His article released last night reveals, “The election results certified by the St. Lawrence County Board of Elections for New York’s 23rd Congressional District contain some numbers that are mathematically impossible.” The article goes on to detail the negative numbers included in certified vote totals. Read it. It reveals important information everyone concerned about democracy should know.

St. Lawrence County was part of the State’s “pilot project,” an early rollout of the optical scan voting technology that will be required to replace lever voting systems by our next election — if not stopped by legal action. The Election Transparency Coalition is preparing to file litigation to have concealed vote counting — such as the counting that takes place inside optical scan voting systems — declared unconstitutional.

St. Lawrence County’s now-certified election results cannot be accurate. The true vote count cannot be known. And while other counties involved in the early rollout of electronic vote-counting systems may have produced possible vote totals, their true vote counts are no more knowable. Only with a system where the public has access to meaningful observation of every step of the vote-counting process do we have a basis for confidence in election results.

This is why Virginia Martin, Democratic Election Commissioner from Columbia County, recently testified that she would refuse to certify an election in which she could not verify the accuracy of the vote count.

Richard Hayes Phillips joins ETC in supporting NY’s time-tested and transparent lever voting system. The reasons for his support are detailed in his article, “In Defense of Lever Voting Machines,” published on his own website, and reiterated in the Gouverneur Times piece.

While the pilot project is clearly in a nosedive, the State is proceeding with its plan to certify the very electronic voting system responsible for the impossible numbers in the NY-23 race. This certification would be meaningless and would lead to elections that are just as meaningless. As Phillips says, “How can we have a democracy if we cannot know if the vote count is accurate?  If election officials cannot know, and if the candidates cannot know, and if the voters cannot know that the official results are true and correct, why even have an election?”

Please join us in our work to stop the abandonment of NY’s working, affordable, trustworthy voting system and its replacement with systems that keep the true vote count secret from the voters themselves.

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On this Thanksgiving, we at ETC are thankful for the work of Dr. Phillips, Commissioner Martin and all those who dedicate themselves to the constitutional principles of transparent democracy.

Breakdowns of new electronic voting machines have already made news in St. Lawrence, Fulton and Lewis Counties. Official results in some races may not be known for a week or more, frustrating NY voters accustomed to results on election night. But fury may have been their response had they fully understood that with the state’s new optical scan technology, the genuine results of NY’s elections will never be known.

The optical scan machines mandated to replace all lever voting machines by next year count paper ballots electronically using concealed software that can undetectably alter the outcome, whether intentionally or unintentionally. “What you don’t know can hurt you,” said Andrea Novick, attorney and founder of the Election Transparency Coalition (ETC). “The problems seen by voters and election workers Tuesday are nothing compared to the problems that are invisible. In the counties participating in the state’s early rollout of the optical scanners Tuesday where machines broke down, election officials are at least aware that there was a problem. Where the scanners appeared to run smoothly, election officials, candidates and voters are led to believe everything is fine. But either way, whether the optical scanners appear to be functioning properly or not, the true count is unknowable.”

Because the working parts of a lever machine are visible, elections officials and observers can witness all critical steps and know the machine’s count is accurate. But under ERMA (the Election Reform and Modernization Act) the certainty of the election night count is replaced with an unreliable electronic count, subject to verification if a subsequent 3% manual count matches the computer tally. “We are abandoning our transparent, secure system for knowingly exploitable vote-counting computers,” explained Novick.

State Elections Commissioner Douglas Kellner confirmed the new computers’ untrustworthiness, stating, “The system in New York is not to rely on the machines, but to rely on the paper,” referring to ERMA’s post-election night hand count of some paper ballots. Historically, NY, learned not to trust any step taken outside of public view after repeated Tammany Hall style elections. Now ERMA mandates reliance on paper ballots that have been removed from the public eye. “If we don’t stop ERMA,” says Novick, “elections will from this day forward become what a New York court has already declared to be ‘a useless formality.’” The ETC is preparing to file suit to stop the changeover to electronic vote-counting on constitutional grounds.

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What: Public Forum: The Threat to Voting in New York and What to Do About It

When: Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Main Sanctuary at St. Marks Church in the Bowery, 10th Street and 2nd Ave in Manhattan

Who: Douglas Kellner, Commissioner of NYS Board of Elections
Mark Crispin Miller, renowned author of “Fooled Again, The Real Case for Electoral Reform”
Andi Novick, attorney and driving force behind efforts to preserve New York’s constitutionally-compliant lever voting system, founder of the Election Transparency Coalition

Sponsored by the Village Independent Democrats

Why: New York State is the only state in the U.S. that conducts elections in a transparent and verifiable manner. All other states have moved to electronic vote-counting systems that make it impossible for election officials, official observers, candidates, or the public to determine whether the announced vote totals accurately represent the votes cast. These secret vote-counting systems violate the principles of a constitutional democracy as represented in two centuries of statutory law and judicial precedence interpreting New York’s Constitution, and as recently held by Germany’s Constitutional Court. Yet electronic voting systems are slated to be fully operational in New York by 2010. At this free public event, Andi Novick will outline the reasons New York’s Election Reform and Modernization Act (ERMA) is unconstitutional, Mark Crispin Miller will discuss the dangers of electronic vote counting systems, and Douglas Kellner will explain the state’s insistence on an expensive change in election technology beyond what is required by the federal government.

Links:

Andi Novick/Election Transparency Coalition

Mark Crispin Miller
Douglas Kellner
Village Independent Democrats

The one page statement (.pdf) urges the State to return to the federal government the funds accepted for lever machine replacement, saying these funds “will not cover the initial or continuing costs of computerized equipment, and those costs will drain our limited resources away from other essential services at every level of government.”

Calling the move to computerized elections “unwise and unnecessary,” the union goes on to say, “New York already owns our lever machines. We have the expertise and experience to maintain and use them. We have relied upon these machiens for many years. We should not replace them.”

The Election Transparency applauds this action by District Council 37 of AFSCME and welcomes other unions, community groups, and local as well as county governments to adopt similar resolutions. To date, 11 counties in New York have passed resolutions urging the State to repeal the Election Reform and Modernization Act and allow continued use of lever voting systems.

Clinton, Essex, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties are represented on the InterCounty Committee. The resolution, introduced by Warren County Supervisor Daniel Belden, passed by a unanimous vote.

The ETC applauds all those who take a stand against ERMA (the Election Reform and Modernization Act) and in favor of our time-tested, dependable and observable lever voting system!

The NY State Senate Standing Committee on Elections, under the leadership of Senator Addabbo, is holding a series of hearings to address proposals to update and reform the state’s voter registration laws and regulations governing casting ballots and polling places.

For more information on these hearings: NY State Election Committee Updates

You can watch the video of the hearings here.