The complaints about suspect voting machines have become bipartisan:

In New Jersey, Republicans complained that the machines were rigged in favor of incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Menendez; in Virginia, where Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb's name was truncated on the interface of voting machines in several counties, Democrats complained that the machines were rigged in favor of the Republicans.

It's time for a bipartisan solution: machines that are easy to use and that produce a verifiable paper trail.

Reforming the mechanics of elections will help restore voter confidence, but better voting procedures won't stop the dirty tricks:

The polls are closing, the initial results are in. The only question is, how big a loss for Republicans? I'm thinking more than 20 seats. That seems to be the consensus here in cnn blogger land -- particularly among the liberal bloggers.

Now it's time for predictions. How many seats for Democrats?

HBO airs a documentary tonight, "Hacking Democracy," that explores the potential manipulation of electronic voting machines. For obvious reasons, electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold thinks HBO shouldn't blow the whistle on its hackable machines, leading Keith Olbermann to declare Diebold yesterday's Worst Person in the World.

One reviewer, criticizing the documentary as "torpid," argues that HBO should have made a different documentary focusing on other voting problems that surely merit attention:

On ABCNews.com last night and this morning is this story: Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections. A former Maryland state legislator received an anonymous envelope with three CD-Roms inside containing the source codes for the Diebold election systems.  With these codes, an election could be stolen.  Life imitates art ("Man of the Year"), or art imitates life? The source codes? What are kind of company are they running there?

When I watched "Man of the Year," all I could think of was President Bush stealing the 2004 election in Ohio.  

TChris wrote about Diebold security concerns here five months ago.

by TChris

The internet is not Las Vegas -- where, if you believe the advertising, you can be bad as you wanna be without fear that your spouse/friends/boss will learn of your (mis)adventures. What happens on the internet might not stay on the internet. It might instead be published in a newspaper.

Mark Foley learned that lesson the hard way. So did Justice of the Peace Sam Harris, who made some vulgar comments (reported here and here) in an internet chatroom. Harris is running for reelection, but the disclosure of his chatroom antics may imperil his campaign. A few Cascade County, Montana voters who have already cast absentee ballots in his favor are trying to change their votes. Can't be done, says the county clerk. What goes on the ballot stays on the ballot.

Speaking of Foley, here are ABC's latest disclosures, based on information provided by three more pages.

by TChris

A citizen, whether naturalized or born in the USA, is a citizen. Ohio nonetheless tried to impose a requirement that naturalized citizens provide proof of citizenship before casting a ballot, if challenged by a poll worker. How a poll worker was to distinguish between a citizen by birth and a naturalized citizen is a mystery, but no matter. Judge Christopher Boyko struck down the law, holding: "There can be no second-class American as far as any court is concerned." Exactly. (More on the ridiculous law here.)

Here's the shocker. The rule was so obviously unconstitutional that, when it was challenged in court, Ohio's notorious Secretary of State (and now gubernatorial candidate) Ken Blackwell didn't even try to defend it. So why didn't you refuse to enforce it from the beginning, Mr. Blackwell?

by TChris

As TalkLeft reported here, state and federal judges restrained the implementation of successive versions of Georgia's voter ID law. The first version, nullified by the federal judge, was a transparent effort to impose a poll tax designed to make it more burdensome for poor people to vote. The second version, restrained by the state judge, continued to burden disadvantaged voters. The state judge (predictably labeled an "activist" by Republicans because he actively followed the law) yesterday transformed his temporary restraining order into a permanent injunction.

"Nowhere in the Constitution is the legislature authorized to deny a registered voter the right to vote on any other ground, including a possession of a photo ID," he wrote.

These pesky constitutions have a way of foiling Republican plans to achieve a government that will be permanently controlled by Republicans. It's back to the drawing board for Republicans in the Georgia legislature, who will undoubtedly try to cook up another law to disenfranchise voters who might not vote for Republicans.

by TChris

Ken Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state who is running for governor, would probably prefer to destroy the ballots cast in Ohio for presidential candidates in 2004. Researchers who have recently obtained access to the ballots are questioning the integrity of the Ohio vote tabulation that he supervised.

After eight months inspecting 35,000 ballots from 75 rural and urban precincts, the critics say that they have found many with signs of tampering and that in some precincts the number of voters differs significantly from the certified results.

In Miami County, in southwestern Ohio, official tallies in one precinct recorded about 550 votes. Ballots and signature books indicated that 450 people voted.

Another problem:

I'll state my bias here right up front. Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis is one of the most enlightened law enforcement officer around -- and practicing criminal defense as long as I have, I've met quite a few.

At 61 and still standing 6/6″, Braudis has been Aspen's sheriff since 1986. This year he picked up a challenger, Rick Magnuson, who is the Aspen Police Department community safety officer. Their crime-fighting philosophies, particularly with respect to the war on drugs, couldn't be more different.

But Magnuson just pulled a dirty trick. This spring, Braudis had been sick for a few months. I saw him twice in Aspen the first weekend in June and he was clearly suffering from bronchitis. That Friday he told me had been his first day out of the house. The bronchitis had lingered and wouldn't go away. His doctor had insisted on him having blood tests, and it came back with news that he had very high cholesterol and blood pressure. He also said he had packed on a few too many pounds. Here's a picture I took of him that Saturday afternoon.

So Braudis took a seven week leave of absence to get his health in order. He didn't tell outsiders where he was going. Magnuson decided to play undercover cop.

by TChris

Colorado permits felons to vote after they finish serving a sentence. Because parole did not exist when the Colorado Constitution was enacted, the ACLU argued that a sentence ends (for voting purposes) when a felon is released from prison on parole. In a decision released today, the Colorado Supreme Court disagreed.

''Of course we agree with Danielson that parole did not exist at the time Colorado adopted its constitution, but this does not mean that the General Assembly was constrained from punishing crimes with sentences that include custody while the convicted person is being transitioned to community and before restoration of his or her full rights,'' the ruling said.

by TChris

While many Americans deny that race discrimination continues to be one of society's leading problems, only 33 Representatives in the House were willing to pretend that the Voting Rights Act is an anachronism. The other 390 voting Representatives approved the Act's reauthorization yesterday. Rep. John Lewis spoke to the depressing reality that racism is not dead:

"Yes, we've made some progress; we have come a distance," he added. "The sad truth is, discrimination still exists. That's why we still need the Voting Rights Act, and we must not go back to the dark past."

Fortunately, the Act came up for renewal in an election year.

by TChris

The Republican-controlled Georgia legislature made its intent clear when it enacted a law that required voters to have a driver's license or to buy a state-issued photo ID. Requiring payment for an ID amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax, so a federal judge struck the law down. Poll taxes don't prevent fraud; they suppress voting. That's the transparent purpose of Georgia's Voter ID law.

Undaunted, the legislature reenacted the law, this time offering the ID for free. In response, both a state judge and a federal judge have issued restraining orders against the law's implementation, concluding that the revised law is still likely to be found unconstitutional.

Judge Murphy decided the law still ran afoul of the federal Constitution. He said it violated the First and 14th Amendments because the severe burden on the right to vote discriminates against disadvantaged groups, those least likely to have a photo ID.

Burdening voting is exactly what the Georgia legislature intends.