EU Profiler: the authors of Kieskompas, a "Vote-O-Mat"-style tool for the undecided Dutch voter, following up on their adaptation for the US Presidential election (previously on MeFi), will launch an EU-wide version for the European Parliament elections upcoming in June. So Europeans, urge your political parties to register! The tool itself will launch in May.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Mar 29, 2009 - 6 comments

UK MPs trying to block publishing their expenses - they're voting on Thursday to overturn last year's High Court ruling. TheyWorkForYou is emailing members to let them know that the UK government buried the news of this vote amongst last week's Heathrow runway anouncement. They are trying to reverse the 16 May 2008 High Court decision that MPs' expenses must, under the Freedom Of Information Act, be made public. What can you do about this mixture of Jo Moore and Krusty? [more inside]
posted by TheDonF on Jan 19, 2009 - 58 comments

Do you know what to do if your vote is suppressed?
GOODVOTE.ORG is a group of volunteers from the technology community and blogosphere who simply want the will of the voters to be reflected in the result of the 2008 election. Our only purpose is to make sure that when legitimate voters are challenged they know who to turn to for help.
posted by mecran01 on Oct 27, 2008 - 36 comments

“I’m an old computer nerd,” Diener said. “I can do anything with computers. Nothing’s wrong with computers. But this is the worst way to run an election.” NYTMag piece on electronic voting, voter confidence, and the impact of old-fashioned problems like printer jams, befuddled voters and volunteers, and interface design flaws. By Clive Thompson.
posted by Miko on Jan 5, 2008 - 46 comments

CommandShift3 is like Hot or Not. Except, instead of clicking on hot babes, you click on hot websites. It's actually a pretty nice way to check out good design on the web. [more inside]
posted by MattS on Dec 11, 2007 - 16 comments

Who can count the ills visited upon modern society by women's suffrage? Dr. John Lott would include government spending, taxation and social programs. Lawrence Auster thinks that it's worth considering an end to the experiment of women's suffrage. (And is mocked and responds). Perhaps he'll find an ally in former senator Kay O'Connor.

On some level, it's heartening to see conservatives conserving 100-year-old arguments.
posted by klangklangston on Aug 13, 2007 - 54 comments

Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist. ...A poll worker then helped Rudolf, but it took three tries to get it right, Reed said. ... Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. ... Early voting problems already in Florida.
posted by amberglow on Oct 30, 2006 - 107 comments

A manual for electoral apocalypse in America. Quite a bit's been written both on MeFi and other places about how bad Diebold machines are. Rolling Stone wrote an article about election fraud in 2004 that was discussed here on MeFi. Tonight, Ars posted a very thorough, very clear article about how we are completely screwed if we do not enact expensive, fundamental changes in how we handle elections in America. It's too late to do anything about the elections in a couple weeks, but perhaps steps can be taken to fix things before 2008...
posted by sparkletone on Oct 25, 2006 - 45 comments

[O]ne muggy day in mid-August [2002], [Diebold consultant Chris] Hood was surprised to see the president of Diebold's election unit, Bob Urosevich, arrive in Georgia from his headquarters in Texas. With the primaries looming, Urosevich was personally distributing a "patch," a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program. "We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood says. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done. . . . It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told me. "We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level."
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Will the Next Election be Hacked?
posted by Saucy Intruder on Sep 22, 2006 - 111 comments

Diebold boss resigns pending fraud investigation
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome on Dec 13, 2005 - 164 comments

Oops. Touch-screen errors led to loss of 4,400 ballots in North Carolina election.
posted by drezdn on Dec 12, 2004 - 48 comments

Iraq success story! 87% of Iraqis look forward to voting! ... but not for Allawi! How about Abdel Aziz Hakim instead? He's the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and former leader of his own Iranian-trained and armed paramilitary army. Hakim was once part of Da'wa, an organization that bombed the US embassy in Kuwait in '83 and gave birth to Hezbollah. In the '90s, Da'wa and SCIRI seperated ideologically, with claims that SCIRI were Iranian lackeys. SCIRI now claims to have gone political, and although they enforce Sharia standards in Basra, they now claim to be pro-democracy and opposed to an Islamic state. Many secular Iraqis don't trust Hakim's motives or his close ties to Iran, however.
"(The U.S. occupation) is primarily responsible for (the death of my brother) and the blood that is shed all over Iraq every day. Iraq must not remain occupied and the occupation must leave so that we can build Iraq as God wants us to do."
- Abdel Aziz Hakim
posted by insomnia_lj on Oct 22, 2004 - 12 comments

BetaVote.com If we had our say - things would be very different. This is obviously not very reliable data but thought provoking non the less. I am pretty sure the 90 to 10 in Kerrys favor is a just about an accurate measure of Denmarks opinion.
posted by FidelDonson on Aug 31, 2004 - 20 comments

Veith v. Jubelirer affirmed by the US Supreme Court
In a 5-4 opinion, the US Supreme Court upheld that gerrymandered Congressional districts are legal and overruled Davis v. Bandemer. Full opinions available. For a background on why this is a structural constitutional problem and why we should be worried about it, read Gerrymandering - "The Great Contradiction".
posted by plemeljr on Apr 28, 2004 - 19 comments

NationalCity Diebold ATM crashes, giving anyone admin access. Amazing, some college students found a crashed Diebold WindowsXP ATM and were able to use it like a desktop machine. Your money isn't feeling too safe right about now. Your vote is probably just as unsafe.
posted by skallas on Mar 17, 2004 - 14 comments

The Suffragists Oral History Project has collected and transcribed oral histories from leaders and participants of the American women's suffrage movement. Suffragists Speak has audio clips of Alice Paul. [Via rebecca's pocket.]
posted by homunculus on Feb 18, 2004 - 3 comments

Florida just might screw it up again, with problems voting state-wide, with concentrations in the southern portion of the state. With the fame of the Reno vote, along with the controversial gay rights issue on the ballot, can they afford to screw this up? And if they do, what next? More lawsuits?
posted by benjh on Sep 10, 2002 - 30 comments

Which America Will We Be Now? You can help us decide: Vote in your local elections today.
posted by skyboy on Nov 6, 2001 - 21 comments

how to buy the new republican party "The tax cuts will make the economy grow. As people do better, they start voting like Republicans--unless they have too much education and vote Democratic"
[this is the recently launched newyorker online]
posted by palegirl on Feb 14, 2001 - 25 comments

"until every vote is coutned" : A review of 10,600 previously uncounted ballots in Miami-Dade County showed George W. Bush gaining six more votes than Al Gore.
posted by tomplus2 on Jan 18, 2001 - 5 comments

Doesn't this site violate Canada election laws? They claim they will be posting election results as the polls close. Under Canadian law, time zones that are still voting aren't allowed to know who is winning further east. First up: Newfoundland.
posted by tranquileye on Nov 27, 2000 - 7 comments

Poor user interface elects George W. The second hole on the right does not correspond to the second candidate on the left (Gore), but rather to the first candidate on the right (Buchanan). While many people will notice this, many others, especially those with poor vision, will not. About 20% of Buchanan's votes in FL came from the county that used this ballot.
posted by tranquileye on Nov 9, 2000 - 32 comments

Registered to vote yet? Register on-line here, it doesn't actually register you, it just sends a letter with your info to your home address that you sign and mail to your state's election office who's address is on the envelope. The transaction is also over a https connection. Personally, I just want to show the temps in the election office how hip and wired I am.
posted by skallas on Aug 6, 2000 - 0 comments