Last of Holdouts in NC Goes for Optical Scan [View All]

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

We had two counties holding out on buying voting machines in NC,
because they were hoping to weaken or repeal our law.
There is a history of the officials in this county trying to do that.

Anyway, we had a victory late last night!

Buncombe County Commissioners Vote Down DRE 4-1
Election Board rejects purchase of touch-screen voting machines
Asheville Citizen


The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday rejected a staff recommendation to buy touch-screen voting machines, with four of the five members saying they don't believe voters would have confidence in the machines.

Commissioners had the option of accepting or rejecting the recommendation of the county Board of Elections, so they couldn't vote to buy the optical scan machines that they said they prefer.
The county BoE was bound and determined to ignore reality and select the system that would mean more expense and less reliability. In exchanges of documents between anti-BBV activists and the BoE, the board showed itself reliant on bogus assumptions and completely impervious to logic.

The BoE was determined to do what they saw as in their best interest, not in the best interest of the voters. So, local activists went to the folks with the checkbook who decided that they would listen to the voters.

About three-fourths of North Carolina's 100 counties have chosen optical scan voting machines, which allow voters to use paper ballots and then scan them.
Now there's a statistic you can be proud of.

During the public comment period several people echoed Bates' concerns.

"We have to do anything we can ... to be sure the public is comfortable with the method of voting," said Commissioner Carol Peterson.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Nathan Ramsey cast the sole vote for the touch-screen machines because he said he had to trust the people who worked so hard to reach the recommendation.

Blind faith is always a BAD idea, especially when the people you have faith in have no expertise in the area they are expounding upon (and by this, I mean computers, not elections).

The decision must be made quickly to have the machines delivered and ready to use by Election Day in November. Touch-screen machines need to be ordered by May 31 and optical scan machines by June 15. Board of Elections member Lucy Smith said the board will go back and come up with a new option.
At this point their options are OpScan or paper ballots counted by hand.

Outstanding work by Buncombe county e-voting activists.

http://blackboxvoting.com/s9/index.php?/archives/126-Buncombe-County-Commissioners-Vote-Down-DRE-4-1.html

*NC Verified thanks David Allen for spending a couple of days in Buncombe County to
present at a rally early this year, to get the activists focused.

*Thanks also go to the Buncombe County Verified Voting, a local group
who spent hours and days of their one time making this happen.
Their website is here,
http://campaignwindow.com/BCVerifiableVoting/index.cfm