Fair & Accurate Elections Forum
If you have a spare minute next Tuesday, have a look at the Fair & Accurate Elections Forum. It looks like a pretty good lineup and, at a minimum, a healthy discussion about a topic that should near and dear to our hearts. Here's a squib from the announcement:
After Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 what are we doing to make sure we have fair & accurate elections in Minnesota and the United States? Join us to discover what progress has been made, what still needs to be done and what you can do to help.
Date: Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Location: University of MN - The Coffman Theater
Coffman Memorial Union
300 Washington Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Cost: Free – donations to cover the venue rental fee appreciated
Hear from local leaders working to insure our elections are fair & accurate.
- Marcia Avner, Public Policy Director, MN Council of Nonprofits
- Mark Halvorson, Director & Cofounder for Citizens for Election Integrity
- Lance Henderson, President for Citizens for Election Integrity
- Javier Morillo-Alicea, State Director of the AFL-CIO 2004 Voting Rights Protection Program, President & Business Representative for SEIU Local 26
- Joshua Schenck Winters, Public Policy Associate, MN Council of Nonprofits, Leads the MN Participation Project
Let us know you’re coming! fairandaccurateelections@hotmail.com
posted by Chris Dykstra @ 11:57 PM |
| 
19 Comments:
I don't think your efforts support fair and accurate elections.
Granted, the idea is sound, but the approach is not. It attacks "suspected" fraud, but fails to address known issues.
There are several keys that aren't addressed. First, the eligibility question. We KNOW rather than suspect that 100's of felons voted illegally in Milwaukee. We also know that there were 1000's of excess ballots cast and tablulated as well. The steps proposed by CFEI don't address these genuine issues. Instead they focus on rejecting new technologies (in this case wireless, electronic data storage rather than paper, and "undisclosed" software.)
This Neo-Luddite approach is simply anti-technology and a partisan attempt to deflect attention for the reforms that are truely needed.
Real voter reform needs to concern itself with simple security practices.
1. Authenticate users - ensure they are unique and you know who they are. (Biometrics perhaps?)
2. Entitle users - aside from being present, do they have sufficent rights to vote? (Are citizens, not felons, have not already voted.) This includes having problem solving options such as "provisional balloting" available as well as post facto enforcement plans to charge fraudulent voters.
3. Facilitate users - can they use the tools provided to vote with their intentions? (This is where random validation should come in - but a sample of 2% is nonsense. Problems should be uncovered with very significantly smaller samples.)
4. Real time replication to safeguard data. One of the key advantages of paperless ballots is that you don't have to have just the one at the polling place, you can have an instant copy at any number of locations. Sharing data is the best way (bar none) of ensuring its integrity. Hiding it on little slips where only a few safegaurd it and have access and you get hanging chads... There are also datamining opportunities paper lacks. "Ballot stuffing" can be easily spotted as a string of highly improbable coincidental ballots for example.
Taken to the next level real time replication and tabulation can provide real time reporting. While I don't think its wise to widely report real time tabulation its certainly far superior to "exit polling" which has also been utilized in recent elections to partisan effect.
I'll add a couple of notes about "undisclosed" software. I believe that participants in the elections should validate objections to the technology they feel is suspect. In this regard they should have access to the devices and training of election workers so as to identify problems. I can even see cases where based on documented examples of errant behavior, source code disclosure could be required (under non disclosure agreement etc. protecting the intellectual property of its owners) but before that occurs, there has to be a problem. There haven't been any objections that have withstood scrutiny upon examination so far.
The alternative is a truly open source code base for elections. I don't think anyone would say that sourceforge electionware would be "more secure" than proprietary code. In fact, its far more likely to be "cracked" if its publicly available.
-Censored
I've said it before, I'll say it again, as much as we need election reform, fair and accurate voting, and ways to eliminate voter fraud, in MY oppinion, one of the best peices of elestion reform we could have would be the elimination of the electoral collage. One man, one vote, every vote truely counts, popular vote wins. Thats what I think anyhow.
housewife -
Would you be willing to eliminate the Senate?
The president is selected by a combination of popular and federalist voting. Its the balance that is designed to ensure big states like CA and NY don't run over RI and NH. Our legislature is built on the same lines -
House of Reps - popular # by population
Senate - federalist 2/state
So my question is why would it be good for the legislature, but bad for the executive?
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, I'm just curious if your interest in eroding federalism is consistent and why or why not.
-Censored
One also needs to start with the premise that there was something wrong with Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Long lines and the ability to read and follow direction are not vote fraud, especially when the those who are complaining are also the resposiblie parties.
I do think the long lines in Ohio are a direct result of the video screen machines v. our highly effective, scanner machines. And as such are a poor choice for any community to make.
Dave
This theme seems to be coming up over and over...
