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ACCURATE (Center for Correct,
Usable, Reliable, Auditable, and Transparent Elections) public comments on
the 2005 Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines. (Read)
MDERC
Comments to the United States Election Assistance Commission regarding their
proposed Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) – Sept 2005 (Read)
A new MDERC study finds that the
Florida election law passed in 2005 will put Black and Hispanic voters in a
worse position than they were in under the previous laws. Read our letter to the
Department of Justice, commenting (Read)
on their review of the Florida legislation.
MDERC Statement
for the United States Senate / Committee on Rules and Administration
Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, Chair, Miami-Dade
Election Reform Coalition
Bobbie Brinegar, D.C. Director, Miami- Dade Election Reform Coalition
Thank you for
the opportunity to submit material for the record on this critically important
topic. Few tasks in a democracy are as important as ensuring public confidence
in the outcome of elections. (Read)
Supervisor
of Elections of Miami-Dade: Initial
analysis of the desirability and feasibility of converting to an optical scan
election system. (Read)
Supervisor
of Elections of Miami-Dade: Initial
analysis of the desirability and feasibility of converting to an optical scan
election system. (Read)
Letter from the MDERC Chair to the
Pres. of the Verified Voting Foundation:
Dear
Will,
The
poll closing observation project, as well as the attached report, was made
possible by the generous grant from the Verified Voting Foundation. We titled
the report "GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME - Poll Closing Observation, Ballot
Accounting, and Electronic Voting Security".
As
you will see from the report, our volunteers observed a total of 88 separate
poll closings on election day, as well as at least 57 separate early voting
closings and several early voting poll openings in 18 of the 20 early voting
sites in Miami-Dade County. The observation effort was coordinated by our two
paid interns (hired with a portion of the grant money) and lead by our
Government Relations Chair, Dan McCrea. All of the observers, however, were
volunteers who donated their time not just at the time of the observation, but
also for a training session that lasted several hours.
The
work of the volunteer monitors and observers was supplemented by the work of
volunteer researchers who reviewed thousands of pages of public documents,
including all of the "Certificate No.2" documents which are supposed to record
information regarding the number of signatures of voters who signed in to vote
in each precinct (information regarding the number signatures is the most
accurate record of the number of voters who actually showed up to vote at a
particular precinct). In addition, the volunteer researches, led by Prof.
Martha Mahoney of the University of Miami Law School and Barbara Brandon who is
the law school's research librarian, also reviewed audit records produced by the
voting machines, as well as other data available from the November 2004 election
and other earlier elections.
We
believe that the project and the report are ground breaking in several
respects. First, they represent a victory for the concept of non-partisan civic
participation in the most basic functioning of our democracy. In short, the
tireless, dedicated and focused work of our volunteers demonstrates that common,
every-day citizens have an important role to play in election system reform
and through their public participation and basic monitoring, can assist in
uncovering problems in the system.
We
are also proud of the innovative approach of our project. The project brought a
new awareness to the poll closing and vote tabulation process and combined first
hand observation with document research. Moreover, as detailed in the report,
the project's methodology has been clearly established and set forth so that it
can be replicated by, and serve as a model for, other communities.
The
Report is especially important not just for Miami-Dade County, but for the
nation as a whole, because it details a clear instance of electronic ballot
stuffing in the November 2004 election. This instance of electronic ballot
stuffing, which is well-documented in the report, points to a flaw in the direct
recording electronic voting machines used in Miami-Dade County - a flaw that the
vendor, ES&S, had previously claimed had never affected and would never effect
actual elections.
The
discovery of the flaw at work and the resulting ballot stuffing should sound the
alarm across the country because it proves the repeated assertion by electronic
security experts that DRE technology cannot be trusted to ensure that all of the
votes are accurately recorded and counted. Moreover, as set forth in the
report, the electronic ballot stuffing went undetected and the election was
certified with 171 votes that we know did not belong in the canvass because they
were the product of the ballot stuffing. The failure to detect the "ghost"
votes is another important discovery and points to a serious problem of the lack
of a workable system to audit the totals before certification. In this
respect, Prof. Mahoney has taught our coalition that the findings of the report
can be summarized with one basic mantra: "count, compare, investigate and
report." These are the basics of getting the vote count RIGHT the first time.
