A new system for ensuring accurate election tallies, which MIT researchers helped to develop, passed its first real-world test last Tuesday.

If the 'President' is elected to represent the people of the United states, then he/she should be elected directly by the people. The Electoral College, in which electors represent states --not people --must be abolished and the 'office' of President elected directly. The voice of the people needs no proxy. The voice of the people must be be heard directly, loudly and often.

The Philadelphia Inquirer tackles the issue of allowing big special interest money to flow into elections and suggests the Fair Elections Now Act as the solution.

The US Supreme Court will soon announce a major decision on our lightly controlled system of campaign funding. Will it retain some limitations on corporate influence or will the court blow the lid off and cause a perpetual flood of unrestricted corporate contributions? An additional outcome may surprise and shock the public. If the Supreme Court overturns the lower court’s decision, foreign nationals, corporations, and governments with partial ownership of U.S. corporations will, in effect, end up contributing to and influencing U.S. candidates in federal elections.

FOR all cable news’s efforts to inflate Election 2009, ratings at MSNBC and CNN were flat Tuesday night -- but not at Fox News. A “tidal wave” was on its way, said Sean Hannity, and the right would soon “take back the Republican Party.” Alas, the Dewey-beats-Truman reveries died shortly after midnight, when even Fox had to concede that the Democrat, Bill Owens, had triumphed. [But] the Democratic victory in New York’s 23rd is a mixed blessing: it increases the odds that the Republicans will not do Democrats the great favor of committing suicide between now and the next Election Day. Should the G.O.P. avoid self-destruction by containing this [right wing tea bag] fringe, then the president and his party will have to confront their real problem: their identification with the titans who greased the skids for the economic meltdown. The Obama administration does not seem to understand that the rage [against Wall Street], left unaddressed, could consume it. A year from now the public will register its verdict in any event. Meanwhile, both parties have their own delusions, not the least of which is the Republicans’ conviction that Tuesday was a referendum on what Obama has done so far. If anything, it was a judgment on just how much he has not.

America is a democracy – perhaps a little less democratic these days – but a democracy nonetheless. Many people complain about the government without seeing the irony that, in democracies, the government is us.

Justice Department Probing Diebold Sale, timing of sale is also of interest... Brad Friedman reports "Your Election Night 2009 'Hiccups' 'Glitches' 'Snags' and 'Snafus' Report"..Today's voting news report covers election problems in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia... Bay County Florida resolves to ask lawmakers for money for voting machines for disabled while SoS sits on HAVA funds....Virginia’s Elections Are UNCONSTITUTIONAL?!?! Internet voting whack-a-mole in Port Hope, Ontario.... ...Election method flux: Aspen Colorado voters voted to reconsider instant runoff by very slim margin, St Paul MN voters voted to adopt instant runoff voting but opponents have filed election complaints, Lowell MA voted not to adopt proportional voting, and Pierce County Washington overwhelmingly voted to repeal instant runoff voting... All of that and more in today's Voting News below and lots more tomorrow I promise...[Note: The name of the tune is "different votes for different folks."]

Press attention, money, and political capital in Maine focused on a wedge issue — gay marriage. But proponents and opponents alike used plenty of money from outside the state to influence the vote.

So perhaps branding is the problem. Maybe in advocacy situations it's better to persuade based on the facts of the issue, rather the whether it is red or blue. If advocates in Maine could harness their residents' attachment to liberty, common sense and independence (with a healthy dose of facts about how legalizing gay marriage would actually add to state coffers and not subtract from heterosexual marriages), the choice might look more right vs. wrong, rather than right vs. left.

Watching election returns last night proved to be a very interesting evening. What became consistent was the impact of the lack of outreach on the youth segment of the electorate and the diminished rate of enthusiasm. In Virginia “Only 1,973,868 of a total 4,955,755 voters participated in the gubernatorial race — “a miniscule number when you consider there were 3.7 million voters in the 2008 election,” said Isaac Wood, assistant communications director at the University Center for Politics… He added that generally one-third of Virginia voters in presidential elections choose not to participate in gubernatorial elections, and that, as such, yesterday’s voter turnout was even lower than usual.” One difference this year than in 2008 was young voters had a candidate at the top of the ticket who actively sought their vote. This isn’t generally the standard in other elections, despite our efforts to teach candidates otherwise. Outreach is so important, asking young people for their vote is key, and peer to peer outreach is a must. All of these things happened nation wide in 2008, in large part because the Obama campaign placed a high importance on getting out the vote for young people.

