tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45177865755043183712024-03-12T20:24:00.187-04:00Save NY's Lever Voting MachinesWhy? Lever machines work. Electronic voting doesn't. Lever machines are tamper-proof. Electronic voting isn't. There's no budget impact to keeping our lever machines. It will cost our towns -- that means us -- millions to change.Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-22392949204854637622009-12-09T15:10:00.008-05:002009-12-09T15:30:55.493-05:0012/10/09: CEMAC meetingImportant! Come to the:<br /><br />Citizens' Election Modernization Advisory<br />Committee Meeting<br />Thursday, December 10, noon<br /><a href="http://www.elections.state.ny.us/INDEX.html">NYS Board of Elections</a><br />40 Steuben Street<br />Albany<br /><br /><a href="http://www.elections.state.ny.us/INDEX.html"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413335131063024322" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 80px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 77px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VdTZ1tJ2CDEJr8qiZwHo7uYIjpWvlMOvnfIyVTg1GrMREPIYWmCbLny_IK217HS22U2UXwrwkth86RHAZEXGI_oX9mLN5B99OLM7T3WADdYYRfoVxQvBCzzPbCnTzqrzlgIVxE0sBniW/s400/sseal_color_round.jpg" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-51295504682965057182009-07-15T11:09:00.004-04:002009-07-15T11:25:20.260-04:00The Mayor of Woodstock on the cost of abandoning lever voting<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnu-h8f001DiE3fRT_HjN5alyNBB3SKbKPTrvG44GE9bW4UfV8upWYZqimbz0LPAFAyf-X4E9EGkHmT1jg2zpBa-Hb1-h04ys9CehgDqcROGweiOQXk23QEs2q-Po5qio1pedB0XEzhWw/s240/jeremyandfriend_1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 192px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnu-h8f001DiE3fRT_HjN5alyNBB3SKbKPTrvG44GE9bW4UfV8upWYZqimbz0LPAFAyf-X4E9EGkHmT1jg2zpBa-Hb1-h04ys9CehgDqcROGweiOQXk23QEs2q-Po5qio1pedB0XEzhWw/s240/jeremyandfriend_1.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Life got in the way of posting regularly here, but I'm back in catch-up mode. Here's a link to a post by<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Jeremy Wilbur, the mayor of Woodstock</span>, about the impact of scanners on local towns. The benefits of keeping our lever machines -- election integrity, security, and cost to taxpayers.<br /><a href="http://woodstockmayor.blogspot.com/2008/10/elections-and-decent-people.html"><blockquote></blockquote></a><blockquote><a href="http://woodstockmayor.blogspot.com/2008/10/elections-and-decent-people.html">The Mayor of Woodstock: Elections and Decent People</a>: "Perhaps you've heard the uproar over the quadrupled costs of maintaining the Ulster County Board of Elections ($442,000 in 2005, proposed $1,677.000 for 2009). You will if you haven't; every town supervisor and mayor in the county is outraged since he or she is expected to add an incredibly spiked figure to his or her respective municipal budget."</blockquote><br />Today, <a href="http://nylevers.wordpress.com/">18 counties have passed resolutions</a> requesting that NYS make every effort to retain lever machines. I think all but one resolution passed unanimously. It's never too late in a democracy to do the right things.<br /><blockquote><i><small><span style="color:teal;">If you liked this post you may want to sign up for automatic updates. You can choose the RSS feed or an email subscription at the bottom of the sidebar.</span></small></i><small><span style="color:teal;"></span></small><span style="color:teal;"></span></blockquote><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/3e611c46-2415-48cb-bdbd-ff1dbfb43dd3/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3e611c46-2415-48cb-bdbd-ff1dbfb43dd3" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-11950903792046202402009-05-29T09:10:00.003-04:002009-05-29T09:25:23.939-04:00More counties pass lever resolutions; What's up with this pilot?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nylevers.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/map-11.jpg?w=300&h=235"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 235px;" src="http://nylevers.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/map-11.jpg?w=300&h=235" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The number of counties resolved to keep levers is climbing, despite the illegal "pilot" that the NY State Board of Elections has announced.<br /><br /><a href="http://nylevers.wordpress.com/updates/"></a><blockquote><a href="http://nylevers.wordpress.com/updates/">Blog � Resolved: NY Communities Want Levers</a>: "<span style="font-weight: bold;">The InterCounty Legislative Committee of the Adirondacks</span>, representing ten NY Counties, yesterday passed a resolution urging the State to allow counties to keep using lever voting systems. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Delaware County</span> passed a resolution the same day, bringing the quickly growing total of individual county resolutions to 11. More counties are expected to follow suit."</blockquote>The puzzling thing is that several of the counties that have passed resolutions unanimously are listed as participants in the "pilot." Rumor has it that some have tried to drop out of the pilot without success. Others are planning a 100% count of the paper ballots and working hard to ensure that chain of custody procedures for the paper are in place.<br /><br />What's the status of the pilot in your county? I'm working on determining what it is here in Ulster County. Perhaps citizen voices can bring some pressure.Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-29899336133243615552009-05-29T08:37:00.004-04:002009-05-29T08:58:27.612-04:00Hawaii’s 2010 elections enjoined by Maui judge<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hawaii_Sunset.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Hawaii_Sunset.jpg/300px-Hawaii_Sunset.jpg" alt="A sunset from a beach in :en:Honolulu" style="border: medium none ; display: block; width: 212px; height: 159px;" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hawaii_Sunset.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p>Looks like some people in Hawaii care enough about the integrity of their elections to ask the right questions. Brad's Blog reported on this article:<br /><a href="http://disappearednews.com/2009/05/hawaiis-2010-elections-enjoined-by-maui.html"></a><blockquote><a href="http://disappearednews.com/2009/05/hawaiis-2010-elections-enjoined-by-maui.html">Disappeared News: Hawaii’s 2010 elections enjoined by Maui judge</a>: "Judge Joseph E. Cardoza granted an injunction today against Hawaii’s illegal use of electronic voting machines and the illegal transmission of vote results over the Internet. A written decision will be issued in the coming weeks, he said.<br /><br />The suit (Babson v. Cronin, Civ No. 08-1-0115(3) ) was brought by attorney Lance Collins on behalf of five citizens of Maui against Hawaii’s Chief Elections Officer (see background on Disappeared News in these articles). The suit challenged three aspects of the voting process, according to attorney Collins:<br /><br />1. The use of electronic voting machines was not adopted<br />through lawful rulemaking n accordance with the Hawai'i Administrative Procedure Act (HAPA).<br /><br />2. The use of the Internet and/or telephone lines to transmit<br />vote counts was not adopted through lawful rulemaking (HAPA).<br /><br />3. The use of the Internet and/or telephone lines to transmit<br />vote counts is not allowed under current state law."</blockquote>The suit was brought by residents of Maui who were concerned that the transmission of votes via telephone and internet could be hacked and votes flipped without the public knowing.<br /><br /><fieldset class="zemanta-related"><legend class="zemanta-related-title">Related articles by Zemanta</legend><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7169"> Hawaii Judge Issues Injunction Against Use of E-Voting System, Internet Transmission of Votes </a> (bradblog.com)</li></ul></fieldset> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/9ac3a6d7-76f6-4e8e-9d4c-d6c416e653ee/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9ac3a6d7-76f6-4e8e-9d4c-d6c416e653ee" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-2542680497379497392009-05-28T09:02:00.002-04:002009-05-28T09:19:35.257-04:00American Idol, Hawaii, and Internet-based Voting<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48600103384@N01/2513810296"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3066/2513810296_743665cfc8_m.jpg" alt="American Idol Finale - Coming Soon" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="158" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48600103384@N01/2513810296">stevegarfield</a> via Flickr</span></p>While many of us are working to save the integrity of our election system by defeating New York's move to software-based vote counting, Hawaii and the <a href="http://lever-voting-machines.