Keep an Eye on Pennsylvania - The Feds are trying to Ban Paper Ballots..

[Junkdrawer]

State Supreme Court to hear voting systems argumentsAssociated Press

PITTSBURGH - State attorneys argue that it would be an impossible task for counties to arrange referendums and get voter approval of new federally required voting machines and still have time to buy the machines before the May 16 congressional primary.

The state Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments Wednesday in Pittsburgh in the dispute about the voting systems. The state Constitution requires a referendum before a county can change its voting system, and Judge Dan Pellegrini of the Commonwealth Court had sided with a group of voters in ruling that Westmoreland County could not get around that requirement.

In their appeal, lawyers for the state maintain that the requirement is overridden by a federal law banning old-fashioned lever and punch-card systems from federal elections.

Pellegrini suggested using the old machines for state and local offices and paper ballots for the congressional primary. But Assistant U.S. Attorney General Wan J. Kim said paper ballots wouldn't comply with a requirement that polling places be accessible to the disabled.


http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/13986637.htm

[Greeby]

1. Oh dear

They want machines in place to save Sick Rick :(

[Junkdrawer]

2. Depending on the ruling, this could have National implications...

especially if it winds up in the Supreme Court...

[hopein08]

3. So would we just stick with what we used last November?

In my case a lever machine.

[Junkdrawer]

4. HAVA bans lever machines outright...

Funny how they suddenly "Got Religion" on the whole ADA thing, huh?

Glass is less transparent...

[WinkyDink]

7. Not specifically. My post's link has more.

[WinkyDink]

5. Ridiculous argument.

Will there be Braille computer screens?
There are ACCOMMODATIONS made, whatever the voting method.

And "polling places" are not "voting methods", anyway. Is this U.S. Atty speaking of ramps for wheelchairs??

"HARRISBURG - A federal election official said that lever voting machines do not necessarily have to be replaced under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, a departure from what Pennsylvania elections officials have been telling reluctant counties."
Source: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-08282005-533454.html

[Efilroft Sul]

6. Revolutionary act to save our enfranchisement.

Find out where the touch screen machines are stored in your voting district. Smash them, destroy them all just days prior to the election. Force the Federal government's hand against Pennsylvania's constitution, which requires referenda for counties to change their voting system.

Illegal? King George would say so. Just like the Boston Tea Party was.

Come on, you know as voters we're not going to win in the courts.

[SoCalDem]

8. I HATE how they are manipulating this whole issue around

disabled voters.. Disabled people have been voting for ages, and one terminal per polling place JUST FOR THEM would be sufficient..

Using the disabled as a reason to make the whole process vulnerable via Diebold/ES&S/Sequoia is assinine.

[Junkdrawer]

12. As I say..Glass is less transparent...

..And they say there's no transparency in our election system...

[Benhurst]

9. Like Republicans give squat about the disabled. Crooked

elections is all they care about, and they have pretty well set it up for 2006 and 2008. The ballot box is no long an instrument for change in Bush America. The Republic is dead, gone and forgotten.

[Kansas Wyatt]

19. Republicans are just trying to make sure the disabled

Vote for the right party, to avoid any confusion they get from activist groups. Which, is completely opposite from the propaganda catapulted on their bought and paid for MSM.

[Tesha]

10. How odd! Paper ballots are "accessible" here in NH and in Canada.

> But Assistant U.S. Attorney General Wan J. Kim said
> paper ballots wouldn't comply with a requirement that
> polling places be accessible to the disabled.

We have special polling booths set up with a low desk
for people who are wheel-chair bound. We allow aides
or the election officials to help people who are blind
or incapable of holding the pen used to mark the Mark-
Sense ballot.

Maybe the problem is that paper ballots aren't accessible
for manipulators?

Tesha

[0rganism]

11. So these new machines cannot be connected to PRINTERS?

There's no reason to do away with paper ballots on this basis. Just have these new-fangled "touch screen" and handicapped-accessible jobbies PRINT a ballot that the voter can verify, then submit both the electronic copy and the paper copy to two different, parallel counts. The two counts should match 100% exactly, with the paper ballot count taking precedence because it can be meaningfully repeated and hand-examined.

This is not rocket science, it's a simple and sensible application of currently existing technology.

[Junkdrawer]

13. PA currently BARS voter-verified audit trails...

the two reasons given?

1.) There's no law that resolves what to do if counts differ.

2.) If the printouts are on a roll, voter privacy is compromised.

There are bills in the PA legislature to resolve these things, but Republicans are not letting them out of committee (kinda like Rush Holt's bill in the US Congress)

[0rganism]

14. *sigh* democracy is dead

Since any bill to restore democracy would have to be approved either by
a) voters voting with the compromised systems
or
b) politicians elected by voters using compromised systems
we will never get it back through the political system.

[Junkdrawer]

15. Someday the shit WILL hit the fan, and at that time it will be realized...

that peaceful change is impossible. What will happen after that is anybody's guess...but MY guess is that THAT's the real reason for the Patriot Act.

[EFerrari]

16. Disabled "access" to hackable machines is NOT access,

It's more expensive disenfranchisement with the appearance of access.

:kick: for election reformers in PA.

[Junkdrawer]

17. UPDATE: Here's what was said in court today...

Pa. Supreme Court hears voting systems arguments

PITTSBURGH - Using paper ballots in the May congressional primary would create chaos reminiscent of Florida's problems in the 2000 presidential election, an attorney for the state told the state Supreme Court in a dispute about voting systems.

"Imagine when that election will be certified," Mark Aronchick, a private attorney hired by the state, said Wednesday.

...

Charles Pascal Jr., an attorney representing the voters, maintained that a paper ballot system in the primary would comply with the federal law.

Justice Ronald Castille asked how Pascal's clients would be harmed by using an electronic system.

"It seems to me all these individuals would be interested in fair elections," Castille said.

Pascal said the harm is in not being able to vote on the change.

"That's all we are asking," he said.


http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-03012006-619885.html

[Junkdrawer]

18. UPDATE: PAPER BALLOTS LOST...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a county may replace its mechanical lever voting machines without voter approval in a case that pitted new federal election laws against the state constitution.

The ruling eases concerns about possible disruptions in the planned upgrading of voting systems in dozens of counties before the May 16 primary election.

The decision, which overturned a lower court, was announced in a one-page order that promised a subsequent opinion explaining the justices' reasoning.

The lower court judge - Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini - said the 2002 federal law that requires many counties to upgrade their systems before the primary affects only federal elections, while the state constitution requires voters' approval for any change in voting systems.

....

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-03022006-620337.html

Guess we'll have to wait to see why the PA Constitution is null and void...