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Improved Communications!
We can announce that our newsletters are now electronically routed to Maryland Delegates and Senators. That will keep them attuned to our research findings as well as our concerns; the communication flow should mutually benefit everyone. Volunteers also concluded an examination of Frederick County voting records. It pleases us to say that their diligent efforts confirmed the fewest discrepancies of any of the jurisdictions we have examined thus far. (Only 16 more jurisdictions to go!) A number of election-related bills have been introduced in the General Assembly that should be of interest to our newsletter subscribers. Positions we have formally taken on various bills along with our rationale follows.
HB-212 & SB-15: Federal law requires the state to regularly remove dead and "ineligible" voters from the voter rolls; thus, this bill would improve compliance with federal law and concurrently clean up records. Heretofore there's been some terminology confusion. Maryland equates the word "ineligible" to describe those who are not able to participate as voters (not legal residents of Maryland, felons still serving their sentence, still on probation, or deemed mentally incapable by the state). The term "inactive" describes voters who have moved out of the state, have asked to be removed from the voter rolls, or their deaths were not confirmed. Federal law makes no such distinction so there are hundreds of thousands of voters in "inactive" status that remain on voter rolls. Fortunately, the proposed bill will solve this problem and permit the Board of Elections to use a software source program we have been using as specified by our True the Vote allies. A byproduct of this will be voter information discs purchased from election boards will be less cluttered and more current. Unfortunately, the proposed bill failed to address multi-unit buildings that have been razed or deemed uninhabitable and we suggested that voter information be acquired at property settlements and that municipal permitting authorities alert election offices when residential buildings are razed. (In Baltimore City we found up to 100 active voters registered in a building boarded up and in Annapolis 60 active voters registered at an address where a parking garage replaced an apartment.
HB-263 & SB-200: When implemented a few years ago Early Voting decreased long lines at nearly all polls but it did so at major expense. This particular bill will extend early voting periods. But we wonder why. When introduced voting went from one day to 10 additional days for 13 hour periods at 21 special voting locations in 24 voting jurisdictions. Beyond this move to reduce long lines at polls, keep in mind that the General Assembly also relaxed administrative control rules for absentee ballots - again to make it easier for people to vote. (Today it is perhaps too easy to acquire an absentee ballot; the system is now less free from fraudulent manipulation). With the combined impact and implications of the mentioned changes one would have to wonder why we need "same day registration and voting" enacted last year. This voting method begs the question how anyone or any process could verify someone's right to legally cast a vote in mere minutes? We know that non-citizens have reported for jury duty on the basis of voter registrations --- even though these individuals cannot vote. (Citizenship determination is not verified as a part of the voting registration process.) Not surprisingly, voting system experts have challenged Maryland's ability to operate such a program.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-rodricks-0206-20140206,0,2320119.column
For convenience, excerpts of the February 6th Baltimore Sun article authored by Dan Rodricks follow:
Quote - "Experts say there is no way to know for certain that the person requesting the absentee ballot is the one filling it out and mailing it in. Michael Greenberger, the University of Maryland law professor...says the identification system currently in place is not an effective way to authenticate a voter; in fact, it's vulnerable to fraud. Therefore, he says, "bad actors" could impersonate real voters, have the tracking numbers sent to them by email, then fill out and return ballots to local election boards without any meaningful check for fraud. Voter signatures are not checked against those on file...Greenberger advocates dropping the current plan and going old-school - that is, mailing absentee ballots to "brick and mortar addresses."
The other major concern was the potential for fraud in online registration. The three experts who wrote to the board about this in 2012 were David Jefferson, a computer scientist based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; J. Alex Halderman, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan; and Barbara Simons, a retired IBM computer scientist and an expert on electronic voting. They are part of network of vigilant computer security experts who independently assess state elections systems and report their concerns. 'We have identified severe security vulnerabilities in Maryland's online voter registration system,' Jefferson and his colleagues wrote state elections officials in September 2012. 'These problems leave the system open to large-scale, automated fraud, and make the Maryland system among the most vulnerable of all the states' new online voter registration systems.' The letter said, in boldface: 'Given the grave potential for harm, we urge the State of Maryland to take immediate defensive steps to safeguard the online voter registration system or else shut down the system." - End quote.
Doesn't the preceding advice make you wonder why lawmakers want to make an already fragile system even more fragile or unmanageable for local boards (particularly when other states have had problems with the same program)? We believe a study should be done by an independent group to examine: demographics, voting machine usage levels; votes tallied by source; voting machine allocation; early voting effectiveness; and absentee ballot protocols. The composite results should then be weighed against more spending to provide a costly luxury.
HB-357 & SB-190: Considering what people endured to secure voting rights it is easy to understand why a person's vote is considered priceless. Maryland law nonetheless treats voter fraud as a misdemeanor. And that undermines the importance of honest voting since it is not that difficult to cast illicit votes. Just as disconcerting, detection of voting impersonators by poll site judges is difficult to accomplish but history will confirm that those who violated Maryland election laws in past years escaped serious punishment. Specifying harsher penalties for those who dare to engage in any facet of fraudulent or corrupt voting is long overdue. Stealing another person's vote should correlate to grand larceny!
House Bill 1406: This bill requires the Maryland Board of Elections to maintain voting authority cards for 48 months following an election. The standard was determined as a direct result of the work of Election Integrity Volunteers; volunteers discovered three individual cases where deceased people appeared to have voted in 2012 after their dates of death. These cases were referred to the Board of Elections who in turn passed the cases to the State Prosecutor's Office for investigation. While confirming that votes were cast in the name of the deceased after their dates of death, the State Prosecutor's Office was unable to investigate the matter further due to a lack of necessary records. Consistent with Department of justice standards voter Authority Cards (what voters sign at their polling place) are only retained for 22 months after an election. Without the records, and with the amount of time that had passed (these votes had been cast in 2004), the State Prosecutor informed our office that any further investigation and potential criminal prosecution was impossible. With setting a mandatory 48 month record retention in statute, House Bill 1406 would aid any future investigations and follow-on prosecution of future cases of voter fraud.
In conclusion, maybe our good fortune was the result of a speaking engagement by the EIM President at a well attended Hyattsville community meeting or the result of an on-air interview by her with Station WFMD in Frederick but in the past month we have been blessed with 10 more volunteers. We applaud their initiative - their efforts will accelerate our goals. WE STILL NEED COMPUTER SAVVY PEOPLE who can work in their own home on their computers. AND YES,WE BADLY NEED DONATIONS!
Donating to Election Integrity Maryland
Our operational results depend on private donations. All donations are used to thwart the hijacking of any one's honest vote and to meet expenses. Please consider donating to EIM by credit card via PayPal by visiting our website www.electionintegritymaryland.com. If you prefer to mail a check please make your check payable to "Election Integrity Maryland" and mail it to: Election Integrity Maryland, 8710 Traville Gateway Drive, #212; Rockville, MD 20850
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