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-theyll-be-voting-from-starbucks-in.html">NYC Department of Education</a> have moved in the other direction -- internet-based voting. <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pinkerton" title="James Pinkerton" rel="wikipedia">James Pinkerton</a> has written an interesting commentary on the politics of vote counting, anticipating what he thinks is an inevitable move to the internet.<br /><br />I include some excerpts from his piece. His questions and comments are as relevant to software-based vote-counting machines as the internet, but his solution seems as flawed as the current "certification" process.<br /><a href="http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/26/pinkerton_democrats_internet/"></a><blockquote><a href="http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/26/pinkerton_democrats_internet/">JAMES P. PINKERTON: Will Democrats Become a Permanent Majority Thanks to Internet Voting? � FOX Forum � FOXNews.com</a>: "So if vote fraud is already a problem, what will happen when the “vote” is simply an electronic pulse, that could have come, potentially, from anywhere in the US–or around the world? Who will oversee the e-voting process? And who will oversee the overseers?"<br /><br />...But of course, the high-tech nature of digital democracy adds a new layer of complexity, as well as mystery, to the voting process. In theory, the technology is completely neutral. But theoretical technology and practical politics are two different things. <a href="http://www.diebold.com/">Diebold</a>, a leading manufacturer of traditional voting machines, has come under <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZws98jw67g">repeated fire for alleged pro-Republican bias</a>. But the complexity of a voting machine is nothing compared to the complexity of computers and the Internet.<br /><br />...So what’s needed immediately is a completely fair and transparent process to examine all facets of the transition to Internet voting. And the only way to achieve that fairness and transparency is to create a rigorously bipartisan outfit to oversee the implementation of such technology, modeled after either the <a href="http://fec.gov/">Federal Election Commission</a>, or the private <a href="http://www.debates.org/">Commission on Presidential Debates</a>.</blockquote><br />Voter fraud has always been a problem, and always will be. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The integrity of our election system is based on the voters' belief that the system is impartial, observable, and secure. </span><br /><br />A bipartisan commission of Washington lackeys sitting in a hearing room can never assure voters that a software based system -- local or internet driven -- is secure or impartial, never-mind observable. I cite the recent <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idol_%28season_1%29" title="American Idol (season 1)" rel="wikipedia">American Idol</a> vote as a silly, but relevant example.<br /><br />My Google Alerts for voting news were full of articles this week about the groundswell of fans who believe that AT&T manipulated the <span style="font-weight: bold;">American Idol</span> vote and that's why their favorite lost.<br /><br /> <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Just try to convince them they're wrong. </span></span><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/b3149507-325b-4612-a296-a21443cfe588/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b3149507-325b-4612-a296-a21443cfe588" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-70081098163264311692009-05-25T20:46:00.007-04:002009-05-26T08:42:07.568-04:00Is something fishy in NYS's roll-out of uncertified voting systems?<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 250px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10527306@N00/1083570739"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1377/1083570739_7df57fedf0_m.jpg" alt="susans fishy" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="180" width="240" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10527306@N00/1083570739">winkydo</a> via Flickr</span></p>I haven't posted much of late; I've been helping the Election Transparency Coalition publish their <a href="http://nylevers.wordpress.com/">new site </a>tracking the NY counties as they move forward passing resolutions supporting keeping our lever machines. You can find the site <a href="http://nylevers.wordpress.com/">here</a>. Take a look.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the tenth county -- Sullivan -- has unanimously adopted a resolution. That means that of the ten counties, only one legislator, in Columbia County, voted against keeping levers.<br /><br />On the other hand, the NY State Board of Elections is moving forward with their "pilot" roll-out of uncertified optical scanners.<br /><a href="http://e-voter.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-york-rolls-out-uncertified-voting.html"><blockquote></blockquote></a><blockquote><a href="http://e-voter.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-york-rolls-out-uncertified-voting.html">Election Integrity: Fact & Friction: New York Rolls Out Uncertified Voting Systems for 2009 Elections</a>: "ALBANY -- At a May 12th Commissioners' meeting, after collaborating with the US Dept. of Justice, the New York State Board of Elections cavalierly decided to risk the disenfranchisement of nearly a million of the state's voters, by allowing what one commissioner called a 'huge pilot' of uncertified software-driven electronic vote-counting systems around the state in 45 of its 62 counties."</blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">As we've discussed here in the past, certification doesn't mean secure.</span> It means that an independent testing lab has put a machine through its paces to determine whether that model, at that point in time, meets the criteria that the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.fec.gov/" title="Federal Election Commission" rel="homepage">Federal Election Commission</a> has laid out. The current criteria was published a couple of years ago; <a href="http://lever-voting-machines.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-test-electronic-voting-systems.html">new, more stringent criteria</a> is currently in the public comment phase. Neither set of criteria addresses security because software-based systems, by their nature, can't be secured.,<br /><br />So, the NYS Board of Elections is ignoring even this watered down, but none-the-less <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">required by law</span>, certification process that is supposed to protect the integrity of our vote. They seem to think calling it a "pilot" makes it okay.<br /><br />Is something fishy around here? Certainly smells like it! What is their motivation to ignore the law?<br /><br />You can read the details at <a href="http://e-voter.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-york-rolls-out-uncertified-voting.html">Election Integrity</a>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Howard Stanislavic</span>, who publishes that blog, has included links to the Board of Elections documents that dictate the terms of the pilot. He raises several legal and common sense issues. I recommend you read his post and check to see whether your county is one planning to roll out uncertified machines.<br /><br />Why is the State Board of Elections in such a hurry to implement such a flawed system?<br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/7ee186e7-4200-44a0-982f-6dc56ea0aece/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7ee186e7-4200-44a0-982f-6dc56ea0aece" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-90669833192051453972009-05-12T20:44:00.004-04:002009-05-12T21:07:19.848-04:00Five NY counties to ditch lever voting machines<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvg1xfCGy2zEmx8vPiXItZEM-b5weTb69I_U9Wjq6I9EJpI8ldjvxh44ykRMKpevxcDIE5-ENlLW5O9gQJNbuAo4FOB_Xfx_AXiRfVimHh39iwsGNN0yOCsjiYmvJJd9yKtHnNlvVVM0/s1600-h/news1-story.gif"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 172px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 258px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335105321245722418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvg1xfCGy2zEmx8vPiXItZEM-b5weTb69I_U9Wjq6I9EJpI8ldjvxh44ykRMKpevxcDIE5-ENlLW5O9gQJNbuAo4FOB_Xfx_AXiRfVimHh39iwsGNN0yOCsjiYmvJJd9yKtHnNlvVVM0/s320/news1-story.gif" /></a><br /><div>While many counties are preparing resolutions requesting the State do everything in its power to keep our lever machines, five counties announced they are moving ahead with machines that aren't certified, let alone secure.