Millard Zimet Comments to Election Commission on Privacy and Transparency

From: Millard Zimet Date: May 4, 2010 9:54:07 AM MDT

To: rdlnkp

Cc: ward.hauenstein Kathryn.Koch@ci.aspen.co.us, Jim.True@ci.aspen.co.us, John.worcester@ci.aspen.co.us

Subject: Re: May 2009 Election

Bob et al:

Sorry to bother you again, but there's another point I need to make sure you understand in advance of tomorrow's Election Commission meeting, namely: Marilyn Marks does not speak for me.

The reason why I got involved in this election matter back in August was because I became worried that my vote was not secure. That is still my primary focus. I hope I have been able to show you that the votes of many voters are not secure.

Marilyn Marks and Harvie Branscomb are interested in election transparency. They are now concerned that my secret ballot issue will negatively impact their election transparency agenda. I told them (and the City) of this inevitable conflict back in August, but nobody seemed to care at that time.

Letter by Millard Zimet to Aspen Election Commissioners -

MILLARD J. ZIMET

1315 Mountain View Drive

Aspen, CO 81611

millard [at] sopris [dot] net

Via Email:

Kathryn Koch

Ward Hauenstein

Robert Leatherman

April 2, 2010

Dear Aspen Election Commissioners:

I’m sorry I was out of town for your meeting held earlier this week.  I’m writing to introduce myself to the new Election Commission members, and to briefly explain the issues that have concerned me arising from the May 2009 election.

My initial concern was whether other people could tell how I voted. The Colorado Constitution requires secret ballot elections, and living in a small town I want to make sure my voting choices remain anonymous. My concern was heightened when I learned that the City of Aspen had not shuffled the ballots and had publicly released both the precinct logs (showing the names and order of the voters as they signed in at each precinct) and the strings generated from the ballot scans (showing how each ballot was voted). I investigated and determined that, because the ballots and strings hadn’t been shuffled, if I could find my string then I could see how the voters listed near me on my precinct log voted, and vice versa.  So I concluded that my ballot was not secure.  That led me to file my complaint dated August 30, 2009, because I felt (and still do feel) that the City of Aspen violated my constitutional right (as well as the constitutional rights of all Aspen voters) to a secret ballot election.  The City of Aspen has never responded in writing to my complaint, and has never denied the facts alleged in my complaint.

Bullet Voting in Aspen's IRV Election - Memo by Millard Zimet

MEMORANDUM

To:       Aspen City Council

From:   Millard Zimet

Re:       Bullet Voting in the May 2009 Election

Date:   March 15, 2010

­­________________________________________________________________________

The purpose of this memo is to observe the actual voting data generated by Aspen’s May 2009 Mayoral and City Council IRV elections with regards to bullet voting, and to observe whether bullet voting impacted the outcomes of those elections.  This memo is expressly not to be construed as an attack upon any person, elected official, candidate, government official or entity, political party, or political persuasion.

The data in this memo is derived from the strings, which I have previously sent to you in Excel format.  If you want to replicate the data contained in this memo, please take those strings and use the “filter” function in Excel to sort the data.

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