KC Council Trims Reckless Plan
Yesterday, King County Council decided (2007-0328) against both VoteHere's Mail-in Ballot Tracker (MiBT) and any automated signature verification system.
This decision removes, for now, two very bad parts of the executive's reckless plan to overhaul our elections. The remainder of the ballot accountability and tracking business case, purchasing Pitney-Bowes sorters and bringing that task in-house, is pretty good -- I support that move. Though, my inner penny-pincher wished we'd lease instead of buy. Please follow the flip, for details, acknowledgments, some observations, and more background info.
Details
As covered before, automated signature verification would replace humans with computers for comparing signature during mail ballot processing. A horrible idea, as confirmed by Whatcom County's recent testing. We've also covered VoteHere's MiBT before. It's central to Tim White and Allan Rosato's lawsuit in San Juan County. In their county, every ballot is linked back to the voter's id. A clear violation of our constitutional right to secret ballot. King County does not allow unique barcodes on our ballots. But show stopper issues remain. Michael Alvine's (county staff) briefing at the August CEOC meeting was pretty conclusive: riddled with errors, MiBT's web site feature reduces voter confidence. So much so, the Sec of State, at that time, advised counties to NOT USE the web site feature. Which is the primary reason our council wanted to use MiBT. The numbers (cost) being thrown around are complete nonsense. The $345,000 for VoteHere discussed in council yesterday is just the tip of the iceberg. There's also a $750,000 set up fee, to copy names from one database to another. And using the system will cost an estimated $1,320,000 per year, as explained below. The costs are so high, that existing counties (customers) have asked the legislature in Olympia for relief (The Olympian, May 29, 2007). Fortunately, that request was rejected. Every time we've reported that VoteHere's MiBT doesn't actually work, our elections officials have been shocked, shocked, by this news. Alternately, they claim the problems experienced in San Juan County aren't a concern for King County. It's the same product! With the same flaws! Huff's rationale is no different from Huenneken's dismissing *EVERYONE's* conclusion that Diebold touchscreens are fatally flawed: King County is different; we know better. And of course, it appears that VoteHere is no longer in business. The phones are off. The website is down. Election Trust announced a reseller agreement, which looks more like a buyout. And the investor chat boards have rumors that founder Jim Alder has moved to another startup, along with his core programmers. Leaving the questions: Who will support the product? Who will fix (the obvious) bugs? Observations It is way too early to declare victory. As I type, I'm told that minions from VoteHere, Dategrity, and Election Trust are meeting with council members, trying to repair the damage. Everyone in the Secretary of State's Office, from Sam Reed on down, that I've ever talked to, is a huge defender/promoter of VoteHere, the use of unique bar codes on ballots, and ballot tracking. There is no bigger sacred cow for them. They brush off criticism of Premier (nee Diebold), ES&S, Hart/Intercivic, etc. But hackles get raised when anyone criticizes VoteHere. Executive Sims really wants this. Who knows why? Doesn't matter. He's been convinced that all this chrome is needed for his reckless plan to succeed. So Sims is leaning on members of the council. Elections Director Sherril Huff, and her staff, really screwed up. The council was pissed. I was very surprised when she confirmed my allegations. Usually they have some spin control in place. (And I thought everyone already knew VoteHere was gone.) This whole exercise has been very frustrating for me. I like the people I've dealt with. And I know how hard their job is. And I know they're just following orders. And I'm totally cool with disagreement and hashing things out. But things turned a corner these last few months. I just can't abide by the overtly counterfactual information, repeating things we've already debunked. I've been very disappointed. House & Senate Work Group On July 12th, 2007, State Senator Eric Oemig (D-45) hosted (sponsored?) a joint House and Senate work session on ballot tracking and accountability. I'm sorry, but it appears the video is no longer available on TVW. Both Tim White and I were invited to speak. We were joined by many election officials. Tim did a lot better than me. He displayed numerous examples of how VoteHere's MiBT system gives nonsensical information (e.g. ballots shown as counted before being received, answers changing over time). I relearned that our opponents are much more experienced at sucking all the oxygen out of the room. I also learned that once you have the microphone, don't let go without a fight. Rep Mark Miloscia (D-30), who has experience with statistical process control (quality assurance), got frustrated when officials wouldn't answer his questions about quality metrics. I helpfully pointed out that each county publishes mail ballot summary reports, which list the fate of each mail ballot. Then Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey stated that they track 27 different types of mail ballot processing errors. Egads! Stuff like signature challenge, wrong ballot in envelope, etc. (I've met Kimsey before, I really like him.) I saw Sen Pam Roach (R-31) in action for the first time. Love her or hate her, anyone who underestimates her is making a serious mistake. Turns out she worked for the postal service at some point. So she has serious reservations about mail balloting, based on her first-hand knowledge. I think it was Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Diepenbrock who enthused about ballot image scanners (another assault on election integrity), saying that projecting the ballot image on the big screen was a great feature. I countered by saying the overhead projectors my old school no longer uses are probably available for $25 surplus. Bill Huennekens, our vote-by-mail transition manager, declared King County Council's rejection of unique barcodes on ballots to be a political decision. I really wish he'd learn to put the voter's interest, our right to a secret ballot, ahead of his convenience. Here's my written testimony to the work group, also submitted to our county council yesterday. My positions remain the same.
