<http://www.truthout.org/101708VA>Report Says
Colorado Poorly Prepared for Electronic Voting
Machine Problems
Thursday 16 October 2008
<http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/16/report-says-colorado-poorly-prepared-electronic-vo/?partner=yahoo_headlines>ยป
by: Myung Oak Kim, The Rocky Mountain News
A new national study released today said Colorado
is one of the least prepared states to handle
electronic voting machine failures on Election
Day.
The report gave Colorado low marks because
state regulations don't outline in detail how
poll workers should address problems with voting
terminals and don't require counties to keep
paper ballots as back-up.
The report is called "Is America Ready to
Vote? State Preparations for Voting Machine
Problems in 2008," and was released by the
Brennan Center for Justice at New York
University, Common Cause and the Verified Voting
Foundation.
Study authors cited numerous machine
malfunctions and loss of votes in previous
elections across the country, none of them in
Colorado, and predicted that some terminals will
fail on Nov. 4.
"Unfortunately, we don't know where," the
report said. "For this reason, it is imperative
that every state prepare for system failures. We
urge each state to take steps necessary to insure
that inevitable voting machine problems do not
undermine either the individual right to vote, or
our ability to accurately count each vote cast."
Election planning in Colorado was thrown into
chaos last December when Secretary of State Mike
Coffman banned the use of thousands of electronic
voting and counting machines because of security
and accuracy flaws. Early this year, Coffman
certified all the machines after conducting
further tests and taking into account security
measures taken by election workers.
Coffman's office scrutinized the machines
because of a lawsuit filed in 2006 by a local
group of activists who oppose electronic voting.
That group has strongly criticized Coffman's
decisions regarding the machines. Coffman has
said he confident that the equipment can be
trusted.
Local election officials also have defended
the integrity of the machines, saying there have
been no significant problems since they began
deploying the equipment in the last decade.
Nevertheless, many large counties that had
previously only used electronic machines decided
this year to also offer paper ballots. Denver
made the most drastic move - to discard their
older electronic voting machines and implement a
paper ballot-based voting system with very
limited use of electronic terminals.
The report said Colorado had decent rules
regarding post-election audits and verifying
ballot counts. But it criticized the fact that
two counties - Jefferson and Arapahoe - still use
electronic machines that don't have paper
records. That means that if the software
malfunctions and votes are lost, there's no way
to recover those votes. A state law will require
that all e-voting terminals have paper records by
January 2010.
Colorado was among 10 states identified as
the least prepared for e-voting problems. The
others are Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New
Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah
and Virginia.
The national report said six states were the
most prepared to handle e-voting problems. They
are Alaska, California, Minnesota, Missouri,
North Carolina, and Oregon.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's
"News From Underground" newsgroup.
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR go to
http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the
"Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the
page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page.
For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
