Essex county--Voting issues Project Action alert

[FogerRox]

Members of Essex DFA have spoken with representatives of the
Essex County Freeholders and also with Carmen Casciano, Essex County's
Superintendent of Elections, regarding the impending purchase of new
voting equipment for use in the county.

We've learned that the purchase of the voting equipment, the Sequoia

Advantage (that has no paper printer) will occur on or before July 1,

This is unacceptable. This equipment is 3 times more expensive than

the next cheapest system (Optical scanners) that qualifies for funds

under HAVA. In times of Federal and County deficits the fiscally prudent

choice is the Optical scan system which is set up for the handicapped.





The process that will take place, as we understand it, is that while
the Freeholders have the final vote on which machines to purchase,
their decision will be based on a recommendation by Superintendent
Casciano, who has recommended the Sequoia Advantage, a touchscreen

voting machine or DRE (direct recording electronic).

tCasciano stated that he selected it because it is the
most widely used machine in the state and because of the manner in
which it allows for candidates names to be listed. He recognizes that
it does not allow for a voter-verified paper trail, much less an
actual paper ballot (the exception is that *emergency paper ballots*
are shipped inside the machine, to be used only in the event of
equipment failure).



The Free holders must be informed of the mistake made by Carmine Casciano.

Board of Freeholders

Johnny Jones President [e-mail]

973-621-4483



Patricia Sebold Vice President [e-mail]

973-621-4484



D. Bilal Beasley District 2 [e-mail]

Newark, S, (parts) W, Mplwd, Irvington 973-621-6457



To see the Advantage:

http://www.sequoiavote.com/productguide.php?product=AVC%20Advantage&type=Introduction



To see the AVC Edge:

http://www.sequoiavote.com/productguide.php?product=AVC%20Edge&type=Introduction



Apparently the difference between the AVC Edge and the Advantage Is

that the Advantage is Wheelchair accessible.



Sequoia DRE problems:

http://www.votersunite.org/info/Sequoiainthenews.pdf



Cost analysis studies:

http://truevotect.org/resources/Cost-analysis-model.pdf



http://www.votersunite.org/info/costcomparison.asp



http://nyvv.org/doc/AcquisitionCostDREvOptScanNYS.pdf



14-page handout detailing some of the problems with touch screen machines. It is here: http://www.votersunite.org/info/ElectronicVotingInBrief.pdf





http://www.votersunite.org/MB2.pdf

Between pages 58 to 60 on the MB2 PDF.

DRE's cost $3000.00 to $3500.00 ---w/o printer
ONE DRE can process up to 10 ballots/hr

OPscans cost $5000.00
ONE opscan can process up to 360 ballots/hr

So you would have to spend about 100 grand on DRE's

to process 360 ballots/hr. If you don’t keep the batteries charged

between elections the batteries die--and need to be replaced.

Have you ever bought a new battery for a laptop?

They start about $100 & go to $200. When you use DRE's you still

have to print paper absentee ballots and spare ballots because

DRE's freeze up (Mswindows?)or stop working, so election

officials still to print a significant number of paper ballots.



The Sierra Club members who vote for environmentally minded political

candidates want to make sure that every vote is counted. That's why the

Sierra Club supports paper ballot based optical scan voting systems –

they're the most transparent, reliable, practical way to ensure that every

vote counts." Said Sarah Kogel-Smucker, Legislative Associate from the

Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.



For detailed information on Paper Ballot/Optical Scan voting systems

please visit: www.nyvv.org & www.wheresthepaper.org

The League of Women Voters of New York State, the statewide

Sierra Club, New Yorkers for Verified Voting, and many other

organizations have endorsed a paper ballot/optical scan system.

It is much less vulnerable to software error and fraud than

touch-screen voting machines and is much less expensive.



The Freeholder meetings are (tentatively) to take place:



Wednesday, June 1, 2005 C

FAIRFIELD TOWN HALL 7:00 P.M.
Thursday, June 9, 2005 B

MAPLEWOOD TOWN HALL 7:00 P.M.



Voting Issues Project is calling for immediate action.

