By Luther Weeks on November 28, 2016
In the summer of 2008 I was on a panel in Fairfield, CT. I opened with remarks on “What Do You Want”. I said voters want five things and what Connecticut could do about them in the short run (three steps over two years). The two years passed and little changed, so in 2010 I repeated the post as What Do YOU [still] Want? Here we are in late 2016 and little has changed for the better:
Posted in CT, Our Editorials, Post-Election Audits
By Luther Weeks on November 23, 2016
5th Graders at the Glastonbury-East Hartford Magnet School assisted Secretary of the State, Denise Merrill, in randomly drawing 38 districts for the post-election audit.
We will update later with the complete list of towns and districts.
Drawing |
Marking Map |
Complete Map |
Posted in Post-Election Audits
By Luther Weeks on November 21, 2016
Courant Editorial, Sunday November 20th: Better Access To Voting Within Reach In CT
We have long had concerns with extending mail-in voting, aka no excuse absentee voting. We also support in-person early voting, if we are willing to pay for it. We have a new Courant Editorial joining Denise Merrill in a renewed push for early voting, defeated two years ago by the voters of Connecticut, consistent with our warnings but not our prediction.
Connecticut is one of only a handful of states that does not allow in-person voting before Election Day and requires those casting absentee ballots to provide an excuse — two unnecessary and antiquated barriers to participation in the political process. [Unnecessary only for those who lack concern for election integrity, turnout, and costs]
Posted in Legislature 2017, Mail/Absentee Voting
By Luther Weeks on November 16, 2016
An Alternet interview of Jonathan Simon: Something Stinks When Exit Polls and Official Counts Don’t Match – A discussion with an exit poll expert reveals an electoral house of cards.
When their were claims that exit polls did not match in the Democratic Primary, I said that neither side made the case saying, “I stand with Carl Sagan who said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Now a very thoughtful interview with Jonathan Simon who outlines the case that we should be concerned about the exit polls and concerned just as much that we cannot verify our elections
Posted in Electronic Vulnerability, National
By Luther Weeks on November 11, 2016
Once again, we have an election where it is alleged that the losing candidate won the popular vote. Understandably we have calls from her supporters to abolish the Electoral College by means of the National Popular Vote Compact.
Once again, we must articulate to our friends why this is a bad idea. Once again, we point out to most of those that support the Electoral College that they support it primarily for the wrong reasons.
We have a broken, risky, unequal election system. Cobbling a well-intended compact on top of it makes it more risky, more vulnerable, and the results even less credible:
*****Update 11/16/2016 Pleased to be republished at the CTMirror.
Posted in National, National Popular Vote
By Luther Weeks on November 7, 2016
Jonathan Simon says it so well at Truthout: Between Trump and a Hard Place: The Truth About “Rigged” Elections
It should be rather obvious that the unidentified insiders charged with the programming, and anyone working through them, enjoy an even greater level of access to the counting process than do foreign hackers targeting our systems from the outside. It should be obvious that this is a colossally stupid risk for our nation to take. And it should be obvious that there is something wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee wrong when those upon whom the public relies for information refuse to seriously address and come clean about that risk…Only a public, observable counting process (i.e., hand-counted paper ballots or uniform public audits with gleaming teeth) can rebuild our shattered faith in the fidelity of our electoral process.
I chose the post title deliberately. “The System” is not computers or pollworkers, but the whole voting system created by people we have put in charge. That system could be changed moderately to provide proof of its accuracy. It is that the system of people won’t recognize and address the problem.
Posted in National, Other Editorials
By Luther Weeks on November 6, 2016
! W A R N I N G !
Do not wait till the last minute. Do not wait to the last hour. Get there early if you want to use Election Day Registration!
NOTE: This is also a tale of how elections work in a state with a Secretary of the State with limited powers over underpaid, and occasionally resistant/obstinate local registrars. (The same registrars who are often cited by state officials as the reason we will have no problems in our elections this year. Read here how they handle their joint responsibility.)
Posted in CT, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on November 3, 2016
Lately the news is filled with Donald Trump saying the election is rigged and with election officials and others saying that is impossible. We continue to disagree with both. As we have said:
The truth is that there is no more or less risk to elections this year than in the recent past. The bad news is that the risks of election skullduggery are significant and do not come only from one adversary.
So, lets annotate a recent Op-Ed in the Hartford Courant: Nothing Rigged About American Elections
Posted in National, NonScienceNonsense, Skulduggery and Errors