Article: Talking Points on Electronic Voting and What YOU can do

Talking Points from Mainstreet Moms

VoterAction, a non-profit organization, in partnership with Howard Rice, the prestigious San Francisco law firm, has brought a suit on behalf of voters in the state of California.

VoterAction is pursuing a legal strategy to ensure election integrity. To date, states involved in litigation include New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California.

The California Secretary of State and all Registrars of Voters using Diebold TSX voting equipment are being named in a citizens lawsuit against illegal software and inaccessible voting systems.

Like other electronic voting sytems, Diebold TSX Voting Systems contain illegal software, called "interpreted code." This code is insecure, and can be used to alter votes without leaving any trace. Using this kind of voting equipment is not tolerable in a democracy. It's called high-tech Jim Crow.

By law, blind voters must be able to verify their votes using the paper audit trail. The Diebold system does not allow that. Blind voters can only verify their vote using the electronic data. This means that the paper audit trail could be wrong, but the blind would be unable to know. A democracy is supposed to give all people equal access. This Diebold equipment was falsely marketed as being compliant with federal law.

Governor Ehrlich of Maryland discovered that maintenance costs for Diebold were 1000% more than estimated, after the purchases were made. So, they're not only insecure, they're expensive, too!

Paying for Diebold means less money for other county services.

The central vote tabulation system, where all votes are accumulated, uses insecure passwords. Although published years ago on the internet, these passwords were not changed for YEARS. Everyone should be asking, why?

A CIA report, a GAO report, a RABA report, and the Carter/Baker Report all cite security flaws in electronic voting systems as major problem for our democracy. This lawsuit challenges the legality of deploying these hackable voting systems.

Our country, which holds democracy as a virtue, has a long history of vote suppression, vote fraud, and stolen elections. We also have a long history of ignoring problems with our voting systems. This must change. If we stand for democracy in fact, we must have election integrity, and we must assert our right for a free and fair election, with votes counted as cast. A system that has integrity is worth fighting for.

How can YOU defend democracy? Join tens of thousands of other concerned voters. Make a difference by paying attention. Do the following:

Support the lawsuit by calling your local registrar and make sure that paper ballots will be available at the polls. Because if the printers break, as they have in testing, there will be no paper trail, nothing to recount or audit.

Support legislation for paper ballots so that elections can be audited, and recounted.

Be a pollworker: protect the voting rights of others to a free and fair election.

Get ready for recounts and participate in them: make sure all votes are counted as cast.

Audit the vote: there's no other way to verify that the vote count is accurate. Sign up to work at the Registrar of Voter's office in your county.