By Dave Berman

The Contra Costa Times reported Tuesday that CA Secretary of State Bruce McPherson was named as a defendant in yet another lawsuit. The suit was filed by the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the California Council of the Blind and the American Association of People with Disabilities. Also named as defendants are the counties of Alameda, San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and Yolo. The case is based on the failures to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Also Tuesday, a Federal judge in Seattle ruled that voter registrations must not be contingent upon registration forms matching perfectly with DMV records. In an e-mail newsletter, CA State Senator and Secretary of State Candidate Debra Bowen explained the importance of this ruling and its relevance to California:

The case is relevant in California because the California Secretary of State adopted regulations to implement an agreement with the Bush Administration's Justice Department in 2005 that are very similar to the Washington state law the court put on hold yesterday afternoon. It's not known how many Californians may have been prevented from registering or re-registering to vote prior to the June primary or how many are still experiencing problems as they attempt to register in time for the November election.

"That ruling tells me there's a very good chance the regulations the Secretary of State adopted to implement his agreement with the Bush Administration violate federal law and the state Constitution because of the barriers they put up to prevent eligible Californians from registering to vote," said California State Senator Debra Bowen, the chairwoman of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment & Constitutional Amendments Committee and the Senate Select Committee on the Integrity of Elections.

August 02, 2006 (Computerworld) -- A federal whistleblower lawsuit has been filed against the e-voting industry, alleging that one company sold electronic voting devices that did not to perform as promised.

But details about the suit are sketchy because of secrecy rules surrounding whistleblower litigation, according to Matt Schultz, an attorney at Levin, Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Echsner & Proctor PA, the Pensacola, Fla., law firm that is handling the case. Schultz was assigned to the suit, but the lead attorneys are Mike Papantonio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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The lawsuit was filed approximately four weeks ago, but Schultz was unable to divulge in which federal district the filing took place. Nor could he discuss which e-voting machine vendor is targeted because the document is currently under seal.

According to Schultz, insiders at one of the four major e-voting vendors in the U.S. have testified to misrepresentations by the unnamed company about the accuracy, reliability and security of the direct recording electronic (DRE) devices. DRE usually signifies a touch-screen voting system.