Necessary Electoral Process Reforms Through California State Senator Debra Bowen's SB 370, SB 11, and SB 469

By Andrew H. Dral

The article discusses the current state of our electoral process. It makes the case for U.N. mandated paper audit trail, nonpartisan election commissioner or secretary of state, disclosures to clean-up the initiative referendum petition process, and open system election machine source code. It's debatable whether our last two presidential elections reflected the view of the electorate. We need to closely scrutinize electronic voting machines, especially those provided by Diebold.

On election day, November 2, 2004, I was keeping abreast of the market. To my amazement, the DOW retreated (18.66) in late trading before the close. The exit polls determined a Kerry victory. The pundits were agreeing. The tyrant would be out of office, sanity would return, but I was mistaken. A great injustice occurred in Ohio, similar to the 2000 election debacle in Florida. In the Ukraine, when the people smelled fraud, they revolted, in America they let an elite aristocratic cabal wisk freedom from their grasp.

To his credit, Bruce McPherson, California's Secretary of State, and his Republican apparatchiks conducted rigorous testing of Diebold's TSX system in July 2005. The results, for evey 1,000 ballots the Diebold TSX system either jammed or the screen froze, a 10% failure rate. Three counties in California have invested $40MM in 13,000 Diebold TSX machines. The jams and screen freezes would cause long lines for thousands of voters. Many of those voters would more than likely walk away from the polls, disenfranchised. For the time being, the TSX machines have been banned, but Diebold has 30 days to reapply. No one should doubt, Diebold will find a way to get certified.

More than 20 states, including California, either require a paper trail or are debating requiring one. The rub, for Californians, the paper audit trail isn't required until January 2006, and even if you have the audit trail, the state is not required to recount those paper votes in a contested election. California State Senator Debra Bowen, has proposed a solution, SB 370, which mandates recounting audited paper ballots. The electronic voting machine manufacturers want only electronic votes recounted, not an audited paper trail. Four electronic voting machine manufacturers have contributed $652,000 to influence candidates running for office to guarantee that result. International standards mandate recounting the audited paper trail. Senator Bowen's SB 370 passed California`s legislature, but lies on the governor's desk waiting to be signed.

California elections officials are required to conduct a public manual tally of 1% of the precincts chosen at random. Bruce McPherson came out in opposition to SB 370 on August 10, 2005 taking the position the 1% manual paper tally would take too much time. Mr. McPherson argued "since the tally must occur within the 28-day canvass period, they will not have time to complete the canvass."

A major problem with our electoral process lies in a partisan secretary of state. Without a nonpartisan electoral commission responsible for conducting free and fair elections before, during, and after the voting, you can count on our next election being a wash in controversy. What California will have is a Katherine Harris and J. Kenneth Blackwell redux. Again, Senator Debra Bowen has a solution, SB 11, which prohibits (1) the secretary of state from serving as a party officer, (2) the secretary of state from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office or taking public positions on ballot measures, and (3) a voting-equipment manufacturer or vendor from making campaign contributions. Senator Bowen's SB 11 currently sits in committee collecting dust.

Not to be out done, Senator Bowen has a third bill, SB 469, which will require initiative petition carriers to identify if they're a volunteer or paid. It would also identify who the top-5 donors to each initiative are. It will inform voters, which special interests have a stake in the outcome. SB 469 has yet to be heard in the assembly. It directly addresses the excesses and abuses perpetrated by Governor Schwarzenegger, who doesn't believe in the democratic process.

Mr. McPherson's apparatchiks, before the July 2005 test, recommended certifying the Diebold Gems Voting System and a number of ES & S Tabulator Models. The Republican Party has received roughly $200,000 in contributions from Diebold since 2000, a Republican partisan supplier. There are two basic problems: the lack of (1) a voter verifiable audit trail and (2) open software.

In the last federal election there were roughly 175,000 electronic machines used by 40MM voters. There were thirty-thousand reports of voting irregularities. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) introduced the country to electronic voting, without the proper safeguards. In the 2004 Presidential Election votes were dropped in North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida; votes were over counted in Ohio, Nebraska, and North Carolina; votes for Kerry were switched to Bush in six states; unusually high vote counts for third party candidates occurred in Ohio and Indiana; and machines didn't boot-up in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Lousiana. When machines don't boot, we get long lines of frustrated voters, who leave without voting. HAVA failed us. Our legislators did a great disservice to the citizenry by passing HAVA, not mandating a paper trail recount was shear lunacy. Diebold machines operated in 35 of 88 Ohio counties, sending the 2004 election into turmoil.

We must have a United Nations (U.N.) mandated, verified by the voter, separate paper trail accompanying every electronic vote, along with mandated sampling of the paper trail to verify the veracity of the electronic vote. I don't understand why Venezuelans can have free and fair elections, but not here. Venezuela used electronic machines, manufactured in the U.S.A., which delivered a voter verified audit trail to drop in a ballot box. Venezuela did elect their leader, Hugo Chavez -- observers admitted Venezuela had more fail-safes than in the U.S.A. -- it's debatable whether we elected ours. There's only one reason Diebold doesn't want to mandate the recount of a voter verifiable audit trail, because Diebold wants to choose our elected officials.

If we the people, buy a voting machine, we should have complete transparent access to the software. Anything less is unacceptable. We must own and have complete control over the source code. In the far reaches of an executable module, a programmer can do just about anything to manipulate the results, with only the rogue programmer knowing the truth. The people must take total responsibility and ownership of the election source code.

Electronic voting machines will end up in the most minority of voting neighborhoods, to guarantee the disenfranchisement of the disenfranchised. Votes will be changed or spoiled. In New Mexico a brown voter is 500% more likely to have their vote spoiled than a white voter, expect the same in California. Across America, black voters account for 54% of all spoiled votes -- 2MM in all -- a percentage Mr. McPherson can try to exceed.

Our complex and fragmented electoral process must change, we need uniformity, international observers found ballots simpler in the Republic of Georgia and election monitoring simpler in Serbia. Our system needs transparency and honesty throughout California and the country. There's an undemocratic element within our country that will reach for every method they can get away with to disenfranchise voters. The more votes spoiled, the better the odds of a Republican victory. Jimmy Carter and the U.N. witnessed free and fair elections in Venezuela. With the help of Senator Bowen's SB 370, SB 11, and SB 469 we should be able to do the same in California! Mr. McPherson should be hiring consultants from Venezuela, a paragon of fair elections, not Diebold, a company with a dubious record that paid $2.6MM to settle a lawsuit with the State of California for selling shoddy voting equipment in the 2004 election.

Andrew H. Dral "The Rabble -- Janosik"