Arizona passes its Verified Voting law

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Election Protection Victory with SB1557 in Arizona!

Thank you one and all, from everyone who votes.

Dear Fellow Patriots,

SB1557 passed the House of Representatives with a 51-0 vote! Then, it immediately passed the Senate 25 to 3! It is now on its way to our Good Governor’s desk. As planned, it includes the Paton Amendment that I helped draft (see Star description below). Karen Osborn, the Maricopa County Elections Director calls this one of the most significant election reform bills in decades.

This election reform bill is the result of three years of working with the Pima County Democratic Party and the great work of Dr. Tom Ryan, Bill Risner, Esq., our current and former Pima County Democratic Party Chairs, and many, many more dedicated individuals. I want to specially thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your hard work, and your support in working for election integrity.

Now focus on the Governor to make certain that she signs it right away. I am confident she will. It will become law upon her signature, since it contains an emergency provision. We still must await Department of Justice approval which should be expedited because of the emergency provision. At that point, hand counts will no longer be illegal and we will have a first-level audit of the election system. This is, however, just the beginning.

The law's provisions:

● In every election, each county would have to hand-count votes from at least 2 percent of precincts chosen at random. In Pima County, that is about 10 precincts.

● At least four races, also chosen at random, would be counted.

● If the hand-count deviates significantly from the machine tabulation, a second hand count would be done.

● If there is still a discrepancy, another recount using twice as many precincts would be done.

● If the discrepancy still exists, the entire jurisdiction would be recounted.

more about the law here
http://www.azfairelections.org/azlegislation.htm

[Selatius]

1. Arizona also has a clean elections law

It seems they have a better grip on corruption than most states do.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

14. Well we better.

We also have the potential successor to Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell in our SOS Brewer!

[kster]

2. I don't like it, send it back

these people ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED. Not 2 per cent, not 4 per cent but ALL THE BALLOTS MUST BE COUNTED BY HAND MANDATORY.If your talking about my kids future, I want all the ballots counted from here on in (period)

[Wilms]

3. Wow! That was fast!

We both posted on the hour. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x435426

Glad to hear it (all due respect to kster). I hope some of the forum "auditors" will comment.

[kster]

5. Thank you, Wilms

Sorry but I just about had about enough of all these feel good laws, so that they can keep these secret vote counting machines in play. The time is now to stand up this bullsh*t.

[Kip Humphrey]

12. I agree...A panacea intended to placate voter concerns about e-voting

Ohio's incomplete so-called "recount" was based on 3% so-called "random" precincts. Didn't stop Blackwell!

[kster]

19. You said it, We at the DU are supposed to be professionals

we know what is best in the vote counting game WE ARE THE AUTHORITY, but yet We keep acceppting these assinine feel good laws that will allow these ILLEGAL SECRET VOTE counting machines to stay in place, I don't get it. Who are we? WE ARE THE AUTHORITY, because no one else will accept that challenge.

We have the media between a rock (KENNEDY) and a hard place (MEDIA SILENCE) on this issue. As long as the Media and the Government REMAIN SILENT we can keep pushing our COMMON SENSE evidence about the 2004 election theft, and also explain why election thefts will continue in future elections, UNLESS WE STOP THEM.

I dare them to tell my Republican Bro-in law that he is not PERMITTED to see how the vote was counted on their little machine, ON TV, They will try to avoid saying that ON TV for as long as they can. Because they know that the Propietary b*llsh*t will not fly with the average Democrat and Republican voter.

[Bill Bored]

6. Audit THIS! nt

[Wilms]

8. Well c'mon Mr. Number-Cruncher.

What are the odds this now-mandated audit will catch monkey business? Er, State-wide and County-wide, that is.

[Bill Bored]

11. If depends on what this means:

● At least four races, also chosen at random, would be counted?

So none of the races actually gets the full 2% audit? Or some races don't get ANY audit? That doesn't seem too good to me. We need to read the fine print.

[EFerrari]

4. Congratulations, AZ.

:kick:

[bleever]

7. This seems like a well-crafted step forward.

From such a small entity, it's a strong standard for checking the calibration of the machines.

[The Doctor.]

9. Beautiful....

But remember that a 'Republican' SoS hand-picked what was supposed to be a 'random' county in Ohio to perform a recount.

It's a great step. But there are so many ways that these bastards will subvert it.

Well done, and thank you.

[kster]

10. How does an audit of a Secret vote counting machine work?

If it was my vote counting machine, I would just keep tellimg you that the 2% Hand count was wrong, and I'd have nothing to worry about because even if my machine was wrong, what could you do about it, because I have PROPIETARY software that you can not, and will not, ever see.

[The Doctor.]

15. The county selected used Opti-scan.

They sorted the ballot cards and counted.

The problem with optiscan is the central tabulator, one single database that can be very easily manipulated. But because there are cards used to mark votes, it can be audited.

The trick is to not trigger a recount.

In the case of Ohio, Blackwell hand-picked the county for the 3% sample count (against state law), and chose one where the recount discrepancy would not be high enough to trigger a full recount. And even then they had to manipulate it.

[mom cat]

13. Great work! Thanks for your tireless efforts!

:dem::toast::bounce::bounce::smoke::smoke::yourock::smoke::smoke::bounce::bounce::toast::kick:

[garybeck]

16. are DREs still legal?

thanks for the great work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AtLiberty]

17. WOO HOO!!!

CONGRATS!

[FogerRox]

18. WOOT WOOT WOOT for Arizona, Kster is right, count 100% of the paper

[jillan]

20. I don't know why I can't get excited about this.

Maybe it's all the dam repugs that run this state.

Once our Governor signs it, I will feel better. Napolitano is up for re-election in November, she is a dem surrounded by a nasty republican senate. I know she will scrutinize before signing. She has become the veto queen... and I love her for it.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

21. Governor Napolitano signed it yesterday June 28!

http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/47leg/2r/bills/sb1557o.asp

[ebayfool]

22. This is outstanding! It doesn't focus on just one problem, it takes aim at

long lines, paper recounts/audits & no secret code.

A voter-verified paper audit trail - A permanent record, verified by the voter, of each vote cast. This requirement is absolutely essential for recounts and audits to be able to ensure the integrity of our elections. The bill also requires that the paper records be used in recounts and audits.

Random audits of paper records - No business, government or financial organization would just assume critical records are correct without auditing. The whole purpose of paper trails (whether from optical machines or DREs) is to allow routine manual audits to check machine accuracy. The audits are our safeguard to detect and remedy errors and election fraud. SB1557 would require 2% of precincts to be hand counted. Large discrepancies between hand and machine counts will require expansion of the hand count. Early (mailed) ballots will also be audited by checking the tabulation of the central count optical scanners.

Prevent long precinct lines - In the 2004 elections some voters experienced long lines because the election board could not keep up with the flow of voters. This legislation would require election officials to predict the number of voters in each precinct and plan ahead to avoid long waits. Election officials will also monitor polling place wait times.

Source code - Vendors can protect their intellectual property with patents and copyrights, but not by keeping source code secret from election officials and their technical representatives. SB1557 will require vendors to place source code in escrow with the Secretary of State. This code will be analyzed if audits show significant errors in the electronic tabulation.


Good work.

(pssst - come to California - we could use some REAL help here!)