RE: New Jersey lawsuit against computerized voting terminals

["Pete Klammer" <pklammer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hmmm... and Bush is in the news yesterday suddenly campaigning in New
Jersey.  Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

--
Pete Klammer, P.E. / ACM(1970), IEEE(SA,P1583), ICCP(CCP), NSPE(PE)
   3200 Routt Street / Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033-5452
 (303)233-9485 / Fax:(303)274-6182 / Mailto:PKlammer@xxxxxxx
   "Either Be Good, or Else Be Careful, but Do Have Fun! "
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Walmsley [mailto:paul@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 10:22 AM
> To: cvv-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: New Jersey lawsuit against computerized voting terminals
> 
> 
> this ought to be interesting.
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/nyregion/19voting.html
> 
> 
> - Paul
> 
> October 19, 2004
> New Jersey Lawsuit Challenges Electronic Voting
> By TOM ZELLER Jr.
> 
> With just two weeks remaining before the Nov. 2 presidential 
> election, a 
> coalition of private citizens and local elected officials in 
> New Jersey 
> plan to file a lawsuit today to block the state's use of 
> electronic voting 
> machines.
> 
> At its heart, the complaint - a draft of which was provided 
> to The New 
> York Times - will ask the State Superior Court in Trenton to 
> block the use 
> of nearly 8,000 electronic voting machines, because they 
> "cannot be relied 
> upon to protect the fundamental right to vote."
> 
> More than three million registered voters in 15 of New Jersey's 21 
> counties are scheduled to use the electronic voting machines, 
> which have 
> been dogged nationwide by concerns over their reliability and 
> fairness. 
> Five New Jersey counties use the old mechanical lever 
> machines, like the 
> ones in use in New York and Connecticut. One New Jersey county uses 
> optically scanned ballots. Most counties also have optical 
> scan machines 
> in place for handling absentee ballots, and the draft lawsuit 
> suggests the 
> expanded use of these in lieu of the electronic machines.
> 
> "The right to vote is simply too important to not try to get 
> some sort of 
> court intervention to protect it," said Penny M. Venetis, a 
> law professor 
> with the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers 
> University and the 
> lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the suit.
> 
> Her complaint holds that the electronic voting machines used 
> in New Jersey 
> provide no means for verifying that they are recording votes 
> properly, and 
> that they are too easy for rogue programmers to manipulate.
> 
> "There's just too much at stake," Ms. Venetis said.
> 
> Fifteen electoral votes are up for grabs in New Jersey, which 
> traditionally leans toward the Democratic candidate. But 
> according to a 
> recent poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, 
> Senator John Kerry and President Bush remain in a virtual tie in the 
> state.
> 
> The state's attorney general, Peter C. Harvey, a Democrat, 
> whose office 
> oversees elections in the state, said yesterday that it would 
> simply be 
> imprudent to make the kinds of wholesale changes suggested by 
> critics of 
> electronic voting.
> 
> "Our experience in New Jersey has not revealed any problem with the 
> electronic voting machines," Mr. Harvey said, adding that the 
> state, as 
> part of a more deliberative process, will be holding a forum 
> this month to 
> consider all of the available voting options. He also said 
> that even if 
> the state wanted to, it would be impossible - and unwise - to 
> introduce 
> new rules and new technologies with just two weeks remaining 
> before the 
> election.
> 
> "You're just asking for trouble," he said.
> 
> About half of the 15 New Jersey counties using electronic 
> technology this 
> year upgraded to the systems after the 2000 presidential 
> election. Few 
> irregularities have surfaced in New Jersey counties that have used 
> electronic voting in past elections, but the lawsuit cites numerous 
> problems in other states using similar machines.
> 
> Efforts to halt the use of electronic machines in other 
> states have thus 
> far failed, giving rise to requests for special monitoring of 
> elections in 
> precincts where the machines are used. Last month, for instance, the 
> Maryland Court of Appeals rejected a suit brought by a voter group, 
> TrueVoteMD, which sought to force the state to further 
> improve security on 
> its machines and offer voters a paper-ballot alternative. The 
> group is now 
> locked in a legal battle with the state to gain poll-watching 
> credentials.
> 
> And a federal court in Florida is scheduled to begin hearings 
> this week in 
> a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of electronic 
> voting. The 
> suit, brought by Representative Robert Wexler, Democrat of 
> Florida, seeks 
> to require a paper record for touch-screen machines in case a manual 
> recount is needed.
> 
> The lawsuit planned in New Jersey claims that the state's use of the 
> electronic machines comes despite repeated efforts to require 
> that they be 
> retrofitted to produce a voter-verifiable paper ballot, which 
> could be 
> used to verify the vote in the event of a recount.
> 
> A group of voting-rights advocates and computer professionals 
> collected 
> 20,000 signatures over the summer for a petition seeking paper 
> verification for electronic voting machines. The signatures 
> were presented 
> to representatives of Gov. James E. McGreevey on July 13, 
> according to the 
> complaint. And a letter, which requested a paper ballot 
> alternative for 
> all voters seeking one, was signed by several public interest 
> organizations and submitted to state election officials in 
> late August.
> 
> Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat from Trenton and one of the 
> plaintiffs named in the suit, says there are too many reports 
> that the 
> machines are unreliable and can be tampered with.
> 
> "Our slot machines in New Jersey are more secure," Mr. Gusciora said.
> 
> But the Election Technology Council, a group of leading 
> election systems 
> vendors, including Sequoia Voting Systems and Election Systems and 
> Software, which manufacture New Jersey's equipment, have said the 
> complaints about their machines are in keeping with "popular 
> misconceptions about electronic voting."
> 
> "These are groups that would like us to return to the days of 
> the 2000 
> election and having election officials holding ballots up to 
> the light to 
> determine voter intent," said Bob Cohen, a spokesman for the council. 
> "It's amazing to us that a technology that wrings out so much 
> ambiguity 
> from the voting infrastructure is the target of so much criticism."
> 
> But according to Professor Venetis, the new technology does 
> not eliminate 
> ambiguities so much as make it impossible, given the lack of a paper 
> ballot and the proprietary software that runs the machines, 
> to know when 
> irregularities have occurred.
> 
> "It's rather ironic that these machines, which were supposed 
> to answer the 
> problems caused by antiquated voting systems," she said, "are simply 
> making the problems invisible."
> 
> 
>