Local H.S. Seniors Honored

This in from Chris Barnett at the Secretary of State's office. Congratulations to these students!

"Honoring High School Seniors for Public Service

Students from all over Rhode Island are recognized with our 2009 High School Civic Leadership Awards.

The awards are given annually to members of the senior class who make outstanding contributions to their schools and their hometowns. The winners were honored in front of friends, family and faculty at a State House ceremony. Photos of the event.

“This award recognizes students who show an understanding of the importance public service has in a democratic society,” says Secretary of State Mollis. “These students take the principles of civics and put them into action at home and at school.”

We asked high schools around the state to nominate members of the Class of 2009 who best met the ideals of the award: public service, leadership ability and academic achievement.

Seventy-nine high schools ranging from Barrington High to Woonsocket High nominated seniors for the honor. This is the third consecutive year we have presented the awards.

"I am committed to encouraging young people to get involved. Their enthusiasm and willingness to participate in the civic life of their school and community are vital to the strength of our democracy. I hope their example inspires next year’s senior class," says Secretary Mollis.

Middletown High School: Carly Benson& Daniel A. Quintanilla

Rogers High School: Bethany Lopes & Michael Turchetti

Tiverton High School: Elizabeth McGreavy & Joshua Louis Beaupre

Secretary of St. Mollis is coming!

To Middletown anyway and possibly other island areas. Area politicans and business people want to speak with him regarding economic development and other concerns.

I'd love to furnish photos, but , alas, at some point my camera developed legs & evidently decided to leave for greener pastures, but forgot it's battery pack! Darn, doesn't seem as if it's coming home either- probably just lacking energy at this point. Oh, well.

R.I.'s Election Violations

CBS News carried a story Tues. night on "voter purging."

"But, the new report by the non-partisan public policy and law institute, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law exposes troubling new insight into the process. There are no national standards and as a result, the cleaning up of voter rolls is not as precise as it should be and eligible voters are often wrongly removed. The Brennan report calls the nationwide process "chaotic," shrouded in secrecy, riddled with inaccuracies, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation.

....Another study, by the group U.S. PIRG, released last week, also looked at the issue of voter purging and discovered that 19 states are ignoring a federal law banning systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election. The 19 states include battleground states of Colorado, Ohio and Nevada." (CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian)

Federal law prohibits voter purges 90 days before federal elections (The National Voter Registration Act ,NVRA, 1993. It also mandates that anyone removed from rolls for address problems, must be notified of such. If your name is not on the rolls, you must be given a provisional ballot. If the provisions of the law were followed, chances of voters being thrown off the rolls would be greatly reuduced. However, the law does NOT require that it actually be counted.

"Of the 50 states included in our survey, 19 states appear to be unaware of the 90-day requirement; the state statutes made no mention of the deadline and the election officials were
unaware of one." Yup, Rhode Island is one.

Recently Sec. of State, Ralph Mollis, appointed a Legislative committee- "Voters First" and intro'd lege. package of reforms. Wouldn't you think that being in synch with federal law might have made the list? Evidently not as Rhode Island law currently contradicts federal law (one of four doing so) by giving a different deadline. In fact, R.I. allows for voter purges at any time.

What is even more startling is that the Sec. of St. office was not even aware of the federal law. "The representative for Rhode Island 'didn’t think there was any deadline for systematic
purges.' (source)

Ironically, the State (one of 10) rec'd a letter this spring from the Justice Dept. requiring it to purge its voting lists under NVRA. Our last voter purge was in March of 2006 (source).

I asked the Sec'y of St.'s office for some info regarding the letter & the lack of compliance with federal law. Still waiting... But why should this office be any different than the Board of Elections? I asked them some questions regarding the electronic voting machines last year and ...still waiting.

Elections, voting lists are...like...really important. Aren't they?

