Comment OPPOSED to Voting System Purchase

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

4/26/04

To: Boulder County Citizens & Board of Commissioners

Fellow Boulder County Citizens:

Our so-called representatives have ultimately failed us.

We have made it clear that we do not support any purchase of any voting 
system at this time, that we do not support the storage of votes 
electronically under any circumstances, that accuracy is more important 
than speed, and that undisclosed voting software is entirely unwelcome 
in our community.

And what do we get? An over-inflated purchase contract for a system for 
which our own elected representatives and paid staff cannot guarantee 
us that there will be any verification of results and that the "Paper 
Ballots" central to the voting process may not even legally be treated 
as such. Not to mention only a few days to review hundreds of pages of 
contract language (and then only thanks to a dedicated Citizen's 
efforts) to attempt to find additional fault with an already flawed 
process that is being forced upon us at great taxpayer expense at the 
same time we are told we face an ongoing budget crisis.

Based on even a brief reading of the contract, there are clearly new 
problems compounding the already broken process that produced it. For 
example, the term "eSlate" -- the vendor's brand for unverifiable 
computer terminal voting equipment -- appears repeatedly, making it 
suddenly unclear again what system is actually being "purchased" now 
and going forward, that among other unexplained costs there is $10,000 
apportioned for some type of electronic vote communications system that 
has heretofore not been mentioned. Most importantly though, absolutely 
no provision has been made in the contract to answer Boulder County 
Citizens' specific requirements for Trustworthy Elections for which 
both the Commissioners and the County Clerk's office have been 
repeatedly requested, and thus, no accountability for not meeting our 
requirements, either.

Furthermore, it is clear that the only "purchase" being made is largely 
of hardware destined to be obsolete well within the expected lifespan 
of a voting system, and that any and all of the vendor's software will 
only be "leased" to the County requiring renewed annual payments that 
are not detailed. It is also not clear why, for example, "Three 
Workstations per Scanner" are required, since no such operational or 
technical information to explain these extraneous and inconsistent 
components has been provided to the Citizens despite repeated requests.

The Citizens of Boulder County have made it abundantly clear in 
multiple presentations to the Commissioners and County Clerk that, 
among other concerns, "Accuracy is more important than Speed" in the 
tabulation of results, yet it appears that the Commissioners completely 
ignored this and in direct contradiction to the Citizen's requests, 
instructed the County Clerk's office to "purchase" additional equipment 
with the expressed intent of increasing the Speed, not the Accuracy, of 
counting. Furthermore, despite the Commissioners' voiced concerns about 
the state's unconscionable laws regarding recount methodology, they are 
continuing to support the purchase of a system for which the legal 
status of recounting is at best deliberately vague.

Instead, the Commissioners are essentially rubber-stamping a contract 
by and for an Elections Office that despite months of opportunity, has 
failed to demonstrated that it either cares for or is capable of 
conducting quality elections by: using an uncertified system during the 
last election (for which there has been no known accountability); 
failing to demonstrate proper procedures (leading to a complete recount 
of the same election); and repeatedly dismissing the detailed concerns 
and requirements of local citizens and national experts with much 
greater knowledge of technological systems than they admit to possess. 
Instead of any professional verification and documentation of such 
claims and correction of such issues, "our" Elections Office has 
continuously relied on the verbal assurances of multiple vendors for 
whom there is no doubt substantial profit motive in every transaction, 
and ignored the growing body of public evidence that suggests virtually 
all existing electronic voting equipment is unsuitable for use in 
elections.

While it is already clear that despite repeated warnings from the 
Citizens NOT to purchase any system at this time, the Commissioners and 
County Clerk's office will forge ahead in unison to waste our money, 
continue to work in disregard for their constituents' requirements, and 
remain wholly unrepresentative of the People's interests regarding this 
matter. Indeed Boulder County's Elections Manager is quoted in the 
Boulder Daily Camera as being more concerned about the interests of the 
private investors of the vendor than the requirements of the people he 
was hired to serve.

Please let this comment stand as public record that although large 
numbers of local citizens continue to attempt to provide highly 
valuable assistance in this process to achieve Trustworthy Elections, 
the County has deliberately and collectively ignored them and thus 
failed in their commission as representatives of the public's 
interests, and that these repeated failures on this matter both 
directly and indirectly undermine the central premise of Democracy that 
Citizens hold dear and to which we are entitled, namely trust in the 
system and its processes.

Be it by ignorance or intent makes no difference, may Our Democracy 
survive such blatant and repeated disregard for the most fundamental 
act of legitimizing governance.

Disappointed Boulder County, Colorado Citizen,

Joe Pezzillo
PO Box J
Boulder, Colorado USA
jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx