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Re: Write-In Ballots


4/22/2005

Just FYI, Paul Tiger is an on-again/off-again employee of the Boulder County Clerk, and was a member of the panel that recommended the Hart DRE system.

I'm sure I'll be discussing this matter with him in person next time I see him, but for the record I thought I should quickly make clear my understanding of Colorado law, my unflagging opposition to the system purchased, a clarification of the charge presented to the Election Review Committee by the County Commissioners, information on my testimony before the Colorado state legislature over the last two years and other lobbying efforts, and a link to information on voting and the Constitution of the United States of America.

I know, anyone who reads the CVV list or knows Mr. Tiger already knows that I shouldn't have to defend myself against more of his outrageous statements against me, but unfortunately for him, I've been doing a little research lately, so all this info (and much, much more!) is at my fingertips and being compiled for other reasons anyway.


1) Hand Counted Paper Ballots Fully Legal in Colorado:

I'm not sure what law books Paul is reading from, but Colorado law is very clear on the legality of hand counted paper ballots, and 9 counties in Colorado used hand counting in November of 2004. Any reader may refer to our state's election law, part three "Paper Ballots" sections 1-7-301 to 1-7-309 for specific details of how paper ballots may be hand counted in precincts. In fact, in testimony to the ERC, the representative of the Secretary of State's office clarified that precinct hand counted paper ballots have the unique advantage over other methods in that they may be counted throughout the duration of election day, something no other method is allowed to do. It seems unlikely that the Secretary of State's office would have bothered to explain this if it was not legal.


2) I have always Opposed the Hart System:

Boulder Daily Camera, January 13th, 2004, by Ryan Morgan
"Joe Pezzillo and other members of his group were thrilled when county officials announced late last year that they wouldn't buy a system that enters votes electronically. But Pezzillo said the county quickly decided on another system without consulting his group, without holding public hearings and without taking enough time. "We really think buying a new system is really rash at this point," Pezzillo said."

Colorado Daily, January 28th, 2004 by Richard Valenty
"Some members of the Boulder non-profit group CVV wonder if the county has done many man/woman-hours worth of research on voting systems without fully addressing security issues regarding the Hart system...CVV will be asking the county to lease a system in 2004 instead of purchasing, citing cost, system standards and security concerns..."Any system used in Boulder County needs to be fully reviewed by security professionals of our choosing, not the vendor's choosing," said Pezzillo."

Boulder Daily Camera, April 28th, 2004, by Todd Neff
[CVV] had other concerns with the machines, ranging from the proprietary nature of the vote-counting software to the legal status of the paper votes in the event of a recount. Joe Pezzillo of Boulder, also a Citizens for Verifiable Voting volunteer, said the county is exposing itself to unnecessary risk in choosing a system before NIST establishes voting standards.


3) "Charge to the Election Review Committee from the Board of Boulder County Commissioners and the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder" presented by Jim Burrus at the opening of ERC's first meeting
January 6th, 2005 (I have my copy from having been in attendance to present the famous Halicki "we did no research except meet with the vendor" memo on County letterhead)
"Do a review of the 2004 Boulder County General Election process in it's [sic] entirety, including early and absentee voting, from the precinct level up, including voter registration, the vote counting system and the administration of the system, staffing, training, supervision, data processing and ballot development, printing and processing. ... Recommend a specific action OR GROUP OF ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS involving Boulder County equipment and/or processes that could be improved to expedite future elections." (emphasis mine)

That the ERC has self-censored itself to a scope smaller than requested by the County is the reason for my complaint. If the desired outcome is known in advance or is based on political machinations and not factual evidence, what is the point of the whole process anyway, to "forgive and forget"? I'm fine with that as someone who loves Jesus, but I prefer to keep my religion and government separated.


4) Testimony before state legislature 2004, 2005, Lobbying of Legislators, Political Consensus:

I have testified before the state legislature no fewer than three times, at least twice last year (at least once before the Local Government House Committee in February 2004 and then this year before Senator Gordon's committee). I have also emceed two election reform rallies held on the steps of the State Capitol, and presented the Swiss Ballots at a third.
I have visited with members of the Secretary of State's Blue Ribbon Panel to demonstrate the Swiss Ballot System.
I have met with the Boulder County Clerk at least twice to specifically demonstrate the Swiss Ballot System, and I've been involved directly since the Summer of 2003, including correspondence dated 12/19/2003 requesting for CVV to participate in the selection of the new non-DRE voting system.
Furthermore, I have correspondence with my federal representatives going back to November 2003, and have maintained ongoing relationships with congressional staffers in Washington and legislative staff in Denver.
Citizens for Verifiable Voting is the only organization in the history of Boulder County to achieve consensus on their platform from all four of Boulder County's political parties, including the Libertarians.


5) US Constitution

Furthermore, I have sworn and signed an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America for the City of Boulder.

For a discussion of the Constitutional right to vote and how electronic voting systems may in fact be unconstitutional, I would refer you to the work of Lynn Landes:

http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachines- ConstitutionalIssues&FederalLaw.htm




There is nothing about recommending further use of the current system that is in any way constructive or helpful for the community of Boulder County, Colorado. It is in fact a waste of our time and resources to continue to discuss the system, except to demand a full refund.

