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Save the Ballot
Submitted by Stephanie Friedman on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 17:05
Hi... I wanted to forward the following email and letter from Rapid Response regarding a letter to Congressional representatives. You may want to read and respond by signing on. I think whatever we can all do to make voting more fair and tallying the vote error free is to be considered seriously. See what you think. And please forgive me if you've received this many times already. Thanks. Stephanie Friedman From: Lynn Larkin To: msvoc Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 1:41 PM Subject: Fw: Save The Ballot Help us Save The Ballot: We are gathering signatories for the following letter which will be sent to our senators and representatives in Congress. If you would like to join in this effort to save the integrity of our voting system, please send an e-mail to: RapidResponse_CA If you are not a member of RR you may post to: savetheballot  Please include your name, address, and phone number. with "Save The Ballot" in the subject line. If you can post this to other blogs please let me know so we don't duplicate or spam.  We'd like to get as many signatures as quickly as possible.       Dear Senators and Representatives: We are writing to urge you to introduce and support two measures which we believe will help to restore the integrity of the electoral process, and so, perhaps, help to heal our gravely divided nation. We do not feel that the voting process is being seen seriously enough by those in the government or the media, and we aim to change that for the benefit of all citizens. First, we advocate a law requiring elections to provide a transparent method of verification of the vote by recount. Secondly, we want voter intimidation to become a federal felony. We believe civil society is largely a matter of trust among citizens. When this trust begins to deteriorate, the consequences are easy to foresee. We are already seeing a palpable increase in the loss of faith in our own electoral system, especially from younger voters and minorities. More serious consequences of flawed elections could be accusations of inequity, fragmentation of society, resentment toward the government, and perhaps even tyranny. In our civilization, trust must reside in the ballot. Without a true ballot there can be no democracy. The recent and widespread institution of technology that does not permit verification of the vote count greatly concerns us, and we believe that the faith in the integrity of the electoral process is terribly at risk. Fortunately, there are many methods of vote tabulation which provide all the ease and convenience of electronic balloting, with the verifiability of other methods. To illustrate the problems that concern us, we attach the recent letter signed by Representatives Conyers, Nadler, Wexler, Scott, Watt and Holt. (http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/gaoinvestvote2004ltr11804.pdf) An additional measure that would make voting more reliable and streamlined is to require states to certify only one voting machine system, to be approved by the state legislature. For example, California allows the use of three different voting technologies (Optical Scan, Punch Card and Touchscreen/DRE) on ten different types of machines. While the Secretary of State does certify each one and does provide guidelines and oversight, it makes it much more complicated than it needs to be, and therefore less reliable. Allowing only one voting system per state, with a verifiable paper trail, would greatly increase the confidence in the system and the likelihood that all votes will, in fact, be counted. Other countries, such as Canada, have resisted the urge to go "high-tech" and have kept in place a system where paper ballots are filled out and counted by hand rather than by machines. This might be the only way to ensure that all the votes are counted and that everyone knows where their votes end up. While we fully support competition in private industry, we do not feel that the right to vote, and our democracy itself, should be subject to error and tampering simply for the sake of being more technologically advanced. We move now onto the second measure we are urging you to support. In recent elections there have been many reports of attempts to intimidate voters at the polls on election day, most commonly minority voters. In America, the freedom to vote without fear of intimidation and reprisal is a fundamental element of our society. There can be no question that even the appearance of such intimidation has a corrosive effect on the trust between citizens and government. Therefore, we urge you to officially recognize and codify such tactics as a serious crime, to fully investigate complaints as they occur, and to prosecute those who engage in this behavior. We think these measures are elementary and necessary, and we urge you, as our legislative representatives, to implement them as quickly as possible. Sincerely, (all our signatures) cc: The Honorable John Kerry, 304 Russell Bldg., Third Fl., Washington, DC 20510; fax: The Honorable John Conyers, 2426 Rayburn Bldg., Washington, DC 20515; fax:
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