<br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/506437.html">Franklin County to ditch lever voting machines - Adirondack Daily Enterprise</a>: "TUPPER LAKE - Franklin County, along with four other counties, will switch to using electronic voting machines exclusively by this year's elections.<br />'We believe it is time to go ahead and go forward with one voting machine instead of three different ones,' said county Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Veronica King.<br /><br />The announcement from <strong>Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and St. Lawrence</strong> counties followed on the heels of Essex County's passage last week of a resolution requesting the state make it legal for counties to keep lever voting machines in addition to the one electronic voting machine that is already available at each polling place in the state."<br /></blockquote><br /><strong>Teresa Hommel</strong> who writes <a href="http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ny.html">Where's the Paper</a> and chairs the <strong>Task Force on Election Integrity</strong> at Community Church of NY offered the NY State Board of Elections some sage comments you might want to echo. I know I will.<br /><blockquote><p>"I oppose the experimental use of uncertified scanners in real elections <span style="color:#003333;">without a 100% hand-count on election night of all votes processed by those scanners</span>. The hand-count must be the official tally of those votes for all purposes. Any "pilot program" to introduce uncertified scanners to staff and voters must not be the basis for counting or reporting election results.</p><p>In addition, I urge you to use this pilot experiment to implement the recommendation of the New York City Council as expressed in Resolution 228A of 2006 passed unanimously in August, 2006, and quoted below. Otherwise the pilot will be little more than a test of whether voters can insert a piece of paper into a slot on an optical scanner, and the scanner can print a reasonable-looking tally report at the end of the day. "<br /></p><br /><p><em>Conduct a Mock Election Public Test with the objective that such<br />Mock Election Public Test would demonstrate that:</em></p><p><em>a. Vendor documentation, training materials, and the ability to train election staff are effective, such that the vendor can train Board staff so that Board staff can: (i) independently perform all tasks to prepare the test machines for the test, including ballot programming, (ii) train election inspectors for the test, and (iii) perform all<br />post-election tasks to canvass the votes;</em></p><p><em>b. Votes displayed on screens and voter verified printouts, tallies, and activity and event logs for all systems under consideration are accurate;</em></p><p><em>c. Tabulating equipment associated with each system under consideration is accurate;<br /></em></p></blockquote><blockquote><i><small><span style="color:teal;">Send your letters to <a href="mailto:info@elections.state.ny.us">New York State Board of Elections</a>: James A. Walsh, Co-Chair; <a href="mailto:dkellner@elections.state.ny.us">Douglas A. Kellner</a>, Co-Chair; Evelyn J. Aquila, Commissioner; <a href="mailto:gpeterson@elections.state.ny.us">Gregory P. Peterson</a>, Commissioner; <a href="mailto:tvalentine@elections.state.ny.us">Todd D. Valentine</a>, Co-Executive Director; <a href="mailto:szalen@elections.state.ny.us">Stanley L. Zalen</a>, Co-Executive Director</i></small></span></blockquote></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-31433490006078055292009-05-05T01:00:00.000-04:002009-05-04T22:58:30.144-04:00Rewards for hacking electronic voting machines? Great idea!<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 210px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ph_regions_and_provinces.png"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Ph_regions_and_provinces.png/200px-Ph_regions_and_provinces.png" alt="Provinces and regions of the Philippines." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="200" height="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ph_regions_and_provinces.png">Wikipedia</a></span></p>Phillipine's Senator <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Peter_Cayetano" title="Alan Peter Cayetano" rel="wikipedia">Alan Peter Cayetano</a>'s proposal to reward anyone who can hack an electronic voting machine may not be as outlandish as <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/" title="Manila Standard Today" rel="homepage">Manila Standard Today</a> columnist <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fel Maragay</span> thinks.<br /><br />The Phillipines, like New York State, passed a law mandating automated election machines. As in New York State, their law includes criteria the machines must meet -- 18 specifications in the Phillipines; Federal certification in NY. But Senator Cayetano knows what so many don't want to admit -- those specifications don't make voting machines secure. And he aims to prove it. [Emphasis mine]:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_may4_2009"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_may4_2009">Philippine News -- Manila Standard Today -- Fears over poll automation -- may4_2009</a>: "The automation law, according to its principal author, Senator Richard Gordon, requires the contractor of the automation project to comply with at least 18 specifications to ensure the 100-percent accuracy and efficiency and to ensure that the process is free from hacking and manipulation. But so extreme is the apprehension of the doubting Thomases over the threat of hacking that it has reached paranoiac proportion. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This prompted Senator Alan Peter Cayetano to come out with an outlandish proposal to allocate P100 million out of the automation budget as a reward to anyone who can successfully hack the voting machines, supposedly to put in place the necessary counter-measures."</span><br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>If the NY legislature believes software-based voting is secure, let them offer a substantial reward for anyone who can hack it. They have nothing to lose. And, if they believe the experts -- that all software-based systems are vulnerable to hacking -- then they should rescind ERMA<span style="font-weight: bold;">, </span>letting us keep the lever system that has worked with so few problems for so many years.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Outlandish or reasonable. What do you think?<br /></span><br /></span> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/171fe096-8199-43aa-aec8-16f01f143093/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=171fe096-8199-43aa-aec8-16f01f143093" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-85247334271640255882009-05-04T19:34:00.001-04:002009-05-04T19:35:22.806-04:00Another NY County Votes to Keep LeversToday Essex County joined the list of counties who are calling upon the State legislature to rescind or amend ERMA:<br /><br /><a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/"></a><blockquote><a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/">Re-Media Election Transparency Coalition</a>: "Essex County wants to keep using its dependable lever voting machines, according to today's vote by the Board of Supervisors. Citing the 'insurmountable' costs of the optical-scan systems mandated by the Election Reform and Modernization Act (ERMA), the Board passed a resolution 'supporting the continuation of our lever voting machines together with Ballot Marking Devices (BMD) and rejecting the use of a computerized voting system[.]' The resolution requests that the State Legislature and Board of Elections enact the necessary laws to allow counties to keep their current election systems."</blockquote>Read more at the <a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/2009/05/essex-county-rejects-state-mandated.html">Election Transparency Coalition's </a>site.Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-87303142217182273072009-05-02T12:28:00.004-04:002009-05-02T12:41:53.010-04:00Building Momentum: Essex Cty to Consider Lever Resolution Monday<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 210px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:National-atlas-new-york.png"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/National-atlas-new-york.png/200px-National-atlas-new-york.png" alt="The major cities and roadways of New York State." style="border: medium none ; display: block; width: 219px; height: 170px;" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:National-atlas-new-york.png">Wikipedia</a></span></p>The momentum is growing throughout NY State. Every day we read more about the problems emerging with electronic voting elsewhere. Every day it becomes clearer that operating costs for electronic systems will far exceed the purchase costs. So the momentum behind the effort to maintain NY's lever system is escalating.