Friday, March 07, 2008
Vets For Peace Chapter 56 Reiterates Call For Hand-Counting Paper Ballots
Following recent announcements by the Redwood ACLU and the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee (HCDCC), on Thursday night Veterans For Peace Chapter 56 adopted a resolution calling for Humboldt County to switch to all hand-counted paper ballots by the June 2008 primary election. The statement, shown in full below, is nearly identical to the one adopted February 18 by the HCDCC.
There is no question we now have momentum in this, what I call the Humboldt Hand-Count Campaign. See the Voter Confidence Committee website for materials easily adapted for similar campaigns elsewhere. I know there is interest in this in other parts because I keep getting asked to do radio interviews. Here is one (.mp3) I did recently with Dan Ashby and Marj Creech of the Election Defense Alliance.
The local VFP group has repeatedly given support to VCC initiatives that I have brought them. As an associate member, I am grateful for the forum and time shared with these extraordinary people. They will have a press release out soon and I expect the resolution will make it onto their website. Meanwhile, here it is...
Resolution In Support of Hand-Counting Paper Ballots
Adopted By Veterans For Peace Chapter 56
March 6, 2008Whereas elections in Humboldt County rely on Diebold's (now Premier) precinct-based optical scanners, and Diebold's GEMS central tabulator program to combine all precinct results; and
Whereas computer security experts have repeatedly demonstrated and documented the ability to tamper with this equipment, changing election results without leaving behind a trace of evidence; and
Whereas academic studies have repeatedly demonstrated and documented that security flaws in this equipment exist by design, and cannot be remedied with "procedural mitigations," or new security methods; and
Whereas claims of "trade secrecy" prevent citizens, the media, and even elections officials from observing the inner workings of this equipment, denying everyone the right to see their vote counted as cast; and
Whereas elections conducted under these conditions require blind trust, or faith, to accept unverifiable and inherently uncertain outcomes that provide no rational basis for confidence in the reported results; and
Whereas the County of Humboldt is free to choose not to use Diebold's equipment, and is likewise not prevented from choosing to hand-count paper ballots at poll sites on election night; and
Whereas hand-counting paper ballots provides transparency, security, and verifiable accuracy that creates a rational basis for confidence in reported results;
Therefore be it resolved, Veterans For Peace Chapter 56 hereby calls for Humboldt County to discontinue use of Diebold equipment and to introduce hand-counting of all ballots no later than the June 2008 primary election; and
Therefore be it further resolved that Veterans For Peace Chapter 56 will support educating the community about the benefits of this change, and to recruit registered voters to serve as pollworkers and/or vote counters.
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2008/03/vets-for-peace-chapter-56-reiterates.html
Labels: ACLU, Dan Ashby, Election Defense Alliance, hand-counting paper ballots, Humboldt Dems, Marj Creech, Vets For Peace, Voter Confidence Committee
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Hints of Things To Come
New Voter Confidence Committee webmaster Paula Long and I met today with members of the board of the Redwood Chapter of the ACLU. This culminated a process that spanned the last four months as the group developed a statement on election integrity. I promised not to scoop their forthcoming press release but suffice to say I am grateful the VCC was given an opportunity to input on this, and I am immensely gratified at the end result.
Following up on last Wednesday's presentation to the Humboldt Democratic Central Committee, today Larry Hourany submitted to one of the Dems' subcommittees a resolution that I also can't fully disclose just yet. I wrote it, so if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you can probably guess what it says.
Tonight I attended the Ron Paul Meet Up. There were about 25 people and it was fairly well organized and smoothly run. In the few minutes I spoke I addressed some questions raised by the previous speaker about the Feb. 5 CA primary, namely that Humboldt will be using eSlate machines for voters with disabilities (adding that ballots cast this way must be copied by elections department staff onto the regular paper ballots fed into the Diebold optical scanner); and that modems will no longer be used to send precinct results into HQ so we have to watch the chain of custody getting ballots and memory cards physically transported from precincts to HQ.
