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"Joe Smith won, got 51%!!"
"But, how do you know?"
Paper Ballot Act of 2006 ~~~ HEAR!!! HEAR!!!
The House currently offers a bill that will direct all States in the US to use only paper ballots, and those ballots are to be counted in the public eye, within the polling place. THIS DESERVES OUR CLOSE ATTENTION! Thank you to Mr. Kucinick and numerous other Representatives who sponsor this bill!
The heart of the bill, H.R. 6200:
"The ballots cast at a precinct or equivalent location shall be counted by hand by election officials at the precinct, and a representative of each political party with a candidate on the ballot, as well as any interested member of the public, may observe the officials as they count the ballots."
Think about it.... Voting machines of any kind, including the machines that count ballot cards, can be manipulated to skew the vote totals. Are those machines closely viewable by the public 24 hours a day? If not, then someone can "adjust" them during off hours. Even if voting machines give you a printed receipt, letter perfect, this will say nothing about how your vote is counted. And such a receipt is worse than worthless in any recount. They can never be collected back up to be counted.
Only by watching your ballot being counted, before being removed from the polling place, can any degree of accuracy be assured. Once you allow your ballot to go into that sheriff's car, kiss it goodbye. You will never be able to see it again, and therefore, neither you nor anyone else in the country can know if the vote tallies are accurate or messed up.
Lynn Landes leads the push for paper ballots
Machine voting cannot be secure. No matter what type of machine, if the ballots are not matched to the machine count, in every case, then the machines can do as they please with the totals. Lynn calls all Americans to change to Hand Counted Paper Ballots, and has many plans to bring this about.
Parallel Elections Project
PEP is organizing a system of secondary elections by hand-counted paper ballots, which will "parallel" the official election in several precincts throughout the U.S. The ballots will be hand-counted, and the tally will be witnessed by the public.
History of the Problems with Paper Ballots
Paper ballots present several problems at the local level. Here's a good review of paper-ballot problems throughout history.
Choose to use paper ballots in California.
California has passed a new law that voters have the right to use paper ballots if they so desire. See the Los Angeles Times article (Oct 2004),
Paper Ballot Option an Unofficial Secret
A simple idea: get together with your neighbors
to politely but unyieldingly insist that in the next election, your ballots be counted at your voting precinct, where the public's presence can assure that nothing is done to manipulate the count. The law in many states says that this is required.
Right-wing Technology-Oriented folks favor Paper Ballots.
The age-old paper ballot is far superior to any computerized voting scheme. See the online article titled Paper Ballots.
Paper Ballots can be counted in short time.
If Americans can count as well as the French, then we can finish counting our country's paper ballots in a few hours. Christopher Bollyn, reporter, witnessed an election in France:
"When it comes time to count, as many citizens as can fit in the room are allowed to come in and watch the counting. Sworn election officials, some from each party in the election, in front of all the observers, count the ballots into piles of 100. Each set of ballots is placed in a bag. Then, one bag at a time, the election officials count the ballots, announcing each one. They tally up one bag and move on to the next, until all are done.
It takes a relatively short time to count 1,000 votes, and by having many election precincts throughout the country, all of France can be counted in a matter of hours, in front of thousands of eyes." (From Black Box Voting, Chap. 14, p. 196)
List of counties in the U.S.
