MidHudson Verified Voting - Questions for Democratic Candidates

EVENT on 2/26

Questions for Democratic Candidates

Why are so many of our Democratic Leaders and Candidates:

Complacent about private corporations counting our votes?
Uninformed about the use of computerized voting to target minorities for “blank votes”?
Unaware that touchscreen voting machines add uncertainty to close election races?
Unwilling to inform themselves about the significant cost overruns from touchscreen voting systems?
Unable to follow the Democratic Governor of New Mexico's leadership in pushing for paper ballots & optical scanners?
Refusing to rein in costs, when New York State Election Commissioners are asked to pick a system without knowing what it will even cost?
Refusing to acknowledge that if we don’t oppose electronic voting this year, we will have Security concerns down the line?
Refusing to follow the DNC recommendation to support paper ballots & optical scanners, and oppose electronic voting?
Waiting for someone else to take a position or leadership?

FACTS:

A foreign-owned company controls a major U.S. e-voting firm, Sequoia Voting Systems;
Minorities were targeted for “blank votes” by two DREs in New Mexico, Nov. 2004;
In 2002, 74% of electronic “suspicious upsets” elected Republicans and gave them control of the US Senate
Where touchscreen (DRE) failures took place in North Carolina, Democrats have urged a switch to paper based- voting
many of the new voting machines that will be deployed are arriving from offshore manufacturing sites;
New York’s mandated 3% spot-check of the paper trail leaves 97% of votes to be counted in secret;
The FBI says 87% of companies’ computers were broken into, 44% by insiders. Do you think our Boards of Elections will beat the odds? Especially if they refuse to admit there’s a problem? Especially if they look forward to state-mandated vendor assistance for the first 5 years of computerized elections?
There has never been an audit of an electronic election; we need disclosed source code;
With computers, one insider can control an entire state election and not leave any evidence of tampering;
There is a movement to refuse to work for candidates who won’t oppose electronic voting.

Send a letter to send to your representatives :

It is vital the Democratic leaders and policymakers be aware of the difference between a printed paper trail and a voter marked paper ballot. I, and many New Yorkers, support paper ballot voting counted with ballot scanners. We understand that a printed "trail" is not as good as a paper "ballot" for these reasons:

1- A study conducted in 2004 in Nevada demonstrated that only 31% of voters actually compared the entire paper trail to the touchscreen upon which they voted. Thus, over half of all paper trail records are note "voter-verified"

2- The touchscreen DRE’s printed paper trail is generated by the computer, rather than directly by the voter. It is controlled by software. Although New York’s regulations allow inspection of source code, will every possible software error be found? “Any programmer can write code that displays one thing on a screen, records something else, and prints another result.” (Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, computer scientist and expert on electronic voting.)

All the ordinary voter has, in terms of a voice in government, is that one brief moment when they vote.

Surely as an elected official, you can appreciate the effect that three years and one and a half million dollars of lobbying by voting machine vendors has done to influence policy makers such as county election officials; the goal has been to promote expensive touchscreen DREs as the "wave of the future" while undermining proven, reliable but low-tech paper ballots and scanners. New York State is the second biggest market for HAVA dollars in the nation.

Let’s get serious about making sure every vote is counted. Choose safe, reliable paper ballots voting, counted with scanners. Make sure voters have confidence in their elections.

Thank you in advance for your time and concern.

Sincerely,

Adresses for Letters:

Spitzer

Office of The Attorney General
120 Broadway, 25th Floor
New York, NY 10271

or Eliot Spitzer
State Of New York
Office Of The Attorney General
The Capital, Albany, NY 12224

online form

Clinton

http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/

Schumer

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/contact.html

More information

For a briefing on electronic voting/paper ballots/optical scanners/accessible ballot-markers, contact: Teresa Hommel admin@wheresthepaper.org

Inform yourself: www.WheresThePaper.org
www.VoteTrustUSA.org
www.VotersUnite.org
www.VerifiedVoting.org and
www.nyvv.org (New Yorkers for Verified Voting)