Help us help you! If you show up, we win, our children win . . . our
democracy wins!
NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT VERIFICATION
::::::::
Arizona Citizens for Election Reform (ACER)
P.O. Box, 17136 Phoenix, AZ 85011 · www.aceronline.org ·
[email protected]
“No election certification without verification.”
****************** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *******************
February 13, 2006
Call for Citizen Support of SB 1557
Please attend the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, February 13, 2006. Currently it is scheduled for 1:30 in Senate Hearing Room 1, in the Senate Building at the State Capitol. The Election Reform bill SB1557 that calls for a 5% hand count verification of the electronic vote is on the agenda but Senator John Huppenthal has stated he will not hear it unless it is changed. ACER learned that negotiations were being conducted with representatives from the Secretary of State’s office, Senator Karen Johnson and Senator Huppenthal. Please be AWARE they can CHANGE the agenda at any time, possibly even that day. This is the last hearing date for new senate bills to be heard. Just because it is on the agenda, does not mean it will be heard. Also, this hearing could take several hours; they may not get to this bill until after 5:00 pm or later.
With increasing concern about the security of our voting machines and their effectiveness, Arizona citizens demand that our right to vote be secured and results verified. Problems with electronic voting systems have engendered a loss of public confidence in elections and prompted lawsuits which have been costly both to candidates and to tax payers. Computer security is very difficult to achieve when electronic voting machines are used and requires an independent back-up of the votes.
The proposed legislation SB1557 and HB2859:
* Requires electronic voting systems to produce a paper ballot or receipt that is preserved;
* Requires a manual verification of vote tabulations in a randomly selected set of precincts (5%) that would be expanded to a full recount of the county if sufficient errors are found;
* Permits a vote for "no vote" to make it clear that an "undervote" reflects the voter's intent;
* Keeps precinct populations small enough to avoid long lines;
* Requires open source code of the electronic voting systems; and
* Requires election system testing by independent qualified experts.
The full text of the bills can be viewed in PDF or html format on www.azleg.gov by searching by the bill number. You can also request to speak or make comments from that site or from the kiosks at the Arizona Senate Building.
This is a partial list of states that have statutes for hand count audits and the percentage of ballots cast in each: Illinois 5%, West Virginia 5%, Kentucky 3-5%, New York 3%, Washington 4%, Hawaii10%, California 1%, Minnesota 2%, Maine 2%, Colorado 1%, Alaska 5%, Minnesota 2%, and Connecticut 2 machines per assembly district. With the introduction of Direct Recording Electronic machines, Arizona doesn't currently meet the HAVA requirements for votes to have a permanent paper record that can be manually counted.
Arizona Citizens for Election Reform is a nonpartisan organization supporting efforts to ensure every vote is counted accurately and encouraging transparency in the elections process. We do not support or oppose candidates for public office.
___________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN US MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, SENATE HEARING RM. 1 AT 1:00 PM.
WITHOUT OUR VOICE "THEY" CAN CONTINUE TO STEAL OUR VOTES AND DESTROY OUR
DEMOCRACY.
What follows below is what you want and need to know about why SB1557 and HB2859 are so important. Unless we demonstrate our active, visible, tangible, and loud support, those in power will let these bills die in committee and, hence, allow our democracy to slip silently away into the abyss of corruption, cronyism, and cowardice.
Help us help you! If you show up, we win, our children win . . . our
democracy wins!
NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT VERIFICATION
Michael Shelby
Arizona Citizens for Election Reform
Secretary LD 14
Sevilla PC
Subject: YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SAVE AZ ELECTION REFORM BILL
Hi Folks,
This is the most important email I have ever sent to you. This weekend is our last chance. If we don't succeed, you can kiss your
fair vote count goodbye.
THE NEXT ELECTION WILL BE STOLEN,
IF YOU DON'T HELP STOP THEM !!!
WE WILL LOSE OUR DEMOCRACY IN AZ!!!
This is your last chance to save the
***Election Reform Bill***!
*********SB 1557***********
Here is how to help.
Even if you have written an email before,
please write and call again!
Please forward this email to everyone you know!
We need a flood of letters emailed or faxed and
phone calls made to get SB 1557 heard so a fair
election will be held in November 2006.
The only way we can save any future FAIR election is to write
letters and make phone calls to Senator Huppenthal who is obstructing the bill and won't allow it to be heard in "his" Senate Judiciary Committee.
The last Senate Judiciary Committee hearing date is next
Monday, February 13 at 1:30 PM. If it is not heard then,
the bill is DEAD!
********WE ARE COUNTING ON YOU!**********
Senator Huppenthal wants to gut the bill of any measures
that the Secretary of State, Jan Brewer (R) who was chair
of the Republican Party's Committee to Elect George Bush
does not want. We can't allow them to gut the bill or allow
it to die in "his" Judiciary Committee!!
In some states, such as Ohio, there is almost no hope
of a fair election because the system is so corrupt.
When the people tried to get election laws passed by voting,
the Republicans who are in power just changed the vote counts
to show the voters did not want the measures that would
have stopped the STOLEN elections. Remember the touch
screen voting machines by Diebold that are easily hacked into?
