at central count on election night. Take binoculars. Pen Paper ASK questions don't be afraid. Take note...ask the names of people working on the central count computer. Become a poll worker, go through the training so you will be able to teach others what the procedures are. in the event you need them, have lawyers ready to file injunctions and lawsuits. Find lawyers you can work with locally that will work for costs only. They are out there.


Thanks goes to the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition where I found Andy's notes safely recorded for posterity.

Report on Need for Emergency Paper Ballots! (touch screen counties)

If you are in a touchscreen county, please read this and pass it on. The report explains the need for emergency paper ballots. Our state recommended them to touchscreen counties in 2006, but we need to ask again.

Must Read Report on Need for Emergency Paper Ballots! Avoid Disenfranchisement in 2008
Dr. William Edelstein & Save Our Votes have issued an EXCELLENT five page report titled "How can we prevent long lines from disenfranchising voters in this year's election?"

Dr. Edelstein, a physicist applied the queuing theory to voting and shows why long lines are likely. For example, queuing shows that "a voting time of 6.3 minutes would cause wait times longer than 2 hours in nearly all precincts."

Together Edelstein and Save Our Votes make the compelling argument for emergency paper ballots this November 4, and provide a point by point rebuttal to all the objections to emergency paper ballots. Additionally, the report gives specific suggestions for how and when to give out the emergency ballots and addresses cost, logistics and security. If you are in a jurisdiction or state that uses touch screen voting machines, then we strongly urge you to forward this report to your election officials and request emergency paper ballots.

From the report

"How can we prevent long lines from disenfranchising voters in this year's election?"
...The 2004 and 2006 general elections in Maryland were accompanied by very long lines, with voters in some locations waiting for hours to vote. Many left without voting and were thereby disenfranchised. This year's hotly contested presidential race is expected to cause a record turnout at the polls in November.

"The formation of polling place lines depends on the interplay among thenumber of voters, the number of voting machines, and the time each votertakes to vote. It is a process similar to that which occurs on highwaysduring rush hour. Traffic flows smoothly as long as traffic density islow. As volume increases, traffic gradually slows until, at someconcentration, it locks up and cars accumulate into long lines that can take hours to clear.

Physicist William Edelstein has applied mathematical queuing simulation to voting dynamics in Maryland. Dr. Edelstein studied an averageprecinct with 10 voting machines and 1500 actual voters (a turnout of75%). He found that if each voter takes an average of 4.6 minutes tovote, all precincts will have wait times of more than 15 minutes at somepoint during Election Day and 0.1% of precincts will experience waittimes of more than an hour.

But small variations in voting times can cause large changes in wait times. An average voting time of 5 minutes would mean that 10% ofprecincts would have a wait time of more than an hour at some pointduring the day, and a voting time of 6.3 minutes would cause wait timeslonger than 2 hours in nearly all precincts."

Thursday, August 28, 2008

North Carolina Elections: September is Voter Registration Awareness Month

The Bladen Journal reports today that this is September is Voter Awareness Month in North Carolina. This is an effort to eduate voters about the registration process in time for the November election. Voters should register now. If already registered, voters they should check to make sure their registration information is correct in order to avoid problems on election day.

September is Voter Awareness Month
Folks urged to register for November elections
Thursday, August 28, 2008 1:03 PM CDT

Erin Smith, Staff Writer ELIZABETHTOWN — Gov. Mike Easley has declared the month of September as Voter Registration Awareness Month and the Bladen County Board of Elections is trying to get the message to all voters— if you are not registered to vote and want to vote in the November general election, now is the time to do so.

...In order to be eligible to vote, a person must turn 18 years old by the date of the general election; you have to be registered to vote 25 days before the election; must be either a naturalized U.S. citizen or a native-born U.S. citizen; and you must give your physical address and your mailing address, if the two are different.

Voters who register will be mailed a registration card with their information and voting precinct on it.

Those looking to register can also go online to the state board of elections Web site at www.sboe.state.nc.us and print out and complete the form and mail it in. Other registration locations where folks can register include the DMV; social services offices; the library; or at their high school.


