California Pollworkers Told to Withhold Information from Voters

[Pale_Rider]

Note: I originally posted this under the State & Country Forums/California. Since this is pretty serious, I thought GD2004 would offer wider exposure.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=141&topic_id=3153&mesg_id=3153&page=

This is disturbing ...

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_10.php#002010

Santa Clara County, CA - Pollworkers in Santa Clara County are being trained not to offer voters a chance to use paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has learned. California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley mandated in May that all polling places offer a paper ballot option, which would allow people concerned about e-voting machine reliability a chance to vote on paper ballots at the polls. But pollworkers in Santa Clara County are being instructed not to tell voters that this option is available. Instead, they will make paper ballots available only if voters specifically request them.

Ed Cherlin, a pollworker being trained in Santa Clara County, said he was very disturbed to learn that he was not supposed to mention the paper option. "I object to the government telling me that I can't tell people about their rights," he said. Representatives of the voting commissions in Orange County and Riverside confirm that they also will not be informing voters about the paper option at the polls. There are ten counties in California using paperless e-voting machines known as DREs. It is not clear at this time whether all ten are adopting similar policies.

"When poll workers don't inform people about their options at the voting booth, they go against the spirit of the Secretary of State's mandate," said EFF staff attorney Matt Zimmerman. "More importantly, they undermine people's trust in the voting process."

Contact:

Matt Zimmerman
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
[e-mail]

[shraby]

1. Get this in the pipeline du'ers

I sent it to Keith Olbermann so far.

[Pale_Rider]

2. Kick ...

:kick:
and a hearty :wtf:

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Arizona kick

and everyone in CA ought to be passing this along to everyone they know.

[Dookus]

4. I don't get the big deal

Are you suggesting that each and every voter be offered a paper ballot? Can you imagine the time involved in having the same discussion with EVERY voter?

It seems OK to me - if people ask for paper, they get it. I don't think it's reasonable to offer every voter a choice.

[uhhuh]

10. How about a sign

Posted at the polls at the sign-in table?

Is that too much to ask?

[Dookus]

11. probably

I don't like the e-machines much either, but I've also worked as a poll-worker and I can't begin to imagine the delays and confusion caused by offering people a choice of how to vote.

[ParanoidPat]

5. Lets let them know how we feel about withholding information.....

......:evilgrin:

Secretary of State - Kevin Shelly

California Secretary of State
1500 11th Street
Sacramento, California 95814

Phone: [phone]

Elections Division

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
TDD: 1 800 833 8683 (No Charge to Calling Party)
Vote Fraud Hotline: [phone] VOTE (8683) Recorded
E-Mail: [e-mail]
Contact: http://www.ss.ca.gov/cgi-bin/print_form.cgi

Elections Division Home
County Elections Supervisors
State Election Code
Voter Fraud Complaint Form
Know Your Voting Rights
California Voting Systems
The Official Canvass of the Vote

Alameda (01) AccuVote-TS Touchscreen/DRE

Bradley J. Clark, Registrar of Voters
1225 Fallon Street, Room G-1
Oakland, CA 94612
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:30am - 5:00pm
E-Mail: [e-mail]
Web Site: www.co.alameda.ca.us/rov/index.htm


Merced (24) iVotronic Touchscreen/DRE

M. Stephen Jones, County Clerk/Registrar
2222 "M" Street, Room 14
Merced, CA 95340
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: www.co.merced.ca.us/elections/index.html


Napa (28) AVC Edge Touchscreen/DRE

John Tuteur, Registrar of Voters
Napa County Registrar of Voters
900 Coombs Street, Room 256
Napa, CA 94559-2946
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: www.co.napa.ca.us/GOV/Departments


Orange (30) eSlate DRE

Steve Rodermund, Registrar of Voters
1300 South Grand Ave., Bldg. C
Santa Ana, CA 92705
P O Box 11298
Santa Ana, CA 92711
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: www.oc.ca.gov/election/


Plumas (32) AccuVote-TS Touchscreen/DRE

Kathleen Williams, County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters
520 Main Street, Room 102
Quincy, CA 95971
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: www.countyofplumas.com/clerkrecorder/elections/index.htm


Riverside (33) AVC Edge Touchscreen/DRE

Barbara Dunmore, Registrar of Voters
2724 Gateway Drive
Riverside, CA 92507-0918
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
Website: http://www.voteinfo.net


San Bernardino (36) AVC Edge Touchscreen/DRE

Scott Konopasek, Registrar of Voters
777 East Rialto Avenue
San Bernardino, CA 92415-0770
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: http://www.sbcrov.com


Santa Clara (43) AVC Edge Touchscreen/DRE

Jesse Durazo, Registrar of Voters
1555 Berger Drive, Bldg. 2
San Jose, CA 95112
P O Box 1147
San Jose, CA 95108-1147
(408) 299-VOTE
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]
Website: www.sccvote.org


Shasta (45) AVC Edge Touchscreen/DRE

Ann Reed, County Clerk
1643 Market Street
Redding, CA 96001
P O Box 990880
Redding, CA 96099-0880
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
Website: http://www.co.shasta.ca.us/departments/countyclerkregistrarofvoters/index.html


Tehama (52) AVC Edge Touchscreen/DRE

Mary Alice George, County Clerk-Recorder
444 Oak St, Room C
Red Bluff, CA 96080
P O Box 250
Red Bluff, CA 96080-0250
[phone]
[phone] Fax
Hours 8:00am - 5:00pm
E-mail: [e-mail]/elections.cfm
Website: www.tehamacountyadmin.org/Departments/Elections.htm

Contact The California Office of the Attorney General

PUBLIC INQUIRY UNIT

The Attorney General's Public Inquiry Unit seeks to assist you in answering questions on a wide variety of issues ranging from consumer fraud to public safety. It is generally a clearinghouse for consumer complaints and requests for information.

