Any opinions about *New* NC Voting Machine Restrictions???

[marions ghost]

Questions for those following current voting machine legislation:

This story has been posted in MelissaB's Election Reform/News compilation (8/11/05) --but I am wondering of there are any longterm experts or anyone here from North Carolina who could tell us more about what is going on re. this article. I'm particularly interested if the reforms actually cure any of the outstanding problems, and how it is viewed by reform activists. Can we interpret this as a small victory? What are the drawbacks (I'm sure there are some)? Does it set any precedent for other states? The article mentions federal and state grant money being used to buy or upgrade machines -- what does this mean? Are they continuing to work with the same vendors, and can counties choose opti-scan or even *paper ballots/hand-counted* as an alternative to DREs?

Thanks for any insights :)

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http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=5865

N.C. House approves new voting machine restrictions
The Associated Press 11 August 2005

"The state House unanimously agreed late Thursday to permit only three types of voting methods in North Carolina and also agreed on how to disburse government grants to help pay for machine upgrades.
The measure, developed after Carteret County electronic voting machines lost 4,438 ballots in last November's election, also requires state election officials to hand out more than $36 million in grants to meet new standards.

With the 2006 elections, voting in North Carolina only will occur in the form of optical scan ballot machines, electronic recording machines or paper ballots counted by hand. Electronic machines would have to provide a paper copy of a voter's ballot, which could be corrected by the voter before they are recorded.

The bill will help voters know their ballots are being counted by accurate and reliable machines that have a backup if a machine fails, said Rep. Jean Preston, R-Carteret.
---snip
Counties only will be able to purchase machine brands that have been certified by the State Board of Elections. The bill now returns to the Senate, which approved a slightly different version two weeks ago and must decide whether to accept the House version." (more)
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Carteret County NC (which lost some 4,400 votes in 04) seems to have gone back to paper ballots / hand counted, at least for the upcoming elections. See article at:

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=5855

[KoKo]

1. Sadly as of this post some of our own NC Democrats are trying to defeat

the bill in the NC Senate. They are voting now after the bill was passed in the House Thursday night it had to go back to the Senate where the head of our Elections Commission and the Governor, A Democrat, are trying to change the wording which will in effect derail the bill or cause it to be put off for another 10 days or longer.

I'm so angry I can't write anymore about this. We are listening live to the proceedings as I post.

Here's a great site with lots of info on NC Voting and what we have been trying to do here. The site has updates and links to important info about all the people and issues involved in trying to get voting reforms here in NC. The site will probably give the final results of whether the bill passes or is sabotaged once again. :-(

Link:

http://www.ncvoter.net/

[marions ghost]

2. OMG

the D governor and Democrats?!? What the...well I can only think negative thoughts about this little turn of events. Sounds really crafty to change things AFTER the vote. :banghead:

KoKo--I know how you feel. I've worked in some disappointing situations re. elections. But please keep us posted if you can because I'm sure there will be very little news anybody can find otherwise. I'm with you guys in every way...so wanted to feel things were moving in the right direction in this. I see I should be lighting candles in the altar and keeping the vigil instead of celebrating. :hug: Which Democrats--is there anything to do at this point?

[KoKo]

3. WOO HOO! It just Passed! We got it. Verified Paper Ballots here's Text!

Here's a summary of the Bill and a link to the full text:

:woohoo:

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to restore public confidence in the election process by requiring that the state board of elections, through the development of a request for proposal, ensure that all voting systems generate either a paper ballot or a paper record by which voters may verify their votes before casting them and which provides a backup means of counting the vote that the voter casts; by providing statutory guidance as to counting; by standardizing purchasing of voting systems in north carolina, including a review of source code for software related to those voting systems and authorization to establish the role of the STate Board of elections and county board of elections related to training and support of voting systems; by requiring postelection testing of voting systems, including a paper sample‑count; by expanding the right to a hand‑to‑eye recount of paper ballots; AND by permitting a pilot program to experiment with nonpaper means of voter verification and ballot backup.

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/Senate/HTML/S223v5.html