Re: 6/17 Daily Camera editorial/ERC report

[kellen carey <kcarey636@xxxxxxxxx>]

But of course there will be no accountability for the mistakes: the people who recommended the purchase of Hart will plod along in their jobs (though one showing a degree of integrity did resign); those who endorsed and signed an offensively flawed contract will plod along in their jobs, too.

 

kell

Doug Grinbergs <saule@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/editorials/article/0,1713,BDC_2489_3860994,00.html 
>
> Making lemonade
> Recommendations on voting will help - for now
> Daily Camera
> June 17, 2005
>
> It was distressing to learn, in a report by Boulder County's Election 
> Review Committee released this week, that the county's new, 
> $1.4-million Hart InterCivic optical scanning system would, under 
> "optimal" conditions, yield general election results in "24-28 hours."
>
> In other words, working as intended, this "high-tech" system is a day 
> late - on a good day - and short of ideal. According to Hart 
> InterCivic, the system wasn't designed to handle a precinct-based 
> general election.
>
> It looks like taxpayers may have bought a bit of a lemon.
>
> Nevertheless, for now, it's the system we've got. The county's old, 
> relatively reliable punch-card machines were
>  essentially nixed by the 
> federal Help America Vote Act, which required counties to turn to 
> different technology or lose funding.
>
> The committee found that many factors contributed to the November 
> debacle, in which the county took three days to count the vote. The 
> biggest bug was ballots that were unreadable by the new machines, in 
> part because the printer - Eagle Direct Inc. - did not have proper 
> specifications. But a shortage of trained volunteers, a contingency 
> plan in case of problems and other factors contributed.
>
> The committee made some sound recommendations for the coming November 
> vote, including: Using a mail ballot; rental or purchase of 
> additional scanners; providing ballot specifications to potential 
> printers; and better training for election judges.
>
> Unrelated to the November delay, the committee also wisely urged the 
> county to develop a legal, accurate system for a manual audit process.
>
> The committee
>  did good work. But even if it works perfectly, the Hart 
> InterCivic system will be unacceptably slow in a general election. 
> That's a real problem for the future.

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