UPDATE... State Board of Elections working on ShortNameGate

One of our lawyers met with the State Board of Elections yesterday and has the latest on how the name shortening problem (see our old post here) is being addressed:

"Uniform signs are being developed among the 3 affected jurisdictions under the state board's supervision. They will be forwarded to the party committees and the candidates when completed. The signs will be posted inside the booths, on the demonstration machines and enlarged version will be posted on the wall. Additionally, they are exploring posting the signs outside the machines so that they will be seen on the way in."

Again, this will happen if and only if the State Board is unable to change the style of the computer ballot so that we can see the entire name wihtout opening up the software on the comptuer ballots. (If the software is changed, the new software needs to be tested and approved, which will work great for the 2007 election, but doesn't do so much for that little shindig going down in two weeks.) This is the ideal solution, of course, but our folks close to the process say it's unlikely we'll find a fix without touching the software.

Our guy said the feeling at the meeting was that the folks on the State Board are doing everything they can, and that everything that can be done to protect voters and ensure a fair vote is being done.

More news as it breaks...