Boulder County FAILS Citizen's Election System Test - Election Results NOT YET TRUSTWORTHY

["Joe Pezzillo" <jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx>]

July 31st, 2004

Citizens of Boulder County and Other Coloradans Concerned about  
Electronic Voting:

Please read this report on Boulder County's new elections system, a  
system we the taxpayers were forced to purchase for more than $1.5  
million dollars (higher than we were told it would cost) against the  
repeated protests of a large and active group of local citizens who  
have been studying this issue for more than a year:

http://coloradovoter.blogspot.com

According to this report -- using information and observations gathered  
by an appointed party representative and apparently able to be  
corroborated by two other citizen volunteers from at least one other  
political party -- the new system DOES NOT meet the Requirements for  
Trustworthy Elections clearly enumerated by the Citizens of Boulder  
County to the Board of Commissioners and Elections Division prior to  
its purchase.

Furthermore, it appears that the Boulder County Democratic Party failed  
to perform any independent testing of the system, instead using an  
Elections Office staff person to conduct their "official" testing. The  
report also states that the system was not able to count the Republican  
primary test ballots.

Based on initial reports such as this, it is extremely difficult for a  
growing number of citizens who have been active on this issue to  
understand how any election results produced by this system and this  
office with these procedures will be considered at all trustworthy  
because, quite simply: they cannot be verified.

Citizens that have been actively studying this issue have repeatedly  
requested that the Boulder County Clerk's Office Elections Division be  
more transparent and accountable in their service to their constituents  
-- in essence, to do their job -- by providing Trustworthy Elections.  
Now, despite the specific, detailed concerns voiced by these local  
citizens and the expenditure of more than a million and a half dollars  
of taxpayer money, Boulder County does not appear to be any closer to  
providing Trustworthy Elections to its citizens than it was when it  
used uncertified equipment from Diebold in the November 2003 mail  
ballot election, when, you may recall, the entire election had to be  
recounted because the Elections Office could not determine if it had  
counted the ballots correctly.

The local press have been notified, and we will continue to update them  
during the coming week prior to any use of this unverifiable system in  
the August 10th primaries.

Many of us have been warning all patriotic citizens and every political  
party for almost a year to take urgent action to ensure that every  
voter can cast their votes on Paper Ballots, and that the Paper Ballots  
can and will be counted accurately using manual (hand count) methods to  
verify any machine counts. Both the Casting of Each Ballot and the  
Counting of All Ballots must be considered integral to the accuracy of  
the outcomes, and both are areas of citizen concern. Recently, more  
than 13,000 signatures of Colorado Voters were delivered to the  
Colorado Secretary of State supporting this Paper Ballot position, yet  
her office has provided no response, and continues to advocate the use  
of unauditable, completely paperless voting machines in nearly half of  
Colorado precincts in the coming election, and many of our most  
populous counties. The Secretary of State has estimated the cost of a  
paper ballot at $0.40 (forty cents), some individual counties have  
spent (or gone into debt) several million dollars on their touchscreen  
voting systems.

In addition to the deficiencies explained in the report above, a  
separate citizen concern has been raised that the system purchased by  
Boulder County is missing features needed to support statistical sample  
hand counting, clearly a known requirement of the people, and the  
standard operating procedure in California. Nearly 150 Boulder County  
citizens have signed a petition demanding the use of hand counting to  
achieve accurate ballot counts, and volunteering their time to perform  
the needed labor.

Only a secretly cast paper ballot that is counted and verified in a  
publicly transparent manner will meet the Citizen's Requirements for  
Trustworthy Elections, and anything less threatens Our Democracy, this  
is not a careless exaggeration and is no longer considered the  
unfounded fear of a few. Based on the stream of new stories appearing  
in the national news media, the revealing work by citizen watchdogs and  
academics, the credible suggestion that a national vendor of these  
systems be charged criminally, and the wake up call of the 2000  
election, it is becoming more and more clear to patriotic citizens that  
Elections Officials, Politicians and the "profit motive" cannot be  
trusted to perform this work -- if only due to the complexity of the  
systems and the likelihood of malfunction. Massive amounts of citizen  
oversight are required to restore trust to our elections, and the work  
is needed now, November 2nd will be too late.

Boulder County has still not made a commitment to Trustworthy  
Elections, and is behaving in an unaccountable manner that reduces  
already strained public trust in their operations. Furthermore, it  
appears that, as anticipated, Boulder County wasted $1.5 million  
dollars to purchase a system that the citizens did not want, asked the  
county not to purchase, and now has proven that it does not meet the  
requirements that were specified by the citizens in advance.

Please do your part to bring Boulder County into compliance with the  
Citizen's Requirements for Trustworthy Elections.

Your immediate attention to this matter is required, please take public  
action now to reaffirm your support of Trustworthy Elections in Boulder  
County and Colorado so that we may give this issue -- the Integrity of  
Our Democracy -- the full exposure it deserves.

Thank you for your eternal vigilance.

Joe Pezzillo, Citizen Activist
Boulder, Colorado USA
jpezzillo@xxxxxxxxx


Resources:

Boulder County Citizens for Verifiable Voting:  
http://www.coloradovoter.net

Coloradans for Voting Integrity: http://www.cfvi.org

Hand Count Boulder County:  
http://www.petitiononline.com/hand/petition.html

Colorado Voter Blog: http://coloradovoter.blogspot.com

NY Times on EVoting:  
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/making-votes-count.html? 
pagewanted=all

"Computer Ate My Vote" media coverage:  
http://www.truemajority.org/docUploads/ComputerAteMyVoteMedia.htm



Specifically, Citizens made it clear to Boulder County that they  
demanded:

Paper Ballots, no electronic storage of votes under any circumstances

No Purchase, only short term use of a system or hand counting

Accuracy, not speed, as the most important factor

Statistical sample hand-counting to verify any machine counts

Preferably No Proprietary Systems used in elections, otherwise, full  
disclosure of all system sources

Boulder County lobbies to change Colorado laws to support voters and  
paper ballots

Set positive example for rest of State


And what Boulder County has gotten:

Electronic Storage and Interpretation of scanned paper ballot images

Purchase of a $1.5+ million dollar system with many extraneous  
components and added costs

Commissioners direct purchase of Extra Scanners to Increase Speed of  
Count

No Hand Counting under any circumstances

Proprietary, undisclosed, incapable system.

Boulder County Clerk sat Silently at State Capitol for crucial paper  
ballot legislation, instead supports anti-voter/pro-elections officials  
Bill instead

Poor example for state, repeated failure to implement Trustworthy  
Elections systems or procedures