Under the “Help America Vote Act” (HAVA) passed by Congress, all states received substantial federal funding to buy new vote-counting technology. In exchange, all states were to have such new machines in use by 2006. New York state had failed to meet that deadline, but had promised the federal government that it would have them by the September 2007 primary.

On December 19, the state acknowledged it can’t meet that deadline either, but it says it can probably have them in time for the March 2008 presidential primary.

One reason New York is having such a difficult time is that it insists on retaining a practice under which the full face of the ballot is always visible while the voter is voting.

The only four states that still haven’t released their official November 2006 election returns are Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Pennsylvania returns will be especially interesting, since the state elections department has indicated it will include write-ins (something that Pennsylvania has not done, for the most part, during the last 20 years).

The Libertarian candidate for Governor of Georgia, Garrett Michael Hayes, polled 3.84% last month. That was the best showing for any minor party candidate for Governor of Georgia since 1902, when the Peoples Party polled 6.39% in a 2-person race.

Hayes’ best county was Clarke, home of the city of Athens and the main campus of the University of Georgia. Clarke County is always one of the better Georgia counties for Libertarians anyway, but this is the first time Clarke had been the most Libertarian county. Georgia has 159 counties, more than any other state except Texas.