August 30, 2006
Urgent: Need Disabled Voters
Urgently Needed
Contact info for 2 disabled voters each in Snohomish, King, and Pierce Counties. This is part of the effort to overturn the improper certification of the Diebold and Hart/Intercivic electronic voting machines for use here in Washington State.
Please forward contact info to John Gideon at 360-377-4925 or jgideon {AT} votersunite {DOT} org.
Background
John Gideon of Voters Unite has filed a HAVA complaint in Washington State. He claims that both the Diebold AccuVote TSx or the Hart/Intercivic eSlate DREs (direct recording electronic) fail to satify HAVA's accessibilty requirements for disabled voters.
Thus far, a judge agrees with all of John's claims. However, the judge is requiring John to demonstrate that there are disabled voters who intend to use these DREs in the upcoming election.
These disabled voters may be contacted to verify their existence. But they will not be required to testify or participate in any other way.
Without these 6 names, this HAVA complaint dies.
Resources
Washington Voter Files HAVA Complaint
Does the EAC Really Care If Voting Machines Are Accessible?
Help America Vote Act of 2002
Voting System Standards/Guidelines
Voters Unite
Commentary
Among all the reasons the Diebold AccuVote TSx were improperly certified (e.g. fraud used during federal approval, use of prohibited code, doesn't meet reliability requirements, vendor's history of bad behavior, etc), the failure to meet the HAVA accessibility requirements is the most ironic.
HAVA specifies that disabled people have the ability to vote in private. That's a terrific goal which is widely supported.
Unfortunately, electronic voting machines such as the Diebold AccuVote TSx eliminate the secret ballot. So voting is no longer private. For any one using these machines.
Almost as bad, these machines don't meet the requirements for disabled access. For instance, it doesn't support the sip'n'puff interface required by severely disabled. There's also no way for a blind person to verify their ballot (the machine reads back its electronic record, not what's recorded on the paper audit trail).
Our nation has spent billions of dollars for machines that are unreliable, unverifiable, and don't actually satisfy the laws necessitating used to justify their purchase and use.
It's sad.
Especially since there are proven, low-cost alternatives which do permit the disabled to vote in private.
Contact info for 2 disabled voters each in Snohomish, King, and Pierce Counties. This is part of the effort to overturn the improper certification of the Diebold and Hart/Intercivic electronic voting machines for use here in Washington State.
Please forward contact info to John Gideon at 360-377-4925 or jgideon {AT} votersunite {DOT} org.
Background
John Gideon of Voters Unite has filed a HAVA complaint in Washington State. He claims that both the Diebold AccuVote TSx or the Hart/Intercivic eSlate DREs (direct recording electronic) fail to satify HAVA's accessibilty requirements for disabled voters.
Thus far, a judge agrees with all of John's claims. However, the judge is requiring John to demonstrate that there are disabled voters who intend to use these DREs in the upcoming election.
These disabled voters may be contacted to verify their existence. But they will not be required to testify or participate in any other way.
Without these 6 names, this HAVA complaint dies.
Resources
Washington Voter Files HAVA Complaint
Does the EAC Really Care If Voting Machines Are Accessible?
Help America Vote Act of 2002
Voting System Standards/Guidelines
Voters Unite
Commentary
Among all the reasons the Diebold AccuVote TSx were improperly certified (e.g. fraud used during federal approval, use of prohibited code, doesn't meet reliability requirements, vendor's history of bad behavior, etc), the failure to meet the HAVA accessibility requirements is the most ironic.
HAVA specifies that disabled people have the ability to vote in private. That's a terrific goal which is widely supported.
Unfortunately, electronic voting machines such as the Diebold AccuVote TSx eliminate the secret ballot. So voting is no longer private. For any one using these machines.
Almost as bad, these machines don't meet the requirements for disabled access. For instance, it doesn't support the sip'n'puff interface required by severely disabled. There's also no way for a blind person to verify their ballot (the machine reads back its electronic record, not what's recorded on the paper audit trail).
Our nation has spent billions of dollars for machines that are unreliable, unverifiable, and don't actually satisfy the laws necessitating used to justify their purchase and use.