Felons and dead voters in WA
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/09/18/100loc_jerry001.cfm
Felons, dead voters and multiple votes per voter in NJ.
http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/xclude/1126861942142880.xml?jjournal?xclude&coll=3
Why isn't this important enough to be addressed?
-Censored
Wow - I don't know about Norway, but here in America you are NOT a felon if you are commiting a crime.
You are an "alleged" perpertrator until you have been convicted. If the crime was a felony, then you are a felon thereafter.
Dictonary.com defines felon as "One who has committed a felony." Whereas "Convict" refers to someone who is presently incarcerated. Not the same thing at all.
The point of depriving felons of francise is that in becoming felons they have demonstrated by virtue of their crimes that do not act in the best interests of the community and hence, should not be trusted with setting the course of law abinding citizens. Felons were denied the right to vote long before race was an issue.
I can understand the calls to eliminate / erode federalism - I don't agree, but I understand. I was curious about Housewife. My expereince with electoral discontent has been that its motivated by anti-Bush sentiment more than anti-federalist.
-Censored
Please.
An Democratic election lawyer I saw said that Democrats think it's voter fraud when thousands of people are disenfranchised; Republicans think it's voter fraud when some guy votes without his driver's license.
The New Jersey thing is a total misrepresentation. The "analysis" the NJ GOP did was so stupid, I'd go so far as to say it was willfull.
All they did was match people who had the same first name, last name and birthday. That never happens!
As for felons voting, it's generally held among us liberals that once they've paid their debt to society through serving time, they should have their rights restored, including the right to vote.
If it's too dangerous for felons to vote, they shouldn't be out of jail, IMHO.
As for long lines -- that's not voter fraud, but it is lame. And is it a pattern that poor people have to wait in line while rich people don't? Why is that?
No one should have to wait in line more than 10 minutes to vote. I endorse early voting, absentee voting, and plenty of machines for every neighborhood. We want as many people as eligible to vote. We should invest in making it fast and easy.
It shouldn't take longer to get a Big Mac than to exercise your franchise.
Luke,
Even if you discount NJ in its entirety, you can't deny that comprehensive reforms are needed, and these include the points I've previously made.
Let's seperate the federalist question and the disenfrachisement of felons. These are policy questions that can be decided by voters via their representatives in due course. Just looking at voting and making elections fair and accurate...
You're advocating making it fast and easy to vote. I agree. The burger is a great analogy because its a transaction, not an action like using the mailbox.
You get a burger, you order and pay and then you get the goods. There's a great deal of technology that's used. How many burgers were sold, how many drink cups need to be restocked, what are the reciepts etc.
I'm not suggesting you pay to vote, but I am saying that we need to utilize technology to make it efficent AND that we can authenticate voters (making it a transaction rather than an action) and still be efficent. The idea that we can't be fast or get all the votes and be thorough about it at the same time is false.
Authenticating voters is simply too important a step to skip.
I support absentee balloting, but I'm not sure on early voting. I think one well designed process could work for both.
-Censored
Sadly all to often when it comes to issues regarding voter enfranchisment we get too many from the fringe DFL side claiming all sorts of ridiculus Republican conspiracy's. Long lines in democratic areas is due Karl Rove. Poor choice of election hardware by local officials is because the head of Diabold is a republican supporter. Bush stole/annointed 2000 when all INDEPENDANT analysis of the actual ballots says otherwise.
When actual issues such as dead people voting, more votes than registed voters etc. are mentioned it is all a rightwing conspiracy to cover up the truth. Simple common sense rules (ID, provisional ballots for the late/same day registers etc..) to ensure the integrity of the vote are proposed they are racist/disenfranchising blah blah blah.
Perhaps we need the dyed finger method here, but I think we could do better.
I haven't had time to check but I would like to see how the Carter/Bush SR. voting commisions recommendations including ID are being recieved at DU.
Dave
Correction, the commision is headed by Jimmy Carter and James Baker.
http://www.american.edu/ia/cfer/
Dave
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One morning a long-wed couple were in an amourous embrace and the wife says: "Honey, that Viagra is so wonderful, let me fix us a nice full breakfast... eggs, bacon, toast..."
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DEAR DIARY
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Just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with not much to celebrate.
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Today, he says he has a big secret to tell me. He's impotent, he says,
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Isn't life wonderful but it's difficult to write while he's doing that.
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I think he took too many over the weekend. Yesterday, instead of mowing
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I'm basically being screwed to death. It's like living with a Black and
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I've done everything to turn him off. Nothing is working. I even started
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I think I'll have to kill him. I'm starting to stick to everything I sit
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The bastard has started to complain about headaches. I hope the bloody
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Day 17.
Switched the Viagra pills but it doesn't seem to have made any
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Day 18.
He's back on Viagra. The lazy sod just sits there in front of the TV all
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