May 19, 2006
P-I is depending on technology to secure mail ballots

This morning the P-I editorial board displayed their willingness to give up any hope of ballot security by putting their stamp of approval on a move to vote-by-mail in King County.

The article cites convenience as the reason "that 70 percent of King County voters already cast their ballots by mail, through permanent absentee status."

I've heard many proponents of vote-by-mail use the "70% of voters already vote by mail" as a catch-all argument. If it's so popular, we should do it, right? Besides the fact that this ignores the wishes of more than 300,000 voters, this statistic is often misquoted, as it is in the P-I article. By Deanron's own admission, less than 60 percent of voters have permanent absentee status.

The P-I appears satisfied that any security and accuracy problems will be solved by technology - "Technological advances in ballot verification and tracking, backed by a paper trail, can make mail elections as accurate and secure as they are convenient." An interesting conclusion, since Deanron says that one of the weaknesses in a vote-by-mail switch is that there is "no ideal product or technical solution currently available" for processing such large numbers of absentee ballots.

The P-I editors may be willing to depend on currently unavailable technology to safeguard their ballots. I'd rather see King County address the accuracy and security problems (that Stefan has so ably pointed out) in their current system first.

Posted by Jonathan Bechtle at May 19, 2006 09:15 AM | Email This
Comments
1. I've heard many proponents of vote-by-mail use the "70% of voters already vote by mail" as a catch-all argument.

Seems to me like that's what we ought to be trying to change. I'd like to see it harder to get an absentee ballot so that it would be more convienient to go to the polls. Only people physically unable to go to the polls should get absentee ballots.

Posted by: RBW on May 19, 2006 10:18 AM
2. The only thing that will secure my ballot is if I go to the polls and vote myself. I do not trust King County or anyone else for that matter to get me my ballot on time. I have had my right to vote stolen from me because my ballot arrived too late for it to count. I will not let it happen again. No one has given me a reason to think otherwise. Hey, no one from the county elections board has even said they were sorry it happened, I know the know because I've exchanged e-mails with Dean Logan, I will admit it happened before his watch, but he has given me no reason to think that it will not happen again.

Posted by: RennDawg on May 19, 2006 10:22 AM
3. By the way, there's a poll on that link to the P.I. article. You might want to put your 2 cents worth on it.

Posted by: RBW on May 19, 2006 10:25 AM
4. I prefer voting at the polls because there are fewer handoffs of my ballot. I get my ballot on time, I vote it, I place it in the ballot box. Done deal. Since I sign the poll book (and show ID), I know that no one else voted my ballot.

I have not yet seen anything in the all mail process that makes me feel comfortable about error prevention. If they would address the issues and PROVE they have it under control, I might change my mind, but so far we only have "promises" to do better.

For those 344 voters in Lake Stevens that did not receive their ballots, Bob Terwilliger shrugged it off - "The measure would still pass even if all 344 unvoted ballots were cast against it, Terwilliger said." They were unvoted because they were UNDELIVERED.

Snohomish County didn't discover the error until AFTER the election. What kind of system do they have that can't keep track of ballots in such a manner that they don't discover an error until after the election? Oops. Sorry voters, we "promise" to do better - next time.

King County has even more issues and, unfortunatley, many elections are determined by KC.

Hey Government, prove to me the security first, and then maybe I'll trust you with my ballot.

Posted by: SouthernRoots on May 19, 2006 11:10 AM
5. Signatures are simply not secure. On a mail in ballot, one could easily trace over a signature and get it to pass a computer scan and compare with a signature on file. The only way to make a signature secure is to sign on a digital tablet like many credit card readers do in stores today. Those signatures can then be compared with a stored digital signature to match the timing of the pen strokes and other biometric data that cannot be easily faked. Even when our signatures appear to change slightly, the way in which we write them generally does not change. That's the true uniqueness of a signature. If Dean Logan was really serious about voting, he would use other means of assuring true ballot authentication such as pin numbers, or other forms of two-factor authentication that are truly secure. It would take a little bit more organization, but it would gaurantee security. The fact is, Dean Logan and other Democrats like Christine Gregoire do not want a secure election. A secure election makes it harder for Moonbats like Trudy Wisebood and Dustin O'Coilan to cheat.

While new computer aided signature comparison would alleviate the obvious mismatch errors of human comparison, they still don't prevent a determined Moonbat fraudster, and all it takes is about 130 or so determined Moonbat fraudsters to throw a close election.

All mail voting is insecure, costly and degrades public trust even further than it has already been degraded.

Dean Logan belongs in an Orange jumpsuit. Norm Maleng, Rob McKenna, et. al., do your jobs!


Posted by: Jeff B. on May 19, 2006 11:19 AM
6. Everyone that opposes this should start pushing for a public vote on the issue. If they are so sure that 70% will approve of the switch, why not let the voters decide?

Then at least the issue will be debated in public.

I've posted my statement against vote by mail on my website... for anyone who'd like additional info. http://www.gentrylange.com

Posted by: Gentry on May 19, 2006 12:00 PM
7. 1 I got a permanent absentee ballot because in the past on Election Day, I'd go in early to work on a project and end up getting home at 900pm and thus missing the Election
2 I found out that even with a mail in ballot, I still wait till the nite before to fill in the Ballot and to save 39 cents drop it off
3 Washington State should return to permanent absentees for limited exceptions and temporary absentees for vacation, out of town, students, etc
4 The current State Voter Database is buggier than a mattress in a cheap motel, and it needs extensive clean up
5 King County, Oregon, and the other counties are swimming upstream
6 Washington should enact a law like other states where you are allowed time off to vote

Posted by: Green Lake Mark on May 19, 2006 01:09 PM
8. How do they know that 70% of people are voting? It may be that ballots are cast for 70% of the people, but that doesn't mean that all of those people actually had anything to do with the casting of those ballots.

Posted by: supercat on May 19, 2006 04:20 PM
9. I agree that the public should have the final say on this issue and that it should be subject to a vote of the people.

After all, these so-called officials were elected to serve us.

Posted by: KS on May 20, 2006 06:59 PM
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