BBV: optical scan ballots and secret voting by the blind with AutoMark

California is being sued by a group of blind voters because some counties will use optical scan ballots.

The argument is that the blind can't vote secretly on optical-scan ballots.

But actually they can with the help of the AutoMark from Vogue Election Systems.

Please tell California that.

General Information - Elections Division
Phone: (916) 657-2166
Fax: (916) 653-3214
E-Mail: Elections@ss.ca.gov

If you call, ask to speak with:
California Elections Analyst, Voting Systems - Michael Wagaman

If you email, include a link to the AutoMark page:
http://www.vogueelection.com/products_automark.html

The article on the lawsuit didn't say, but verifiedvoting.org (which wants paper ballots) is supported by some disabled groups.

A rigged election disenfranchises everyone, including people with disabilities.

Anyway, here is what one of the members of BlackBoxVoting.org, who is legally blind, has to say:

"I have not been able to vote without assistance since 1984. Beginning with the '84 election, I have had to take my mother, a friend, a sister or a wife to help cast my ballots. I have never had a problem with this.

"What I have a problem with is government 'helping America vote.' Whether it is my mother, my wife, a friend or a sister, I have the level of trust in them to mark my ballot accurately that I do not have in the government marking my ballot for me.

"...I reduce this issue to a simple, but significant, question: what value is my ability to vote independently and privately when I do not know that my vote is being counted?

"...the resolution is not to cast votes into cyberspace for all voters so I can feel better. In a democracy, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

"...I did recently have a talk with Liz Campbell, of the NFB, and I found her view rather peculiar; she seems to prefer independence/not knowing your vote was counted to assisted voted/having some faith that your vote was counted. We sparred at length and she never understood the point that blackbox voting is dangerous to all Americans, not just the blind."

================

And as for Riverside: I will be flying to Sacramento this week to meet with officials, bringing a witness to provide evidence that the Riverside voting system, especially, discriminates against the blind, in at least three ways. After those meetings I'll get a feel for what can be released specifically on what we have.

Bev Harris

The LA TIMES article mentions attorney John E. McDermott and mentions
Peter Benavidez and the county of Riverside as plaintiffs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-evote7may07,1,2777795.story

Will you suggest offering the AutoMark by Vogue Election Systems for the disabled to use while other voters fill-out-the-optical-scan-ballots-the-usual-way as a way to settle this?

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nt

Why can't you use a computer this way to vote.
1. Select the People you want to vote for. (touchscreen would be easiest)
2. Print out a paper confirming your vote (check it to be sure)
3. Put that paper in the voting machine.

This way, you won't have to worry about hanging chads or unfilled circles, and as long a people check their ballots, you won't have to worry about computer hackers. The software doesn't need to be very complex, and the computers don't need to be that complicated. Occasionally, you'll have to shut down 1 voting booth and refill the printers (takes about 2 minutes), but I don't think that's a big deal.

If something goes wrong with the computers, you can always fill out the ballots manually. That's the worst case senario, but that's what we do now anyway.

With a touchscreen machine, if a voter isn't presented with all the races, he or she is disenfranchised.

This happened to some voters in Georgia during the Democratic primary.

They wanted to vote for the Presidential nominee, but they were only given a chance to vote for a state flag.

With optical scan ballots and booklets, if the booklet doesn't show all the choices, the voter can ask for a new booklet.

Would be to have every voter go in with a voter's phamlet they received ahead of time, or at the polls, that lists the candidates, issues, and which district they belong to.

If it's not on the screen, raise some cain.


(Quick Fix must include voter verified paper ballots)

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... could quickly be converted to print paper ballots for blind and otherwise disabled voters.

The rest of us could use paper ballots.

Diebold is refusing to upgrade, on the grounds that there are "no standards" for pirnting paper ballots from electronic machines.

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2004_05_02_janeane_garofalo_and_sam_sedar_interview_evoting.asp


Diebold and the Jeb-Bush-Administration in Florida are each against voter-verified paper ballots, but unwilling to say so.

Instead, Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood says they aren't requiring electronic machines to print paper ballots because "no manufacturer has submitted printers" for review.

While Diebold says in this "Majority Report" interview that they could provide paper ballots, but no one has set standards yet.

This is analogous to if a company were polluting a river, and the state said it wasn’t requiring a cleanup because the polluter hadn’t submit a cleanup plan, and the company said it wasn’t cleaning up its pollution because it was waiting for the state to set standards for how the cleanup should be done.

Of course, Florida and other states could conduct elections entirely with optical-scan (SAT-style) ballots, which inherently are paper records, but there is no discussion of that.

As we watch Florida’s Glenda Hood and Diebold pass the buck, the election is getting closer, and if many people think the 2004 Presidential election is rigged, a new low in bitterness will sweep across America.

Please try to stop that by calling both your Senators and your Congressman and asking them to cosponsor The Voter Confidence Act..

"The Voter Confidence Act" requires electronic machines to print voter-verifiable paper ballots starting with the November 2004 election.

Senators already cosponsoring the bill are:
Sen Graham, Bob
Sen Nelson, Bill - 2/23/2004
Sen Hollings, Ernest F.
Sen Lautenberg, Frank R.
Sen Schumer, Charles E.

If your Senator isn’t above, please call the Capitol Switchboard at
1-800-839-5276
ask to be transferred to the office of one of your Senators.

Then say something such as, "I’d like to leave a message for the Senator to please cosponsor The Voter Confidence Act, S.1980, to require electronic voting machines to print paper ballots."

Read More at MOVELEFT.COM
http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2004_05_02_janeane_garofalo_and_sam_sedar_interview_evoting.asp

"Diebold is refusing to upgrade, on the grounds that there are "no standards" for pirnting paper ballots from electronic machines."

(Gee, then there are no standards for printing optical scan ballots either, I suppose, since I doubt they set type manually to print anymore. Furthermore, counties have been known to just try to come up with extra ballots using copy machines, which don't have standards, either, and may disenfranchise because copies shrink a bit and that can throw things out of alignment. But more importantly, I guess the FEC has certified VVPB machines without standards. By the way, if there were standards, they'd turn it around and claim that the "standards" can't be set by the Federal government because the state has to have flexibility in how the printing and handling of VVPB is done. And I guess the Vogue (AutoMark now?) system, that marks an optical scan ballot, doesn't qualify either, because, you know, marking a ballot is kind of like printing......)


"Instead, Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood says they aren't requiring electronic machines to print paper ballots because "no manufacturer has submitted printers" for review."

(Florida has done everything possible to keep paper out. VVPB companies have tried to become certified in Florida but Florida won't have anything to do with them. This is an out and out lie. If you aren't from the big four companies, you know, the ones that don't print paper, you can't get into Florida)

"While Diebold says in this "Majority Report" interview that they could provide paper ballots, but no one has set standards yet."

(So, why has the FEC certified VVPB? Isn't that standard good enough (cough) for them? What is the standard for VVPB? Duh- that it be an accurate copy of the voter's choices and that it be human readable)

kick