Denver Post opinion: Opportunities for fraud numerous

[Doug Grinbergs <saule@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~75~1734196,00.html>
NO: Opportunities for fraud numerous 
Ralph Shnelvar and Alison 'Sunny' Maynard
Denver Post
November 02, 2003

We - the former Libertarian and Green candidates for governor and attorney general - may disagree earnestly on many issues, but on this we both agree: If votes are not counted fairly, then all political rights are threatened.

We are terrified because we know that the voting process is being corrupted.

Despite valid citizen distrust, 30 of Colorado's county clerks are once again forcing voters to vote only by mail ballot. Election officials won't count a ballot if it gets lost in the mail; it arrives too late; the signature is missing; your signature looks different from the way you signed it at some earlier time (assuming that signatures are examined at all); and the like. In some cases, election officials will create a new ballot to replace yours.

Fraud is easy. Mail and absentee ballots get stolen as they make their way from the county clerks to your hands and back again. As National Public Radio reported in a story called "Vote Fraud in Dallas" (www.npr.org), a Texas judge blamed mail-in voting for vote fraud.

Because your name is on the envelope and your party affiliation is public record, unscrupulous people can easily conclude how you probably voted - and intercept your ballot. With absentee ballots, it is legal for "any person of the voter's choice" to pick up voted ballots for delivery to the clerk.

In 2000, a Castle Rock citizens' group challenged the results of a 1999 town council recall election. Among other things, the group alleged that election officials abused the process by differentiating between absentee ballots provided to recall supporters and ballots provided for supporters of the council.

A judge later ruled that problems were "good-faith mistakes," not fraud. But, the situation highlighted the security and privacy problems with absentee and all mail ballots.

Even if your ballot makes it to the ballot box without incident, it might not matter. Tens of thousands of insecure ballots are going to be floating around for people to pick up and vote. Nobody really knows who voted these ballots, as there are no witnesses. An absentee voter is not even required to have the ballot sent to his registered address.

Someone can apply for an absentee ballot on your "behalf," have it sent to a post office box, vote on it and send it back, with you being entirely unaware.

Activities qualifying as criminal offenses at the polling place are, ironically, entirely legal with absentee and mail-in ballots. For example, it is a crime to even mention a candidate's name within 100 feet of a polling place. Also, you have only a few minutes to mark your ballot, and you do so in utter privacy. By law, no one but the voter can handle a voted paper ballot in the polling place prior to the vote being cast. With absentee and mail-in ballots, however, privacy and security are completely compromised. Groups can call members to "vote together." People can ask spouses, "How shall I vote?" and mark their ballots accordingly. And someone can come to your door while the ballot is in your possession and lobby for your vote. The opportunities for intimidation and vote-selling are obvious and troubling.

It is impossible to guard against these abuses. Consider, for instance, Jeep Campbell, a candidate running for Boulder City Council. In a normal election, he could recruit friends to spend a day being poll-watchers. The election would be over and done with in a day. With mail-in balloting, the candidate and his friends will have to spend three or four weeks watching the election process as well as every single mailbox in the city of Boulder. Friends can't afford to do that. Only the rich and/or politically connected can.

Since the election fiasco in Florida in 2000, there has been an enormous push to install electronic voting machines. Voters, though, should understand that whatever the shortcomings of paper ballots, they are a physical thing that can be held and looked at. There is no such guarantee with electronic voting.

In Robert Heinlein's science-fiction novel, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," the self-aware computer announces, "Eighty-six percent of our candidates were successful - approximately what I had expected." Obviously, the computer rigged the election.

One author of this piece has been a computer programmer for nearly 35 years, and knows that it takes superhuman perseverance and skill to read computer programs to see that they are correct. Government has difficulty being competent - much less superhuman.

The other author is a lawyer. Experience has shown her that it is extremely difficult to prove vote fraud even when it is obvious that it has occurred.

The system is set up to count as many ballots as possible and look the other way when it comes to preventing fraud and abuse. Our representatives are looking for political legitimacy, no matter the cost in freedom and honesty.

We all know about computer viruses. Many hackers develop these viruses for fun. Imagine the effort that will be expended to influence elections. Someday soon, some hacker could gloat to his friends, "Hey, I just got the Green Party candidate for attorney general and the Libertarian candidate for governor elected in Colorado!"

Terrifying.

Contact Ralph Shnelvar at ralph@xxxxxxxxxxxx,and Alison Maynard at alismynrd@xxxxxxxx