Need info on UC systems-OVS proposal

[Liberty Belle]

All -- I received the letter below, originated supposedly from a Democratic group in Torrance, CA. Are any of you familiar with this system he's promoting? It sounds good on the surface, but has anyone looked into this to make sure it's not something backed by sneaky Republicans? I don't want to recommend that anyone write to the Governor, Secretary of STate, etc. promoting this system unless I hear from trustworthy sources that this is truly a good system for preventing fraud. -- Liberty Belle




Subject: Open Voting System Consortium -- Action Letter



There is now a movement afoot to allow California to have its own open
voting system, that is transparent, allows for verified balloting, and
a paper trail. Alan Dechert, President and Founder of Open Voting
Consortium, spoke at a public gathering on April 9th in Long Beach and
explained that the only thing preventing CA from obtaining this system
is public pressure. As it stands now, electronic voting machines are
sold by private companies to governmental agencies for use, but
possess proprietary, secret code, have been shown to be hackable due
to lack of security safeguards, and given the horrors witnessed in
Florida and Ohio, are simply untrustworthy.

A better option is for CA to build its own reliable voting machines,
complete with security safeguards, open source code, paper trails, and
a variety of other protections. Well, a prototype of this system has
been built by the brainiacs of the University of CA system professors.
Their proposal was previously submitted to Sec. of State Kevin
Shelley, but it hit his desk last August just as he began having legal
issues. We are in a position now to move this proposal forward for
adoption, but it means we have to drive its prominance.

Here's what I want you to do: write to the Governor and to Sec. of
State, Bruce McPherson, asking them to adopt the "UC System-OVS
proposal" that calls for the state to publically fund this effort,
using HAVA monies. Apparently, CA has $107 million dollars of HAVA
money left unspent, a portion of which can be allotted for such a
public voting system. It is time that we the people demanded action.


(Note: I get really suspicious when someone asks for urgent action to get HAVA funds--just what Diebold pulled previously. But maybe this is the real deal. Comments,please?)

[Hapameli]

1. I was at the forum, its totally legit! CA needs to organize and pressure

This is the action we received during the Election Reform Community Forum, which was awesome, btw! It was hosted by a Grassroots for Change group and Open Voting Consortium.

Robert Cohen, producer of "VoterGate" spoke on "Uncovering the Truth About New Computer Voting Systems". Please publicize his film, which is on his website, www.votergate.tv

The Freeway Blogger was there too! He was awesome and inspiring, it was a total highlight. His site is freewayblogger.com (currently having difficulties).

Jim March, a libetertain/republican from www.BlackBoxVoting.org spoke on "Existing Voter Systems and the Evils of Diebold"

Alan Deshert, President and founder of Open Voting Consortium (www.openvoting.org), explained "What is Open Voting?" and "Deprivitizing the Voting System in America: From Invisible Ballots to Open Voting"

"Electile Dysfunction" (www.electile-dysfunctionmovie.com) director/producter Penny Little spoke on "Electile Dysfunction in Ohio and How Ordinary Citizens Can Effect Change"

The city clerk also attended and spoke.

Also saw a very effective new 2 1/2 minute commercial from Common Cause that will be going out to 3 million people soon. A new forum, www.CommonForum.org, was also announced.

They also told us that we need to pressure Congress for the Holt Bill (HR 550, The Voter Confidence and increased Accessibility Act of 2005), which Verified Voting calls "The gold standard" for voting reform.

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear Representitive X:

I am very concerned about electronic voting, and wish to see reforms enacted that guarantee the following:

-Electronic voting machines will generate a paper ballot that voters can privately and independently verify.

-Manditory surprise percentage recounts of these ballots are required as a check against the machine counts.

- Election officials are properly trained in the use of the machines.

- All software and hardware is vigorously audited and monitored before the voters cast their votes.

Please support HR 550, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005, which the non-profit organization Verified Voting calls "the gold standard" for voting reform.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,


This is really, really important and I had to type this out by hand, so please keep this kicked for a while!

[Liberty Belle]

2. Kick! Thank you, ! I appreciate this info and will

pass it on to our local activist community.

[Hapameli]

3. Thanks for the response! There were around 75-90 people at the forum!

It ran 4 hours so people left as it went on. Good to see they jumped right on their tasks!

I also mentioned all of those people/sites because they have traveled around doing these forums. Some of those sites offer speakers for house parties and activism events.

They told us that if California leads this voting reform, others will follow. The new SoS is supposed to be a moral, honest Republican, so all we have to do is put pressure on him.

If someone knows people in the teachers/nurses/firefighters/police unions, pass this info onto them too.

Speakers at this forum stated that they believe that the California Recall election was stolen.

[jfern]

4. Jim March is very anti-Diebold

He's on our side even though he's a Libertarian. He used to post on the Craigslist political board.

[Liberty Belle]

6. Thank you. That's good to know.

[garybeck]

5. ya, check out their website

http://openvotingconsortium.org/

Alan has been fighting for election sanity for quite some time. Not all agree with their approach 100% but it is definitely an honest attempt at correcting the problems with electronic voting. My only complaint is the barcodes on the ballots. On the surface it seems to really take away the verifiability of the ballot, because the barcode is scanned to record the vote. But if you read more details about it, they seem to cover the bases. I still would rather not have that barcode though.

Gary

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ELECTION JUSTICE CENTER
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[Liberty Belle]

7. The barcodes bother me, too.

Low tech is better, in my opinion, and it must all be verifiable and easy for voters to understand.

[Hapameli]

8. The bar code is necessary for the ease of counting and for the disabled

It would still be verifiable because the vote would be printed on the inside of the flap, while the bar code is exposed. Still keeps the vote private but to recount you just have to unfold the ballot itself.

Part of the equation that we need to address, which falls into the whole "non-secretive elections", is enforcing manditory, random recounts. I will post the 10 electoral reforms we need to achieve tomorrow, I don't think its online anywhere.

One example discussed is that a blind person can cast their vote, then go to a worker, put on headphones, and listen to his vote when the worker scans his ballot.

[Wilms]

9. Greetings, Hapameli.

Re:

"One example discussed is that a blind person can cast their vote, then go to a worker, put on headphones, and listen to his vote when the worker scans his ballot."

How might the mobility-limited voter fit in this schema?

[Hapameli]

10. Hi Wilms! Here's disability access info from Open Voting Consortium

· Can the Open Voting system accommodate voters in wheelchairs?

Yes. The touch screen used in the Open Voting system is typically used in a horizontal position. However, it is quite feasible to construct a voting booth in which that screen can be lowered to an acceptable height or rotated into a vertical position. It is also feasible to construct a flat screen that is cabled so that it may be used on the voter's lap.

· How can a sight-impaired voter verify his or her vote on the OVC system?
Special voting stations can be equipped with headphones and audio-response software. The OVC is experimenting with user interfaces to make it easy for a sight impaired person to cast his or her vote.

Once a ballot is printed, and before it is cast, a sight impaired voter (or any voter for that matter) may take the ballot to a ballot reader machine and have the ballot read-back through headphones.

http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/modules.php?name=FAQ&myfaq=yes&id_cat=8&categories=Access+for+Voters+with+Disabilities

[Wilms]

11. 2 more...

Is the OVC system certified by any of the Certification Gods?

Can you do multi-language?

:)