Re: Election Review Committee might as well shut down

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 08:37:17AM -0600, AlKolwicz wrote:
> The following has just been posted to our blog at
> www.ColoradoVoter.blogspot.com <http://www.coloradovoter.blogspot.com/> 
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> Al
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> Al Kolwicz
> CAMBER - Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results
> 2867 Tincup Circle
> Boulder, CO 80305
> 303-494-1540
> AlKolwicz@xxxxxxxxx
> www.users.qwest.net/~alkolwicz
> http://ColoradoVoter.blogspot.com
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> Election Review Committee might as well shut down
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> The Boulder County Clerk's self-appointed "Election Review Committee" might
> as well shut down. Any report from them will be a waste of time.
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> No matter what the committee reports, the Secretary of State and the Clerk's
> office have decided to keep the HART system and to pay the vendor. According
> to a Boulder Camera report, the state is paying about $850,000 of the $1.4
> million that the county agreed to pay for the system.
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> Apparently, reports of widespread failures in the Boulder County voting
> system will have no effect on the Clerk's decision to keep the HART system.
> That the system violates Colorado's constitutional guarantee of a secret
> ballot does not matter. That the system is not secure, accurate and
> verifiable does not matter. 
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> Doesn't it just make you scream when government officials use your money to
> pay for and cover up their mistakes? 
> 

I incline toward the belief that something useful can be done with the
Hart hardware. The hardware belongs to the County (I hope). This news
indicates that the hardware cost to the County is suddenly only 550
million rather than 1400 million.  This is good news, and indicates
that some under the table nudge-nudge, wink-wink has existed between
the County and the Secretary of State. Otherwise why would SoS pick up
60% of the cost of this mess? Also in this calculation, I place zero
economic value on the Hart software. It will have to be replaced. But
how it is replaced is a big question in politics, technology, and
personnel management.

I am collecting ideas about how to make electronic processing of paper
ballots work. I'd like to hear suggestions as to how we can use the
hardware that we own to effect well run elections. Or reasons why this
is an unrealistic idea.  I am interested in ideas/reasons that address
the realities of elections in America AND electrons in computers AND
crooks in the White House (e.g. RMN), etc.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx