Rick Guiness has a follow-up to last week’s story in the New Britain Herald : <read>
Category: Skulduggery and Errors
Brad Blog Interviews Professor Steve Freeman
It is funny to hear myself speak like radical on this issue. I’ve spent my life starting businesses and teaching in such radical institutions as Harvard Business School system and Wharton. Running businesses, starting businesses and teaching business school students. But when you are talking about privatizing elections you are really giving up the security we have that elections are unfettered and free.
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Another Day, Another Loophole In PA 07-194
What if a post-election audit uncovers a problem with the machine count? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to examine the memory card and the voting machine for evidence that could be used to detect fraud or to understand the cause of the problem so it could be prevented next time?
Unfortunately, audits must start a minimum of 15 days after the election (for the most recent primary, September 26th). And there is a prohibition for unlocking the voting machines that expires 14 days after the election (for the most recent primary, September 25th). accompanied by a possible 5-year prison term.
So, the evidence in the memory cards or in the optical scanner can be destroyed before, during, or right after the audit, legally.
As we have pointed out before, holding the audits so far after the primary, and so far after the random district drawing provides plenty of time for ‘adjustments’ to make things look good in those districts chosen for audit. Now part of that can be planning the timely unlocking of the machine and memory cards before the audit report could result in an investigaton.
Also, are there sufficient proceedures to stop the hacking of the optical scanner itself between elections? What can be done while a machine is unlocked? What security is in place?
(Thanks to Mike Fisher for noticing the Sept 25 expiration date for machine locking on the Municipal Elections Calendar)
Statute details:
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ConnPost Covers Election Glitches
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said there were only a “very, very small number of issues” with the new machines…
Bysiewicz said that of the 125 Connecticut precincts using the machines Tuesday, only six reported significant problems with their machines.
As a retired software engineer I would say this is not surprising, given the challenges of rolling out a new system with little opportunity to phase the system in one location at a time. Yet, it means we can expect perhaps 30 – 40 “significant” problems in November. Of course it is all context. We would be quite disturbed to learn that trucks going over Avon mountain had a 95% certainty of working brakes or that the state effectively guarded the Social Security numbers for 95% of the taxpayers. But a machine problem is not the same as uncovering a problem with an election – we hope that procedures were followed and that they will prevent these problems from compromising an election.
We can also choose to have blind faith that without adequate audits, without software transparency, and with secret programming, through miracles and trust in human nature our votes were counted accurately, that these six visible problems were not joined by invisible errors and intentional fraud.
One item in the article gives one pause in considering the integrity of such mitigating procedures:
While at Thomas Hooker School, about 75 ballots could not be immediately counted due to problems with the paper, because of the humidity. The paper ballots were too damp and the voting machine could not process them. The ballots were taken to the Town Clerk’s Office to be counted. It wasn’t immediately known when the count would take place.
Read the full story.
Campaign of GAE’s Co-Chair Charges Election Procedure Violations
Representative Christopher Caruso is Co-Chair of the Government Administration and Elections Committee (GAE) which writes Connecticut election law including the current Audit Law PA 07-194. He has entered the primary for Mayor of Bridgeport. I have been appreciative of Representative Caruso’s efforts in support of the campaign finance law and voter verified paper ballots. However, as readers of this site are aware, I am critical of the inadequacy of PA 07-194 written primarily by the Secretary of the State’s Office and the leadership of the GAE.
The Representative’s campaign clearly agrees that procedures are regularly violated in Connecticut.
Citing a history of poorly-run elections conducted under the shadow of taint, and a range of current violations of Connecticut Election Law by the Democratic Registrar of Voters Santa Ayala, Bridgeport Mayoral candidate Chris Caruso’s campaign manager wrote to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz today asking her to monitor Tuesday’s election and to consider intervening…
“I hope that you will direct your staff to keenly monitor the conduct of this important election to help guarantee that the process is fair, and that you will even consider taking a more active role in the conduct of the primary in Bridgeport,” wrote Grossman.
John Kantrowitz highlighted this on MyLeftNutmeg as part of the coverage of their mayoral debate.
Federal Election Assistance Commission Rigged Election Report – Sen Dodd, Please Investigate
A Washington Post articles describes a report watered down by the Election Assistance Commission. You will need a free password and Id to view the article.
Because my approach to election issues tends to be more closely aligned with Democrats, I was paired with a Republican co-author. To further remove any taint of partisanship, my co-author and I convened a bipartisan working group to help us. We spent a year doing research and consulting with leaders in the field to produce a draft report. What happened next seems inexplicable. After submitting the draft in July 2006, we were barred by the commission’s staff from having anything more to do with it…
Yet, after sitting on the draft for six months, the EAC publicly released a report — citing it as based on work by me and my co-author — that completely stood our own work on its head. (emboldening added)
As you may or may not know, Senator Dodd sits as Ranking Member on the Committee that created the Help America Vote Act and the Election Assistance Commission. Perhaps it would be a good time to drop Senator Dodd a note and ask for oversight and an investigation.
Recommended Listening and Reading – Talk Nation Radio
Dori Smith aired the first of a four part series on voting integrity yesterday at 5:00 PM on WHUS. I highly recommend listening to the audio and reading the transcript while also marking your calendar for next week.
This segment really brings home the dangers and implications of the incident last fall when LHS violated election protocols. Although I was familiar with the incident from Dori’s earlier reporting, this broadcast really demonstrates the risks strongly and clearly.
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Were 2006 Election Audits “Good News”?
If the auditors were employed by or under the control of the SOS[Secretary of the state], such factors might include the perception that “good news†should be the primary object in the audit report. (emboldening added)
– Candice Hoke, Testimony to U.S. House, March 20, 2007
We have very good news to report today, because it is now clear that the optical scan machines performed very well on Election Day and without any problems. Any changes in vote totals found in these audits were due to ballots being marked incorrectly by the voter, not to any problems with the optical scan machines. (emboldening added)
-Secretary of the State, Susan Bysicwicz, Press Release, Dec 7, 2006
Consider the results of the audits conducted after the November 2006 Connecticut election:
Wed 8/29 5:00 PM – Dori Smith Interview with LHS President – Don’t Miss It
Dori Smith, Producer of TalkNationRadion will air an interview with LHS President John Silvestro, Wednesday August 29th, at 5:00pm on the air and online at WUHS. She has also provided a preview and extensive background.
LHS is the distributor of Diebold Premier election equipment and services to Connecticut. Once again, hats off to Dori for great reporting and great service to the voters of Connecticut.
There is a lot to absorb in the preview, I will be reading it and listening in tomorrow. Let me provide a couple of teasers:
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The Day: Elections Panel Finalizes Norwich Registrars’ Fines
Two recent articles of interest in The Day:
From Friday, two Norwich Registrars were fined for election day errors in judgement. No matter how one feels about the appropriateness of the fine, it is good to see the Election Enforcement Commission demonstrating seriousness.
Another from Saturday showing that a “Software error” lost record of 911 calls. This is a demonstration of the value of our laws in Connecticut requiring paper records for voting. Note that “Security” is invoked to avoid providing details and that the result might be a botched prosecution of a breach of the peace charge related to a shooting death.