Counties criticize Blackwell

[nonny]

http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13748464&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21849&rfi=6

Counties criticize Blackwell

Lake County to challenge precinct count optical scan system decision

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's decision to make counties choose precinct count optical scans (PCOS) voting systems has drawn fiery criticism from officials in Lake, Ashtabula and Cuyahoga counties.
Counties will have to select a PCOS by Feb. 9, or Blackwell will choose it for them.

snip--

Blackwell's decision has prompted Lake County commissioners and election officials to consider legal action or a legislative solution to keep the county's current system in place.

snip--

"It's awful," said Art Vensel, Ashtabula County Elections Board deputy director. "We've already done a lot of the planning for electronic equipment."
Vensel said the Feb. 9 deadline gives his county insufficient notice to make a decision.
Blackwell's decision came as a shock to Cuyahoga County Elections Board Director Michael Vu. He was expecting to go with electronic voting machines.
"The time frame - this was almost two years in the making, and now we're having to make a decision two to three weeks away," he said. "It seems this whole process has been plagued."

[liberal N proud]

1. Make a short deadline so that the counties can't evaluate a system

then Blackwell can select the system of HIS choice who just happens to be the one who is prepared to deliver the Gubernatorial election to Blackwell on 06.
What a bunch of crap!

[merh]

2. Ahhhh, poor Blackwell, everyone is bitching about him!

Too bad, so sad! NOT :evilgrin: {{{snicker}}} {{{snicker}}}

[emlev]

3. kick

[Darkhawk32]

4. Restraining order in order? n/t

[electropop]

5. Best restraint: a jail cell. n/t

[Darkhawk32]

6. I'll call Bubba... he'll think he's got a "Purdy Mouth"

:evilgrin: :silly:

[merh]

7. kICK

[corbett]

15. Kick Again

He deserves no less!

[Igel]

8. Let me get this right.

We're sticking up for counties that were planning on paper-less DRE voting equipment, and object to having to use equipment that has a paper trail?

If the choice is between optical scanning equipment and DRE (whether or not the legislature will reimburse counties if printers are later rigged up), I'll go with optical scanning.

It may not be my ultimate preference, but it's better than some options.

[merh]

12. We are thinking it is funny that the counties are upset

with Blackwell!

Of course we want a paper trail, it is just the time limit he is trying to force on the county is not reasonable and why is he trying to strong arm them by Feb 9 - what is significant about that date? Is he trying to have them destroy the equipment they have?

What is he hiding?

[Igel]

13. Ah. Carry on.

Are you sure it's not Feb. 8? That's when the 2005 elections calendar says special elections are scheduled for, if any counties/cities have any. (Umm... Ottawa, Trumball counties do, as do Cincinnatti, if Google isn't leading me astray.)

Surely Blackwell isn't thinking that BOEs will have new equipment then? (Let's see ... train staff, train pollworkers, train voters ...)

[merh]

14. That's the date referenced in the original post.

Counties will have to select a PCOS by Feb. 9, or Blackwell will choose it for them.

[demo dutch]

9. Electronics voting machines are bad bad bad! At least optical scanning

has a papertrail!

[many a good man]

17. Ballot. Paperballot.

Don't say trail say ballot.

[probuddha]

10. I'd like to see Blackwell in jail --but....

isn't this the type of voting and audit trail we have been supporting on DU? Supposedly the voter would use a pencil to fill in a bubble, the sheet would be scanned and the sheet would be retained for an audit of the vote tally.

What am I missing?:shrug:

[skids]

18. If it is truly "precinct count"

...then yes, this is up high on good end of the list of voting systems.

"Precinct count" would mean that the ballots are scanned at the precinct. This should be done in front of the voter and the machine should notify the voter on the spot about any overvotes so they can redo their ballot if there is a problem. We'll see. It is Blackwell, after all.

There are still ways to defraud a system like this. For example, the machines may not warn about undervotes, because undervotes may be what the voter wanted. So there is room for trouble there.

Some of the ways the opscan systems could be tricked into giving a wrong result which, even if a recount caught it, would look like a "simple mistake."

1) Choose a system that doesn't warn about overvotes, then have the printer make a little mistake on the ballot that puts an ink blotch in your candidate's column. Or have let the company that sends out technicians to tune the scanners know what precinct each machine is going to so they can mis-tune some of them.

2) Hand voters a pen that doesn't register correctly, or let them vote in pencil when they should be voting in pen, or visa versa. (Or if you want to get cute, use disappearing ink, then demand a recount, though that would be pretty stupid in that disappearing ink leaves a chemical trace.)

3) Choose a system where the same scanner is used for multiple precincts through some sort of ballot "key", and you can have the caterpillar crawl from 2004 all over again by just screwing up the keys on the ballots.

So my advice to 2006 Ohio voters:

1) Look over your ballot for ink smudges. If allowed, photograph your ballot.

2) Bring your voter registration letter into the booth with you, and use the provided pen on it to collect a sample of its ink for later analysis.

3) Be very, very, very sure the ballot you get is for your precinct. This may be easy, because if the system is good at all, then the names of the cnadidates will be printed on the ballot. Be very, very sure the machine you put it into is also for your precinct.

Activist stuff to do before the election:

1) Make sure people know about the above. Make sure they know whether to use pen or pencil, because this year some people used pencil on a pen-based system because they thought "It's just like the SAT" and that they were being tricked when the staff handed them a pen. Which is pathetic.

2) Demand that machine allocations be made randomly before the machines are serviced, and kept in a sealed envelope which noone knows the contents of until after the machines have been serviced. Or, if ballots have to be programmed into the machines according to precinct, there is a way to do this that does not allow the technician who does it to see which ballot is going into which machine.

3) Everything we did in 2004 for voter education, plus anything else we learned about in 2004.

4) Let the dems on the BOE and the precinct captains know that they had better get their goddamn act together and make sure there are no problems, and examine every aspect of the election machinery with a critical eye.

5) Look at the ballot orders and polling location for potential "crawling" problems before the election.

[Alizaryn]

11. I hope they band together and confront this lunatic.

[Quakerfriend]

16. This guy thinks he's untouchable!