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Greetings to the BoCC, Fellow ERC members have been
weighing in on the latest RFP from the elections division. I suspect that most
people are responding via the web form on the clerk’s site. Having had enough
experience with the technical failures of the county’s web mechanisms and lack
of candor from the clerk’s office, I choose to respond to the request for
comment directly to you via email. I have little doubt that you will receive
this. There’s no doubt that I am a
tech weenie, and have been critical of the defense of the present system in use
by the clerk for elections. I am critical not only of the defense of the
systems, but the systems themselves. The ERC was not of my making or under my
control, and it as a whole was also critical of both of these things. I believe that the pattern of ill-conceived
ideas may well continue, as it is evident that the clerk was not impressed by
the work of the ERC to sufficiently address our concerns and that of the
interested and knowledgeable persons involved. While I am a proponent of vote
centers, I am not a proponent of DRE or electronic systems that obscure rational
methods. In order to have trust in the outcome of any election we must have a
clear understanding of what is taking place within the process, procedures, and
electronic systems. Before any such methods can be used in the real world they
must be engineered for success. This entails design and testing. When designs
fail to achieve an expected outcome during testing, then we circle back to the
drawing board and re-commence the work. This is part and parcel of a
total quality system. Once the factors to create
success are known to the designers and end-users of any system have been
established, the consumers of said systems can create a list of specifications
necessary. I see little in the way of such a list in this RFP. It appears that once again we
will rely upon vendors to tell Boulder County how to run an election. It will
be up to them to tell us what is possible; how much time it will take; and how
they can indemnify themselves when their systems fail to achieve the rather
blurry goals. The ERC suggested bringing in
an outside consultant to help in formulating a true quality model. The clerk chose
to simply replace the elections manager with someone better versed in elections
law and practice than the previous manager. While he may fit the bill in
respect to his skills, he is not a designer of technical systems, nor is he
qualified to create a quality model. In point of fact, there is no one in the clerk’s
office that has such proven skills. It is a mistake to run off to
the vendors of elections systems and ask them to design our system. Their goals
are to increase their bottom line while maintaining supremacy of market share
through secrecy and proprietary methods. Our goals are transparent, efficient,
and reliable elections. My hope is that our county
funds will not be spent on irresponsible nonsense from those that have no
investiture in the democratic republic of which Boulder County is (still) a part
of. Paul Tiger, Publicity Director of the Libertarian Party of Boulder
County "The government that governs best, governs least."
Thomas Jefferson |