This document is directed at the people in power who have been elected by the people to represent the interests of the people they serve. The people so-called includes everyone... not merely the powerful, but the greater numbers that include the weak as well as the meek... who suffer in silence.
Today those who have labored often at relatively speaking great personal expense in time and money to arrive at this point implore those who have been given the power to act and to whom this document is directed, to read it thoroughly and understand the origins of ongoing events that have lead to its composition.
The people of this country deserve a better system for electing our leaders. A system that is the best, is the only system that should be used to elect those who lead the most powerful country on earth." America does the world a disservice if it does not seek to take proper care in the electing of its leaders, given America's great power which must be exercised with care and foresight commensurate to its power.
Election Reform
A Framework For Solution
February 27, 2007
Revised March 7, 2007
By John Russell
Introduction
This document is directed at the people in power who have been elected by the people to represent the interests of the people they serve. The people so-called includes everyone... not merely the powerful, but the greater numbers that include the weak as well as the meek... who suffer in silence.
Today those who have labored often at relatively speaking great personal expense in time and money to arrive at this point implore those who have been given the power to act and to whom this document is directed, to read it thoroughly and understand the origins of ongoing events that have lead to its composition.
The people of this country deserve a better system for electing our leaders. A system that is the best, is the only system that should be used to elect those who lead the most powerful country on earth." America does the world a disservice if it does not seek to take proper care in the electing of its leaders, given America's great power which must be exercised with care and foresight commensurate to its power.
Public trust in the environment, management and apparatus that we as citizens use to select our leaders is fundamental to the preservation of a healthy and functioning representative democracy. Following the 2000 Presidential election debacle, public outcry resulted in a hoped for remedy known as the Help America Vote Act of 2002. To date, this bill has in the eyes of many, only made problems worse with the advent of the Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machine known as the DRE or TOUCHSCREEN.
In the years preceding the 2000 election, manufacturers had presented this type of equipment to election officials for consideration only to have it rejected on the basis of concerns regarding the electronic voting machine's inherent vulnerability to "hacking".
Contested Elections
At the time of this writing, there are four contests before the U.S. House Committee on Administration regarding congressional elections held in 2006 in Florida. All contests resulted related to concerns over the accuracy of the voting system. In District 13 18,000 under-votes occurred in a hotly contested race in Sarasota County in highly democratic areas... where significant numbers of voters complained of malfunctions with touch-screen voting machines.
In Congressional District 5, in precinct 151 in Pasco County, where candidate John Russell is officially recorded as having received 35 votes... he has now received 40 affidavits signifying their vote for John Russell, signed under penalty of perjury from voters who are recorded as having voted according to the official voter role for the 2006 election in precinct 151...which represents a statistical tie in precinct 151. In Seminole County Precinct 66, Clint Curtis is on the cusp of uncovering even greater anomalies in the vote totals using the same affidavit methodology. Clint Curtis is finding similar results in 5 other precincts in both Seminole and Volusia Counties.
These findings and issues should and do concern people of all political affiliations, and in fact represent only the most recent examples of problems afflicting our voting system that must be addressed in order to restore public confidence in our government.
Foundational Goals For Election Reform
* The foundational goal of election reform must be to establish a transparent process carried out in an environment that is as free from vulnerability to fraud as possible.
* The polling place must be sacred in that at the point of execution, the voter must be free from political influence.
* The mechanism by which a voter executes his/her vote must be ergonomically compatible with voter's needs and ordinary activities making it easy to understand and use.
* Final results must be inherently trusted by all of our fellow citizens.
* Where vulnerabilities do exist, they must be protected from intrusion by systemic barriers that make their defeat very nearly statistically impossible.
What follows is a discussion of problems affecting our voting system as well as a framework for solution for a secure election environment and apparatus going forward. Decisions regarding implementation must be made as soon as possible, as it is imperative that these mechanisms be in place prior to the presidential primaries scheduled for early 2008.
Wholesale Vote Manipulation
While much discussion revolves around the concerns about buying or stealing of individual votes, this concern while having some basis in past realities in places previously notorious for this in the past like Chicago is patently misleading.
"Retail Fraud", is today a comparatively minor issue. Retail fraud achieved one ballot at a time, in the age of computers is the least of our worries, and should be weighted accordingly.
"Wholesale Fraud"... IS the issue at hand, when we talk about election results being altered with a few keystrokes on a computer by one or merely a few unscrupulous individuals. Thus vote totals from precincts or counties are altered without the cooperation or knowledge of individual voters.
Retail fraud leaves a trail of breadcrumbs, as each voter knows whether he or she participated in the fraud and thus presents a constant threat of getting caught. The more conspirators in the plot, the more difficult it is to carry out the fraud. Wholesale fraud requires very few conspirators and may in fact be achieved by a single individual affecting thousands of votes, leaving no footprints at all, and with a high degree of stealth and impunity.
