Accurate and Fraud-Free Elections Now: Florida's Solution

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By William Faulkner (about the author) Page 4 of 4 page(s)

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"Where do we go from here?"

The below outline is a proposed realistic starting point for Dialog with the SOS and FSASE. These ideas are based on years of discussion with several of my own local county SOEs as well as over 20 years working the field of Private Sector, Federal and State government computer technology procurement. Coming to terms with a joint agreement concerning degrees of auditing will be problematic. So we need to start the process of open Dialog as soon as possible and that's always been my focus.

Because of Glenda Hood's refusal to address our Petition from 100's of thousands of concerned citizens. We the People were not even given the respect of any Answer and found the Door to the SOS Closed to our voices.

The solution to these Threats to our Nation's right for Accurate Elections, depends on the percent of Accuracy the SOS chooses. Cooperation and shared Knowledge has always been VVF's official Goal. Now that NIST has pronounced the impending death of all Touch screen DREs, Governor Crist needs to keep the SOE's Association's long awaited promises contained in the proposal Outlined below.

SOS Browning needs to have an open door policy to correct the many injustices of his predecessors.

Verified Voting of Florida proposes that appropriate Florida Leaders from the SOS & SOE's plan to hold a joint Election Reform Leadership Conference to exchanged concerns with Voter Integrity groups from Fla.

As a starting point to open the Dialog with the new SOS, I suggest we go back to the recommendations of "The Governor's Select Task Force" and all of it's yet to be fulfilled promises. Other Issues of Importance to be considered as a step forward are;

1. Planning Schedule for Phase out of DRE's in the !5 counties not required by HAVA for Disability Use or the language challenged and other factors such as Early Voting.

a. Vendor Contract Renewal or Non-Renewal for failing to comply with request to reveal Voting System Source Code.
b. Trade In options, considering Vendors inability to meet Security issues. DRE's for PCOS by 2008.
c. Resale or Refurbishment controlled by Division of Elections of All Voting Systems paid with Federal Funds.

2. Creating a Non-Partisan environment for State Election Officials, SOS down to the county SOE.

a. Public Funded Campaigns will return democracy and those People's Voices that no longer can be heard.
b. Partisan Rivalry Elimination as a major factor in Vote Suppression and Fraud.

3. Requirement of a "Transparent Independent Audit" to achieve the goal of 100 % Accuracy of the State's Elections.

a. All future Technical Designs for Voting Systems must require the use of the "Voter Verified Paper Ballot" (VVPB).
b. The Voter's physical Act of Marking the Paper Ballot serves as the permanent record that the Voter Verified each selection 100 % of the time.
c. Hardcopy of the VVPB comes first before any type of Technology can be Applied allowing the creation of 2 independent records of each vote.
d. Voter Verified Paper Ballots are counted by an independent manual method. Those same Ballots are then run on PCOS and the 2 separate counts continue until each is brought into balance. Requiring these principle will Eliminate Human Error and Machine Malfunctions as causes of Voter Disenfranchisement.

Recent changes in Florida Election Law Instituted under the States previous Administration by SOS Hood, were clearly meant to serve only the Vendor's interests. Changes need to be made to correct this miscarriage of Justice. For over 200 years the Democracy our Founders created has used the paper ballot. There is no reason to Eliminate the paper ballot when it does not need to be fixed. What's really wrong is the vendor's ability to influence our Laws that were recently changed to eliminate the use of the Dually Accountable VVPB. It's the gold Standard of Business Financial Statements applied to our Elections.

Respectfully, Bill

William F. Faulkner, MBA
VerifiedVoting of Florida
Pensacola, FL

Decades after his death, William Faulkner comes to us with a certain dignity my namesake said Phony Elections. Not just for banana republics anymore.

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I learned at a very young age in the 60's that the press never really understood the War or The anger against the War. The Press paid more attention to the Political Battles, not the people that were actually dying or watching their sons and (more...)

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