Activism option: emailing elections heads with e-voting news.

[Stevepol]

One way to make local elections officials aware of the problems of e-voting and possibilities for other choices is to first call them. We just shifted to ES&S here in my county and I called the elections head and inquired about the reduction in polling places and the shift. I was complimentary of his shifting to a machine that has a voter-verified paper trail at least (the Ivotronic), even if it's only thermal paper and the summary is evidently hard to read and use.

But I also warned him about the ;problems ES&S is having around the country with miscounts and glitches and with meeting their contractual obligations and I proposed the following: I woudl be sending him information about ES&S issues, I told him. I would just send the links so he could go there and read them if he was interested. If he wanted me to stop sending I would.

So I started sending along the emails. I don't know if he's reading what I send or not, but having talked to him and sympathized with his problems (he's gotten a lot of heat for reducing the number of polling places by 1/3). This is something that others might want to try.

Here's my latest email as an example.

xxxxx (Name of elections head here)

One thing that seems to happen when the machines start to be used in a place is that a lot of voters opt for paper ballots. In many states, a voter can demand a paper ballot when he votes (I'm not sure if this is the case in XX (our state). You probably know this), and this is what is happening in AR and some other places. I don't know if this will happen in xxxxx (our county), however, since we've had the experience of Micro-Vote already so the voter is used to the machines. I personally plan to use an absentee ballot to vote and I'm happy you have made this easier now. Here's a link to an article about the AR primary that I believed happened yesterday.

Link: http://www.guardonline.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=34741&format=html

Some places are experiencing "headaches" with their ES&S machines, but this could be the result of just starting using the machines. Here's a link:

Link: http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=4937994&nav=0jsh

As usual with the machines, several places are having miscounts. Here's a place in OH (Luzerne County) where ES&S is used and where that seems to be the case. You have to sutscribe to the paper to get the whole article possibly tho.

Link: http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/14645342.htm

Here's an OH case (Trumbull County) where there are numerous problems reported, caused mostly apparently by the county not paying its bills, but there are numerous complaints about ES&S not fulfilling its contractual obligations as well. If you run into problems with ES&S you might want to consult with this county.

Link: http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/292377332576076.php

PA is experiencing many problems with vote counts as this article says. Here's the link:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_455012.html

Here are a couple articles you might be very interested in. King County in WA state has converted to completely mail-in voting. I don't know what direction you are thinking about heading with regard to voting in Sedgwick, but it's possible, if the machines continue to be used rather than paper ballots at various venues, Sedgwick could convert to such a system. This has nothing to do with ES&S but it still might be of interest to you. It sounds like King County went thru the same process we're going thru in Sedgwick of reducing the number of polling places except eventually they just eliminated the polling places entirely. One lesson: if you make it clear that mail-in ballots are entirely paper ballots and therefore have no stigma of machine counting, you might encourage those who are hesitant to vote on the machines to vote absentee, i.e., with the mail-in possibility. Here are two links to that story:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/271235_votebymail23.html

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/258280

Good luck. I know the elections officials around the country these days are in an unenviable position with all the pressures of the HAVA law and problems with the vendors (which states have reduced in number by certifying only 2 or 3 vendors and usually the companies with the worst track records). I hope some of these articles can help you in some way by providing names and places in case you need to get in touch with them or just use the ideas and experiences at these other places to guide your own decision-making.

XXXXX (my name)

[Boredtodeath]

1. If your election official is anything like ours......

You're emails go into an automatic delete filter.

They don't want to hear a word from us "crazy Bev Harris activists."