RE: 10/7 FVAP letter- online vote transmission

Teachable moment: http://www.timescall.com/editorial/editorial.asp?ID=18726

Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:24:20 -0600
To: margitjo@xxxxxxxxx; m.eberle@xxxxxxxxxxxx; harvie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; richey80304@xxxxxxxxx; dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; angielayton@xxxxxxxx; ivan.meek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; debsueadams@xxxxxxxxxxx; clifwest@xxxxxxxxxxx; Tmmco1@xxxxxxx; jdlwcec@xxxxxxxxx; attendees@xxxxxxx; amaynard_1@xxxxxxxx; alkolwicz@xxxxxxxxx; ctlo@xxxxxxx; rjb3445@xxxxxxxxxxx; cvv-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; uscv-voting_activists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: ccorry@xxxxxxxx
Subject: 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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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
Personal home page: http://corry.ws
Curriculum vitae: http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/charleselmocorry/Default.aspx

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