To the Editor:

 

In your report on the commissioners’ meeting of May 24, Bucks County ‘s Chief Operating Officer, David Sanko, is quoted as saying, "When the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government."  Mr. Sanko used this quote of Jefferson’s as an introduction to his announcement that Bucks County had started educating the voters on the use of the new Danaher voting machine. Fifty thousand copies of a brochure prepared by the County, "Vote Bucks," describing the Danaher machine were distributed at the polls on primary election day.  

 

During the public comment period that followed Mr. Sanko’s remarks, I rose to inform the commissioners, and the public, through the reporters present, that the back page of the brochure presented information that was so misleading as to be called misinformation. The statement, “The new system also produces a paper audit trail that can verify all votes cast on each machine,” was easily misinterpreted by voters I spoke to, as meaning that the Danaher machine has a voter-verified paper audit trail, which most voters want. The Danaher does not have a voter-verified paper audit trail. The voter does not know whether the button he pushed on the machine registered his vote to the correct candidate, as that is done by programming inside the machine. The Danaher can produce, if requested for a recount, only a paper tape, never seen by the voter, that has recorded only the buttons pushed.  At the end of the day, the Danaher only produces a total vote count, no record of individual votes.

 

I also requested a copy of the County’s contract with Electec Inc., a New Jersey election services company, for the voting system. The price of each machine is $6,199 dollars, while your article reported $2,495 per machine. In the contract, $645,000 is given to Electec Inc. for public education and public relations, a large sum of money.

 

How is this money to be spent?  Will the information provided be accurate?  Jefferson’s quote does not mean that people misinformed by their government should trust it. Another quote of Jefferson should be heeded at this time:  “The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”

 

Madeline Rawley

Doylestown