While the voters in Florida have received good news from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) which has told them they can spend HAVA funds for new optical-scan machines to replace their DRE machines, all is not golden. The interplay with the EAC has revealed that the state only reimbursed the counties with 20% of the funds they had coming when they bought new voting systems. Where did the rest of the money go and why are the counties still making payments for something that should have been paid for? Also, the state House of Representatives has taken the just passed Senate bill that would have given the voters optical-scan systems and they have begun a ‘slice and dice’ job on the bill. The House just needs to pass the Senate bill and fund the change and not play political games that will only harm the voters, again. Meanwhile a committee in the US House of Representatives has voted on party lines to investigate the FL-13 congressional election and what happened to 18,000 votes....

• NAtional: Observations on HR 811 LINK
• California: Riverside County - County eyes new absentee ballots LINK
• Colorado: Denver - Election Officials: Mail-In Ballot Election Running Much Smoother Than November Fiasco LINK
• Colorado: Larimer County - County to have mail-in election November ballot decision aims to save money for 2008 vote LINK
• Connecticut: Woodbury to Use New Voting Technology in May 8 Polling LINK
• Florida: Florida permitted to use federal funds to replace voting machines LINK
• Florida: Federal funds pave way to voting paper trail LINK
• Florida: Money For Paper Ballots OK'd LINK
• Florida: Editorial - Dumping touch screens an expensive non-solution LINK
• Florida: Editorial - Accuracy counts Our position: State House should approve optical-scan voting machines. LINK
• Florida: FL-13 task force to vote today on whether to investigate LINK
• Florida: FL-13 - Task force studying D-13 meets in public today LINK
• Florida: FL-13 - U.S. House task force votes to investigate the District 13 vote LINK
• Florida: FL-13 - GOP, Dems class over District 13 investigation LINK
• Florida: FL-13 - Congress launches probe into Florida congressional race LINK
• Indiana: Wayne County - Richmond test aims to boost voter turnout Opening vote centers a week before primary is 1 experiment among many across U.S. LINK
• Ohio: Licking County - Birth of a political machine? LINK
• Pennsylvania: Lackawanna County - Changing Voting Machines in Lackawanna County LINK
• Utah: Utah County - County will have fewer polling places in February LINK
• Vermont: Opinion - My Turn: Instant runoff voting is needed LINK
• United Kingdom: Hacking the online ballot box LINK

**"Daily Voting News" is meant as a comprehensive listing of reports each day concerning issues related to election and voting news around the country regardless of quality or political slant. Therefore, items listed in "Daily Voting News" may not reflect the opinions of VotersUnite.Org or Scoop.**

John Gideon
Executive Director www.votersunite.org and
Member www.votetrustusa.org