Author: ncvoterblog

The website of the NC State Board of Elections has been rated best in the country by the group “Social Government” a group dedicated to turning US goverment agencies into Government 2.0. That means using the full powers of the internet to serve and engage the public and provide transparency.

State Election Web Sites: The Good and Bad
By Ethan Klapper on March 21st, 2009 Social Government

One of the most important functions of state government is to administer elections. A good Web site for a state elections body is essential to make the entire electoral process go smoothly. Users should be able to find voter registration forms, rules, absentee ballot information and results with ease. The Web site should not be cluttered and should be accessible.

After reviewing 49 of 50 Web sites (Iowa’s was not reachable), I can say without much hesitation that North Carolina has the best election Web site in the country. The Tar Heel State’s Web site uses a clean and crisp design that is organized without any clutter. All of the information is easy to find. As a bonus, voters are even able to look up provisional ballot information. The top bar of the Web site contains current
voter registration counts — a nice touch.

More on what Government 2.0 is from Wikipedia

Government 2.0

Government 2.0 is neologism for attempts to
apply the social networking and integration advantages of Web 2.0 to the practice of government. Government 2.0 is an attempt to provide more effective processes for government service delivery to individuals and businesses. Integration of tools such as wikis, development of government-specific social networking sites and the use of blogs, RSS feeds and Google Maps are all helping governments provide information to people in a manner that is more immediately useful to the people concerned.[1]
A number of efforts have been made to expose data gathered by government sources in ways that make it available for mashups.
The election of Barack Obama has become associated with the effective use of Web 2.0 technologies during his campaign, and in the implementation of his new government in 2009.[2][3][4]

Social Government is a group aimed at turning Government into Government 2.0 by provising analysis, interviews and lins about various U.S. government agencies Web and Web 2.0 initiatives.

Note – North Carolina also has 100 County Board of Elections, each with their own website. Almost all of these counties are at or near Government 2.0 . NC Coalition for Verified Voting urges the few counties that are not yet using the internet to faciliate voter participation to do so pronto. Perhaps we need some legislation to that effect, unless ordering this is within the State Board of Elections authority.

Representative John Conyers proposes congressional hearings regarding allegations of voter fraud and a protection racket by ACORN. Conyers said the House Judiciary Committee has never had a member of ACORN before the committee and in fairness should. Several members on the committee oppose the hearings, so there might not be any. Accusations against the group stem from charges by a former employee “fired for charging about $2,000 in personal expenses on an ACORN credit card.”

Conyers suggests probe of ACORN
Calls fraud charges ‘serious’
S.A. Miller (Contact)Friday, March 20, 2009

…The testimony by Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh accused the nonprofit group of violating tax, campaign-finance and other laws by, among other things,sharing with the Barack Obama campaign a list of the Democrat’s maxed-out campaign donors so ACORN could use it to solicit them for a get-out-the-vote drive. She also testified that the Democrat-allied group provided liberal causes with protest-for-hire services and coerced donations from targets of demonstrations through a shakedown it called the “muscle for the money” program.

…Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties that hosted Thursday’s hearing, suggested there was not enough “credible evidence” to warrant a hearing focused exclusively on ACORN. Rep. Melvin Watt said he would concede that ACORN and some of its members engaged in voter fraud. But he said voter fraud was already covered by existing law and Congress has not further role in the matter. “I’m not coming to a hearing to have a trial on ACORN. That’s not my job,” the North Carolina Democrat said.

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/

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.”

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

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! 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

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

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.

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