Black Box Voting

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The upcoming Black Box Voting 2008 Tool Kit ( - http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.html - ) contains innovative strategies to put real muscle into election protection. This e-mail contains a preview in the area of deterrents. We know we can't make elections perfect, but we CAN work on doing ENOUGH! So here's a place to start.

I think we're all sick to death of the "Oops Excuse." You know what I mean: Robo calls that pretend not to know they just told people something misleading, oops. Ballot accounting forms that don't add up, oops. Voting machine keys that don't get put in the bag, causing polls to open late, oops. Not enough machines allocated to certain precincts, oops, misleading translation on the ballot, oops, voting cartridges delivered late, oops, memory cards that cause machines to be serviced mid-election, oops, reported the wrong vote number, oops...

* * * NO MORE OOPS * * *

I want to talk about why it's so important to reduce the opportunity to Just Say Oops, and how we can deter the Oops, but first, here are examples of Oops Excuses just ready and waiting. These happened on Tuesday this week in Oregon:
This is being discussed HERE: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/74040.html

IMPOSSIBLE AND IMPROPER NUMBERS FROM OREGON'S MULTNOMAH, POLK, AND YAMHILL COUNTIES

- Results reported before they exist.
- Results reported before the polls close.

A rather wonderful voting rights citizen volunteer named John Howard went to the results reports posted by Multnomah County at this Web site Wednesday night and was surprised to see that results posted on Wed. May 21 at 4:28 pm time and date-stamped on 3:53 pm May 22, which happens to be Thursday!
http://www.mcelections.org/2008-05/results.shtml

Look at these pictures to see what I mean:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/OR/multnomah/May08-impossible1.jpg
http://www.bbvdocs.org/OR/multnomah/May08-impossible2.jpg

Check out the time the results were uploaded. Then look at the time and date stamp on the results: The report was "run" nearly 20 hours LATER than it was posted!

NOT A BIG DEAL? "OOPS?"

Now, don't run out and headline that I'm calling this fraud, because I am not. What I AM calling it is incorrect and improper and unacceptable and in the case of the Yamhill and Polk county results I'm about to tell you about, probably illegal.

Elections, like bookkeeping and your bank statement, are all about numbers. The books have to balance. And in elections, times and dates are all-important. After all, if the report could be produced a DAY ahead of time, why not a MONTH ahead? If the computer clocks (oops) aren't reading out the right day, that opens doors to mail-in ballot-counting fraud that may be simply too scrumptious to resist.

What happened in Multnomah County suggests that the reports from the system are able to be set to whatever time the operator desires and/or that someone deliberately reset the clock on the system to a time in the future. Think about it this way: If your company bids on a tendered construction project in Multnomah County, and bids are advertised to close at a specific time, are you allowed to "bend the clock"? No, and if you try that you'll likely be charged with attempting to rig the bid. If you are successful in coercing a County employee into falsely dating and time stamping your documents, that employee would likely be fired for dishonesty and charged with falsifying documents. This is a presidential election we're talking about - at the very least, it's as important as a procurement bid.

POSTING COUNTY-WIDE RESULTS BEFORE THE POLLS CLOSE:

Polk County and Yamhill County, Oregon posted results on the Internet BEFORE the polls closed, at 7:31 and 7:41 pm, respectively. The polls didn't close until 8 pm.

(BUT REALLY. ARE A FEW OOPSIES SUCH A BIG DEAL?)

Oopsies enable unfair election practices and can be enablers and cover-ups for fraud.  It's like this: Do you close the gate so the child doesn't get near the street, or -- oops! -- leave it open -- oops! left it open again -- no big deal, all I did was leave a gate open, it's not like he got killed or anything.

Our collective refusal to accept the Oops Excuse is a method to keep more gates closed to prevent certain types of fraud -- ie, the plausible deniability kind -- from escaping.

We should also look at these Election Oops excuses through a real world lens.  For example:

If you write 29 checks but your bank statement says there were 27, does that feel "safe enough" to you?

What if you get a bank statement dated a month in the future with a reported balance? (With ballots, of course, the public really can't check to see whether the reported results are true or false.)

Many election officials are county AUDITORS and CLERKS. These professionals are collecting license fees, and overseeing bookkeeping and financial transactions that (even in small counties) amount to millions of dollars. Somehow I think if they showed up with $28,000 missing from the public bank balance, the media wouldn't accept "Oops" as readily as it accepts missing and mismatched and impossible election numbers.

ARE WE BEING TOO TOUGH ON ELECTION OFFICIALS? Let's look at the accountability expected of others:

- The teenager working at the mall has to balance the till at the end of the day.
- Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor employees have to correctly account for the tickets.
- McDonald's employees have to match cash to receipts.

In fact, anyone who's worked in a bar or a supermarket or any kind of retail setting knows that you can't just say "oops" when the cash in your till doesn't match the receipts. You don't get to change the time stamps on things and you aren't allowed to open and close at the wrong times.

If we can require accountability from teenagers and minimum wage workers, perhaps it's time we start requiring our election officials to report only votes that actually exist at the time and date the computer assigns to the report, MAKE SURE THE NUMBERS BALANCE, and pay attention to the clock to make sure we don't post results until the polls close.

No More Oops.

Watch for the 2008 Tool Kit for ways to invoke consequences -- and ultimately DETER -- the next crop of Oops Excuses.

* * * * *

Black Box Voting is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit elections watchdog group working to improve public controls in our elections. More:  http://www.BlackBoxVoting.org

Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting

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