Oregon Mail-in Ballots & Hand-Recount System vs. New York Lever System: 2000-2008 (TIA) -x

[tiptoe]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8103177&mesg_id=8103177

 

[tiptoe]

1. Mail-In ballots, Centr Voter Reg Sys, Counties receive & tally ballots, hand-recounts check tallies.

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Being an all vote-by-mail state, Oregon has many differences from Colorado in our vote tally process.
Colorado uses vote centers and precincts in a distributed vote and tally process.
Oregon utilizes a centralized vote tally process with all votes received and tallied at County Elections Offices.

This centralized practice allows for much greater control of the tally process.
• For example, each ballot envelope received by the County Elections Officials is scanned, signature verified and then accepted for counting. This process is done using Oregon's Centralized Voter Registration System. (Vote-by-Mail video)

This system is completely separate from the vote tally systems used in Oregon Counties.
It provides a cross reference in that the number of ballots received and accepted for counting equals the number of ballots counted by the tally systems.

• In addition local election officials are required by statute (ORS 254.235) to perform logic and accuracy testing prior to each election and after the counting is done.

254.525 Test of vote tally system. If a vote tally system is used, the county clerk shall repeat the public certification test described under ORS 254.235 (1) for the vote tally system used to conduct the election. The test shall be conducted after all the ballots are tallied but before the final results of the election are certified or before the vote tally system is shut down. The test may be observed by persons described in ORS 254.235(2). The county clerk shall certify the results of the test. <1979 c.190 §274; 1993 c.713 §36; 1999 c.410 §61; 2001 c.965 §24; 2007 c.154 §47>

• In addition, as you know, the Legislature adopted a new law that takes affect this year that requires for each general election a post-election handcount of select precincts. These will be conducted in addition, of course, to the normal routine recounts we do in Oregon, because each election inevitably includes a few close races.

I must reiterate here an important fact. No recount conducted in Oregon has ever turned up evidence that a tally machine failed to correctly count votes. A full recount is the ultimate test and with each election we always have at least one or two.

John Lindback, Director
Elections Division
Oregon Secretary of State's Office

source: http://www.oregonvrc.org/2008/02/192007_johns_reply_oregons_election_systems_decertified_colorado

 

[kster]

2. K