Re: [election_leaders] Re: how about a trial timing of how long it takes people to vote before the election?

["Kathy Dopp" <kathy.dopp@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Dr. Charles E. Corry <ccorry@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> At 11:39 AM -0600 8/25/08, Mary Eberle wrote:
>
> Hi Margit and Everyone,
>
> Would early voting be a better approach than seeking more investment in
> machines, especially DREs?
>
> However, I did just hear of a situation in Indiana's spring primary in which
> the voters who appeared to vote when the polls opened in one precinct were
> given paper ballots to mark but could not cast them because the scanner did
> not work. The second scanner was delivered, and the poll workers could not
> get it to work either. Finally the voters left without casting their
> ballots.

Hi Charles, Mary,

That problem could be resolved by simply having backup locked ballot
boxes ready at the polls just in case, so voters could deposit their
ballots in them and the ballots could be centrally counted later, but
federal law would require warning the voters to check for overvotes in
that case.

I'm not a big fan of prolonged early voting due to the extra security
risks and costs it entails.

>
> For line-phobic people, early voting on paper ballots at the clerk's office
> or satellite office, where people presumably know how to operate the
> machinery, seems the best bet to me.

Yes. Perhaps.  Better yet, however, would be to supply pre-printed
paper ballots at the polling locations on election day and enough
tables or extra booths.  People are far better off voting with paper
ballots and a pen then a DRE anyway, and its quicker.

Cheers,

Kathy

>
> Mary
> (303) 442-2164
>
> Margit Johansson wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>      I've just been reading something about the interaction of voters with
> machines in 2004 in one state.  With a long ballot, some people with limited
> English skills, and machines cancelling people's votes when they took too
> long, some people took an hour on a machine.
>      Part of the solution to lines is to have enough machines.  Another
> would be to have people prepared for how they were going to vote ahead of
> time.  Could we get the clerks to do tests before the election, using people
> who were and were not prepared, people whose English was poor, etc?
> Margit
>  Margit Johansson
> 303-442-1668/ margitjo@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:margitjo@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
>        Please note that the time to buy new machines for the November
> election is long past, although many states are having fire sales on DREs.
>         If you are in a Colorado county, e.g. Jefferson, that uses DREs for
> precinct voting I would note that there is an easy rule-of-thumb for
> calculating how many machines will be required per precinct to minimize the
> lines.
>       Most people will take roughly 10 minutes to vote, although with the
> anticipated longer ballot in November many will take somewhat longer. Thus,
> for a 12 hour Election Day (7 AM to 7 PM, 720 minutes) each DRE can handle a
> maximum of 70 votes (720 minutes divided by 10 minutes per voter plus 20
> minutes to change tapes).
>        In Presidential Elections turnout averages around 60% of registered
> voters. So a precinct with 1,000 registered voters needs to be prepared for
> 600 people to show up at the polling place. 600 voters divided by 70 votes
> per machine requires a minimum of nine (9) machines for that precinct.
>        Murphy should also be expected to take part in the election and of
> nine machines one failure should be anticipated. So, to make it easy, for
> every 1,000 registered voters in a precinct using DREs exclusively there
> should be 10 machines, or one(1) DRE for every 100 registered voters in the
> precinct.
>       You might want to check on how many DREs your county clerk has
> allocated for each precinct by number of registered voters as I'll bet it is
> probably less than half the estimate of DREs needed presented here. Lets
> see, Jefferson County has roughly 350,000 registered voters, which suggests
> they need around 3,500 DREs. Anybody willing to check on how many the county
> clerk actually has?
>       Traditionally only a small percentage of voters use the DREs at early
> voting polling places. That probably will not be enough to ease the lines at
> polling places on Election Day.
>        By now it should be obvious why county clerks have so desperately
> been pushing mail ballots. Otherwise citizens are likely to be heating up
> the tar, gathering chicken feathers, and tearing down fence rails on
> Election Day. Come to think of it, that might not be a bad idea anyway given
> that several states, e.g., California, Ohio, New Mexico, et alia, have done
> away with DREs prior to this election. But thanks to SoS Mike Coffman and
> John Gardner, Colorado still uses them.
>        For those of you who follow BradBlog note that Diebold/Premier
> (whoever they are today) optical scanners aren't performing any better than
> DREs.
>                      Chuck Corry
> P.S. Watch for Coffman to tout his "election experience" if he wins the 6th
> Congressional District seat.
>
> --
>
> Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
> President, Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org/
> 455 Bear Creek Road
> Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906-5820
> Telephone: (719) 520-1089