Reply #3: Legal question about ballot duplication

[GuvWurld]

I've raised this question before when my county in CA introduced a "blended system," which comprised Diebold optical scanners for counting all our ballots, but a required ballot duplication for any disabled voters who may have voted on Hart Intercivic's eSlate. Any such "ballot," which is actually a DRE paper trail, can't be counted on the Diebold scanner and thus had to be duplicated.

The whole point of bringing in the eSlate was HAVA compliance, enabling all voters to vote privately and independently. I don't see how it can be considered independent when the act of the voter is insufficient to have his or her ballot counted. For the disabled voter's vote to count, it necessarily involved not just one other person, but I think the duplication process mandated two- (maybe three-?) member teams. Hardly independent voting.

I grant there may need to be protocols for duplicating ballots that may become damaged under certain circumstances so no need to consider this an absolute question. I would think that beyond those rare scenarios, it should definitely be impermissible for a Registrar's plan to be built around ballot duplication. So, Paul, do you think ballot duplication can be fundamentally challenged as a process not permitted by HAVA?