Alameda, CA Consultants deliver report, say handcount violates Fed Law

[rumpel]

Sorry, if this is a dupe:
Article Launched: 05/16/2006 07:23:25 PM PDT
E-voting consultants seek OK from county
By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Consultants for Alameda County have recommended against resorting to full-scale, all-paper balloting, counted by hand, as critics of computerized voting have urged.
Instead, a report delivered this week advises county supervisors to stick with original plans for a new system of mostly optically scanned paper ballots and a single touch-screen voting machine for each of the county's 700 polling places.

But to get the new system in place by November, according to analysts with Visionary Integration Professionals, Alameda County supervisors must give the green light now.

Supervisors are holding a hastily scheduled meeting 5:30pm Wednesday night to hear out the public and perhaps choose a new voting system.

Critics of computerized voting say the consultants' report gives only glancing analysis to alternative balloting systems that they say are simpler, more transparent and more secure.

The county's consultants found that hand-counted paper ballots violated federal law on accessibility for disabled voters and slowed the delivery of election results. Using electronic or manual ballot-marking devices for disabled voters was only slightly less risky, either because the systems aren't approved yet in California or cannot be delivered in time for the November election, the report said.

snip
Supervisors are holding a hastily scheduled meeting 5:30pm Wednesday night to hear out the public and perhaps choose a new voting system.

http://www.orovillemr.com/news/bayarea/ci_3829837

[Steve A Play]

1. I! DRE in each precinct for the disabled

and hand counted paper ballots for everyone else. Problem solved.

That'll be $128,000.00 in consulting fees please, in small bills if you got 'em. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Law? We don't need no stinkin law. GWB.

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. the sad part

about this whole electronic voting thing is that computerized balloting can be done in a verifiable secure way.
It can be a huge benefit to society.

Instead we have a bunch of monkeys putting out crap for partisan and monetary reasons.


/rant

[rumpel]

4. How? Any specifics?

[Clovis Sangrail]

6. look up discussions

on the cypherpunks list or on slashdot

There were some organizaions pushing for this as well, but with no money they don't really get much airplay.

From what I've seen, the problems with electronic voting are implementation problems... not that it's "electronic".

Because it's a money making venture Diebold et al have shunned any kind of open source community review system in favor of a proprietary system... a system based on easily hacked software (Windows and Access).
In addition there is a refusal to have a verifiable paper trail, which is insanely easy to implement... just print out machine/human readable ballot with unique signatures when somebody votes.
No electronic updates to the count are done until the person has had a chance to read this, the signature is verified as unique, and then deposited it.

The count will be instant and if there's a problem we would have verified physical ballots for either a machine or human recount.

The current implementation of electronic voting should scare the hell out of everybody in the country, but the problem isn't that it's electronic.

[zalinda]

5. Give them this

http://www.washburnresearch.org/HandCountingPaperBallots.htm

and it will cost less in "service" fees.

zalinda

[JimDandy]

7. Thanks for the great Link.

I downloaded it to read later. Washburn is always a "good read."

[zalinda]

8. When these supervisors buy these electronic

voting machines, they don't realize that THEY will have to pay the service contract, even though the federal government gives them money for the machines purchase.

zalinda

[JimDandy]

9. The costs are mounting steeply here in Salt Lake County to

maintain, store and buy supplies for these lousy machines. The County Elections Office recently siphoned off even more taxpayer money by contracting out the pollworker training to the national computer training firm, New Horizons Computer Consultants. Our County Clerk claimed their office wasn't qualified to conduct the pollworker training necessary to operate the Diebold TSx machines.

Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

[Amaryllis]

10. Well, heck, we can't have the delivery of election results slowed down

now, can we? after all, speed is more important than accuracy in any election.
How do you do that sarcasm icon?

"The county's consultants found that hand-counted paper ballots violated federal law on accessibility for disabled voters and slowed the delivery of election results."

[Einsteinia]

11. Newsflash: Alameda has no errors or mischief

This is a true fact you would have learned had you gone to the Board of Supervisors meeting on 5/17.
And you all thought there was no good news in this story!

[nicknameless]

12. These are "E-voting consultants" ???

What does that mean? They work for the e-voting companies?
If any consultants are advising against hand-counting ballots (of non-disabled voters), I want to know why.
*** FOLLOW THE MONEY***

HAVA has machine requirements for disabled voters, so let the disabled voters use whichever ones comply. (DO any?)

Hand count the rest. Hand counting hasn't been outlawed (yet) has it?

These machines are non-transparent, rife with problems which delay and/or prevent voting, outrageously expensive to purchase and maintain, and deliver *questionable results* (extreme euphemism).

How can it be argued that they even save time, given their notorious track record?

"They did not look at security, accuracy and transparency. They didn't look at life-cycle costs," said Michelle Gabriel, an e-voting critic. "I think it's a real slap in the face for the supervisors. That report is not what they asked for."

So they should disregard it.

[diva77]

13. "The county's consultants found ..."

Does anybody know who the county's consultants are? As far as I know, HAVA does not mandate that the tabulator be "accessible" so how is it that hcpb are illegal?? Does not compute!!

:eyes: