Branscomb Responds to Critics of His Aspen Times Letter

Harvie's well written letter ( posted below)  received an ill-considered response from an anonymous Aspen blogger,  calling himself "We Deserve Better."  Among other things "We" writes:
"Unlike Harvie Branscomb, who seems to have a real problem with facts and objectivity, the vast majority of Aspen voters understand what's going on with the Marks self- promotion tour.
For the record, Mark's election reform efforts are self-serving, anything but "heroic", selfish and clearly the rantings of a sore loser, in my opinion. Wrapping the Marks election reform

Branscomb Letter to Editor--Amid low blows, Marks takes the high road--June1,2010

Dear Editor:

Tim Cooney throws some nasty punches but is wildly off the mark attempting to knock Marilyn Marks' election reforms. Tim's 90-word cluster bomb was cleverly buried in his letter responding to Elizabeth Milias on The Aspen Club (“Can't trust the know-it-alls,” Friday, May 28, The Aspen Times). (http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20100528/LETTER/100529828/1020&parentprofile=1061)

Marilyn Marks' election reform work is neither “self-interested,” nor born of “vanity.” Equally ill-informed anonymous Aspen Times bloggers have been bleating like annoyed lambs “why doesn't she just let it go?” Some officials claim Marks is still on a “political campaign” and imply that campaigning is bad for the public. Contrary to all of this complaining about criticism — civic-minded citizens will be thanking Marilyn for an extremely tough effort to confront real mistakes made by a few people currently holding power.

Update on DA Investigation--KAJX June 1, 2010

Aspen Public Radio reports on the District Attorney's investigation of Aspen's May election irregularities.

http://www.aspenpublicradio.org/news_archive_detail.php?story=688

 Marilyn Marks' comment: Although the City does not have a copy of the complaint, Mr. Springer,  claims that the complaint has "no merit," -- presumably without reading it.  He also claims that the there were "no violations of any election laws."  If it is not a violation of election law to leave the keys on/in the ballot box, I can't imagine what would be a violation.  That is one example of many--like failing to use certified software.
Interestingly he claims that it is the "most open, honest, well-run election" in Colorado. Surely many jurisdictions will take issue with that!

Aspen Daily News--Update on DA Investigation June 1,2010

Investigation by DA nears completion

Writer: Curtis Wackerle  Byline:Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

An investigation by the district attorney’s office into the city of Aspen’s May 2009 election that was set off when losing mayoral candidate Marilyn Marks filed a criminal complaint is nearing completion.

Harvie Branscomb's Letter to Aspen Daily News--Open Access to Ballots

The national trend toward open access

Editor:

“Voted ballots, which are not traceable to the individual voter, are public records subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act,” wrote the Attorney General of Michigan in a May 13, 2010, opinion. His decision shines a new and positive light on Marilyn Marks’ request to a local court for access to digital images of Aspen’s May 2009 ballots.

Michigan voter rights advocates, like Marilyn, sought access to voted ballots from recent elections for auditing purposes. Their Attorney General’s ruling reinforces a fundamental principle that ballots are public records because they are anonymous and must not be traceable to an individual. Michigan’s constitution says only “preserve the secrecy of the ballot.” Colorado’s constitution requires “secrecy in voting,” meaning privacy, and says “no ballots shall be marked in any way whereby the ballot can be identified as the ballot of the person casting it,” meaning anonymous. Colorado’s requirement of ballot anonymity is very specific.

City talks down, lawyers up (Letter in Aspen Times May 22) Harvie Branscomb

The following letter was published May 22, 2010 in The Aspen Times
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20100522/LETTER/100529945/1020&parentprofile=1061

Dear Editor:
City Council and staff don't seem to mind pursuing their expensive defense against Marilyn Marks' effort to obtain reasonable transparency of election records. Ironically, they are now generally fighting against transparency promised prior to last May's election. The engagement of high profile Denver-based criminal defense counsel shows their intention to gear up. Will Aspen simply protect their many election irregularities with big-time lawyers or instead solve the underlying problems and make sure anonymous records become accessible? I am hoping for the latter.
There is transparency news from Michigan. Activists there were seeking actual paper ballots for audit purposes, while Marilyn only seeks indestructible electronic copies. Last week they received good news from their attorney general. He advised that Michigan's voted ballots are indeed public records and can be inspected and audited subject to open records request. The statement is posted at  http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com/2010/05/text-of-michigan-attorney-generals.html

But in Aspen, Marilyn Marks has been confronted with aggressive obstacles to obtaining mere digital copies of similar records. Her transparency litigation will move to the Appeals Court if Judge Boyd refuses to reconsider, again with Aspen voters footing the bill for efforts

Election Commission to Hear Zimet Complaint Alleging Unconstiutional Election

Millard Zimet updated his complaint on the alleged unconstitutional nature of the May election, because of the lack of voter anonymity.
The complaint will be heard by the Election Commission on May 5 at 3:30 p.m. in a City meeting room.

