Grassroots activists are asking Congressional Representatives to demand amendments to HR811, or to cancel their sponsorship and vote against it. Most critical, HR811 must ban DREs. DRE proponents argue that jurisdictions have spent too much money on DREs to give them up--but paper ballot systems cost so much less than DREs, both to acquire and to use[8], that switching now would reimburse the cost of the DREs and the new paper ballot equipment within a few years! Switching now would be timely--in 2006, New Mexico switched to paper ballot systems in two months.
Meanwhile, traditional good government organizations have not lived up to their responsibility of carefully reading and understanding the implications of various parts of HR811, and some have actually published inaccurate summaries of HR811.[9] Grassroots activists urge Congressional Representatives to look at HR811 itself to find out what it does.[10]
Paper ballot/optical scanner/accessible ballot marking device voting systems offer a more secure, voter-friendly, cost-effective alternative to DREs. Advantages: [11]
1. Paper ballots enable voters to know that their votes have been recorded as intended because paper ballots are marked directly by each voter, whether by hand or by using an accessible ballot marking device that enables voters with disabilities to vote privately and independently.
2. With paper ballots, only the counting of votes is concealed, but tallies can easily be confirmed by recounting the voter-marked paper ballots.
3. Many accessibility advocates now say that voter-marked paper ballots are superior to DREs because voter-marked paper ballots offer greater accessibility and increased security.[12]
4. Paper ballot systems are simple and understandable, and enable the community to participate fully as voters, poll workers, and election observers.
[1] New Mexico undervote rate plummets after switch from DREs to paper ballots
http://www.votersunite.org/info/NM_UVbyBallotTypeandEthnicity.pdf
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