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Post Number: 311
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 4 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 6:05 pm: | 
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California advisory panel approves dismantling of voter secrecy
By Jim March, Exclusive to Black Box Voting
SACRAMENTO: The California Secretary of State's Voting Systems and Procedures Panel (VSPP) today authorized new standards for Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) that destroy voter secrecy.
This change in the way VVPATs are allowed to operate involves a cash register-style tape with a take-up reel that preserves the vote sequence on each touchscreen machine. By cross-referencing available data, your vote can be identified.
The sole opponent of this proposal, computer scientist David Jefferson, pointed out that by comparing the reel to the polling place “logbook” for the vote order and, cross-referencing the voter's political party (public record) with the ballot style (obvious from the printout), a close correlation -- or a match -- can be made between voter and vote.
While cross-referencing may sound tedious, it could become nearly instantaneous. The same vendors who produce the voter registration system (which contains political party and precinct, and therefore ballot style), also produce the voting machines, and at least one major vendor (Diebold) has already developed an electronic pollbook to integrate with voter registration and voting system.
As Jefferson put it, prior paperless touchscreen systems at least claimed to randomize the vote order of the tallies recorded electronically.
The first VVPAT-equipped touchscreens ever tested in California (an Avante system used for a trial in Sacramento County in 2002) used a “slicer” to cut off each paper ballot and drop it into a sealed bucket big enough to allow a good degree of randomization. Jefferson discussed this system so the panel would know that such an alternative is possible. Also discussed were earlier prototype Sequoia and ES&S VVPAT’s with their own slicers and drop-buckets, along with Diebold ATMs with the same “slicers” on their receipt printers.
With Sequoia and ES&S now using “take up reel” systems, that effort towards randomization of ballot order is gone. Mention was made of preserving voter secrecy with “procedures” at the county elections department, with little discussion as to what those procedures would be.
Black Box Voting has found that election procedures, even when prescribed by law, vary widely in practice. Many public officials, party observers, and citizens do not understand how the checks and balances function to protect the vote, and therefore do not insist on compliance with procedures. Sticklers about protective procedures are frequently ignored, overruled, or called "conspiracy theorists." There are no consequences for officials who do not comply, and no penalties for officials who refuse to allow citizen observation of their voting integrity procedures.
“Take up reel” VVPATs were approved by the panel on a 6:1 vote, with Jefferson the sole holdout. Like all decisions of the VSPP, this one is advisory, with Secretary of State Kevin Shelley making the final decision.
Sequoia’s touch-screen machine printer using this “take up reel” sequential vote storing system (the “VeriVote Printer”) was approved for California use with the “Mark II” Sequoia touchscreens.
It hasn’t been tested yet with the earlier “Mark I” model, which is in use only in Riverside County, where there are concerns that the machines don't have enough plugs to support both a printer and an audio headset adapter. Riverside has over 4,000 Sequoia touch-screens.
For a position paper by Black Box Voting director Jim March questioning the competence of the VSPP and asking that the panel cease decisionmaking until issues of competence, management and conflict of interest are resolved, Click here: http://www.bbvdocs.org/general/VSPP-objections.pdf (.pdf file, 173 KB)
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If you do NOT approve of the take-up reel method, removing privacy from your vote, now is the time to demand a rollback on this decision. Pressure points: Be your own media; put pressure on county purchasing boards to avoid these systems; call, write, fax, and e-mail Kevin Shelley's office and tell him: NO WAY! |
