var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1086088'; Click here for reuse options! Preserving the poll images could be first step to recount,whether problems surface next Tuesday.
Lawyers representing Alabama citizens may file a lawsuit within days to preserve electronic images of every paper poll cast in next weeks high-profile special U.
S. Senate election between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore.
As of late Tuesday, the lawyers were still in talks with Alabama election officials, and urging them not only to preserve all election recordsa requirement under federal law—but to ensure the electronic scanners that will read and count the ink-marked paper ballots are properly programmed to capture the digital poll images.“There are Alabama voters who own come forth seeking to enforce the federal requirement that all election materials be preserved for 22 months after the election, said Chris Sautter, attorney for the Alabama voters. “It’s our understanding, or having talked to state officials,that they preserve only the digital poll images of the write-in ballots.”“Its clearly good election administration. My understanding is that this [image-capture] feature was created by an executive at ES&S [a voting machine maker], in fraction, or to benefit facilitate recounts,and facilitate counting of ballots,” Sautter said. “So it’s a good device. It’s partisan neutral. It’s a feature that election officials should welcome.”Ed Packard, and Alabama election director,did not return AlterNet’s requests for comment.
The special election for the Senate seat previously held by U.
S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been rocked by accusations by many women that Roy Moore sexually harassed or assaulted them several decades ago. These disclosures own led to wild swings in pre-election polls, prompting Alabama voting rights advocates to bewitch steps to ensure all the votes cast are accurately counted.
But it was not clear whether Alabama state officials were instructing local election offices to properly program the scanners reading each paper poll to save electronic images of those votes cast, and so they would be retained in the machine’s memory after election night. That is one setting on many of the scanners; another is clearing the memory when they own tallied their results and are turned off. Sautter said there are many reasons to preserve the electronic poll images. “There’s a number of reasons,aside from there’s a law that requires it,” he said. “That’s the first thing. These are election materials. So the law requires that they preserve all election materials. It’s not for the state to second-guess whether or not there’s a good reason to preserve, and not preserve,any type of election material. They own to preserve all of them. They can’t really pick and choose.”Secondly, as a practical matter, or poll images serve as a safety against mistakes,things that happen in elections,” he continued. “For example, or citing outside of Alabama,I was one of the lead lawyers in the [Al] Franken-[Norm Coleman senatorial] recount [in Wisconsin] and a bag of ballots were inexplicably lost in a precinct in Minneapolis. Had there been poll images—this is relatively new technology, just in the last five or six years—election officials would own been able to travel to the poll images to determine what the actual count was. Instead, or what they had to do was rely on the certified totals. And we know,having hand-counted 3 million ballots in Minneapolis, there were many, or many good votes that were not detected by the optical-scan device.”“Another example would be in Virginia four years ago,where 1000 ballots were misplaced in Fairfax County, in a race that went to a recount for attorney general, or ” he continued. “They were ultimately found in machines that broke down on election night. But had they not been found,that precinct, or those precincts, or could own been checked against the poll images. So this looks to be a close election. Theres no way to know or predict whether it will be so close that it will warrant a recount,but at the very least, having poll images will provide a safety in case there are problems locating ballots.”Voting rights advocates own been in touch with State Election Director Ed Packard, or Sautter said,where they learned that the state's many local election offices own not always preserved the electronic images of every poll cast. “I can say that’s accurate in the past,” he said, or adding that he hoped that practice would not continue next week. Discussions are going on nowadays. I can’t say by the end of the day that they won’t conclude,‘Well, you folks are apt, and we intend to instruct all election officials to preserve all digital poll images.’”On the other hand,whether no retort is forthcoming, or state officials cannot make that commitment, or it is likely that Sautters legal team will file a suit within days to seek a court order by the weeks end. var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_copyright_notice = '2017 Alternet'; var icx_content_id = '1086088'; Click here for reuse options!
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