Update

California Vote By Mail

Absentee Voting Killed in California

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/10/absentee_voting_1.html

Verified Voting Viewpoint expressed

CA: Secretary of State Debra Bowen Issues Landmark Restrictions on the use of Electronic Voting Systems

Restrictions apply starting with February 5 Primary Election August 3rd, 2007

http://verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6495

Testing California Hart InterCivic

Executive Summary

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ttbr/red_hart.pdf

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ttbr/red_hart_final.pdf

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ttbr/hart.pdf

Hart InterCivic Response to California Red Team Top-to-Bottom Review
July 30, 2007

http://www.hartintercivic.com/files/California_SOS_Top-To-Bottom_Review_of_Electronic_Voting_Systems.pdf

FAQ

http://www.hartic.com/pages/214

County Faces Costs Scanner Paper Ballots Voting System

Voting Machine Paper Ballot & Scanners
Discussion Among Commissioners
Follow-up Posts in Comments to Newspaper Report

Paper ballot voting system may be purchased
By Amy Zalar, Herald-Standard
01/25/2008
Updated 01/26/2008 12:06:05 AM EST
Voters in Fayette County unhappy with the electronic voting system in place for the past few elections may have an option in November, although the issue of long lines at the polls may not be addressed prior to the April 22 primary.


Although several voting machine options were discussed during Thursday's commissioners meeting, the end result was a motion to formulate a plan that could mean the future purchase of a paper ballot voting system.
Commission Chairman Vincent Zapotosky and Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites approved a motion to develop a plan to purchase eScan machines from Hart Intercivic. Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink voted against the action, instead making a motion to purchase 50 additional eSlate machines with the money the commissioners previously set aside for such a purchase.

The motion to purchase addition eSlate machines did not receive a second. Zapotosky said he thinks such a purchase would be throwing good money away.

Vicites said he has been doing a lot of research for the past couple weeks, specifically regarding the eSlate electronic dial machine as compared to the eScan paper ballot system.

Vicites said he called a couple counties that use both systems and received positive comments.

"I favor at this point going with the eScan system," Vicites said.

Vicites added that the eScan is more expensive than the eSlate machines, and a plan would have to be formulated how to make up the difference. The county budgeted $170,000 to purchase 55 new eSlate machines, but Vicites said the necessary number of eScan machines would cost about $472,000, for a difference of $300,000.

Zapotosky said he never has been a fan of the eSlate system.

"The question is, "Do we put a cost on the greatest right we have as a citizen?'" Zapotosky said.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19230804&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

Reader Comments
Added: Sunday January 27, 2008 at 10:18 AM EST
Where'd the $500,000 County Earmark Go
Taxpayers of PA is right on to question the expenditure of any government monies which all originate from one place. The Taxpayers.

In the case of the voting systems, federal monies were involved in the initial acquisition of a new voting system around the state. County monies were also earmarked in the Fayette county budget pre-2006 to go toward implementing a voting system that met state and federal requirements.

The federal monies were distributed under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to the states to distribute to the local counties. Counties were to come up with a plan to implement HAVA and state requirements.

http://www.dos.state.pa.us/sure/cwp/view.asp?a=1207&Q=443565

For Fayette, some $1.1 million reportedly was obtained from the HAVA funding source.

FAQ

http://www.co.fayette.pa.us/fayette/lib/fayette/eslate/fayette_faqs.pdf

As these minutes reflect, the county had set aside an available $500,000 for acquiring a voting system in a previous budget.

http://www.co.fayette.pa.us/fayette/lib/fayette/commminutes2006/march_21-22_2006.pdf

According to the minutes, that county earmark of some $500,000 was not needed for the voting systems.

What happened to it? Where was $500,000 or some portion of it applied? If the county money did not go to the voting system, where did it go? Back to the taxpayers? At just around that time, the millage rate was decreased, shortly after Fayette had the largest increase in Fayette history, according to reports, some 60ncrease all things factored in.

What happened between then and now is a question all county taxpayers should be asking.

Is only $170,000 left-over from whatever funding sources for voting systems?

What happened in a county budget which at one time included $500,000 specifically earmarked for voting systems?

That should be among the questions PA and local taxpayers should be asking.

Ask, because now the board is in a situation where there is only $170,000 budgeted for voting systems. How valuable would even that $170,000 be if applied to acquiring more of the same type of electronic voting machines the county already has in stock?

At least in the opinion of the two commissioners, not very valuable.

The eSlates will work the same way no matter how many more are purchased given the budgeted $170,000. Only a few voters per hour can use one eSlate. Studies by well-regarded election-watch groups show it takes less time for the voter to mark the paper ballot - either by hand or using another type of accessible voter verified marking system that marks the paper ballot - and run these through the electronic scanner set up at the polling place.

Questions are currently running rampant surrounding the paperless systems. Even if the system printed out a cast ballot record as the county site says can be done, the printout is only what was recorded as a digital image and stored on a memory card.

http://www.co.fayette.pa.us/fayette/lib/fayette/eslate/fayette_faqs.pdf

The "paper" record is a match only to the record the image produced. Nobody can verify that was actually how the voter cast the ballot.

A favorable feature of the eSlates is the ability for the voter to ask the Judge of Elections to determine whether the voter's random access code shows assigned and cast.

Still the voter cannot be assured the paper print-out from the digital image stored in memory is the way the person voted. This remember was not a concern using mechanical lever machines back in the day. Now it is because of the technological advances.

Should a feature be added which allows for that digital image to be printed out at the time the voter votes, before the voter casts the "paper" ballot, and the voter (in private) verifies that as a paper record, then casts the paper ballot, that could provide a solution. Activists around the country are considering just such potentials, but so far, no such system is available for the current situation of paperless systems.

Favorable to the eScans is a paper ballot record of votes as backup and in case of challenges and recounts.

There are what are known as accessible voter marked paper ballot systems with other companies which the commissioners may also want to consider.

The concern now for Fayette voters and taxpayers should be where can the necessary funds be found to meet the challenge to provide the most adequate and best "voter verified" voting system for the electorate.

We should press the board to work diligently to provide this for the Pennsylvania April 22 Primary which may factor in the Democratic and Republican nomination for President.

Commissioners' Meeting Minutes

http://www.co.fayette.pa.us/fayette/cwp/view.asp?a=2269&q=516995

Federal Legislation recently introduced in Congress H.B. 5036

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5036

Hold Them All Accountable

Added: Friday January 25, 2008 at 05:56 PM EST
Yes Vince, there IS a cost

"The question is, "Do we put a cost on the greatest right we have as a citizen?'" Zapotosky said.

Yes, Vince, we DO put a cost on it.

And how very liberal and bureaucratic of you to suggest that cost is no object when it comes to taxpayer money.

Taxpayers, of PA

County Still Looking At Voting Machine Options
By Peter Becker
Wayne Independent
Fri Jan 25, 2008, 10:17 AM EST
HONESDALE -
A decision has not yet been made concerning the replacement of the touch-screen electronic voting machines, which were decertified by the state last autumn prior to the General Election.

In response to media questioning at Tuesday’s Wayne County Commissioners’ meeting, Commissioner Anthony Herzog stated they are considering keeping the paper ballot method which was employed November 5th.

Chairman Brian Smith added, “It may be the only cost effective means.” Commissioner Wendall Kay stressed that foremost in their decision will be a system that is both reliable and verifiable. Secondly, they must look hard at the financial costs.

Herzog reminded that the machines they looked at during a recent vendor fair would cost the county $300 to $650 thousand The state has only offered to reimburse the county $293,000 to replace the decertified machines...

http://www.wayneindependent.com/homepage/x603847249

Wayne considering leasing machines for April primary
BY MEGAN REITER
STAFF WRITER
01/23/2008

...Ms. Furman said a new voting system could cost the county between $500,000 and $650,000. Mr. Smith said that estimate could be as high as $790,000, not counting additional costs for a paper trail. County officials are still unsure of the source of the additional money for a new voting system.

Officials are also concerned about choosing between systems with a touch screen or a paper ballot trail, worrying the county could be left with another decertified system if the state or federal government revises its mandates.

“There seems to be a lot of things up in the air,” Mr. Smith said. “Nobody wants to get ... burned here for a lot of money.”

Purchasing a new voting system is not just a matter of having the machines in place by April 22. Ms. Furman said the county also needs to train voters and poll workers on using the machines.

“There seems to be so much chaos in this decision,” Mr. Smith said.

