the other election reform: dangers of statewide registration systems

[gmoses]

FIRST some snips:

While the power of new voting technology was attracting a nationwide convergence of suspicion in the vote count reported for Ohio's Cuyahoga County, the very same software system used to manage voter rolls there was being put to troubling new uses in Harris County, Texas where hardly a word was uttered in reply.

Yet the power of software to politically manage votes and voters is not simply the power to produce vote totals, it also lies in the power of information technology to "discipline and punish" voting populations with increasing speed and efficiency.

Thanks to the recent addition of VOTEC Election Management And Compliance System or VEMACS (the same software package used in Cuyahoga County and ten other states) the Voter Registrar of Harris County was able to deliver with unprecedented speed and precision a list of 167 suspected illegal voters shortly after Republican attorneys charged that Democratic voters had illegally stolen the election.

In the end, hyped-up Republican charges against Democratic voters were not supported by the evidence. But the report produced by the Registrar’s election software did enable an unprecedented invasion of voter privacy. Within a month following the release of the Registrar's report, about 150 voters had been served with subpoenas that demanded them to reveal their votes in the election contest. And about 110 voters eventually saw their votes deducted from the race. Was the interrogation of Houston voters in January the largest voter sweep in history? We hope so. Because the Harris County precedent warns us that where powerful software is available, there will be more voter sweeps to come.

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?n...

CounterPunch picked this up today:

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses03122005.html

NEXT WEEK, I'd like to look at the new contract between the Texas Secty of State and IBM to do voter registration statewide. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) will require statewide voting registration systems everywhere by Jan. 1. I think we've learned enough from the Vo election contest to ask some critical questions about the power and use of "voter management technology" that will soon be deployed in these new, state-of-the-art voter registration systems.

See Editorial in Progress:

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/

QUESTION: any orgs already on this game that would make good sources?

first posted at Texas discussion, reposted here by request, thanks--gm

[Wilms]

1. kick n/t

[Melissa G]

2. KIck for safety! What can we do to keep our registrations safe?

[gmoses]

3. good question for all 50 states

the West Houston crackdown sets a standard for what we NEVER want to see Democratic voters EVER have to experience again. if the technology is going to be so great on the backend of election results, ready to print out instantaneous lists of suspects who can be ordered to reveal their votes, we need to either

(1) demand first class registration services on the frontend, before and during election day

Here's another way to put the general problem as we learn more about the details:

A press release from Hart InterCivic phrases the challenge of voter management in terms of preventing fraud.

In most states, voter registration data has been maintained at the local level. The increasing mobility of the population results in voter registration files that are quickly outdated, increasing the complexity of voter registration management and the possibility of voter fraud or inaccuracies.

The paragraph gives us a shiver, because it sounds so much like the baseless suspicions raised by Republican attorney Andy Taylor as he led a massive invasion of voter privacy in the HD 149 race. When busy voters went back to their old polling places and divulged their new addresses, they were NOT attempting any fraud, they were just trying to cope with their responsibilities in a rather inflexible environment.

We would rather see a paragraph like this:

As the vaunted free market system increasingly tosses workers from one home to another, local registration can add frustration and inconvenience to the experience of voting, allowing Republican attack dog lawyers the opportunity to increasingly criminalize more hard working and honest people who don't always vote for powerful Republican incumbents. A statewide database can enable voters to more easily maintain their livelihoods, their voter registrations, and their privacy without fear of desperate partisan reprisals.

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=183

OR
(2) Holler to STOP the statewide registrations until we are convinced they won't make things worse.

[Melissa G]

5. I cited your concerns about registration as the first item

on a list that could become a pamphlet for what we want to have happen. Voter confidence in votes being counted is unacceptably low.
That is all the argument we need to demand change.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x343146

[Bill Bored]

4. Well, to the extent that this might get people to take this voting stuff

more seriously, keep their registrations up to date, etc. this could be a blessing in disguise. Of course it initially favors rich white foils who don't move around a lot, but if, the poor and minorities are encouraged at the grass roots level to register and keep that up to date, it could increase turnout, couldn't it? In other words, couldn't it backfire?

I agree with the comments about the front end. It should be much easier to register and people shouldn't have to do it on the street or at shopping malls where they don't know what happens to the paperwork after they sign it.

[gmoses]

6. with big contracts going out

this new era of voter management could very well entrench structures of dis-illusion and dis-enchantment. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but what could be more outlandish than privatized voter rolls? So we need to dig in here. Meanwhile, my initial question remains unanswered, what orgs are already up to speed on this registration issue? None? Here's a good list from electionline. Many states have developed statewide registration already:

http://electionline.org/index.jsp?page=Database.Status

If local voter registrars are already tied up in local expertise that can act as some kind of check and balance, then maybe the best tactic at this point is to stop the federal mandage for statewide registrations until we have a sense of how to organize resistance and oversight for statewide systems not yet in place. On the face of it, this seems especially important in keeping urban (local & Democrat) registrations out of the hands of suburban (statewide & Republican) interference in Red States.

[Wilms]

7. Maybe Conyers office can provide resources.

http://www.house.gov/conyers/

[gmoses]

8. thanks, I'll keep you posted

plus Michigan has statewide registration already

[Wilms]

9. Some more.

http://www.lawyerscomm.org

http://www.house.gov/cummings/cbc/cbchome.htm

http://www.ncbl.org/index.php?id=5,15,0,0,1,0

http://www.righttovote.org

http://www.bigvote.org/postelection.htm

[gmoses]

10. looking at the Georgia walkout

March 15, 2005
Why Are Top Republicans Lawyers in Two States Suddenly Working on "Voter Integrity?"
The Fix-It Guys and Their Election Filters

By GREG MOSES

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses03152005.html

In light of our recent interest in the de-registration and criminalization of the voters of West Houston, news from Georgia comes timely. Last Friday, the Democratic Caucus of the Georgia Senate staged a symbolic walkout following that chamber's passage of a bill that would limit the kinds of ID that can be used to register and vote.

SNIP

The parallels between Texas and Georgia raise questions that can be asked of other states in turn. Are your top Republican lawyers hyping issues of registration integrity, raising specters of nefarious voters planning massive acts of fraud, playing up fears that have no basis in election facts, installing new filters into law that will make voting even less hospitable? And your local election activists? Are they so obsessed with issues of verified counts that they remain blind to all other issues in voting rights?

POSTED at Tuesday 3/15 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=344047&mesg_id=344147&page=