3/16/05 SOS reply to Herrin questions on VBM

From: Anne.M.Martens
Subject: Re: WA/OR Secretaries of State advocate vote by mail
Date: March 16, 2005 2:32:30 PM PST
To: betsysalter@comcast.net

Our handouts are attached, and the WA SOS press release is at
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/office/osos_news.aspx?i=u7awEbop%2bNBiaXFuhAwJWg%3d%3d

I'll try to answer some of the critique point by point below.

Thanks,
Anne

"The Oregon System":
http://www.chuckherrin.com/sinceyouasked.htm

Herrin #1:
There are several ways to exploit or generally cause havoc with a mail-in system - for example, what happens when several ballots are received for the same voter?

SOS #1:
Generally, several ballots are not received by the same voter, and with a Centralized Voter Registration System in place by 2006 as required by HAVA, it will become significantly more difficult for any one voter to receive more than one ballot. Currently, if a voter attempts to vote more than one ballot, the first ballot received is counted, and if a second ballot is received by the county elections
office, then that voter is flagged and forwarded to the Secretary of State for potential prosecution and the second ballot is not counted. It is a felony to vote more than once.

Herrin #2
Does the first vote received count, and others get discarded?

SOS #2
Yes.

Herrin #3
If so, an attacker can have a massive reserve of fake ballots to be sent in the first day, effectively denying everyone on his list of their right to vote.

SOS #3:
It would be extremely difficult to "fake" ballots. Ballot envelopes are bar coded with voter information that corresponds to their voter registration card. Unless the "attacker" could duplicate the bar code as used by the county, the fake ballot would be spotted as a fake immediately and would not count. Additionally, because it is rare to receive a large number of duplicate ballots, and because all ballots are issued by the county so they know how many ballots are extant at any
given time, any massive amounts of duplicate ballots coming in would raise red flags for the counties, who would then investigate with the assistance of the Secretary of State and Attorney General.

Herrin #4:
"Curtis Gans of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate contended that vote-by-mail would suppress voter participation. But record numbers of Oregonians registered to vote, and almost 87 percent
of them cast ballots." I suspect that it would be more accurate to say that there were 87 ballots received for each 100 voters, but Oregon will have a hard time
showing that 87% actually voted. Who's to say that the turnout wasn't 65% with 22% "padding"?

SOS #4
There is absolutely no evidence of "padding" nor does the author explain what he means by "padding." 86.5% of registered voters in Oregon voted in the last election.

Herrin #5
If nobody had to show their face to vote, how would anyone know whether the votes were legitimate? There's no real authentication before someone's vote is counted, which is just asking for abuse.

SOS #5
Every signature on every ballot of every voter is matched to their voter registration card before their ballot is counted. County election workers receive training from forensics experts in handwriting analysis for signature verification. Oregon is one of only two states in the nation to check every signature of every voter (the other is NY). The signature check both ensures that the voter is who they claim to be, and protects the voter, because if the signature doesn't match, then the voter is contacted.

Herrin #6
And if I get a list of Democrats, why couldn't I send in 4 or 5 fake ballots for each of them with the aim of getting their votes disqualified?

SOS #6
See above on "fake" ballots.

Herrin #7
The papers will detail the Dems attempt to vote more than once (distraction), and their legitimate votes will probably be thrown out (the real goal). I'm sure that you can all come up with other ways to exploit that type of system, just off the top of your head. And if they come in to be optically scanned into the same systems we're using today (GEMS, etc), we're way worse off than we are right now.
Signature verification is NOT effective as the sole deterrent to fraud.

SOS #7
Signature verification is not the sole deterrent to fraud, but it is the primary and most effective deterrent to fraud. There are a number of other fraud prevention practices built in to the vote by mail system.

Herrin #8
There is a lot of potential for abuse there by disqualifying legitimate ballots because the "signature didn't match", and the main problem is there is no real authentication showing that the person casting the vote is who they say they are.

SOS #8
Again, voters are contacted if their signature doesn't match, by phone and letter, and the counties have until 10 days after the election to resolve signature problems with the voter and have the vote count. If the signature problem is not resolved at that time, then the ballot does not count and the voter is forwarded to the Secretary of State for further investigation.

Herrin #9
Sample problem with signature verification:
About a year ago I went to CompUSA to buy a hard drive, and the cashier gave me my receipt, which I signed. She then looked at my card and noticed that it was not signed, so she asked me to sign it. I did, and she then compared the signature on the receipt with the signature on the card, and sure enough, they matched! Satisfied, she gave me my card back and told me to have a nice day.

SOS #9
This is an apples to lemons comparison. It's completely irrelevant.

Herrin #10
I know that's not an exact analogy to the voting problem, but it shows the weakness of signature verification as the sole deterrent to prevent fraud. If I know that's the system in use, I could fill out a few hundred voter registration cards and make minor changes (or maybe no changes at all), just to get the signature on that card to be the signature of record. Then when I sent in my fraudulent votes later, sure enough, the signatures would match.

SOS #10
Falsely filling out a voter registration card is a felony. First time voters who register by mail are required to include a copy of their identification. First time voters who register in person are prevented from filling out hundreds of cards by the person that they are registering in front of. The Centralized Voter Registration system has a database of every legitimate residence address in each county and checks the registration card against that database to prevent false addresses. CVR also checks the registration card against the DMV
database. CVR also keeps a record of every voter registration card filled out by any single voter (for example, if they move) so any changes in signatures over time are documented and can be analysed. A large numbe
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