Here's today's notes from WIPO -- what a doozy. Luckily, we had the largest-ever coalition of public-interest activsts in the building, which meant that three or four of us could collaborate on the note taking while other lobbied, prepped presentations, and stood guard over the literature table, whence malefactors unknown...

For years, progressive groups like the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) have struggled to convince the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to rethink its "IP Uber Alles" philosophy -- that is, the pursuit of maximal intellectual property protection for its own sake, regardless of the human, cultural,...

The Associated Press reports that "a hand recount of ballots cast using optical scanning technology gave a Democrat enough extra votes to bump a Republican from victory in a county commissioner's race." According to the article, the scanning system somehow interpreted straight-Democratic Party votes as votes for Libertarians....

One of the most serious problems with touchscreen voting machines reported on Election Day was the misrecording of votes, sometimes called "ghost voting" or "jumping votes." This is when a voter attempts to vote for one candidate and the machine indicates that he or she has voted for another, either...

Earlier today a group of e-voting "solution" vendors issued a bizarre preemptive press statement asserting that 1.) today's election demonstrates that there are few problems with e-voting machines, and 2.) if there are problems, the voters are to blame:

"Reports from electronic voting machine vendors and media coverage today...

More details have emerged on the e-voting meltdown in New Orleans. With 80+ incidents being reported through the EIRS in only the first few hours of voting, it seems clear that election officials did not anticipate the machines breaking down and do not have adequate back-up procedures....

There are new reports today through the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS) of machine failure in many precincts in Philadelphia. This is resulting in long lines and some people leaving without voting. While some machines have been fixed, others are reportedly still not working.

The good news: poll workers...