In
closing, I speak on behalf of the entire coalition when I say that we are
extremely proud of our report and we are grateful to the Foundation for having
faith in this project and in our work. We hope that you and the Foundation
are equally proud to know that the Foundation's generosity made possible what we
believe is the most innovative and important grassroots election system reform
project that has ever been undertaken in our community.
Thank you again. Please let us know what you think of the report.
Warmest regards,
Lida Rodriguez-Taseff
Chair
Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition
Posted on Sat, Apr. 09, 2005:
Floridians deserve a
flawless voting system
We are disappointed that Constance Kaplan, former
Miami-Dade County supervisor of elections is taking the full blame for the
failure of an inherently flawed election system. In June 2004, the
Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition called on Gov. Bush to order
independent audits of Florida's voting systems to determine whether they
work properly. This would help increase voter confidence and show that state
officials are doing everything possible to protect voters' rights.
The governor's response was
that it was our goal ''to undermine voter confidence.'' The office of
Secretary of State Glenda Hood followed with its statement that Florida has
the most rigorous certification process in the country.
The proof of this flawed
system has now been made clear with Kaplan's admission that these machines
are capable of being programmed to erase votes. Her statement that these
''glitches'' did not affect the outcome of the vote misses the point.
Miami-Dade voters deserve a system that is reliable and accurate. They
should not be forced to settle for a defective, problem-prone system that
cost millions of dollars and was obsolete before it was delivered.
Miami-Dade's legislative
delegation must use this opportunity to lead the state. It must remind the
state that we are not the only county in Florida with an ES&S voting system.
It also needs to demand that Bush, Hood and the Legislature pass a bill
requiring a voter-verified paper record and routine auditing of the state's
67 election systems.
The Legislature must
enforce article 10 of the Voters Bill of Rights, which states that the voter
has the right to ``vote on a voting system that is in working condition and
that will allow votes to be accurately cast.''
SANDY
WAYLAND,
legislative chair,
Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, Miami
Draft of 2005 Leg Bill (Download)
MDERC position paper on the 2005 Leg Bill (Download)
Read the
MDERC Letter to Florida Governor Jeb Bush
Advancement Project's revised version of Legal
Guide to Fair Elections in Florida was published July 6, 2004.
Read (2.4 MB)
Florida Legal
Guide to Fair Elections
was published by the
AdvancementProject.org June 2004.
Read
Read
Recommendations for the Conduct of Elections in Miami-Dade County using the ES&S
iVotronic System by Dough Jones
Read
letter dated April 19, 2004 from MDERC member ACLU, Greater Miami Chapter,
asking the Elections Subcommittee of the Miami-Dade
County
Commission, to retain outside, independent experts to review
whether the ES&S DREs have the capacity to
produce adequate & accurate audits of the votes cast on each machine and whether
the ES&S DREs have the capacity to produce an adequate and accurate audit of the
machines prior to the certification deadline set by state law.
April 19, 2004 -
Members of the MDERC, led by Prof. Martha Mahoney, of the University of
Miami School of Law,
testified before the Elections Subcommittee of the Miami-Dade
County Commission, to express their concerns about the possibility of what
MDERC sees as serious systemic problems with the DREs purchased by Miami-Dade
County. The MDERC's testimony focused on the concerns raised by an
internal County document which disclosed that the County had serious problems
with the audit logs and vote records of an election that took place in May of
2003. The MDERC's Bobbie Brinegar, President of the League of Women Voters
of Miami-Dade also testified at the hearing regarding concerns over continued
problems with the DREs used by disabled voters. As a result of the
questions raised by the MDERC's the Elections Subcommittee agreed to present a
resolution before the entire County Commission to create a task force comprised
of outside computer experts and others, to look into the serious questions
addressed by the MDERC.
