Electronic ballots are unreliable, not secure

[Guest guest]

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/132967

 

 

 

Electronic ballots are unreliable, not secure

Guest Opinion: John R. Brakey

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.11.2006

 

 

" Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes

decide everything. "

Joseph Stalin

 

To an increasingly large extent, " those who count the votes " in the

United States are privately owned corporations, not our election

officials. In fact, Arizona law prevents election officials and

workers from manually counting ballots or auditing elections results.

 

 

In New Mexico, the public-interest organization Voter Action

documented that " undervotes " for president were as high as 37 percent

in some Hispanic and American Indian precincts that used Direct

Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machines. Similar

precincts using optical-scanners with durable paper ballots had

undervotes of less than 1 percent.

 

This result led Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico to order all DRE

touch-screen voting machines dumped in favor of a return to durable

paper ballots.

In a March 31 letter to officials in all 50 states, Richardson wrote:

" Some believe that computer touch-screen machines are the future of

electoral systems, but the technology simply fails to pass the test of

reliability. "

 

With voter confidence in elections at historic lows, citizens in Pima

County and around the country are questioning the security, accuracy

and reliability of DRE touch-screen voting machines.

Some voters, like myself, have become election-integrity activists,

challenging the rush to DRE touch-screen voting machines. Lured by

$3.9 billion in federal funding, corporate hawkers used the

Orwellian-named " Help America Vote Act " (HAVA) as an excuse to peddle

the least-secure device, disregarding more secure options that

accommodate more people with disabilities at a lower maintenance cost.

HAVA, just like the " Clear Skies Initiative, " the " Healthy Forests

Act " and the " No Child Left Behind Act, " is Orwellian double speak.

HAVA furthers the privatization of our elections, making our votes a

commercial commodity for sale by putting them in the hands of

corporations with a proprietary business interest in counting our votes.

 

The federal government provides the states with funds to purchase

touch-screen voting machines and virtually all the money is passed on

to large election-equipment corporations.

Last Tuesday, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the

purchase of Diebold TSx DRE touch-screen voting machines, over the

carefully explained objections of several citizen election-integrity

experts.

 

Supervisors Ramón Valadez, Sharon Bronson and Ann Day voted in favor

of the purchase with the full knowledge that these machines present a

documented security risk and are non-transparent, providing only a

small machine-generated thermal paper record similar to a cash

register journal, rather than a durable paper ballot.

 

This thermal paper record is deceptively called " voter verifiable, "

but it cannot be used in a recount (only the memory card in the

machine may be used) under current Arizona law.

 

According to a Newsweek article last month, experts believe Diebold

DREs have " the most serious voting-machine flaws ever documented. "

Rather than deny this, Diebold spokesman David Bear asserted that " if

it so happens that someone not supposed to use the machine . . . takes

advantage of this fast track to fraud, that's not Diebold's problem. "

Unless the board reverses its decision, it will become our problem.

Fellow electors, election integrity is not about the right or left;

it's about right and wrong. Please urge the board to reconsider its

action.

 

Please attend an important meeting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the

Plumbers & Steamfitters Union Hall, at 2475 E. Water St., in Tucson.

Voting-machine expert Thomas Ryan of Arizona Citizens for Fair

Elections and Rep. Ted Downing, chairman of the state Democratic Party

Election Integrity Committee, will present evidence to document

problems with our voting system.

 

John R. Brakey is co-founder of Americans United for Democracy,

Integrity & Transparency in Elections. Write to him at john.