Needed: Voting Security and Election Results Credibility
One of Marian's Fundamental Four 		No Leaky Buckets !
(and no SPAM from us) ---
"If you cannot trust the way your votes are counted, nothing much else in politics matters!"
Home |  Internet Voting |  Sections |  All The Holes |  Publications |  Demos |  Reference |  Legislative |  Brazil  |  Old News
The Fundamentals for Integrity in Voting Systems
Ballots and Ballot-marking Methods - a Comprehensive list!
Recognize and fix all the leaks in our balloting and counting systems!
I believe that in order to maintain trustworthy elections and "SARA" results, we must have no leaky buckets -- that all the potential holes in the elections system must be plugged, including:--
Have Paper  |  Use the Paper  |  Stand-Alone Machines  |  Nothing Else Amiss
Essential: -- "hacopaba" --
  HAVE PAPER  a voter-verifiable paper (physical) ballot for every voter, as the legal representation of each voters' choices ("v-vpb"). In plain language, have a separate paper ballot that the voter knows is correct while still at the polling-booth or kitchen table and voting(*). My Whatcom County and Washington State gain a gold star in 2005!

 USE the PAPER - TWICE   a mandatory random full-precinct or substantial batches AUDIT by hand-count of all ballots on an adequate percentage of the ballots in a jurisdiction, as a double-check of the electronic record (critical if computerized voting is used). My Whatcom County and Washington State have scored a mixed bag. A limited hand count has been done in Whatcom, but it is not required and might be dropped. See how much that would cost - for YOU!

 STAND-ALONE MACHINES   If any machines or computers are used, no live online or modem or WiFi or IR interconnections of voting systems components, at any point in the process between the voter and the election certification - we believe that in Whatcom this criteria is met - another gold star for them.

 NOTHING ELSE AMISS   adequate attention paid to all the other elements of voting systems - people, hardware, staff training, education of the voters, watchfulness and diligence by citizens and voters of the chain-of-custody of ballots and data. Our county is doing very well on this aspect, (another gold star for them) with a citizen advisory committee, and citizen Election Observers. Voting systems must meet the SARA test of the LWV-US - Secure, Accurate, Recountable and Accessible. The bucket will not stay full if there remains even one hole that's big enough to change or lose even one vote! History shows us that known frauds have always been, and remain, a risk for election integrity!


Also of some value:
  THE SOFTWARE FOR VOTING AND COUNTING
  KNOW THAT THE COUNTING RULES in the software ARE RIGHT - (if computerized voting or counting is used), a full verification of the source code written into all voting systems, at every point in the process might be nice - voter registration, polling-places, intermediate handling, voter_ID verification, vote-counting and vote-reporting, etc. Code review acts as a great deterrent to insider fraud. But -- that is a large and complex task, and even if properly completed, system security could still be subverted by someone changing the programs after installation, which can be done by one insider or one visitor who gained a brief physical access to many of the current models.

write me at fix-a-leak@noleakybuckets.org

  # SARA: Secure, Accessible, Recountable and Accurate
 # hand counted paper ballots - ha-co-pa-ba
There are two great differences between the use of computers for Commerce and for Voting:
 .. Commerce:
* uses public receipts
* is subject to control 		Voting:
* needs a secret ballot
* subjects everything to control

Read about our local Elections Integrity group
"Whatcom Fair Voting".

Bev Harris wrote about containers that don't even leak!:
"...Using voter databases with data that is constantly "in flux" is like passing around squishy water balloons. Contents will tend to shift depending on who's holding them at any given moment...."
      source: BBV

And about my friend Rev. Barbara Gilday.

SPAM disclaimer note:
Someone has been fraudulently sending SPAM messages illegally using email addresses of "______-at-noleakybuckets.org". We object to this fraudulent misuse of the domain name, but there is little that can be done.


 
The changing factors - News
(click for old news)
- May & June '09 -
New Bill by US Rep. Rush Holt

(Update June 24th, 2009) Holt's newest new bill still fails.
The bill is currently known as "The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009 (HR 2894)
Analysis of HR 2894 by
Bev Harris of BBV;
Conclusion: Do Not Pass

With citations from and by:
http://www.OpenVotingConsortium.org/ad/hr2894.pdf ;
http://www.votersunite.org/info/2009HoltBillTimeline.pdf ;
DEMOCRACY FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE / ELECTION DEFENSE ALLIANCE ;
http://www.opednews.com/articles/2009-Holt-Bill-E-Voting--by-Nancy-Tobi-090329-8 32.html ;

(May 2009) Holt's new bill still needs meticulous review, but at first glance it has enough merit to justify doing that careful review.
"ban-touchscreen-voting"
- May '09 -
More info on stopping Internet voting

The voteraction.org website has a page dedicated to news updates on activities about Internet voting - with the purpose of avoiding it because of the serious problems such systems would have.
track-internet-voting-legislation
- May '09 -
From Brazil - Election Fraud and Technology

A new article about election fraud, by a Brazilian leader in elections integrity. The officials are moving to install fingerprint voter-ID technology on the DRE's to reduce one form of fraud, while other ways are ignored.

by Amilcar Brunazo Filho

- April '09 - In Memoriam
We have lost John Gideon.

Very sad news (April 28, 2009) that our admired and beloved John Gideon passed away yesterday, of a sudden attack of bacterial meningitis.

John had researched and published, for five years, the "DVN" - Daily Voting News - keeping his readers informed on the bad and the good about election systems integrity. And with Ellen Thiesen, they maintained VotersUnite.org.

Their byline - The Creekside Declaration - says it so very strongly and eloquently:
"Mission: To encourage citizen ownership of transparent, participatory democracy."

The Story of John Gideon, on BradBlog

- March '09 -
Internet Voting Keeps showing up

Time and again, place after place, we keep seeing proposals and actual use of internet voting -- a very dangerous proposition for democracy!

New Page; Just on Internet Voting

- October '08 -
A summary paper, by Steven Wolff

One of the members of our WFV group, Steven Wolff, has assembled a discussion paper which addresses the four major segments of the voting system, and reviews the likelihood of integrity errors for each.

His paper (14 pages, PDF, 500KB) is available here:
US-VotingandElectionProblemsSummary.pdf

Steven looks at the Election System in four sections/phases of the activity:
"...the categories of fraud which US voters and democracy face include:
  • Registration Fraud
  • Voter Fraud
  • Voter Suppression
  • Election Fraud...."
Steven is open to suggestions for improvements to the paper. You may communicate to him through this email address
Supplementing his paper, here is a chart of the voter turnout and percentage VBM, in Whatcom County:
(click on thumbnail chart for large image)
Older News Clips
click here

http://NoLeakyBuckets.org/ by Marian Beddill, an independent citizen activist in Whatcom County, WA - c: [an error occurred while processing this directive] last edited:  2009-06-24