Swiss voting leader visits Boulder
By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily 02 January 2005

It's not that waiting until Nov. 5 to learn the basic results of the Nov. 2 Boulder County election caused the end of the world, but local citizens and officials alike will be watching the county election process closely and offering suggestions for some time to come.

On Monday, Beat (pronounced bay-at) Fehr, president of Swiss Voting Systems (SVS) will visit Boulder from Basel, Switzerland to demonstrate how to conduct an election using a paper-ballot, hand-counted system. Some locals believe the Swiss system would be cheaper and simpler than the highly technological systems used now or proposed for future use in the U.S.

Joe Pezzillo, a local citizen activist, was opposed to a possibility that Boulder County might use Direct Record Electronic (DRE) touch-screen machines in 2004 and opposed the county decision to purchase the "Ballot Now" system from Hart InterCivic. Pezzillo and a loose confederation of activists known as Citizens for Verifiable Voting (CVV) "won" the first battle and lost the second.

Pezzillo said he heard of the Swiss system for the first time when Fehr found his e-mail address on the CVV Web site and sent information. Pezzillo and his wife went to Switzerland during the Thanksgiving season, where they met Fehr and witnessed the Swiss system in action.

"They held a national election the weekend just after Thanksgiving," said Pezzillo. "They had a mayoral runoff election in the little village I was staying in. The family we were staying with was voting, so we saw the process of voting both in the home and when we went to the offices of SVS."
 

The Swiss system uses color-coded paper ballots. For example, 2004 voters might have received a blue ballot for County Commissioner races and a red ballot for Colorado amendments. Pezzillo brought samples to a December Boulder City Council meeting hoping the city might consider using SVS or another hand-counted system in future elections.

Each type of color-coded ballot would also have a thumb index notch in a different location. Pezzillo said the combination of colors and notches would make it easy for election judges to sort ballots.

The Ballot Now system uses high-speed scanners to count paper ballots. In November 2004, the county had difficulties with improperly printed ballots and with sorting the ballots according to sequential serial numbers. Both problems slowed the counting process dramatically, but could a hand count be faster than a properly functioning scanning system?

Pezzillo says the Swiss vote "four or five" times yearly, and there are about seven million Swiss residents. Information from the SVS Web site http://www.swissvs.org says the total vote tallying time per polling station "is never longer than three hours." Voters have the choice of voting by mail or voting at a polling station.

Who would count the votes? Pezzillo said he is uncertain if there would be legal requirements to use paid election judges, but also said more than 100 county citizens volunteered to hand-count the 2004 election.

"Another key detail is the election judges only require a half-hour of training on Election Day," said Pezzillo. "The systems are not so complex that they require a full day of training, and that can help save money."

The City of Boulder will hold a special election in March for one seat on City Council and one City Charter amendment. City Clerk Alisa Lewis has said she is interested in learning more about SVS, but does not think the city will use a new system this March.

Pezzillo and friends hope Lewis, county election officials and citizens will come out to view Fehr's presentation and ask questions.

"Switzerland is a country known for accuracy, precision, reliability, neutrality and a very high degree of civil integrity," said Pezzillo. "These are traits we want to be able to have in our elections."