that maintain the tradition of
hand-counted paper ballots
TEXAS COUNTIES
Dallam
Sherman
Hansford
Ochiltree
Lipscomb
Hemphill
Wheeler
Worth
Childress
Hardeman
Foard
Wilbarger
Hartley
Oldham
Roberts
Carson
Armstrong
Donley
Castro
Swisher
Briscoe
Hall
Bailey
Lamb
Floyd
Motley
Cottle
Cochran
Crosby
Dickens
King
Knox
Baylor
Clay
Jack
Lynn
Garza
Kent
Stonewall
Haskell
Throckmorton
Young
Dawson
Borden
Fisher
Shackelford
Red River
Loving
Hudspeth
Culberson
Jeff Davis
Presidio
Brewster
Terrell
Kinney
Edwards
Real
Sutton
Kimble
Schleicher
Menard
Glasscock
Sterling
Coke
Runnels
Coleman
Comanche
Mills
Falls
Blanco
Lee
McMullen
Live Oak
Marion
KANSAS COUNTIES
Cheyenne
Rawlins
Decatur
Norton
Jewell
Republic
Washington
Graham
Mitchell
Gove
Wichita
Lane
Ness
Rush
Kiowa
Comanche
Morris
Chase
Woodson
Chautauqua
Elk
NEBRASKA COUNTIES
Antelope
Arthur
Banner
Blaine
Boone
Boyd
Brown
Chase
Cherry
Clay
Deuel
Dixon
Dundy
Franklin
Frontier
Furnas
Garden
Garfield
Grant
Greeley
Harlan
Hayes
Hitchcock
Holt
Hooker
Howard
Jefferson
Johnson
Kearney
Keith
Keya Paha
Kimball
Logan
Loup
McPherson
Nemaha
Pawnee
Perkins
Polk
Rock
Sheridan
Sherman
Sioux
Thurston
Thomas
Valley
Webster
Wheeler
SOUTH DAKOTA
NORTH DAKOTA
MONTANA
Consider this: unless hard-copy ballots are counted in the polling place, the night of the election, in full view of the public, as is done in the above counties and many, many more throughout the U.S., there is no way to be sure the count is accurate.
Once the ballots are removed from the polling place, any kind and amount of manipulation can be done to them. This author urges you to talk with your neighbors about demanding the use of hand-counted paper ballots in your neighborhood voting precinct. Demand to observe your vote being counted before it is removed from the polling place! It is your right, and duty, to do so.
Counting hardcopy ballots in public view is the ONLY way an honest count can be assured!
~~~ Kim Salisbury, author of Voting2004 website, La Mirada, California
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News
Congress deciding on Hand Counted Paper Ballots!!!
Posted Oct 15, 2006
Breaking News from Bev Harris; current
Kerry/Edwards could still seize the Whitehouse, Dec. 2, 2004
Recount Efforts in the U.S., Kim Zetter at Wired News, thru Nov, 2004
E-Voting News at VerifiedVoting.org, thru Nov, 2004
Latest on the Ohio Re-Count, by Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Nov. 23, 2004
Berkeley CA statistical analysis of Florida data, Nov. 18, 2004
Recount in Ohio,
Nov. 15, 2004
California collects $2.6 million in Diebold suit for faulty voting machines, Nov 11, 2004
BBC says NBC exec calls exit polls "junk," Nov. 4, 2004
Kerry Won in Ohio, by Greg Palast, TomPaine.com, Nov. 4, 2004
Myriad errors in OH & PA Voting Process, Nov. 3, 2004
California investigates Diebold, Dec. 17, 2003
Will the Election be Stolen? Sept 29, 2003
Seattle Times discusses Bev Harris's findings, Sept 25, 2003
Definitions
assigned votes: the final numbers of votes, as declared by the authorities who count them; the counterpart to assigned votes is projected votes, which are the numbers of votes accumulated through exit polls
Australian ballots: another name for paper ballots in the U.S., system developed in Australia in mid-1800's
balanced: a voting precinct is balanced when the number of voters' signatures (on poll tapes) matches the number of ballots after that precinct's polls close; many, many precincts are not balanced at first, but are brought into balance later as the reasons for the discrepancies are found out
ballot: comes from the same word as "ball"; voting in ancient times was determined by secretly placing a tiny black or white ball into a container; today, ballots are of many types: optical scan, punch card, data punch, and paper; ballotless voting is done by electronic (touch-screen) machines and the older, lever machines that count like a car's odometer; by far the largest form of ballot in use in the US in 2004 is the optical scan ballot ("OS") ballot system