I suggested group members consider election day observing, and to connect back with me next week when the VCC can be prepared with a plan to coordinate reports from observers coming in and being posted to multiple places online. I have also forwarded them these two links provided by Dan Ashby of the Election Defense Alliance. Both are manuals for election day observers:http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/sav_r_vote_election_monitoring_field_guide
I also took a few moments to mention the VCC Report on Election Conditions in Humboldt County and how we are moving the community dialog into a discussion of the tangible components, such as how long it will really take to hand-count all the paper ballots, and how many people we'll really need to get it done. Seven more people signed onto this project tonight. If you are a registered Humboldt voter, you can sign-up too at VoterConfidenceCommittee.org.
http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/ca_election_monitoring_a_training_manual
Finally, tomorrow afternoon I am scheduled to talk to Arcata Eye editor Kevin Hoover so I'm hopeful we'll soon see a news article that actually presents our framing, offering the community an opportunity to objectively judge the feasibility of hand-counting paper ballots in Humboldt County.
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2008/01/hints-of-things-to-come.html
Labels: ACLU, Arcata Eye, Dan Ashby, Democratic Central Committee, Eureka Reporter, hand-counting paper ballots, Kevin Hoover, Larry Hourany, Paula Long, Ron Paul, Voter Confidence Committee
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Advancing the HCPB Framing, Outreach and Media
Thursday's Eureka Reporter, online as of a few minutes ago, carries a solid report from Cerena Johnson on both the recent Voter Confidence Committee media advisory and press release, plus a phone interview conducted this morning. Excerpts:The VCC is renewing the request for information following a meeting with Crnich in May and participation on the Nov. 30 Peter B. Collins radio show.
Much of the article details the information we requested in the letter distributed with the media advisory. The best thing about this article, without a doubt, is the extension of the key new frame: let the public judge the viability of our proposal.
The VCC has developed a forecast tool that illustrates how hand-counting is possible, factoring in costs, time and required labor.
"The community can judge the viability of what we are proposing," VCC co-founder Dave Berman said.
Among many concerns, Berman said the main problem with the current system is that the voting machines operate in secret.
In a related matter, the VCC recently joined more than 30 election groups throughout the country in an amicus brief filed in the case of U.S. v. New York State Board of Elections, intended to enforce compliance with requirements in the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
(snip)
Berman and Crnich are scheduled to return on the Collins show, KGOE 1480 AM, Friday between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Johnson called me this morning before I had a chance to call her, as I intended. I did reach out to James Faulk at the Eureka Times-Standard but he has not yet returned my call. In addition, I left a voice message for Humboldt Registrar Carolyn Crnich just to be sure she knew I was also going to be on with Peter B. on Friday, but also to make sure she knows about the amicus brief (.pdf), and most importantly, to propose that we meet prior to Friday's broadcast so I could bring her up to speed on the many changes that have been made to the hand-count forecast tool (.xls). I told her I hope we can avoid appearing adversarial.
In further outreach efforts, tomorrow I'll be attending the regular monthly board meeting of the Redwood ACLU. Their agenda includes: "consideration of the request by the Voter Confidence Committee for support of a policy to require the use of hand-counted paper ballots in Humboldt County elections." I have attended several of their recent meetings and engaged them in dialog about the VCC Report on Election Conditions in Humboldt County. I have been shown a draft of a statement they are considering making with regard to a variety of election issues. However, it does not quite cover everything I would hope they might address so tomorrow's meeting is all about potential.
Finally, Dan Ashby of the Election Defense Alliance called me Tuesday afternoon to see if I could appear on the debut episode of EDA's new radio show. We made it happen and you can listen to the .mp3 archive here. Other guests on the program included Jonathan Simon, EDA attorney in the courtroom Thursday representing the NY amici, and also Mary Ann Gould, host of Voice of the Voters. This is one of many broadcasts archived on this page, which also includes a recent series hosted by Bev Harris of Black Box Voting. EDA also now has a page devoted to documents related to US v NY Board of Elections.
Permalink:
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2007/12/advancing-hcpb-framing-outreach-and.html
Labels: Carolyn Crnich, Cerena Johnson, Dan Ashby, Election Defense Alliance, Eureka Reporter, hcpb, James Faulk, Jonathan Simon, Mary Ann Gould, Peter B. Collins, Report on Election Conditions, VCC