"WHOLESALE FRAUD" IS THE COST THAT ELECTION REFORM IS TARGETED AT ELIMINATING!
Wholesale fraud can be accomplished even with paper ballots by, for example, stealing entire boxes of ballots before they can be tabulated. Stealing or manipulating the "paper ballot" is far riskier than changing a line in a program code or penetrating a network-connected computer, which is all that is necessary to accomplish even large-scale fraud on mechanical or electronic voting devices.
The physical burden of removing or altering large numbers of paper ballots in order to change the outcome of an election presents a sizable barrier to wholesale fraud that is extremely cumbersome to accomplish without great risk of detection.
Thus, putting in place barriers to prevent wholesale vote manipulation/fraud where paper ballots are concerned, is far easier to effectively implement than the fraud associated with electronic vote tabulation--it is as easy to stop such electronic fraud as it is for you to stop receiving spam emails--quite impossible, actually.
And remember, if an election can be stolen, it will be stolen. The stakes are too high to resist.
The Way Forward...
The discussion leading to the resolution of this national crisis must revolve around developing and implementing a uniformly reliable, publicly understandable process for electing our leaders. Relative to the inescapable flaws inherent in its design and functionality as a User Interface, the process solution must exclude the Direct Recording Electronic or Touch Screen Voting Machine from the solution plan.
As the process of voting involves much more than merely the mechanical apparatus upon which our vote is cast one must consider the climate for voting as well as the machinery. I will bring to bear consideration of other aspects of the voting process not ordinarily taken into account due to the overwhelming focus by both the media, and the public on the voting machines themselves.
Any solution set considered must be comprehensive in nature and must identify as a primary goal, the elimination to as great a degree as possible, systemic vulnerabilities to wholesale election fraud.
Where a given vulnerability cannot be completely eliminated, barriers to the breach of a given vulnerability must be reliably erected so as to make their defeat extremely improbable.
Collateral influences such as defining criteria that is acceptable for selecting appropriate venues for polling places must be considered as well.
Eliminating the Illegitimate Influence of Push Polls
Legislation must be constructed by the congress regulating the publication of polling data in federal elections that is not randomly selected. The public is susceptible to the influence of so-called "push polls" published by media organizations and others. These accuracy of these polls is hidden beneath the false cloak of credibility offered by regional or national news/media organizations.
Such polls are "selectively" designed to persuade prospective voters who may be more inclined to cast their vote for a challenge candidate that their candidate has no chance based on these so-called numbers. When compared to objective polls that adhere to accepted criteria for random selection, the push poll result is very often a far from legitimate or representative of true voter sentiment.
Setting the Stage for Fair Elections
While this document places great priority on the actual mechanics of casting collecting and securing the integrity of the physical vote, there are other crucial considerations that are long overdue if a solution to this crisis is to be at all comprehensive. These points are as follows:
ÿ Amend the U.S. Constitution in order to establishing a minimum national standard regarding the Right to Vote. A constitutional amendment would allow citizens to petition the courts to demand equal protection of their right to vote. Currently there are literally thousands of election jurisdictions throughout the country resulting in an election system that is decidedly separate, as well as unequal.
ÿ Re-enfranchise citizens denied their right to vote due to a previous record of a felony conviction. Those who have been convicted of a felony and have served their time should have their civil rights including their right to vote, returned automatically once they have completed their sentence. A lower rate of recidivism has been demonstrated among those individuals who have had their civil rights restored upon completion of their sentence.
ÿ Public Campaign Financing should be made the law of the land. Diminishing the influence of money necessary for huge media budgets providing political contributors with untoward leverage over candidates and in turn officials that "they" elect, has given us ineffective and unfair government which is disproportionately responsive to the needs of those who make large campaign contributions at the expense of the public at large. Efficient government funded campaigns financed by general revenues would lead to the election of more effective public officials. Candidates provided equivalent financial resources and media time would be forced to be creative and efficient in their use of both... providing the public the opportunity to see who is truly best at maximizing impact through effective management of limited resources. Candidates could have unlimited volunteers.
ÿ Instant Runoff voting would allow minor party candidates the opportunity to earn votes by allowing voters to prioritize their choices among candidates... casting first, second and third choices etc. without the fear of "wasting" their vote.
ÿ Election Day throughout the United States should be made a national holiday as it is in Puerto Rico which has one of the highest voter-participation rates in the world.
ÿ Election Day Registration should be permitted nationally as it is currently in six states. In these six states where EDR is in use, an increase in turnout has been demonstrated which exceeds the national average by from 8-15%. An MIT/Cal Tech study in 2001 demonstrated that at a minimum 3 million voters were disenfranchised in the 2000 election due to registration problems.
