First 40 hrs: 77 pledge 500 hrs to HAND COUNT the 2004 election in Boulder! (fwd)

[Evan Daniel Ravitz <evan@xxxxxxxx>]

Folks,

Here is the press release I just sent to the local media. It
couldn't hurt if you called them to press them to cover this story:
the Commissioners have all but committed themselves to sign away our
future (and $1.5 million) on Hart's dotted line tomorrow at 10:30AM.

Who would like to be with me tomorrow to deliver the volunteer list
to the County people?

Evan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:35:55 -0600 (MDT)
From: Evan Daniel Ravitz <evan@xxxxxxxx>
To: Richard Valenty <valenty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
     Boulder Daily Camera <evansc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, sam@xxxxxxxx, joel@xxxxxxxx,
     editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
     Rocky Mountain News <letters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, mtn-ear@xxxxxxxxx,
     Denver Post <openforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
     Longmont Times-Call <opinion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: First 40 hrs: 77 pledge 500 hrs to HAND COUNT the 2004 election in
    Boulder!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE             CONTACT: Evan Ravitz 303 440 6838

In the first 40 hours of an online drive, over 77 volunteers pledged
their very hands for a total of over 500 person-hours to hand count
the 2004 election here. Organizers hope to convince the Boulder
County Commissioners Tuesday not to spend $1.5 million to buy an
electronic voting system from Hart InterCivic.

The petition can be read and signed at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/hand/petition.html
The names, comments and hours pledged can be seen at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?hand&1
(If people left the "hours volunteered" column blank, their pledge
was calculated at 4 hours, the minimum mentioned in the pledge
text.)

Renowned Professor Emeritus Al Bartlett pledged, as did Sheila
Horton, Boulder County Apartment Association executive director.
William W. Atkinson, Jr. pledged 40 hours, and many pledged as many
hours as necessary.

The idea originated last Thursday. After a public hearing on the
purchase was closed, the commissioners and election officials
discussed their objections to hand counting, which was favored by
the majority of citizens. (All spoke against the purchase.) It was
roughly calculated that it would take "hundreds" more election
judges to hand count Boulder County's ballots. The Commissioners and
officials opined variously that this was "too difficult",
"impractical", and "impossible".

Afterward, Mary Eberle, a member of Citizens for Verifiable Voting
(www.ColoradoVoter.net) mentioned to member Evan Ravitz that in
Boulder it should be easy to find volunteers. Saturday evening,
Ravitz filed the pledge/petition with PetitionOnline.com. By Monday
morning the list was growing every few minutes.

Canada, Britain and Germany are among the many countries which still
hand count every vote. A recent M.I.T./CalTech study showed hand
counting to be one of the most accurate methods.

Ravitz listed the main reasons not to buy an electronic voting
system now:

1. NIST has yet to develop and release standards for electronic
voting. The contract says Hart is responsible for complying with the
future standards, but this would probably drive the company out of
business, leaving Boulder County with a $1.5 million paperweight.
2. All certified voting software available in the U.S. is
proprietary. This means Hart will be doing the public's most
important business in secret.
3. All certified voting software is based on Microsoft Windows, an
unstable operating system which, unstable, and vulnerable to
viruses, and is itself proprietary.
4. All over the country, electronic voting systems, certified
properly or not, have resulted in manifold errors, discarded votes,
closed precincts, etc.
4. Colorado law prevents a hand recount if the original count was
electronic.

Colorado and Nebraska may be the only states which mandate that any
election recount be done by the same method as the original count.
This renders largely irrelevant the "paper ballot" which activists
are fighting for across the county. Only the computer system can
count them, as Commissioner Paul Danish found out in 1994 when he
lost to Todd Saliman by 4 votes for the statehouse. Every recount
merely used the same system over and over. This violates the
principle of accounting which says to cross-check totals in at least
2 ways. Florida, famous for election problems, is now trying to copy
Colorado's recount law.


Evan Ravitz
1130 11th St. #3
Boulder CO 80302
(303)440-6838