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JOIN US for a TrueVoteMD Lobby Day
Come to a one-hour TrueVote briefing where you'll get up to speed on the bill - and get a packet of talking points for you and information flyers for your delegate.

        WHEN: Wednesday February 1st 2006


TrueVote Briefing #1: 11am to noon

TrueVote Briefing #2: 1pm to 2pm


WHERE:  Annapolis, Nealle Conference Room, 2nd floor of James Senate building Map & Parking

ACTION STEP:  Set up a meeting with your Delegate by calling their office or sending us a note asking us to set up a meeting.  Try to get meetings at noon or 3pm, just after the TrueVote briefing.

To find out who your legislator is just CLICK HERE and type in your address. 

To find your Delegate's phone number click here.

The bill language is on the General Assembly websiteTalking Points for Constituent Meetings
First thing you should do in your meeting with your legislator is thank them for giving you time to talk with them. You should start by discussing why this issue matters to you as a voter and why it should matter to them as an elected official. 

Some sample reasons that you can use are. 

The Diebold machines are hackable - as recently as last month Diebold machines were hacked in Leon County, Florida causing them to be 'de-certified' or taken out of use in California and Pennsylvania.
The Diebold machines are unreliable.  They have defective parts, (motherboards, batteries, touch screens) and are poorly designed (amplify rather than minimize error).
Voting is the most valuable right in any democracy and we need to trust that the vote is being properly protected. 
As a Delegate they should feel this is important issue for them.  If they had a close election, and the accuracy or honesty of the vote was called into question, the current system cannot do real recounts.

Give one or two examples of when paperless voting has been a problem to your legislator from below. 

The VA Attorney General Race:  The 2005 election for the Virginia Attorney General ended up being incredibly close, with the leader ahead by less then 200 votes.  A request was made by the opponent for a recount to be done.  The problem occurred when the Virginia Courts ruled that 'a recount was not possible on the Touch Screen paperless voting machines used in counties in Northern V.A due to the lack of paper ballots. 

Carteret Co:  2004 election, Carteret County, NC, 4,400 votes were lost by Touch Screen Paperless voting machines due to computer errors.  The outcome of one race was left in doubt, but a new election would have cost $3.5 million.

Baltimore County: 2004, there was a problem where the number of people who went to the polling place differed from the number of ballots recorded, a total difference of 6,500 people.  To this day no explanation has been given for this discrepancy.

Montgomery County & Maryland:  According to the Montgomery Co. 'Lessons Learned' report (December 2004), 7% of the machines were reported to have failed in the 2004 election, and an additional 5% had 'suspiciously low' vote totals.  IN March and November 2004, numerous candidates were reported missing from the electronic ballots (from Senator Mikulski to state delegates, to school board candidates), screens malfunctioned, machines crashed, memory cards with vote totals went blank and more.

California Tests:  A recent test of Diebold’s newest voting machines (TSX) showed a crash rate of 20%.  These are the improved version of our current machines.

The Florida Hack: 
In December a security expert found dangerous software on the memory cards used by Diebold, this code is prohibited in federal standards.  This computer code allowed him to alter the results of a mock election.  As a result of this hack states like Pennsylvania are forcing Diebold to go back through certification.

Explain the importance of HB 244:  This bill would require a voter verified paper ballot for every voter.  It would allow voters to make sure that their vote is recorded correctly on a tangible material.  This way if data becomes corrupted then we will still have an accurate record of the vote.  This paper ballot would be used to audit 5% of the polling places after the election in order to make sure there was no malicious code.  With a paper ballot we would also be able to have a verified source document that could be used in a recount. 

You should urge your delegate to try and get this bill passed quickly to assure that it will have enough time for implementation by the 2006 election.

Finally you should ask your delegate if you can count on their support for this bill and if they would consider adding their name onto the bill as a co-sponsor.
 
If they should show concern about the issue of cost the best response you can give is. 
“What can be more valuable to our democracy then having a election system with trust, honesty and integrity?”
Promise you will call the Governor's office to request funding for the bill (or send an email from the TrueVote website).
We also have a large budget surplus this year.

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