Check out the article below.
Elections staff needs to be held accountable
for the irresponsible public positions they take on voting technology.
Staff has no data to support their
conclusion that voting centers are secure, accurate or verifiable – or perhaps
they don’t care.
Staff keeps pushing Mail Ballot Elections
despite the fact that 60 percent of
Al
Al Kolwicz
CAMBER – Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election
Results
303-494-1540
www.users.qwest.net/~alkolwicz
www.coloradovoter.blogspot.com
CAMBER is a dedicated group of
volunteers who are working to ensure that every voter gets to vote once, every
vote is counted once, and that every ballot is secure and anonymous.
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Vote system might shift in'07
County polling places could consolidate
By John Aguilar, Camera Staff Writer A
top election official said Tuesday that he thinks 2007 could be a test year
for shifting from the precinct election system Under
the new system, the nearly 200 precinct polling places that exist in Liss
said the vote center system, which already has been implemented in 24 "And
if we go to a vote center model, there wouldn't be a need for more
(electronic voting machines)," he said. The
county used electronic voting machines for the first time during the August
primary, as mandated by the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002.
The machines were a substantial expense for the county. While
Liss said the county also is considering a mail-in ballot election for next
year, as was conducted in 2005, he said a quieter, off-year election would be
an excellent opportunity to iron out the kinks of a vote center system before
the onslaught of the 2008 presidential election. He
said the final decision for next year's election would be made by the new
clerk and recorder. Liss
spoke about the elections division's plans following a 2007 budget request
hearing before the county commissioners Tuesday afternoon. He was there as
part of the budget request for the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's
office, which oversees the elections division. He
asked the commissioners for a $1.3 million budget next year — an
increase of $430,000 over the 2005 election. "Next
year should be a fairly easy one compared to this year," he said. The
county's 2006 election budget exploded from around $1.5 million to more than
$3.3 million after the elections division leased 219 electronic voting
machines from Hart InterCivic in the spring. Liss said the final tally for
the year could approach $3.6 million, once supplemental requests for funding
are factored in. On
Tuesday, the elections division made some new line-item requests for 2007,
including $95,000 for an online system that would provide voting results in
real time on election night and throughout the year, $66,000 for an online
training program for election judges, and nearly $18,000 for TV monitors at
the Clerk and Recorder's Office on which the vote tabulation process could be
viewed by the public. The
2007 budget request also asks for $1,000 to provide certification training
for the county's incoming clerk and recorder and her chief deputy. Hillary
Hall, a Democrat, is running unopposed for the position in the general
election. She beat Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Linda Salas in the
August primary. Salas
made one of her last appearances before the commissioners Tuesday in her
capacity as clerk and recorder for the county. She asked the board to approve
a $4.2 million budget for her department in 2007, down from $6.2 million this
year. Copyright
2006, DailyCamera. All Rights Reserved. |
