Editor:

Hank Sims now says Humboldt’s official method of counting votes is an outrage and the Diebold/Premier folks “should be shunned. Maybe indicted.” (“Town Dandy,”Dec. 11) He may be late to the party, but the top hat and tails are always welcome.

Yes, Humboldt has joined Florida, Ohio and towns and counties across the land who have experienced the failures of electronic voting. Our certification of inaccurate results has made national news and broken down some of the local wall of denial.

A Dec. 7 editorial in the Times-Standard said local opponents of Diebold “were right to make noise, and right to complain about a company that has been less than responsible.” Humboldt Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich told Wired.com in a Dec. 8 article, “this has sort of put a cloud over any confidence that I had in the Premier equipment that’s been in this department since 1995.”

Has Humboldt finally reached a tipping point? Are we ready to consider alternatives to Diebold? If so, a careful evaluation of the possibilities and input from a well informed community would be both appropriate and desirable.

I’d like to see more consistency in Sims’ election integrity advocacy. And bottom line, I hope he’ll push for a thorough examination of our options. A lot of work has already been done to facilitate evaluating hand-counting paper ballots, though Election Transparency Project volunteers may have
other preferences and ideas to contribute to what could become the most envied process and dialog in the country.

— Dave Berman, Eureka