# Presentation: 727728

## Voter Verified Paper Ballot:  De facto Discrimination Against Americans with Disabilities

- _[www.aapd-dc.org](http://www.aapd-dc.com/)_
- 1629 K Street, NW, Suite 503
- Washington, DC  20006
- 202-457-0046

## Voter Verified Paper Ballot:  A Fake Solution

- How does the voter know the paper ballot he sees accurately reflects what is recorded in the computer?

## Some Important Facts:

- There are 56 million Americans with disabilities.
- 47 million Americans with disabilities are of voting age.
- 23 million voting aged Americans have a severe disability.

## 	In 1996, 31% of adults with disabilities voted in the presidential election, while 49% of all adults voted.

## 	In 2000, 41% of Americans with disabilities voted compared to 51% of all adults.

## If Americans with disabilities voted at the same rate as the rest of the population, there would have been four million more votes cast in the 2000 presidential election.

## HAVA’s Main Sponsors

- Sen. Chris Dodd

- Rep. Steny Hoyer

- Rep. Bob Ney

- Sen. Mitch McConnell

## HAVA Requires 1 Accessible Touchscreen in Each Polling Place by 2006

- (Help America Vote Act)

## Touchscreens Provide a Secret Ballot 

**Americans with disabilities who have never cast a secret ballot**:
- 10 Million blind/low vision
- 5 Million learning disabled (a low estimate)
- 1.4 Million with hand/arm limitations

## Other American Citizens Who Have Never Cast a Secret Ballot

- 37 Million illiterate
- Language minorities who are citizens (non native English speakers)

## Touchscreen Capabilities 

- Voters can hear the ballot using headphones & cast their vote in complete privacy.
- Voters who are paralyzed, using adaptive tools, can cast their vote in complete privacy.

## Voter Verified Paper Ballot Devices

- Exist only in prototype.
- Are not certified, and therefore are illegal.
- Standards for certification do **not** exist.
- The Election Administration Commission, which creates the standards for certification, does not yet exist.

## VVPB are Illegal

- CA Attorney General to Kevin Shelley:  VVPB
- 	“likely violates the access requirements” of
- 		-Help America Vote Act of 2002, P.L. 107-252)
- 		-California Election Code Sections 19225-19227
- 		-2002 FEC Voting System Standards Vol. 1, Section 2.2.7.2
- 		-Americans with Disabilities Act

## Creating Voting System Standards 

- Twice, the United States created voting system standards.
- The first time, it took 11 years.
- The second time, it took 10 years.
- It is optimistic to expect the time to be cut in half.
- 5 years from concept to use of the voter verified paper ballot in the polling place would make accessible machines available in 2009, violating federal law.

## Uncounted American Votes

- 2000 Presidential Election, it was 2 million votes.

## Georgia’s Touchscreen Experience

- 2000 election using punchcards, 3.5% uncounted votes (even higher than Florida’s 2.9% uncounted votes).
- 2002 election using touchscreens, **.08%** uncounted ballots, an all-time low.

## California Recall ElectionOctober 7, 2003

-  In Los Angeles County:
- 	 Punch card, 9% uncounted votes
- 	 Touchscreen, less than 1% uncounted votes

## Election Fraud

- Computers have been used for counting votes since 1964.  There is no documented case of an election being changed with computer tabulation.
- There are scores of documented cases of election fraud using paper ballots.

## Problems with Paper Ballots

- Paper gets lost.
- Paper gets damaged.
- Paper is heavy, hard to store & expensive.
- Large numbers of paper ballots can not be accurately counted (assuming you could get a system certified in a reasonable amount of time).

## Voter Verified Paper Ballot:The Wrong Problem.  

- Most election fraud occurs because the voter registration rolls are:
- Inaccurate
- 	1.  Doesn’t contain the names of all eligible voters.
- 	2.  Contains names of voters who have moved out of the district.

## Election Fraud:The Real Problem

- HAVA requires new voter registration statewide databases.
- The public debate should be focused on
- 	1.  The security of the database.
- 	2.  The building of the database.
- 	3.  The management of the database.

## Increase Touchscreen Security with Administrative Procedures

- Parallel monitoring.
- Technical oversight board.
- Transparency in every stage of testing.
- Modifications to existing systems, both hardware & software, must be recertified.
- Establish a chain of custody for all source codes.
- Administrative procedures can be installed without delaying disability access.

## How does the voter know the paper ballot he sees accurately reflects what is recorded in the computer?