With time running out, Mr. Smith said leasing machines again is a possibility, though not the county’s official plan at this point. Ms. Furman said some of the vendors have offered the county lease-to-own options with their systems. In November, the county leased eight optical scan machines from Texas-based Hart InterCivic for about $53,000.


http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19222833&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6

Replacing Wayne County's Voting Machines Could Cost $500,000-$650,000
By Tammy Compton
Wayne Independent
Tue Jan 22, 2008, 06:16 PM EST

By still using optic scanners, Furman said, “We could have what they call central count. They bring all the ballots back, like they did last November, and we put them in the machine and read them here. Those machines we would purchase would be larger capacity, that they can read several thousand within an hour and we’d have the results in a much timelier fashion than last November.”

For someone visually impaired and not able to mark a paper ballot, Furman says they would still need, “such as a DRE where they can actually listen to the ballot and do a touch screen and do it on their own.”

http://www.wayneindependent.com/news/x142933055

Wayne’s new voting machines will be expensive
Brian Hineline 24.JAN.08
The price of voting in Wayne County is about to go up.

The state Department of State has agreed to reimburse the county $293,582 to cover money that was spent more than two years ago on electronic voting machines the agency has decertified. However, county officials have determined that new equipment will cost much more than that.

”It’s a complicated decision,” said Commissioner Brian Smith on Tuesday. “We have quotes that range anywhere from $500,000 to $650,000. That’s the problem.”

”The county is trying to decide what our best option will be. We don’t want to make the wrong decision,” added Director of Elections Cindy Furman.

The county purchased 100 electronic voting machines from Advanced Voting Solutions in 2005 for $293,582. The machines were used in the May 2006 primary, but could not be used after that due to the discovery of a software problem. The glitch involved races where voters chose several candidates, and those candidates cross-filed, such as school board elections. The machines were allowing voters to cast both a Republican and Democratic vote for the same candidate. Because these races were not part of the primary election, the software glitch did not affect the results of that election, according to Mrs. Furman.

http://www.theweeklyalmanac.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=8633&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1020&hn=weeklyalmanac&he=.com

Vendor Fair

No "perfect" voting solution for county
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
01/20/2008

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19215186&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6

Wayne County, PA Leasing Hart eScans
by By Megan Reiter, Staff Writer, Times-Tribune

published 09/26/2007

read original news story

Wayne County Leasing Scanners for Election

HONESDALE - Wayne County will not be using its 100 Advanced Voting Solutions' WINvote touch-screen machines in the Nov. 6 election - but workers will not have to hand-count ballots, either.

The county plans to lease eight optical scan machines from Texas-based Hart InterCivic at an estimated cost of $53,000, said Cindy Furman, the county's director of elections.

The county Board of Elections voted last week to tentatively approve printing paper ballots, since the Department of State last month suspended the AVS machines' certification for the Nov. 6 election. Printing the ballots was expected to cost around $12,000, Ms. Furman said, and included hiring 20 to 30 people to count votes on election night...

...Each machine is expected to read 500 ballots per hour, Ms. Furman said, adding that the county is hoping to get through the ballots in a four-hour window after they start coming in when the polls close.

There are about 30,000 registered voters in Wayne County, and 40 to 45 percent normally turn up at the polls during a general election, Ms. Furman said.

http://www.internetvoting.com/news/62

Voting machines approved in Northampton County
January 18th, 2008 by CindySnyder

A new voting system will greet Northampton County voters when they cast ballots in the April 22 primary.

County Council on Thursday accepted a recommendation made earlier in the day by the county Election Commission to purchase 300 electronic voting machines from Sequoia Voting Systems. The company provides the same machines in Montgomery County.

http://www.keystonepolitics.com/story/regionalnews/lehighvalley/voting-machines-approved-northampton-county

Northampton County to get new voting machines
The Associated Press

EASTON, Pa. - Northampton County will have new electronic voting machines in time for the April primary.

The election commission and county administration recommended a vendor Thursday, and county council later approved the purchase from Sequoia Voting Systems.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-01182008-1473352.html

Northampton Co. Reverts To Older Voting Machines
EASTON, Pa. (AP) ― Northampton County officials are going back to the lever-style mechanical voting machines they used for decades.

They're not certain whether software upgrades to the county's new electronic touch-screen voting machines can be tested and certified in the 76 days before the November 6th election.

