OUR SUCCESS: This session ends with a HUGE victory for the following reasons: the existence of a problem is now established fact - which is a total turnaround from the denial of elected and appointed officials from summer of 2003 til the 2-24-05 House hearing. The tremendous energy of Maryland voters—often working together as TrueVoteMD—is to be credited for this success.

PROS AND CONS OF STUDY BILLS: The study bill is QUITE a mixed bag. It requires that anti-paper Lamone do the study, that the current system be kept and it authorizes her to 'seek assistance' if she wants it. Having spent the last two years trying to provide information to her, none of this inspires confidence. And we already know that the non-paper 'vote verification's options she will study are immature prototypes at best and in no way represent a solution for 2006. 2008 is what we would be looking at in the best case. (There is a lot more discussion needed on the pros and cons of different paper ballot solutions in the coming weeks). The pluses of the study bills are that they provide concrete opportunities for citizen observation of these verification technologies in at least four counties: Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Prince Georges, and Wicomico and wherever else Lamone wants. (Fascinating not in Baltimore, huh?) This provides more opportunity for educating the public, media and legislators on the issue (the need for elections with integrity, transparency, accuracy and paper ballots) and the fact that our democracy is not in good overall health either!

STRATEGIC NEXT STEPS: As we discussed at our last Truevote meeting, its become clear the last few months that these 'voting system upgrades' not only threaten our democracy, THEY ARE BANKRUPTING OUR LOCAL ELECTION BOARDS and straining county budgets. Getting local officials thinking about this, expiring warranties, etc will be one of our most potent approaches for next steps, especially with incoming electronic voter registration (which facilitates both legitimate and illegitimate purging of voter rolls). Over the summer we can start attending county board meetings and earning more allies among them.