Katherine B. Wolpe
Private Influence at our State Board of
Elections
Why We Need Resolution 228
Thank you for
the opportunity to speak before you today.
In December,
2005, I spoke before the State Board of Elections on the first draft of our
State Voting Systems Standards.
The fifth
draft of these regulations has just been adopted, but the public has not been
permitted to see the regulations since an earlier draft. We do not know yet
what is in the regulations that were approved. But we learned at the State
Board of Elections meeting on Thursday, April 20, that during the last week
before approval, while the public was told that the State Board had received
sufficient comments and did not need any more from us, Sequoia Voting Systems
had an opportunity to examine and suggest changes to the last draft, some of
which were apparently accepted.
This is a
key symptom of privatization, when vendors or industry representatives write
the regulations for the agency that is supposed to regulate them.
This is why
we need Resolution 228, and it is unfortunate that state law preempts local law
in this area so that the City Council can pass only a resolution. But we need
to see those machines work before our Board of Elections signs any contract. We
need every one of those measures that are listed.
At the
County Election Commissioners meeting in May, 2005, vendors of electronic
voting machines filled two hallways with their products. During a plenary
session in the ballroom adjacent to those hallways, a key employee of the State
Board of Elections swept her hand in a grand gesture toward the hallways and
declared “I am ready to certify all the equipment out there.” Indeed, she told
the truth. She was ready then.
Far be it
for regulations to get in the way of certification. She wants those computers,
and she is not the only one. There is a lot of money at stake. If this City
Council and this committee don’t represent the people and amplify our small
voices, who will?
Thank you.