--- Begin Message ---
Dave, there's one aspect to new voting technologies that hasn't
gotten a lot of attention yet: new federally-mandated statewide
voting databases. Our lead news story for October concerns them.
Steven
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/oct06/4663
The Next Voting Debacle?
Database problems may disqualify legitimate voters in upcoming U.S. elections
The Help America Vote Act of 2002, or HAVA, has garnered most of its
notoriety because it required election officials throughout the
United States to replace old paper-based voting machines with
controversial new electronic equipment by 2004. But there are other
provisions in the law that took effect only in January 2006, and
these are quietly creating their own potential for disrupting
elections this November-including the 468 House and Senate contests
that will determine control of Congress.
The new HAVA rules concern the databases that contain the voter
rolls-and in 49 of the 50 states, if you are not on the rolls, you
can't vote. Elections have often turned on the question of who gets
to vote and who does not. This time around, voter eligibility will
depend in large part on the contents of a number of databases, most
of which have been in existence for less than a year and some of
which have not been constructed in accord with the best practices of
the database industry. <more>
--- End Message ---