Re: voter intent and NOTA

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jul 08, 2005 at 02:19:16PM -0600, Paul Tiger - LPBC - Outreach wrote:
> The vote is NOTA. If a voter screws up they can ask for a new ballot. Under
> state law they can try three times with new ballots, after that we figure
> that they are either Joe or Al or Neal. <{;^)
> 
> The scanners can see a vote for NOTA and register it accordingly by
> bypassing the race in the tally. However, this is a good point and legally I
> would bet that we would still have to determine voter intent. Thus jamming
> up the works.
> 
> One of the things that Dick Lyons pointed out during the ERC presentation
> was that state law requires that voter intent must be ascertained when paper
> ballots are used. This could be something to address at the legislature next
> session. Paper ballots are being discriminated against. We didn't have to do
> this with punch cards, and it was the law before HAVA for paper ballots.
> 

This is wierd. A big reason for politicians wanting to move to DRE is that
the processing of votes on a DRE can _ignore_ voter intent. Is this really
true? Probably, yes. 

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx