The Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in Washington state has released what he says will be the first of a series of campaign spots, satirizing the well-known “Mac v. PC” commercials, to highlight the differences between touch-screen voting machines and paper ballots.
Jason Osgood, a long-time election integrity advocate and opponent of unverifiable electronic voting systems, is running against the incumbent Republican Sec. of State, Sam Reed. Osgood joins several other citizen advocates across the country — inlcuding Susan Rose Pynchon in Volusia County, FL, and Ellen Harriet Brodsky in Broward County, FL — who have stepped up and decided to run this year against incumbent election officials who, they allege, have not been as responsive or transparent, in regard to voter concerns and citizen oversight, as they should be.
The 60-second spot released today by the Osgood campaign is seen below (text transcript is posted at the end of this article). It features two men standing in front of a white background, one who identifies himself as “Paper Ballot” and the other, dressed in a slick white leisure suit with sunglasses and headset, who declares, “I’m a high-tech, touch-screen votin’ machine!” It quickly becomes apparent, as the spot begins, as “Voting Machine” searches through his pockets, that he’s lost something — “a few thousand votes is all”…
The comical ad, Osgood tells The BRAD BLOG, is to be the first of several in a series, highlighting the differences between electronic voting systems and paper ballots. “These videos are funny,” wrote Osgood in an email this morning. “Each spot highlights just one problem with the voting machines. This is a very effective way to explain a complicated issue.”
Osgood believes the ads may also help the issue of election integrity nationally, as they serve to simplify the concerns that advocates, as well as computer scientists and security experts, have been trying to share with the public.
“We’re steeped in the arcana of computers and election administration,” Osgood, who is himself a software engineer, told us. “When we talk to others [about these issues], we quickly lose them. Which is a shame, because counting votes should be simple! To be effective, we need to tailor our message to reach the broadest audience. We need to engage every voter in the fight to reclaim our democracy and restore integrity to our elections,” he said…
Osgood has been critical of the Republican Reed, the state’s chief election official, charging that he’s “made many bad decisions that threaten democracy.” The Democratic candidate, a co-founder of the watchdog group Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, cited bar codes added to ballots in the state which “allow government officials to determine exactly how you voted,” as well as Reed’s support of new high-speed mail-in-ballot tabulators made by Diebold, as reasons he’s opposed to the current administration.
The bar codes are “a gross violation of our voter privacy,” he charges. “We’ve recently protected voter privacy in King County by banning unique bar codes on our ballots. If we don’t get a new Secretary of State, these bar codes are going statewide, and possibly nationwide,” he warned.
Osgood says that Reed “continues to certify voting equpiment that makes it impossible to verify our votes are counted correctly.”
“We all know about the notorious DREs, like Diebold’s touchscreens,” he says. “But there’s new systems on the way. The incumbent champions new Diebold highspeed mail ballot tabulators. We need to stop these new systems now, before they go nationwide.”
He said that more spots are coming soon. “My campaign has more of these videos coming. They’re terrific! They’ll be released every few days. If the idea catches fire, we’ll make more.”
Given the breathtaking scope of failures and concerns that have been revealed with electronic voting systems across the country over the past several years, Osgood and company say they have no shortage of ideas for new spots in the series.
“With all of the problems with voting machines, we could be making these videos for a long time.”
The text-transcript for the campaign’s first spot, follows in full below…
TV :60
“Lost Votes”
Fade up on Voting Machine (VM), a man dressed in snazzy threads, and Paper Ballot (PB), a likeable Everyman.
The two characters are standing in front of a white background, as gentle music plays, ala the PC/Mac series of commercials.
PB: (To camera) I’m your trusty paper ballot.
VM: (While searching through his pockets for something.) And I’m a high-tech, touch-screen votin’ machine!
PB: Voting machine, did you lose something?
VM: (Continuing to search.) Just lost a few thousand votes is all. They’ll show up. It’s no big deal…
Cut to art card
“Ohio sues voting machine vendor over lost votes…”
– Columbus Dispatch, August 7 2008
“Company admits voting machine error…”
– USA Today, August 21 2008
“…Voting Machines Contained Error That Dropped Votes”
– Washington Post, August 21 2008
VOICE-OVER: Across the country, touch-screen voting machines lost thousands and thousands of votes, due to software glitches and error.
Cut to Jason Osgood
JO: I’m Jason Osgood. As Washingtons Secretary of State I’ll use technology but use it responsibly. I’ll demand accountability and citizen oversight of our elections. Well verify every vote.
