a regional chapter of New Yorkers for Verified Voting
 
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Operating Cost Comparison (here)
for Different Types of Voting Systems
Electronic Voting Machines Compared to
Las Vegas Slot Machines
Why is a paper ballot better than a paper trail?
A study demonstrated that only 31% of voters actually compared the entire audit trail to the screen upon which they voted.
What voting system does my state use?
A comprehensive listing found here.
Listen to Mark Crispin Miller on WAMC discuss Voting Machines. Taped April 27, 2006
A Brief Illustrated History of Voting
Douglas W. Jones of THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Department of Computer Science has authored a wonderful page that runs from "Before Ballots" to "Direct Recording Voting Machines". Some interesting pictures of hanging chads.
 
 
 

Pollworkers for Democracy

Last chance to get up-close-and-persnal with lever-style voting machines. An election integrity project of the MMOB, Working Assets, VoteTrustUSA and affiliated groups, you can sign up with the project according to your county. You'll receive information about training conference calls where you'll be briefed on the goals of the project, and how to report any irregularities you see at the polls on election day. More info here.

 


The Train Wreck is here!
HAVA Funds:
The funds for replacement of punchcard and lever systems were appropriated under Title I of HAVA -- these were the first funds released. Fifteen of Florida's largest counties replaced punchcard systems with Title I money in time for the 2002 election. More funds were made available under Title II of HAVA for upgrading equipment and for disabled-accessible voting machines for each precinct. All the Section 100 stuff is Title I. All the Section 200 stuff is Title II.

It is Section 301 of HAVA that defines voting systems. It is the key section for understanding what is and isn't required for upgrading equipment and for disabled-accessible equipment. Section 301 is only 2.5 pages long but it has been at the center of most of the controversy and misunderstanding. It is the section that contains the language about "manual audit capacity" and also contains the mysterious January 1, 2007 date that no one at the DOJ or EAC has been able to satisfactorily explain. It also has a paragraph that is quite protective of paper.

Important reliability study of the reliability of voting systems shows that those voting systems studied and presently being sold across the country are one-third as reliable, at best, as an incandescent light bulb.
AVERAGE NUMBER OF HOURS BETWEEN FAILURES FOR:
* Hard drive: 1 million hours (114 years)
* Traffic light: 100,000 hours (11.4 years)
* TV monitor: 45,000 hours (5 years)
* DVD player: 40,000 hours (4.5 years)
* Standard PC: 30,000 hours (3.4 years)
* Touch-screen display: 30,000 hours (3.4 years)
* Light bulb: 1,000 hours (1.4 months)
PERMISSIBLE FAILURE RATE FOR ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES:
* Once every 163 hours (6.8 days)
The EAC: Another Failure To Follow Their Mandates
Knowing that the Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) was formed, in part, to be a clearinghouse of information for elections officials and voters, I contacted them to find out what they knew about bad memory cards and what action they were going to take to ensure all ES&S customers were notified of the problem.
What is happening to Voter Turnout?
Statistics don't lie. See below the highest and lowest percentage of registered voters in New York State who voted in last 70 years:

Lowest

2002 - 41.7 %
1998 - 44.1 %
1990 - 52.3 %
Highest

1936 - 91.5 %
1932 - 90.0 %
1938 - 86.7 %
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Winning Facts


A few days before the November 2004 election, Jimmy Carter was asked what would happen if, instead of flying to Zambia or Venezuela or East Timor, his widely respected international election monitoring team was invited to turn its attention to the United States. His answer was stunningly blunt. Not only would the voting system be regarded as a failure, he said, but the shortcomings were so egregious the Carter Center would never agree to monitor an election there in the first place. "We wouldn't think of it," the former president told a radio interviewer. "The American political system wouldn't measure up to any sort of international standards, for several reasons." from Steal This Vote by Andrew Gumbel

League of Women Voters, New York supports Scanned Paper Ballot Voting

Chellie Pingree's appearance on
The Daily Show is archived here