"Ohio picks paper ballot, pencil - Blackwell opts for optical scanner"

[sabra]

Blackwell is up to something... What are his true motivations in doing this after the 04 election?

<<SNIP>>
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050113/NEWS01/501130364

Ohio picks paper ballot, pencil
Blackwell opts for optical scanner voting system

By Cindi Andrews
Enquirer staff writer

COLUMBUS - Get your No. 2 pencils ready.

Ohioans who thought they would one day be voting on machines that resemble ATMs will instead be marking paper ballots that look like standardized-test sheets and are tallied by a scanner at the voter's precinct.

"It is just the most efficient and practical way to proceed," Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said Wednesday, as he made the optical scanner the state's primary voting system.

Optical scan is the most widely used system nationwide, accounting for 32 percent of votes in the 2004 election. Just 11 of Ohio's 88 counties use optical scan now, including Clermont.

Blackwell said county boards of election must adopt the scan voting systems by the end of the year, regardless of whether local officials have picked other methods.

<</SNIP>>

[mdhunter]

1. getting rid of the evidence

[smartvoter]

5. That was my first thought. nt

[sabra]

2. Blackwell says counties have no real choice...

"Blackwell has already certified two optical scan systems - those made by Diebold Election Systems and Elections Systems and Software. He gave county boards until Feb. 9 to pick one or the other."

[BR_Parkway]

3. I asked this earlier in a post that dropped, but if none of the machines

are certified, wouldn't it have been illegal to use them in the 2004 election?

"We have a tight election-reform deployment schedule, too few allocated federal and state dollars and not one electronic voting device certified under Ohio's standards and rules,'' Blackwell said in a statement. "Precinct count technology just makes sense considering the flexibility it provides to financially constrained counties.''

[sabra]

4. We need a re-vote!

Thanks for the post...

[Dee625]

6. Get your stickers and markers ready

Sounds good that you fill out a paper ballot doesn't it?
Makes the voter feel more confident - I know I used to.

Of course, then they alter them with stickers and markers.
Then the data is all fed into a PC and can be manipulated by whoever has access. You'll never know what the tabulator actually counted.
If the numbers don't match, just foil a recount by setting up the 3% sample. You can add extra ballots, hide ballots,etc. cause they don't have to match the poll books anyway.

Yeah, I'm a little jaded on this after seeing it in action.
I can see how Blackwell might find this system easier to "work with" than others.

[mackdaddy]

16. Washington County Ohio, : Just change the ballots till they read

From the "recount":
http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/counties/washington.php

"Many ballots that kicked out were altered by the Board as we watched to make them work. I noted that the Green Party protested this practice. Mr. Kitchen pulled a black I marker from his right pocket near the beginning and told me he was the mark-up man. He did indeed do all the marking of the ballots — with witness of at least one and usually 2 other board members plus myself. Mr. Walker assisted with the "band-aids"."

And of course we will get more of the infamous Diebold "GEMS" software, or the ES&S version on insecure servers.

[KaliTracy]

7. Lucas County uses Optical Scan, at least in my Mom's precinct

and they had a ton of problems there -- too. Surprise, surprise.

When Observers aren't allowed to inspect ballots it's harder to detect a sticker over an oval -- but I suppose on some level it is more "traceable"

but--- and correct me if I'm wrong -- weren't some of the rotation problems (President picks in different order) on Optiscan as well as Punch Card?

(I still think something needs to link a ballot to a vote -- tear-off that's signed by the voter on the bottom of the ballot that has a Database number and deposited in a separate ballot box, and a database number in the pollbook with signatures. This is the only way to truly do an accurate recount. (as they say, "garbage in, garbage out" -- if there are "extra" ballots -- and "extra" machine votes this wouldn't necessarily be caught unless there is a link between the voter and the ballot).

Also interesting that his reason is "expense" of the verified paper ballot on an electronic machine. How difficult is it to put a printer on an e-voting machine anyway?

He's trying to Spin this as if he is "solving" a problem that he created. Pitch a fit. I plan to write LTTEs in places I see this printed.

and thanks, sabra, for posting this -- I heard it on my local Public radio Station this morning! :hi:

[SharonRB]

8. Un-friggin-believable!

Of course he waited until after the election to do this. Although there were problems with the optical scan machines in Ohio, too, weren't there?

I love this part:

<snip>

"We have a tight election-reform deployment schedule, too few allocated federal and state dollars and not one electronic voting device certified under Ohio's standards and rules,'' Blackwell said in a statement. "Precinct count technology just makes sense considering the flexibility it provides to financially constrained counties.''

<snip>

If not one electronic voting device was certified under Ohio's standards and rules, why the f**ck were they using them!?!?!?

[KaliTracy]

9. exaclty! it's not like he just took office - he's been in since 1998 n/t

[BR_Parkway]

10. That's the part I keep questioning, but so far no answers as

to whether any state laws were broken by doing so. I want to see that guy in orange sooooo bad, seems fitting in Blackwell's situation that the same color of the prison jumpsuits would be the one the Ukrainians chose.

[k8conant]

11. Let's give Blackwell enough rope...

I certainly see problems (i.e. fraud) in having used uncertified machines last November.

[rox63]

12. He's running for governor in 2006

So maybe he's trying to fix his own election.

[Carolab]

14. Ding! Ding! Ding!

Opti-scanners are SO SO easy to rig.

All Ohioans need to get busy figuring out how to stop it. NOW.

[Alizaryn]

18. Beat me to it.

[KerryReallyWon]

13. After 2004, Blackwell says his Governorship is "in the bag"

He needs these machines to get his reward in the fixing in his election. He is running for Governor of Ohio, he said.

[bettyellen]

15. but andy keeps saying paper ballots are crutial, something has to be

recorded in more than thejust computers so that it could accurately be recounted.
i remember him saying a paper receipt doesn't help, but a ballot does.
i'll ask him later.

[abbiehoff]

17. A paper ballot is great if someone actually does a recount.

Only one Ohio county did an entire, by-hand recount. The others just put the same ballots through the same machines as the first time. Gee, I wonder why the results were so nearly the same.

[bettyellen]

19. but i think his point was, without paper that does actually record a vote

(and not just a receipt) all recounts, no matter how you do them are meaningless. because the computer can change the info, and there's nothing to go back to, ever. it ain't perfect, but i see how it's better than a receipt, or no receipt.
but yeah, they need to be carefully counted.

[FogerRox]

20. Jerry Springer ANd Blackwell together when When Springer was MAyor

Remember? Cincinnati IIRc