THESE ARE THE SAME MACHINES THAT ARIZONA'S
JAN BREWER, SECRETARY OF STATE, ORDERED ON
12/31/05 TO BE INSTALLED IN EVERY PRECINCT IN
ARIZONA!!!
Call Senator Huppenthal to hear SB1557 at 602-926-5261
inundate him with your phone calls ! Maybe he has a
recorder so try this weekend, too.
Urge him to schedule SB 1557 to be heard on the February
13th agenda which is the last opportunity for it to be heard.
602-926-5261 phone
...............AND.................
Write emails or fax Senator Huppenthal,
Chair of the Judiciary Committee at:
[email protected]or 602-417-3157 fax
***************WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW*******************
Obstructing the hearing of SB1557 in the Judiciary Committee is a partisan move. This is a civic issue! Playing politics and killing this bill is not an option! Tell Senator Huppenthal he must allow the bill to be heard on Feb.13th.
**************************NOW*************************
On Monday 2/13 at 1:30 PM we are having a demonstration
at the Legislature. Stand up and be counted! Maybe you and
your folks can get away and join us? Arizona will become another
Ohio if we don't all pull together and fight for our rights!
Please send me a copy of whatever you email or fax and tell me
about the phone calls you make! Thank you for everything you
have time to do!
Below you will find more information from an excellent source on exactly what the problem is.
Peace,
Joy Marx-Mendoza
602-870-4714 2 - 10 PM
Founder of the Chrysalis domestic violence shelter
www.azcac.org The Children's Advocacy Center
Democratic Precinct Committeewoman in Legislative District 10
member of the Phoenix Progressive Democrats of America
and member of the "League of Pissed Off Voters"
"It is difficult to get people to understand something when their
salary depends upon their not understanding it." Utpon Sinclair
"One-party government is a conspiracy in disguise" Bill Moyers
P.S. ACLU has come on board to help us!
(We also need to find people who live in Legislative District 20 to put the pressure on Senator Huppenthal. There was an attempt to recall him. We are researching that.)
BELOW IS SANDRA SPANGLER'S GREAT LETTER TO THE SENATOR WHO IS
BLOCKING THIS LEGISLATION FROM BEING HEARD. SANDRA SPANGLER,
[email protected] is Co-founder of AUDIT AZ.
Arizonans United for Democracy Integrity and Transparency in Elections. It is a non-partisan election reform organization started in Tucson.
To:
[email protected]
Dear Senator Huppenthal:
Senate Bill 1557 has wide bipartisan support. Carefully crafted election integrity reforms have been included in the bill to assure voters not only in your district who have been harmed by the contentious and indecisive results of a Republican primary election, but all Arizona voters that their votes will be counted accurately. I am concerned that Arizonas current standards that make recounts nearly impossible, and impose strict prohibitions against hand recounts combined with error-prone electronic voting systems, are designed to make it easy to report inaccurate or fraudulent election results.
I ask you as the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee to please reconsider your opposition to giving this bill a hearing. There is no good reason not to hold hearings so that these necessary reforms can be openly discussed.
Its not about right or left. Its about right and wrong. The more you harden your opposition, the better reason voters will have to question why you are on the wrong side of what is a civic, not a partisan issue. Arizona voters are no longer willing to take on faith election results that cannot be verified when they know that computerized voting machine memory cards have
hidden prohibited interpreted code that gives instructions to the machine print out and report false totals that in some cases have been greater than the number of registered voters. The Washington Post reported the results of a test in Leon County, Florida that showed that vote totals reported by an optical scan machine, were altered by a test hack that flipped totals in the opposite direction in a mock election. True vote totals could only be verified by a hand count of the paper ballots.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/ar2006012101051_pf.html
In the face of this evidence and tests which led to decertification of
Diebold TSx machines in California and other states, how can you not be interested in shielding Arizonas voters? The right to vote and have that vote count as cast is at the bedrock of the American system of republican government. And you must stand accountable for doing everything you can to protect our sacred trust, the secret ballot, by which we the people judge our elected representatives.
Our election system, once owned and operated by the people is now controlled and managed by a trio of elite vendors who have ingratiated themselves with our local election officials who look upon them as family and depend upon them for advice and service. When election results are in doubt, these officials are put on the defensive, and have no recourse, but to ask us to trust that they are doing their jobs well and reporting the accurate vote count. SB 1557 establishes a system of verification. Verification not trust
should be the gold standard for American democratic elections. Without a system of verification, everyone loses. People question the motives, competence and professionalism of elected officials and election administrators that allow chaos and contention, instead of accuracy, performance, integrity and transparency. With secret administration, back-room deals, and no public verification, we no longer have free elections.
This bill includes features by which a consensus of experts agree fair
elections can be assured. It provides proven standards and by which
elections can be audited through mandatory random manual recount of 5% of the precincts to check election results, and makes any hand count the official count, a measure that is necessary to identify voting machine malfunctions or possible tampering. In the event of a close election, the bill allows a candidate to initiate a manual recount when the margin between the top two candidates is less than 5% of their combined vote total.
