Du-ers - please help keep computerized voting in the spotlight

[carols]

I am on vacation this week and I am going to spend the week responding to any articles I see in the newspapers regarding electronic voting with a letter to the editor. Florida DU-ers especially - in light of Mr. Wexler's suit against electronic voting, please help and send your two cents. Here is an article in the St. Pete Times you can respond to:
Computer voting reignites fears

Here's a handy link for responding Send a Letter to the St. Petersburg Times

Here's my response:
Re: Computer voting reignites fears
March 22, 2004

There appears to be a widespread misperception on the part of both election officials and the general public alike, that the challenges presented by computer voting are analogous to the challenges presented by voting with punch cards, paper ballots and optical scanners. Having made my living testing software for the past twenty years, I assure you that this is not the case.

The first, and most striking, difference is that it is impossible to re-count ballots cast via a computer, and while paper receipts could conceivably be lost or vulnerable to tampering, there would at the very least be a record of discrepancies which would trigger further investigation of the election results. The reports generated by the current touch-screen machines do not provide an adequate fail-safe because they are generated from the same machines that may have caused the problem in the first place.

There have been numerous other problems reported nationwide with these machines – voting on uncertified software, inadequate testing, security flaws and improper handling of software “patches”. These are not uncommon problems in the software industry as almost any computer professional can tell you, however most large corporations have contingency plans for dealing with everything from software failure to security breeches. Unfortunately most election officials have neither the professional nor the educational background for understanding the issues raised by electronic voting, let alone for developing a plan to respond to them.

If we are to move into this brave new world of computerized-voting, so be it. But we should not do so until we have replaced the current crop of Election Supervisors with people who – to put it politely – have a clue. For officials without such a background to blithely pronounce paper receipts unnecessary is irresponsible and misleading.

[alfredo]

1. Excellent

I have been wondering what I could do next in my state. I have gathered info on all the machines in Kentucky and sent that to Bev, and I have made my fears/concerns known in our community. It appears they are open to having a paper trail.

What is the name of the machine that does provide a paper ballot? I would like to pass that on to our county clerk.

[Joanne98]

2. Great letter you really hit it on the head

[Andy_Stephenson]

3. I only have one criticisim

Call it a Ballot...not reciept. Other than that awesome

[Joanne98]

4. keep this thread kicked please

important work here.

[RedEagle]

5. It all comes down to our vote

While everyone focuses on getting Bush out, keep in mind that the powers that be may very well WANT him out- but they DON'T want us to actually, really, control our votes.

Overlooking the voting issue will come back to haunt us.

Press on. True democracy means fixing the core so that we may never be manipulated into the current situation again.