As for credibility, the record courtesy of Google is very clear: the County Clerk and at least one member of her staff failed to meet basic standards of professional competence. Their ignorance or intentional oversight caused the County to purchase a system that was not designed for and is not suitable for election day use. They, not the citizens who have consistently tried to stop this train wreck, are the ones who damaged our elections process in Boulder County.

Luckily, as a member of the public who is not and has not been employed by the Clerk's office, I can say this without worry, as it seems obvious (and now documented) to everyone in the County, with a few exceptions of folks who seem to all have connections to the Clerk's office in one form or another (such as the personal or family employment conflicts that at least two members of the ERC have). It is no surprise that Paul Tiger would seek to attack my credibility, as he is unable in his role as proxy for the County Clerk to refute any of the factual matter that has been presented.

I'm sure Paul and I will have the opportunity to discuss this in person sometime soon. I hope the community will discuss this at length, as well. We must have open and honest discussion or we will end up with the "clean whitewash" report of the ERC as the official version of what happened and how to "fix" our elections with more machinery.

I'm honored that I do not represent him, and I urge everyone to represent themselves in this crucial matter!

Joe

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






On Apr 22, 2005, at 12:32 PM, Paul Tiger - LPBC - Outreach wrote:

So back to the question of how to deal with write-ins working with the
Hart system?
Joe - if you don't have an answer that applies to the system that we
have and are keeping, then any answer you give is simply an argument.
Can we please stick to constructive work, or is anarchy all you have in
mind?

paul

There have been a number of people with constructive ideas. They've been
smart enough to engage myself and other ERC members off this list. Smart
enough, I say, because they really want to have a workable system and have
their vote be counted; and get it done in less than three days - and not end
up being crucified by Joe and his minority of conspiracy theorists.

Bravo and thank you to those citizens that understand that the issues
central to elections are laws and needs for changing them. Kudos to those
that have made the effort of contacting and discussing these issues with
their legislators.
We need positivism and change for the better. Not the admonitions of those
that we elected.

Joe Pezzillo has not been elected to represent anyone. Yet he's been saying
that this is HIS JOB. At the very least I represent those in my party who
elected me. Same for Bo Shaffer.
Linda Salas is our elected County Clerk. While I didn't vote for her, I will
support her. Not blindly though. But she needs and deserves our support.
Linda has to work within the law. Joe doesn't even know what the laws are,
so he doesn't need to pay attention to them or keep his followers informed.

If the Swiss method were legal for use in Colorado elections, then it would
have my backing and that of my party. But it isn't legal.
The way to make it legal is to lobby the legislature and get them to support
it. Instead, Joe lobbies the people that cannot change the law. Boulder is a
statutory county. We must follow state laws. Joe wants the commissioners and
clerk to break the law. Should that happen, can anyone really believe that
our election would be certified by the Secretary of State?

Let's work on improving what we have. It is not that difficult. We can't
improve what we have if no one tries. But people are trying, just not Joe.

Let me remind all that in December of 2003 Joe Pezzillo pushed hard for a
paper ballot system and was pleased as punch when the BoCC and Clerk chose
the system that we now have. Voter Verifiable Paper Ballot Only!
Now that Joe has found an alternative in the Swiss system, he's singing a
different tune. How much would you like to bet that if BC managed to use the
Swiss system that Joe wouldn't run off in a different direction then?

Joe (et al) - read the mission statement of the ERC AGAIN:
"The mission of the Boulder County 2004 Election Review Committee is to
identify the causes for the delay in receiving the final count of votes in
the November 2, 2004 general presidential election and to determine what
actions need to be taken or measures implemented to avoid such delays in the
future."

- and see that it is not at liberty to ask the county's elected officials to
move to an unlawful system or one that will increase the amount of time to
perform ballot tallies.

We cannot use the Swiss method, and hand tallies of 173,000 ballots would
have and will take far longer than three days.

There are things that can be improved with the system that we have. Joe is
attempting to confuse voters with lies and deceit. He knows what the truth
is, but will not speak it. Or perhaps he doesn't know what the truth is,
since it is evident that he has not followed the work of the ERC.

I won't be at today's meeting for fear of becoming more ill or giving what I
have to others. I do not wish to infect the public with my illness.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could get Joe to do the same thing?

Paul Tiger, Outreach Director of the Libertarian Party of Boulder County
Outreach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
303-774-6383 voice and messages
720-323-0570 cell
www.LPBoulder.org
"The government that governs best, governs least."
Thomas Jefferson





-----Original Message-----
From: Delta [mailto:delta@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 1:33 AM
To: ralphs@xxxxxxxxx; Cvv-Discuss@Coloradovoter. Net
Subject: Re: Write-In Ballots

Oh, I pay attention.......
It's just that I haven't the time to haggle over details.
that's *your* job....;-)

for the record, I think hand counting a small portion of the vote as a vote
verification method is reasonable.
Hand counting all the votes in a general election is not.
We need to drag our voting system into the 21st century and out of the Dark
Ages.
Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.......MAKE electronic voting
work!
It ought to be able to do what we want it to do....have an easily counted,
accurate and verifiable vote.
Whether it's the Swiss method or some version of what we already have, let's
stop ranting about how bad things are and make what we have work.
Is that possible?

Bo