Pennsylvania 'Pukes Investigate E-Votin'!

[Bill Bored]

Tuesday, November 07, 2006
PA GOP ASKS STATE SECRETARY OF COMMONWEALTH TO LAUNCH IMMEDIATE
INVESTIGATION INTO VOTING MACHINE PROBLEMS
Contact: Scott Migli, Executive Director
717-234-4901


PA GOP ASKS STATE SECRETARY OF COMMONWEALTH TO LAUNCH IMMEDIATE
INVESTIGATION INTO VOTING MACHINE PROBLEMS


HARRISBURG - Republican State Committee Executive Director Scott
Migli today released the attached letter from counsel Lawrence Tabas
to Secretary of Commonwealth Pedro Cortes.


The letter alerts Secretary Cortes of the numerous issues voters have
encountered while trying to cast their ballot. There has been
reported instances in at least 12 different counties of voters who
tried to cast their ballot for a Republican candidate only to have
the machine register a vote for a Democratic candidate.

###



Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania

Office of the General Counsel

301 Market Street, 9th Floor

Harrisburg, PA 17101


November 7, 2006



VIA FACSIMILE [phone]

Hon. Pedro A. Cortes

Secretary of the Commonwealth

302 N. Office Bldg.
Harrisburg, PA 17120


Dear Secretary Cortes:



As you are aware, there have been a number of reported
instances today from the Counties throughout the Commonwealth,
including but not limited to Allegheny, Butler, Westmoreland, Centre,
Lackawanna, Erie, Bucks, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Cumberland and
Crawford Counties, where voters have attempted to vote for Republican
candidates on voting machines (the "Voting Machines") and these same
Voting Machines incorrectly reflected either that those same voters
voted the straight Democratic ticket or voted for the opposing
Democratic candidates on a split ticket. Such malfunctions
effectively disenfranchise voters and the results of the election may
be inaccurate.



Because the Secretary of the Commonwealth must approve all Voting
Machines for use in elections, we would respectfully request that you
immediately take steps to investigate these reports of Voting
Machines that malfunctioned, and that you determine the following:



a) the identity of the Voting Machines that were miscalibrated and/or
malfunctioned and the serial numbers for those machines;

b) the precincts or divisions where the Voting Machines were located;

c) what time the malfunctions occurred;

d) whether technicians were called to repair the Voting Machines;

e) what time technicians arrived to repair the Voting Machines;

f) the names and contact information for the technicians who repaired
these machines;

g) what exactly the technicians did to repair the Voting Machines;

h) how many voters cast ballots on the Voting Machines prior to
recalibration; and

i) whether recalibration of a Voting Machine affects votes already
cast on that Voting Machine.;



We also ask that you issue instructions to every County to not
recalibrate any Voting Machine that has been identified as being
miscalibrated, but rather impound the Voting Machine. Additionally,
we request that a sufficient number of emergency ballots be provided
to these affected Counties so that no voter loses his/her right to
vote.





Secretary Cortes

p.2





Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I can be
reached at

610-574-9670 today.




Sincerely,








LAWRENCE J. TABAS

[tblue]

1. Bring it on! Let's open up those machines or get the hell rid of them.

I knew it would take them losing for election reform to become a bi-partisan issue.

[Fridays Child]

8. Exactly. Now is *not* the time to rub their noses in it or tell them to get over it.

I'm not willing to lose this chance for real voting system reform just because some think it's more important to gloat or demand apologies.

Forget all that. Instead of wasting time on expressions of moral indignation or on throwing their own insults back at them, let's leverage their self-serving outrage by getting them to agree with us that black box voting must be banned forever.

Come on. Let's get it done. If we blow this chance, we deserve whatever follows.


Artful Goddess

[tblue]

11. Amen. This is our chance to fix it before they fix another election.

I hope Pelosi really understands how critical this is. Regardless, WE must keep this issue alive and not wait until '08 to demand reform. If that means uniting with the other party on this, then that's what we' oughta do. If we want the White House and if we want to keep the Congress, we'd better get going on this post haste. I guarantee you, the Repug wheels are already in motion.

I really thought this issue would never hit the mainstream media. It took 6 long years. But now that we have the Congress and we have the media's attention, we have to implement voting reform post haste. This chance might not come again in a long time.


Edited because I am falling asleep at the keyboard and typed gibberish.

[eridani]

20. Amen!

In the long run, this is a winning issue for us and a losing issue for them.

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Sorry

After dismissing our objections repeatedly in PA, you have to apologize for your insulting behaviour first.

[On Par]

3. Here's The Reply To The Republicans....

"You lost. Get Over It !"

Gawd, I love saying that to Republicans.

[Febble]

13. No, the reply to the Republicans is:

"Now do you get it?"

[IndyOp]

15. Hey Febble! We are now about 12 weeks from passing:

With a Blue House, a Blue Senate & Dean calling for paper ballots...

The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005 :applause:

On February 2, 2005, Rep. Rush Holt reintroduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550), a bill designed to restore confidence in the outcomes of elections and in our electoral process generally. The measure would require all voting machines to produce an actual paper record that voters can inspect to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Experts often refer to this paper record as a "voter-verified paper ballot."

"Anything of value should be auditable," said Holt. "Votes are valuable, and each voter should have the knowledge—and the confidence—that his or her vote was recorded and counted as intended. Passage of this bill will be a big step in restoring that confidence, which is the very foundation of our democratic republic."

