September
14, 2004
Senator
_____________
____________________
____________________
Dear
Senator _____________,
I
urge you to become a co-sponsor of S1980, the Voter Confidence and Increased
Accessibility Act, introduced by Senator Bob Graham.
S1980
mandates a voter-verified paper audit trail, prohibits wireless communications
devices in computerized voting systems, provides for accessibility, AND goes
into effect for November 2004.
There
is nothing more fundamental to our democracy than our vote. When we do our part and vote, our votes MUST
be counted as cast. Anything less is an
affront to our citizenship.
Electronic
voting machines have caused many errors during elections –- lost ballots,
switched votes, races that were hidden from voters, etc. Computers are inherently error-prone and need
to be audited continuously to ensure that the programs are running as they
should. That is why the chief objections
to paperless computer voting come from computer scientists themselves. These experts overwhelmingly warn against the
dangers of "trusting" computers rather than trusting their
audits. Moreover, once voters cast their
ballots on electronic machines that produce voter-verified paper ballots, Boards
of Election need to do regular end-of-day reconciliations, as all businesses
do, comparing computer tallies to tallies of the permanent paper record which
has been verified by the voter before he or she leaves the booth.
Electronic
voting machines should not be used unless they provide a voter-verified paper
audit trail, so that we have an independent way to verify the tallies. Yet an
estimated 30% of American voters may vote on unverifiable electronic voting
equipment in November, less than 2 months from now. This is a massive problem!
Solving
this problem is solely a matter of political will. The certified technology exists now to add a
voter-verified paper audit trail to existing electronic voting machines. If there isn’t time to put this technology in
place, hand-marked paper ballots for federal races are a do-able option. We must not compromise election integrity
this year or any year.
Unverifiable
electronic voting machines jeopardize the integrity of the upcoming election
for all of us. Please co-sponsor S1980 now!
Sincerely,
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________