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fox44.net/Global/story.asp?S=10290848"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.fox44.net/Global/story.asp?S=10290848">Essex to join counties demanding to keep lever voting booths - Fox 44 - Burlington and Plattsburgh News, Weather and Sports - Fox44.net |</a>: "ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - Essex County in the Adirondacks is joining a growing number of counties trying to save old-fashioned lever voting booths.<br /><br />The county Board of Supervisors is expected to pass a resolution Monday morning supporting retention of the mechanical booths. The New York State Association of Towns is also calling on state lawmakers to keep the lever machines."</blockquote> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/f5273db1-a9d6-44f4-ac80-5e503db34ed2/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f5273db1-a9d6-44f4-ac80-5e503db34ed2" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-33194382790393409942009-05-01T20:01:00.005-04:002009-05-01T21:58:20.643-04:00Why computers are bad at counting votes<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2009/4/29/1241001942760/Polls-001.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 460px; height: 276px;" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2009/4/29/1241001942760/Polls-001.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Click the box … voters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during last<br />November’s presidential election hope their ballots won’t be ‘erased’.<br />Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images<br /></span></div><br />Wendy Grossman had an excellent article in the London Guardian which I found in tomorrow's Taipei Times. Hmm, the world is getting smaller. Anyway, Grossman does a great job pulling together some of the recent problems with electronic voting.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2009/05/02/2003442554"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/30/e-voting-electronic-polling-systems">Guardian</a><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/30/e-voting-electronic-polling-systems"> </a>"It’s commonly said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. Yet this is what we keep doing with electronic voting machines — find flaws and try again. It should therefore have been no surprise when, at the end of March, California’s secretary of state’s office of voting system technology assessment decertified older voting systems from Diebold’s Premier Election Solutions division. The reason: a security flaw that erased 197 votes in the Humboldt county precinct in last November’s presidential election.<br /><br />Clearly, 197 votes would not have changed the national result. But the loss, which exceeds the error rate allowed under the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act" title="Help America Vote Act" rel="wikipedia">Help America Vote Act</a> of 2002, was only spotted because a local citizen group, the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project (humtp.com) monitored the vote using a ballot-imaging scanner to create an independent record. How many votes were lost elsewhere?"</blockquote><br />She quotes <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Mercuri" title="Rebecca Mercuri" rel="wikipedia">Rebecca Mercuri</a>, a security consultant who studied voting systems for her doctoral dissertation:<br /><blockquote>“It’s nothing new. These are all security flaws that are well known in the industry. Why are they acting as if this is the first time they’ve heard this?” The audit log problems were documented in <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bev_Harris" title="Bev Harris" rel="wikipedia">Bev Harris</a>’s 2004 book, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box_voting" title="Black box voting" rel="wikipedia">Black Box Voting</a> (blackboxvoting.org).<br /><br />Mercuri explains that election software belongs to the class of problems known as “NP-complete,” that is, problems computers cannot solve in a known amount of time. How much time have you got to test that a given voting system will function perfectly under all possible circumstances?<br /><br />“What are people going to do about it?” she asks. “Say we fixed it when it’s theoretically not possible to fix these things at any real level?”</blockquote><br />And she points out that many of the security problems now involve insiders with legitimate access to the software, bought off by organized crime gangs because of the money they can make. They only need a USB stick in their back pocket.<br /><br />Grossman continues:<br /><br /><blockquote>At least with voting, citizen groups are motivated to push for greater transparency. In the UK, Jason Kitcat, Green councilor for Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England, organized volunteers to observe e-voting trials in the 2007 local government elections in England and Scotland on behalf of the Open Rights Group.<br /><br />“We saw the same audit log issues,” he says. “We know from a computer science point of view that making an audit log that can’t be changed is impossible. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">But it seems as if there’s a huge disconnect between people who are computer-science literate, and the people delivering the policy.”</span> [my emphasis]<br /><br />Besides, politicians like making uncontroversial decisions. Who could fault them for trusting a company that makes ATMs worldwide? Again, it comes back to humans.<br /><br />“The folks who buy ATMs [bank managers] and voting machines [election officials] don’t really want to pay for a facility that will make it easier for people to challenge them,” says Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, England.<br /><br />“In the long run, of course, this ends up costing them more: fraud can lead to challenges that are systemic rather than local. Nevertheless, the purchasers may be rational. Most of the bank managers who bought crap ATM systems in the ’80s are retired now — they got away with it. With voting machines, some vendors have been discredited in some countries, but lots of money has still been made.”<br /><br />That is, from us — the taxpayer and the bank customer. Kitcat says: “It is shocking that in this day and age this has been allowed to continue.”<br /></blockquote>This is a good overview of the issues today. NY has been the last holdout. Let's not let it happen here.<br /><br /><fieldset class="zemanta-related"><legend class="zemanta-related-title">Related articles by Zemanta</legend><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://r.zemanta.com/?u=http%3A//www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/30/e-voting-electronic-polling-systems&a=4561509&rid=ea0816c1-7d6f-42b5-af0c-18355c7e8404&e=3eb85661789cb38c677b961f5cb68674"> Why machines are bad at counting votes </a> (guardian.co.uk)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/18/2217252&from=rss">Diebold Admits Flaw In Voting Software</a> (politics.slashdot.org)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6995">Diebold Admits Audit Logs in ALL Versions of Their Software Fail to Record Ballot Deletions</a> (bradblog.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/ca-report-finds.html">Diebold Voting System Has 'Delete' Button for Erasing Audit Logs</a> (wired.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20090318/0127204160.shtml">Turns Out Diebold's ATMs Insecure As Well; Scammers Install Malware</a> (techdirt.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.allthingsreform.org/2009/03/premier-election-systems-electronic.html">Premier Election Systems' electronic voting machines have an erase button!</a> (allthingsreform.org)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20090303/1749093974.shtml">No Surprise Here: Lost Votes In Last Election Due To Faulty Diebold Equipment</a> (techdirt.com)</li></ul></fieldset> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/ea0816c1-7d6f-42b5-af0c-18355c7e8404/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ea0816c1-7d6f-42b5-af0c-18355c7e8404" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-73106807601910768392009-04-26T13:37:00.007-04:002009-04-27T15:14:43.265-04:00Election commissioners reflect on levers in the NY-20 congressional race<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 199px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66599810@N00/3463271875"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3496/3463271875_fbe8d0977b_m.jpg" alt="Automatic Voting Machine" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="240" width="189" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/66599810@N00/3463271875">R. Wahtera</a> via Flickr</span></p>At the bottom of this article about the Murphy/Tedisco NY-20 congressional race I found an interesting discussion of voting machine technology with some quotes by the Columbia County election commissioners.