First in the "Fooled Again" Series: Interview with Nancy Tobi

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By Joan Brunwasser (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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Q. So, where does that leave you Granite State citizen-democrats? How do you get back to your tradition of community-based participatory democracy?

A. We are challenging the use of these machines in our state. We are challenging their use and we are saying that we will find the community counters, so we can all enjoy democracy in New Hampshire the way it is supposed to be – without secret vote counting.

We are challenging the state because we don't believe that the optical scanners meet the constitutional requirement for sorting and counting in open meeting. That challenge is going to play out in the coming year in the legislature, with the Ballot Law Commission (which approves the machines) and, if necessary, in the courts.

The point of all this is to say that in New Hampshire we have this tradition of grassroots democracy, and we all believe we run clean elections. New Hampshire has more recounts than any other state in the nation. We make it easy and financially feasible to hold recounts. Our recounts have never revealed any problems with the scanners. But that doesn't mean our elections are safe. As long as we use those computers, they are not safe.

So our complacency in New Hampshire about our clean elections, even while we allow the use of secret vote counting, is coming to an end. It is coming to an end because of our challenges to the system that allows secret vote counting in 55% of our polling places.

We know that if any place can deal with this issue, it is New Hampshire. Because we know how to run clean, hand counted elections. We are already doing it. We just need to make it happen throughout the state now.

Q. What can we learn from New Hampshire, when the vast majority of us come from states that are decidedly bigger, more urban and more diverse?

A. It’s not the size of the state or even its population. All that matters in order to conduct hand count elections is that you have a reasonable amount of ballots in your polling place. Then you just need good management and good methodology. To hand count your election, you need to manage people, process, papers, and numbers. That’s it. Any good manager can accomplish this, and most of the polling places in the nation process a very manageable number of ballots. Good managers can reach out to their communities to recruit the right help too. A lot of schools have community service requirements now. Most states allow 17 year olds to work in the polls, so that’s a perfect fit.

Here are a few excerpts from my Hand Count Primer, which will be released and available online for free at OpEdNews and other sites at the end of this month. I think this will help clarify what I mean:

Nearly 100% of America's polling jurisdictions have hand counted paper ballot elections within living memory. And nearly 27% of America's polling jurisdictions are already utilizing hand counted, paper ballot election administration; it's simple, it's cost effective, and eminently do-able in every polling place in the country. The New Hampshire experience, described in detail in this Primer, proves this out.

Let’s go back to what we currently do in New Hampshire. Publicly observable hand counting works in large precincts. The average number of ballots processed through any polling place in the country is under 1000. But New Hampshire towns hand count up to 3,600 ballots on any given Election Night! And at a cost that is less than the average cost paid to private corporations to program a single machine in a single election. The costs of printing paper ballots, hiring local community hand counters, and even bringing in a specialized manager, if need be, are much lower than the investment in computerized voting equipment requiring continual upgrades, maintenance, and specialized storage space.

Transparent hand counting works with complicated ballots. New Hampshire's ballots are among the most complex ballots in the nation, because we have the largest citizen legislature and many multi-member districts. But we still manage to hand count 3-4 times the national average of ballots in any given polling place, and wrap up the counting to announce our results on Election Night.

Q. Your view, then, in a nutshell?

A. If New Hampshire can do this, with our large polling places and our complex ballots, then any place can.

Q. Let’s go back and talk about dollars and cents, so often the bottom line for those making these decisions. What evidence do you have about the costs of hand counting paper ballots? Where can people see this? Can you provide a link for our readers?

A. We have run some preliminary numbers on the costs of running hand count elections. This can be found in a presentation given by the NH Dept. of State last June, which is posted online here: http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/files/Hand_count_training_D-fest_July_5_2007.pdf

The Hand Count Primer, when it is released, will also have some number projections for the national cost for replacing all touchscreen systems with paper. We have cost projections for replacing with optical scanners or with hand count systems. Our projections show the cost for replacing with optical scanners at $1,170,821,250 and to replace with hand count we project those costs to be only $208,020,950. You can see the difference in cost savings right there.

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Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which exists for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election (more...)

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