meeting sun feb 6 re safe voting bill, urgent

[mahina]

long, sorry, important.

Aloha Everyone,
Please read a very important message below from Richard Port, our
Democratic
National Committeeman and former Co-Chair of the Kerry Campaign.
We just found out last night that the first hearing for the Safe
Vote bill HB1740 has been moved UP to TUESDAY, FEB. 8 at 2 p.m.
We need your grassroots support NOW--it is critical that we get
this bill passed in this upcoming session in order for it to be
enacted by the 2006 elections.
We are holding an EMERGENCY meeting this weekend--TOMORROW--
Sunday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Meeting Room at Yacht Harbor
Towers on Atkinson Drive across the street from Ala Moana Hotel
and Ala Moana Shopping Center. Drive up the ramp to the
building and park inside the building garage. Richard Port will
validate -- parking will be FREE. This meeting is for those who
are committed to either provide oral or written testimony in
support of the bill or those who will work to mobilize
grassroots support for the hearing on Tuesday. We apologize for
the late notice however we hope you understand how important
this bill is as we must do what we can in Hawaii to ensure
SAFE, SECURE, VERIFIABLE, HONEST elections to restore
confidence in our democracy. Hopefully we in Hawaii can help
lead the way to NATIONAL VOTER REFORM that our Congressional
Democrats has promised to fight for.

Another important meeting will be held on TUESDAY, Feb 8 at 6 p.
m. at Abercrombie HQs to prepare for the first Senate hearing
on SB1325 which may occur on Friday, Feb. 11 or Monday, Feb. 14.

Please make every effort to attend one of these meetings. And if
not possible DO AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS that is
listed below! MAHALO EVERYONE!!
************************************************************************************


Urgent: Paper Audit Capability for Electronic Voting Machines


Attention: All Kerry, Dean, Kucinich, Clark, Edwards and
Gephardt supporters

The Judiciary Committee in the Hawaii House of Representatives
will hold a hearing on HB 1740 Relating to Electronic Voting
which will make it possible to audit all electronic voting in
Hawaii beginning with the next election (2006) because there
will be a paper trail which can be verified by a voter and
audited. Please read the enclosed one-page summary for more
information on this issue.

You can help in one or more of the following ways:

1. Telephone the offices of these representatives today or as
soon as possible and ask the staff member to tell the
representative that you support HB 1740 (because you believe
every vote should be counted and able to be audited.) If you
get an answering machine, leave the message.

Rep. Sylvia Luke 586-8530 - Chair, Judiciary Committee
Rep. Blake Oshiro 586-6340 - V. Chair, Judiciary Committee
Rep. Alex Sonson 586-6520 - Member, Judiciary Committee

and/or

2. You can submit a testimony supporting HB 1740 to the
Sergeant-at-Arms
(Oahu Fax [phone]) (Neighbor Islands Fax [phone])
If you need help, contact Richard Port at 941-9624 or
<[e-mail]>

and/or

3. You can attend the hearing: Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at 2:
00 p.m., Conference room 325, Hawaii State Capitol.


and/or


4. You can submit testimony (see #2 above) and read it at the
hearing.

Please do at least one of the above. If you have questions,
telephone or e-mail me. (see above)

Richard Port
Democratic National
Committeeman
-------------------------------------------------



E-Voting Safety Issues Require Legislation


The recent rush to adopt e-voting machines, prompted by the
2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), has resulted in systems
which do not provide the same guarantee of vote safety as
existing systems.

Voting needs to be accurate, anonymous, and transparent. The
existing system, called ÂŒoptical scan©ˆ or 'mark sense',
satisfies these requirements. The process used to record votes
consists of marks on paper. The system that counts the ballots
can be verified by auditing the results presented by the
counting machine against a manual count of paper ballots.

Electronic voting is different. E-voting produces no written
record of the vote, so there is no way to audit the results in
a meaningful way. The votes are recorded only electronically,
using software programs that are kept secret from the voting
public. Accuracy must be taken on faith. Failures in the
voting machines have caused lost votes with no paper backup.

This is a real problem, one that affects the outcome of
elections. In Carteret County, North Carolina, over 4400 votes
were lost by an electronic voting machine with no paper backup;
some races there have not been decided yet as a result. A bug
in counting software in Illinois initially gave a County
Commissioner's race to a Republican; when the tally was checked
by hand, it turned out a Democrat had won.

Even here in Hawai'i, we've had our issues. Votes were recorded
for the Green Party during the primary in places with no Green
Party candidates. Without paper backup, there's no way to be
sure how those votes were actually entered.

A voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) is a system where
printers attached to the voting machines print a paper record
of the vote at the same time the electronic vote is recorded.
This paper record becomes the official recount ballot, and is a
safeguard in case a machine fails, or is suspected of losing or
modifying votes.

Mandatory audits of a random sample of precincts can provide
assurances about accuracy of the e-voting machines and counting
software. Comparing the paper audit trail to the tabulated
votes, as we do for the mark sense machines currently in use,
improves public confidence in the voting system and reduces the
chances for fraud or poor design to affect elections.

A voter verified paper audit trail combined with mandatory
audits of a random sample of precincts comprise the minimum
requirements for vote safety. A bill to legislate that minimum
would benefit all the people of Hawai'i.

Also of serious concern is the secret nature of the software
used to record and count the ballots. That secrecy is even more
dangerous when the people who provide the software and hardware
are contracted to run the systems, as they are here in Hawai'i.

Safe Vote Hawaii is a grassroots coalition of technology
professionals, official election observers, and community
activists working for safe electronic voting.

Safe Vote Hawaii Âú www.safevotehawaii.com Âú to contact email:
[e-mail] Please visit our website to see the
latest update which includes a NEW comprehensive report--MYTH
BREAKERS

[tommcintyre]

1. Thanks for the heads-up mahina

I will post this on my "Hawaii Happenings" page.

http://www.independentmediasource.com/hawaii_happenings.htm

[mahina]

2. Thanks Tommy!