Is Iowa Making Any Headway in Regaining Voters' Right To Vote?
by Tom Poe, Charles City, Iowa
As everyone knows by now, voters across the country and here in Iowa have literally lost their right to vote.
Today, with proprietary electronic voting systems ruling the way voters
express their voices in elections, their voices are lost in the whir of
computers that record those votes using a secret vote count.
There are some who think North Carolina has the strictest election laws in the country
[1]. That's not really saying much, since their requirement that
electronic voting systems vendors place their source code in escrow
with the state is meaningless, if that step is supposed to provide
reassurance that a secret vote count has not taken place. The full
impact of just how fruitless such a requirement is will be felt the day
the courts inevitably rule that proprietary vendors of electronic
voting systems do not have to reveal their source code to satisfactory
“public scrutiny.” That's assuming anyone, anywhere could get
such an issue before the court in the first place.
The
voters of Iowa (that includes me) need to become aware of the fact that
we have lost our right to vote. I sent an email to Iowa's
Secretary of State/Registrar of Voters recently. The Registrar
asked the Deputy to respond, and I received a courteous reply, as well
as a follow-up phone call. I have included the email exchange
below [2]. There is a solution, and that solution can be demonstrated
by visiting the Australian web site that explains how they conduct their elections with electronic voting systems [3].
My original email:
Mr. Culver:
If you haven't already, please have your secretary request a copy of
the Government Accounting Office report on electronic voting, and,
after making the appropriate adjustments here in Iowa, publish a
statement to reassure all voters in Iowa, that they will have their
right to vote reinstated, immediately.
I
suspect it will be a trivial matter to sue the companies that you have
chosen (unwisely) to do business with, in order to recompense the
taxpayers of Iowa.
I
also recommend you arm yourself with knowledge about the electronic
voting systems used in Australia. The systems are available
freely by downloading from the Internet, modifying to suit our needs,
and guaranteeing us all the right to vote by securing public scrutiny.
I will give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you knew nothing
about the Australian option prior to this email. However, as of
this date, you no longer will be accorded such discretion.
Among the recommendations/findings of the GAO:
“Expeditiously establish documented policies, criteria, and procedures
for certifying voting systems that will be in effect until the national
laboratory accreditation program for voting systems becomes fully
operational, and define tasks and time frames for achieving the full
operational capability of the national voting system certification
program.” http://www.eastbaymedia.com/tgdc-march/
Technical Guidelines Development Committee Meeting of March, 2005.
All Iowans will be looking forward to your published statement within
the next thirty days. Having suffered the loss of Iowan Voters'
right to vote since at least the 2000 elections, thirty days is a very
generous timeframe. Please respect the office you hold, and
mitigate the harm you've caused.
Respectfully,
Tom Poe
Charles City, Iowa 50616
[1] http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_11.php#004171
[2] John D. Hedgecoth
Deputy Secretary of State for Operations
Office of the Secretary of State
First Floor, Lucas Building
321 E. 12th St.
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-242-5071 (voice)
515-242-5953 (fax)
jhedgecoth@sos.state.ia.us
[3] http://www.elections.act.gov.au/Elecvote.html
The response:
—–Original Message—–
From: Hedgecoth, John [SOS]
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 3:19 PM
To: 'tompoe@studioforrecording.com'
Subject: Re: electronic voting machines
Tom:
I wish to respond to your inquiry with our office of Nov. 7, which is set out below.
As you doubtless are aware, our office is in the latter stages of
implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which requires
upgrades in voting systems. You also are aware that county
auditors are in the process of selecting new voting equipment. In
some cases, auditors have selected touch-screen systems. Our office
maintains compliance with HAVA when it comes to the certification
process for new voting equipment and has produced guidelines similar to
those referenced in the GAO report you reference. We have
consistently advocated for a voter verified paper trail in Iowa and do
not intend to change that position. The people of Iowa need to be
certain their votes count.
You raise an issue surrounding independent verification of votes, which
apparently involves some type of open-source software. We have
made use of the vendors who have completed both the federal and state
certification process. We have no other legal option, now or in
the future. I would appreciate any further information you have
to share on this issue.
I find your deadline for some sort of public statement confusing. The office is in compliance with HAVA.
John D. Hedgecoth
Deputy Secretary of State for Operations
Office of the Secretary of State
First Floor, Lucas Building
321 E. 12th St.
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-242-5071 (voice)
515-242-5953 (fax)
jhedgecoth@sos.state.ia.us
This article was written for Blog for Iowa by Tom Poe of Charles City.
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