Greetings. Tuesday is the final Boulder City Council hearing on the final design of the online petitioning software. We could sure use a bunch of quick emails, as I've suggested below:
They are deciding whether to actually put in law the City Attorney's plan which requires voters to juggle 3 websites and requires petition sponsors to choose either tricky online petitions OR the old reliable paper. As you've from my emails below, we are ready to pull this disaster out of the fire in several ways.
Please at least email council@bouldercolorado.gov (please BCC: eravitz@gmail.com) and ask them, in these or your own words:
Please allow both online and paper petitions, at least as this new technology is phased in.
Please allow confirmation codes for online petitions to be mailed by postcard or letter as well as by phone or text.
It would be great if some of you could also address Council by zoom Tues. The signup forms for both Open Comment and this public hearing are now live at:
https://bouldercolorado.gov/city-council/participate-in-city-council-meetings
If you want to speak on the importance of direct democracy and taking out the in-person petitioning busy work and virus-spreading, you could speak about that at Open Comment, starting soon after 6PM.
If you want to speak on fixing the City Attorney's plan, sign up for the hearing, which they estimate will start about 8:30 or 9. You can see the agenda at: https://boulder.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=597&MinutesMeetingID=-1&doctype=Agenda
I could use some extra speaking time if you'd like to sign up for the hearing and give your time to me. You can sign up and "pool" your time. Please email me if you'd like to do that.
Thanks!
Evan
(Apologies for the way the emails below end up formatted by Change.org.)
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Evan Ravitz <eravitz@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 10:46 AM
Subject: More input for online petitioning changes
To: Council <Council@bouldercolorado.gov>
Cc: Allyn Feinberg <feinberga@comcast.net>, Ed Byrne <edbyrne@smartlanduse.com>, John Spitzer <jspitzer011@gmail.com>, Mark McIntyre <mark@markmcintyre.me>, Matt Benjamin <matthew.benjamin82@gmail.com>, Michael Schreiner <mwschreiner@gmail.com>, Rionda Osman-Jouchoux <rionda.osman@gmail.com>, Steve Pomerance <stevepom335@comcast.net>, Valerie Yates <vyates@gmail.com>
Dear Council members,
In addition to what I said in my previous email below, here are a few considerations:
1. Denvers tablet petitioning system called eSign allows electronic petitioning AND paper petitioning:
From: Rambke, Drake D. - C&R Ops Coord <Drake.Rambke@denvergov.org>
Date: Sun, Dec 6, 2020, 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Can denverites petition by both eSign and paper petitions?
To: Evan Ravitz <eravitz@gmail.com>
Hello,
Yes. We actually give them paper petitions in addition to the tablets. Once the petitions are printed off of the esign platform they look identical to the paper petitions.
Thanks,
Drake Rambke
You will recall that Council went with online petitioning on 3/5/19 because it is superior to the tablet system. We shouldn't make it inferior.
2. If Runbeck doesn't want to change the software without more money, Maplight would consider doing so, but this depends on the relevant software modules being open source, so they can modify the code.
This is an example of why we've been testifying for years for open source software, partly so we're not tied to one vendor. And Maplight's free offer of the software we always wanted is still open!
Here's how Maplight President Dan Newman responded to my questions emailed this morning:
Would Maplight consider making these changes if the software modules in question are open source for you to change?
We would consider it. However we are unfamiliar with the software written by the other vendor and there would need to be a careful evaluation process on our part of both the software code and of what exactly is being asked of us.
Otherwise, would Maplight still make the free offer to Boulder if we junk Runbeck's system?
Yes, our free offer is still on the table and we are ready to go ahead with it. Our free offer did not (and does not) include having the capacity to do both online and paper, because the software development cost would be higher than doing online-only. We could possibly add in this feature as part of our free offer but we would need to evaluate it carefully first. The free system DOES include postcard verification capacity as well as email and phone verification.
Evan
Evan Ravitz, Founder
Strengthen Direct Democracy
Facebook.com/groups/309502612936293
EvanRavitz.com
(720)403-5594
On Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 7:18 AM Evan Ravitz <eravitz@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Council members,
Tom Carr's Ordinance 8403, attached, puts the fatally flawed design he came up with for our online petitioning for ballot initiatives system into law, creating yet another obstacle to overcome when Council decides to implement what we voted for 71 to 29% over 2 years ago.
It's far too complicated for most people, requiring that users operate the state voter registration website, the city petitioning website and a Google Voice telephone number, as Tom suggested to Council, so as not to make your own phone number available to every solicitor and robocaller.
We suggested using a postcard or letter to send voters a security code instead of a phone number, but Tom told you with no evidence that this was insecure. Actually, Microsoft is now telling people not to use phone or text to send codes because phone networks are insecure:
We know that mail ballots work great all across the country. Only Tom and Trump say the postal system is insecure, and they both voted by mail!
Tom's ordinance also requires petition sponsors to choose online OR paper petitions. What responsible person would bet all their organization's time, effort and resources on a new petition system designed by a declared enemy of direct democracy, that requires users to juggle 3 websites? Nobody will use it and next year you'll have to waste time fixing it.
Tom already tried for a year's delay with his memo of 4 /23/19, which the working group repudiated unanimously and Council rejected. Don't get suckered this time. (See slide 11 at tinyurl.com/petitionstory.)
Please let us petition both ways, and receive confirmation codes both ways. If provider Runbeck wants more money, Maplight will do it for free.
Evan
Evan Ravitz, Founder
Strengthen Direct Democracy
Facebook.com/groups/309502612936293
EvanRavitz.com
(720)403-5594