All grassroots groups must be mobilized, I ask that an emergency

meeting of the principles of GRASP, BLUEWAVE and DFA occur at

the soonest possible date.



Roger Fox

[e-mail]


862-224-6418

[FogerRox]

1. meetings are in Newark

hall of records
MLK BLVD
May 25th and June 9th

[Mazie Gordon]

2. More information on voting machine purchase

This has been duped from a local yahoo community message board:



Please note the following message. It appears that the County will
purchase electronic voting machines WITHOUT a paper record.




We've learned that the purchase of Sequoia equipment, a Direct Record
Entry (DRE) machine backed up to
computer disk, with no paper record produced, is likely to happen on or
before July 1, unless action is
taken immediately.

The process that will take place, as we understand it, is that while the
Freeholders have the final vote on
which machines to purchase, their decision will be based on a
recommendation by Superintendent Casciano, who
has recommended the Sequoia Advantage.

Superintendent Casciano stated that he selected it because it is the
most widely used machine in the state
and because of the manner in which it allows for candidates names to be
listed. He recognizes that it does
not allow for a voter-verified paper trail, much less an actual paper
ballot (the exception is that
*emergency paper ballots* are shipped inside the machine, to be used
only in the event of equipment failure).

ACTIONS:

1. The Sequoia will be demonstrated tomorrow (Saturday, May 21) at an
"open house" at Turtle Back Zoo in West
Orange. Please attend if you can to learn more about this equipment by
direct observation.

2. The Essex County Freeholders will meet on Wednesday evening, May 25,
to have a so-called "first reading"
on the selection of voting machines. The meeting is open to the public,
and will be held at 7pm at the Hall
of Records, 465 Martin Luther King Blvd., Room 558, in Newark.

3. The Freeholders will vote on the purchase of the machines at a
meeting to be held June 9 in Fairfield.
For more information about this equipment, please visit http://www.
verifiedvoting.org/article.php?list=type&type=35 and
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5018. A
Sequoia representative will attend the June 9 meeting with a
demonstration machine.

4. According to Superintendent Casciano, the purchase needs to be made
before July 1, in order to be eligible
to receive state funds. (Other sources state that HAVA guidelines simply
require that acceptable machines be
in use by January 2006, so it actually may not be necesary to respect
this possibly artificial deadline.)

[FogerRox]

3. more betterer info

Talked to Pat Sebold--3:30pm may 25. You can pass this info on.

Pat Sebold told me about the process for tonights meeting at ,
465 Martin LutherKing Blvd, Hall of Records, room 558, at 7 pm.

--We can bring printed material for the Freeholders, there 9 of them so bring 9 copies.

--Speaking to the ordinance will be allowed at the beginning, 3 minutes per person.

--Voting on the ordinance will then occur.

--Speakers will be allowed after the vote at the end of the meeting.

--The ordinance is basically to authorize bonds-- 7.5 million worth--to buy voting Equipment.

--We may be required to address the ordinance when speaking, and only the ordinance. So be prepared.

---Pat said there is a meeting in Fairfield on June 1st. And again in Newark on June 9th.

Roger Fox
GRASP Voting Issues Project
[e-mail]

[NJCher]

4. did you go?

I just saw this, otherwise, I'd have been there. What's the next step?

I'll write an op-ed piece for the Star Ledger. Is anyone else planning action along this line?


Cher

[FogerRox]

5. may 25th meeting

Next Freeholder Meeting June 1st Fairfield Town Hall

The ATTn GEn of NJ has s=certified just 3 machines for use in NJ--
---Avante DRE
---Sequoia Edge DRE
---Sequoia Advantage DRE

It seems to me that the Essex Freeholders are between a rock and a hard place.

The Attn. Gen. has stacked the process to preclude any kind of REAL choice.

I think we should make it clear to Freeholders we understand this and support them. Irregardless of what voting Equipment they buy.

WE should garner support from the Freeholders ( as well as other Public Offivials) as we look to the NJ Attn. Gen. to examine the options.

What Pressure can be applied on the NJ ATTN GEn to Accelerate the certification of a HAVA Compliant Opscan system.

