DOJ pressures NYSBOE

I sent off this letter to NYS BOE Co-Executive Directors this morning.

Mr. Peter S. Kosinski
Stanley L. Zalen
Co-Executive Directors
New York State Board of Elections
40 Steuben Street
Albany, NY 12207-2108

November 7, 2006

Re: Civil Action No. 06-CV-0263 (GLS)

Dear Sirs:

It is unfair for the US Department of Justice to place all the responsibility for the unmet certification deadlines on the NYS Board of Elections.

The Department of Justice has not established reasonable standards for certification of HAVA compliant voting systems, and this has created great difficulty on the part of New York State to find vendors whose equipment meets NYS standards.

The Federal government has not required vendors to escrow with any State any proprietary source code for the voting equipment in question. In light of the numerous demonstrated fallibilities of proprietary vendor source codes in voting systems around the country, it is unreasonable for the Department of Justice to require New York State to waive this prohibition against secret and private source codes in public voting systems.

The Department of Justice has not objectively evaluated New York State's standards in NYS Election Law Section 7-200. It is unreasonable for the State of New York to purchase voting systems which haven’t been tested according to the requirements of State law. According to Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media, a grass roots New York State, non-partisan activist group:

New York's Procurement Laws prohibit NYS from entering into contracts with "non-responsible" vendors. New York's courts have upheld findings of vendor non-responsibility for the very ethical violations these vendors have committed as well as barring the state from doing business with vendors with criminal indictments, criminal convictions, and of course records of failed past performance. The voting vendors are guilty of multiple infractions of all these criteria.

Press Release, Northeast Citizens For Responsible Media, http://www.re-media.org/, November 7, 2007

The Department of Justice is not supporting New York State in our efforts to procure a reliable and secure voting system for our elections. Rather, the US Department of Justice is seeking to bully New York State into buying expensive and unreliable equipment from private vendors who refuse to comply with New York State’s voter protection laws.

Please do not submit to the unreasonable demands of the Department of Justice. Their arguments demonstrably do not stand in the best interests of the voters of New York State or the United States. Rather, they are trying to bully New York State into privatizing our election system by giving private vendors proprietary control of the voting system. That is unacceptable and the Department of Justice must drop its suit and support New York State in our efforts to improve our voting system.

Sincerely,