By Luther Weeks on November 12, 2015
Nor more comfort that the ‘C’ ranks us 3rd in the ‘Class’ of states.
New report from the Center for Public Integrity: How does your state rank for integrity? <read>
With the Connecticut details: Connecticut gets C- grade in 2015 State Integrity Investigation <read>
Let me start by applauding the Center for the report and Connecticut reporter Jennifer Frank for her contributions to the report. I will have some suggestions and criticisms of the report, yet having created a report on 169 Connecticut elections websites I know how challenging it is to set the criteria and perform uniform objective evaluations across several entities with multiple elevators.
Posted in CT, CT Law, National
By Luther Weeks on June 10, 2015
In one of his books, Gerry Weinberg pointed out that employee evaluations should be multiplicative not additive, that is, the various dimensions of performance and capabilities should be multiplied rather than added to determine the overall value of an employee.
There is an analogy with laws, including election laws. Laws must be Sufficient, Enforceable, and Enforced. Missing one of the three, all value is lost.
Posted in Chain of Custody, Common Sense, CT Law
By Luther Weeks on January 21, 2015
SOTS Office makes improvements, significant Registrars of Voters flaws continue
Improvements noted by the Citizen Audit include:
- Small, yet significant improvements in and corrections to the Official Audit Procedures made by the Secretary of the State’s Office (SOTS Office) at the request of the Citizen Audit.
- Increased integrity and credibility of the audit based on a Citizen Audit of the random drawing of districts and races. (As reported separately on 1/21/2015)
- Significantly fewer errors in the random drawing list in November 2014 compared to November 2013.
- Public and transparent drawing of races to be audited after the November election.
The audit observation report concluded that the official audit results do not inspire confidence after eight years and fourteen audits, because of the continued:
- Lack of consistency, reliability, and transparency in the conduct of the audit.
- Discrepancies between machine counts and hand counts reported to the Secretary of the State by municipalities.
- Lack of investigation of such discrepancies, and the lack of standards for triggering such investigations.
- Weaknesses in the ballot chain-of-custody.
The audit observations also uncovered tabulator errors and inadequate election procedures which cause some votes for registered write-in candidates to not be counted.
Citizen Audit spokesperson Luther Weeks stated, “We appreciate improvements made by the Secretary of the State’s Office. We remain disappointed after eight years that significant improvements remain to achieve a credible audit, especially by local election officials, in too many municipalities.”
<Full Report (.pdf)> <Press Release>
Detail data/municipal reports <Nov> <Aug>
Posted in CT, CT Law, Post-Election Audits
By Luther Weeks on January 14, 2015
Yesterday, Where We Live, with John Dankowski, was a discussion of Cyber Security for consumers and business.
At about 17:49 into the show, I called in and reminded John Dankoski of the Secretary of the State’s Symposium on Online voting that he moderated just over three years ago. In response to my comment, Professor Bryan Ford of Yale, gave a very thorough summary of the potential risks of Internet voting.
Posted in CT Law, Internet Security Issues, Internet Voting
By Luther Weeks on December 28, 2014
In today’s print edition of the Courant, one in a series of editorials setting an agenda for the State, Agenda 2015: Ambitious Goals For The State, one portion focuses on elections,
We diverge from the Courant in our opinion. We continue to point out that the most comprehensive system of election administration reform would be to regionalize elections, obtaining some of the same benefits obtained by regionalizing probate.
Also, Professionalization does not include ignoring science. There is a reason we do not connect our scanners to the internet to report results.
Posted in CT Law, Electronic Vulnerability, Legislature 2015, Other Editorials
By Luther Weeks on December 15, 2014
Like the rest of the U.S., Connecticut had low turn out in the November 2014 mid-terms. Much better than the national average. It is always hard to judge the cause of turnout differences in a single election.
But one thing is clear, Election Day Registration (EDR) has failed to meet the expectations of its proponents – unfortunately results were more in line with our predictions.
Posted in CT, CT Law
By Luther Weeks on November 27, 2014
Since the election on November 4th we have had all sorts of complaints about Connecticut election administration. Claims that we are the slowest, with the most clueless election officials. And all sorts of cures proposed including more mail-in votes, electronic calculation of results, and reorganization of election administration.
We agree with that their are many problems. We agree with the general outlines of some of the cures. Yet, we caution against knee-jerk reaction, and change without planning and analysis.
We suggest looking at the best practices from other states. Yet, we can also learn from the mistakes and foibles of other states. Often those employing some of those very cures proposed for Connecticut.
Posted in CT, CT Law, Electronic Vulnerability, Legislature 2014, Mail/Absentee Voting, National, Skulduggery and Errors
By Luther Weeks on November 22, 2014
We agree in part with the other critics, that we need radical change in Connecticut election administration. Yet, we need a carefully considered approach and a deliberate implementation of change. Our recommended approach is to do for elections what we have done for probate: Regionalize, Prioritize, and Economize. It won’t be easy, simple, or cheap in the short run, yet simply moving local administration to municipal clerks as many suggest would be a band-aid, with many of the same limitations and risks of the current system.
Posted in CT Law, Legislature 2015, Our Editorials
By Luther Weeks on November 15, 2014
Starting with three more articles in the Courant on Thursday: An apology, a column, and an editorial.
Posted in CT Law, Legislature 2015
By Luther Weeks on November 12, 2014
We are amazed by the number of election integrity issues raised by this election and the flurry of suggestions for improvement, led by the Hartford Courant. Yet in all the excitement and rush to judgement and improvement, among the good intentions and good ideas, there is also a misunderstanding of the system, ideas that are not feasible, uninformed, and that would make a worse system.
Posted in CT Law, Legislature 2015, Other Editorials, Our Editorials
