Aspen's appeal to hide voted ballots from the public: action and reaction

This group of letters about ballot transparency from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16, 2011 starts with a letter by a national hero of election transparency, Mitch Trachtenberg. Mitch is one of the founders of the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project (humetp.mitchtrachtenberg.com).

In a cooperative effort between election officials and citizen activists, Humboldt County California has published ballot scans on-line for at least 5 elections with very positive results that include the discovery of a serious bug in Diebold GEMS software that had not been publicized. This is one of many examples of cases where citizen activism and oversight have improved elections practice.

See also Mitzi Rapkin's pitch on behalf of the City of Aspen for keeping ballots secret. This column lacks credibility in several areas and deserves an annotated version that will I hope be coming soon.

Aspen Daily News

Make ballot publication an election standard

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Letter to Editor by Mitch Trachtenberg, Trinidad CA

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/letter-editor/150185