In further communications, with the City of Minneapolis'
Elections and Voter Registration office and the Secretary of State's office, I'm
hearing the following:
- While the State of Minnesota is considering DRE machines, it
has not made any decision about future voting technology. It is just one
option. The State may continue to use optical scanning machines and
supplement them with Assistive Voting Technology (AVT) machines that help
people who are visually impaired (a mandate of the HAVA plan), or move to an
all DRE system, or something else, depending on the
evolving machine technology and cost.
- Reportedly, one of the experimental DRE machines
in use in the upcoming elections DOES have a paper trail mechanism. The
machine vendor of this machine is Avante.
- The State HAVA plan does state that it wants to adopt
UNIFORM statewide voting equipment and systems, but it
also goes on to say that related expenses may include the purchase of
county-owned, optical scan precinct tabulators, voting equipment and DRE or
AVT systems. For example, not all MN counties currently have optical scan
technology and one use of the money may be to update these systems to optical
scan technology.
- In short, any voting system is possible at this time and the
state plan is not specific regarding future technology. Bert Black, elections
attorney with the Secretary of State, said he believes that technology will
continue to improve and that current DRE machines, or other types of machines,
with a paper trail mechanism, will likely be available in the future.
- Most important (for me) to remember is that current MN law
requires a paper trail and any new voting machine technology would need to
meet this requirement, or the law would have to be changed. To repeat my
point in previous postings, I believe we need to remain watchful about the
evolution of DRE technology with respect to having the ability to produce a
paper trail, and the State's decisions regarding updating our voting
technology to comply with HAVA.
Jeanne Massey
Kingfield
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