ÿ Provisional Ballots must be provided to ALL voters who experience problems with identification. All provisional ballots cast by eligible voters MUST be counted.
ÿ Statewide Databases must be accurate with no voter being removed without reasonable and acceptable notification of, as well as the opportunity to contest removal.
Criteria for Resolution
"The Mechanics of the Vote"
* Any solution to the crisis of securing the integrity of America's representative democracy must be centered around a uniform physical paper ballot that is voter verified, and from which voter "intent" may be unerringly determined. The ballot itself, will be physically marked by the voter him/herself with a suitable pen or pencil. Only the disabled voter will be an exception to this rule in that the disabled voter will personally mark and verify their ballot selections using an approved ballot-marking device.
* Such a ballot will be for the voter without physical handicap marked by hand with a black pencil or pen with which the voter colors in the oval assigned to the issue/candidate for which they wish to signify as their choice for a given candidate or issue in an election.
* Such a ballot for the voter who is physically handicapped will be marked by a mechanically or electronically voter actuated ballot marking device/machine. Ballot marking by the machine is accomplished independently by the voter facilitated by the integral proprietary methods of assistance associated with the voting apparatus. This category of mechanism for voter participation by the physically handicapped is already approved for use in several other states and I would submit that the Governor should move directly to initiate the approval process for the use of this equipment in Florida as soon as possible. Dependent upon the category of disability, the vote marking apparatus is either actuated by hand by the voter following auditory prompting for the blind, or for the individual who no longer has use of his/her limbs a puffer type mechanical actuator will allow the voter to mark their ballot selections.
* Use of the voter verified hand or mechanically marked and verified uniform paper ballot will disallow any potential for charges of unequal protection under the law between voters and will allow hand counting of all ballots under any and all circumstances. All voters will essentially be submitting the same type of ballot marked in an identical manner thus maximizing voter familiarity and voter confidence in the system of casting our votes.
* Ballot Design must be uniform for all races with each issue or candidate clearly identified with the point of ballot marking signifying the execution of a vote for a candidate or issue being uniformly identifiable from one race or another throughout a given ballot. Each race or issue will be graphically designated by placement of a box around the issue or race for office.
* Ballot Counting will be carried out for each individual ballot encompassing all races for office and issues in a given election at the time a ballot is cast by the voter passing his/her ballot through the optical scanner with software enabled to ascertain under-votes so that a voter may be provided an opportunity to cast a vote for any race or issue where inadvertently a vote was not executed by the voter.
* Each polling place will be equipped with one optical scanner for vote counting purposes. Voters will sign in a manual log-in registration book in addition to being logged in electronically by County Elections Office Personnel or appropriate volunteers.
* All ballots used in any given election will be identical in design and format whether they are to be marked by hand or by the approved ballot-marking device used by physically disabled voters. All ballots will be counted using the same approved brand and model Optical Scan Ballot Counting device.
* Absentee Ballots will be mailed from the County Supervisor of Elections Office commencing no earlier than 21 days prior to election-day to voters who are requesting such ballots from within the continental United States. Absentee ballot request from voters who are requesting ballots mailed to locations outside of the continental U.S. will be mailed no earlier than 35 days prior to election-day.
* Absentee Ballots will be of a standardized ballot design identical to election ballots used in early voting and on election-day.
* Absentee Ballots returned by election-day will be treated identically to ballots cast in early voting and on election-day proper. Absentee Ballots will be counted with ballots collected from the early voting period and will be subject to, and included in all final ballot counting and audit activities.
* Early Voting Activity will subscribe to the exact same process as voting on election day utilizing the exact same equipment as is described for election day proper.
* Early Voting Activity will take place over a one week period commencing on the Monday in the week preceding election day with voting extending through Saturday, off Sunday, commencing again on Monday morning and concluding at 19:00/7:00PM on Tuesday, Election Day.
* Voters will both hand sign as well as log in electronically at the polling place irrespective if they are voting absentee, early voting or voting on election-day itself. This will be done in order to facilitate the random audit of 10% of each counties voter turnout.
* Central Tabulators as they are called previously used to collect votes will be located in an area that is observable by the public at all times. This equipment or any similar equipment will be mechanically/electronically locked out from the alteration of any vote counts by elections personnel or any other persons at any time.
* Wireless Communication Devices shall be strictly prohibited from being any part of or connected to in any way to the equipment or system upon which votes are cast or counted.
* Connection to the Internet of any aspect of the voting system will be strictly prohibited.
