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FIVE YEAR CAMPAIGN TO END PAPERLESS VOTING SUCEEDS |
General Assembly Funds Transition to Paper Ballots
TrueVote Will Focus on Implementation and National Legislation
On March 5, the Maryland budget passed and it included funding for the transition to paper-based voting. This culminates five years of effort by thousands of Maryland citizens who care about their democracy. TrueVoteMD thanks all of you for your support and efforts. TrueVoteMD.org, the largest electoral integrity organization in Maryland, applauded the General Assembly for providing funding for transition toward a paper-based voting system with optical scan machines counting the vote.
Maryland will transition to a less expensive, more reliable and more transparent voting system in 2010. Maryland joins a national trend to paper-based voting and ending the experiment of paperless, electronic voting.
"TrueVoteMd.org, a citizen based effort for democracy, has succeeded in a five year campaign to end paperless voting in Maryland. This is a tremendous victory for Maryland voters and shows that citizens, working together, can make a difference," said Kevin Zeese, executive director of TrueVoteMD.org. "This transition will provide voters with a voting system that can be trusted. Paper-based voting means there will be a voter verified paper ballot that can be recounted. This will also allow audits of the optical scan count to make sure the machines worked properly. In addition, the voting system will be less expensive than the current paperless Diebold system. Maryland voters will have a more trustworthy voting system and a less expensive one."
Linda Schade, the first executive director of TrueVoteMD, who now serves on their Board of Directors, said "When we began TrueVoteMd.org, five years ago, we found Democrats, Republicans, third party and independent voters all agreed that Maryland needed a voting system that could be trusted. Thousands of Marylanders, from every county, worked together to push the Maryland legislature to end paperless voting. This is a victory for the people of Maryland."
Last year the legislature passed a bill, which Governor O'Malley signed, that required a transition to a paper-based optical scan system. The legislation required the bill to be funded this year or it would be removed from the books. TrueVoteMD recognized the challenge of getting funded in this difficult budget year, but its grass roots base responded. O'Malley received hundreds of telephone calls from Maryland voters before putting forward his budget and the legislature has received consistent emails and phone calls urging them to fund the bill.
Maryland joins a national trend to paper-based voting and ending the experiment of paperless, electronic voting.
Collegues from other election reform groups joined in. The organizations provided the legislature with financial analysis that showed paper-based voting with optical scan was less expensive than just the upkeep of the Diebold machines. The legislature got the message and now is on the verge of a historic decision that will be one more nail in the coffin of paperless voting.
"The next step for TrueVoteMD is to make sure the new system if properly implemented. Linda Lamone, the administrator of the Board of Elections, still opposes the transition. So we are concerned that the fox is setting up the henhouse. Our second focus will be national. TrueVote will be working to ensure a voting system that all Americans can trust. Our first focus will be to convince the Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, to allow a floor vote on the Holt Bill which was just approved by the committee," said Zeese.
The success of TrueVoteMD is a model of what it takes for citizens to change the direction of government. What were the keys to success?
- Persistence: Citizens did not give up when they were rebuffed by the legislature five years ago. Instead they got more vocal and more organized.
- Cross Partisanship: TrueVoteMD was made up of Democrats, Republicans, third party and independent voters. TrueVoteMD worked with both parties in the legislature making it impossible for the dominant Democratic Party to ignore us.
- Public Attention to those Blocking Reform: Early on TrueVoteMD ran advertisements naming the committee members who blocked progress. A door-to-door campaign was conducted in the district of one committee chair who changed from being an opponent to being an ardent supporter after the effort.
- Grassroots Action: Citizens from every county in Maryland joined TrueVoteMD and let their representatives know this was a priority issue for them. TrueVoteMD worked with allied organizations from environmentalists to democracy advocates.
- Litigation: Linda Schade, the co-founder of TrueVoteMD sued Linda Lamone, the administrator of the Board of Elections, forcing the government to look at the evidence and holding the court oversight over the legislature. This litigation continues and will be used to push for proper implementation.
"Perhaps most important to the success of TrueVoteMD was we were right. The facts were on our side whether it was the problems with the reliability and security of paperless voting or the cost of paper-based voting," said Zeese.
"TrueVoteMD advocated a common sense solution, that was cost effective and widely supported among the voters. It was an obvious solution that should have been adopted in our first year and in place now. The surprise is how difficult it was to get the Democratic leadership to face the facts -- they had bought an expensive, flawed and unreliable voting system. -- acknowledging that was difficult."
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