Luther Weeks

I read HAVA. It clearly does not ban levers. I recently discovered what has helped fuel this misinformed opinion in part: it is the discredited position of the discredited U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC)

But there is more to the story.

This, from Ash’s perspective, represents the crux of the problem. We have sophisticated statistical tools that we rely on for everything from medical research to verifying the flow of money through Las Vegas casinos but we simply haven’t chosen to mandate that they be used to verify election results. Even in cases like the elections in Sarasota, where they were deployed, the results were deemed legally irrelevant unless they provide an indication that election results were distorted by malice or intent. Sloppiness or incompetence, apparently, is acceptable, despite our country’s promise to respect the intent of the voters.

CA, Secretary of State Deborah Bowen is considering decertifying the GEMS system. But it’s complex and unclear exactly what decertificaiton would mean. This is another case of being caught between the Glitches and the Gotchas, at the mercy of a broken system of certification and an oligarchy providing inadequate products.