[EL] LA's new voting system (to be Showcased near Downtown LA 7/21)

[David A. Holtzman]

For those who can make it to Downtown/Union Station Los Angeles on 
Thursday July 21, county officials will be showcasing the VSAP’s work to 
the city’s voter outreach committee (Los Angeles Votes Committee, LAVC) 
at 3:00 p.m., in the City Clerk’s Election Division headquarters at 
Piper Technical Center, 555 Ramirez St., 3rd Floor, Space 300, Los 
Angeles, CA 90012.If you’d like to attend (and arrange free parking), 
please contact Sandra Mendoza at (213) 978-0448 or sandramendoza at lacity.org.

- dah


On 7/11/2016 2:36 PM, David A. Holtzman wrote:
> Fortunately, also missing from the VSAP prototype is the dangerous 
> ability for voters to be able to bring in their choices encoded in a 
> QR code or barcode.The current prototype machine prints a QR code on 
> the official paper ballot to ease machine tabulating of ballots, and 
> that’s okay. (The choices printed in clear text on each ballot would 
> of course be the official choices used in recounts and mandatory 
> audits of the machine tallies.)But humans aren’t machines.Voters can’t 
> understand QR codes just by looking at them.So for voters to rely on 
> QR codes would divorce voter intent from the process of voting.
>
> And you know some voters would rely on the codes.So those attractive 
> slate cards that come in the mail could include a new way to mislead: 
> A QR code purporting to match the wonderful slate shown on the 
> card!Yes, “purporting to” match.Who’s going to check fully, before 
> letting the ballot get sucked back into the machine, to see if what 
> just got printed on the ballot matches what’s shown on the 
> card-with-a-code?Not everybody, that’s for sure.
>
> Even if the codes match the slates, the codes could facilitate 
> coercion (or vote-buying) if ward heelers or any of your family 
> members or peers can watch to see if you use the “right” slate card 
> and don’t spend enough time in the voting booth to modify a slate’s 
> choices.(Does anybody on this list know if that’s why “party lever” 
> voting isn’t a thing anymore?Or if providing a “party lever” is 
> illegal/unconstitutional in any way?)
>
> Election administrators may view code-based voting as a sort of 
> salvation from long lines at the polls. They would be happy to provide 
> online interfaces and mobile apps to “push” decision-making time from 
> polling places.But in so doing, they would skew ease of voting towards 
> people with easy access to computers and printers or to modern 
> smartphones (with un-cracked screens).Code-based voting would deepen 
> the “digital divide.”And don’t some organizations say that rich people 
> are already overrepresented in the electorate?
>
> So: problems with deception, coercion and bias are hardwired into the 
> QR code idea.Let’s keep it from becoming a reality.
>
> - dah
>
>
>
> On 7/11/2016 2:23 PM, David A. Holtzman wrote:
>>
>> I get some information about Los Angeles County’s “Voting Systems 
>> Assessment Project” (VSAP) from the League of Women Voters of Los 
>> Angeles County (LWV-LAC).
>>
>>
>> The VSAP hasn’t exactly been seeking “a collaborative approach to 
>> voting system design” as its “about” webpage 
>> <https://www.lavote.net/vsap/about> suggests.Rather, it has sought to 
>> design a voting system of its own, using a handpicked advisory 
>> committee and sole-source contracts.The project’s voter-centered 
>> approach is praiseworthy and it has generated useful insights and 
>> suggestions, to be sure, but keep in mind that there is an underlying 
>> hope or expectation that the VSAP will come up with a specific system 
>> that the county government can get certified and sell to other 
>> election jurisdictions.
>>
>>
>> The LWV-LAC has been treating its invited participation in the VSAP 
>> as a “voter service” matter (providing information to the public 
>> about the project) rather than as “advocacy” (asserting League 
>> positions or otherwise providing input to the project). Despite 
>> having formally concurred with local League chapters’ advocacy of 
>> Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for all single-seat elections, LWV-LAC 
>> has not insisted that IRV capability (ranked voting) be a feature of 
>> the system. And so, *the prototype shown at the link does not appear 
>> to include ranked voting for instant runoff elections as a feature*.
>>
>>
>> Even if the machines could accept a software update to make for 
>> user-friendly ranking of candidates, once the machines are certified 
>> without that software, a separate, expensive, time-consuming 
>> certification process would be required before the software update 
>> could be used. That would delay the enhancements to voter freedom and 
>> election fairness that ranked voting and instant runoff elections can 
>> provide.
>>
>> *It looks like IRV will miss the VSAP certification boat*, and I 
>> think that's largely due to the ineffectiveness of LWV-LAC. 
>> (LWV-LAC’s inaction came despite my imprecations.I am a past 
>> president of the LWV’s L.A. /city/ chapter, one of the chapters which 
>> advocates IRV, but which was not invited to participate in the VSAP.)
>>
>>
>> - dah
>>
>>
>>
>> On 7/7/2016 2:54 AM, Thomas J. Cares wrote:
>>> Does anyone know if this new system would better enable Ranked 
>>> Choice Voting/Instant Runoff Voting?
>>>
>>> I would presume that it should, but for all I know maybe it would 
>>> make it even harder to potentially implement RCV in LA
>>>
>>> On Thursday, July 7, 2016, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>     “Los Angeles County Unveils New Voting System Prototype”
>>>     <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84085>
>>>
>>> Posted onJuly 5, 2016 11:44 am 
>>> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84085>by*Rick Hasen* 
>>> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>>>
>>> Doug Chapin 
>>> <http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2016/07/05/los-angeles-county-unveils-new-voting-system-prototype/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HHHElections+%28The+Election+Academy%29>:
>>>
>>> /One of the most eagerly-anticipated projects in elections took 
>>> another step forward last week as Los Angeles County, CA unveiled 
>>> the prototype of the new voting system developed through its Voting 
>>> System Assessment Project (VSAP). The LA Times has more 
>>> <http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-county-voting-system-20160630-snap-story.html>./
>>>
>>> Disclosure: I am a new member of the VSAP but I missed the unveiling 
>>> of the prototype last week when I was travelling.
>>>
>>> hare 
>>> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D84085&title=%26%238220%3BLos%20Angeles%20County%20Unveils%20New%20Voting%20System%20Prototype%26%238221%3B&description=>
>>>
>>> Posted invoting technology <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> -- 
>> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
>> david at holtzmanlaw.com
>>
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>
>
> -- 
> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
> david at holtzmanlaw.com
>
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-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com

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