Sponsor: Sara Amir, Mike Feinstein

Presenters/Contacts: Doug Cragoe, San Fernando Valley, cragoe@sbcglobal.net, Judy Alter, Topanga judyalter@comcast.net

Background and Purpose: I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Doug Cragoe, a registered Green Party member in Los Angeles County and a member of the California Election Protection Network. I’ve also been an election inspector (lead poll worker) for many years. In the last few major elections a lot of people across the country have observed voting and helped make sure people can vote at the polls, but far less people observed the tallying of the vote. Even fewer have examined the software systems used to tally the vote. We are mounting an effort to observe the tally and other phases of the June primary election in Los Angeles County. Apparently this hasn’t been done very often in L.A.

According to California election code there are different classes of election observers, with different levels of access. Each qualified party in each county can appoint 2 data processing experts to look at all aspects of the election, including examination of computer code. In addition, each party can appoint 2 political observers who can observe all aspects of the election. The county registrar allows more people than these 4 to actually participate. There are several different stations to observing elections. For example, there are stations to observe how the ballots are handled and how they are put on trays and fed into card readers. There is also the logic and accuracy testing of election equipment done before the election. I observed the logic and accuracy test of L.A.’s Diebold electronic voting machines in 2004. This is another time we need observers and probably the best time to ask questions about the voting system. In the November 2005 election a surprise visit by activist/observers had the bad result of the observers being denied access to the room containing the actual vote tabulating computers. We don’t want that to happen again.

What I am requesting is a letter from the GPLAC (as per below) to tell the LA County Registrar that two political and hopefully two computer experts will be observing this June election. The sooner official observers are appointed, the better the job that can be done. The logic and accuracy testing should be in either April or May.

Proposal: That the GPLAC send the following letter to the LA County Registrar of Voters and appoint two people to be election observers, as per the letter below:

 

Sample letter for approval:

Ms. Conny McCormack
Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters
12400 Imperial Highway
Norwalk, CA 90651

Dear Ms. McCormack,

On behalf of the Los Angeles County Green Party County Council, I write to ask that your office permit two specialists working on behalf of the Green Party of Los Angeles County (GPLAC) to check and review the preparation and operation of the electronic voting machines, vote tabulation equipment and computers that will be used in the course of the upcoming June 6, 2006 election. I make this request pursuant to Section 15004 of the California Election Code, which provides, in part: The county central committee of each qualified political party may employ, and may have present at the central counting place or places, not more than two qualified data processing specialists or engineers to check and review the preparation and operation of the tabulating devices, their programming and testing, and have the specialists or engineers in attendance at any or all phases of the election. Under section 15004, we ask that your office please provide us with dates and times when the two representatives of the (GPLAC) may check and review the preparation and operation of the electronic voting devices and vote tabulation equipment that will be used in the upcoming election. Please also notify us when the devices are scheduled to be tested by your office, so that we can observe the testing process.

Additionally, in order to check and review the programming of the electronic voting machines and tabulation equipment, we ask that your office arrange for our two specialists to review and inspect the software, including the source code,that is used to operate the voting equipment that will be in use. Please provide us with dates, times, and a location for this review and inspection. Finally, we wish to ensure that our two specialists can attend and observe the use of vote tabulation equipment during the course of the June 6 election, from loading the software into the machines through the final tabulation of the votes and transmission of the results to the Secretary of State on June 6. We look forward to hearing your views concerning how best to accomplish this goal. Please let us know how we can best perform this review in an expeditious and efficient manner, so as to minimize any possible inconvenience to your personnel as they provide us the access and information that is necessary for the performance of our review of the voting machines, software, and their operation. You may contact me directly at 310-392-845

Thank you for your prompt assistance in this matter. We look forward working with you in the days leading up to the election on November 8.

Sincerely yours,

Sara Amir and Mike Feinstein

Co-Coordinators, Green Party of Los Angeles County