Make your voices heard from across Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, yet again, there is wiggle-room for commissioners to deny Fayette voters the same choice of a paper ballot with optical scan reader that Lancaster, and Bedford counties in PA, already possess.
clip Tribune Review
Zimmerlink said the idea is worth exploring, but implementation might have to be put off until the fall election. Should commissioners opt to purchase eScan machines, she said, several months will be required to schedule public demonstrations and train precinct workers in their use. (Tribune-Review)
We are not going to accept that it will take several months to schedule public demonstrations and train precinct workers in their use.
It isn't that difficult to demonstrate the eScans right along with the eSlates during scheduled county-wide demo sessions.
The paper ballots are easy to use, and the optical scan machines are easy to use.
As far as training. It isn't that difficult to train using the paper ballot and the scanner.
In fact, Hart InterCivic makes the entire How-To use the system available online.
Now the door is open, don't allow any of the commissioners to use excuses like these would take several months to get used to and train, so we can't possibly implement by this April's Primary for President.
Don't let them use the excuse the local election bureau can't possibily be trained in their use or poll workers can't be trained for several months.
It's a paper ballot with a scanner. Not that difficult.
Not only that, board of commissioners authorized the complete Hart InterCivic system years back along with the adoption of the eSlate direct recording electronics for the precincts. They also utilize Hart InterCivic's Ballot Now for the processing of paper ballot absentees.
The unit is a scanner, the difference is this eScan is used only at the central election bureau for processing of absentees.
The county didn't adopt eScans for precinct use.
The difference is at the precinct level, the voter uses the eScan to cast a paper ballot. That paper ballot is fed through the eScan optical-scan reader.
The process is explained in links to Lancaster and Bedford county sites, and Hart InterCivic papers.
Fayette Commissioners are no doubt going to address the horrendous long lines and hour-plus waits faced during the last election cycle. They are going to promote a solution to that.
Make it paper ballots with optical scan.
Though referencing different counties, the words of the following writer posting at VotePA stand as true for Fayette:
Citizen support for paper ballots and against paperless DREs may help persuade local officials.
I know I don’t need to reiterate this for the members of this list, but the advantages of a paper system include permitting a valid audit of election results, allowing a proper recount in close elections, permitting citizen participation and observation of both the audits and recounts and increasing voter confidence in election outcomes.
Thanks for any efforts you can make to persuade local officials to choose paper ballots.
Marian Schneider
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VotePA/message/3540
Lancaster
http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/lanco/cwp/view.asp?a=977&q=571742
http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/lanco/cwp/view.asp?a=977&q=571630
Bedford
http://www.dos.state.pa.us/voting/cwp/view.asp?a=1218&q=446386
Hart InterCivic
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4775/
http://www.internetvoting.com/pr/42
http://www.hartintercivic.com/files/eScan.pdf
Texas Exam
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/sysexam/0506hartjs.pdf
As well, it has been noted on this site, no system is completely infallible.
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/sysexam/0506hartjs.pdf
Isn't it our choice to make between a wholly electronic direct recording system (paperless) and one with a paper ballot with optical scan which contains by its nature a paper record, one the voter created by marking himself or herself?
(Net the Truth Online)
Fayette may get more vote machines
By Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, January 12, 2008
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_547062.html
A Fayette County commissioner is pushing for approval to buy additional electronic voting machines in time for the spring primary election, a goal her colleagues said they share.
A representative of the company that manufactures the machines, Hart InterCivic, said as long as the order is placed before the end of the month, the machines likely can be delivered before the primary is held April 22.
Commissioners allocated $170,000 in this year's budget for the purchase of up to 55 of the eSlate electronic machines. Additional machines are needed to eliminate long waits at some precincts.
Zimmerlink yesterday said Hart InterCivic had wanted the county to place its order last month. Adrian Gonzales, of Hart Intercivic, said he suggested that deadline to put Fayette at the top of the list of other municipalities nationwide that might place their own orders for the machines.
Gonzales said enough stock remains on hand to ensure delivery if an order is placed before the end of the month, but he can't guarantee the same results into February.
Commissioners might consider voting on the matter when they meet Jan. 24, but they also are considering a second option suggested by Uniontown resident Young. Young asked commissioners Monday to consider buying electronic voting machines that scan paper ballots.
The machines are sold through Hart InterCivic under the brand name eScan. They allow for a paper record of each vote, and could be used in addition to the eSlate machines.
Zimmerlink said the idea is worth exploring, but implementation might have to be put off until the fall election. Should commissioners opt to purchase eScan machines, she said, several months will be required to schedule public demonstrations and train precinct workers in their use.
Commissioners Vincent Vicites and Vincent Zapotosky said they, too, want more electronic voting machines to be available for the April 22 primary.
They said they are waiting to hear back from officials in Lancaster County, which uses both types of machines.
"I'm prepared to do it soon," Vicites said. "But I have more questions on the eScan. I want more information from other counties that use both systems."
Zapotosky said he wants input from Laurie Lint, election bureau director.
"We have to sit down, as a board of commissioners, and move on that expeditiously," Zapotosky said. "That's a priority we need to address."
Liz Zemba can be reached at lzemba@tribweb.com or 724-836-6646.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_547062.html
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