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.columbiapaper.com/index.php/the-news/204-debora-gilbert"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.columbiapaper.com/index.php/the-news/204-debora-gilbert">Challenges to second-home voters prolong House race count</a>:<br /><br />One factor that has not hindered the vote count is voting machine technology. The two commissioners agreed that the familiar, mechanical lever machines worked well during the March 31 election. Mr. Kline called them foolproof. Ms. Martin said they were completely reliable and functioned beautifully.<br /><br />Asked whether the board had considered using the new electronic ballot marking voting machines for the special election, Mr. Kline said, “It would have been a nightmare. Every paper ballot might have been contested.”<br /><br />Ms. Martin said that time did not permit using the new machines, and she said the cost to taxpayers of using them would have been considerable. Just licensing software for a one-candidate election would have cost up to $80,000, with ballots costing an additional $20,000, and that’s just the beginning. Prices for ongoing services from voting machine vendors will be going up soon, she said.<br /><br />Both commissioners support a resolution adopted in January by the county Board of Supervisors asking the state for permission to retain the lever voting machines while augmenting them with the new, handicapped-accessible ballot marking devices that counties all over state were required to purchase last fall."</blockquote> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/2e5268b8-030a-4f6b-b9ae-7abfdc3e9f22/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2e5268b8-030a-4f6b-b9ae-7abfdc3e9f22" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-48912922619587566772009-04-16T08:49:00.002-04:002009-04-16T08:55:39.655-04:00Clear evidence: Lever voting works -- Times Union - Albany NY<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://profile.ak.facebook.com/v228/898/36/n1222746437_989.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 201px;" src="http://profile.ak.facebook.com/v228/898/36/n1222746437_989.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Today's <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.timesunion.com/" title="Times Union (Albany)" rel="homepage">Albany Times Union</a> has an article by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Andi Novick</span> of the <a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/">Election Transparency Coalition</a> about the government's responsibility to assure its citizens that the system for counting votes is secure, accurate, and transparent. Levers provide that assurance.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=790729&category=OPINION&TextPage=1"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=790729&category=OPINION&TextPage=1">Clear evidence: Lever voting works -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY</a>: "In a democracy, it is the Legislature's responsibility to create a structure in which voting can occur in the most secure manner, one that produces demonstrably certain election results. Just as in a criminal trial, where the state must prove the defendant's guilt to the satisfaction of a jury, in an election the state must establish its innocence to the satisfaction of the public. In both cases, the state must sustain its burden with unimpeachable evidence."</blockquote> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/5782fcba-a903-4ad4-9ca8-1d89bf8aa113/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5782fcba-a903-4ad4-9ca8-1d89bf8aa113" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-8192492780044857612009-04-13T09:36:00.005-04:002009-04-14T11:05:21.203-04:00Two Election Commissioners Comment on the Op Scanners<object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wOmLbZFWhZ0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wOmLbZFWhZ0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br /><br />Nov. 11, 2008 interview with two upstate election commissioners - Lewis Sanders, Essex County and Franklin County, Veronica King.<br /><br />Sanders raises yet another cost component - the replacement cycle.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">My apologies for originally identifying Mr. Sanders as David Mace.</span></span>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-29499948182383296302009-04-12T10:44:00.004-04:002009-04-12T11:05:30.616-04:00Voting in cyberspace -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.timesunion.com/graphics/layout/timesunionlogo_dark.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 313px; height: 27px;" src="http://www.timesunion.com/graphics/layout/timesunionlogo_dark.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.timesunion.com/graphics/colsigs/editorial.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 82px; height: 100px;" src="http://www.timesunion.com/graphics/colsigs/editorial.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Today there's an editorial in the <span style="font-weight: bold;"><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.timesunion.com/" title="Times Union (Albany)" rel="homepage">Albany Times Union</a></span> about the <span style="font-weight: bold;">NYC Department of Education's</span> Community and Citywide Education Council elections currently underway <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">on the internet</span>. (Has anyone seen any commentary on this in a NY City paper?) I wrote about this election earlier this week <a href="http://lever-voting-machines.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-theyll-be-voting-from-starbucks-in.html">here</a>.<br /><br />I found this section of the editorial especially interesting. The study referenced echoes the testimony before the Election Advisory Commission from a CIA employee, which I wrote about <a href="http://lever-voting-machines.blogspot.com/2009/04/most-electronic-voting-systems-can-be.html">here.</a><br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=789408&category=MONEDIT">Voting in cyberspace -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY</a>: "Studies in recent years have raised plenty of red flags. A 2004 review of the $22 million <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Electronic_Registration_and_Voting_Experiment" title="Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment" rel="wikipedia">Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment</a>, conceived by the Department of Defense for military and other overseas voters, raised such major security concerns that it urged the program be scrapped. It warned that using the Internet opened the door to election tampering, vote-buying, viral attacks and privacy violations. Attacks from a lone hacker or an enemy state could result in large-scale voter disenfranchisement, the study warned, and might not even be detected.<br /><br />Not only is such mischief easy, the study said, but unavoidable under the present structure of the Internet. And, it noted, the temptation to hack into something as sacrosanct as an America election would be huge:<br /><br />'A U.S. general election offers one of the most tempting targets for cyber-attack in the history of the Internet, whether the attacker's motive is overtly political or simply self-aggrandizement.'"<br /></blockquote><br />As someone who tends to err on the side of over-trusting, rather than paranoia, following this election system issue is opening my eyes. I thought of election fraud as a rather local issue, but the CIA and Department of Defense interest underscores its global implications.<br /><br />The Times Union closes their editorial with this:<br /><p></p><blockquote><p>So experiments like New York City's are worth close scrutiny. They may point the way to a new frontier. They may reveal the flaws that need to be fixed. Or they may show us that for now, a good old fashioned trip to the polls, or a mailed-in paper ballot, is as high-tech as we want democracy to be.</p><p>The issue:</p><p>The first all-Internet election, of sorts, is under way.</p><p>The Stakes:</p><p>We're not ready to toss the voting booths just yet.</p></blockquote><p></p>I agree.<br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/f0cca0b2-d0ec-4219-accb-3ee1f9993401/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f0cca0b2-d0ec-4219-accb-3ee1f9993401" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-77818800500393260462009-04-09T21:58:00.007-04:002009-04-09T22:18:05.913-04:00Most electronic voting systems can be hacked, CIA expert saysNow, just why is it that we're arguing about keeping our levers?<br /><br />This is a story not to be missed! A CIA expert testifying before the US Election Assistance Commission...