DEMAND voter-verified paper ballots
most of us remember the election of 2000. as a result of faulty and mismanaged election systems, among other deficiencies and actions taken, george w was given florida's electoral votes and the presidency. and now look at the mess we're in.people demanded improvements, and now states are spending millions to buy new voting machines. so far, so good. but many key states, including florida, ohio and other battlegrounds, are installing black box voting machines -- computer voting terminals that don't produce a paper ballot, without which there's no way to know if our votes are counted correctly. not to mention the vulnerability of computers to hacking and sundry malfunctions. how often did yours freeze up this week?
you can indeed take action to protect your vote. you may join moveOn.org's call for voter-verified paper ballots here.
if cash dispensers and gas pumps can print receipts, then voting terminals can print paper ballots. every voter should be able to make sure that his vote will count as it was cast, by verifying a paper ballot that can be audited and re-counted. wherever electronic voting terminals are used, backup paper ballots must also be available, so no voter will be turned away from the polling place if the terminals malfunction.
moveOn members have been calling legislators and officials in many states to demand voter-verified paper ballots and along with other citizen's groups important victories have been won. for instance, california secretary of state kevin shelley decertified 14,000 black box voting terminals made by diebold inc, and said that this november, every california voter will be able to vote using a paper ballot.
every voter in every state should have the same right -- to verify that his or her vote was recorded correctly, with full confidence that it will be counted correctly. we shouldn't have to hand our elections over to manufacturers like diebold and blindly trust them with the results.
this is about the foundation of our democracy: the votes of americans. there's no reason we americans should have anything less than the most accessible, secure and reliable voting system possible.
