At the request of Virginia’s registrars Gov. Kaine has amended the verified voting bill to delay it’s enactment until July 1, 2008. This means registrars can continue to buy the DRE machines until that date.

If you have ever wondered where the Emily in Emily’s list came from, it is an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast. The money that comes in early gives a candidate credibility and makes it easier to raise additional funds and attract additional support. Successful fundraising gives a campaign credibility in the eyes of editors and helps generate positive coverage. Ten dollars in March is worth a hundred dollars in October. Therefore small donors are well advised to give early in the season.

This is doubly true in race for Virginia’s 34th Senate District. Giving money to Chap Petersen now will be included in his quarterly filing. The current incumbent will have a pile of money, so it is critical that Chap raise as much money as possible for the first filing.

Here in Virginia the most determined opposition to paper ballots is coming from the registrars who bought DRE voting machines. Legislators usually defer to registrars because in general they are very knowledgeable about the mechanics of holding elections. In general they are very nice people who care deeply about free and fair elections. The problem that, having bought these machines, they are deeply vested in their decision. They are putting tremendous pressure on legislators and only a massive demonstration of support by constituents will be sufficient to counter their pressure.

The Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections Committee just reported SB 840, a bill that requires voter-verified audit trails, or paper ballots for the English speakers reading this. The full Senate will vote on this in a matter of days, so it is critical that Virginians contact their state Senator without delay.

Great news! Monday January 30th marks another amazing opportunity to share your hopes with the fine folks in Richmond!

Please take a minute to call your senator. Bi-Partisan Support for Reliable Voting legislation needed asap! Vote yes for S.B. 424!

This is a urgent Action Alert notice for VA constituents of Democratic Senators Whipple, Howell, Puller, Saslaw and GOP Senators Martin, Hawkins, Potts, Stolle, O'Brien, Reynolds, Bell, and Obenshain. This list is mostly of those who are members of the VA Senate Privileges and Elections Committee.

Virginia Verified Voting

Come to Lobby Day Tue Jan 24

Now is the time to act!

Senate Committee Meets Tue Jan 24, 4 PM

Delegate Tim Hugo and Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis have introduced legislation requiring voter-verified paper audit trails for voting equipment (HB 1243 and SB 424). For these bills to become law, we will have to make a strong showing to our legislators. Digital voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail are subject to programming errors and possible fraud, with no capability for meaningful audits or recounts.

Del. Timothy D. Hugo, R-Fairfax, the subcommittee chairman, said he would submit legislation calling for a permanent paper record of every vote cast, but opposition from election officials, including registrars, appeared likely to doom this proposal.

... Jean S. Jensen, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said the board could not start the pilot project until 2007, perhaps in time for local government elections in May.

In November, she urged caution in going to a paper verification trail, saying many states were having problems with paper audit machines. She said the state should wait until the technology evolves.

Deeds, in recent weeks, tried to get as many ballots as possible counted individually. McDonnell fought the strategy, arguing that the handling of ballots could lead to human error. He urged judges to simply add the tape totals from the machines.

Lawyers for Deeds and McDonnell remain at odds over the recounting of paper ballots cast on optical scanners and punch-card machines. Deeds wanted all of those ballots -- more than 500,000 of them -- run through the machines again to determine whether some votes for attorney general were not recorded during the first count. McDonnell objected, arguing that handling of paper ballots would open the door to human error that could affect the integrity of the results.

In the Virginia Attorney General's race, the Democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds, is an achingly 323 votes behind Republican Bob McDonnell. On Monday, November 28, the vote will be certified. Then Deeds, or McDonnell will call for a recount.

On December 6, a three judge panel will hear the request for the recount and set recount procedures, that will be the same in every part of Virginia.

R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, said Wednesday that voting machines in the Roanoke area had malfunctioned in Virginia's elections Tuesday and that he has appointed a team to prepare for a state-paid recount.

..."I'm going to do everything I can to make sure every vote is counted," said Deeds after strolling into a meeting room at the Marriott Hotel in Richmond a few minutes before Kaine was to give his first post-election news conference.

Deeds stopped short of alleging fraud, and he said he did not know precisely what had happened in the Roanoke area. But he cited "anecdotal evidence" of irregularities reported in both Roanoke County and the city of Roanoke.

"People pushed the touch screen for my name, and on the final page they had voted for Bob McDonnell," he said, naming his Republican opponent.

Washington, DC -- The U.S. Department of Interior has told its elite ecological scientists that they have to raise 20 percent of their own salaries and research funds from outside sources, according to memos released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This new "business practices" policy jeopardizes long-term research, skews scientific priorities and causes researchers to spend time scrambling for funds, say affected scientists in a PEER survey released today.

Frankly, I don't understand how this is even legal.

A US politician challenging the pro-Hollywood Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is supporting file-sharing as a means to promote business innovation and keep the internet free.

Republican challenger Steve Urquhart is taking a pro-small business and creative commons stance against Hatch, arguing that hobbling file-sharing technology through government legislation, that is enforced through the courts, is bad for business. Urquhart is running for the GOP seat against Hatch in 2006.

So, who among Mississippi Democrats will step forward and hold Lott accountable for his shocking indifference to the fate of his constituents?

Joint Subcommittee Studying the Voting Equipment Certification Process (HJR 174 - 2004) have been scheduled in the General Assembly Building in Richmond:

Monday, August 22, 2005, at 12:30 p.m. in House Room C