electionline Weekly

In Focus This Week

I. In Focus This Week

Editor’s Note #1: Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, electionlineWeekly will not publish next week, Nov. 24. The newsletter will return on Thursday December 1.

Editor’s Note #2:Electionline.org now has a calendar of events on the website. Please take a moment to look through the new calendar and let us know what we’re missing or what may have changed and please keep us in the loop for future events. There are two calendars:one that lists election dates by state and another with lists events (elections, conferences, seminars, etc.) by date.

:10pt;”>
Pilot program to expand in 2012 include military, overseas voters

By M. Mindy Moretti

“I Voted” took on a whole new meaning during the recent special election in Oregon when nearly 100 voters cast their ballots with the help of iPads.

The tablet device, which many people associate with surfing the Web, was used to allow disabled voters better access to their ballots.

According to Steve Trout, elections director for Oregon, the elections division hatched the idea of using the iPad for accessible voting as a way to save money and provide greater access.

“We have been spending large sums of money on our accessible voting system but having very few people use it. We wanted to see if there were alternatives that were less expensive, provided greater utility and were easier to use for both voters and election officials,” Trout explained. “We played around with the idea here long enough to think it was worthy of a pilot.”

Using software created by Everyone Counts, staff from the elections division spread out on Election Day to test the new program with seniors and voters with disabilities.

The software allows voters to download their ballot, mark their choice, print out their ballot and return it just like they would their regular mail-in ballot.

Like other accessible voting devices the iPad allows voters to enlarge their ballot for better visibility and is compatible with several accessibility devices such as Sip-and-Puff technology.

The pilot test in Oregon used Everyone Counts eLect Platform that automatically operates on any web-enabled device. The platform was customized for Oregon to include ballot data, voter registration data and the state’s seal colors and design formats.

“We were really astounded by the success of the iPad pilot,” said Secretary of State Kate Brown. “We had 89 Oregonians use the iPad to mark their ballots in November, that is a huge increase from the last General Election in 2010 when only six people statewide used the accessible computer stations. We look forward to the second phase of the pilot in January making the ballot more accessible to Oregonians with disabilities.”

Among the 89 voters who participated in the iPad program not one reported a problem, although Trout pointed out that there were a few “lessons learned” that according to Trout will make the experience better next time around.

For instance, because many of the participants were seniors, when they came to the step where they had to enter their birthdate, they had to scroll through quite a way to get to their correct birth year. Trout said they will look into changing the starting date range to somewhere around 1930.

Although everyone seemed happy with the device, Pamela Smith with Verified Voting does have some security concerns.

“Given there have been concerns in the past about being able to discern voters’ choices on other electronic voting devices through various means, even when that device is not (deliberately) networked, this would appear to amplify some of those concerns, especially for a device that is meant to preserve privacy,” Smith said.

Smith noted that the program is just “a whisker away” from Internet voting.

Trout said that there were no security concerns since voters are not actually voting on the iPad, that it is only a ballot marking tool.

“The ballot is printed out and verified and then mailed in like all the other ballots in the state and the printout serves as the paper trail.” Trout said. “The iPad is really just a just a big electronic pen that has lots of features to help a voter with accessibility needs to mark their ballot.”

Apple donating five iPads for the pilot, the program cost the state $75,000 for the development and administration of the software. This cost covers both the November 8 election and the upcoming January 31, 2012 special elections.

• While the citizens effort to repeal voting laws in Maine was successful, similar attempts in Ohio to repeal recently approved voting laws has hit a snag. A coalition of groups needed to collect 213,150 valid signatures to put House Bill 194 on the ballot in November 2012, however the coalition is about 10,000 signatures short of the required number. Although short of the number, the group has until Thanksgiving — November 24 — to collect the additional 10K signatures. A spokesman for the state Democrat Party told the Plain Dealer that they have already submitted an additional 150,000 signatures.
• The battle to view ballots in Aspen, Colo. isn’t over yet. Late last week, the city of Aspen filed an appeal with the Colorado Supreme Court seeking to keep election ballots from public review. According to a city press release:“The case is not about election transparency. The 2009 municipal election was one of the most transparent elections in City and state history.  The case involves the sanctity of the secret ballot. The Aspen Daily News reports that the three-member panel of the Court of Appeals ruled in late September that ballots could be lawfully released, so long as there was nothing on them that could be used to identify an individual voter. The ruling reversed the decision by Chief Judge James Boyd of Pitkin County District Court, where the lawsuit by Aspen resident Marilyn Marks was filed in 2009.

• With concerns about the spread of the H1N1 virus, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) created a “flu season contingency plan” clearinghouse in 2009. With many of the 2012 primaries coming during prime flu season, the EAC is seeking to expand its flu clearinghouse. The EAC is looking for plans regarding backup staffing strategies, technology solutions and other approaches from election officials at the state and local level. Plans may be submitted via email to:clearinghouse@eac.gov.

• And finally, of course electionlineWeekly just had to include this item:Voters in Stamford, Conn. were upset last week when after casting their ballots, they did not receive “I Voted” stickers. “People kept saying to us, `Where’s my sticker?’ Just about everybody made a comment,” poll worker Susan Darer, who has worked at polling places in Stamford for 10 years and cannot remember an Election Day without stickers told the Stamford Advocate. “No one seemed to know why we had none. Our guess was either budget cuts or somebody forgot.” The city did not receive the election-day rewards because the state did not have the money to produce them this year.
• Personnel News:Barry Garner is the new top elections official in Santa Clara County, Calif. Most recently Garner served as the director of registration and elections operations for Fulton County, Ga. Although she’s been on the job for almost five years, Charlotte Sosebee is now officially the Hall County, Ga. elections director. “It is a relief,” Sosebee told the Gainesville Times. “It’s like birthing a baby. It’s exciting. And just to know that it’s official, it just kind of gives me assurance that I’m here.” The Republican Party of Rockdale County, Ga. has appointed Jonny Brown to sit on the county elections board. On the Democrat side, Caycie Dix was appointed to serve. Dix and Brown replace the previous board members (including Brown’s wife Lynn) who were removed from the board by a judge late last week.