July 12, 2004

WHO: Ben Cohen, TrueMajority Bi-partisan group of legislators Possible surprise quest WHAT: Press conference / rally on voter-verified paper ballots for the November election Petitions to be delivered to Governor's office WHEN: Tuesday, July 13, 12 noon. WHERE: Annapolis, Lawyers Mall at intersection of College Avenue and Bladen St. (near the State House zip 21401)

Maryland intends to use Diebold voting machines statewide in this November's election. These machines have proven to have serious flaws, resulting in the loss of citizens' votes. A national coalition of groups including Common Cause, MoveOn, TrueMajority, Democracy for America, Working Assets, VerifiedVoting.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and National Committee for Voting Integrity, is encouraging election officials to use their authority to require computerized voting machines to produce paper records, which can be verified by voters and kept for audits and dispute resolution. 

Linda Schade, representing TrueVoteMD.org's 2000 members, Robin Pickering representing Democracy for America, and Nancy Wallace of MD VerifiedVoting.org will deliver thousands of petitions from citizens to Governor' Ehrlich's office, calling for the Board of Elections to use its authority to ensure the integrity of Maryland's elections by requiring computer voting machines to produce voter-verified paper ballots. With the petitions will be a letter to Governor Ehrlich calling for Linda Lamone's resignation and her replacement with an adminstrator committed to elecotin integrity and a voter-verified paper ballot audit trail.

Similar events are happening simultaneously in 18 states across the country. For information on all the rallies nationwide, please see the nationwide "Computer Ate My Vote" Day of Action web portal at http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/

Petitioners will be joined by Ben Cohen of TrueMajority whose organization launced the Computer Ate My Vote campaign which has been working nationally to encourage election administrators to implement voter-verified paper audit trails in time for November (see truemajority.org).

TrueVote MD
www.TrueVoteMD.org · 7711 Garland Ave., Takoma Park, MD 20912 ·
301-270-6150