Public meeting tonight on insane proposal by King Co. to buy all Diebold machines

[LisaM]

A public hearing on the Diebold purchase proposal will be held tonight (Monday, May 14) from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the King Co. Courthouse, 10 floor, Council Chambers, 516 Third Ave, Seattle


Washington Citizens for Fair Elections
News Release/Media Advisory

For Immediate Release Contact: Jason Osgood,
Date of release: May 13, 2007
phone: [phone]
email: [e-mail]

Washington Citizens for Fair Elections says King County Elections’ plan to purchase new Diebold ballot counting sys tem is reckless.

As reported in the Seattle Times, April 24, 2007, King County Elections plans to purchase brand new, untested and as yet, not federally certified, Diebold “high speed” ballot scanners to “support next year's planned move to all-mail voting.” According to the Times, Sherril Huff, the King County Elections Director, states that the new Diebold systems are “the solution with t he least amount of risk.”

Citizen activist group, Washington Citizens for Fair Elections disagrees. We believe converting to this brand new, untested technology, is reckless in the run up to the 2008 presidential election. Furthermore, the technology will not fulfill KCE’s stated purpose for the purchase which is to allow it to “report a high percentage of results on election night.”

KCE hopes to move to all-vote by mail in time for the 2008 presidential election. If it follows through on this plan, it will require significant changes to the current election procedures and processes over a compressed time period. These changes include a move to a new facility, a new elections director managing her first presidential election in King County, brand new technology (most of which is not yet certified), voting centers using only Diebold touch screen voting machines, electronic poll books rather than standard paper poll books, provisional ballot voters voting on touch screen voting machines instead of paper provisional ballots, and new ballot processing procedure s. These changes also require developing new policies, procedures, and providing ne w training to all employees. Making so many significant changes in a presidential election year adds stress to an already stressful situation and is fraught with risk. This is like a person getting married, moving to a new city, taking on a new job, having a baby, and losing a parent all in one year. It will cause significant stress and a much greater likeliho od of mistakes and problems. The 2008 presidential election year should not be the year to take on this level of change and stress in addition to making King County the test county for new technology.

KCE asserts that new high speed tabulators are necessary in order to “report a high percentage of results election night.” According to Jason Osgood, a spokesperson for Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, “what KCE doesn’t mention is that ballots that have not yet been received cannot be counted. Since approximately two-thirds of mail-in ballots are not yet received or processed as of election night, high speed tabulators will not lead to a high percentage of results election night. Instead, like in all years past, the vast majority of mail in ballots cannot be counted until days after election night.”

KCE does not have to add undue risk to our 2008 presidential election. It should delay purchasing any new equipment and software, but especially untested, uncertified equipment and software in this crucial election year. There is no good reason why KCE can’t operate with its current 600+ optical s can ballot counters.

[eridani]

1. Summary of Jason's talking points

Reasons for Opposing King County's Plan to Buy Diebold's New Ballot Counter
Response to the King County Business Plan

King County Elections has published a Vote By Mail Transition Plan and a High speed Tabulator Business Case. The following is a summary of concerns for election integrity activists.

Fallacy of Early Election Results

The primary justification for buying Diebold's new tabulator is the need for early election results on election day. You cannot count ballots you have not received. Most ballots are received on or near election day.

Further, during crunch time, processing ballots typically takes 3 days. That includes pickup, sorting into batches, signature verification, reconciliation, opening, squishing, and tabulation. So ballots received on election day won't be counted until 3 days later.

Troubling Ballot Image Scanners

Diebold new ballot counters (tabulators) takes a digital picture of the ballot and stores it. The software recognizes the voting marks and creates a database record of the votes found.

Counting Ballots Before Election Day: Our state's Attorney General was asked for an opinion on "pre-processing" ballots before election day. The answer is if ballots are simply scanned, no problem. But actually counting the votes is not legal. KCE intends to "adjudicate" ballots before election, which first requires a ballot's votes to be counted. Therefore, how KCE intends to use the new system would be illegal.

