By Luther Weeks on August 9, 2019
In today’s Courant: Ideanomics hasn’t sent formal ‘Fintech’ plan
When Ideanomics unveiled design plans for a $400 million tech hub at the former UConn campus on July 22, company representatives said they would submit formal plans to the town within the week.
On Thursday, West Hartford town planner Todd Dumais said Ideanomics still has not submitted any plans…
Initially, chairman Bruno Wu said that portions of Fintech Village would be open by September or October 2018.
But now, those initial goals have long passed , and CEO and president Alf Poor said in July that the company foresees a 2020 groundbreaking.
This is all in line with what we have been predicting all along.
Posted in CT
By Luther Weeks on July 27, 2019
A highly redacted 67 page report: Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 Election. Volume I Russian Efforts Against Election Infrastructure With Additional Views
The threat is real. Lack of investigation and exaggeration does not help make the case. The science is clear. Senator Wyden is correct. We need voter marked paper ballots, strong security for those ballots, with sufficient audits and recounts.
Posted in CT, National, Our Editorials, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on July 13, 2019
“I think the biggest issue facing us is trust in the elections,” said Denise Merrill, Connecticut’s secretary of the state. – As Feds struggle, states create their own anti-election propaganda programs
Trust and confidence are important – Justified trust and justified confidence. – Luther Weeks, Facebook comment
As we have said before Connecticut is above average in election integrity and security for statewide elections, less so for local elections. Above average, is not saying much. Many states, including Connecticut, have a long way to go to achieve justified confidence. PR alone will not protect us from outsiders and insiders. Will not protect us form loss of confidence in democracy.
Posted in Common Sense, CT, CT Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on June 4, 2019
Or are they dumber than we think?
No matter what you think about early voting, we find one argument by Senator Looney and Senator Flexer in a recent editorial completely irrelevant and misleading.
Posted in Legislature 2019, Mail/Absentee Voting, Our Editorials
By Luther Weeks on April 11, 2019
This year I submitted testimony on a total of twenty-three bills. Fortunately, many were easy for us to understand and quite redundant. The General Elections and Administration Committee passed a total of one-hundred and eighteen bills. To me, they should have been much more selective in choosing bills to hear and those to pass. Although most of my testimony opposed bills, some of it was followed by the Committee. We are pleased to support seven bills passed by the Committee and oppose eight.
Posted in Legislature 2019, Our Editorials
By Luther Weeks on April 8, 2019
I recently read Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. I could not put it down. Not surprising since it has been on the NYTimes best seller list for months and its the only book I have noticed on Amazon with a full five star rating – with currently just over two-thousand reviews. But for me it was more than that. It brought back memories of a good portion of my career in the eighties and nineties, along with my last fifteen years concerned with electronic voting.
All reminiscent of Kurt Andersen’s book: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History. To me, just like the California Gold Rush, minus the gold.
Posted in Blockchain, Legislature 2019, National
By Luther Weeks on March 29, 2019
While the General Assembly contemplates how Blockchain might solve some undefined problem in our voter registration system, we point to a National Academy of Sciences study Securing the Vote, Protecting American Democracy:
The blockchain abstraction, once implemented, provides added points of attack for malicious actors…Furthermore, blockchain protocols generally yield results that are a consensus of the miners/stakeholders. This consensus may not represent the consensus of the voting public. Miners/stakeholders with sufficient power might also cause confusion and uncertainty about the state of a blockchain by raising doubts about whether a consensus has been reached.
Posted in Blockchain, Legislature 2019
By Luther Weeks on March 26, 2019
Yesterday the GAE Committee is hearing testimony on another raft if bills. I spoke on four pieces of testimony on five bills. What brings them together is that they are all but ridiculous and unworkable given existing tried and true election law.
I was not going to testify orally on H.B.7392 as I thought it was so outrageous that everyone would testify against it. Apparently not. Many believe it was just like last year’s bills. It is much worse. In his testimony, Michael Brandi from the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) saw the same problems I saw – it precludes anyone but the Secretary of the State, Registrars and political operatives from seeing voter registration records, not even the SEEC or polling place officials, let alone voter integrity groups. Not surprisingly the media is getting it wrong too (E.g.), since most of the testimony has yet to be posted by the Committee.
Posted in Legislature 2019, Mail/Absentee Voting
By Luther Weeks on March 16, 2019
On Wednesday the GAE Committee held testimony on another raft if bills. I was out of town but submitted testimony on several bills.
The bills, and links to my testimony, in priority order: (Take a look at all the testimony <here>, best to look by bill number than date)
H.R.161 and S.J.27 A good and a not-so-good bill on Early Voting
S.B.1046, S.B.1049, and H.B.6059 One good and a couple of not-so-good Election Day Registration bills. In addition to those previously heard.
S.B.1050 A slightly improved Rank Choice Voting Task Force bill.
Posted in Legislature 2019, Mail/Absentee Voting
By Luther Weeks on March 1, 2019
On Wednesday the GAE Committee held testimony on another raft if bills.
The bills, and links to my testimony, in priority order: (Take a look at all the testimony <here>, best to look by bill number than date)
H.B.5417 A proposed study to use blockchain to solve some undefined problem in voter registration. I opposed, perhaps the only one in the room who is a computer scientist. In summary, if someone wants to sell you or asks you to invest in blockchain – Run. Run fast and keep your eye on your wallet and passwords! …
Posted in Blockchain, CT Law, Instant Runoff Voting, Internet Security Issues, Legislature 2019
