Judge Rules in Favor of Md. Vote Machines
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An Anne Arundel County judge Wednesday  rejected a challenge to the state's touch-screen voting machines, saying they are more accurate than the paper ballots plaintiffs are seeking to make optional for the November elections. -The Washington Post
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A state rule barring the 15 Florida counties with touchscreen voting from conducting manual recounts is at odds with state law, which requires hand recounts in some close elections, a judge ruled Friday.
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A U.S. District Court judge yesterday effectively ended efforts by Republicans in Ohio to challenge the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters in one of the most closely contested states in this year's presidential race.
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A judge on Friday chastised state officials for botching efforts to ensure electronic voting machines are tamperproof but cleared them for use in the November election, saying it was too late now to change course.
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A judge said it would be too costly to allow voters skeptical of electronic voting systems to opt for paper ballots.
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A federal judge Sunday denied the state Republican Party's bid to force Washington's most populous county to stop counting some ballots in the recount of the governor's race.
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A judge has ruled that Maryland's anti-spam law &#151; the first state law to penalize senders of junk e-mail &#151; is unconstitutional because it seeks to regulate commerce outside the state's borders.
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A federal judge rules that Florida doesn't have to provide a paper trail for electronic votes, tossing out a congressman's lawsuit. Jacob Ogles reports from Orlando, Florida.
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A Superior Court judge on Wednesday ordered the state to rewrite, reprint and redistribute all its ballots for the Nov. 2 election, saying the wording of a ballot initiative was inaccurate and biased.
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Many voter rights' advocates are fighting to decertify electronic voting machines, arguing they're not reliable. But one bloc is behind the new equipment -- disabled voters who say the machines give them privacy.
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A federal judge rejected arguments from the Bush administration Tuesday and ruled for Democrats in a dispute over how to count provisional ballots, a new voting requirement that could become the hanging chad of 2004.
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The Federal Election Commission can continue to regulate independent political groups on a case-by-case basis and does not need to adopt new rules to govern them, a federal judge said Thursday.
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Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said today that he would introduce a slot machine gambling bill very similar to one that passed the House of Delegates in 2005, and sought to legalize 9,500 machines at racetracks and other locations in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Frederick and Harford counties.
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A US District Court judge has sent the Federal Election Commission back to work on a passel of rules it wrote to put the 2002 campaign-finance law into effect.
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Los Angeles Times - SEATTLE &#8212; Washington's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that 735 newly discovered ballots in liberal-leaning King County must be counted, tipping the state's closest-ever gubernatorial election to Democrat Christine Gregoire.
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(InfoWorld) - A California judge is likely to order a Berkeley city initiative back on the ballot because of local officials' mishandling of electronic voting machine data, a public-interest lawyer arguing the case said Friday. In a preliminary ruling Thursday, Judge Winifred Smith of the Alameda County Superior Court indicated she would nullify the defeat of a medical marijuana proposal in Berkeley in 2004 and order the measure put back on the ballot in a later election. A hearing on Friday morning in advance of a final ruling brought out nothing that indicated Smith would deviate from her preliminary decision, said attorney Gregory Luke, who is representing Americans for Safe Access. The medical-marijuana advocacy group is suing the county, assisted by the technology rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. The case points to the dangers of electronic voting systems, which make it harder to ensure fair elections, Luke said. Electronic voting machines have been widely adopted in the U.S. since the disputed presidential election of 2000. Laws in California and some other states now require paper records of all votes, but the California law wasn't in place for the Berkeley election. Both sides argued their cases before Smith on Friday in a last-ditch hearing on the proposed sanctions, according to Luke. The hearing brought out nothing new that suggested Smith would change direction, he said. Americans for Free Access sought a recount of the vote on Measure R, which would have established procedures for opening marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley. It lost by fewer than 200 votes. A recount wasn't possible because the city didn't share the necessary voting records, in violation of election laws, Judge Smith ruled in April. In May,Â the county agreed to share some data. The county reused voting machines from Diebold Election Systems without saving sufficient data to carry out a recount or review the election process, Luke said. Officials failed to save key evidence even after the suit was pending, he said. Data from the vote in question has only been found on 20 of the hundreds of machines used in the election, according to Luke. In addition to ordering another vote on Measure R, Judge Smith's preliminary ruling called for the county to pay the $22,604 cost of the recount as well as attorney's fees and the cost of a trip to Diebold offices in Texas. Ordering a new vote is a rare move for a court, Luke said. "This is a very severe sanction. ... and it's warranted," he said Friday. Luke expects a final ruling in the case within two weeks. The county could appeal to a higher court if the ruling goes against it, he said. Attorneys for the county were not immediately available for comment.
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A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily stopped hearings on Republican challenges of thousands of voter registrations, ruling in favor of Democrats who alleged the challenges were an attempt to keep legitimate votes from being counted.