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Letter to Your Legislators |
Letter to Legislators
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The
Only Solution is an Optical Scan Solution
PDF version
Dear Legislator:
In our democracy, our vote decides
who will represent us, how we will govern ourselves, and what issues we
will tackle. Voting is one of the most fundamental components of
governance that people around the world are fighting for today with
their lives. Yet in the past few years, with the introduction of
paperless electronic voting machines, the entire electoral process in
Maryland has been compromised because there is absolutely no way of
knowing whether our votes are being accurately counted. Paperless
electronic voting provides no physical record of the vote and therefore
it is not possible to independently verify, through either an audit or
a recount, that the machine accurately recorded our intent.
I have followed the issue of
paperless voting closely. This issue is one of the most important you
can tackle in the coming legislative session. It is particularly
critical to address the issue now in the 2007 legislative session so
that we are prepared for the 2008 Presidential Primary in early 2008.
Precinct-Based
Optical Scanners: The Only Logical & Sensible Solution
Our current voting machines were not
designed with printers, so there is no easy, inexpensive way to add
printers to them. The newer model of our voting machines has proven to
be riddled with problems. The printers print on continuous roll of
thermal paper, and are prone to jamming, tearing, misprinting or being
incorrectly loaded. Federal regulations are likely to disallow the use
of this type of voting in the near future. In addition to its
unreliability, this option is by far the most expensive way to vote,
because the purchase and operating costs of this system would be
significantly higher than replacing our current system with
precinct-based optical scanners.
Most computer experts and election
reform advocates recommend paper ballots marked by the voter, either by
hand or with the aid of a ballot-marking device for disabled voters,
and then counted by optical scanners in each polling place. The
original ballot is retained for audits and recounts. Upcoming changes
in federal regulations are not likely to affect this type of voting
equipment. The purchase and operating costs are far lower for a
precinct-based optical scan voting system because only one
optical-scanner and one ballot-marking device for voters with
disabilities are needed in each precinct, as compared to about ten
touch-screen machines per precinct. Last March, 56% of Maryland voters
surveyed by Gonzales Research favored switching to an optical scan
voting system, while only 41% preferred voting on touch-screen machines.
The More
Fiscally
Responsible Solution
The burden of paying for the
maintenance, repair, technical support, programming, storage, and other
related costs of our current voting machines will fall on the shoulders
of our county governments this upcoming year. However, these related
costs will be much lower if each county uses the op-scan machines,
which in turn will give them more money to pay for education, public
safety, hospitals, transportation, libraries, parks, and other basic
necessities. Replacing our current machines with this much more
reliable voting system would pay for itself in less than five years in
annual operating cost savings alone.
Sometimes the most high-tech solution
is not necessarily the best solution. Will you join us in working for a
better solution for MD's voting system that will ensure more reliable
election results while also allowing our counties to spend our tax
dollars more wisely on the urgent needs that impact our daily lives?
Please support the call for a change to a paper audit trail voting
system by switching to a Precinct-based
Optical Scan System so that we
can have an accurate and verifiable system in place before the 2008
Presidential Election.
Sincerely,
[name]
[address]
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