Hi All,
There are eight initiatives suggested for the states.
1. Under the first one, "45-Day Ballot Transit Time" were a couple of sentences which interested me.
a. "Uniformed Services members, their families and overseas citizens are challenged exercising their right to vote."
My question: so now ALL military and their families, not just overseas ones, are a subject of attention by FVAP?
b. "...FVAP's scoring provides additional points to States that provide such post-Election Day ballot return deadlines."
My question: is "scoring" a PR technique to make FVAP seem like an authority which can reward States for good behavior?
2. The second one, "Email and Online Transmission of Voting Materials" seems to favor return of voted ballots electronically:
a. "Transmission of voting materials by email or online has improved the opportunity to vote for UOCAVA citizens by providing high-speed delivery of election materials to and from voters to local officials." (emphasis mine)
b. "It is also crucial that the States expand the use of email and online transmission for all elections materials, including registration forms, ballot requests and absentee ballots. Furthermore, voting materials transmitted by electronic means should not require subsequent submission by mail."
c. You even get points for returning voted ballots electronically: "While this scoring system does not give points for providing electronic absentee balloting systems, it does provide points for allowing, at the voter's discretion, the return of static copies of voted ballots by electronic means, such as a scanned copy of a voted ballot emailed back to an election official. Although necessarily forcing the voter to relinquish the right to a private ballot, many Uniformed Services and overseas voters would rather give up that right and have their ballots counted, then to not have their ballot counted at all. FVAP believes that option must be preserved for these voters."
My comment: aside from being interested in the data collected which shows voters happy to give up ballot secrecy for... what, exactly?...
no mention is made of the vulnerability of these electronic transmissions to tampering, except in relation to the secrecy of the ballot. (For a start on this topic, see
www.servesecurityreport.org.) This omission is reprehensible. Also, the allowance for the voter to use his or her discretion as to whether to choose an insecure voting method omits the point that an individual's choice has consequences for all other voters participating in the same election contest; as it could increase the risk of the integrity of the entire contest.
3. "Expanded Use of Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot"
I'm wondering whether allowing overseas voters to vote with the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) on all elections, not just federal, could result in many voters not voting in the non-federal election for lack of information on the candidates, thus opening the way for a well-organized effort by hackers to vote for them. A required choice of "I choose not to vote for any candidate." might help deter fraud.
4. "Participation with Uniform Law Commission Effort and Adoption of Recommendations"
My comment: another effort to keep track of.
Also, my CO state rep. seems to be on the Committee drafting this bill. The Committee is called the"Drafting Committee on a Military Services and Overseas Civilian Absentee Voters Act" and is listed under "overseas voters". Their latest draft seems to have been in October, 2009. See:
5. "Emergency Authority for State Chief Election Official"
This allows a state's governor or designated State official to change the voting method in an emergency. In past years, I seem to recall mention made of the possibility of online voting; it isn't mentioned here. This seems like it could be misused.
Skipping to
8: "Enfranchise Citizens Who Have Never Resided in the U.S."
Perhaps someone knows more about this group than I do, and could tell us why these citizens have a stake in our elections, and why the sudden interest in extending the franchise to them. If most wouldn't actually vote, this gives hackers a larger potential list of voters to vote for.
At the end is the usual list of states, and you can click on CO to see the letter to the Honorable Bernie Buescher this year.
Margit
Margit Johansson
Coloradans for Voting Integrity (CFVI)