in

Election Integrity Blog

by Alan-PA plaintiff | Feb 7 2008

Tomorrow, I will have my day in court. I will be represented by smart lawyers, well-versed in election law, and computer scientists, who understand the workings of touchscreen voting machines better than the vendors who sell them. My case is solid; according to the Pennsylvania constitution, voting machines must be auditable and the votes verifiable on a recount. My county’s touchscreen voting machines can do neither.

The story starts in 2006 when Northampton County was given the carrot of $1.5 million from the federal government to upgrade from lever machines to computerized voting machines. The Department of Justice waved the stick of litigation if we hesitated in our purchase. The County Commissioner labored under the misconception “paper is unconstitutional”, which he repeatedly announced at the meeting. Citizens’ concerns about the hazards of computerized voting were ignored by the County Council, who purchased $2.2 million of Advanced Voting Solutions WINvote DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) voting machines.

Citizens’ concerns about the accuracy and verifiability of the DREs, directed to the Pennsylvania Department of State, were ignored. Following the procedure for challenging the certification, I filed a legal petition requesting re-examination of my county’s voting machines. A total of 14 similar petitions were filed from around the state. Secretary of State Cortes responded that there was no need for re-examination, or concern, because his certifications were perfect and accurate.

With the help of Voter Action, 24 other plaintiffs and I filed suit to get these machines re-examined and, if necessary, decertified. In defense against the litigation, the Department of State used every excuse they could think of to deprive citizens of re-examination. The Commonwealth Court, however, upheld our suit, allowing it to move forward. Our victory was brief.  The DOS appealed immediately to the State Supreme Court, where the case now languishes.

One year later, AVS required an examination and certification of a new software version. A federal inspection by a new testing lab, iBeta, showed that Northampton County’s Advanced Voting Solutions DRE voting machines were found to have over 2000 software and hardware errors, any one of which could corrupt an election. The Department of State was forced to decertify the machines, and the state reimbursed the county for the $2 million it had spent in purchasing them.

Aha! These machines really are the worthless junk that we citizens have been complaining about! Here is our opportunity to bring accountability to the elections process and get either Hand Counted Paper Ballots or hand completed ballots with optical scan! Let’s not make the same mistake twice, I warned the County Council. Unfortunately, some of us don’t learn from our mistakes. Two weeks ago, the Elections Board and the County Council fell for a similar dog and pony show and purchased Sequoia Advanced DREs. Paper is too complicated.

Other plaintiffs from the original law suit and I have filed an injunction to prevent my county from making this same mistake again. Tomorrow is my day in court.