It's sad.
Especially since there are proven, low-cost alternatives which do permit the disabled to vote in private.
August 23, 2006
Expanding FlexCar
[Cross-posted to WashBlog here.]
I love the idea of FlexCar. I want to see them, or something very similar, succeed. Below is my modest, low-cost incentive-based proposal for how to expand FlexCar far and wide.
The Idea
I want to buy a FlexCar vehicle and park it in my driveway.
I'd buy a standard issue fleet vehicle, preferably the Honda Civic hybrid, at their negotiated fleet discount price.
I'd have to reserve my own car to use it, just like everyone else.
I'd get a share of the revenue received using my car. This is my incentive to share my car; to help defray my costs.
Open Questions
I know nothing about insurance, liability, etc. I'd want FlexCar to work out the details and handle it.
I'd want FlexCar to handle the regular maintenance and any repairs.
There should probably be contracts and exit clauses and all that lawyerly stuff.
For people who use their car to commute to work, the FlexCar reserved parking spot needs to be at the office. Of course, FlexCar members could use my car throughout the day.
What is the fleet price? If enough of us do this, we should get a pretty good discount.
Imagine FlexCar has some calculus for determining where to place one of their vehicles. I'd want to feed in my address, turn the crank, and get an estimate for how much of my capital expense I could get back over time.
The Inspiration
About 15 years ago, my buddy Arden Ferrin wrote a sci-fi novel (not published). One of his ideas was replacing car ownership with universal car rentals. There would be car depots everywhere. Hop in a car, drive to where you're going, abandon the car at the nearest depot, pay the faire. Maybe the depots are normal curbside parking. So this is his idea. Thanks Arden!
The angle of a customer funded "network" expansion comes from Clay Shirky. He's an insightful commentator on technology and society. Ignore his wisdom at your own peril. The source article is Customer-owned Networks: ZapMail and the Telecommunications Industry.
The book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution includes examples of companies that changed from being producers to service providers (and making more money doing it). If FlexCar, or someone, could pull this off, it'd be a brilliant example. Specifically, changing the market from car owners to car renters, and car sellers to transportation service providers.
Commentary
We need to reduce our use of fossil fuels. We also need to reduce our dependancy on foreign sources of energy. I believe that widespread vehicle sharing is a piece of that puzzle.
FlexCar's Vision claims that 50% of urban land is devoted to accommodating vehicles and that America's 2.1 billion vehicles are parked 90% of the time. Imagine if we were able halve the number of cars. We'd be able to reclaim our open spaces, repurpose the extra pavement, and increase urban density. All concrete steps to reducing our ecological footprint.
I enthusiastically support all forms of public transit. That said, I don't think they're the sole solutions to reducing grid lock and greenhouse gases. They're stop gap measures at most. The reason is that top down, "Big Bang" projects are expensive, below the critical mass threshold have a poor return on investment, and rarely meet expectations.
Whatever your mode of transportation -- public transit, vehicle sharing, riding sharing, cycling, walking, or a global warming vehicle (e.g. Hummer) -- the true source of waste, long commutes, gridlock, pollution and other inefficiencies comes from poor land use decisions. Reduce the number of vehicles and we'd be able to increase urban density. If we increase density, many more transportation options become economically attractive.
The End
That's my idea. Please comment.
Also, if you know someone at FlexCar, please forward this to them.
I love the idea of FlexCar. I want to see them, or something very similar, succeed. Below is my modest, low-cost incentive-based proposal for how to expand FlexCar far and wide.
The Idea
I want to buy a FlexCar vehicle and park it in my driveway.
I'd buy a standard issue fleet vehicle, preferably the Honda Civic hybrid, at their negotiated fleet discount price.
I'd have to reserve my own car to use it, just like everyone else.
I'd get a share of the revenue received using my car. This is my incentive to share my car; to help defray my costs.
Open Questions
I know nothing about insurance, liability, etc. I'd want FlexCar to work out the details and handle it.
I'd want FlexCar to handle the regular maintenance and any repairs.
There should probably be contracts and exit clauses and all that lawyerly stuff.
