Voting Machine Vulnerabilities - Let's Not Downplay Them

'Letter to the Editor' submitted to the Nanaimo Daily News on Nov. 7/08. We'll have to wait and see if they publish it.

Dear Editor,
Your recent piece, Civil liberties group takes up Nanaimo vote complaint (Nanaimo Daily News, Oct. 30/2008), clearly demonstrates how poor a job the local media does in covering issues critical to the well-being of both their readers and the public at large. Having reviewed the correspondence (links are on Ron Bolin's blog, http://www.bolin08.net) and having spoken to Ms. McAllister on several occasions about her complaint, I find your paper guilty of the same thing as the Ombudsman's office in this case, failure to grasp the whole picture. Although this attitude pervades your entire story, I will use just a single sentence to demonstrate my point. You write, "(t)he provincial department found nothing wrong with how voting machines were used in Nanaimo." Now, before we even begin, I can tell you that your use of the word "nothing" convinces me that such a high standard willl not be met.
However, the main problem I have with the statement is that it might lead a reasonable person to believe that you are saying that there are no problems with using electronic voting machines in local elections. Since I know that you have been afforded the opportunity to learn about the serious concerns that security experts have repeatedly expressed about the vulnerability of these machines, I am sure that you didn't mean to leave that impression.
Lastly, a practical question - just how does one measure someone's 'intent'? This is yet another example of a legislation loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through (just like the 'conflict of interest rules'), indicating to me that governments really aren't interested in holding anyone accountable.

B.C. 2008 Local Elections Voting Advice

Technology alone does not eliminate the possibility of corruption and incompetence in elections, it merely changes the platform on which they may occur. The voters and the election boards who serve them must be made aware of the risks of adopting electronic vote-tallying systems, insisting that the checks and balances inherent to our democracy be maintained. Rebecca Mercuri - 'Corrupted Polling'

Having trouble trying to decide who to vote for in the upcoming B.C.-wide municipal elections (Nov. 15th)?!? Well, you're not alone. One thing you should realize is that you're not required to vote for the full 'slate' of candidates, i.e, if, even after doing all your research, you just can't come up with 1 good person for Mayor, 6 (or 8) good people for Council or 7 (or 9) good people for School Board, then vote only for those you believe will ask for your opinion, search out solutions, keep you fully informed and then make the decision in the best interests of your community. That's what I'm going to do. Maybe, if the results, on top of a low voter turnout, clearly demonstrate reduced voting 'averages', someone will take note and come up with a way to improve the quality of both the candidates and the discussion. Then again, the jaded cynic in me says that if only three people vote, the candidate with two or more votes, will probably gladly take the job!
Also, if you are one of the 55+ jurisdictions where your Council/Board has decided to use electronic voting machines to record your votes and you're just not sure about how accurately they will reflect your intent, I would suggest that you at least indicate to the polling place workers that you are using a machine to exercise your most basic democratic right under protest. That, also, is what I intend to do! Hopefully, with pressure from the voters, a long-term solution to this problem will be adopted by the Ministry of Community Development long before the next election (although scheduled for 2011, your current politicians voted at the last UBCM to ask the provincial government to extend the interval to every four years).

UPDATE [08 11 15]
Well, I went and voted at Costin Hall about an hour ago and, yes, I followed my own advice. Not finding anyone worthy of my support in the Lantzville council race (you might think I would have voted for Rod Negrave as the 'spoiler' but, since his wife used to work for the Mayor's wife and current councillor, Denise Haime [and may still], I wasn't convinced of his independence from the present anti-democratic Council). According to the early results, it looks like the 'average' Lantzville voter could only find 4.6 people running for council to support. However, I am happy to report that I did, through talking to people, reviewing information on websites and attending meetings, find 5 candidates worth supporting for District 68 School Board and I wish them the best of luck. They control a much larger budget than Lantzville Council.
Although Bylaw 70, "District of Lantzville Elections and Other Voting Opportunities" says that a secrecy sleeve shall be provided "if requested by the elector", it appears that everyone was being given one. Although Ian Howat, our former Chief Administrative Officer (and now in charge of 'legislation' with the City of Nanaimo) has recently said that you can't force people to use one, I was planning on requesting one if it hadn't been offered.
When it came time to put my completed ballot into the vote counting unit, I said in a loud, clear voice to the fellow manning the Diebold (now Premier Election Solutions) Accuvote-OS vote counting unit that "I object to having to use a machine in order to exercise this the most basic of my democratic rights and responsibilities" to which he responded that I "wasn't the first, a number of people had said that". O.K. folks, so here's the challenge - let's work together over the next three years to see to it that potentially insecure voting machines like this one are not allowed to be used ANYWHERE IN B. C. unless they have been tested and certified by an approved, independent, testing lab and there is rigorous testing required at the local level before they can be deployed to count your votes. My submission to the Ministry of Community Development, which I feel is the first, major 'salvo' in this effort, should be ready to go by the end of the month. If you are interested and want to help, either post a comment here by clickng below or email me at vigilantz@hotmail.com and tell me how you would like to contribute. I'd love to actually hear from someone since I'd hate think that the 2400+ visits to my blogs so far are all Lantzville council members wondering what I am writing about them.