BBV: Californians please write LA TIMES

[Eric J in MN]

The LA TIMES printed an editorial today in support of a voter-verified paper-trails for touchscreen machines.

If you live in Calfornia, please send a letter to the editor pointing out that the relevant bill numbers are HR2239 in the US House and S1980 in the US Senate.

The LA TIMES usually only prints letters from Californians, and so there is no point in people outside California writing.

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EDITORIAL
Machines Too Can Lie

"It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting," says a character in Tom Stoppard's play "Jumpers." The character wasn't referring to the Florida recount debacle three years ago, or to the 2002 law aimed at preventing future electoral traumas by funding local efforts to replace antiquated voting equipment. The character's point, however, should be foremost in Congress' mind as it works to implement the Help America Vote Act.

On Wednesday, the Senate decided to delay funding for new voting devices because of partisan disagreements over unrelated issues in the budget bill. The delay gives legislators a chance to condition future funding for the act on reforms that would fix its numerous flaws.

Legislators should begin by passing a bill by Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) that would require the new machines to provide a paper receipt to each voter ? much like the "voter-verified paper audit trail" that California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley will require electronic voting machines to produce by July 2006.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-voting12dec12,1,2682654.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials


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Two paragraph letters seem to be most likely to be printed in most newspapers.
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