Illinois Certification - a Recipe for Disaster?

[kster]

by Robert A. Wilson, Illinois Ballot Integrity Project

SNIP......The contracts between Sequoia Voting Systems and Cook County and the City of Chicago provide that the voting systems must comply with such standards In addition, the City of Chicago and Cook County violated the Illinois Election Code, Section 24-A-3:

"In no case may a county board, of county commissioners or board of election commissioners contract or arrange for the purchase, lease or loan of an electronic voting system or voting system component without the approval of the State Board of Elections as provided by Section 24 A_16."Section 24-A-16 states:

"No vendor, person or other entity may sell, lease or loan a voting system or voting system component to any election jurisdiction unless the voting system or voting system component is first approved by the State Board of Elections pursuant to this Section."

Both Chicago and Cook County executed contracts with Sequoia months before interim certification and began taking delivery of equipment in late October, 2005. We believe that the so-called Verified Voter Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) produced by the VeriVote printer violates the Illinois Election Code in two important respects, as we have pointed out in numerous submissions to the Board.



http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_robert_a_060213_illinois_certificati.htm

[Wilms]

1. Here's the article he's responding to.

No more chads: City gears up for punch-free primary

By John McCormick
Tribune staff reporter

Published February 11, 2006

Tales of glitches emerged before Saturday's public unveiling of new voting machines for Cook County: An emergency run to Radio Shack for a soldering iron. Broken wires inside a brand-new ballot counter. And a last-minute debate over whether voters should be asked to complete an arrow or fill in a circle.

But in the end, the State Board of Elections on Friday approved five types of high-tech equipment that will be used in Chicago and suburban Cook County for the first election here in roughly a quarter-century without punch-card ballots.

snip

"Shortcuts are being taken that shouldn't be taken," said Dianne Felts, the state board's director of systems and standards.

Felts said testing for the equipment started in August but was not completed until late Thursday. In one test, roughly 100,000 ballots were fed into an optical-scan counter, a task that took more than two weeks.

The Chicago and Cook County contracts are Sequoia's biggest piece of business in the nation. The company has more than 10 people in Chicago and Springfield to help prepare for the primary and expects at least 30 here on March 21.

"There won't be anyone in the company that won't be available that night," said Jack Blaine, Sequoia's president.

snip

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0602110098feb11,1,5863491.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed