Reliavote System

It was never planned on posting these photos on any website or Facebook page. but as our President has concerns over voter fraud, this is a good time to post them.

This it the the Reliavote System that I helped to setup for King County (the county represented by Seattle) Elections in Renton Washington, a system that was created after a election fiasco that happened in 2000 when some mail in ballot mail trays were found uncounted in a King County office near Boeing Field six months after the election was over. This was a very close election not only for our President at the time but also for the Governor as well. As a result of this fiasco, the King County Council went to work on creating a whole new department within the county represented by an elected official.

In 2007, Pitney Bowes was awarded a contract to install and support the Reliavote system. This was a division the Pitney Bowes owned at the time under their Production Mail division. This was a division that the company purchased after the 2001 layoff of 5,000 of employees (including myself) happened to diversify the company. I was rehired to setup the system and hopefully supported it once it went operational.

While I did the important part of securing the signature, from the county, to approve the installation of the equipment, it would be in mothballs for another two years as the result of concerns with the union (representing King County), the signature verification company (that was a division of Diebold at the time), and the leak in the earth dam that happened along the Green River.

A similar system was setup in Pierce County at the same time that Pierce County would start right away in new building next to the annex off of 34th.

The systems are high speed sorting machines that verify the signature storing it's image into a server. When the system is scanned, a mark is placed on the envelope to indicate it was scanned. In King County, these sorted ballots where stored in a secures area until the signatures were verified.

The concern with Diebold was based on a CEO who did contribute to George W Bush's campaign. Diebold was responsible for the electronic ballot machines King County was using at the time (as a option of marking ballots at a polling place). There were concerns by the county, as well as the company, of bias resulting in election integrity.

The CEO resigned and Diebold would spin off their Election division.

Some were concerned that this system would never become operational. King County didn't take operation of the equipment until August of 2009.