Automated ballot counting

Democracy at its bests and at its worst.

Congratulation to all the candidates that where successful in the last Federal Election, and a thank you to all the other candidates that let their name stand.

As you all have noticed the ballets where secret and after the polls closed were manually counted as per the Community Charter. This was Democracy at its best.
 
Neither the BC Government nor the Federal Government entertain the use of these Automated Ballot Counting Machines. Why? 

Now what we have seen in the last three Municipal Elections is Democracy at its worst.

To all the voters in B.C. did you know that the so called Automated Ballot Counting Machines can be controlled by the person that programs the card that goes into the machine with all the candidates' names on it?

There have been 3 independent Researches on these automated ballot Counting machine which have proved without a shadow of doubt, that they are unreliable, insecure and can be remotely hacked.  An in-depth research on the "The Automated Ballot Counting Machines" was completed:

(1)   Security Assessment of the Diebold Optical Scan Voting Terminal in 2006,
(2)   Integrity of Electronic Voting Systems: Fallacious Use of Cryptography, Computer Science & Engineering University of Connecticut 2012.
(3)   Premier/Diebold (Dominion) AccuVote OS 2014Diebold Optical Scan Voting Terminal (2014)by the Verified Voting Foundation Inc

All a person has to do is program the card to add up all the votes for the different candidates and then have the votes totalled, and divide them on a percentage basis starting with the highest percentage to the candidates of their choice, and the lowest for the least desirable. We are all aware that power, control and money are great motivators. It should also be stressed that these machines are totally unreliable without any interference.
 
Now you may ask who does the programming. The Ministry of Communities Sports, Culture and Development, advised us the programming is delegated to the CAO of the Municipality. Who could delegate it to any one in the office? This does not look very democratic, as matter of fact; it looks more like a Conflict of Interest between the CAO and the Town, as Town Staff are totally involved in the whole Municipal Elections process. 
 
It is time to stop the use of these Automated Ballot Counting Machines and get back to the old, true and tried method by counting ballots by hand.  The Osoyoos Town Mayor and Council will argue that the "old method" is slow and costly. We feel that is a very ambiguous statement, as the Town seems to squander millions of our hard earned tax dollars on many other things, anyway how much does is really cost, a quick calculation indicates that the tax payer might pay 8c per year or 32c every four years. We also have to consider what our members of the Armed Forces from this town fought for in the name of Democracy, their cost are so much higher than a few cents.
 
In previous elections Ray has run for office many times to give the voters a choice and never lost any sleep over the out come, this last election was different, as the numbers do not add up after obtaining 73% with the AAP  against the fire hall, yet it passed with 67% in favour in the Referendum. Many of you are wondering how this could have happened. Additional research found that the museum referendum pasted with the same percentage spread. Also the same percentage spread was present in the advanced polls as the final poll. This certainly raises questions like (1) was our Mayor and Council appointed or elected and (2) was the Fire Hall Referendum predetermined.
 
There are two methods to resolve this issue:-
(1) We can strongly suggest to Council to rescind the Bylaw 1239 in its entirety.
(2) Initiate a petition to enforce the voter's wishes.  
 
If we need to resort to a petition, hopefully we can have your total support.
 
Ray Vandenberg & Jean Clarke
Osoyoos BC