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...

UPDATE... Polling sites addressing glitch; ShortNameGate a non-issue

Here's the latest from our election protection folks:

Webb campaign staff have talked with the State Board of Elections. The State Board is going to make sure that there are posters explaining how to make sure your ballot matches your intended vote, and offering help from polling site staff. These posters are going to be at every affected polling site and booth, and on every machine.

We're working with elections staff and we're confident that they are doing all they can to prevent any vote from being miscast or uncounted. We think we're in pretty good shape.

Of course, the ideal solution would be to reprogam the voting machines themselves - but any software patch would need to be tested first to make sure it wouldn't affect the vote tally (we'd fight tooth and nail to make sure those tests were done) and those tests take a couple of weeks at the earliest - so the state doesn't have time to fix the software.

(For all you out-of-state election law junkies who are thinking "what about paper ballots?!?" - Virginia is a no-paper-ballot state, and the Help America Vote Act defers to state law on that issue. But we hear you. And we love that folks from across the country are lending a hand!)

More news as it breaks...