RE:An Exit Strategy for Electronic Voting? VOTE PROVISIONAL TO PROTEST PAPERLESS TOUCHSCREENS

["Pete Klammer" <pklammer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

now that I have finished serving as an election judge at the recent primary
election, I feel free to air a dangerous idea.
 
Massive provisional voting.  No, make that MASSIVE PROVISIONAL VOTING!!!
 
I realized how dangerous this idea was, when I tried to discuss it during
poll judge training.  When the officials saw where my questions were
heading, they cut me off, changed the subject, and refused to recognize me,
preventing the gathering from hearing it: May any voter, by voluntary
preference, choose a provisional ballot, if they would rather vote on paper
than touch-screen DRE?
 
If you truly object to paperless electronic voting, then don't do it!  You
have a choice.  And, by HAVA, this choice is universally available
nation-wide!  No, we're not talking about mail-in or absentee ballots.
 
VOTE PROVISIONAL to TELL OFFICIALS you DEMAND A PAPER BALLOT.
 
Believe me, they will notice!  Provisional ballots are a manpower nightmare;
they are far more costly to cope with than even absentee ballots to process,
since they can't be matched up with mail-out documentation.  Election
departments dread provisional ballots, and they will go to great lengths
(within HAVA rules) to avoid them.
 
Admittedly, provisional ballots face more bureaucratic hurdles than any
other method, and there is risk of disqualification, error, or even
mishandling.  I suppose election administrators could even deliberately lose
provisional ballots.  Onsey-twosey, that would be hard to counteract; but to
disenfranchise hundreds or thousands of organized and attentive electors in
the glare of publicity -- I think they would recognize the peril.

If restoring the paper ballot is not your priority, then this isn't for you.
If you think a DRE is the lesser of some evils, then this isn't for you.  If
you hope somebody will come up with something better than paperless
electronic voting sometime, but in the meantime you'll put up with it, then
this isn't for you.
 
Or if your partisan paranoia prevents you from any violation of convention
that might imperil your precious preference, then you're whipped, they got
you, you're going to give it up to some bits and circuits -- the vendors and
the county clerks know a wimp when they see his/her electronic vote.

But if you care enough to stand up to them, to risk it, to put this above
partisan issues, this is for you.

I DEMAND A PAPER BALLOT, AND I'LL VOTE PROVISIONAL TO GET IT!
 
I personally have voted only provisional ballots since (including) the 2006
general election.  My money is where my mouth is.  How about you?

Best hopes,
--
Pete Klammer, P.E. / ACM(1970), IEEE, ICCP(CCP), NSPE(PE), NACSE(NSNE)
3200 Routt Street / Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033-5452
(303)233-9485 / Fax:(303)274-6182 / Mailto:PKlammer@xxxxxxx
 "Idealism doesn't win every contest; but that's not what I choose it for."