What if you have moved, had a name change or want to change party affiliation? You can use the North Carolina Voter Registration Application/ Change of Information Form found at the State Board of Elections website or just give your county Elections office a call with any questions.

“We can’t make changes to your voter registration without a written signature of the voter,” said Hammond.Voters needing to make changes to their registration may call or come by the board of elections office and make the necessary changes before the election. All changes to existing voter registration records must be made no later than Nov. 1, according to Hammond.

What about people who have been convicted of a felon and who have served their time, can they vote?

“There has been a lot of interest lately about people with felony convictions and voting,” said Hammond.Once a person is removed for a felony and has completed all punishments, paid fines, and has been released by the court, in the state of North Carolina, their citizenship rights are restored, according to Hammond. However, they will need to re-register to vote and will need to bring with them a paper from the court stating they have been released, said Hammond.


Other opportunities to register to vote:

In Person Registration at early voting sites. A North Carolina resident who is qualified to register to vote may register In-Person and vote at a One-Stop Site in the person's county of residence during the One-Stop Absentee Voting period. The One-Stop Voting period extends from 19 to 3 days before Election Day.

The process is sometimes referred to as “In-Person Registration,” but it is important to recognize that it not permitted on Election Day itself.

To use this process, a citizen must (1) go to a One-Stop Voting Site in the county of residence during the One Stop Absentee Voting period, (2) fill out a voter registration application, and (3) provide proof of residency by showing the elections official an appropriate form of identification with the citizen’s current name and current address. The new registrant may vote ONLY at a One-Stop Absentee Voting Site in the county of registration during One-Stop Absentee Voting period and not on Election Day.

More information on "in person" registration at the State Board of Elections webiste here

North Carolina Early Voting Sites - prescription for success for the 2008 Presidential Election

What does it take to make early voting a success in North Carolina? More early voting sites? Checking your registration? It is getting to be that time again and advocacy groups are pressing for additional early voting sites so as to avoid long lines and/or bottlenecks. What does it take to enfranchise the most voters?

General Election - Nov. 4
Last day to register to vote: 10/10
Mail-In Voting: 9/15 - 10/28
One Stop Reg. and Voting: 10/16 - 11/1
Click here for Candidate List

We really don’t know how many sites we will need when the November election roll around, but of course, we want to be prepared. The question is - what is the best plan of action and what are our options? How many sites are enough?

More does not mean better:

The whole purpose of early voting sites is defeated if they aren’t run efficiently. The biggest challenge will be to staff early voting sites, according to several election directors around the state. Well run sites with good parking are key. Adding more sites, if you can’t adequately staff them, makes matters worse for the voters. Shortages of poll workers lead to frustrated voters, long delays, and confusion. More volunteers are desperately needed to work the early voting sites. The average age of a poll worker is 72. It is time for more people to step in.

It is up to concerned citizens to volunteer to work at the polls. The only way our democracy can truly work is by turning concern into action and becoming part of the solution. Helping voters and assisting elections officials is a simple, supportive and paid way to do this. Interested citizens should contact their County Board of Elections right away to volunteer.

Voters can streamline the process by checking now to see that they are properly registered and that their information is up to date. This information is available on the State Board of Elections website or can be verified with you county elections office.

First time voters should always bring some sort of identification with them just in case. Take along any valid photo I.D., a utility bill, or government document addressed to you when you vote. Even if you aren’t a first time voter, it helps to bring ID. When you do vote, bring a friend or neighbor.

NCVV notes:

Without volunteers (they do get paid though), the Board of Elections cannot run one stop sites. About 1/3 of all votes in NC are cast early, the rest are cast on election day. Waiting time is much shorter on election day when voting at your precinct but you don’t have a second chance to correct faulty registration information as you would during early voting.

Early voting offers a bigger choice of voting times, but longer waiting, as there are fewer sites serving more people. During early voting, people can register to vote if they have not already done so. If you decide to vote early, then you may be able to reduce your wait by going earlier in the day. GOTV efforts should consider this as well, to reduce bottle necks that occur when everyone waits until the end of the day.

Find answers to your questions about voting at the North Carolina State Board of Elections website . To volunteer to be a poll worker contact your County Boards of Elections .