New Jersey Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberge has prohibited the scheduled release of a report on the security and accuracy of the Sequoia AVC Advantage voting machine. These are "direct record electronic" machines used in most New Jersey voting locations. They do not have a paper ballot or "paper trail" to use to check the machine count. The examination and subsequent report by computer scientists is our chance to find get to the root of the problems with the Sequoia machines and software.
Judge Suppresses Report on Voting Machine Security By Andrew Appel - Posted on October 2nd, 2008
...The question of whether this report can legally be suppressed was already argued once in this Court, in June 2008, and the Court concluded then that it should be released; I will discuss this below. But as a matter of basic policy--of running a democracy--the public and legislators who want to know the basic facts about the reliability of their elections need to be able to read reports such as this one. Members of the New Jersey Legislature--who need to act now because the NJ Secretary of State is not in compliance with laws the legislature passed in 2005--have asked to read this report, but they are precluded by the Court's order. Members of the public must decide now, in time to request an absentee ballot, whether to cast their ballot by absentee (counted by optical scan) or to vote on paperless DRE voting machines. Citizens also need information so that they can communicate to their legislators their opinions about how New Jersey should conduct elections. Even the Governor and the Secretary of State of New Jersey are not permitted, by the Court's order, to read this report in order to inform their policy making.
What can New Jersey Voters do? Request an absentee ballot:
In New Jersey, any voter can now vote by Absentee Ballot for any election. You do not need a reason to vote by Absentee Ballot. Don't feel like going to the polls? Simply vote by mail. Now there is "no excuse" not to vote!
A voter may apply for an absentee ballot by completing an Absentee Ballot Application (see below) and mailing the application to their County Clerk by mail up to 7 days prior to the election. A voter may also apply in person to the County Clerk until 3:00 p.m., the day before the election. The County Clerk cannot accept faxed copies of an Absentee Ballot Application since an original signature is required.
Absentee Ballot Application (24k pdf)
The AVC Advantage (as used in New Jersey) even has a built in ballot stuffing feature (you can press a button on the back of the machine to allow you to cast more votes.) Computer Scientist Andrew Appel has had unfettered access to these machines before, when he purchased some off of the internet, originating from Buncombe County North Carolina. Even Sequoia's paper ballot based optical scan machines have trouble counting votes. Perhaps the problems with Sequoia's voting machines is in the basic core of the design that the only solution is to ditch them and start fresh. There are already many reported problems with the WinEDS software that tabulates the votes from both the electronic and the optical scan machines.
Sequoia optical scan voting machines in Washington DC, Palm Beach County Florida, and Pierce County Washington have been in the news recently:
Earlier this month, (Washington) "DC's machines somehow managed to inflate the vote totals in some races by more than 100 percent, making up thousands of write-in votes and adding thousands of votes to the totals of candidates on the ballot." according to Government Computer News.
Thursday, October 2. 2008 Test Shows Palm Beach Voting Machines Not Accurate!
September 14. 2008 Pierce County Instant Runoff Voting System has new bug, says WA SOS - may affect San Francisco
July 9, 2008 Instant runoff update for San Francisco: federal agency unlikely to certify any voting systems before November
June 27, 2008 Instant runoff forces Pierce County Washington to use uncertified voting systems
September 24. 2008 Palm Beach Election Nightmare Finally Over After 7th Recount
You'd think we lived in a banana republic, wouldn't you?