<br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Most_electronic_voting_systems_can_be_0325.html">The Raw Story | Most electronic voting systems can be hacked, CIA expert says</a>: "'Computerized electoral systems can be manipulated at five stages, from altering voter registration lists to posting results,' a summary of his remarks said.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/040216_votingmachines_vmed_4pwidec.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 174px; height: 219px;" src="http://www.whereistheoutrage.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/040216_votingmachines_vmed_4pwidec.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Moreover, Stigall said that the CIA believes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may have fixed a recent recount in his favor using such tactics. Chavez, he said, controlled most of the voting machines used and may have provided the program that was used to 'randomly' select machines for audit during a recount.<br /><br />The voting machines Venezuela used were made by Smartmatic, a company that partnered with Chavez's government which was owned by US-based Sequoia systems until 2007. Sequoia also provides voting machines for the District of Columbia and 16 US states."</blockquote>I hope you'll click the link and read the whole story. It makes the notion of op-scanners and paper ballots seem pretty silly.<br /><br />And, here's the link to the <a href="http://www.eac.gov/about/committees/standards/briefing-materials-orlando-florida-standards-board-meeting">Election Assistance Commissions transcript.</a><br /><br /><fieldset class="zemanta-related"><legend class="zemanta-related-title">Related articles by Zemanta</legend><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/25/1641228&from=rss">CIA Expert Decries E-Voting Security</a> (tech.slashdot.org)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7021">CIA Warning: 'E-Voting Not Secure' - U.S. EAC Finally Releases Complete Transcript of Stunning Cybersecurity Expert Testimony</a> (bradblog.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.allthingsreform.org/2009/03/us-election-assistance-commission-very.html">US Election Assistance Commission very selective in reporting of CIA analysis of electronic voting machines</a> (allthingsreform.org)</li></ul></fieldset> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/1b01d472-e1d4-4e87-b140-00d6b4ce291e/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1b01d472-e1d4-4e87-b140-00d6b4ce291e" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-46038477878987399672009-04-09T19:51:00.009-04:002009-04-09T20:26:50.974-04:00How the NY-20 Congressional Race Demonstrates the Need for Lever Machines<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFUc7Yc6clLzRdX9NmLNLuB9YFBKGZVkS-e0oHUIHtrGJmQy1xZpSYSEdQjFshyphenhyphenWfzCq57f9DCRA9c7gwKuGlersYOZp1Bt400Z17fXzor4AimtCIQY6QSPpDCsffUZuN0JxCaqTQbPMg/s1600-h/Ballot_box.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFUc7Yc6clLzRdX9NmLNLuB9YFBKGZVkS-e0oHUIHtrGJmQy1xZpSYSEdQjFshyphenhyphenWfzCq57f9DCRA9c7gwKuGlersYOZp1Bt400Z17fXzor4AimtCIQY6QSPpDCsffUZuN0JxCaqTQbPMg/s200/Ballot_box.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322852382134030450" border="0" /></a>Counting the paper ballots in the NY District 20 Congressional race is underway. I've been thinking about how lever machines make the counting different from Minnesota, or from NY if an op-scanner system is implemented.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Of course the first difference is that no one is calling for a recount of the votes cast on the lever machines.</span></span> People have confidence in the lever machines. On election night, in full public view, the back of each machine is opened and the numbers are read off. All that's left are the absentee and affidavit ballots. In Minnesota, no one trusts anything. Count and count again.<br /><br /><a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/"></a><blockquote><a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/">Re-Media Election Transparency Coalition</a>: "Unlike the recent close race in Minnesota that was decided by a manual recount of post-election night paper ballots, not shown to have been the same ballots cast at the election, today’s commencement of New York’s absentee paper ballots will be publicly observed from the moment they are cast, through the counting. Novick says, “New York’s Constitution has always required an observable, open electoral process that produces evidence of the count at the time the votes are cast, ensuring maximum protection against fraud.”<br /><br />“The Republican Party will have the proof it seeks, at least this year.” “But,” she warns, “If we permit the State to abandon our lever voting system for software-based scanners, it will be the last time any one will have evidence of who won the election.”"</blockquote><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >And the cost is different --</span> A lever election is cheaper -- no high price technician doing software changes, no printing of paper ballots, attorney's fees are lower, and the labor costs for election officials are lower.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >And the amount of time is different</span> -- no audit of paper ballots, or total recount of paper ballots.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The worry-level is different</span></span> -- no wondering whether the software was hacked or contains bugs, the electronics malfunctioned, the audit is an adequate size sample, or -- as in <a href="http://lever-voting-machines.blogspot.com/2009/04/election-fraud-in-clay-county-kentucky.html">Clay County, Tennessee</a>, where election officials have been indicted -- worry over old-fashioned election fraud.<br /><br />Seems like keeping levers is something we could all get behind! (I think I've said that before.)Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-64410565076882926702009-04-07T18:19:00.003-04:002009-04-07T18:33:20.561-04:00What? They'll Be Voting From Starbucks In New York City?I was glad to read that this Department of Education <span style="font-weight: bold;">on-line</span> election is for positions that are <span style="font-weight: bold;">advisory </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold;">unpaid</span>. Otherwise, I'd have bigger problems with it. So, I'll just leave it at -- hackable, discriminatory, lacking transparency.<br /><br /><a href="http://warrenslocum.blogspot.com/2009/04/theyll-be-voting-from-starbucks-in-new.html"></a><blockquote><a href="http://warrenslocum.blogspot.com/2009/04/theyll-be-voting-from-starbucks-in-new.html">New Democracy Blog | by Warren Slocum: They'll Be Voting From Starbucks In New York City</a>: "Starting April 6th and running through April 12th, NYC's, public school parents will be eligible to cast advisory votes for members of their community education councils. The unpaid council members play a role in various operational issues and help schools develop their budgets."</blockquote><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BfQby5BaYfQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BfQby5BaYfQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Slocum's post goes on the say that in the last school board election in NYC only 5% of parents participated. I suppose one can argue that if on-line voting for advisory positions can engage more parents in the business of running the NYC Department of Education, it's worth a try.<br /><br />What do you think? <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/b4a61433-c4cc-46f9-9f41-9c0fb34586f1/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b4a61433-c4cc-46f9-9f41-9c0fb34586f1" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-75274264337418380392009-04-05T13:54:00.004-04:002009-04-05T14:03:49.149-04:00Capturing news about voting machinesI've added a new widget to the sidebar. It's an Evernote notebook where I'm collecting newspaper articles about voting machines. Now, if you click on a link in a blog post and find the article gone, just search for it in the Evernote widget. Most will be there. Here's what it looks like:<br /><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data="http://widget.evernote.com/widget/widget.swf" height="285" width="385"><param name="movie" value="http://widget.evernote.com/widget/widget.swf"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="flashvars" value="feed_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs5%2Fpub%2F383365%2Fwahtera%2FVotingMachineArticles%2Frss.jsp"><embed flashvars="feed_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.evernote.com%2Fshard%2Fs5%2Fpub%2F383365%2Fwahtera%2FVotingMachineArticles%2Frss.jsp" allowscriptaccess="never" wmode="window" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" src="http://widget.evernote.com/widget/widget.