Blue Ribbon agrees with Senate committee about VVPATs

[Neal McBurnett <neal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Four good pieces of news!  We got a bill on VVPATs and manual audits
(though watered down) thru the Senate Local Government committee on
Tuesday - public comment was about 16-2 (with Adams County Clerk Carol
Snyder opposing the manual count tally plan and pointing out a number
of errors in some new language).

And AP is reporting that Donetta Davidson's Blue Ribbon Election Panel
is on the same page, as you see below.

And LWV is beginning to be supportive in some other states.

And a similar bill just passed in New Mexico, with a governor willing
to sign it.  (See separate message).


We still need to improve the manual count language, in a way that the
clerks can accept, since the committee was clearly sympathetic to her
concerns, partly based on a very tight Colorado calendar between the
August primaries and the November general election.

Cheers,

Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
Signed and/or sealed mail encouraged.  GPG/PGP Keyid: 2C9EBA60

----- Forwarded message from Pamela Smith <pam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> -----

Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 20:40:36 -0800
From: Pamela Smith <pam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Colorado Legislative Update. GOOD NEWS

Make that TWO victories scored:  The following news release
crossed our desk today. It's pretty exciting!
....

(ps - LWV-NY recently came out in favor of precinct-based
optical scan as the best voting system choice for NY;
LWV-CT has been supportive of a Senate bill that is in
progress there for VVPB... 

---------------------------------
Factiva (R) Dow Jones & Reuters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blue ribbon panel to propose all voting machines have paper trail
APRS000020050323e13n008ws By STEVEN K. PAULSON Associated Press Writer
525 Words
23 March 2005
22:21 GMT
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2005. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

DENVER (AP) - A blue-ribbon panel will propose that all new electronic
voting machines be required to have a paper trail to avoid disputes and
uncertainty about the results, a member of the group said Wednesday.

The panel, appointed by the state's top elections official after
problems surfaced in the run-up to the November 2004 vote, will also
propose making it illegal for a voter registration drive worker to
throw away registration forms, said Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park.

The panel will present its recommendations to lawmakers Thursday.

Secretary of State Donetta Davidson named the 14-member panel,
including Republicans and Democrats, after newly registered voters
were missing from the rolls, absentee ballots were sent late to voters
and disputes arose over electronic voting machines without paper
records.

Both parties launched aggressive registration drives last year,
signing up tens of thousands of new voters. Some were turned away at
the polls because their names did not appear on state records. As many
as 55,000 names showed up at least twice on registration lists across
the state.

The proposed law would make it a misdemeanor for someone to register
another voter and not submit the paperwork. People signing up would
get a receipt that would entitle them to vote even if their names do
not show up on the voter rolls.

Under the current rules, voters who say they have registered but whose
names aren't on the rolls are given a provisional ballot that is not
be counted until after their status is verified.

The proposal also would require future electronic voting equipment to
provide paper records of how votes were cast by 2006. Municipalities
that bought machines that don't provide paper trails would have to
upgrade by
2010.

Christine Watson of the League of Women Voters said paper records
could cause problems unless lawmakers find a way to protect the
secrecy of the ballot and work out a plan for what officials must do
if paper results don't match electronic results.

She said no voter fraud was documented in the last Colorado election
and questioned the need for many of the reforms.

"This bill may not do it," she said.

White said tougher rules are needed because election outcomes have
become closer. Republican State Rep. Ramey Johnson lost her bid for
re-election by only 41 votes last November; Democrat Mike Feeley lost
the 7th Congressional District to Republican Bob Beauprez by only 121
votes two years ago.

"I think following every election we will continue to tighten our
election procedures," said White, who will sponsor the reform bill in
the House.

Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, who will sponsor the bill in the Senate,
said the measure would also allow voters to use identification cards
issued by colleges and Indian tribes to register.

The proposals are similar to a bill by Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver. That
measure (Senate Bill 198) was approved by the Senate Local Government
Committee and is headed to the full Senate for debate.

....

Pamela Smith
Nationwide Coordinator
VerifiedVoting.org and The Verified Voting Foundation
pam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

----- End forwarded message -----