Wanted: 3000 Old Paper Ballots
All over America the ballots from the 2004 election are still in storage. Federal law requires that they be retained for 22 months after the election. The time is about to expire.
County election officials in some states may have the authority to dispose of these ballots in any way they wish next month when the time elapses. They won’t bring much on Ebay, so mostly they will be discarded. But some people would like to get them. Maybe you can arrange it.
A Wisconsin voting machine expert (John Washburn) is seeking 3000 actual paper ballots. He has asked his local election supervisor, but she has said she intends to destroy the ballots.
Washburn wants the ballots in order to demonstrate a new way to “hand count” paper ballots(How to Count Thousands
of Paper Ballots by Hand). He will use a super sensitive scale instead of thumbing through the ballots while he counts. His scale can detect weights to a fraction of a gram. Ballots weigh more than 20 grams. So a stack of ballots could be counted far more accurately by weighing them than by thumbing them.
Here is Washburn’s request:
Does this work? Work fast enough? Work with multi-race ballots? Have sufficient check and balances and security to minimize fraud?
I want to get real world, empirical evidence of the viability of this proposal (or lack therof). I want to video record the whole 6-7 hours to DVD. The availability of the raw video as well as 30 second, 1 minute, 10 minute, and 30 minute versions is to blunt claims I have presented this in an out of context way.
I have a scale company here willing to lend me a $1500 high capacity, high sensitivity counting scale for nothing more than prominent product placement in the resulting video.
I have a film crew available (camera, lights, sound, and director) willing to donate the equipment and time in exchange for the copyright to the result and credit toward their film degree.
What I don’t have is a set of real ballots to sort, weigh and count. The 22 month retention period for the November 2, 2004 election materials expires on September 2, 2006 . What is more realistic than actual ballots as marked by actual voters?
What I need:
1) 3,000 or more ballots from November 2, 2004.
The ballots:
a) Need not all be from the same jurisdiction.
b) Must have the same ballots structure; i.e. the same set of races with the same set candidates printed in the same order.
c) Must be printed on discrete, uniform pieces of paper; the heavier the better. Optically scanned ballots would be best. But ballots from a Populex systemor Proofs of votes from an AccuPoll system would work as well. VVPAT toilet paper (Not discrete) or cut and dropped VVPAT will not work (not cut to uniform lengths).
d) Have at least 8 races on it.Can anyone help me find a jurisdiction with ballots from polling places which meet my selection criteria? On September 3, 2006 ballots from jurisdictions all across the country will be in dumpsters. I would like to rescue some of this trash and put it to good use.
One Florida county has decided to donate its ballots to a university for use by researchers. Washburn can go to Florida to do his research, if necessary. But if we can help, it should not be necessary.
Unfortunately Iowa law requires the destruction of old ballots, so please pass this request on to others. Have them reply to Blog@WashburnResearch.Org if they can secure the ballots. Or they can comment here or email me.