For people who use their car to commute to work, the FlexCar reserved parking spot needs to be at the office. Of course, FlexCar members could use my car throughout the day.
What is the fleet price? If enough of us do this, we should get a pretty good discount.
Imagine FlexCar has some calculus for determining where to place one of their vehicles. I'd want to feed in my address, turn the crank, and get an estimate for how much of my capital expense I could get back over time.
The Inspiration
About 15 years ago, my buddy Arden Ferrin wrote a sci-fi novel (not published). One of his ideas was replacing car ownership with universal car rentals. There would be car depots everywhere. Hop in a car, drive to where you're going, abandon the car at the nearest depot, pay the faire. Maybe the depots are normal curbside parking. So this is his idea. Thanks Arden!
The angle of a customer funded "network" expansion comes from Clay Shirky. He's an insightful commentator on technology and society. Ignore his wisdom at your own peril. The source article is Customer-owned Networks: ZapMail and the Telecommunications Industry.
The book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution includes examples of companies that changed from being producers to service providers (and making more money doing it). If FlexCar, or someone, could pull this off, it'd be a brilliant example. Specifically, changing the market from car owners to car renters, and car sellers to transportation service providers.
Commentary
We need to reduce our use of fossil fuels. We also need to reduce our dependancy on foreign sources of energy. I believe that widespread vehicle sharing is a piece of that puzzle.
FlexCar's Vision claims that 50% of urban land is devoted to accommodating vehicles and that America's 2.1 billion vehicles are parked 90% of the time. Imagine if we were able halve the number of cars. We'd be able to reclaim our open spaces, repurpose the extra pavement, and increase urban density. All concrete steps to reducing our ecological footprint.
I enthusiastically support all forms of public transit. That said, I don't think they're the sole solutions to reducing grid lock and greenhouse gases. They're stop gap measures at most. The reason is that top down, "Big Bang" projects are expensive, below the critical mass threshold have a poor return on investment, and rarely meet expectations.
Whatever your mode of transportation -- public transit, vehicle sharing, riding sharing, cycling, walking, or a global warming vehicle (e.g. Hummer) -- the true source of waste, long commutes, gridlock, pollution and other inefficiencies comes from poor land use decisions. Reduce the number of vehicles and we'd be able to increase urban density. If we increase density, many more transportation options become economically attractive.
The End
That's my idea. Please comment.
Also, if you know someone at FlexCar, please forward this to them.
Dinner With AlanF
AlanFD (FD = "For Dean") is an election integrity activist from the Boston area. He recently visited Seattle. So we took time to have dinner together, Thursday August 14th.
Alan and I "met" via the Yahoo Group "election integrity and reform". Some believe the group's purpose is to discuss and promote Holt's HR 550. Others use our strength in numbers to promote and support each other's election integrity diaries on dailyKos. Either way, it's all good.
We ate at the excellent restaurant Wild Ginger. Trevor, Juli, Stan, Julie Anne, Alan, and myself enjoyed a great dinner. The Seven Flavors beef is just as good as the reviews state. About half of the dishes we ordered were vegetarian, all good. Afterwards, we had to stretch. And find dessert. Trevor directed us to his favorite: the stone top ice cream place near Westlake. That's where they mush the ice cream and yummy stuff together right in front of you.
Alan, Stan, and I are computer geeks. So we had plenty to talk about. Julie Anne was her informative self as always.
It turns out that Alan helps out with Verified Voting. I forget exactly how. But that's pretty cool. Alan also helped on the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS) project. A great idea that needs to be done on a continual basis. Julie Anne and Alan traded some pointers and ideas.
We shared some clippings, swag, and handouts from our local efforts. Including buttons that say "Get Diebold Out of Our Elections!" and "Who did your electronic voting machines vote for?"
I also got to share some of my open source election system ideas. (That's for another post.)
So what did I learn from this experience?
First, I need to be easier to reach by phone. Thanks to Alan for trying so hard. Second, my new friends Alan and Stan are great people. Lastly, it's still about community. Agree, disagree, whatever, we still need to remember that we're all neighbors, and we all want the same things, so we need to take the time to visit.
