BBV: Vanderburgh County IN signs $2.9 million contract with ES&S for TSVM

[Bushfire]

Monday night, the Vanderburgh County Commissioners unanimously approved a $2.9 million contract with Election Systems and Software for the lease and purchase of touch screen equipment.

Commission President David Mosby says that the timely approval of this contract will enable the County to receive funding through the federal government's Help America Vote Act (HAVA). He says, "With a signed contract in place, Vanderburgh County stands to receive over $450,000 in the coming months, and up to an additional $678,000 in the future for this equipment. We will continue to work with the state and with our representatives in Washington to lobby for additional funding to help counties like ours with the cost of the equipment."

Commission Vice President Catherine Fanello adds that the state-of-the-art equipment will ensure secure elections for Vanderburgh County. She adds, "This equipment represents an investment from the state, federal, and local governments to improve the way votes are cast and counted. This change will enable our citizens to cast their votes with confidence."

The Help America Vote Act requires that counties currently using punch cards or lever machines, complete an upgrade to electronic equipment by next year. For more on Indiana's plan for disbursement of HAVA funds, click here.

http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=1499491

any evil DUers down in the Evansville area?

[RedEagle]

1. HAVA Violation

If the machines do not produce a voter-verified paper ballot,
(Audit capacity- Title III- only way to do that with a DRE is a voter-verified paper ballot);

If the machines do not meet the 2002 FEC standards,
(HAVA required and no machine has been certified to those standards yet)

They are not eligible for HAVA money.

Ask the county officials to personally guarantee the above. Ask them to personally guarantee the machines to be error, fraud and hack free. Ask them for proof of such claims. (Vendor spew not sufficient)

[althecat]

2. Strikes me that HAVA is all ass about face....

"With a signed contract in place, Vanderburgh County stands to receive over $450,000 in the coming months, and up to an additional $678,000 in the future for this equipment. We will continue to work with the state and with our representatives in Washington to lobby for additional funding to help counties like ours with the cost of the equipment."

Does HAVA really give counties a financial incentive just to simply sign a contract? HAVA sounds like some kind of contract signing assembly line...

[Bushfire]

3. David Dill's take on HAVA

HAVA isn’t a solution
In response to the 2000 Florida debacle, Congress passed a law, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which mandates voting process reform in all the states. Unfortunately, many are interpreting the requirements in a way that does not provide the safeguards necessary to ensure integrity in our elections.

HAVA requires that voters be able to verify their ballots before they are cast and counted.

HAVA requires that all voting machines provide a “permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity” and that the voter must be given the “opportunity to change the ballot or correct any error before the permanent paper is produced.“

Mr. Darryl R. Wold, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) believes that HAVA requires a voter-verifiable paper trail. However, many proponents of touch screen voting systems are claiming that the HAVA requirement does not mean the system must allow the voter to verify the paper record. They claim the HAVA requirements are met if the voter verifies a screen version of the ballot, and if a paper report can be printed later for audit purposes. However, if the voters cannot verify the actual audit record in the voting booth, meaningful recounts are impossible since the recount would simply be an identical re-tabulation of the original count that was in question. Since HAVA remains open to this kind of interpretation, it does not provide a solution.

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/