Re: [ei] NYS election laws

[Kathy Dopp]

>  Topic: FCC considers Internet Voting, WV oks internet voting for military,
> NY voting machines had bug not virus
>
> honest electionscow <honestele...@gmail.com> Nov 21 01:17PM -0500
>
> Doesn't NY have a law outlawing recounts, due to their long history of
> ballot tampering after ballots (or records of ballots) leave the public
> venue?

No, NYS does not have any law outlawing recounts - at least not
according to the Dem board of elections commissioner on both the state
and Albany county board. In fact, just the opposite is true according
to my interviews with officials. Nor have I run across such a law yet
in reading the NYS election statutes.

> I can't really argue with that. So much for audits and their new OS
> machine elections. They could confiscate the new machines for investigation,
> but it is probably too late for that also. Does anyone have additional
> info? Is what they call recanvanvassing the same as recounting? Also what is
> the difference between a software bug and a virus?

Bo Lipari has put a good description of the difference between a bug
and a virus in his article on the NYS "virus" which was really a bug
that was detected and solved prior to the election. NYS has much more
stringent procedures and more openness in its elections than most
states, although it still needs significant improvements.

> I suppose by virus they
> mean something introduced after the software was installed, but a bug would
> be in the software from the creation of it. So we can blame the manufacturer
> and not whoever could create a virus later, inside or outside the system.

Yes. I think you are right that those are some of the differences.

> Would a patch installed to existing software be a bug or a virus? Marj

Hopefully neither.

NYS post-election audit statutes and regs are turning out to be overly
burdensome to election officials and are not designed to be
risk-limiting -- so there may be a golden opportunity at this time to
both reduce the burdens to election officials and increase the
effectiveness of NYS post-election audits, making NYS more of a leader
in the field. If anyone from NYS wants to work with me on this please
let me know and I'll share my thoughts with you.

Unfortunately nothing in NYS election law or regs requires that the
public be allowed to observe the post-election audits, and I can think
about at least a half dozen other changes that are needed.

Kathy

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--

Kathy Dopp

Town of Colonie, NY 12304
phone 518-952-4030
cell 518-505-0220

http://utahcountvotes.org
http://electionmathematics.org
http://kathydopp.com/serendipity/

Realities Mar Instant Runoff Voting - 18 Flaws and 4 Benefits
http://electionmathematics.org/ucvAnalysis/US/RCV-IRV/InstantRunoffVotingFlaws.pdf

Voters Have Reason to Worry
http://utahcountvotes.org/UT/UtahCountVotes-ThadHall-Response.pdf

Checking election outcome accuracy --- Post-election audit sampling
http://electionmathematics.org/em-audits/US/PEAuditSamplingMethods.pdf

[honest electionscow]

THey can recanvas, which means checking the machine totals again, but not hand count ballots, I was told again just yesterday. People had hoped that with the introduction of OS's, this law would change, but so far, it has not. At least that is what 2 EI activists in NY and working on NY issues just told me. I don't have time to research the law. Your research makes me wonder who is correct and why there is this misinformation out there.  A friend of mine is trying to help Hoffman, a  candidate in NY Congressional race, get a recount or an investigation of the recent election. It looks very fishy.

www.recallvotingmachines.com

[Kathy Dopp]

Could you possibly cite the exact statute? I have an interview with
the public information officer of the NYS B of elections tomorrow and
will ask him, but would like to look up the statute. I could have
been assuming the best when listening to what prior officials told me.

If you are correct, then NYS is in much worse shape than I've been
informed. I'm trying to find time to do a study of the NYS
post-election auditing procedures (in the prior election) but the
public is unbelievably denied access to even view the NYS
post-election audits. Only persons appointed by the candidates or
political party can attend, I am not sure of the exact law yet.
Graduate school is keeping me way too busy with other stuff.

Kathy

[honest electionscow]

this from my RH Phillips:

So far as I know, New York State election law has no provision for a recount.  If anybody can find such a provision, feel free to let me know.  It is posted online in its entirety at

http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/download/law/2008NYElectionLaw.pdf

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 12:11 PM, honest electionscow <honestele...@gmail.com> wrote:

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