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Re: Fwd: 10/7 FVAP letter- online vote transmission

Title: Re: Fwd: 10/7 FVAP letter- online vote transmission
     Here at the Equal Justice Foundation we deal with reality and what troops tell us. While REMF and others in cushy positions in places like Germany might have email and online capabilities, that is hardly true of all forward-deployed troops, i.e., those doing the grunt work and manning the forward operating bases or other remote outposts.
     For example, I received the following today from an Army clinical psychologist:
     "I will be departing for Ft. Hunter Liggett, CA on 11 October, followed by Ft. Hood, TX in early November for the final phases of our mobilization training. It will be wheels up to____________in early December (overseas). There will be more to report on that as information becomes available and once we arrive in country.
       PLEASE BE AWARE THAT I WILL NOT HAVE ANY INTERNET ACCESS FOR A VERY EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME AND WILL BE COMPLETELY UNABLE TO RESPOND TO ANY E-MAILS. ALL CORRESPONDENCE WILL THEREFORE REMAIN UNANSWERED, WITH REGRETS.
      Thank you and regards to one and all,
Kathy"
      One expects Marine and Army infantry have even fewer communication options other than snail mail, and that is often delayed by weeks. Yes, many infantry units now have intermittent access to email and the Internet but many don't and won't. Why is that access suddenly more dependable and secure than the US Post Office?
      My personal preference, as a former Marine grunt, is to be sure all troops have an equal opportunity to vote, not just those in some air-conditioned headquarters. To date the US Postal Service has done an outstanding job of making sure ballots were delivered to and returned from our troops in the most expeditious and extensive fashion possible from wherever fortune took them.
     I do agree that faxing ballots is a poor option and opposed the legislation in Colorado. Fax machines are even more uncommon up front than laptops.
      Why this sudden need to disrupt a proven system with untested, often unavailable, and certainly insecure means of voting? The only reason I can think of is that FVAP stands to make a bunch of money from this as one more bunch of greedy war profiteers.
      I'm a fan of what works, not some pie in the sky nonsense from twits who have never had to operate at the edge of nowhere.
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
Candidate for El Paso County, Colorado, County Clerk and Recorder


At 1:46 AM -0600 10/15/09, Margit Johansson wrote:
This is not good.
Margit
 
Margit Johansson
Coloradans for Voting Integrity (CFVI)
303-442-1668/ margitjo@xxxxxxxxx
 
Details of The Federal Voting Assistance Program Recommendations*
FVAP <http://www.fvap.gov/> recommendations are in this letter <http://www.ncvoter.net/downloads/FVAP_2010_Initiatives_North_Carolina.pdf> dated Oct 7. See excerpts below, and note that a long term goal is to transmit voted ballots /electronically/ :

  *Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) letter to North Carolina
  State Board of Elections, dated October 7, 2009*

  Given our new focus, FVAP is realigning in Legislative Initiative
  recommendations to the States. The enclosed initiatives focus on
  sending ballots to voters at least 45 days before the election. FVAP
  also recommends the expanded use of email and online retransmission
  for all election materials throughout the entire absentee voting
  process, replacing fax and postal mail where possible. *Until secure
  electronic transmission of voted ballots has been established, we
  recommend that States allow voters to return static copies of voted
  ballots through available electronic means.* However, the decision
  to send a voted ballot by unsecure electronic means must rest with
  the individual voter based on the voter's desire to cast his or her
  vote electronically or to ensure the secrecy of their ballot.
  Email and online capabilities are widely available to Uniformed
  Service members and overseas citizens, vastly eclipsing the
  usefulness of faxing. After a September 2008 visit to military bases
  in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, a delegation of six State Chief
  Election Officials reported that "the system of delivering ballots
  and returning them by mail is archaic compared to the pace of modern
  military operations" and "...reliance on fax machines to speed the
  voting process....is largely unworkable for deployed troops." The
  delegation also reported that individual service members and
  overseas citizens confirmed that in overseas locales fax
  capabilities were not readily available and "indicated a strong
  preference for, and almost universal access to, email or internet
  based voting procedures."

  read more at this link

  http://ncvoters.blogspot.com/2009/10/fvap-recommends-4-changes-to-nc-law-to.html

  The FVAP full  letter at this link (pdf)
  http://www.ncvoter.net/downloads/FVAP_2010_Initiatives_North_Carolina.pdf

  Joyce McCloy
  www.ncvoter.net
  336-794-1240


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President
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