letter regarding your July 23 elections article (fwd)

[Paul Walmsley <paul@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

For those of you who saw the Colorado Daily's July 23 elections article: I 
sent a letter to the editor clarifying what I'm asking for.  The 
Colorado Daily hasn't published the letter.  But some of the people on 
this list might be interested in the clarification.


- Paul

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 02:07:04 -0600 (MDT)
To: letters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: letter regarding your July 23 elections article


In the Colorado Daily's July 23 article, "Faux votes, real results,"  
Richard Valenty writes that I proposed a plan for manual ballot recounts
in the upcoming elections.  But what I propose is not just for recounts:
it's for every count.  Here's a brief summary:

Boulder County will count our paper ballots using brand-new, computerized
scanners.  These scanner systems could have undiscovered software bugs or
other computer problems which could affect the outcome of the election.  
To help guard against this scenario, I propose that the County also hand
count a small, but statistically-significant number of the "live" paper
ballots.  The human interpretation of each ballot would then be compared
to the computer interpretation of the same ballot.  Any differences would
be investigated and resolved.  This ensures that the optical scan systems
are counting the ballots the same way that humans would.

The machine problems might seem theoretical.  But other counties have
already experienced them.  In March, in Alameda County, California, an
vote-counting system similar to Boulder County's new system wrongly
awarded 9,000 Democratic votes to a Socialist candidate.  Fortunately, the
unusual pattern raised red flags with vigilant officials.  But if the
votes had gone to a more popular candidate, the problem might never have
been caught.  Boulder County's new systems could experience a similar
problem, and without adoption of a plan like the one above, we might never
find out about it.

As Richard Valenty reports, for the plan to work, our new election
computers must generate a printed report showing the computer's
interpretation of each ballot.  But Boulder County's new systems, made by
Hart InterCivic, do not currently support such a report.  I am hopeful
that the Boulder County Elections Division will encourage Hart to
demonstrate the quality of their systems by implementing this report in
time for the 2004 elections.

I'd also like to commend the Colorado Daily and Richard Valenty for their
coverage of Boulder County's election plans.  I am looking forward to more
in the future.


Paul Walmsley
Boulder, Colorado