Louisiana buying new Voting Machines. Please contact the Louisiana

[Eric J in MN]

Secretatry of State to support buying optical-scan (SAT-style) ballots, not electronic-voting machines.

Secretary of State's Office
8549 United Plaza Boulevard
Baton Rouge LA 70804-9125
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
URL: http://www.sec.state.la.us
Email: [e-mail]


Optical-scan ballots are on paper, and so can be recounted.

They're cheaper than elecronic voting-machines, and many people can fill out an optical-scan ballot at once, speeding lines to vote.

Electronic machines can freeze, or not show all the races.

While voters in Nevada in 2004 got printouts from electronic voting machines, the voters often didn't check the printouts.

When a voter fills out an optical-scan ballot, obviously he's going to check it.

Recent article on Louisiana:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/112904/new_cautious001.shtml


McKeithen careful in voting-machine buying process

By MARSHA SHULER
[e-mail]
Capitol news bureau

Louisiana is preparing to buy $46 million worth of voting machines next year, and voting-machine salesmen are already making their pitches.

Secretary of State Fox McKeithen and other elections officials met informally with representatives from three firms -- some of the giants in the business...

So far, McKeithen said, representatives of Diebold, Sequoia and Acupoll have been in to meet with his senior staff.

[Debbie13]

1. First question I have: ARE THE OFFICIALS REPUBLICANS?

[Eric J in MN]

3. Yes, Secretary of State Fox McKeithen is a Republican (NT)

NT

[Liberty Belle]

2. Write letters to editors of LA papers. Alert the populace!kick!

Notify Democratic Clubs in Louisiana to contact their members. Alert the media in LA--newspapers, TV, etc. Get people calling their state legislators and the secretary of state in droves. Stage a "Don't Steal Our Votes!" march on his office--with lots of TV cameras. That's the only way to stop this insanity!

[bluedonkey]

5. I talked to some Democrats

in the yahoo groups and they're not interested to make waves about the screwed up election.Melancon's son said to move on!
I'm pretty pissed and I would like to march on the Capitol,but I don't know anybody who would join me.

edited for spelling(well,I'm pissed)

[Eric J in MN]

4. If you want to contact officials in addition to he Sec. of State

there is a list at:

http://www.vote-smart.org/mystate_government_resources.php?state_name=Louisiana&state_code=LA&go2.x=14&go2.y=7

[JaneDoughnut]

6. Done!

Thanks for the info, I might not have heard about it for a few more days otherwise.

I wrote to Secretary McKeithen as well as sending out an alert to the ShreveportDemocrat mailing list. If anybody's interested in seeing my letter I added it to the local voter action site I put up in the wake of the fraud reports:
http://www.praeses.net/cassie/vote/LetterToSOS.htm