Would you "trust" a voting
machine
that doesn't allow recounts?
The new electronic voting systems that New York may
purchase soon are dangerous to democracy. They
--hide vote
counting from public oversight,
--prevent
recounts,
--never have
been proved to give accurate final tallies
--may contain
communications devices that enable people to alter election
results
without leaving evidence of tampering.
The Help America Vote Act of
2002 (”HAVA”) allocated 3.86 billion dollars for the states to replace their
old voting machines with new ones. What
could be wrong with that?
The new electronic voting
systems that 30% of American voters will use this year do not allow independent
audits. That means No Recounts! That means No Way To Count Votes That Are
Lost when the computers malfunction! Election fraud will be undetectable, and
whatever the computers say will be the law. We must keep New York from buying
this kind of equipment!
What We Can Do:
America must require electronic
voting machines to produce a permanent, unalterable, paper record of each
ballot that can be verified by the voter before casting it and leaving the
booth. The voting machine and the verification mechanism must be accessible to
the disabled. The paper ballot is called an accessible voter-verifiable paper
audit trail (AVVPAT), and it must be the official record of the ballot for
independent counts, recounts, and audits of the voting system. If machines can’t
be fitted with AVVPAT, voters must use hand-marked paper ballots which can be
counted by hand or optical scanner.
1. Call Congress 1-800-839-5276 and ask
for Senator Clinton. Tell her "Please co-sponsor the 'Voter
Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act' introduced by Sen. Bob Graham (S
1980). The bill requires an accessible voter-verifiable paper audit trail (and
deals with other problems in the Help America Vote Act)." (Senator Charles Schumer is already a
co-sponsor of S1980.) We oppose the RECORD Act, S2313, that Clinton co-sponsors
because of its loophole – states can evade requirements for a voter-verified
paper audit trail by saying they can't comply!
2. 19 of NY's 29 Representatives are
co-sponsors of the companion bill in the House. Upstate we still need: Sue
Kelly, John Sweeney, John McHugh, Sherwood Boehlert, James Walsh, Thomas
Reynolds, Jack Quinn, and Amo Houghton. Do you live in their districts? Call
Congress, 1-800-839-5276, ask for their
office and say "Please co-sponsor "The Voter Confidence and Increased
Accessibility Act" introduced by Rep. Rush Holt (HR 2239). The bill has
147 co-sponsors (7/21/04).
Want
to know/do more? www.VerifiedVoting.org www.BlackBoxVoting.org
www.VotersUnite.org/takeaction.asp www.WheresThePaper.org
Look
up your elected officials? www.WheresThePaper.org/findreps.html .
contact:
Teresa Hommel, www.wheresthepaper.org
admin@wheresthepaper.org