(WA) 1/13 - A Bill in WA Senate would...

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Author Message   Elizabeth Walter Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Ewalterwa Post Number: 2 Registered: 1-2013 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 6:05 pm:        This legislation is designed to speed up the reporting of election results (this and another Bill mandating that ballots be returned by Election Day). I want to advocate for opposition to this Bill. Besides the fact that it will not speed up results by much, please give me guidance and arguments I can present. My recollection is that tabulation prior to the closing of Election Day (8:00 pm) will allow election officials to get a "sneak peek" at how the election is trending (who is winning/losing). IF the election officials are corrupt how can they use this information? Am I correct if I say that they could manipulate Monday's results (Tuesday's too)? IF they were to do that, would that be done directly on the tabulating machines or in a database located on a server? What other things might they do if they were worried the election was not going as they wished?   Kurt Bellman Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Realkurtb Post Number: 264 Registered: 6-2011 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 2:07 pm:        The essential problem WA has is a classic bottleneck - centrtalized scanning of ballots. I don't like the very concept that WA uses. I much prefer in-person precinct-based voting on a singular Election Day, tabulated that night at each precinct and then aggrageted up the chain step-by-step with full detail available for each step to anyone who asks, so that they have all they need to "prove" everything out themselves. In my state, PA, countng ANY ballot, by mail or otherwise, before 8:00 PM on Election Night is a criminal offense, AND IT SHOULD BE. No ballot gets counted until all opportunity to get in the voting queue is past. WA is setting up an inherently corruptable election system. The evil cannot be taken out of it. Choices have consequences. WA's choice of vote-by-mail has the consequence that the tallying takes longer. Get over it. PA's choice to nearly force (except for absolute needs) in-person precinct-based voting also has consequences - it's labor intensive and staffing polling sites is a big-time pain in the butt. "You pays your money, and you takes your chances." There is no perfect system that answers all issues. Right now, PA has a voter to precinct ratio (average) of about 750:1, approximately. It has co$t$, but we don't wait long for results. It is parallel throughput, as opposed to serial. BTW, our excuse-needed absentee ballots must be received by 5PM the Friday BEFORE the election. How do like them apples? (Recent exception for some overseas ballots due to federal legislation and litigation.)   Bev Harris Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 11771 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - 11:30 am:        Elizabeth, I'm so sorry I missed this post and did not respond timely! As I understand it, the bill is unlikely to pass; it was apparently put forth by a legislator who did not have a good understanding of the process to begin with, and I think he has since pulled back from supporting it. The idea is that it will somehow speed the count if election workers stay later to count, but since in Washington, absentee ballots must be MAILED BY the end of Election Day, rather than (as in many other states) RECEIVED BY Election Day, the bill is pointless. Staying late to count ballots when at least a third of them won't have been delivered yet doesn't accomplish anything more than increasing the likelihood of fatigue-based errors. By the way, election officials are sneak peeking on election day and also before, and they also can connect up our ballot choices to our names, but those are different issues not really affected by this bill. The public must be able to see and authenticate these four essential steps for an election to be public, democratic, and valid: (1) Who can vote (voter list); (2) Who did vote (3) The original count; (4) Chain of custody.

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The public must be able to see and authenticate these four essential steps for an election to be public, democratic, and valid: (1) Who can vote (voter list); (2) Who did vote (3) The original count; (4) Chain of custody.