Friday, September 2, 2011

WI Citizens for Election Protection

WI Citizens for Election Protection

Here is Jim Soper response to me about Germany and electronic voting machines, Nicole Desautels Schulte and Victoria Collier From: Jim Soper
Subject: Re: New message from Sheila Parks
To: Message Email Reply
Cc: Shiela Ruth Parks

Shiela

This page is the official translation of the German court press release
http://www.countedascast.com/world/germancourt090303pressrelease.php
You can read it and draw your own conclusions from it

Here is paragraph 121. The translations of key words are mine.
but you can check them, for example, here: http://dict.leo.org/ende?lang=en

A Stimmzettel is a "ballot". Kontrolle means "check".
The paragraph winds up listing the kinds of devices that coule be used,
including VVPATS, and ballot scannors.

121: Der Gesetzgeber (legislature) ist nicht gehindert (not hinderd/barred ), bei den Wahlen (for elections) elektronische Wahlgeräte (electronic voting machines) einzusetzen, wenn die verfassungsrechtlich gebotene Möglichkeit einer zuverlässigen Richtigkeits kontrolle gesichert ist. Denkbar sind insbesondere Wahlgeräte, in denen die Stimmen neben der elektronischen Speicherung anderweitig erfasst werden. Dies ist beispielsweise (as an example) bei (with) elektronischen Wahlgeräten (Voting Machines) möglich (possible), die zusätzlich zur elektronischen Erfassung der Stimme ein für den jeweiligen Wähler sichtbares Papierprotokoll (voter-visible paper protocol, ie, a VVPAT ) der abgegebenen Stimme ausdrucken, das vor der endgültigen Stimmabgabe kontrolliert werden kann und anschließend (afterwards) zur Ermöglichung der Nachprüfung (reexamination) gesammelt wird. Eine von der elektronischen Stimmerfassung unabhängige Kontrolle bleibt auch (also) beim Einsatz von Systemen möglich, bei denen die Wähler einen Stimmzettel kennzeichnen und die getroffene Wahlentscheidung gleichzeitig (etwa mit einem „digitalen Wahlstiftâ“ ...) oder nachträglich (z.B. durch einen Stimmzettel-Scanner; ...) elektronisch erfasst wird, um diese am Ende des Wahltages elektronisch auszuwerten."

I can come up with a mor thorough translation if needed.
www.countedascast.com
What follows in an annotated version of the official press release concerning the German Constitutional Court's decision of March 3, 2009 concerning voting machines. The original text is at : http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/en/press/bvg09-019en.html
· · · · 5 hours ago

    • Nicole Desautels Schulte
      Wow, Sheila! Fabulous. Thank you!

      I really like this part: "The use of voting machines which electronically record the voters’ votes and electronically ascertain the election result only meets the constitutional requirements if the essential... steps of the voting and of the ascertainment of the result can be examined reliably and without any specialist knowledge of the subject. While in a conventional election with ballot papers, manipulations or acts of electoral fraud are, under the framework conditions of the applicable provisions, at any rate only possible with considerable effort and with a very high risk of detection, which has a preventive effect, programming errors in the software or deliberate electoral fraud committed by manipulating the software of electronic voting machines can be recognised only with difficulty. The very wide-reaching effect of possible errors of the voting machines or of deliberate electoral fraud make special precautions necessary in order to safeguard the principle of the public nature of elections.

      The voters themselves must be able to understand without detailed knowledge of computer technology whether their votes cast are recorded in an unadulterated manner as the basis of vote counting, or at any rate as the basis of a later recount. If the election result is determined through computer-controlled processing of the votes stored in an electronic memory, it is not sufficient if merely the result of the calculation process carried out in the voting machine can be taken note of by means of a summarising printout or an electronic display."