Help to Ban Paperless Voting
February 14, 2007 - Politics
I haven't written about this before, but the whole Diebold voting mess really bothers me. I really believe that many election polls in America have been tampered with since the introduction of electronic voting. The system is just far too easy to manipulate, and given the stakes, there's too much incentive to tamper. Below, I'm pasting in a letter from MoveOn.org. I'm not sure how much good online petitions do, but it's better than nothing.
Too many voters are still stuck with paperless electronic voting machines-machines that are vulnerable to tampering and malfunction.
A new bill in Congress would ban paperless voting. It's got enough support to pass, but time is short. This week, the Democratic leadership is deciding what Congress will take up next. If they don't put voting reform on the agenda, there simply won't be time to make the change by the 2008 presidential election.
Sign this petition to ask the Democratic leaders in Congress to ban paperless voting before it's too late: "Congress must ban paperless voting in time for the 2008 election. As voters, we support Rep. Rush Holt's paper ballots bill."
Click here to add your name to the petition.
This November, a Democrat in Florida lost a close House race when 18,000 votes went missing from paperless voting machines. Never again. This bill is the strongest paper ballot legislation ever introduced in Congress. It's supported by Common Cause, People For the American Way, the Brennan Center for Justice, VerifiedVoting.org, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, VoteTrust USA, and local election integrity groups across the country. Newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Roll Call have all editorialized in support of the bill.
Long-time voting reform advocate Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) is the sponsor of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007, and it's co-sponsored by close to 200 other representatives from both parties.
The Holt bill requires a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote in the country as well as these key reforms:
- Make the paper ballot the ballot of record in the event of any recount or audit
- Guarantee the vote count is accurate by auditing electronic tallies with a hand count of paper ballots in a random sampling of precincts
- Eliminate flimsy thermal paper tape rolls and replace them with durable paper ballots
- Require every voting place to offer voters emergency paper ballots immediately if voting machines break down
- Make elections more transparent by requiring public disclosure of voting system software
- Prohibit wireless communication devices in voting systems
- Require documentation of a secure chain of custody for voting systems and software
- Prohibit conflicts of interest involving vendors and testing labs
- Enhance the accessibility of elections for voters with disabilities
Our nation can't afford another election with unreliable paperless voting. And now's our chance to secure our vote.
Sign this petition to ask the Democratic leaders in Congress to ban paperless voting before it's too late. The full text of the petition is: "Congress must ban paperless voting in time for the 2008 election. As voters, we support Rep. Rush Holt's paper ballots bill."
Click here to add your name to the petition.
Thank you for all you do.
-Noah, Karin, Ilyse, Tanya and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
