Reporting Visible-Voting Machine Problems Initial findings will be announced at 2 p.m. press briefing in Takoma Park

November 2, 2004

In the first high-stakes test of Maryland's electronic voting machines on Election Day, nearly 600 TrueVoteMD pollwatchers will be on the ground monitoring visible voting-machine problems statewide. At 120 polling places in schools, churches, community centers, and fire halls across Maryland, TrueVoteMD pollwatchers will hand out fliers alerting voters to potential machine malfunctions, answer questions, and document computer-related incidents.

"The willingness of Maryland citizens to dedicate thousands of hours to protecting the integrity of the vote is a measure of concern about vulnerabilities with the state's 100% paperless touch-screen voting process," said Linda Schade, cofounder of TrueVoteMD. "Dozens of dedicated volunteers already have worked at the TrueVoteMD office around the clock collating tens of thousands of fliers, assembling signs, putting together pollwatcher packets and driving them to 14 counties across the state. From the minute polls open until they close, we'll be tracking visible machine problems that the State Board of Election has repeatedly denied ever occur."

On November 2, TrueVoteMD's phone bank in Takoma Park will be staffed with attorneys and knowledgeable TrueVoteMD veterans responding to calls from pollwatchers and voters. Computer professionals from the TrueVoteMD Tech Committee also will provide expert eyes on the process

"The information we gather will add an important set of facts to the state and national efforts for a voter-verified paper audit trail and to restore accuracy and transparency to our elections," said Robert Ferraro, TrueVoteMD cofounder. "We are determined not stand by and watch our democracy disappear as its most basic component, the vote, vanishes into the black box of proprietary digitized software."

Maryland has 1,803 polling places and 16,009 Diebold voting machines.

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TrueVoteMD is a statewide nonpartisan citizens' campaign to protect the integrity of voting in Maryland. Its active representatives include people with expertise in elections, computer security, and election reform. TrueVoteMD believes a democracy requires a transparent election process with meaningful recount and audit capacities and that since computers, by their nature, are inherently subject to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering, a voter-verified paper audit trail in Maryland is necessary to ensure transparent fair elections that can be accurately recorded and manually recounted.

TrueVoteMD is endorsed by Maryland Common Cause, Maryland Sierra Club, Maryland Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, and Baltimore Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.

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