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By Ralph Shnelvar It's an old political cliché: Well-entrenched
politicians and their hangers-on are called "The Machine." It used to be a
figure of speech. No longer.
Several groups of citizens (CVV ? Citizens for Verifiable Voting,
CAMBER ? Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results, Paper Tigers,
etc.) made up of people from a broad range of political philosophies and
affiliations have banded together to try to save democracy from The
Machine.
Against vigorous protests and opposition, the Boulder County Machine
has decided to lease ? for a single November election plus the August
primary ? electronic voting machines called eSlates from Hart Intercivic
at a cost of $1.7 million. This is the same company that brought you the
2004 voting fiasco.
These are machines that we, as computer scientists and knowledgeable
citizens, know to be more easily corruptible than your average Tammany
Hall politician. The Hart system that Boulder County currently owns has a
higher error rate (as determined by the county clerk) than is allowable
under federal law.
With this lease, Boulder County may have set a new record for reckless
spending. In the November 2005 election, there were about 87,000 ballots
cast; there were about 17,000 ballots cast in the August 2002 primary (the
most recent primary not in a presidential election year and thus
comparable to 2006). The total of 104,000 works out to $16.35 for each
ballot cast, and that does not include any other costs associated with the
election. Conservatively, figure that it's going to cost the taxpayers
about $20 per ballot cast. Compare that to about $5 per ballot cast for a
typical (pre-Hart voting system) Boulder election and about $2 per ballot
cast if the county used hand-counted paper ballots.
What do most citizens get for their $20 per ballot cast? They get
computers that have almost no proper audit procedures. They get the
opportunity (but so far, not the requirement) to vote on a Direct Record
Electronic machine that allows election judges and anyone with access to
the machines' printout the ability to determine exactly how they voted. If
you use that machine, then you don't have a secret ballot, which is, of
course, strictly against Colorado Constitution Article VII, Section 8.
The Boulder County Machine convinced the Boulder County commissioners
that the commissioners had no choice but to buy or lease this equipment.
At a hearing on April 6, the Boulder County Clerk cherry picked the
sections of the voting law that "forces" Boulder County to use the only
machine that an incompetent Secretary of State has certified for the State
of Colorado.
At least 25 other counties in Colorado think that there are other legal
choices to address the 2006 requirement that the disabled be able to vote
unassisted. This CVV member supports unassisted ballot access for the
differently abled but not at the cost of subverting anyone's secret ballot
to The Machine. Simply put, the Hart eSlate machine is not ready for prime
time, and it doesn't actually meet the "unassisted" requirement for people
with several types of disabilities. No machine currently available does.
We at Citizens for Verifiable Voting (www.coloradovoter.net) are asking
you to join us to fight The Machine and the machine. We want honest and
open and fair elections for everyone. It's only your vote and everyone
else's that's at stake here. Is there anything more important?
Ralph Shnelvar is a Boulder resident and member of Citizens for
Verifiable Voting. Copyright 2006, DailyCamera. All Rights Reserved. |