central tabulating software: ballot-counting software installed on a computer at the vote-counting headquarters, usually at county level;it is possible that this vote-tabulating function can be accessed by any computer in the world, and that to do so is not at all complicated, however, an investigation is necessary to learn the extent to which this is possible
central tabulating office: ballot-counting is done here, usually at the Registrar of Voters of any given county (US); a county will be divided into regions called "precincts," which have a voting place centrally located; votes made at the precinct polling place are counted either at the precinct, then sent to the central tabulating office, or sent directly to the central tabulating office where all votes/ballots are counted ("tabulated")
chad: the pieces of paper left in the holes that are supposed to get punched completely out in votomatic and other punch-card voting machines; recent discussion has delineated several specific types of chads, such as "hanging chad," "pregnant chad," and the like, giving much cause for election-time mirth
Ciber Labs: the Huntsville, Alabama branch of an ITA that was supposed to, but didn't, test Diebold GEMS central tabulator software for penetration, according to Bev Harris
computer voting system: a blurry, general category that, in the public eye, includes paperless touchscreen systems, as well as any system where voting results are tabulated by computer at a centralized location, which of course includes almost the entire U.S. voting process; much clarification needs to be done between computer knowledgeable people and their less-informed counterparts across the nation, to inform ourselves more clearly on what is being sent by what segments of the Internet; the primary necessity is to create a U.S. system where a recount can occur as accurately, precisely, and efficiently as it does in European and other democracies; only when a recount is feasible can the voting process be depended upon to be fair
data punch: "voters punch holes in the cards (with a supplied punch device) opposite their candidate or ballot issue choice. After voting, the voter may place the ballot in a ballot box, or the ballot may be fed into a computer vote-tabulating device at the precinct."
Diebold: second largest vendor of voting machines for the 2004 Election; owner, Mr. O'Dell, said publicly that he will help to get Ohio's votes to go for Bush; the company has given nearly $200,000 to the Republican party
DRE: a ballotless system known as "Direct Recording Electronic" voting system, also called "Touch Screen"
electronic voting system: Ballotless voting system, also known as Direct Recording Electronic (DRE); used statewide or nearly so in Georgia (Diebold), Kentucky, Tennessee, Nevada, New Mexico, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey; used extensively in several other states (see map, above)
ES&S: Election Systems and Software, one of the biggest manufacturers of computerized voting systems; 56% of US votes in November 2, 2004's General Election were cast on ES&S machines; formerly named American Information Systems, Inc.
exit poll: a survey taken after voters have voted and exited the polling place, by asking voters who they voted for; this gives a very close approximation of how the real vote is going; historically, exit polls in the U.S. have been very accurate, differing from final tabulations, at the most, by 1/10th of 1 percent.
FEC: Federal Election Commission; in 1984 they produced Voting System Standards: A Report on the Feasibility of Developing Voluntary Standards for Voting Equipment
GEMS: Global Election Management System, the Windows-based software at the heart of the Diebold voting machines
IEEE: "The IEEE and its predecessors, the AIEE (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) and the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers), date to 1884."
ITA: Independent Testing Authority, the categorical name for companies hired by NASED to test the computer-driven voting systems now in use in the U.S.
