Guest Commentary: Protect the Vote

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Guest Commentary: Protect the Vote

Guest Commentary: Protect the Vote

Some Commissioner candidates urge the Metropolis to rethink its planned purchase of expensive, possibly unsafe voting machines

May. 06, 2019

Of all the challenges that election officials face up, the selection of a new voting organization is certainly the one with the highest stakes. The voters of Philadelphia deserved an open, thorough and responsible procurement process, but didn't go one.

Nosotros have come together as candidates for Philadelphia City Commissioner to say that despite the hard work and professionalism of the civil service staffers who go on voter registration and our elections running, the Commissioners have failed to responsibly carry out their central duty: to brand sure that all eligible Philadelphians will be able to vote and that our elections will exist every bit accurate, fair and secure as possible.

At the center of the ongoing voting auto fiasco is the blessing on February twenty by Commissioners Lisa Deeley and Al Schmidt of the buy of ES&South ExpressVote Xl hybrid machines using the previously untested "best value" procurement process. The Protect Our Vote Coalition has pointed out and documented serious shortcomings in this procurement upward to this bespeak: ignoring all-time-value procurement guidelines; lack of transparency and public input; bias toward a preferred vendor's most expensive product; and credible violations of the Ethics Lawmaking and Election Code.The Commissioners who voted to corroborate the new machines on February twenty were already candidates for re-election under the state'southward definition and therefore ineligible to serve on the Lath of Elections and participate in that vote.

We applaud the Protect Our Vote Coalition's participation in weekly Lath of Elections meetings, and we applaud Metropolis Controller Rebecca Rhynhart for urging the Board to vacate the Commissioners' determination and to restart the voting system selection process.

Rhynhart has explained in detail why the Board should vacate the determination and issue a new RFP, and she has issued subpoenas aimed at finding out how it happened. State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said he has "serious concerns about the process" and urged City Quango to "review information technology carefully." To his credit, City Commissioner Anthony Clark stated on Apr 10 that he agrees with Rhynhart, as practice we.

The result of the flawed process devised by the Commissioners is a voting organisation that lacks the security, resilience, usability, and accessibility Philadelphia needs. Among its many shortcomings: it tallies bar codes instead of human-readable text declining to run across the recommendations of the Pennsylvania Blue Ribbon Commission; and its accessibility features for people with disabilities are poorly implemented. It would also cost $15–20 meg more than other options.

We do not believe this was the right decision, and we do not believe it was made properly.

Other counties are meeting state requirements for more than secure and verifiable voting systems through processes that welcome expert and public involvement and can be seen to be honest and transparent. They are implementing new systems more quickly, at much lower cost, and without controversy.  Montgomery County did and so and is implementing its new system in May. Allegheny County is just starting now; its new voting systems website is a model of clarity and transparency. Philadelphia could do the same.

Proper oversight of our elections, improved voter registration and increased confidence in our republic here in Philadelphia can happen simply with ballot officials who are competent and trustworthy, and who value public input. We urge the voters of Philadelphia to ensure that the adjacent complement of Commissioners is non dominated past members who are selected and funded by detail political interest groups to whom they are answerable. The Function of the City Commissioners must answer to the people of Philadelphia and no 1 else.

That nosotros can all cast our votes and trust the results is the boulder of our democracy. To safeguard and guarantee that is the core responsibleness of our election officials, and it is a responsibility that each u.s. pledges to uphold.

Signed,

Moira Bohannon

Luigi Borda

Carla Cain

Marwan Kreidie

Dennis Lee

kesslerbunpremong.blogspot.com

Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/guest-commentary-protect-the-vote/

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