Advanced Voting Solutions makes the electronic machines.

http://cbs3.com/northampton/Voting.Machines.Touch.2.311198.html

VotePA Weighs in on Talk program paper ballots

Marybeth Kuznik, founder of VotePA, invited by a state Democratic committeewoman to call into a radio talk program when she was a guest, addressed Fayette County's choice to plan to acquire the voting system by November's General Election which includes paper ballots and scanners.

Kuznik noted an injunction was granted by a challenge to the state's DRE electronic voting systems. the injunctio prevents the acquisition of additional DRE paperless electronic voting systems, she said.

WMBS radio host, 'Bob Folta' asked the organization's director about the time process using the paper ballot and eScans.

Kuznik said the process would take a shorter time. With the DREs, or direct recording electronic machines, estimates are even with 3 units operated at the same time, machines are tied up for a longer period when voters take longer than recommended times of some 3-minutes or slightly longer.

"You could have many many voters voting at one time on paper ballots and it takes literally a second or two to process through the scanners," she said.

Asked about cost factor, some estimated $400,000 to supply the minimum 103 scanners, vs the lower estimate per eSlates, Kuznik responded that "is going to be worth the money."

Kuznik said the organization hadn't crunched those numbers, but the state's COSTAR program establishes negotiated prices with the vendors and those are public record. She noted the board of commissioners could sell off some of the DREs in the county's stock, retaining the necessary amount of handicapped accessible machines known as eSlate DAUs.

Studies have shown the cost of implementing paper balloting systems even with the cost of the paper year to year is less, and is more efficient.

VotePA is available on web and members have number of resources there, according to Kuznik. We have members in many counties so we stand ready to help these folks.

KuZnik noted PA it is among the last states to go with paper based system. Many large states are doing this and the non-paper systems seem to be on the way out.

9 Pennsylvania counties use completely paper based and 4 use a mixed system. The organization is working to get more counties to go with paper.

We could be the next Florida or Ohio, and in many counties we won't have these, we may have egg on our faces...

This system will not leave us with hanging chads, very easy to see on paper what their intent was...

Asked about what led to replacement of punchcards, Kuznik said legislation was passed in 2002 in response to horrible problems in 2000 Presidential election. Evidence unfolding over the years has shown the paper stock was inferior, a nightmare situation. Congress offered to pass bill quickly and didn't give a lot of thought to kinds of systems available to replace the punchcard system, forgot to consider the computer security, the identity theft we have, a vote has to be secret so it's that much harder to protect the intention.

Only record we can have is the anonymous paper ballot, there is a physical paper, and some voter made these choices and they have right to have these counted accurately, Kuznik said.

Strongest way to go is paper ballot with an audit trail.

Scanners will be compatible with new federal legislation if it passes. Support the new Rush Holt bill 5036 and request your listeners to contact Rep. John Murtha, and Shuster and get them to co-sponsor.

The federal legislation should it pass may provide the funding for the system Fayette intends to adopt.

More resources

Challenge

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~davide/voting-machines/Complaint-2006-08-15.pdf

http://www.voteraction.org/case/banfieldvcortes

electionline

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/electionline.aspx

Voting system choice up in air
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
01/24/2008

Jim and Donna Tomasetti couldn’t decide which of the electronic touch-screen devices on display Wednesday at a Lackawanna County-hosted voting machine fair they liked best.


But the Dunmore residents were clear what their recommendation to majority Commissioners Mike Washo and Corey O’Brien would be: no more paper ballots.

“We don’t want to go through what we did in the last election — that fiasco,” Mr. Tomasetti said after he and his wife, both Election Day poll watchers in the borough, tried out each of the voting machines under consideration to replace the county’s decertified Advanced Voting Solutions devices.

For three hours at the Hilton Scranton and Conference Center, they and other voters had a chance to offer input to county officials after getting hands-on with four voting machines, plus a pair of optical-scan paper ballot systems, from four different vendors.

Mr. Washo and Mr. O’Brien insisted their search for a new voting system to replace the AVS machines is still a wide-open process — not just which machine or optical-scan sys- tem they’ll choose but also how the deal will be structured...

Voting system choice up in air
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
01/24/2008
Why No mention of the many who LIKE PAPER BALLOTS?

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19227115&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6