Wish you would have let us know ahead of time (4.00 / 1)

I doubt I'm alone in saying I'd like to have listened live.

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by: TravisDisaster @ Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 21:04:06 PM UTC

It was last minute (0.00 / 0)

It was a very, very last minute booking. But at least we have the recording.

I'm on tomorrow from 6am-10am MST (8am-12pm EST).

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by: David Sirota @ Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 22:14:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Awesome (4.00 / 1)

Thanks for the heads-up, and for being the first person I've heard ask about his wingnut background (even if he declined to respond).

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by: TravisDisaster @ Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 22:23:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Very interesting interview with Secretary Buescher (0.00 / 0)

I know the main subject of this thread is Pickens, but Buescher's interview discusses an important issue.

His top priority as chief election officer is to repair relationships with county clerks - understandable given that Coffman had such a rocky relationship with them.

Hopefully, though, he does not avoid controversy to the point of deferring necessary change. Last year a bill pushed by Sen. Ken Gordon and others would have required optically scanned paper ballots to be the primary voting system in each polling place failed because of Coffman's inconsistency, and because clerks opposed getting rid of direct-recording electronic voting machines. Jefferson and Denver counties, I understand, voluntarily adopted optical scan as their primary voting systems.

Anyway, the paper ballot bill failed:

http://www.rockymountainnews.c...

But other states, including Ohio, California, and Kentucky (with a Republican SoS, Trey Greyson) have conducted their own reviews of the same systems that Colorado uses, and these reviews all recommend optically scanned paper ballots.  California SoS Bowen banned the use of direct-recording electronic machines as a primary system in all but two counties. Ohio SoS Brunner tried to do the same, but pushback from county election officials was intense. Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) was ordered to convert to paper ballots.

New Jersey almost did away with its law requiring voter-verifiable paper records last week; there is momentum in favor of optical scan but the state is broke.

Now Colorado's Election Reform Commission is hearing from experts, and the recommendation at least one prominent computer scientist: paper ballots. Existing DREs are too insecure, and their paper trail printers are not verified by a large number of voters. Changed votes have gone undetected by a majority of voters in a study done at Rice - and the changed votes in this study showed on the review screen itself, not a printout in small font to the side of the screen.

The Commission's next meeting is a teleconference on December 30.

Secretary Buesher should be respectful and consistent with his state's Clerks, but he should also be prepared to get rid of direct-recording electronic machines. He'll need money, though, and hopefully the federal legislation will provide it next year.  

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by: Midwest Millian @ Tue Dec 23, 2008 at 22:59:17 PM UTC