January 15, 2007 at 19:52:42

Join Us in Demanding Legislation Requiring Paper Ballots

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Please join more than 40 non-partisan Election Integrity organizations who
have signed the following letter demanding that Congress enact legislation
requiring a paper ballot for every vote cast. Problems throughout the 2006
primary and general elections have made it clear that only a paper ballot
-- not a "paper trail", nor a "paper record" -- will begin to help
re-establish confidence in our tattered electoral system.
We've made it simple for you to do. Just fill out the form via...

http://www.VelvetRevolution.us/Campaigns/PaperBallots

(Copy and paste into your browser's address window)

...to let your Congress Members know that Election Reform begins with a
paper ballot. It's time for American Citizens to rise up and take our
democracy back.

This is an important first step as the new Congress convenes and considers
new Election Reform legislation.

PETITION:

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December 13, 2006

To All Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:

We, the undersigned election integrity organizations, strongly urge you,
as a first order of business in the 110th Congress, to enact new federal
legislation to protect the integrity of our elections. While there are
many areas of concern for any such legislation, none is more essential to
the accuracy of our elections and the confidence among our electorate than
for there to be a paper ballot for every vote cast. Not a paper "trail" or
a paper "record," but a paper ballot.

In light of lessons learned during the 2006 primary and general elections
-- with myriad contests resulting in uncertainty and thousands of voters
in state after state turned away from the polls unable to cast a vote on
DRE systems which failed throughout the day -- we now hold that a paper
ballot, whether counted by optical-scan system or hand, is the minimum
requirement for any Election Reform legislation in which voters may have
confidence. Such a requirement is needed to help ensure Americans that
every legally registered voter can vote, that every vote is recorded
precisely as the voter intends, and that every vote is counted and, if
necessary, re-counted accurately.

This year's elections have made crystal clear that electronic voting
machines -- both those without paper ballots, such as Direct Recording
Electronic (DRE) touch-screen systems, and even those with so-called
"Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails" -- caused massive disruptions,
undermined the results of crucial elections, and forced thousands of
voters to leave the polls without being able to exercise their franchise.

Paper trails and paper records are not sufficient to safeguard elections
and restore confidence among the electorate. Unless there is a paper
ballot for every vote cast, three fundamental principles of democratic
elections are violated:

1) Observable tallies. It is impossible for citizens to observe the
counting of electronic ballots and audit the results.

2) Equal access. Requiring voters to cast votes on computers discriminates
against those who are not familiar with the technology.

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VelvetRevolution.us ("VR") is a network of more than 120 progressive organizations reaching millions of people demanding progressive change through our VR Media, Electoral Reform, Conflict Resolution and Youth Revolution Campaigns. Indeed, Americans (more...)

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