voting

Making North Carolina count in every Presidential Election

Will your vote count in 2008? What steps should you take to protect your vote? The NC Coalition for Verified Voting has some important tips to ensure that your vote counts in the May Primary.

In talking to a couple of friends today, I realized that not everyone is aware that unaffiliated voters can now vote in our primary.

I saw something about this last night, posted on a few sites.

This is about an Extremely Important Report that will be out tomorrow in the Sunday's issue of the New York Times Magazine.

I just caught it again posted over at After Downing Street where Dave put up the New York Times Magazine link along with posting the article.

I just quickly read through it and am going back for a slower read, but a few pointers, and there are many.

it starts out with this:

Following last week's post, Voting Vendor Lacks Paper Trail, and the subsequent dust-up I have continued with the search for information about Printelect.

Yesterday I received the following communication from the Craven County Register of Deeds where Printelect is headquartered.

That assumed name was filed on 9/19/2007 in Book 2648 page 440.

Thank you Printelect for crossing the "t", and dotting the "i", providing an additional level of assurance for North Carolina voters that their votes are in good hands.
 

When Diebold declined to share proprietary software with NC elections officials in 2005, Electronic Systems and Software (ES&S), through Printelect, became the only approved vendor of election equipment in North Carolina. Printelect is a North Carolina company with offices in New Bern and printing operations in Fayetteville. Printelect is the authorized dealer for ES&S in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and the only ES&S certified printing vendor in these states. Printelect specializes in printed optical scan ballots which it supplies nationwide as well as providing other election related products.

Printelect is presented on company websites as "Printelect, Inc.," and as the "Owen G. Dunn Company" doing business as "Printelect". The NC Secretary of State's Office has no record of a corporate filing for "Printelect, Inc.," either as a new company, name change or merger. The last Annual Report filed by the Owen G. Dunn Company was for the fiscal year ending 12/31/2004. The company also operates "Dunn's Office Solutions" in New Bern.

Searches of the records of the Registers of Deeds in Cumberland County, Craven County and Wake County do not indicate the filing of any Assumed Name Forms for an entity named Printelect. The only related filing was in 1998 in Cumberland County for the "Owen G. Dunn Company" DBA "Fayetteville Printing and Office Supply Company".

NCDP Chair Jerry Meek announced today that state Democrats would participate in an unprecedented 50-state election protection program to prepare for the 2008 election.

North Carolina will participate in an in-depth nationwide survey to collect critical data on the often confusing and complex sets of administrative practices and decisions governing our nation’s elections. We will work with election officials throughout the state to help identify potential issues so they can be resolved well in advance of the 2008 election.

More specifically, we will work with local election officials to answer critical questions about voter registration, centralized voter databases, voting systems and absentee voting, provisional balloting, polling place procedures and Election Day preparation.

Data collected from the survey will be analyzed to determine the needs of each election locality and the next steps for strengthening the election process in that locality.

“North Carolina Democrats will not rest until every single eligible North Carolinian can register to vote, cast their ballot without fear of intimidation or harassment, and have confidence that their vote will be counted fairly and accurately,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“Our commitment stands in stark contrast to what we’ve seen from Republicans both here in North Carolina and across the country,” Meek said. “From false reports of voter fraud and restrictive voter ID proposals to voter purging and voter intimidation tactics, Republicans want to place a variety of roadblocks that keep countless Americans from exercising their right to vote."

Same-Day Voter Registration under attack in the NC Senate!!

Just got this rather stunning email from Bob Hall and Democracy North Carolina.

MOST CITIZENS NOT VOTING IN NORTH CAROLINA
Young Adults More Likely to Be Binge Drinkers Than Voters

A new "Civic Participation Index for North Carolina" shows that only two out
of five adults [40.8 percent] bother to vote in the typical state election.

The Index says that young North Carolinians age 18 to 25 are half as likely
to vote as their grandparents -- and more likely to engage in binge drinking
than participate in elections.

And it says more men own guns than cast ballots.

For the Release and Index, go to:
http://www.democracy-nc.org/improving/CPI.pdf