NJ, Essex cities seek delay on electronic voting-say voters not ready

NJ, Essex cities seek delay on electronic voting
Newark, Irvington and Orange say voters not ready for new machines

Friday, January 06, 2006
BY JEFFERY C. MAYS AND JONATHAN CASIANO
Star-Ledger Staff
Some of Essex County's largest cities want a waiver to continue using mechanical voting machines in two upcoming elections this year because they believe voters have not been properly trained on how to use the new electronic voting machines required by state and federal law.

Newark, Irvington and Orange officials all say they want more time before they are required to use the electronic voting machines. School board elections are held on April 18, and all three towns have municipal elections on May 9.

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The Essex County freeholders voted in November to buy 700 touch-screen voting machines from Sequoia Voting Systems. The county had a Jan. 1 deadline to buy the machines that would place them in compliance with state law and the federal Help America Vote Act.


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"I would tend to think this is a legislative issue and would have to be taken up by the Legislature," De La Cruz said.


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Patricia Kenschaft of Montclair is a member of the Essex County Voting Task Force and is against using electronic voting machines. She said she's concerned about the poll workers who will have to be able to repair and explain the machines.

"I think we are headed for a fiasco," she said.


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Jeffery C. Mays covers Newark City Hall. He can be reached at jmays@starledger.com or (973) 392-4149.

full story-
http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-1/1136527984144140.xml

The Superintendent of Elections would host a Voting maqchine demo, open to all vendors. In return The Essex County Task Force on Voting Rights would ask for a yes vote on funding. This was in July. At the County Freeholder meeting in July I asked for a 9-0 vote to approve funding, the vote was 9-0.

AS to why the freeholders waited until after election day, November 10th to be exact, to a
SO the Freeholders waited 3 months, now towns are worried they dont have the time to demo the new equipment at Seniors centers and other hi traffic areas, in an voter education effort.

Let me set the stage with a little history. Essex County put the money in place for the purchase of new voting machines back in July of 2004. The County waited until 2 days after the NOV 8th election to vote on a contract, which approved the purchase of the Sequoia Advantage DRE.

The Sequoia Advantage DRE uses an interesting blend or technology. Its Central processor is the famed Zilog Z-80 chip, that was introduced around 1975. Originally a 2 mghz 64k processor, later versions were upgraded to -IIRC- 6 or 8 mghz. Remember the Commodore 64k computer? Now Jump 10 years to 1985, when the Advantage was designed based on the Z-80 chip.

It is my understanding the the Z-80 chip cant handle a regular operating system like Windows, Firmware must be installed. This is maybe the one good thing about using the Z-80 chip. Anyway- The Advantage DRE uses a large printed paper ballot face, with a sheet of clear plastic over the paper. Underneath these layers are pushbuttons. SO the Advantage uses an older chip and even older technology-- the pushbutton. Note: my father used pushbutton controls at the radar station on the Aircraft carrier he served on in the BIG ONE, WW2.

Now, more recently Sequoia has added an audio ballot feature, with headphones, for the Sight Impaired. BUT-- this apparently required the addition of a second chip. Now I enter the theater of the macabre, the federal certification of voting machines! I have a letter from Wylie that states the Advantage model D, firmware version 9.0G, meets the FEC 3.2.1 accuracy standards, mandated by HAVA title III, section 301. In Addition, I am in possession of a letter from the NJ Attorney General stating that firmware version 9.0GH is required for the Audio ballot version.

SO County's buying firmware version 9.0GH, to used as a handicapped access DRE are buying a DRE that does not, apparently, meet the FEC 3.2.1 accuracy standards. Which would be a violation of Federal law, and comes under the purview of the DOJ as per HAVA title IIII, section 401.

SO now that the Advantage Dre's are starting to show up at our county SOE warehouse, we'll just have to see which ones were delivered, LOL. !

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

And also please check out the "election Reform, Fraud and related news" thread for Friday, Jan. 6th, here-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407959

Good luck with the waiver, at least.

no waiver is possible-- the NJ Attorney General told the state legislature that they needed to ban lever machines to get HAVA money, so 18 months ago they passed a law, banning levers

Anything that can be done by the state legislature can be undone.