You can contact the Public Inquiry Unit at [phone] or, within California, by calling [phone].

MAILING ADDRESS

California Department of Justice
Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

:kick:Hit the Media Blaster!:kick:

[bliss_eternal]

6. I hit Media Blaster HARD on this one!

I've e-mailed the Air American links from the gen'l discussion page. I also e-mailed Los Angeles Times, my local Democratic Volunteer organization, www.punkvoter.com, several California radio stations and several CA newspapers from Media Blaster search.

Thank you for posting this here. And thanks for the CA voter links.

Feistygrrl:)

[ParanoidPat]

9. Thanks! Bev and Andy drove down here on their own dime.....

.....several times and worked very hard to get Kevin Shelley to order that paper ballots be offered as an alternative to the DRE voting terminals. I want to make sure people are aware that they are there just in case the machines have any 'unscheduled downtime' on election day. :)

[bliss_eternal]

7. oh and btw, this reeks to me...

The reason it bothers me is they are not giving everyone a choice. They are making a concentrated effort to do so. This is unfair because there are some that could benefit from the choice. For example some that may have a difficult time deciphering the other ballot, or those that don't trust or like them (as has been stated by some members of the elderly community).

If they are going through so much trouble to train people to do this, there is a reason. I hate to be suspicious but I doubt it is a good one. This election is far too important to leave to chance or to specific ambiguity.

California is USUALLY voted Democratically and someone doesn't like that...

[Zen Democrat]

8. In Galveston County, we vote on scantron sheets - blacken the bubble.

And I love it. It's easy, no way to screw up, and perfect for recounts. The whole country should go to paper ballots and pencils to prevent fraud.

[Mizdd]

13. I also like the paper ballots to fill in the bubble

BUT they can be screwed up just as any other vote. I mean anything to do with computers can get screwed up :(

[ParanoidPat]

14. Yes but with the paper ballots as the original proof of .......

.....the voters intent, there is a way to audit the machine count and conduct a full recount should there be a discrepancy.

The problem with the OptiScan ballots is the machines that read them.

Three reasonable people can all look at the marks on the ballots and agree as to the voters intent regardless of what color the marks are or whether they are in pen, pencil, crayon or blood.

The machines however require calibration to a narrow range of reflectivity values to accurately detect the presence or absence of a mark without false triggering. The success of the count depends on the machine being calibrated using the same markings as are on the ballots it will count.

In Santa Cruz County the 'mail in' ballots have a secrecy envelope that is clearly marked "Use #2 Soft Lead Pencil Only to Mark Your Ballot!" but the Sample Ballot mailed to all voters contains the instructions "Use only the marking pen provided to mark your ballot or Number 2 pencil if you are voting by mail." This can lead to confusion for a small number of voters but the bigger worry is that machines calibrated to 'see' #2 pencil marks reliably for counting 'mail in' ballots may drastically miscount ballots marked with a pen or vice versa.

Worse yet is the possibility that an unscrupulous poll worker would be in a position to hand out different pens to voters from different parties in an attempt to shave votes from the opposition.

The only answer is either to hand count ALL of the ballots in public with representatives from all parties observing or to conduct an audit of a statistically significant number of hand counted ballots being randomly tested against the machine count totals.

California has taken a small step in the right direction by mandating a random audit of just 1% of the vote but they gave the authority of which machines to 'randomly' test to the election officials rather than to the people.

We have a long way to go before we can really trust the results of our elections with hard evidence presented to back up that trust.

That evidence begins with a human readable paper ballot. Anything else is a 'trust us' solution. :evilgrin:

[newyawker99]

17. Hi Mizdd!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[GreenPoet64]

12. This is true . . .when I voted here in SB, California

I was not offered the option until I asked about electronic voting. Also, I was told that the paper ballots are "manually scanned" into the computer anyhow--and that is just another step in the process. I hope they were telling me the truth. I opted for electronic voting when I learned that someone my paper ballot had to undergo further processing where my ink drawn lines would be "read" by a computer.

If someone can verify this information, I would really like to know if it is true. Do the paper ballots get scanned manually?

Thanks in advance!

[ParanoidPat]

15. Yes they do.....

....but the fact that there is a paper original makes it a lot safer in the long run because there is evidence of your original intent to fall back on.

If an Optical Scan count seems off or the results are very close you can hand count the ballots. If a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) system gives questionable results all you can do is spit out the same results over and over without any independent way of verifying them.

That's why we wanted voters to have a choice. Paper or Plastic? :evilgrin:

[Dem2theMax]

16. Thank you for posting this. I voted absentee, but I'm going to make sure

that everyone I know in California is aware of this. This is dead wrong. Every person is free to know their voting rights. How DARE anyone try to keep them from knowing their rights. A simple sign at the sign in table could inform voters that they have a choice. We already KNOW how to use paper ballots. No big deal, won't take time away from people working the polls. If people actually trust the machines (hahahaha) enough to use them, well, they can. Suckers. Oooops. USE Paper wherever you can.

[ParanoidPat]

18. California Kick!

:kick: