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E-Voting Glitches Delay Results
by Michael Martinez
Computer glitches and other technical problems disrupted state and local elections at various polling places Tuesday.
In Ohio, voting officials in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, struggled with their e-voting platform, even though overall turnout for elections in that jurisdiction was low. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Cuyahoga County's e-voting system crashed multiple times Tuesday night, slowing down considerably efforts to tally the votes.
The county's e-voting struggles attracted nationwide attention in 2006, when technical difficulties with touch-screen machines delayed the results of primary elections for more than a week. Elections Director Jane Platten told the Plain Dealer that she was concerned about this week's problems but was encouraged that poll workers were able to identify and solve them quickly.
The Denver Post, meanwhile, reported that a special police unit was called to help count ballots in Denver. Elections officials had promised to post the results of contests online by 7:05 p.m., but server problems kept them from doing so for hours.
City technology spokeswoman Molly Rauzi said the server issues were not solved until 10 p.m., and that her department was responsible for the delay.
The Denver Elections Division also was forced to call in members of the Denver SWAT Team when poll workers who had been counting tallies all day began to fatigue. City Elections Director Michael Scarpello said it made sense to seek help from police because law enforcement officials already had passed proper background checks.
Results also were delayed in the Atlanta area. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the results of municipal elections in Fulton County were pushed back for several hours.
A system specialist for the Fulton County Registration and Elections Department said results for of some of the county's races were posted incorrectly, removed and replaced multiple times. But he insisted the delays were "mainly a Web issue" and "had nothing to do with transmission."
E-voting has been a touchy issue in the past in Georgia, which operates on touch-screen machines. Last year, former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney blamed her loss in a Democratic primary on the state's e-voting platform.
N.Y. Grand Jury Indicts 17 For ID Theft
Prosecutors in New York this week indicted 17 individuals and one company for allegedly causing more than $4 million in credit card fraud.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau on Wednesday announced that a grand jury indicted the individuals and Western Express International of global trafficking in stolen credit card numbers, cyber crime and identity theft.
According to the 173-page indictment, the defendants participated in a "multinational, Internet-based criminal enterprise." Prosecutors alleged that the defendants ran online advertisements offering to sell credit card information and other sensitive data to criminals. They allegedly created an online marketplace that enabled anonymous transactions so the proceeds of the activities could not be tracked.
Three of the defendants were arraigned Wednesday. The indictments were the result of a two-year investigation into the matter by the Manhattan district attorney's unit on ID theft and the U.S. Secret Service.
In other news, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna this week accused a search-engine optimization company of misrepresenting its services to provide search-engine rankings and increase Web traffic.
McKenna previously accused Internet Advancement, a company based in Redmond, Wash., of violating consumer protection law. This week, he accused the firm of making unauthorized charges to credit cards, failing to honor guarantees to consumers for refunds and unfairly structuring the terms of its cancellation polices.
A petition McKenna filed in state superior court alleges that Internet Advancement promised customers that it would make their Web sites appear in the first 25 sites listed in keyword searches on major engines such as Google and Yahoo. The company charged set-up fees as high as $3,000 for that service.
In a statement, McKenna said he was dismayed that his office received so many complaints from consumers about Internet Advancement after his 2004 lawsuit. "We will not tolerate Internet Advancement doing business in this manner," he said.
Governors, Tech Firms Pursue Energy Efficiency
The National Governors Association announced plans this week to partner with a group of technology firms on an initiative to encourage the deployment of more energy-efficient servers and other computer equipment at state agencies.
NGA said it plans to combine the forces of its clean-energy program with an initiative founded by Google and Intel to facilitate the adoption of more eco-friendly computer equipment.
The governors agreed to purchase only equipment that meets certain energy-efficiency ratings and optimize existing systems by training employees on how power-saving functions can reduce overall consumption. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, NGA's chairman, said in a news release that the partnership will help states cut their consumption levels and their power bills.
"Having states increase the energy efficiency of their computing equipment will save consumers and taxpayers money while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change," he said. "This is another great opportunity where states can help lead the way to a more clean and secure energy future."
S.C. Unit On Internet Crime Makes 100th Arrest
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster announced Wednesday that his state's task force aimed at investigating Internet crimes against children has reached a milestone.
McMaster said the task force has arrested 100 suspects since it was created under a 2004 law that enhanced state penalties for the sexual solicitation of minors.
According to McMaster, 33 of the suspects have been prosecuted. Of those, 31 have pleaded guilty, and the other two were found guilty by juries. He said in a statement that while the task force has proven effective, there still is not enough being done to protect children from online predators.
"No matter how many perverts are caught in our sting operations, we are confident that there are scores of children hurt that we never know anything about," McMaster said. "For those cases to go without prosecution is a terrible shame."
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