Here's an image of the sample batch slip I referred to. As you can, it's a pretty good paper trail of the history of a batch. The data on these slips is entered into a really big batch accountability spreadsheet. With VoteHere's MiBT, data entry would be done at a workstation vs from a batch slip. (A very modest labor savings, at best.) Here's an image of a bunch of batches (trays) of mail ballots on a cart. Batches get moved all over the place. While not being actively processed by humans, they're placed into secure storage. Acknowledgements Thank you to Councilmembers Gossett and Phillips (and staff) for allowing me to speak. I'm told that motions normally do not allow for public input. So this was an exception. Thank you to Tim White and Allan Rosato. They provided most of the VoteHere related information I shared with the council yesterday. Thank you to raincity calling for all her hard work. She, much more than me, is focused on VoteHere. She is also the one that got the tip VoteHere went out of business. (Then we visited their office to verify.) Thank you to the council, for slowing down the trainwreck, even if just a little bit. The Seattle Times (Keith Ervin), Seattle PI (Gregory Roberts), and Postman on Politics (David Postman) covered this news item. I'm very grateful that our local media continues to cover election administration topics.
###
KC Council Trims Reckless Plan | 5 comments (5 topical)
KC Council Trims Reckless Plan | 5 comments (5 topical)
|
|
Recommended Diaries
Recent Diaries
The Catfood Commission seems to be hitting snags
By eridani (0 comments)
Don't cut Social Security or Medicare
By eridani (1 comments)
Attorney General Rob McKenna promotes ballot rehab effort for anti-gay candidates
By Lurleen (0 comments)
Panel Discussion: How faith communities are working to secure marriage equality
By Lurleen (0 comments)
The Tim Eyman Song and other fun stuff
By ThinkerFeeler (0 comments)
Health Insurance != Health Care
By m3047 (0 comments)
2010 Essential Races - Who Would You Support?
By The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (5 comments)
HCR--just a political liability, not a political disaster
By eridani (8 comments)
DelBene Goes Re-Puke. More DINO's
By rmdSeaBos (4 comments)
Eyman and Bopp suffer big losses
By Lurleen (0 comments) Related Links+ 2007-0328+ automated signature verification + lawsuit in San Juan County + does not allow unique barcodes on our ballots + CEOC + asked the legislature in Olympia for relief (The Olympian, May 29, 2007) + Election Trust + reseller agreement + State Senator Eric Oemig (D-45) + joint House and Senate work session on ballot tracking and accountability + Rep Mark Miloscia (D-30) + Greg Kimsey + Sen Pam Roach (R-31) + Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Diepenbrock + Example of a corrugated plastic mail tray + + [2] + Seattle Times + Seattle PI + Postman on Politics + More on Election Integrity + Also by zappini Washblog RSS FeedsPolitical ContactsLocal MediaCoastal/Grays HarborAberdeen Daily World Chinook Observer Montesano Vidette Pacific County Press Willapa Harbor Herald KXRO 1320 AM Olympic Peninsula Peninsula Daily News Bremerton Sun Bremerton Chronicle Gig Harbor Gateway Port Orchard Independent Port Townsend Leader North Kitsap Herald Squim Gazette Central Kitsap Reporter Business Examiner KONP 1450 AM Sound and Islands Anacortes American Bainbridge Review Voice Of Bainbridge San Juan Journal The Islands' Sounder Whidbey NewsTimes South Whidbey Record Stanwood/Camano News Vashon Beachcomber Voice Of Vashon KLKI 1340 AM North Puget Sound Bellingham Herald The Northern Light Everett Herald Skagit Valley Herald Lynden Tribune The Enterprise Snohomish County Tribune Snohomish County Business Journal The Monroe Monitor The Edmonds Beacon KGMI 790 AM KELA 1470 AM KRKO 1380 AM Central Puget Sound King County Journal Issaquah Press Mukilteo Beacon Voice of the Valley Federal Way Mirror Bothell/Kenmore Reporter Kirkland courier Mercer Island Reporter Woodinville Weekly Greater Seattle Seattle PI Seattle Times KOMO TV 4 KIRO TV 7 KING 5 TV KTBW TV 22 KCTS 9 UW Daily The Stranger Seattle Weekly Capitol Hill Times Madison Park Times Seattle Journal of Commerce NW Asian Weekly West Seattle Herald North Seattle Herald-Outlook South Seattle Star Magnolia News Beacon Hill News KIRO 710 AM KOMO AM 1000 KEXP 90.3 FM KUOW 94.9 FM KVI 570 AM South Puget Sound The Columbian Longview Daily News Nisqually Valley News Lewis County News The Reflector Eatonville Dispatch Tacoma News Tribune Tacoma Weekly Puyallup Herald Enumclaw Courier-Herald The Olympian KAOS 89.3 FM KCPQ 13 KOWA FM 106.5 UPN 11 Cascade/Okanogan Ellensburg Daily Record Levenworth Echo Cle Elum Tribune Snoqualmie Valley Record Methow Valley News Lake Chelan Mirror Omak chronicle The Newport Miner Spokane/Palouse The Spokesman-Review KREM 2 TV Spokane KXLY News 4 Spokane KHQ 6 Spokane KSPS Spokane Statesman-Examiner Othello Outlook Cheney Free Press Camas PostRecord The South County sun White Salmon Enterprise Palouse Boomerang Columbia Basin Herald Grand Coulee Star Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Yakima Herald-Republic KIMA 29 Yakima KAPP TV 35 Yakima KYVE Yakima Wenatchee World Tri-City Herald TVEW TV 42 Tri-cities KTNW Richland KEPR 19 Pasco Daily Sun News Prosser Record-Bulletin KTCR 1340 AM KWSU Pullman Moscow-Pullman Daily News |