Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz joined voting rights advocates from across Connecticut at a new conference at the State Capitol on Thursday November 13th to randomly select the voting precincts which will have election results audited following the November 4th presidential election.

As required by Public Act 07-194, An Act Concerning the Integrity and Security of the Voting Process, ten percent of the polling precincts used in the election are subject to an audit. All told, 833 polling precincts were used on November 4th meaning that 84 precincts will have their election results audited.

“November 4th was an historic day for voters in Connecticut ,” said Secretary Bysiewicz. “As voters came to the polls in droves they must have continued confidence that their votes were recorded accurately and that’s why the independent audits are so vital.”

The audits can begin no sooner than November 19, 2008 and must be completed by November 24, 2008. All offices on the ballot will be audited.

“Auditing election results isn’t just a good idea, it’s absolutely essential in order to guarantee the integrity of our elections,” said Secretary Bysiewicz. “Record numbers of Connecticut residents cast ballots on November 4th, and we don’t just take the machines’ word for it. So we will have every ballot cast in a full 10% of all our precincts hand counted and matched against the machine totals. Connecticut has the toughest elections audit law in the country and I am confident at the end of this year’s audit the numbers will match.”

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The law requires a hand audit 10% of all polling places in all elections and primaries. (Polling precincts which are already part of a recount are exempt from audits by statute). The provisions in the law, developed in close cooperation with the computer science department at the University of Connecticut , give Connecticut one of the strictest audit statutes in the country. Connecticut is the first state in New England to require a comprehensive audit of election results.

Public Act 07-194 states that local Registrars of Voters, “… shall conduct a manual audit of the votes recorded in not less than ten per cent of the voting districts in the state, district or municipality, whichever is applicable. Such manual audit shall be noticed in advance and be open to public observation.” The results of audits will be analyzed by the University of Connecticut and then presented to the Secretary of the State’s Office and the State Elections Enforcement Commission, and ultimately made available to the public.

The law contains a detailed description of the audit process:

“The manual audit... shall consist of the manual tabulation of the paper ballots cast and counted by each voting machine subject to such audit. Once complete, the vote totals established pursuant to the manual tabulation shall be compared to the results reported by the voting machine on the day of the election or primary. The results of the manual tabulation shall be reported on a form prescribed by the Secretary of the State which shall include the total number of ballots counted, the total votes received by each candidate in question, the total votes received by each candidate in question on ballots that were properly completed by each voter and the total votes received by each candidate in question on ballots that were not properly completed by each voter. Such report shall be filed with the Secretary of the State who shall immediately forward such report to The University of Connecticut for analysis. The University of Connecticut shall file a written report with the Secretary of the State regarding such analysis that describes any discrepancies identified. After receipt of such report, the Secretary of the State shall file such report with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.”

In total, Himes defeated Shays by a good margin—53 to 45 percent. Yet, if Bridgeport had been cleaved off of the Fourth District, a wildly diverse cluster of 17 municipalities, he would have lost the race.

Himes received 160,081 votes in last week's election to Shays' 146,801. Subtract the whopping 30,659 votes Himes won in Bridgeport, the district's biggest city, and the measly 7,146 Shays garnered from it, and the final outcome is 129,422 votes for Himes and 139,637 for Shays. The congressman wins another term and there remains one Republican representative from New England.

The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

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A week after the election, this is unacceptable. These signs are environmental clutter that pollutes the beauty of the fall season. Having their names plastered all over the universe might please candidates, but it's insulting to the voters. It was especially irksome to see Michael McLachlan of Danbury add "Thank You" signs to the clutter after his election to the 24th State Senate District seat. Let's not add signs. Let's take signs down.