The NH committee was formed to justify software-based voting systems. Here's my bet on the top 10 items to be found on the committee's final report. I truly hope they prove me wrong.
- 10) They will recommend moving to an open source code voting system. They will not address the fact that open source code does not meet the NH constitutional mandate for open vote counting because humans can not observe a software-based vote count regardless of whether or not the software is open source, or that open source only opens the voting system to a small circle of computer experts who do not meet the legal definition of "We the People".
- 9) They will not refer to the NH State Audit on the Office of the Secretary of State, which pointed to horrifying lack of process and gaping security holes in the conduct of all of its business, which includes administering our elections.
- 8) They *might* announce intention to work with Harri Hursti, who is in fact back in America to launch his own new company developing and selling software-based voting systems.
- 7) They will not refer to Hursti's 2007 testimony about the inherent security vulnereabilities of software-based voting.
- 6) They will not mention the fact that somebody in the NH government at some point decided to remove our ballots from public inspection under the NH Right to Know law, further concealing the election process and investigations from the public eye.
- 5) They will not refer to NH's frightening lack of ballot chain of custody as documented by voting rights activists in the 2008 primary recount.
- 4) They *might* try to follow suit of many other states justifying concealed vote counting and recommend post-election audits of paper ballots. If so, they will not acknowledge that post-election audits (aka "recounts" in NH) do not satisfy NH's constitutional mandate for open vote counting on Election Night and that post-election counts involve ballots removed from the public eye and therefore do not and can not substitute for public vote counts on election night.
- 3) They will not mention NH's constitutional mandate for public vote counting.
- 2) They will not address the fact that software-based voting systems conceal the vote count from public observation.
- 1) They will not provide any analysis whatsoever as to whether or not technology concealing the vote count from the public eye has a rightful place in democratic elections, which by definition require public oversight of every step in the voting system process (with the exception of the voter's casting of a secret ballot). They will not address the fact that software-based voting systems concealing the vote count from the public oversight violates the voting rights of all NH citizens.
SOURCE: Nashua Telegraph
NH's electronic voting panel issuing report
Eds: APNewsNow.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A special New Hampshire committee studying electronic voting systems is issuing its final report.
Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan (SCAN'-lan) said Harri Hursti (HUR'-stee), one of the world's leading experts on voting systems, will discuss voting systems in America. Hursti is known for his demonstration of the vulnerability of the systems in an HBO documentary, "Hacking Democracy."
The Electronic Ballot Counting Device Advisory Committee will hold its final meeting at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Executive Council chambers in Concord, N.H.