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="285" width="385"></embed></object><br /><br />I have found that when I go back to read articles from the press they are sometimes missing altogether or the site wants me to pay to access their archives. So I have begun to collect them in a shared <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.evernote.com/" title="Evernote" rel="homepage">Evernote</a> notebook. It's there in the sidebar for your use, too. You can search it for a particular topic.<br /><br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/dbc59051-2f27-4696-a6b6-09ddf6d84501/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dbc59051-2f27-4696-a6b6-09ddf6d84501" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-27382887643989558722009-04-04T20:35:00.003-04:002009-04-04T20:48:01.243-04:00Greene County Lever Voting Machine Update<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.thedailymail.net/art/toplogo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 241px; height: 53px;" src="http://www.thedailymail.net/art/toplogo.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Greene County's</span> legislature will vote on a save-our-levers resolution at their <span style="font-weight: bold;">April 20th</span> meeting. If you live in Greene County, make sure they know where you stand.<br /><br />Somehow we need to renew <span style="font-weight: bold;">Election Commissioner Burke's</span> faith in citizen action, as well. Since he thinks levers are better, too, why give up without a fight?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2009/03/17/news/news2.txt"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2009/03/17/news/news2.txt">The Daily Mail Online</a>: "According to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Democratic Elections Commissioner Thomas Burke,</span> the decision is out of the county’s hands. While he agreed that the lever machines could conceivably work better than the newer optical scan voting machines, the state leaves them with no choice — everyone will soon make the switch.<br /><br />“Are the new machines as good as the old ones? I don’t think so, but everyone in the State of New York will have to switch to the optical scan machine,” Burke said. “We don’t know when the change will happen, but it will happen.”<br /><br />Nothing short of litigation will stop the switch, Burke added, and in other counties where that has been tried, it has failed."</blockquote><br />Come on, Commissioner Burke, let's use every route there is to keep our levers until we can be sure a change is to an equal or better election system, and that means transparency, security, and cost.Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-30948932967449564322009-04-04T20:02:00.003-04:002009-04-04T20:17:46.712-04:00Election Fraud in Clay County, Kentucky -- things to come in NY?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://wlex.images.worldnow.com/images/10037216_BG1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 119px;" src="http://wlex.images.worldnow.com/images/10037216_BG1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Andi Novick</span> says that New Yorkers learned, well over a century ago, that we have to assume that election fraud will occur and do everything possible, in advance, to protect against it. That's how the NY lever system was born.<br /><br />Well,<a href="http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=10037216&nav=menu203_2"> here's what has happened in Clay County, Kentucky</a> where they use an electronic voting system.<br /><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >Five Clay County officials, including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers were arrested Thursday after they were indicted on federal charges accusing them of using corrupt tactics to obtain political power and personal gain.</span></p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" > </span><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >The 10-count indictment, unsealed Thursday, accused the defendants of a conspiracy from March 2002 until November 2006 that violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). RICO is a federal statute that prosecutors use to combat organized crime. The defendants were also indicted for extortion, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to injure voters' rights and conspiracy to commit voter fraud.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ></span></p><br />Of particular interest is Freddy Thompson's role in defeating the security on the voting machines. [emphasis mine]<br /><a href="http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=10037216&nav=menu203_2"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=10037216&nav=menu203_2">LEX18 - Lexington, KY - News, Weather, Sports - Several Clay County Officials Arrested On Federal Charges</a>: "# Clay County Clerk, Freddy Thompson, 45, allegedly provided money to election officers to be distributed by the officers to buy votes and <span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">he also instructed officers how to change votes at the voting machine.</span> The indictment also accused Thompson of a false testimony before a grand jury in Lexington."</blockquote><br />After all these years when New Yorkers could trust the integrity of our system, is this what will happen in NY?Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-74523128149317857812009-04-04T18:59:00.004-04:002009-04-04T19:33:21.102-04:00Counting paper ballots<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/01/nyregion/20thcd-480.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 480px; height: 180px;" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/01/nyregion/20thcd-480.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Tedisco-Murphy Congressional</span> race offers lots to talk about, but I'm especially interested in the challenges of counting paper ballots.<br /><br />NY's lever system has always accommodated paper ballots for absentee voting, provisional voting (when the voter's registration is in question and has to be researched), or a voting machine goes out of commission in the midst of an election. Most often, the number of paper ballots won't change the election results, so they don't get much attention. But, when they could, as in this election, everyone cares.<br /><br />I'm always astonished at how long and the resources it takes to count paper ballots and the judgement that goes into what gets counted and what gets tossed. Let's watch this one.<br /><br /><a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/absentees-will-decide-upstate-election-but-not-soon/"></a><blockquote><a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/absentees-will-decide-upstate-election-but-not-soon/">No Decision Soon in Upstate House Race - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com</a>: "Mr. Conklin hesitated to guess when a winner could be named, noting instead that in November’s State Senate race in Queens between the incumbent Republican, Frank Padavan, and City Councilman James F. Gennaro, a winner was not determined until February, and that the results were not certified by the state board until March 10.<br /><br />“That’s one of the perils of the whole paper ballot system,” Mr. Conklin said. “This will be a massive undertaking, and this is only dealing with the absentees. Out of 155,000 votes cast, we’ll be arguing over the 6,000-plus that come back.”"</blockquote><br />Of course, proponents of op scanners (and ERMA) say a sample of paper ballots will verify the electronic vote. And, they say, the existence of paper ballots will make it easy to do recounts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Do you think paper ballots, either as a sample or as a method for recounts, is the way to go?</span> I think it brings another unnecessary layer of expense and delay, and could throw us into chaos. Imagine having to hand count 155,000 votes.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Photo: from the NY Times - </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" class="credit">left, Tim Roske/Associated Press; right, Hans Pennink/Associated Press</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" class="caption">James N. Tedisco, left, and Scott Murphy are neck-and-neck in the special election for the 20th Congressional District.<br /></span></span><br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/d5274456-7e40-4e95-9c3c-ca3b8fefe835/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d5274456-7e40-4e95-9c3c-ca3b8fefe835" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-27281971505022098192009-04-04T18:12:00.002-04:002009-04-04T18:37:37.034-04:00How to test electronic voting systems - the next iteration<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/votephoto2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 176px; height: 205px;" src="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/votephoto2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I'm catching up on voting system news after being out of commission for a few weeks, so you will probably see a flurry of activity here over the next few days. (Some of my posts may seem backwards since I'm working from the most recent back in my Google alerts.)