I had a very good conversation with an election official in Utah today

Of course, Utah's been in the news lately: http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08052003/utah/81360.asp

I was particularly worried about this paragraph in the article:

<snip>
Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, Utah's election boss, understands the concerns but notes the new voting technology has worked well so far. Electronic voting machines have been used across the nation without a hiccup, she says.
"Nobody ever reported any problems or any fraud, and that sort of debunks the worries," Walker says.
<snip>

So I spoke with the Utah election official in the Lt. Gov.'s office for about 15 minutes, and was able to make the following points. Note that I didn't even need to bring up the fraud angle. There are so many reasons to NOT go DRE!

- There is no voter-verified paper trail with DRE
- DRE will result in lowered confidence of the Utah election process among constituents
- There is a high cost to dozens of DRE machines in each precinct, vs. low cost of just ONE optical scan machine in each precinct (coupled with paper ballots)
- Requirements for the disabled (per HAVA) can be met with one touch-screen machine per precinct when used to assist in the generation of a paper ballot
- To verify their ballot, blind voters can use the ballot-to-speech capability (by first scanning the paper ballot) which is being developed by some manufacturers
- Systems such as these which are used to assist disabled voters are readily compatible with a paper-ballot/optical-scan voting system
- Security of a paper-ballot-based voting system is low tech and understandable by everyone: multiple eyes, locked ballot boxes, and basic accounting.
- There is a high cost to maintaining and replacing broken DRE machines
- There is a high cost to setting up a full-fledged NETWORK of DRE machines in each precinct every time there is an election. Need to hire $$$/hour IT guys to do it. HAVA does not provide this money, to my knowledge.
- There is a high cost to training election workers in the new DRE machines
- Implications of DRE machine failure (if it is properly detected, and it certainly may not be) is significantly more dire than that of any possible failure in optical scan voting system
- Be wary of voting system manufacturers. They are in the business of selling systems and making money. They can't make very much money selling you just one optical-scan machine per precinct. But you can certainly save a lot of money!
- You should expect that demonstrations of DRE election systems, whether in a real election or not, will go smoothly. Any manufacturer committed to making a sale will staff these demonstrations by knowledgeable contractors and/or employees. This is staff that you will not be able to afford in any state-wide implementation.

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Though she was pretty subdued through the call, she said "wow" to this point:

- There is a high cost to dozens of DRE machines in each precinct, vs. low cost of just ONE optical scan machine in each precinct (coupled with paper ballots)

I worked hard to present myself as a resource, and that she should call or email me if there is any assistance I might give her or any question I might answer.

on edit: Also, in spite of the quote of their Lt. Gov. this week, she said that Utah has not yet made any decisions regarding voting equipment, and they are still investigating the issue.

I will follow up in a week and see where her head's at.

"You should expect that demonstrations of DRE election systems, whether in a real election or not, will go smoothly. Any manufacturer committed to making a sale will staff these demonstrations by knowledgeable contractors and/or employees. This is staff that you will not be able to afford in any state-wide implementation."

No one can imagine what can possibly go wrong with these machines, but they should remember Murphy's law. And they should realize the machines simply introduce more opportunity for problems to occur.

You are proving to be a huge asset to the fight for a trustworthy voting system. I take my hat off to you -- for this and many of your other comments, posts, and activities.

Bev Harris

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