The complaint update details how he determined Mayor Mick Ireland’s likely voting data from cast vote records improperly collected in order of poll book entries, and then  publicly released by the city. (the ballots were not shuffled, nor were the ballot image files, before being scanned or released.)

Mayor Ireland declared Zimet’s complaint to be of “no substance,” and that the Commission has “nothing to act on.”
The meeting will surely be interesting. The legal advice will apparently be offered by the City Attorneys who helped design this system and did not require the randomizing of ballot records. Additionally they represent the elected officials.

His complaint update as of 4.29.10 is posted at:
http://www.glassballotbox.org/storage/Zimet4.29Complaint.pdf
The original and 1st update of the complaint are

Discussion of ballot text for possible future Aspen voting methods for November ballot question: Aspen Election

A discussion and questions about the presentation of voting methods for future Aspen elections on the ballot for the November coordinated election.

From: Harvie Branscomb [mailto:harvie@media.mit.edu]
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 1:36 AM
To: 'Mick Ireland', Aspen City Council, Aspen Election Commission
Subject: deciding the method of voting

…

Several voting systems will be identified to be placed on the ballot.  One of them will be similar or same as the IRV used in 2009.

Another one is likely to be plurality/winner takes all, no majority required

Another one is likely to be vote for one, majority required, runoff if necessary (or vote for 2 if CC)

Another one could be e.g. approval voting (each candidate can receive one vote per voter, voter votes for as many as preferred, majority required, runoff likelihood reduced

Another could be e.g. district or party primary, followed by general election, etc.

Will the IRV choice be represented by exactly what was done in 2009 or by an improved description? This seems to be a key question. I now think that calling rank choice voting “IRV” is a mistake.  I now see it as “RRV” or reduced runoff voting- a system that makes runoffs much less likely but would call for a runoff in case a true majority of ballots was not achieved by the winner(s) of the rank choice vote.

City of Aspen &TrueBallot Inc. Misrepresentations and False Statements Concerning Aspen Election Transparency

(I wrote the following email to the new Election Commission asking for their review of the false claims and  misinformation which the City of Aspen has helped to promote about the May election.) Marilyn Marks
[this posting contains opinion by both  Caleb Kleppner and Marilyn Marks]

From: Marilyn R Marks
Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2010 2:59 PM
To: 'Ward Hauenstein'; Bob Leatherman.
Cc: 'Elizabeth Milias'; 'Harvie Branscomb'; 'Millard Zimet'

Subject: City Complicity in Misinformation campaign and request of new Election Commission

Bob and Ward,
I had to retrieve the attached  [following] document for my litigation, and as I reread it, I thought that it was a good example, without too many technicalities, of the cultural issue I mentioned in my last email to you. See the guest editorial printed in the Aspen Times on September 17, which I have attached with my footnotes of the numerous misrepresentations.

This almost completely false editorial written by True Ballot executive, Caleb Kleppner, was written with the apparent approval and involvement of City officials. Kleppner delivered a draft for review to Kathryn Koch on September 2 for her approval.

The City staff knew or had reason to know that these statements are materially misleading, and did not attempt to stop them from being printed. The city’s vendor TBI knew these statements to be false as well.

Upon the publication of the editorial, I made my objections known to the City and to True Ballot. Harvie Branscomb wrote to TrueBallot asking for corrections as well.

Both organizations refused to publicly correct the clear misrepresentations, although they made no claims to us that their statements were correct as written.

This is the type of information battle we have had to attempt to combat. But only through the small efforts of letters to the editor. Note that this was published at the approximate time of the prior Election Commission being denied access to independent counsel. Given the kind of misrepresentations in this document, the need for independent perspective is surely quite clear.

The previous election Commission is criticized for not seeking an additional written view of their duties from City staff who, by this time had shown their complicity with the efforts to misinform and mislead. Also, there was an obvious and inherent conflict of interest by city attorneys wrote and opined on the election procedures and acted as one of the judges for certifying the election. It would have been improper for the EC to ask clearly conflicted attorneys to opine on the EC roles and responsibilities, given the state of the election irregularities.

I am requesting that you review this document with staff and ask that a correcting published document be written and submitted to the Aspen Times. To leave such false information and misrepresentations in the public record is disingenuous and self-serving at best. It is most certainly irresponsible.

I see it as part of the duty of the election commission to clear up misinformation from the past and help the information flow to the public.

Thank you for your service.
Marilyn Marks

----------------------------------------
(Caleb Kleppner submitted a draft of this editorial to Kathryn Koch on September 2 for approval prior to publication)
Aspen Times
Thursday, September 17, 2009