Can Burlington Pull Off an Error-Free Election?

Let’s face it, Burlington has had its share of problems since longtime elections chief Jo LaMarche left the city to take a job as the Addison County Clerk, and many wonder if the current team is really up to the task of pulling off an error-free election in the state's largest city.

Last May, city Democrats hauled Chief Administrative Officer Jonathan Leopold and his assistant Ben Pacy into court. The issue was whether a ballot box was improperly unsealed during the recount of a New North End council race. Pacy was cleared of any wrongdoing, but it cast a pall over whether the city could run an election. Since then, Burlington had a statewide primary where not enough ballots were ordered for one ward, and then on November 4 they incorrectly reported vote tallies on election eve, which caused confusion in a key county senate race. And, results were handed out to the public several hours later than in any previous election.

Now comes word that election workers were given bad info about how voting machines would be set up. During a training last week, Pacy told election workers that ballot machines would be calibrated at City Hall and elected election officials would not be allowed to create printouts at the polling site proving the machines were clear of ballots. That has been the standard in past elections, LaMarche confirmed with Blurt, the Seven Days staff blog.

That didn’t sit well with Ward 6 election official Owen Mulligan. Elected election officials — not city employees and consultants — should ensure ballot boxes are clear of any ballots, he argues. And, rightly so.

Mulligan contacted Seven Days, and subsequently his note to us ended up on Jay Vos' blog Blazing Indiscretions, where it stirred up some interesting comments. Haik Bedrosian of BurlingtonPol chimed in, and posted a diary on his site, "IRV and Election Integrity."

When Mulligan’s complaint hit the blog, however, IRV supporter and consultant Terry Bouricius took action and called city hall. He said Pacy’s info was inaccurate, and said so on Blazing Indiscretions.

“Owen was rightly upset,” Bouricius told Blurt. "But, what he would like to happen is actually what is going to happen."

Bouricius is a former Prog city councilor and state lawmaker who now works for FairVote, a national outfit that promotes IRV. In 2006, he was a paid consultant for the city. This year, he’s doing some work pro bono since few, if any, of the election workers in city hall were around three years ago.

Still, Bouricius said that anyone who may question the IRV outcome will be able to view cast ballots online after the election, essentially allowing for anyone to conduct their own citizen's audit of the results. You can go to this site to view how that worked from the 2006 election. To get a preview of the ballots for this year's election, go here.

As for Mulligan, he’s not happy that he had to learn from a blog post on a friend’s website that city officials were in the wrong — and from someone who isn't directly associated with the city's elections office. In fact, when he called Pacy for clarification after the training, he was told — again — that elected officials at the polling stations would not create the paper printouts.

"My paperwork I received for running the election is very clear: no paper print outs for the IRV machine," Mulligan tells Blurt.

Today, Pacy tells Blurt that the city didn't have complete information at the previous training, and said so to election workers. He said the updated information will be provided to election workers at Tuesday's training.

"At the initial training we did not have the information that the ballot count would be printed on the tape. We had indicated to the election workers at the training that we would provide clarification on this procedure," said Pacy. "Initially, we had been instructed that the tape would contain no relevant information. This was since clarified to mean that the tape will contain 'zeros' which have no relevant connection to the data stored in the machine, however the machine will print the number of ballots that have been ‘stored or put through’ the tabulator which is very relevant."

In other words, Pacy adds, ward clerks will do no different than they have always done, turn the machine on. "This simple action will have the machine print a tape with many zeros on it and a count of the ballots that have gone through the machine," Pacy said.

In addition, city officials have invited representatives from each party, each ward, and each mayoral campaign to observe the IRV software test that needs to happen before the machines are set up.

That was also an issue that concerned Mulligan — having only city employees and private consultants doing the work without elected poll workers and campaign reps on-hand was troubling to say the least.

"The mayoral campaigns have been invited to view the logic and accuracy testing," says Pacy, assistant chief administrative officer and the guy in charge of Burlington's elections. "More recently, the parties, campaigns and ward clerks have been asked to have representation at this testing."

The final election training for poll workers is slated for Tuesday, March 24.

(Note: Ken Picard will have a detailed description of how IRV works in next week's Seven Days. You can also view a Flash-animated tutorial here.)

UPDATE: As Haik Bedrosian points out in the comments below, the ruling on the case of the unsealed ballot box was in April, not May. Also, to clarify a judge did not exonerate Pacy, but found that Pacy had violated election law by opening the box. However in his ruling, Judge Dennis Pearson said he believed Pacy did so without any intent to harm or change the outcome of the election.

Vermont Yankee on the Hot Seat

The Vermont Legislature isn’t the only place where Entergy Vermont Yankee officials can find themselves on the hot seat.

Voters in roughly 40 towns in 10 counties will cast ballots on whether the state’s lone nuke plant should get a 20-year extension on its 40-year operating license. Several others will take up the matter under "other business," according to Dan DeWalt, the former Newfane selectman who spearheaded a similar statewide ballot initiative urging Congress to impeach then-Pres. George W. Bush. 

The group — Replace VY — has signed up towns ranging from Holland (my old hometown) to Halifax to take up the anti-VY measure. Bolton is the only Chittenden County town on the list. Brattleboro and Montpelier are the two most populous communities who will include the item on the ballot. 

Several towns are planning informational meetings on the vote in the coming two weeks prior to Town Meeting Day, and have invited Entergy and its relicensing opponents to make their cases before townspeople.

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group and other opponents have signed on for the debate, but so far Entergy has balked at showing up to make its case directly to the people. There's a reason, an Entergy spokesman tells Blurt.

"Our focus is on operating the plant safely and reliably," said Rob Williams, VY's spokesman. Entergy is focused on the legislative and regulatory processes and doesn't see responding to the Town Meeting Day ballot items as a good use of their time and money. "The legislative and the PSB processes are simply the best use of our resources. However, as we have said on energy issues over the years, the more discussion the better and we support anything that contributes to better understanding of complex energy issues."

It's also not helping Entergy's case that it has failed to plug a leak in a key pipe valve, and it may need to shut down operations in order to make the repair. It has also failed to strike a power contract deal with Vermont utilities, a deal some lawmakers believe is crucial to settle before they vote on whether to extend VY's license beyond 2012.

In addition to calling for VY’s shutdown, the ballot measure also calls for Entergy to fully-fund the plant’s decommissioning fund at the time the nuclear power plant is shut down. For more info, and to get a list of dates where these issues may, or may not, be debated before Town Meeting Day, check out www.replacevy.org.

In addition to these debates, other anti-nuclear groups are hosting presentations about the health risks of nuclear power, featuring German pediatrician Winfred Eisenberg. Performances of Voices from Chernobyl, which catalogues the consequences and some personal costs of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, are also happening around the state. For more info, check out www.vyda.org.