lever machines: Ballotless voting system operated by pulling a lever to add one's vote to a tally; a series of levers and resulting tallies operate like odometers, moving up 1/10th of a rotation with each vote; now used in New York, Virginia and Louisiana primarily; these machines are no longer made
Mark-sense or Marksense: Voting system where dark marks are made on a paper ballot, then scanned by various types of machinery; also known as "Optical Scan" or OS, as opposed to the earlier (pre-1960's) electronic sensing systems that read the conductivity of pencil marks; optical systems read the shade (lightness/darkness) of the mark, not its electrical properties
NASED: National Association of State Election Directors, with the Secretariat of this group being in Texas; they are supposed to certify that your election voting system is "safe" and free from tamperability (Note: their new website has only one contact person, whose city and state are not given; see Bev Harris's website , p. 5, for a list of NASED officials; the Secretariat is/was R. Doug Lewis in Houston, TX electioncent@pdq.net)
optical scan:, a voting system where ballots are marked by the voter, then put through a scanning machine that reads the marks; the most widely-used type of US voting system; also known as "Marksense" (see above)
OS: Optical Scan (see above)
paper ballots: forms printed on paper or cardstock listing candidates names, and election choices, and including places to mark one's choice; known as Australian ballots, because the system was perfected there first; are filled out in privacy and put into a sealed ballot box; counted by hand; undoubtedly the best, some say the only, system for insuring accurate counting of ballots
paper trail: = ballots! If voters cast paper ballots, these can always be recounted, thus keeping the election honest. When voters use computerized voting machines, there's no proof that what the voter chose is what got counted (even if the voter gets a paper record, that will not help, since it would be impossible to collect all these papers from voters and recount them)
PBHC: Paper Ballot Hand Counted, the voting system in the U.S. where voters mark ballots that have the information printed right on the ballot itself, and then these ballots are counted by hand, that it, people tally them personally --- also called the Australian Ballot system, as it was first perfected in that country (in 1856!).
polling place: or "polls," the place where people go to vote; the voting place; in the US, these are often in schools and other official, easily-accessible locations;not to be confused with the other meaning, i.e., surveys taken, asking a series of people the same questions
polls: (1) surveys taken by asking people certain choices, for the purpose of finding out the generally-held views of a group of people; (2) the place where people go to vote; the voting place; in the US, these are often in schools and other official, easily-accessible locations
poll tapes: the record that contains the original voters' signatures; these are compared to the actual number of ballots cast in that precinct; if the number of signatures matches the number of ballots, the precinct is said to be "balanced" (q.v.)
precinct: the local voting region; there are several precincts in each county; people living in one precinct will all vote at that precinct's polling place; votes can be counted in the precincts, with those totals being given to the county office; or the voted ballots can be delivered to the central county location where all votes are counted together; the county election officials then report to the Secretary of State of their state
projected totals: the numbers of votes accumulated through exit polls, which figures are used to create media projections of how the final count will turn out (see Exit Polls)
public commons: the rightful gathering places of the public; the entire vote-counting process is supposed to take place here, in full view of members of the public, and never be hidden from public view, as it is today with computerized counting machines of all kinds, which system is causing increasing secrecy of the vote-counting process away from public accessibility
RAS: Remote Access Server, a type of phone-number-accessed server, run on Windows, which is very easy for computer folks to enter; the centralized vote counting programs used in the November 2 Presidential Election were linked through RAS systems, meaning that anyone, anywhere in the world, could get in, change vote counts, and leave without much of a trace, according to Bev Harris
Secretary of State: An office at both the Federal and State levels; at State level, this is an elected position, but quizzically, this official's responsibility is to oversee all major elections
server: a computer that "serves" to link many computers together, forming the "Internet"; a server is any normal small computer, like yours or mine, that has "server software" operating on it; the huge net of servers forms the Internet; you can "see" the Internet connecting you to a distant website --- go to Start, Run, type in cmd, hit OK, then in the black window, type tracert, then a space, then the domain name of the website you want to see the path to (e.g., www.craigslist.org); hit "Enter"
tabulation: the county-level activity of counting all the votes in the county; this counting is done, in most cases in the US, by a normal-looking computer that has special tabulation software installed; each county has one, or sometimes two, such computers functioning on Election Day and for some time thereafter; each computer can process up to 2,000,000 votes at a time; often, today's voting machines are connected via the Internet, directly to the tabulation computer
TS: Touch Screen, a ballotless voting system where the voter touches the computer screen to select his/her choice; a type of DRE system
Voting Systems Panel (VSP): group at State level (California, 2003) to inquire into the nature of current voting systems
Votomatic: punch card voting system that has nothing except numbers printed on the ballot cards; one punches the card at the numbers that correspond to the choices on a separate display
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