TrueVote Action News: Senate Hearing (from Linda Schade)

[shireen]

From Linda Schade, [e-mail] , Sat, 29 Jan 2005 10:16:57
 

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WIDELY – URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO PROTECT YOUR VOTE IN MARYLAND

Friends:

The legislative session in Maryland has begun and our advocacy for a paper ballot for audits and recounts is more important than ever. As a result of the tremendous outpouring from citizens in the last legislative session the leadership of the legislature recognizes that they must pass some bill this year. Next week there will be a hearing before the Senate – see below; this week TrueVoteMD briefed the House Subcommittee on Election Law, a report is below.
 

First we have an urgent fundraising opportunity.


We are urging support of HB 107 that calls for a paper ballot record for audits and recounts. This bill has 33 co-sponsors and is the same as the bill we supported last year except that it includes a provision to protect the rights of the disabled. In the Senate we are urging support of SB 9 a bill with provisions similar to HB 107 and has 8 co-sponsors. 

 
TrueVoteMD opposes the decoy bills HB 80 and SB 63. These bills legitimize paperless voting – without directly saying so. Both bills let the Board of Elections decide the issue – our elections board is adamantly against paper. The Senate bill also paves the way for electronic verification through an untested system called VoteHere. The message opposing these bills is: voters in Maryland want a transparent system that ensures that original voter intent is preserved. A voter verified paper ballot for audits and recounts is the only method to accomplish this.

 
Take Action Today By Visiting TrueVoteMD.org and sending a letter to the members of the Senate and House Committees. It will just take you five minutes to write to all the key legislators on this issue with our click and send letter.

 

Senate Hearing: Come and Testify or Send Written Comments


Next week the Senate will be holding hearings on electronic voting verification. We need you to testify. The most powerful is to attend the hearing and testify in person. A second alternative is to send in written testimony. Testimony will be before the Senate Committee on Education, Health and Environmental Affairs.
 

WHEN: At 1:00pm on Wednesday February 2

 
WHERE: Miller Senate Office Building, 2 West Wing
               11 Bladen St.
               Annapolis, MD 21401 - 1991

                (map of government buildings: http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/govbldg.html)


WHAT TO DO? Send 3 minutes of comments about why we need a paper trail (SB9) and email them to Linda Schade AND to Kathy Szeliga, Sen. Harris' legislative director. Kathy has generously offered to make the required copies AND sign you up to testify. Please get comments to Kathy and me by a 5pm deadline of Monday 1-31. (You CAN also just ask Kathy to sign you up if your testimony isn't ready and you can also send written testimony without coming to speak.)
 

Kathy Szeliga: [e-mail]  410-841-3706

Linda Schade: [e-mail] 301-270-6150

 
WHO: The rule here is: the more the merrier. Last year we got about 2 dozen people to testify.

 
WHAT TO SAY: Make all your favorite points about why it is obvious and common sense that we need a way to ensure our votes are accurately counted and that we need a way to do recounts as election law in Maryland and many other states requires. Below are some talking points:

 
Voter-Verified Paper Ballot Record                     Electronic Record


TrueVote Briefing Before Senate Subcommittee on Election Law

 
On Thursday, January 27, TrueVote briefed the House Subcommittee on Election Law concerning problems with voting in Maryland and the need for a voter verified ballot for audits and recounts. TrueVote co-founders, Kevin Zeese and Bob Ferraro testified along with the Chair of our Technical Committee, Jim Johnson emphasized the inability of electronic machines – even if they have an electronic verification system – to:

 
- Conduct real recounts or audits -- since there is no independent record -- all the records are created by the computer;

- Preserve the original intent of the voter -- since only a record verified by the voter and made directly by the voter can do so;

- Find lost votes -- if the computer loses votes, or electronic votes cannot be read having a paper record that preserves voter intent will allow recreation of the actual vote;

- Only a paper record allows for a transparent vote count that voters, candidates, political parties and the media can observe.
 

The concerns expressed by some of the committee members were:

 
- Paper presents security problems (our response, there are long-established protocols for securing paper, not only in voting but with many other important documents).

- Concern that adding paper means we are going backward (our response, we should be more concerned about getting ahead of the technology).

- Concern that we need to think bigger, e.g. allowing people to vote by mail (our response we agree there are other concerns with elections in Maryland but they are not on the agenda this year, perhaps in future years we will introduce an omnibus election reform bill that covers a wide range of issues).


Delegate Cardin, the lead sponsor of HB 80 -- what TrueVote is calling the decoy bill -- said he is not convinced that Diebold satisfactorily verifies the election, allows for meaningful audits and recounts. He said his bill would allow a paper record but did not mandate it -- leaving it up to the Board of Elections. Of course, he knows very well that the Board of Elections is adamantly opposed to a paper record so delegating this decision to the unaccountable Board of Elections means there will be no paper record. Cardin is being disingenuous in a lot of his comments and his constituents need to tell him so.


Thank you for your help,


Your Neighbors at TrueVote