I worked out a new voting system that,
combining the good points of paper voting with those of computing,
guarantees quick, honest and verifiable results.
Please read details at
www.ClearVoting.com
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electronic voting and Democracy
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electronic voting and Democracy
News
2004-08-06
Boulder (CO) County ditches punch cards in favor of slower-to-tally but easier-to-track paper voting
Excerpt from The Rocky Mountain News
Boulder County was dead last in reporting results of the Aug. 10 primary.
But officials aren't apologizing for a count that went into the following morning or the decision to go back to paper ballots at a time when other counties are moving to computer voting.
"Our job is not to be first. Our job is to make sure our voting is accurate, and if it means taking
more time and being slower, that's what we're going to end up doing,"
said County Clerk Linda Salas.
County Commissioner Paul Danish is even more blunt in responding to demands for faster results.
"We are picking the government here, and the practice does not revolve around how quickly it can be reported on election night," Danish said.
Boulder decided last spring to replace its three-decades-old punch-card voting system with a system that, in some respects, is even more antiquated. Primary voters were handed a 81/2-by-11-inch sheet with candidates' names and told to fill in the squares with a ballpoint pen.
Salas and the commissioners adopted that process amid concerns by some residents that high-tech systems, such as touch-screen vot
A group called Citizens for Verifiable Voting noted repeatedly that the new systems leave no paper trail that can be independently verified. Many members of the group are computer professionals.
Similar concerns have been voiced nationwide, but feelings run especially high in Boulder, where many citizens are still seething over the 2000 Florida voting flap.
Joe Pezzillo, a CVV leader, said the slow returns Aug. 10 were fine with him.
"The citizen's primary concern is the accuracy of the vote, not the speed with which it's
conducted," Pezzillo said.
Only the candidates and the "instant media" are concerned with speed, he said.
In fact, the counting process after the polls closed was decidedly high-tech.
The county uses a system called Hart Ballot Now, which scans each ballot to create an image. That image is then tallied, Salas said.
The advantage of the system is that when a ballot is in dispute, the image can be flashed on the wall for everyone to see, including poll watchers from the political parties, Salas said. Under the old system, officials determined the intent of the voter by examining the punch card, which the party observers couldn't get close enough to see.
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