Reply #12: A resolution to be submitted by the Progressive Caucus to the WSDCC [View All]

[eridani]

(Washington State Democratic Central Committee) It needs the approval of the Disabilities Caucus first, though. Feel free to rip it off and modify it for use in your state or county.

Adopt the Vote-PAD System as the Washington State Standard Assistance Equipment for Disabled Voters

WHEREAS, King County has recently purchased touch screen voting machines (DREs) with uncertified software for use by blind voters; and

WHEREAS, the Government Accounting Office has analyzed such machines and determined that they are unreliable and susceptible to being tampered with (1); and

WHEREAS, all electronic voter-assist products are expensive to acquire, store, and maintain; and

WHEREAS, blindness is not the only disability that makes independent voting difficult; and

WHEREAS, the mobility or dexterity impaired often find it impossible to use DREs; and

WHEREAS, the recent development of the Voting-on-Paper Assistive Device (Vote-PAD) now provides an inexpensive, non-electronic, voter-assist alternative that helps most people with visual or dexterity impairments to vote independently (2); and

WHEREAS, both visually and dexterity impaired people were an integral part of the Vote-PAD design process and have reviewed it very favorably; and

WHEREAS, the Vote-PAD can mark the same paper ballots used by most voters for subsequent optical scanning by existing equipment; and

WHEREAS, the Vote-PAD requires no Federal HAVA certification since it doesn't contain any software (secret or otherwise) or electronic parts that would require such approval from Federal authorities, according to HAVA guidelines; and

WHEREAS, the Clerk-Recorder of Yolo County has calculated that the cost for their county to use Vote-PAD for five years would roughly be the same amount of money they had been planning to allocate for just the storage of electronic machines alone (3); and

WHEREAS, overall costs for Vote-PAD are about 10% of costs for DREs, and there are no maintenance or licensing fees; and

WHEREAS, the only competing product which assists disabled people in marking paper ballots that has been tested by disabled people and found acceptable is the AutoMark, the rights to which were purchased by ES&S, which subsequently overpriced it compared to their paperless DREs and discouraged its sales representatives from promoting it (4);

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Progressive Caucus recommend that the Washington State Democrats urge the Secretary of State and all county auditors to adopt the Vote-PAD system to assist independent voting by visually impaired, dexterity impaired and mobility impaired voters; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we recommend that if counties insist on buying DREs anyway in spite of their excessive cost and unreliability, they be encouraged to adopt the Vote-PAD system as a backup; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Washington State Democrats recommend the promotion of the Vote-PAD system on a national level by the Democratic National Committee.

Submitted to WSDCC Progressive Caucus for consideration on January 27, 2006

References and additional information

(1) http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529

Among other things, the GAO confirms that:

1. Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection." In other words, the GAO now confirms that electronic voting machines provided an open door to flip an entire vote count. More than 800,000 votes were cast in Ohio on electronic voting machines, some seven times Bush's official margin of victory.

2. "It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate." Numerous sworn statements and affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.

3. "Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards" can easily be done, according to the GAO.

(2)http://www.vote-pad.us/

The heart of the Vote-PAD is the transparent “ballot sleeve,” which encloses the ballot on both sides and reveals the content of the ballot that slips into it. The Vote-PAD is composed of one custom ballot sleeve for each sheet of a ballot. The sleeves are bound together between front and back opaque covers for privacy.

Holes are cut out of the sleeve at locations where a voter can mark choices. The sleeve protects the ballot from stray marks.

A page-turning aid is attached to the outside of each sleeve and each cover to assist voters with dexterity impairments in turning the pages.

Raised dots attached to the sleeve beside each cutout provide tactile indications for voters with visual impairments. An audio tape interprets the raised dots so listeners know which hole corresponds to which candidate — just like the tactile ballot template used in Rhode Island.

Unlike voter-assist methods that only offer audio instructions, the Vote-PAD can be accompanied by Braille and large-print instructions as well.

A light-sensing wand allows voters with visual impairments to review their selections. As they replay the audio tape, or re-read the Braille instructions, they point the wand at each candidate location to receive vibrational feedback indicating whether or not the location is marked.

An opaque, sliding “privacy shield” sits in a pocket inside the front cover and slides part-way out to conceal the ballot as it is being deposited in a ballot box or precinct scanner.

(3) http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/HowYoloCitizensWillVote.htm

"After an enormous amount of research, we in Yolo County feel lucky to have found this assistive device. My skepticism about computer-controlled voting is well-known, and so is my concern for poll workers. The Vote-PAD is so well thought-out, it keeps control of the elections with the people’s servants rather than surrendering it to big corporations. And at the same time it provides the most useful features for persons with a wide variety of disabilities of any assistive device we’ve seen."

(4) http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002329.htm