Tues. Presidential Primary Election

Little Compton lost one polling place while Middletown lost half of theirs. I don't get it. In the recent Newport Rep. election which expected a LOW turnout, all the polling places were open in the Rep. District. A higher than normal Primary voter turnout is expected here & we make it harder to vote. Umm, how about no-fault absentee voting? I already know one Hillary support who can't vote because of a trip & was unable to obtain an emergency ballot .

One wonders how many will head to their normal voting place, find it closed, & forget about it? Or how many will view the line at their polling place, turn around, & head out? But the old fart demographic (and I refer here to myself) will put up with these inconvenients. And who will I vote for - Hillary. I make no bones about it- I want a woman president! I could go on but that's the bottom line. I'd cast my vote almost as happily for Obama at a later time, but I am hoping that Hillary wins it.

I can't say as Shirley Chisolm did that,"I' ve always met more discrimination being a woman than being black. " But for those who complain about their being a glass ceiling for women, I've always found that there was more of a glass floor. While I do believe that there has been some change since Shirley spoke the previous words (in the ?80's)- not enough!
I only hope that while I can honestly state that I would work just as hard if Obama wins, that his supporters can same the same about Hillary.

Go Hillary!

BTW: Locate your Primary voting place here AND Hillary has had a lousy presence on the blogs. I blame that on her campaign. I've rec'd nada despite asking.

Trusting the Voting System in Rhode Island

This is excerpted from my previous posting.

1. Hacking Democracy by Harris & Michaels. Exposes the vulnerability of computer voting. You missed it! R.I. uses ES&S optiscan system (Eagle III-PE) and has regular problems with it every election. This is the purvey of the Board of Elections (appointed), not the Secretary of State- I do believe this is unique.
Think that it's reliability is beyond question- think again. A decision by Judge Fortunato states that the Board has ceded too much authority to ES&S optiscanners in deciding whether or not a vote is valid.
The Board still has not responded regarding questions that I asked almost 3 wks. ago- their software testing report, requirements for recounts, etc. They did give me the model info, though, but not as much as in today's Projo article.
Every election has seen problems with this system. Remember the last General Election when the system did not update with Little Compton votes (& others) until the next day? They weren't even posted for 3 days. Oops.
Here are the questions that I posed:
1. Who is the maker of our optiscan system? Answer rec'd. ES&S is the largest maker of voting equipment. They have had problems around the world, not just the USA. Plug their name into any search engine & be prepared to read problem after problem not just regarding their equipment but their management/ownership also.
2. Who does the pre-election certification of the software? Does the State have the choice to choose it's own certifier? Has it been reviewed for security? Can I have a copy of this document? No answer & now I know why. There is no certification process. Um, like, this is kinda important. How do you know this stuff does what it says? What about security?
3. Can the State use its own certification process for the memory cards involved? Also important to guarantee the status of these cards; e.g., no votes on it & no executable programs lingering. No answer. Also important. Ever have a bad disk/card?
4. What is the process for having a certified recount? Can all votes be reviewed for the asking or does a preliminary review have to be done first? No answer. For all that yakking about a "paper trail," in fact it's never been pursued. Everything just sits in locked up in warehouses & you are not welcome to review. Getting a recount is virtually impossible.
This from the R.I. Board of Elections Director Kando: “Our equipment is among the oldest in the nation,” he said. “I think it’s one of the most-tested systems.” Say what? Tested by whom? If it's old, don't you think it may need testing for its continued reliability? How do you know hackers haven't got this "old stuff" figured out? How about the memory cards? Do we use them? Who examines them before use?
Thanks to Rhode Island's Future for alerting me to Projo's article by Bruce Landis. This is a storm brewing. If you can't verify our elections system (and it appears you can't), then like, er, um, democracy & voting ain't worth much. Kinda gets you in the gut.
Is our system reliable? Prove it- every election, please. How about periodic, regular, random audits of the "paper trail?" I also want all hardware & software evaluated by our choice of certifiers. Sounds like a duh! to me.