February 13, 2007 Minutes For Citizens' Advisory Committee Minutes

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY
CITIZEN’S ADVISORY COMMITTEE
In conjunction with
Voter’s Registration Office

Meeting Minutes
February 13, 2007 – 4:00 p.m.


The scheduled meeting of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee was held at 4:00 p.m. on February 13, 2007, in the County Council Meeting Room #307.

Welcome

Mr. Russ Shade called the meeting to order.

Roll Call

Mr. Conklin gave the roll and the following members were present:
Jack Bradt Russ Shade Greta Browne
Peg Ferraro NOT present Richard Benner NOT present

A suggestion was made to postpone approval of last weeks minutes until next week.

Courtesy of the Floor

Alan Brau:

Spoke about a website regarding voting machines, www.blackboxvoting.org. Two issues are at stake, hardware and software. Anytime a change is made to software, the machine needs re-certified. A different version than the certified version was used in the February election. Were the machines re-certified with current version? What types of changes actually require re-certification? Documentation of all software changes needs to be maintained.
The diagram of the certified hardware should be compared with a diagram of the hardware in our machines to ensure consistency.

Russ Shade:

Gave an explanation of how software conversions are numbered.

Old Business

Russ Shade:

Last week we talked about the conversing of the software and how the State was handling it and whether the particular version that we were using was certified or not. We also mentioned the business of the hard ware, which is most disturbing.

John Conklin:

The goal for the unofficial vote count on election night is midnight. Two types of data entry and USB vote tally solutions are being considered, one server for AVS and one multiple-user for manual date entry.
Write-ins are a concern. The information needs to be manually evaluated as to the “intent” of the voter. For election night purposes, a total count by race of the total number of write in for the unofficial tally is needed. AVS will create a file which will be uploaded every few minutes and posted to the County website. Specific write-in names will not be posted on the unofficial vote count reports, but the number of write-ins will be shown.
New reporting features will include information broken down by precinct, machine, and other details not previously obtained. Prior to election night, we need to make sure everything is exactly how we want it.
Some discussion took place regarding the certification of the machines. Both a manual entry and a concurrent electronic entry will be used as a checks and balance.

Suggestions:

The Election department should be divided into two groups. One group to works towards complying with the next election and one group to identify and develop a plan for future elections.

People in numbers would be more effective in convincing legislators to make the appropriate accommodations to make elections run in the most efficient manner.

A letter should be sent to both AVS and the Department of State requesting a bill of materials for the machines. A comparison should be made between the two to ensure the machines meet certification standards.

New Business:

A survey for candidates and poll workers was put together for the committee to take home and review and comment on next week before it is distributed.

A suggestion was made for the Election office to keep a running record of who comes in, at what time and the purpose of their visit.

Meeting Adjourned: Motion by Greta Brown, seconded by Jack Bradt. Motion carried.