Alan and I "met" via the Yahoo Group "election integrity and reform". Some believe the group's purpose is to discuss and promote Holt's HR 550. Others use our strength in numbers to promote and support each other's election integrity diaries on dailyKos. Either way, it's all good.
We ate at the excellent restaurant Wild Ginger. Trevor, Juli, Stan, Julie Anne, Alan, and myself enjoyed a great dinner. The Seven Flavors beef is just as good as the reviews state. About half of the dishes we ordered were vegetarian, all good. Afterwards, we had to stretch. And find dessert. Trevor directed us to his favorite: the stone top ice cream place near Westlake. That's where they mush the ice cream and yummy stuff together right in front of you.
Alan, Stan, and I are computer geeks. So we had plenty to talk about. Julie Anne was her informative self as always.
It turns out that Alan helps out with Verified Voting. I forget exactly how. But that's pretty cool. Alan also helped on the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS) project. A great idea that needs to be done on a continual basis. Julie Anne and Alan traded some pointers and ideas.
We shared some clippings, swag, and handouts from our local efforts. Including buttons that say "Get Diebold Out of Our Elections!" and "Who did your electronic voting machines vote for?"
I also got to share some of my open source election system ideas. (That's for another post.)
So what did I learn from this experience?
First, I need to be easier to reach by phone. Thanks to Alan for trying so hard. Second, my new friends Alan and Stan are great people. Lastly, it's still about community. Agree, disagree, whatever, we still need to remember that we're all neighbors, and we all want the same things, so we need to take the time to visit.
August 18, 2006
Maya Lin @ Henry Art Gallery
Trevor's staying with us an additional two weeks. This is great. The only challenge is finding stuff for him to do during the day while we're at work.
So we all headed to the Henry Art Gallery yesterday evening. They stay open later on Thursdays. So we met at the Gallery at 5:00pm. I arrived first, so I browsed in the art store Peter Miller at the Henry. I guess it's switched over recently. They had some really great artsy toys, like clever toothpaste caps and an amoeba thingie that holds odds and ends to your desk or wall. And lots of really cool books.
The Maya Lin exhibit, Systematic Landscapes, fills the entire bottom floor. Amazing stuff. Absolutely amazing.
The signature peice 2x4 Landscape is great. You just want to run up it. I like that different perspectives bring out different aspects for the material used, that being the ends of 2x4 boards of varying types of woods. From one side, Trevor said it look like a whale coming out of the water. It does.
There's a wall mural of the Columbia River made from straight pins. I passed it briefly when I was looking for Trevor, and thought "neat", but not much more. Later, walking through and taking my time, I overheard that it represented the Columbia River and that Maya Lin added extra pins where the dams and reservoirs were. It's the weirdest thing; knowing that the pins represented something, and weren't just some pretty abstract squiggle, really drew me in. Art's weird like that.
The structures (sculptures) of the three lakes were very cool. It's layered plywood representing their volumes from the surface down. It's a bit poignant, because the lakes themselves are under seige. Like the Caspian Sea having it's in bound source water diverted to irrigation. (Something I probably read in National Geographic.)
If you have the time, sit through the Maya Lin video. I had no idea she was an architect as well. And it does a great job surveying her works. Seeing how the works on show at the Henry relate to her body of work really helps add context. (I guess the video is also available on PBS or some such.)
Though there's more to see and discuss, the last thing I'll mention is the room showing highlights from a series of public works along the Columbia River. Really clever stuff. Like the Bird Blind (for bird watching) is really fanastic.
The ideas behind Akio Takamori Laughing Monks intrigued me, and his pottery is lovely, but I didn't really sink into it.
I have mixed feeling about Byron Kim's Threshold exhibit. Kim has great ideas. I find his philosophy of art compelling. The peices Twelve Months and Synecdoche are really clever and draw you in. Maybe his work is deceptively simple. I'm really not sure how to respond to very large canvas with solid colors, or a gradiant representing a skyscape, or a large block of color adhered to the canvas. Kim probably has a much deeper relationship to color than I do. Like those people who's brains who allow them to "taste" numbers. So I'd say "A+" for the ideas and "??" for the actual artwork. Which is funny, because a lot of art is great or awful, but I haven't a clue about the underlying ideas.
