Invisible Ballots
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3. Send a Letter to Maryland Senate Education, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee Members

Below is a letter that you can send to the Senate Education, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee.

You can send the letter “as is,” but please do add a few lines about yourself, your feelings and any additional views. You can also change the subject if you would like. When you are finished, click on the Send button.

To:

Senate Education, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee

Subject:

Dear Elected Officials,

Type your (optional) personal message here.

If you were facing a close race in 2006, how would you feel knowing that 12% of your district's voting machines had failed, as they did in Montgomery County in 2004? The public is still waiting for the actual performance information for the rest of Maryland's counties, but similar numbers are expected. We need to make our elections "verifiable," so voters and candidates can have confidence in results.

The end of the 2005 legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly is rapidly approaching. Thus, it is with great urgency that I ask you to give a favorable report to SB 9 and to work diligently to secure its passage in the House of Delegates.

In recent weeks, the failure of the Diebold system, as presently constituted, has become public knowledge. According to a report of the Montgomery County Election Board, dated December 13, 2004, there were significant problems with Diebold machines in the November 2004 election. Seven per cent of units (189) failed to boot up or had screen freezes, which made election judges unable to confirm that the vote was in fact counted. In addition, 122 units (5%) were suspect because they had few votes captured compared to other voting units in the polling place. An election where 12% of voting machine results are questionable is unacceptable by any standard, including the Federal Election Commission.

Montgomery County Elections Board member Sam Statland has stated that local boards around the state are gravely concerned about the Diebold system's performance and are pressuring the State Board of Elections (SBE) for answers. In its January meeting, the SBE discussed "Diebold performance problems" and confirmed that "once the Montgomery County [analysis was] finished they would start the same process in the other counties, beginning with Baltimore County." In the March SBE meeting, the Diebold performance problems were discussed in closed session.

I ask that you vote to restore a measure of confidence to our citizens that the votes they cast are the ones they intended, that they are recorded accurately, and that they can be recounted authentically. This confidence cannot be restored without the voter-verified paper trail mandated by SB 9. SB 9 allows for either a paper trail add-on OR for a precinct-based optical scan system, which is significantly more cost effective than any DRE (electronic voting) system.

No other bill will do the job. SB 63 is unacceptable because it delegates authority back to the SBE to make changes in our electoral process, and this Board’s support of unverifiable elections and resistance to reform has already put our democracy at serious risk. None of the non-paper solutions recently presented to the legislature have been adequately vetted to be considered for use any time soon--nor is it clear that they work--and all are VERY costly to the taxpayer.

As a voter I am wondering, "Do our elected officials care enough about democracy in Maryland to provide a better system for our next election?" I care enough that I will support for re-election only those legislators who vote for SB 9, currently the only bills which makes a serious effort to restore democracy to our state.

Thank you.

From:


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Take Action Today to Make Sure Your Vote Counts!

1.	Find Your State Legislators
2.	Send a Letter to the House Ways & Means Committee
3.	Send a Letter to the Senate Education, Health & Environmental Affairs Committee
4.	Tell Others
5.	Send a Letter to the Editor
6.	Support Federal Election Law Reform
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Breaking News

• Sept. 23, 2004 'A Massive Experiment' in Voting in The Washington Post
• Sept. 20, 2004 The Magic Voting Touch, an Editorial in The Washington Post
• Aug. 27, 2004 After Your Vote Vanishes, an Editorial in The Washington Post
• Aug. 26, 2004 Voting machine safeguards in question in The Baltimore Sun
• Aug. 25, 2004 Md. Machines Seek Vote of Confidence in The Washington Post
• How They Could Steal The Election This Time: The Nation Magazine's exhaustive examination of the potential problems with DRE voting systems, including Diebold in Maryland
• The Washington Post on TrueVote MD!
• Blackwell Halts Deployment of Diebold Voting Machines for 2004
• Gov. Ehrlich appoints new member to election board
• E-voting regulators often join other side when leaving office
• Women Voters Drop Paperless Vote Support
• The Disability Lobby and Voting New York Times editorial
•Scans of the Hack the Vote article from the April issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
•Think You Voted in Maryland? Think Again
• Takoma Park supports legislation to require modifications to new voting machines purchased by the State of Maryland to create a verifiable paper trail
• Diebold "basically had no interest in putting actual security in this system," said Paul Franceus, one of the consultants. "It's not like they did it wrong. It's like they didn't bother."
• MD Senate report finds security risks, recommends paper
• Diebold gives paper trail for FREE to San Diego County!!

More news.