New Yok State: contact your state reps for Optical Scan Ballots,.

[Eric J in MN]

Optical scan ballots are better than electronic voting machines.

From
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/16/175214/852



Verified Voting: This is important stuff!
by mole333

Sat Apr 16th, 2005 at 14:52:14 PDT

The following is based on what has been going on in New York State, but the basics are applicable throughout the nation. I don't know the status of election "reform" (which usually means a switch to inaccurate, expensive touch-screen machines made by companies that favor the extremist right-wing Republicans) but here in NY State this is up before the State Legislature.
Anyone from NY State PLEASE write your state legislators. Over the next few weeks, we need to contact state legislators, especially focusing on Senators, to support PBOS. We want the Assembly to pass the new bill A6503 which calls for adoption of optical scan, and the Senate to introduce and pass a companion bill. http://www.wheresthepaper.org/findreps.html Find the NY representative

In the rest of the nation, please check out this site and write your media and state government as well: http://www.wheresthepaper.org/findreps.html


The bottom line is that state legislators are deciding on our voting systems without considering cost, accuracy or transparency. The main thing they are considering are sales pitches from touch-screen manufacturers, which are mainly companies owned by right wing Republicans. Here is a summary (again, it is focused on NY State, but applies around the nation):

On Wednesday, April 13th, Bo Lipari of the New Yorkers for Verified Voting had a press conference announcing county by county cost comparisons with the electronic touch screen, or DREs, aka Direct Recording Electronic, versus our preferred, paper ballot with precinct-based optical scanners.
http://nyvv.org/doc/AcquisitionCostDREvOptScanNYS.pdf

Total acquisition costs for New York State:


DRE system: $230,473,000

Optical Scan: $114,423,640

Cost Savings of Precinct Based Optical Scan Voting System: $116,049,360
New Yorkers for Verified Voting, NYVV, is releasing an analysis of the cost differences for New York State of two different types of voting equipment currently being considered for adoption to replace the state's lever machines. The estimate compares the county by county cost of touch screen voting machines (DREs) versus a system comprised of hand marked paper ballots and precinct based optical scanners, augmented by ballot marking devices to provide accessible, private and independent voting for voters with disabilities.

Touch screen and pushbutton style DREs have been found to be error prone, impossible to recount, and extraordinarily expensive. The NYVV cost estimate shows that the purchase cost of DREs exceeds the equivalent cost of precinct based optical scan systems by over 100 million dollars.

Optical scan systems have been used successfully in elections around the United States for over 20 years. Currently used in nearly 30% of all the precincts in the US, the states of Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia have decided to use optical scanners to comply with the Help America Vote Act, which mandates new voting machines for New York.

o Optical scan voting systems are a reliable, mature, auditable and cost effective technology." said Bo Lipari, Director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting. "It's a mistake for NY to spend over 200 million dollars on untested, unauditable, problem prone DREs, when a proven system like optical scanners can be adopted for a fraction of the purchase and maintenance costs." said Lipari.

o "Precinct-based optical scan voting machines with the addition of accessible ballot marking devices will satisfy Help America Vote Act requirements to replace lever voting machines in New York State," said Aimee Allaud, Elections Specialist, New York State League of Women Voters. "The League supports optical scan systems because they meet our criteria of secure, accurate, recountable and accessible," said Ms. Allaud.

o "The Sierra Club members who vote for environmentally minded political candidates want to make sure that every vote is counted. That's why the Sierra Club supports paper ballot based optical scan voting systems - they're the most transparent, reliable, practical way to ensure that every vote counts." Said Sarah Kogel-Smucker, Legislative Associate from the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. See their explanation of voting systems:
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/Sierra%20Atlantic/SierraAtlantic-2005-Spring.pdf

o The New York Times in an editorial said, "Albany should ignore lobbyists for high-priced voting machines and come out strongly for optical-scan machines".
http://www.wheresthepaper.org/NYT03_09VirtuesOfOpticalScanVoting.htm

For detailed information on Paper Ballot/Optical Scan voting systems please visit: www.nyvv.org, www.wheresthepaper.org

Touch screen machines have an estimated life of 3-5 years, and have a recent history of problems and breakdowns. Last Nov 2, there were tens of thousands of reports of them breaking down, losing votes, causing undervotes, or overvotes, that threw elections into question, assigning votes to the wrong candidate, and causing a loss of voter confidence in the election.

Summary: the touch screen machines are more expensive, less reliable and more prone to errors than Paper Ballot/Optical Scan voting. This is the message we need to send to our state legislators. We DON'T WANT our votes left up to unreliable touch-screen machines that will cost our states more money but are less reliable. We WANT Paper Ballots that are reliable, verifiable and cheaper. The League of Women Voters of New York State, the statewide Sierra Club, New Yorkers for Verified Voting, and many other organizations have endorsed a paper ballot/optical scan system. It is much less vulnerable to software error and fraud than touch-screen voting machines and is much less expensive.

Contact your state legislators and your local media and send them this message. This is VERY important folks! Our rights to a fair and accurate vote is at stake. Find your local media and state legislators here:

http://www.congress.org/