John Washburn's Creedal Statement on Election Transparency

[Wilms]

* I believe there cannot be effective oversight of an election (by an election official or by the public) if any election records are secret.

* I believe ballots are not secret, but anonymous.

* I believe the content of a removable memory card used by a voting machine during an election is an election record as that term is used in state and federal law.

* I believe that ALL of the content of a removable memory card is an election record.

* I believe the contents of a removable memory card contain an admixture of some or all of the following:


o programming,
o ballot "images" ("Ballot images" are neither pictures nor some graphical representation of the ballot scanned; the terminology is part of the Humpty Dumpty language of the election industry.),
o audit logs,
o event logs,
o vote totals at various levels of aggregation,
o "ballot definition files" ("Ballot Definition File" is another bit of the Humpty Dumpty language of the election industry. Often the "ballot definition file" is neither a single, separate file nor a complete definition of the ballot.),
o audio files,
o screen text,
o page/screen layout,
o whole, mountable file systems.


* I believe the above list is likely incomplete because the exact contents of a removable memory card are secret and vigorously protected as trade secrets.

* I believe election records should not be secret.

* I believe election records are records that should have an "absolute right of access". Under current law some election records in whole or in part are not even open records, much less records with an "absolute right of access".

* I believe the contents of a removable memory card used to aid in the administration of an election should be preserved and retained by jurisdictions for the same length of time as the jurisdiction is required to preserve and retain the poll registration lists used to administer the same election.

* I believe state law, WI Stats. 7.23(1)(g), requires the contents of a removable memory card used by a voting machine in the administration of an election be preserved and retained for 22 months

* I believe federal law, Title 42, Chapter 20, Subchapter II, § 1974, for federal elections, requires the same; preservation and retention for 22 months

* I believe state law, WI Stats. 7.24, requires the backups made of the contents of a removable memory card pursuant to WI Stats. 7.23(1)(g) remain in the custody and control of the election official for the entire retention period.

* I believe the contents of a removable memory card used in a voting machine is MORE important than the voter poll lists used in the same election. This is because the contents of the memory card actively and directly determine how the election is administered, where the poll books do not. If nothing else (and there is more), the contents of the removable memory card control how or if marks on the paper ballot or touches on the touch screen will be recognized and to whom votes will accrue based on those marks or touches. These are the election officials' duties under WI Stats. 7.50 even if those duties have been delegated to an inscrutable black box.

http://washburnsworld.blogspot.com/2010/01/gab-johnny-yoo-of-election.html

[Stevepol]

1. Great List! K&R!

[Ellipsis]

2. Greatest.

[Land Shark]

3. I believe, as John Adams did, the people have an indefeasible right to the most dreaded disclosures

John Adams:

"The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge - I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

Is it possible that how the votes are counted, and thus who holds power and how they got it, is highly relevant to the character and conduct of various rulers? (either the politicians or the election officials or their agents, since all are "rulers"?)

Also, from the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights,

"{the} community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish government..." (also by James Madison)

'Indefeasible' in the context of rights means inalienable, divinely given, undoubted and/or indubitable.

[yowzayowzayowza]

4. Wow, quite a blog entry!!! n/t

[Wilms]

5. That impressed me too!

And I thought that the Creed by itself would stand as a blog, so I kindof ignored the balance of his article and posted/focused on the impressive declaration.

:hi:

[Bill Bored]

6. If the blog author doesn't copyright the work, why not distribute it in its entirety?

I mean it's not like Washburn's claiming that he invented election integrity the way some others do!

[JohnWashburn]

7. Permission granted to distribute whole or in part

I welcome and encourage the promotion and copying of my blog posts. Not only continue, but do more please.

If it matters I am not not the John Washburn of "When evil Prospers" of Texas advertised above. I am the John Washburn known in Texas as that http://openrecords.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/that-dude-in-wisconsin/">"that dude in Wisconsin" for messin' with Governor Perry.

[Bill Bored]

8. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[Ellipsis]

9. Welcome to the board "Dude"!