The Right Wingnuts led by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Malkin lost their self-selected signpost election the 23rd Congressional District in New York. The ultra-conservative Republican candidate Doug Hoffman conceded to Democrat Bill Owens just about a half-hour ago. Owens gained 49 percent of the vote, versus 46 percent for Hoffman, and six percent for Dede Scozzafava, who's name was still on the ballot, even though she dropped out of the race. That the 23-rd District of New York is Democratic country didn't seem to phase these Couch Potato Conservatives.

In a new radio commercial on behalf of Doug Hoffman, the conservative candidate now endorsed by Republicans after forcing out Dede Scozzafava, the original candidate, Republicans claim that it is proven conservative ideas that have created jobs in the past and its the Democrats who created the unemployment. And of course the news media lets them get away with it.

No matter who wins Tuesday's election, the voters in the 23rd district will probably lose. With everyone using their district's election as a referendum for whatever they see as important in today's national political landscape, it's doubtful that the true issues affecting the 23rd will get much attention. After all, as soon as Hoffman or Owens takes office, they'll likely begin assembling their reelection campaigns.

"Exit pollsters and journalists can continue to approach voters near polling sites in New Jersey after a federal judge suspended a state high court ruling to ban the practice within 100 feet of voting sites. The Oct. 23 ruling comes in response to a challenge by the National Election Pool — a consortium of news-media groups that includes the Associated Press, CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS — which use Election Day polling to gauge the mood and attitudes of the nation."

“The county rejected 70,000 voter applications last year for technical reasons,” he said. “The most in any other county in Texas was 3,000, and we think this resolution will ensure that problem won't occur.”Garry Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, said the deal will ensure the registrar's office does not exceed the seven days that state law allows it to process a voter registration application or send the applicant a letter explaining why he or she was not registered.The settlement also precludes employees in the voter registration office from working for or having a financial interest in any company providing voter information to any candidate, political party or any other person or entity.

When we started getting data back regarding precisely how many people we registered actually voted, we were pretty thrilled to learn that about three quarters of youth indeed pulled the lever on Nov. 3rd 2008. We were even more excited when an independent organization studied the voter registration work of 25 different organizations, and HeadCount had some of the best stats in all the key measurements. Pretty impressive for an organization that receives little funding and relies almost entirely on volunteers.

"Georgia Supreme Court Rules Unauditable, Unverifiable Elections Are Just Fine." Though they give me the credit, it was Rady Ananda's story here last week which expertly covered Diebold's wholly unverifiable touch-screen voting machines receiving the thumbs up for use across the entire state of Georgia, where they've been using them since 2002.

A new study published today by the nonpartisan policy center Demos debunks a recent Heritage Foundation report claiming that welfare reform is a significant factor in the decline in voter registrations coming from public assistance agencies. The Heritage Foundation report has been used to oppose efforts to promote full enforcement of the Public Agency Voter Registration provision (section 7) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The Demos study, authored by political scientists R. Michael Alvarez of Caltech and Jonathan Nagler of New York University, concludes that the research by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis was flawed in its technical design, and thus provides no basis for the arguments against vigorous federal and state enforcement of this important law.

It began with ACORN as a voter registration entity. Now the attack moves up the chain to the people who turn out the vote. This is the one and only reason anyone on the right cares about SEIU.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is attempting to cover up the findings of a state commission regarding arson in a case in which a man was executed for using arson to murder his three children. The commission hired an expert to write a report which contained the conclusion, "a finding of arson could not be sustained". So, Gov Perry replaced the chair of the commission and two other members. The new chair canceled the scheduled meeting on Oct 2 and may not take up the report now until after the March primary. Many people speculate Perry is trying to cover up the evidence that Texas executed an innocent man, because it would hurt his re-election chances in the March 2009 primary.