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So I just returned from a demonstration by the various electronic voting systems vendors, and let me tell you about the laundry list of problems that I had with EVERY single system...
First off, I began by hunting down the Democratic Party Election Commissioner and asking him WHY this event was held in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day. I am appalled at the fact that despite his "attempts to make this event accessible to everyone," that this event was allowed to be held during regular business hours, when most eligible voters are still working (12 p.m. - 6 p.m.) The response that I was given was not sufficient in my opinion. The reasoning behind it being that the event hall where the demonstration was being held was going to charge the BOE an extra event fee to utilize the facility after 6 p.m. So you are telling me that there wasn't a SINGLE publicly owned facility in the ENTIRE COUNTY that could have been utilized in order to give working voters a chance to voice their opinion(s) on the direction of county/state elections?! I find that incredibly hard to believe.
Secondly, this was a "regional event" thus requiring people to travel as far away as three hours in order to attend this demonstration in order to voice their opinions for the counties in which they are registered voters. So if you happened to be working today, or unable to travel one,two, or three hours away, sorry, tough luck, maybe an event will be hosted in a community closer to you before the state and county officials make their decisions.
To begin with, I am frustrated with the fact that the op-scan devices that were being tested today were out of test ballots which would allow individuals to cast a demonstration ballot, to familiarize themselves with the entire process. Oops sorry, we overlooked possible voter turnout, so you'll just have to take my word on how the system works. 'Ain't good enough in my opinion... Neither were three of these systems operational in order to demonstrate how the voter verifiable option worked on this equipment. It wasn't that they weren't working, THEY WEREN'T EVEN PART OF THE MACHINE! The vendor(s) response(s): they were still awaiting the state/county officials to provide them with the requirements that voter verified balloting would be New York State law...it is.
Secondly, on a Phoenix "Advantage" touch-screen system, the system crashed during a demonstration vote, requiring a reboot. During the reboot process, low and behold, the Windows XP icon appears on the screen! Now I needn't remind Mac and Linux users of the security flaws that are associated with Windows operating systems, but you're telling me that my votes are being cast on an operating system with MANY known security issues, by Microsoft? Allow me to catch my breath here...
Lastly, to round out Phoenix, as I casually chatted with a Sequoia vendor on escrowed source code with the State Elections Board, he (let the cat out of the bag?) that this is the system "that Monroe County will most likely be utilizing." Oh really? You know this already, how? I'll try to keep this as tinfoil-hat free as possible, but I do not like being told what's "likely" to happen, let the voter's decide based on their hand's on experience with these machines before telling me the likely outcome of this event...
All in all: I am not convinced. Faulty equipment was on display for demonstration purposes. Equipment was on display that was not up to state Board of Elections law. And a whole other topic of debate was the (in)ability for the disabled citizens to easily cast their ballot during the demonstrations today...
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