The Advantage will cost the COunty $8,000 oer machine. OUCH !!

If the Freeholders are made to understand that:

-- many of us will not support any non open source code DRE---and why-- (I made significant progress on this and many other points while talking to Pat Sebold on the phone proir to the meeting)

--many of us wont support DRE's in general

--Non binding Town Resolutions against DRE's may be passed

--County petition to get a referendum on the ballot in NOv. to ban DRE's, may happen

--and if a NJ VVPT law passes--what to do? if you dont have VVPT compliant equipment.

-- Will that put the Freeholders in the Position where they need to spend another 28 million dollars--say 1 or 2 years down the line to buy more voting equipment---and the wont get HAVA money--for that Purchase. I spoke briefly to Pat Sebold VP of the Freeholders. I think to a degree she understands that they may be forced to buy new Equipment- AGAIN----maybe prior to the NOv. '06 election. For another 30 million.

I talked to essex County SOE Carmine Casciano at some length last night--in the hall way ---he says that there is some politics going on in Mercer---DUH ! I think its obvious at this point that someone is trying to go hard at these folks---CFPA---you have been (Mercer) singled out for some special treament.

I have traded emails with Jeff, one of the Lawyers who filed a suit against Sequoia in the state of WAshington. Sequoia has asked for removal to Federal Court. If/when this happens the opportunity for a number of groups to jump on Sequoia and make it a class action needs to considered. I have talked to one of my Voting Issues project members, who is a lawyer--retired from the NJ Attn. Gen office, he concurrs---class action may be the way to go.

FROm the Essex dfa yahoo group--
tulations to everyone who attended tonight's Freeholder meeting
in Newark for showing what democracy looks like:

Frances Martin, for pulling together the whole effort, David Zimmerman
for excellent testimony on electronic machines, Peter Christian for
his commentary on quality control, Ron Rice Jr. who spoke eloquently
on our shared concerns for reliability and verification, Roger Fox opf
GRASP for his discussion of alternative systems, Green Party leader
Ted Glick for his references to AccuPoll equipment, Trina Paulus of
Cornucopia Network for presenting the "simpson ballot" proposition,
NJIT's Jay Kaproff for technical elucidation, Blue Waves' Paul Kiczek,
Linda Halper and Arnold Peckerman for theis remarks regarding optical
scan equipment, reliability standards, and the importance of citizen
confidence in the voting process.

The result of what Freeholders termed the largest showing of citizen
activism in their memory is that Superintendent Casciora will be
holding small meetings with Freeholders to answer their questions and
newly raised concerns about the impending equipment purchase, and a
request will be made to Attorney General Peter Harvey's office to send
a representative to the next Freeholder meeting on June 1 to explain
the certification process for voting equipment.

While the Freeholders did approve the ordinance to appropriate funds
and issue bonds (totalling $11 million) for the purchase of
HAVA-approved voting equipment (with two dissenting opinions by
Freeholders Carol Clark and Muriel Shore -- if they're your
freeholders, please thank them for their courage!), it's clear
tonight's public comments raised the consciousness of the Board of
Freeholders and opened the way for them to review additional
information about available equipment, guidelines for purchasing new
machinery, and constituent concerns about what's now available.

THE JOB IS NOT DONE!

If you live in Essex County, please find your Freeholder and let him
or her know how much it matters to you to have an open, auditable and
accessible voting process. Demand a voter-verified paper record
(PLEASE, *not* "trail") of the vote, which can be used in a recount to
verify election results. Demand an auditable outcome, independent of
the manufacturer and its software engineers. If only programmers can
extract the vote counts, it doesn't count! Demand open-source software
and insist that proprietary engineering standards fail the smell test.

If you live in Essex County, you MUST plan to write your community's
weekly newspaper and/or the daily most read in your town (Star-Ledger
for many of us) to raise the concerns we all have about the purchase
of voting equipment that uses proprietary software, cannot be audited
and does not produce a paper record the voter can verify, which is
stored with the machine and remains available for a recount or audit.
Remind your fellow citizens of the fiascos in other states that are
using DRE (direct record entry), touch-screen machines. Urge NJ
Attorney General Peter Harvey to certify more optical scan machines
that do provide these assurances.

