Orange County, CA activist needs help/ideas

[diva77]

Orange County CA activist writes:

Hi all,
The citizens audit parallel elections has evolved into a Citizen's Exit Poll.  The Exit Poll ballots collected during the 48th Congressional Special Election in Orange Co show a 15% spread in the collected data verses the posted data.  Our little group is attempting to validate or not the eSlate data from one precinct in Laguna Beach.  Any ideas on how best to go about this?  We have the addresses and phone# s of the 396 voters and we want them to verify their vote of the 6th of December 2005 and have a legal trail to challenge the OC results for that precinct.  Orange Co uses DRE Hart-Intercivic eSlate devices at the polling sites.

The other avenue of investigation in Orange County involves validating absentee ballots. Hart-Intercivic software is also used to process all absentee ballots scanned with the Kodac I830 scanners.  As part of the process, when paper ballots are scanned into the system, a digital image of each ballot is stored in a data base for processing.  This "database" of digital images is then apparently backed up to CD after the election in question is certified.  I thought this set of digital images would be accessible as part of the freedom of information act but the OC registrar/counsel(legal team) has denied my request for them. 

Has anyone received or come across a precedent that would allow us to have the CD and perform independent processing in California?  It is imperative that we have this information because the only other way to validate the Hart-Intercivic scanning software is accurate is to request and pay for a manual recount ($$$$).  The trend to the majority of voters voting absentee is accelerating and this software is in question.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[rumpel]

1. uscountvotes has a mathematical formula would that help?

from her e-mail:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/1/prweb333208.php

Specific Type of Statistical Analysis Can Indicate Vote Count Errors in
Past and Future Elections

After over a year of research, the National Election Data Archive (NEDA)
has developed a new sophisticated statistical method for indicating
whether reported vote counts in any particular election race between two
candidates have, or have not, been counted correctly. The method is being
made publicly available on the Internet - "Vote Miscount or Exit Poll
Error? New Mathematical Function for Analyzing Exit Poll Discrepancy" is
publicly available. at
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/Exit-Poll-Analysis.pdf and will
enable independent analysts to objectively evaluate the validity of any
past or future election results.

For further information contact:
Kathy Dopp, MS, Mathematics, NEDA, President [e-mail]

[Steve A Play]

2. Someone from Orange County might want to

post that question here. They're the only people I'm aware of who are fighting that exact battle in several states trying to get the CD's to use with Harri Hursti's 'VoteOScope' software. If they've been successful anywhere else, it might have set a precedent that could be used to argue for getting the files in OC.

It's worth asking them IMHO. :)

Steven P. :kick:

[Wilms]

3. kick