A Reply to Howard Stanislevic’s Latest Article on ...

2011-01-18T02:04:16.878-05:00

A Reply to Howard Stanislevic’s Latest Article on the NY Voting System

Richard Charnin (TruthIsAll)

Jan. 13, 2011

http://richardcharnin.com/StanislevicInnocenceReply.htm

Howard Stanislevic has just written "Watching and Waiting For a Return to Innocence".

HS

It has not escaped our attention, or that of our readers, that our last post was over a year ago, when it first became evident that New Yorkers would lose their voting system and have it replaced by a software-based system that our legal system is incapable of regulating. We called that post "The End of Innocence" and it covered quite a lot of ground.

RC

“Incapable of regulating”? What are you saying, Howard? That the legal system is corrupt? Then why don’t you focus on the corruption, rather than shill incessantly for a return to lever machines? Yes, the 100 year history of NY Lever machines was truly the “Age of Innocence” – voters were innocent of the facts and had no idea that their votes cast on Levers were tabulated by corrupt humans and rigged computers for the past 50 years.

HS

There hasn't been a need to post anything more since then; we would just be repeating ourselves. We've met with the powers that be in both houses of the State Legislature responsible for making election law, and they have taken our suggestions under advisement. No laws have been passed to verify election results. But we've seen lots of interest in the National Popular Vote (NPV), Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) and other practically unverifiable voting methods. Even Internet voting!

RC
That is commendable, but what makes you think that NY politicians were ever for fair elections?

HS
Perhaps in light of the state's highest court's Dec. 20th denial of a hand count in the NY State Senate District 7 race in which computers -- rather than voters -- determined which party will control the Senate, it's time for a quick review of how we got here.

RC
You need to change “computers” to “election officials”.

HS

New York has become the Florida of the Northeast when it comes to elections, or perhaps worse since we don't even attempt to count thousands of undervotes reported by the ballot scanners. Our new machines don't even warn voters of the effect of casting overvotes, which Florida has corrected after their unfortunate 2008 experience.

RC

So you are concerned about election officials not doing their jobs to hand count the paper ballots produced by optical scanners. You could never accuse them of not counting the paper ballots produced by mechanical levers. There weren’t any.

HS

There is plenty of blame to go around so we've tried to summarize it for your convenience as we keep watching and waiting for a Return to Innocence. Those who are responsible for our current situation know who they are, although they may be in denial about it.

Here's what happened:
1. New York has a history of paper ballot fraud (Tammany Hall) which lever machines were effectively designed to prevent. We don't trust PEOPLE or PAPER unless they can be watched. We do trust machines that can be locked against tampering, observed when opened, and that work on simple observable mechanical principles such as gravity and that can't switch votes during elections the way software can. They are part of a voting system and a legal systemdesigned to prevent fraud. Reinventing that system to deal with computers is a lot harder than most people think. In fact, it's never been done!

RC

Waiting for a return to innocence? You mean waiting for unverifiable levers? Just who is in denial?

“New York has a history of paper ballot fraud”. Once again, we get to your true agenda: you don’t trust paper ballots, but you love those mechanical levers. Howard, how quickly you forget: New York votes were CAST on levers but COUNTED on central tabulators. That is how votes cast on levers could be switched. You have been made aware of this many times before, but continue to ignore it.

Thanks for adding your clarification, Commissioner...

2009-05-04T23:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks for adding your clarification, Commissioner Martin.

This article may have generated some confusion abo...

2009-05-04T09:14:00.000-04:00

This article may have generated some confusion about Columbia County’s electronic voting devices. There are two types: the ballot marker, which has been in use in Columbia County and the state since the 2008 September primary, and the optical scanner, which, though contained within the same apparatus as the ballot marker, has not yet been used in the county.

In the March 31st special election, one such electronic voting device was deployed to each of the county’s 42 polling places, and the ballot-marking function of each was set up for use. What was not used were the optical scanners. It was the optical scanners that concerned both Commissioner Don Kline and me; using the scanners would have considerably complicated the election and made it far more expensive than it was—which, given the court actions and the intense and lengthy scrutiny of the paper ballots, may well cost county taxpayers $100,000.

Virginia Martin
Democratic Election Commissioner
Columbia County, New York

A few months back I wrote the following article on...

2009-03-03T05:16:00.000-05:00

A few months back I wrote the following article on how easy it is to vote using our lever machines. I hope this helps:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-voting-ought-to-be-my-by-Scott-Baker-081104-347.html

We probably have both the cheapest and most reliable voting process in the nation now. Why upgrade from a functional old system to a dysfunctional new one? Once we do, it'll be virtually impossible to go back again, and then we'll spend years, maybe decades trying to make a computerized system do what the lever machines do already - count votes accurately.

Save NY's Lever Voting Machines

A Reply to Howard Stanislevic’s Latest Article on ...

Thanks for adding your clarification, Commissioner...

This article may have generated some confusion abo...

A few months back I wrote the following article on...