Help us raise the public consciousness on this issue before Essex
County's $11 million is spent. This equipment is a once-in-a-lifetime
purchase (our current mechanical lever machines were built in 1952 --
older than me!), and we will be stuck with what we purchase, or with
costly retrofitting of same once new state or federal legislation (of
which there is plenty) requires some of the very safeguards we are
demanding now. Wasteful county spending is a hot issue in Essex County
-- push whatever button it takes to get people to pay attention! These
Sequoia machines now planned for purchase are the same ones that have
been stirring controversy all over the country. Let's stop it from
happening to us.

If you live in Essex County, you must try to attend one of the next
upcoming Freeholder meetings on June 1 or June 9, to be sure that the
same 12 faces do not have to appear again to do the work of all of us.
If you need coaching on what to say or how to frame the issues, we can
help, but the Freeholders need to know this issue is growing and
concern is mounting -- we were not tired out and scared away by a
meeting that ran on past 10:30 p.m. Are you up for this?

So, to reiterate:

Contact your freeholder to voice your concern (find him or here here:
http://www.essexcountyofnj.com/freeholders/site/districts.htm)

Write to your town's paper or the local daily and mention the twelve
people who attended tonight's (May 25) Freeholder meeting from a
collection of groups to speak out against the purchase of Sequoia
Advantage voting equipment.

Attend an upcoming Board of Freeholders meeting and plan to make a
brief public comment of your position on electronic voting equipment.

Tell ten friends to do the same.

Thanks for all your support!

[FogerRox]

6. The Advantage is going to cost ---set up for wheel chairs

with a printer $10,000

First off Sequoia has no printer for this DRE--I dont think they want to redesign an 18 year old machine to put a printer on it..

[NJCher]

7. gotcha'

Cher

[newyawker99]

8. Hi Mazie Gordon!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[FogerRox]

9. forgive my poor edicate---hello Mazie welcome to the jungle--er ah -DU

[Mazie Gordon]

10. Thanks for the welcome

My husband and I were at the freeholder's meeting on Wed. night, but didn't speak. We have drafted a letter to Mr. Caputo with our concerns about touch screen machines and will cc the rest of the freeholders and the election supervisor on it. We will also draw their attention to the article in today's (5/29) NYT that reports that Miami Dade is considering replacing all of their ES&S DRE's with optical scan machines, after spending $24M three years ago. Cost to replace is estimated at $10-12 million. I think Mr. Casiano may want to place a call to Miami Dade's elections supervisor before he decides that DRE's are completely trouble free.

Elaine

[FogerRox]

11. Wed. night I gave the Freeholders a handout, that incuded the

article on DAde scrapping those machines--the first article came out about a month or so ago.

I think for the most part the Freeholders are sympathetic. but they have no real choice--the NJ Att. Gen. has only certified 3 machines.
All DRE's.

[Mazie Gordon]

12. Congratulations!

For once, the good guys won - I was amazed at how last night went - congratulations, Roger. What's next?

[FogerRox]

13. WHEW !

A cuople of ideas--we'll be sending out notices for meetings in a couple a days.

1) Mercer, Essex, And Warren Freeholder liason.
2) Vendor liason. We should host demos of voting equipment. In Particular vendors with opscan equipment.
3) See if the County can apply for a waiver under HAVA to get nore time, potentitially to 2007. If so, consider a petition to support the move to file.
4) Particular attention should be paid to Avante in NJ. They are smaller, hungrier than Sequoia and more likely to provide agressive 1st class service to a county in their home state. It would be a feather in the cap of Avante to have a major county in their home state.
5) Under the NJ HAVA plan individuals can request material changes in the NJ HAVA plan throught the NJ Attorney General, Peter Harvey.
6) A Media Team will be vital in coming 4 weeks.
7) Freeholder Carol, should we chip in a couple of dollars and get some flowers?
8) I dont trust computerized voting, and thusly support the VVPR efforts in Trenton Petition?
9) A List of missinformation talking points for the Freeholders-- to counter Carmines lies. TO clear the air