So touching back on the art in context idea above (Lin's straight pin mural of the Columbia), I'm left wondering how I'd respond to Kim's work if the placards were removed. So I wouldn't know the artists' intent.
After seeing the exhibits, Trevor heard some music coming from Red Square. So we wandered over. There was a pretty good jazz/funk warm up band. And then at 7:30pm, an orchestra came out for a summer concert. Very cool. Unfortunately, it wasn't well promoted. Too quickly, our hunger overcame us and we left for food.
So we met Steve and Sandra at Taste of India for dinner. They were able to join us on very short notice. (Thanks guys!) Trevor and Juli practically slurped down my mango lassi. Otherwise it was a pleasant meal with friends.
So we all headed to the Henry Art Gallery yesterday evening. They stay open later on Thursdays. So we met at the Gallery at 5:00pm. I arrived first, so I browsed in the art store Peter Miller at the Henry. I guess it's switched over recently. They had some really great artsy toys, like clever toothpaste caps and an amoeba thingie that holds odds and ends to your desk or wall. And lots of really cool books.
The Maya Lin exhibit, Systematic Landscapes, fills the entire bottom floor. Amazing stuff. Absolutely amazing.
The signature peice 2x4 Landscape is great. You just want to run up it. I like that different perspectives bring out different aspects for the material used, that being the ends of 2x4 boards of varying types of woods. From one side, Trevor said it look like a whale coming out of the water. It does.
There's a wall mural of the Columbia River made from straight pins. I passed it briefly when I was looking for Trevor, and thought "neat", but not much more. Later, walking through and taking my time, I overheard that it represented the Columbia River and that Maya Lin added extra pins where the dams and reservoirs were. It's the weirdest thing; knowing that the pins represented something, and weren't just some pretty abstract squiggle, really drew me in. Art's weird like that.
The structures (sculptures) of the three lakes were very cool. It's layered plywood representing their volumes from the surface down. It's a bit poignant, because the lakes themselves are under seige. Like the Caspian Sea having it's in bound source water diverted to irrigation. (Something I probably read in National Geographic.)
If you have the time, sit through the Maya Lin video. I had no idea she was an architect as well. And it does a great job surveying her works. Seeing how the works on show at the Henry relate to her body of work really helps add context. (I guess the video is also available on PBS or some such.)
Though there's more to see and discuss, the last thing I'll mention is the room showing highlights from a series of public works along the Columbia River. Really clever stuff. Like the Bird Blind (for bird watching) is really fanastic.
The ideas behind Akio Takamori Laughing Monks intrigued me, and his pottery is lovely, but I didn't really sink into it.
I have mixed feeling about Byron Kim's Threshold exhibit. Kim has great ideas. I find his philosophy of art compelling. The peices Twelve Months and Synecdoche are really clever and draw you in. Maybe his work is deceptively simple. I'm really not sure how to respond to very large canvas with solid colors, or a gradiant representing a skyscape, or a large block of color adhered to the canvas. Kim probably has a much deeper relationship to color than I do. Like those people who's brains who allow them to "taste" numbers. So I'd say "A+" for the ideas and "??" for the actual artwork. Which is funny, because a lot of art is great or awful, but I haven't a clue about the underlying ideas.
So touching back on the art in context idea above (Lin's straight pin mural of the Columbia), I'm left wondering how I'd respond to Kim's work if the placards were removed. So I wouldn't know the artists' intent.
After seeing the exhibits, Trevor heard some music coming from Red Square. So we wandered over. There was a pretty good jazz/funk warm up band. And then at 7:30pm, an orchestra came out for a summer concert. Very cool. Unfortunately, it wasn't well promoted. Too quickly, our hunger overcame us and we left for food.
So we met Steve and Sandra at Taste of India for dinner. They were able to join us on very short notice. (Thanks guys!) Trevor and Juli practically slurped down my mango lassi. Otherwise it was a pleasant meal with friends.
