SB08-240 fails

I am happy to say that SB08-240 was defeated in the House State...Affairs Committee by one vote. I'm sure it was partly thanks to people who wrote in to committee members; I only know of three (Al, Mary and Tom Morris) but understand there were more ---who?. Also thanks to Ivan, who has been lobbying. I am very relieved we didn't need to lobby the whole House.

I had been trying to get people on the EVN (Election Verification Network) list I am on as CFVI rep to tell me what I could say about online voter registration; I got little, just advise to make sure people consulted really good security experts before doing anything. Needless to say, this didn't result in any Senate Committee Dems or any other supporters abandoning such a sexy idea as online registration for young people.

But during the long wait for 3rd reading in the Senate, after which it went to the House Committee, someone came through, mentioning the California 1999 task force report done on internet voting, which also covered internet registration (See www.ss.ca.gov/executive/ivote.) . So that Report was my expert testimony. The Task Force was chaired by David Jefferson. Along with Avi Rubin, Barbara Simons and David Wagner, Jefferson was later an author of the report killing the SERVE project --- which the DOD was going to launch for internet voting of citizens abroad --- or was it just overseas military? (There is a never-ending campaign by the military to promote overseas internet voting, though they are well aware that computer security experts say it cannot be made secure with our present Internet and our present PCs. And don't forget the Democrats had overseas voters returning voted ballots by email in for their primaries, quite apart from state schedules; voters were on their honor not to vote twice!) So our computer security experts have their hands full at the moment.)

But to return to the CO legislature, which is very busy in its last days of the season. The House Committee only heard Faith Gross briefly testify for SB240 on behalf of the handicapped before committee members had to go back to the House floor. The Committee reconvened after 8PM to hear the rest of SB240. (I had to drive back to Boulder to take care of my dog while the House was in session!) That late hour of reconvening cut down the number of speakers for the bill, which may have helped our cause. Earlier in the day, Harvie told me he was actually for the bill. I guess he wasn't moved by my quoting the Report, because after I spoke, he jumped up and said a few words favoring the bill! I first encountered a voting activist in favor of using the internet in elections a couple of years ago when trying to fight the bill allowing internet return of voted ballots for overseas military; at that time Neal McB said he was for that. I am interested in learning more about the rationale for such opinions. Should we could make that an agenda item at our next CFVI meeting?