<br /><br />Let's start here. The <span style="font-weight: bold;">National Institute of Standards and Technology</span> has just issued <a href="http://vote.nist.gov/voting-system-test-suites.htm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">draft</span> standards</a> for testing voting systems. The public comment period ends <span style="font-weight: bold;">July 1, 2009.</span><br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tbx20090401_voting.html">NIST Tech Beat - Apri1 1, 2009</a>: "NIST Issues Open and Transparent Methods for Testing Electronic Voting Systems<br /><br />GAITHERSBURG, MD – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today opened for public comment detailed new methods for testing future electronic voting systems' compliance with voluntary federal standards. Touch screens, optical scanners and other kinds of electronic voting systems now appear at polls across the nation.<br /><br />The new draft tests can be viewed at <a href="http://vote.nist.gov/voting-system-test-suites.htm">http://vote.nist.gov/voting-system-test-suites.htm</a>." <br /></blockquote>I haven't looked at the draft yet, and I'm not a geek, so I may not be able to understand them when I do look, but here are the questions that immediately occur to me:<br /><ul><li>What can I count on if a machine passes these tests? Does it mean that the machine is tamper-proof?</li><li>Is every machine placed in a polling place certified, or just the company's prototype?<br /></li><li>If a machine is serviced for a problem or software update, is it re-certified? If not, how do I know it hasn't been messed with?</li></ul>I'll be watching and listening to what the geeks have to say, and I'll try to wade through the material myself. If you take a look, please share your thoughts here in the comments.<br /><br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/9e9d5a5e-9c50-48ef-8075-58f37135354d/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9e9d5a5e-9c50-48ef-8075-58f37135354d" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-82785290509916099752009-03-21T12:59:00.000-04:002009-04-09T13:26:47.055-04:00What about this question of maintaining lever machines?<p class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 190px;"><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/27933831_f1cdfaf9a8_m.jpg"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/27933831_f1cdfaf9a8_m.jpg" alt="sunglasses repair" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="240" width="180" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/34427466731@N01/27933831">striatic</a> via Flickr</span></p><span class="zemanta-img-attribution"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update 3/21/09:</span> </span>On March 18th International Election Solutions released a statement that they can provide the full aray of services on the 3.2 Shoup Voting Machines. <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/remediaetc/home/documents/ShoupMaint.pdf">PDF of the statement here.</a></span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-style: italic;">2/09/09:</span> Several recent articles mourning the end of lever voting make comments that the only company that maintains them has gone out of business. Fortunately, that's not true.<br /><br />The Voting Machine Service Center in Gerry NY wrote a January 23, 2009 letter, now archived on <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/">Remedia Election Transparency Coalition's website</a>, that confirms that they have been in business for 32 years, continue in business, and that they "can say, with confidence, that the AVB lever machines in the State of New York could be maintained indefinitely."<br /><br />Here's the link to the <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/remediaetc/home/documents/VotingMachineServiceCenterletter.pdf?attredirects=0">pdf of the letter.</a><br /> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/f1d071e7-93d6-4585-ab5d-188802176e16/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f1d071e7-93d6-4585-ab5d-188802176e16" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517786575504318371.post-62892382611079811992009-03-14T11:36:00.007-04:002009-03-14T13:02:16.866-04:00Get behind these budget cuts, NYC<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzJQRWtOjv4sObkz-REzic3zDJ9R0t0ugPh9ooVUCCCuwzi0-QBukgVPQ4-rrzXKtGJSqVcQfyl5IH2PJ4aaPnI8sJum-IbonJ_WW27G6VDa4xzGyI8krjvDc5hKR_NV34Tyn4HNd_dw/s1600-h/Money__on_Flickr_-_Photo_Sharing_.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 147px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzJQRWtOjv4sObkz-REzic3zDJ9R0t0ugPh9ooVUCCCuwzi0-QBukgVPQ4-rrzXKtGJSqVcQfyl5IH2PJ4aaPnI8sJum-IbonJ_WW27G6VDa4xzGyI8krjvDc5hKR_NV34Tyn4HNd_dw/s200/Money__on_Flickr_-_Photo_Sharing_.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313076620431157058" border="0" /></a><br />The NYC <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_elections" title="Board of elections" rel="wikipedia">Board of Elections</a> is complaining, and threatening suit, against <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg" title="Michael Bloomberg" rel="wikipedia">Mayor Bloomberg</a>'s budget cuts. <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><br /><br />C'mon, guys, let's get real. </span></span><br /><ul><li>The Feds have extended the deadline for states to use federal funds to modernize voting systems<br /></li><li>The proposed system is probably unconstitutional in NYS<br /></li><li>The optical scanners have yet to be certified as performing to standards so low that they don't/can't assure voters that the machines can't be hacked</li><li>Paper ballots required to give us confidence in the integrity of a software-based system are so fraught with opportunity for election fraud that they were replaced by levers in NYC with bi-partisan support in 1926<br /></li><li>Even if certified, the optical scanner-based system can't be implemented in time for 2009 elections.<br /></li></ul><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Now you're going to spend more money suing the city? Give us a break!</span></span><br /><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/03/12/2009-03-12_budget_cuts_endangering_city_elections_b.html"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/03/12/2009-03-12_budget_cuts_endangering_city_elections_b.html">Budget cuts endangering city elections, Board of Elections says</a>: "The cuts come during the two most demanding election periods - last year's presidential elections and this year's municipal elections - when all city offices will be on the ballot.<br /><br />The budget cuts also come as the board is preparing to switch to new electronic voting machines for this year's elections - although Cederqvist acknowledged that developments on the state and federal court levels could postpone that switch for another year.<br /><br />The mayor's proposed cuts for the new budget would not leave enough money to run all the elections expected this year, including possible runoff elections, Cederqvist said."</blockquote>All this when, according to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Andi Novick</span> at the <a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Election Transparency Coalition</span></a>, this same body, the NYC Board of Elections, ran an illegal paper ballot recount on <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staten_Island" title="Staten Island" rel="wikipedia">Staten Island</a> recently. You can read their <a href="http://re-mediaetc.blogspot.com/2009/03/staten-island-recount-is-illegal-under.html">blog post here</a>.<br /><br />I hope the NYC Board of Elections reconsiders its position. We have a perfectly good lever system augmented with ballot marking devices to meet the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_America_Vote_Act" title="Help America Vote Act" rel="wikipedia">HAVA</a> requirements. Let's retain it.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Isn't this a budget reduction that New Yorkers can get behind?</span></span><br /></div> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/0a39ab06-6ee5-4f4f-b86b-39aa294932cf/" title="Zemified by Zemanta"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0a39ab06-6ee5-4f4f-b86b-39aa294932cf" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Ruth Wahterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10863131395837446682noreply@blogger.com0