* Voting Machines and related equipment will be stored in a secure environment at all times. Equipment will not be permitted to be "taken home" by poll workers or elections office personnel at any time. Access to areas where voting equipment and supplies are stored will be strictly controlled with written records of access being kept by the elections officer for each county and accessible by the public through appropriate formal request being made to the county elections officer.
* Any Computer Software required for conduct of elections will be open to examination by anyone who cares to do so and will be of a singular variety so as to keep simple the mechanics of the counting of votes which requires no complicated calculations and should be of a rudimentary nature.
* Random Vote Audits will be carried out by each county supervisor of elections at the conclusion of voting on election day subscribing without variation to the process parameters outlined and described in the following discussion.
Random Audits
Methodology
1.) Each county will be required to select randomly for audit at the conclusion of an election sufficient precincts to allow for auditing of 10% of the votes cast in a county.
2.) Audits of each selected precinct that follows will be an event open fully to public observation... This will be accomplished using the following methodology allowing for a truly random sample to be selected, making precinct targeting for fraud by the unscrupulous highly unlikely. In order to achieve this goal, at the conclusion of the election on election-day, the electronic lists of voters which will include all voters from each precinct irrespective of their method of voting, and will be ascertained by precinct at the county supervisor of elections office in a public ceremony on election night.
3.) The number of participating voters from each precinct will be assigned to each precinct according to its final turnout totals. Cards will then be designated with a number signifying each precinct and will each be placed in a hat.
4.) These cards will then be drawn publicly from the hat one by one with the associated voter participation totals announced that are correlated to each precinct card drawn from the hat... until the total number of voters equivalent to 10% of the total vote for the election for that county is reached or exceeded.
5.) Each precinct randomly drawn as a portion of that vote total will be contacted and assigned the task of hand counting the votes for each race from that precinct and then comparing the hand total to the machine total.
Discrepancies Between Audits
and Machine Totals
* Should there be more than a 2% variation between the totals, the HAND COUNT votes will be hand counted again. Should the discrepancy that is greater than or equal to 2% be confirmed by the second count, another 10% of the vote total for the county will be once again drawn and subsequently audited accordingly as described above.
* In the event further discrepancies in the hand count versus the machine count are discovered in this subsequent audit, a hand count for the vote precinct by precinct will be carried out and this hand count will become the official election results.
* In the event that the paper ballots are compromised or destroyed to the extent that the election cannot be confirmed a revote will be held. At no time will the preliminary machine totals be allowed to supercede the paper ballot totals.
* All audits and counting procedures be they mechanical and or by hand shall be open to observation by the public, equal numbers of party officials from all parties represented on the ballot as well as their legal representatives.
* Polling Places must be located in local, county and state government buildings that are secular in nature in order to insure that the place where voters cast their vote are free of potentially intimidating influence. Schools offer excellent locations for voting and their use may be facilitated by providing for teacher conference days to occur on election-day, while simultaneously offering students a day to study at home or pursue other productive activities.
As a long time proponent of election reform in Florida, I stand resolute in the conviction shared by the voter verified paper ballot movement, of which I am a part, that the time for reform is now. Election officials, pundits and politicians have derided efforts of those who have called for some years now for reform of our voting system... Election officials ask us to trust them because they say that they know what is best while evidence of "errors" have continued to pile up over the past several years not only in Florida but in Ohio and New Mexico as well. Ohio has taken action to correct the "goings on" of 2004 where election officials have been charged, convicted and sent to jail for their offenses in the 2004 presidential election there.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist is to be commended for taking a very important first step toward the optically scanned voter verified paper ballot. This "change of heart" on the part of the governor, positive though it may be however, is not the panacea that some would like us to believe.
"Trust But Verify"
Ronald Reagan said of the former Soviet Union in negotiating de'tente... "Trust But Verify"... No place in our world is verification more important than in the methods by which we elect our leaders. Why must we verify? As was stated earlier, the temptation is too great for those who seek to gain power illicitly for the people to allow our guard to be dropped. It is through the verification process that is proposed here that the "Trust" in our election system can be regained.
We as concerned citizens ask that the Governor and others charged with representing the interests of the public as well as the greater good take it upon themselves to move forward expeditiously to correct once and for all the vulnerabilities of the Florida election system. In so doing, Florida can summarily be transformed from being the butt of jokes to setting to standard by which true representative democracy is re-born throughout America, and the world.
John Russell, MS/ARNP, MBA, HCSM
2006 Democratic Nominee U.S. House District 5, Florida
www.johnrussellforcongress.com
352-567-1618 cell 813-625-2822 fax 352-567-1618
*This document represents a collection of ideas and statements by various authors including notably Mark Adams, Katrina Vanden Heuvel (The Nation 11/20/06), William Faulkner, Clint Curtis, Lauren Hallahan and John Russell.