Nassau County getting new voting machines.

[annabanana]

We have to replace our old lever machines. We are being schmoosed by Sequoia, ESS Services, Liberty Election Systems and Opti Scan.
All the voter advocacy groups are endorsing the (more expensive) Opti-scan ones, because they have a paper ballot for recounts.
Here is my correspondance with the author of the LI Herald article (not yet online)

me:
Thank you for a very informative article. I have a couple of questions.
The New Jersey advocates for the DRE machines, were they supplied by the company representatives of Sequoia, or were they sought out by you? The people speaking in favor of the optical scan machines were from the League of Women Voters, the American Council of the Blind of New York and New Yorkers for Verified Voting, all voter advocacy groups, whose interest is primarily in securing an accurate vote for American constituents.
I firmly believe that in order to insure that the legitimate power transfer in this country from the People to the Government reflects the true wishes of the people, it is essential for there to be a voter verifiable paper ballot, which would be the ballot of record, should there ever be the need for a recount. Can ANY of the DRE machines being promoted by Sequoia, Liberty Systems or ESS supply this vital feature?
The DRE¹s "similarity" to the existing lever machines or their relative bargain rates are not good enough reasons to forgo the ability to do an accurate recount. I firmly believe that this is one place where Nassau County cannot afford to cut corners.
I hope you follow up on this article and keep us informed of any future public hearings on this matter.

his response:
Thank you for your e-mail and sorry I took so long to get back to you. The DRE advocates in NJ were brought to me by represenatives from Sequoia and they told me they are in the process of trying to design a machine that could allow for receipts but I'm not sure when that will be ready. Thank you for your interest and I will most likely be doing more articles on this subhect and would welcome any comments you have for the next article so I'll e-mail you when that happens.

my return:
Re Sequoia being “in the process of trying to design a machine that could allow for receipts”:

Please note that a “receipt” is not the same as a voter verified paper ballot. The receipt would not be the legal ballot in the case of a recount. This is a very important distinction.

I’m delighted that you are covering this vital decision and look forward to hearing from you.

(any comments?)

[AtomicKitten]

1. This isn't rocket science.

I wish they'd quit pretending like a paper trail is something to puzzle over. Christ, Diebold makes my ATM that gives me a paper receipt. Somebody needs to call BS on the process.

[hedda_foil]

2. Optiscan machines are NOT more expensive -- ever.

It's a specious argument that's utterly without merit. Only one machine is needed per polling place with Optiscan. DREs require one per voting booth -- which means 4-6 machines per polling place in most cases, whether they have the stupid toilet paper roll or not. maintenance costs for DRE machines are geometrically higher than for optiscans as well. Do you hve Bo Lipari's (NYVV) white papers? Do you know who the DRE advocates from NJ were and whether they were actually FROM NJ? Are you in touch with the NJ activists? If not, please PM me and I'll get you connected with them.

Joan Krawitz (aka hedda)
VoteTrustUSA.org

[annabanana]

3. the article quoted these two officials....

1)Patty DiCostanzo, superintendent of elections in Bergen County (phone interview) saying that they had used the Sequoia full-face DRE system for over 10 years and it has worked very well "The people here are very comfortable with it" said DiCostanzo, who added that the county has used 10 civil service staff workers to maintain the machines at an affordable price. "It's been very successful." she said.

and
2) Carl Block, the County Clerk in Ocean County, NJ, said his election district used optical scan for several years before switching to the full-face Sequoia DRE ballot five years ago, which, he said, has gone well, with minimal malfunctions and no lost votes. Block said they have checks and balances in place, including a backup battery that lasts 16 hours, if there is a power failure, as well as paper ballots on site, if the power is not able to be restored. ('The DRE system) is an advantage visually to the voter" said Block. "We've had a good experience with them."

(Both these NJ officials were supplied BY Sequoia.)