"Cheat Peeks" : Pima County Arizona also uses a ballot image scanner system. Pima County "pre-processes" their ballots before election day, as King County intends to do. The temptation to "cheat peek" at their early returns proved too great for the elections officials in Pima County to resist.

No Manual Recounts: Under current laws and procedures, ballots are manually duplicated as needed to honor the voter's intent. Diebold's new system will be used to modify the database record for the ballot, not that ballot image itself, a process called "adjudication." In the event of a recount, KCE proposes printing modified ballots from the database. There will not be a control number to link the modified ballot to the original paper ballot, as required by law.

Manual recounts happen nearly every general election.

Computerized Voting Machines

Regional Voting Centers will not have paper ballots, only computerized voting machines. Diebold AccuVote TSx touchscreens have been proven insecure and unreliable. There is a nationwide movement away from computerized voting machines, Recently, both Florida Governor Crist (R) and New Mexico Governor Richardson (D) have banned the use of these machines.

Provisional Voting on Touchscreens

Provisional voting on computerized voting machines sacrifices voter privacy. If it was private, there would be no way to accurately remove a challenged provisional ballot from the election.

All electronic with no contingency plan

There will be no paper-based system at the Regional Voting Centers. That includes poll ballots, poll books, inspector's lists, etc. What happens in the event of an emergency? There is no contingency plan.

Using Uncertified Software and Hardware

Voting and counting systems are certified for use as a whole system, not in parts. Under the current rules, the new system, including Diebold's new tabulator and upgraded touchscreens, cannot be tested and certified in time for the April 2008 election. To do so, the Secretary of State would have change the rules, ignore the rules, or both.

Diebold Security Myth

All independent security reviews of all the voting and counting systems have found fatal and irredeemable security flaws. This includes all of Diebold's products. Diebold's new tabulating system hasn't even been certified, let alone independently inspected. Therefore, no one can claim it is secure.

Guinea Pig

King County would be one of the first customers of Diebold's new high-speed tabulator. Previously, our state's rules required our voting and counting systems to be used by two other states before our state would certify a system. That's still a good idea.

Inappropriate Use of HAVA Grant Money

Help America Vote Act was authorized by the US Congress to enable disabled voters to vote in private. Appropriate expenditures are ensuring wheel chair accessibility, assistive voting technologies, and voter education. Spending HAVA Grant money on unrelated items is grossly inappropriate.

GEMS Database Limitation

KCE claims that we need a completely new system because our current Diebold GEMS database can't handle our elections. In other words, we need to spend roughly $5,000,000 to work around a flaw in a $200 database.

However, the new system would also use GEMS. LA County, which is fives times larger that King County, uses GEMS. Easy workarounds exist, such as splitting the election into "north" and "south" King Counties or increasing the size of the batches (making larger, fewer batches).

Old Equipment Needs Replacing

KCE claims that our existing optical scanners are old, failing, and must be replaced. Five units apparently had to be replaced during the March special election.

Fortunately, under KCE's current plans, we'll have a stock of ~600 replacement units once the poll sites are closed. Assuming 5 fail per election, we own a 20 year supply.

Jason Aaron Osgood
206-784-9416
zappini {at} gmail.com

Resources

Ballot Rate of Return by Mail 2006
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/pdf/Ballot_Rate_of_Return_by_Mail_2006.pdf

Pre-Election Vote Total Access in Pima County AZ
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/46569.html

Vote By Mail Transition Plan
www.metrokc.gov/elections/votebymail/

High speed Tabulator Business Case
http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/votebymail/Project_Business_VBM_TabulationFINAL_2_.pdf
Florida Moves to Paper Ballots! (May 3, 2007)
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2429&Itemid=113

[eridani]

2. Contact info

http://www.metrokc.gov/elections/contactus.asp

King County Records, Elections & Licensing Services Division
King County Admin. Bldg., #553
500 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104


Hours: Weekdays
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

206-296-VOTE (8683) for General information

800-325-6165 (toll free)

206-296-0109 TTY
206-296-0108 FAX
elections {at} metrokc.gov