MidHudson Verified Voting - Questions for Republican Candidates

EVENT on 2/26

Questions for Republican Candidates

Why are so many of our Republican Leaders and Candidates:

Complacent about private corporations counting our votes?
Uninformed about the use of computerized voting to hamper seniors' voting participation?
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 Republican Governor of Maryland's leadership in pushing for paper ballots & optical scanners?
Unable to follow Republican Assemblyman Joel Miller'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?
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;
a former Democratic State senator and a former DNC head are voting machine lobbyists;
Virginia Democrat Harris Miller, running for US Senate lobbied Congress against verified voting;
it was a Democrat-controlled Senate that stopped the move to paper ballots in Maryland;
States are suing voting machine manufacturers who don't live up to their obligations;
Security concerns are high among informed lawmakers;
many of the new voting machines that will be deployed are arriving from offshore manufacturing sites;
There has never been an audit of an electronic election;
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?
Georgia's Democratic Secretary of State, Cathy Cox, could easily be considered the official Poster Girl for Diebold Election Systems;
With computers, one insider can control an entire state election and not leave any evidence of tampering;

Send a letter to send to your representatives :

It is vital the Republican 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:

State Senator Saland

Dutchess County
3 Neptune Road/ Suite A19B
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
(845) 463-0840/ Fax (845) 463-3438

or Albany Office
Room 708, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
(518) 455-2411 / Fax: (518) 426-6920

online form

Congresswoman Sue Kelly

http://suekelly.house.gov/ContactInformation.asp

Congressman John E. Sweeney

http://www.house.gov/sweeney/contact/

More information

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