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was an important piece of legislation that took many important steps towards electoral reform. However, in helping states replace notoriously problematic and antiquated machines, HAVA created a headlong rush to purchase computer voting systems that suffer different flaws.

Unfortunately, because computer voting machines are not currently required to produce a voter-verified paper record, any errors and irregularities they cause are difficult or even impossible to discover. A growing host of nationally and internationally-renowned computer scientists consider a voter-verified paper record to be a critical safeguard for the accuracy, integrity and security of computer-assisted elections.

H.R. 550 seeks to mandate the voter-verified paper record by amending HAVA immediately. If passed, funds expended under HAVA will be utilized in a manner that ensures that this minimum standard of protection will be built into computer voting systems now, without the necessity of replacing or upgrading such voting systems later. Key provisions of the bill include:

* Strengthening the HAVA current audit trail requirement – "a permanent paper record" – by requiring that the voters have the opportunity to verify the accuracy of that recorded vote.

* Requiring that all voting systems produce a voter-verified paper record for use in manual audits, commencing in 2006 in accordance with HAVA's original deadline. (Funding of $150 million is authorized to help states meet the cost of implementing this requirement.)

* Preserving HAVA's existing access requirements for voters with disabilities; clarifying and enhancing the security requirements demanded of systems to be used by voters with disabilities; and adding the requirement that an accessible voter-verification mechanism be provided.

* Banning the use of undisclosed software and all wireless and concealed communications devices in voting systems, and prohibiting the connection of any voting machine component to the Internet.

* Requiring random, unannounced, hand-count audits of the voter-verified paper records in 2% of all precincts, including at least 1 precinct per county. Such funds as may be necessary are authorized to fund the expense of the audits.

* Require manufacturers and election officials to document the chain of custody with respect to the handling of software; prohibit the use of software or software modifications that have not been certified or re-certified; and prohibit political and financial conflicts of interest among manufactures, test laboratories, and political parties.

Expands on HR 2239 (the version of the bill in the 108th Congress) by establishing procedures to be followed if there is a discrepancy between reported results and audit results, and preserving the rights of individuals and the Attorney General's authority to pursue legal resolution of the discrepancies.

[Febble]

19. This will be a vital

line in the sand! How wonderful to have a Blue house that will pass it! Good luck!

Lizzie

[dlaliberte]

22. Paper trails are not enough

I have come to believe that, although paper trails would be better than no paper trails, we should really just scrap the e-voting machines altogether and switch to paper ballots, such as the optical scan ballots. There is just no easy way to ensure that a paper trail even reflects what the voters intended to vote on.

Also, the hand recount of all ballots at 2% of the precincts is not very good, statistically, mostly because you would have to be lucky to hit the fraudulent precincts. Much better would be a 10% random recount of all precincts. I ran across a statistical study of this a couple days ago, but I can't find it now.

[Fridays Child]

4. This is exactly what I've been hoping for. It's just perfect.

How predictable that Reptilicans are now shrieking about electronic voting equipment--machines that never caused them to lose a minute of sleep, just as long it was the Democrats who were losing elections. Their self-serving behavior stinks worse than a steaming pile of dog shit.

But that doesn't matter.

We may never get another chance to reach a real bipartisan agreement that black box voting must be banned forever. And all I can say is that our new leaders had damned well better not blow this.


Artful Goddess

[kster]

5. Well now isn't that special

[Cobalt Violet]

6. Cool and then they find out Santurum losses by a bigger margin.

Investigating voting machines isn't going to hurt us.

[Wilms]

7. Turn on the tape recorders.

This is gonna make for some really good sound-bites. :D

[diva77]

9. More proof that wherever the machines are being used, we

really don't have political parties anymore-- just the Vendocratic party.

Look at Lieberman- he didn't have to have his party to win. He is a member of the Vendocratic party. We really can't rest on our laurels - I agree with Friday's Child post #4.

[EFerrari]

10. Throught the Looking Glass. I hope the voters benefit

And what about a nice rendition of La Llorona?

:nopity::nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[nicknameless]

12. Rethugs are investigating this?

Which Dems will be there to observe their investigation? Will there be any?

Where is equal opportunity? Can the Dems investigate irregularities that robbed their candidates in all 50 states?
The Alaska Dems can't even get election data from 2004.

I hope to be proved wrong, but I doubt that this is good news.

[BeFree]

14. K&R # 5

We got 'em right where we want 'em.

"Republicans screem for investigations of voting machines"

Oh happy days. Might I be so bold as to suggest we are finally over the hump?

[Melissa G]

16. Excellent ,BB! K&R! n/t

[klook]

17. "We programmed these machines to give US the win! What happened?" - GOP (n/t)

[philb]

18. With more DEMS in SOS Repubs might be more interested in election reform

I assume that the big swing in Congress might also mean more DEMS at SOS and Election Supervisors.
Didn't happen in Florida but did in Ohio. Anyone know about other states?
Maybe its a good time to get most of this election reform needs taken care of.
Official bias and manipulation can cut both ways- depending on who's in power.
Nows the time for transparency and fairness.

[nicknameless]

21. This is exactly the kind of thing I was concerned about:

From Florida (not Pennsylvania)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2711843