BBV: League of Women Voters reverses stance

[BevHarris]

But it's not enough.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040615/APN/406150599&Page=2

They have reversed their stance against paper ballots but have not come out in favor of a voter verified paper ballot, nor in favor of auditing.

They still have one planning meeting to go and there will be more statements then.

Bev Harris

[gristy]

1. Here's the AP/NYT story

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-League-Electronic-Voting.html

Women Voters Drop Paperless Vote Support
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 14, 2004

Filed at 11:26 p.m. ET

The League of Women Voters rescinded its support of paperless voting machines on Monday after hundreds of angry members voiced concern that paper ballots were the only way to safeguard elections from fraud, hackers or computer malfunctions.

About 800 delegates who attended the nonpartisan league's biennial convention in Washington voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that supports ``voting systems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable and accessible.''

And a couple threads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x622467
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x622816

DU was all over this as soon as the story broke yesterday!

[Misunderestimator]

2. That's terrific news, even if it isn't enough...

Keep up the good work!

[qb]

3. We should thank the LWV for their reversal, and then request

that they show more prudence before they make sweeping policy statements.

[BevHarris]

4. Thanks, Gristy. Some behind the scenes info

Dr. Barbara Simons deserves a whopping thank you, as do all the local chapters who stood so forcefully to argue for what's right.

Enter the New York Times.

Adam Cohen, head of the editorial board of the New York Times, called me wanting to do a story on the vendors who hired former public officials. I gave him the rundown on what I know on that. "But you should do a story on the blind," I suggested. "It's politically incorrect. You've got the clout to do this, though."

I told him what we'd found. He kept me on the phone for nearly an hour. Then called back to tell me he'd confirmed $1 million payment from Diebold to NFB (that's an easy confirm, it's on the Internet).

Last Thursday, the article appeared in the New York Times. The very next day, the NFB dropped its lawsuits in Ohio.

According to insiders, Jim Dickson of the AAPD was planning a dramatic and theatrical bit at the League of Women Voters, to dissuade them from changing their stance. Something like -- planting someone at every microphone in the caucus and dominating the floor. Dickson gets very loud and dramatic.

I guess they thought it wasn't such a good idea to draw that much attention to themselves, just days after the New York Times revealed that his group had taken $26,000 from the vendors.

Bev Harris

[BevHarris]

5. Here's the NYT story on that

Sorry, I don't have the link.

June 11, 2004
MAKING VOTES COUNT
The Disability Lobby and Voting

"Two obvious requirements for a fair election are that voters should have complete confidence about their ballots' being counted accurately and that everyone, including the disabled, should have access to the polls. It is hard to imagine advocates for those two goals fighting, but lately that seems to be what's happening.

..."The National Federation of the Blind, for instance, has been championing controversial voting machines that do not provide a paper trail. It has attested not only to the machines' accessibility, but also to their security and accuracy — neither of which is within the federation's areas of expertise.

"What's even more troubling is that the group has accepted a $1 million gift for a new training institute from Diebold, the machines' manufacturer, which put the testimonial on its Web site. The federation stands by its "complete confidence" in Diebold even though several recent studies have raised serious doubts about the company, and California has banned more than 14,000 Diebold machines from being used this November because of doubts about their reliability.

"Disability-rights groups have had an outsized influence on the debate despite their general lack of background on security issues. The League of Women Voters has been a leading opponent of voter-verifiable paper trails, in part because it has accepted the disability groups' arguments.

..."Some supporters of voter-verifiable paper trails question whether disability-rights groups have gotten too close to voting machine manufacturers. Besides the donation by Diebold to the National Federation of the Blind, there have been other gifts. According to Mr. Dickson, the American Association of People with Disabilities has received $26,000 from voting machine companies this year.

"The real issue, though, is that disability-rights groups have been clouding the voting machine debate by suggesting that the nation must choose between accessible voting and verifiable voting.
It is well within the realm of technology to produce machines that meet both needs. Meanwhile, it would be a grave mistake for election officials to rush to spend millions of dollars on paperless electronic voting machines that may quickly become obsolete..."

[Neecy]

6. stunning. stunning.

Good god, there are so many maggots under the rock is it possible to find them all?

I wonder how many other proxies Diebold has bought off. The groundwork that Diebold has laid in order to steal an election is really frightening.

Great work.

[el_gato]

7. Great Work!!!!!

I'm very happy to see this.

[BevHarris]

8. League of Women Voters Weasels Back to Old Stance

They just shot this press release out:

STATEMENT BY LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF THE U.S. ON VOTING MACHINES

“Today’s Associated Press story entitled “League of Women Voters Drops
Support of Paperless Voting Machines” is misleading.

"The LWVUS has just concluded its 46th biennial national convention. The delegate body in attendance, representing 47 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, adopted a resolution that revises the LWVUS stance on voting machines.

The new resolution reads, “In order to ensure integrity and voter confidence in elections, the LWVUS supports the implementation of voting systems and procedures that are: secure, accurate, recountable, and accessible.”

The League continues to support voting systems that are well-managed and meet the above four criteria, including electronic voting systems. Each voting system should be looked at on a case-by-case basis to ensure that it meets each of these four criteria and that the operational and management systems supporting it will be well-run.”

Lyndsey M. Farrington
Communications Coordinator
League of Women Voters
1730 M Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036
202-263-1332

[Bushfire]

9. GA chapter of LWV still not on board.

I wonder why? ... $$$$$$$$$$?

The head of Georgia's League of Women Voters said the chapter still supports the state's e-voting system, despite concerns among the group's membership over the security of such systems. - By Carlos Campos, Atlanta Journal Constitution (Story - registration required)

I realize others are working in GA who may not post here, but we could all bug their Exec Director:

http://www.lwv.org/about/leagues/state_search.html#ga

Ms. Elisabeth MacNamara (different than in the article/shakeup?)
LWV of Georgia
PO Box 29751
Atlanta, GA 30359-0781
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail [e-mail]

GA is too important to not get back on the good side.

Story here:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0604/16voting.html

League still backs state's voting system

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/15/04


The head of Georgia's League of Women Voters said Tuesday the chapter still supports the state's electronic voting system, despite concerns among the group's national membership over the security of such systems.

"We still absolutely, 100 percent, feel the system in Georgia is a good system," said Meg Smothers, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Georgia. Georgia is one of only two states that rely exclusively on electronic voting, using a system championed by Secretary of State Cathy Cox.

Smothers has been an important ally for Cox in defending the state's voting system. Smothers lobbied to defeat a bill this year that would have required Cox to outfit every voting machine with a printed receipt.

Critics of the touch-screen machines say that without such a receipt, voters are left to wonder whether their votes have been accurately tallied. Cox opposes the paper trail, saying it will cause logistical nightmares at the polls. She and Smothers say Georgia should wait until uniform national standards are developed for paper receipts before the state moves forward.

more...

[Bushfire]

10. kicking for GA DUers to get involved.

Register with the GA LWV, and vote to remove Smothers.

:kick:

[AP]

11. Probably no coincidence that GA has high rates of vote spoilage for Black

voters. (In the top three, according to Greg Pallast on Tavis Smiley, with FL and Chicago).

Neither the Republiancs nor the Democrats want to count all the votes in GA. Black politicians would win the Democratic primaries. And Democrats seem to feel they can't beat Republicans or they want to mainitain white control of the party, or both.

[Merlin]

12. That makes sense. Explains why Dems cooperated in their own defeat.

I wondered how the hell it was possible, with a Dem governor in office (Barnes), and a Dem Senator (Clelland), GA could approve installation of a voting machine system that led immediately to the defeat of both of them. The vote astonished everybody since both had been leading by a couple of points just before the election.

So Barnes, who could have prevented the move to DREs, was hoist by his own petard. Sadly, he took Max along with him.

Not much doubt in my mind that there was voting machine chicanery in GA in '02. Not much doubt it will happen again in '04. But this time GA is no longer really in play (Bush 51% Kerry 39% as of 6/3/04).

[Eric J in MN]

13. What happened with Leauge's elections for their new president? nt

nt

[Andy_Stephenson]

14. I'd like to know as well...

I was out of the loop for a few days.

[AP]

15. I asked the same Q in another thread. The A: Simon (?) pulled out and

ran for a position on the BoD instead???

[Eric J in MN]

16. So Kay Maxwell will remain their president? (nt)

nt

[Andy_Stephenson]

17. ACK!

n/t

[AP]

18. Don't know if anyone else was running.

So I don't know if she won.

And that Simon dropped out I only from hearsay.