Info on National Task Force on Election Reform???

[Melissa G]

This was an editorial i found while doing the news today... Any info on either National Task Force on Election Reform or Election Center? They both sound suspect to me.


Pantagraph Editorial

Friday, June 17, 2005
More days to vote and fewer polling places ideal

Having more than one day to vote and having fewer, but better-staffed, polling places are intriguing ideas. They are among recommendations from the National Task Force on Election Reform, a group of present and former election officials from 15 states charged with looking for better ways to accommodate voters. The group was put together by Election Center, a Houston firm that trains election officials but has received some criticism for accepting some of its funding from manufacturers of voting machines.

However, the task force didn't recommend buying new voting machines, although it downplayed the need for paper receipts from voting machines in an electronic age.

This isn't the only group looking at ways to make it easier for people to vote.

Immediately after the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, there were numerous suggestions on how to improve the system. But most zeroed in on getting rid of simple punch-card ballots and spending millions -- if not billions -- of dollars on voting machines. That included purchasing machines in most areas that had not had a problem with punch-card ballots, including virtually every county in Central Illinois.

The accusations of vote-machine tampering in the last election came as no surprise. Some people just will not accept that most of the problems in 2000, which were confined largely to major metropolitan areas, were caused by voters and inattentive election judges.
http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/061705/opi_20050617001.shtml

[Melissa G]

1. More info on the National Task Force on Election Reform.

http://www.electioncenter.org/electionreformreport/Board%20of%20Directors%20Letter.htm

Snip...
That is the reason we formed and convened the National Task Force on Election Reform. The experts are real and have some of the most extensive experience in actually conducting thousands and thousands of elections. Representing the nation's elections administrators, we chose a total of 37 elections professionals from the state and local levels to come together for a serious study of Election 2000 and to make recommendations about what should and should not be done. We asked for volunteers nationally, and out of more than 90 volunteers, we chose 31 administrators, supplemented by the elections professionals who are the Board of Directors of The Election Center.



We carefully balanced the Task Force with Republicans and Democrats, with large and small jurisdictions, with state and local, with race and gender, with liberal and conservative, with youth and seniors, and with every conceivable method of voting represented, all in an effort to be as representative of America as possible. The task force was co-chaired by two outstanding election administrators, from state and local, Democrat and Republican, Lance Ward of Oklahoma, and Alan Davidson, from Oregon, both of whom had also been news media reporters prior to becoming elections professionals. We repeated the pattern for subcommittee co-chairs to assure policy makers and citizens that a fair hearing and examination of all pertinent issues would be had.



What is contained in this report is nothing short of phenomenal. It is a straight forward analysis of Election 2000 and the electoral process. It is filled with the hope that serious consideration of some reforms will be passed -- and others shelved. And, it is from the people who know more about the process than any other single group in America: the professionals who have to make the process work for all of us in each election.



As members of the Board of Directors of The Election Center, we are pleased to present the final document to the public.

[Melissa G]

2. Link to full report and list of board of directors

As members of the Board of Directors of The Election Center, we are pleased to present the final document to the public.

Link to full report...
http://www.electioncenter.org/electionreformreport/COMPLETE%20Final%20Report.htm




Ernest Hawkins, Registrar,

Sacramento County, CA



Donetta Davidson,

Secretary of State, CO



Julie Pearson, Auditor,

Pennington County, SD



Gary Bartlett, Ex. Dir.,

NC State Board of Elections



Tom Wilkey, Ex. Dir. ,

NY State Board of Elections



R. Doug Lewis, Ex. Dir.,

The Election Center