In 1989 the world stood still as the Berlin Wall fell and massive protests erupted in the Soviet Union. The whole world was watching as ordinary Russian people lay down in front of tanks, risking their lives in the name of freedom. In the resulting months, dramatic changes redrew maps throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The new hopes of an entire generation were born and the US had won the cold war.

As you've probably heard, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a new law requiring voter verifiable voting in Tennessee and the Governor signed it into law on Thursday.

Contrary to some earlier media reports, county election offices will not be able to simply retrofit DRE (direct recording electronic) voting systems with printers. Instead, the new law specifies that "the ballot of record shall be a paper ballot marked by the voter" and that optical scan machines at the precinct level will be used to tally the votes.

The bill also requires county election offices to audit machine tallies by hand counting 3% of the votes from 3% of the precincts selected at random.

County election officials are rightly concerned about the increased cost for printing and storing paper ballots. The law does, however, allow for "printing on demand" to help mitigate the costs.

The law goes into effect Jan. 1 2009. Existing systems can be used for 2008 elections, but any new systems purchased or leased after Jan. 1 must comply with the new regulations. The estimated cost for new machines is $25 million.

The law authorizes election officials to expedite replacing or modifying old systems for compliance, and mandates that new systems must be in place for the 2010 general election.

But there's a catch:

...notwithstanding any provision of this act or any other law to the contrary, the requirements of this act mandating the purchase or lease of new voting systems shall be implemented if and only if federal “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA) funds previously allocated, or other federal funding resources, are available to pay the full cost of purchasing or leasing such new voting systems.

This is significant, because the vast majority of voting machines in the state of Tennessee are DRE touchscreen or pushbutton voting machines. Optical scan machines are used in only two counties. DRE touchscreens are used in 17 counties, and the rest, 76 counties, use DRE pushbutton machines.

In other words, if I read it correctly* the bill requires replacement of voting systems in 93 of 95 Tennessee counties, but does not provide any funding for it and only requires it if federal funding becomes available. It is our understanding that there is some HAVA money left over, but is it enough?

UPDATE: According to the most recent U.S. Election Assistance Commission report I could find, Tennessee has approx. $31.4 million in unused HAVA funds available. The EAC had issued an opinion at one point that states could not use those funds to replace machines already purchased for compliance with HAVA (most of the systems in Tennessee), but this decision was later reversed. So if I'm reading all THAT correctly, Tennessee would have enough HAVA money to cover the $25 million cost.

Previous background on Tennessee's voting systems here.

(*Y'all can help me out. The bill info is here. If I read it correctly, the Senate bill was withdrawn and the House bill was substituted. Then a Senate amendment was adopted with the above "catch", and the amended bill passed both chambers and was signed by the Governor.)

The School of the Americas is a military training facility in Columbus, Georgia that trains military forces from Latin America in techniques of torture and counterinsurgency. This facility is taxpayer funded and has hosted more than sixty thousand soldiers since it was opened in 1946. The SOA, which was renamed a few years ago to the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security and Cooperation, is known around the world for the role that it has played as an institution for training soldiers in techniques of torture.

There is a country just ninety miles from the shores of the United States that I have never been to. The Republic of Cuba is the home of my grandmother and countless uncles, aunts and cousins scattered throughout Florida and points north. I am not allowed to travel to Cuba because there is an economic embargo on that country which has been in place for almost fifty years. If I do travel to Cuba I risk being fined $7,500 by my government for stepping feet on the native soil of my relations.

There is a bill in the US Senate right now that deserves our support. Senate Bill 594, the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, currently has twenty-one sponsors in the Senate. This bill would ban the use of cluster bombs, which injure thousands of innocent people each year. Unfortunately the Pentagon and Department of Defense officials have fought the effort to outlaw these weapons. Their reasoning is difficult to understand given the sobering reality that almost thirty percent of the bomblets released in each bomb fail to explode initially, leaving a deadly legacy for future generations of children to discover. The Middle East is filled with children who have lost arms and legs to unexploded cluster bombs. This is not the legacy of freedom and democracy we wish to leave the people of Iraq.

We all know that Lamar Alexander is a fixture in Washington DC politics, but what has he done for you lately? In a recent interview with the Cookeville Herald Citizen, Senator Lamar Alexander said that we are not in a recession in Tennessee. He said that recession is "a technical word" and that technically we are not in a recession. Speaking to the graduating class of Tennessee Tech Alexander said that there are some big challenges ahead but that we are currently only in an "economic slowdown." Alexander said that something needs to be done but I am wondering what the good Senator from Tennessee intends to do. If you examine his voting record, it is clear that the policy decisions that Alexander has favored are part of the reason we are in this recession in the first place.

When I was a senior in high school I participated in the model united nations program. As thousands of students do each year, I chose a country to represent as part of the student program. In my case I chose Norway, the home of my mother's ancestors. I was very excited to receive mailings from the Norwegian embassy, which I diligently researched in order to accurately represent my country of choice. Sitting in our high school library we passed resolutions to abide by strategic arms control and non-proliferation issues.

Link...

Interesting.....

Alice offers her perceptions about last night's presidential debates.

Here are a few thoughts just as the debates end... These were definitely the best debates of the campaign so far. In general, I think the Democrats were quite a bit more cordial then the Republicans, while still hashing out some important issues. Hillary probably didn't take it home like she needed to, whle Obama was relaxed and presidential. Edwards also had a great night, while Richardson was quick and landed a number of laugh lines. All four of these candidates are impressive, but I think Obama and Edwards came out on top. On the Republican side, things are much more muddled. They were a lot more negative and argumentative, and I don't think Romney coped very well. At the same time, Huckabee didn't dazzle me, so I think maybe it was McCain's night. Giuliani and Thompson just didn't connect at all, and I thought Thompson was kind of ugly to Ron Paul at one point -- practically rolling his eyes at some of Paul's ideas.

Sharon Cobb also offers some insight.

In terms of staying on message and being the best debater, John Edwards scored the most points. He made a point to align himself with Obama as the voice of change, versus Hillary, the "status quo."

Richardson continued to play the diplomat, asking everyone to tone it down when the debate was getting contentious. I like Richardson's idea of getting rid of Musharraf and supporting a democratic candidate in Pakistan, since we've given billions to Musharraf to rid Pakistan of terrorism, and he has grossly misused the funds.
All in all, though, Richardson has no chance of winning the Presidency, and is jockeying for VP or a cabinet spot.

Who do you think came out on top?

From an article in Salon.com. Link...

"Americans should not be disqualified from voting because of their lifestyle choice to travel," said Hedy Weinberg, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Tennessee, which went to federal court Tuesday to challenge the purge of RVers in Tennessee's rural Bradley County. "For our state and election commission to purge them from the list is unfair and is unconstitutional and flies in the face of our democracy as we know it."

Not everyone agrees.

"David Ellis, the former Bradley County Election Commission director who started removing full-time RVers, said they have no connection to the area and are simply "dodging their responsibility to pay their fair share" of taxes."

What do you think?