Cut back to VM & PB. VM still searching through pockets…
VM: Hey, uh, Paper Ballot, maybe you can show me how to do a recount…I don’t know where they are…
PB: Voting Machine, you’re a disaster.
Fade to art card
Integrity.
Accountability.
Responsibility.
Jason Osgood
Democrat for Secretary of State
Paid for by Friends of Jason Osgood
VOICE-OVER: Integrity. Accountability. Responsibility. Jason Osgood for Secretary of State. Paid for by Friends of Jason Osgood.
Fade to art card
Donate!
www.JasonOsgood.com
VOICE-OVER: Please donate.
Yup, it does have to be dumbed down for the general populace to unnerstand it
It’d be nice if they just KNEW about it.
My wife and I just donated to his campaign. I urge those that can afford it to $how him $ome love. Let’s put our money where our election integrity mouths are.
These need to be shown nation-wide!
shw
Interesting Brad… I live in WA State and had never heard of this ad nor of Osgood (in the primary, I just checked the Democratic box of the contest without seeing the name.) Good ad, tho!
I’m gonna be picky…a little constructive criticism, Mr. Osgood? (sorry..not to be a smartass)
These ads are a GREAT idea & I love it BUT! it’d be way more effective with less of the we’ve-heard-it-all-before campaign-ese (imho).
I know you need some in there, but people love those Mac & PC guys, so, good, you’ve got their attention, then they groan “Ugh, not another political ad”. (or maybe it’s just me)
Be great if John Hodgman & Justin Long volunteered to do them for free… you’re only tryin’ to save democracy here!
How about it, guys?
Shannon Williford said:
They will be, if you guys start hitting those DIGG and REDDIT buttons!!!
Last I heard, I sued Sequoia for its touchscreens in Snohomish County, and only Yakima County had touchscreens and they got rid of them too, along with Snohomish, so there are only touchscreens, at least as of about a year ago, for disabled access, and maybe early voting. CAn somebody correct this? Anyway, Osgood is clearly the best candidate in the field, no question. I’ve sent this link around and notified friends in WA state.
Hi Paul-
Thank you for your support!
King County still has the touchscreens. The plan is to replace our ~400 poll sites with 17 regional voting centers. Our poll sites use paper ballots. The regional voting centers will only have touchscreens, no paper ballots, not even provisionals.
All of this was originally schedule to happen just in time for the November 2008 general election. We persuaded the King County Council to postpone until 2009.
Every other Washington has a touchscreen at a central location, like the county courthouse.
Cheers, Jason
Paul,
Do you count votes at the precinct level? I don’t vote on a machine, but the votes are not counted until they get some where else, where the central tabulator counts the votes. If those are hackable, how do we really get off the grid with checks and balances? Dueling tabulators? Hand count at the precinct?
Jason’s cool and so are his ads.
The problem is the Constitution of the United States of America and the fact that it doesn’t grant us a federal right to vote, prohibits us from voting directly for Pres. & Veep, so that our votes are not the final say in who gets to be in the White House (see 2000 & 2004 “elections”), and the fact that it makes Congress the sole judge of Congressional “elections.”
So I’m kinda hoping that Jason doesn’t win, because if he does, he’s going to get that friendly visit from the economic hitman offering him a choice between plomo o plata, lead or silver, a bullet or a bribe, or in other words, wealth beyond his wildest dreams if he goes along to get along, and death if he doesn’t.
California’s Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, who was going to decertify the voting machines, apparently made the pragmatic choice.
I think I know enough about Jason to know that he might not, and even though I’ve never met him, I’ve been following his election integrity efforts for years and I’d really miss him.
I want you all to know that today Jason Osgood signed the Standing For Voters pledge:
His name and a link to his website will be up at the Standing For Voters site by tomorrow.
Jason is the first SoS candidate to sign, though not the first candidate running for a position as an election official. Those honors go to Ellen Brodsky, the first signer of the Standing For Voters Super Pledge.
Do you know of candidates running for office who actually believe in democracy? Come on over to Standing For Voters and find out how you can bring ’em on board!
(Disclaimer: Standing For Voters is a project of Velvet Revolution, one of whose cofounders is none other than Brad Friedman of …what was it again? Oh, yeah. The BRAD BLOG.)
Great ads!
Please help by donating to the Osgood campaign!!!
This campaign needs our help, even just a few Dollars!
And ps, I live in King County WA and I voted on a touch screen machine last election. I am not disabled. In fact, some clown at the voting location urged me to use the Diebold machine instead of a paper ballot.
Go Jason!