March 31, 2004, Prof. Martha Mahoney testified before
the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee, speaking against Proposed Rule
1S-2.031 and also criticizing Section 30 on Page 44 of Senate Bill SB3004 which
states in part that "a manual recount may not be conducted of undervotes on
touchscreen machines." (Read
MDERC Comments on Proposed Rule 1S-2.031 and Secretary of State Glenda Hood's
response)
Read
Senate Bill SB3004 proposed by Chair of the Senate Ethics &
Elections Committee
Read
Letter to Supervisor of Elections, Constance Kaplan
February 26, 2004
Read
Letter from MDERC to Miami-Dade County Manager Burgess Re:
Resolution #R-994-03 – 120 day study to implement voter-verified paper record
mechanism for DRE’s December 12, 2003 (Read
previous letter sent October 27, 2003)
Department
of Justice asks The Reform Coalition for input on the HAVA ("Help America
Vote Act"). Pre-clearance
letter sent
The
MDERC's statement hand-delivered to the
Congressional Black Caucus. Sept 26, 2003.
Read
Inspector General Final
Report on the Miami-Dade
Voting Systems Contract.
May 20, 2003
Short
Critique
to widely-circulated document from the Election Center that attempts to defend
the security and reliability of DRE voting systems (Direct Recording Electronic,
often referred to as touchscreen systems)
written by insider David Jefferson May 9, 2003
Voter
Verification Newsletter Vol 1, Number 1
was published by Stanford University May 7, 2003.
more...
Letter from the Reform Coalition to
the County Board of Commissioners April 29, 2003.
more...
Office of County Manager Steve
Shiver publishes its Post-Election Report.
Download it
here.
The Coalition's Post-Election Report
(full report: PDF
HTML - short version:
PDF
HTML)
"...the success of the November 5th election must therefore be judged against
the needless and thoughtless exigency created by those at the County who
apparently chose to put off meaningful reforms while limiting their efforts to
spending tax payer monies on unproven and complex technology," wrote Coalition
members in the report. "In this respect, as this county attempts to create a
model for conducting future elections, it needs to differentiate between reforms
that are nothing more than successful damage control driven by bad technology
and the neglect of voting officials, and those that represent meaningful and
productive change."
The Coalition's Recommendations
To fix our election
process, here is The Magic Phrase
“Voter-verified paper record of every ballot cast”
Here’s why it’s
so important…(more...)
December 5, 2002
Meeting with State Attorney assistants Ed Griffith and Chad Lackey
to discuss proposals to the Jeb Bush election reform task force.
Read Letter
November 25, 2002
Release of the Reform Coalition's
Post-Election Report.
October 29, 2002
ACLU URGES DADE ELECTION OFFICIALS TO INCLUDE SAMPLE CREOLE BALLOTS IN
COUNTYWIDE MAILING TO HOUSEHOLDS.
Letter sent out.
October 28, 2002
COALITION RELEASES
REPORT CARD ON ASHCROFT’S RESPONSE
TO MIAMI-DADE ELECTIONS’ CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.
Media Advisory.
October 14, 2002
Voting Reforms in Miami-Dade announced:
1.
Expansion of early voting sites to 14.
2. All
sites open on Saturdays.
3.
Early voting opportunities available two weeks prior to Election Day.
4. Early
voting sites open from 7am – 7pm.
5. Back
up paper ballots (equal to 25% of registered voters per precinct) will be
available in case of voting machine failure or power outgage.
6. Sample
ballots to be mailed to approximately 867,000 households in Miami-Dade
County.
7. Sample
ballots also include a “Frequently Asked Questions” guide produced by the
League of Women Voters and the ACLU.
8. County
to send sample ballot and League of Women Voters of Dade
County-ACLU guide in three languages.
9. Reforms
be institutionalized for future elections in Miami-Dade County.
October, 2002
"Make Your Vote Count!" pamphlets in
English,
Spanish, and
Creole
were created by League of Women Voters of Dade County and the
ACLU
Note: It is the text of these that was adapted for the "frequently asked
questions" that were in the sample ballots that were mailed to registered
voters in Miami-Dade.
October 4, 2002
Letter to
County Manager Steve Shiver
September 20, 2002
Initial
Letter from
the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition to
the Supervisor of Elections David Leahy with
Voting Reforms Demands
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Learn
More about the Reform Coalition's "I Count" Campaign (Read in