It also requires open source software , and additional election system testing by independent qualified experts not associated with a vendor.
By blocking or trying to kill this bill, you evade the truth and stand in
favor of questionable elections and against the will of the people and a majority of your colleagues in the Arizona Senate.
Please let the hearing go forward and let the people speak.
Respectfully,
Sandra Spangler
Co-founder
AUDIT AZ
Arizonans United for Democracy Integrity and Transparency in Elections
A non-partisan election reform organization
-----------------
Please email or fax and call
Senator Huppenthal,
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee
and urge him to schedule SB 1557 to be
heard on the February 13th agenda.
602-926-5261 phone
602-417-3157 fax
email:
[email protected]
If you have the time, please call or fax the other
members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
since they seem to be uncommitted and urge
them to support SB 1557:
Marilyn Jarrett (R), District 19
602-926-5288 phone
602-417-3161 fax
email:
[email protected]
Dean Martin (R), District 6
602-926-5284 phone
602-417-3163 fax
email:
[email protected]
Ron Gould (R), District 3
602-926-4138 phone
602-417-3165 fax
email:
[email protected]
MORE FROM SANDRA SPANGLER ABOUT WHAT IS BEING DONE:
We met in Phoenix on Tuesday with the legal team from California, New Mexico and Washington to see what we can do about blocking these DRE voting machines.
It looks promising. They will work with a team of lawyers from a large Phoenix firm.
But we need to ***raise money***. They have contacts and will let us know what we can do to help. Contributions will be tax deductible.
--------------------------
Here's what Sandra Spangler wrote to the others on the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Dear Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
I am concerned that Arizonas election system is in need of reform.
Breaking news about the unreliability of electronic voting machines and Arizona laws that prohibit hand counts that make it difficult and in most cases impossible to order recounts requires the immediate attention of the Arizona legislature. I endorse Senator Karen Johnsons bipartisan bill SB 1557 that includes carefully thought out provisions to regain voter confidence in the fairness of elections in this state. I urge you as a member of the Judiciary Committee to remind Chairman Senator Huppenthal
why opposition to this bill is untenable and politically unwise since he represents LD 20 which is currently at the center of the disputed 2004 primary election. The perception is that Senator Huppenthal has partisan reasons for opposing this bill. I have written the Senator why he is on the wrong side of what is a civic issue and must not block or threaten to kill this bill.
Sincerely,
Sandra Spangler
----------------
We need people who live in LD 20 to put the pressure on
Senator Huppenthal !!! There was an attempt to recall
Huppenthal. We are researching that.
Sandra Spangler
--------------
LETTER TO THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
FROM CAROLYN MAXON, CO-AUTHOR OF HOUSE
BILL HB 2859, ELECTION REFORM:
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Maxon
To:
[email protected] (Chair of the House Judiciary Committee)
Cc:
[email protected] ;
[email protected] ;
[email protected] ;
[email protected] ;
[email protected] ;
[email protected] ;
[email protected] ;
[email protected](Members of the House Judiciary Committee)
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 5:19 PM
Subject: HB 2859 ELECTION REFORM
Dear Members of the House Judiciary Committee:
A source named the State of Arizona as the third worst state for election irregularities. That's pretty bad since there were so many irregularities in Ohio and Florida and with their touch-screen machines.
We have plenty of examples of an original count being overturned in AZ. There are 7 ways the tabulation at election central can be frauded and the Eagle machine in the precincts have a two way modem and therefore can be hacked into and wiretapped.
The state of Arizona should be ashamed that in 2004 some people waited in line 6 hours to vote and thousands dropped out because they couldn't wait until midnight. We have disenfranchised no telling how many voters!
Sen. Huppenthal is resisting the hearing of SB1557. This is the exact same bill as HB2859. Please protect our most basic right and support HB 2859 in House Judiciary committee.
California, Colorado, New Hampshire and other states have hand recount audits. A hand count audit is the only way to discover fraud or machine malfunction.
Remember, a programmer by the name of Clint Curtis, testified in a
congressional hearing that he was hired by Candidate Feeney from Florida to fix the software so that he would come out with 51% win. Rep. Feeney is still in Congress to this day!
There is nothing more important than our right to a fair vote.
This is a totally non-partisan issue. Please support HB 2859!
Sincerely,
Carolyn Maxon,
co-author of Senate Bill SB1557 and House Bill HB 2859
Call me at 480-483-8267 if you have any questions. Carol.
SB1557 is sponsored by Senator Karen Johnson (R).
HB 2859 is co-sponsored by House Representative Eddie Farnsworth (R)
House Representative Ted Downing (D) and many others (see below).
-----------------------
If you have time, please call the other
members of the House Judiciary Committee
that seem to be uncommitted and ask
them to support HB 2859:
Ray Barnes (R) Republican, District 7
602-926-5503 phone
602-417-3107 fax
email:
[email protected]
Nancy K. Barto (R), District 7
Vice-Chairman
602-926-5766 phone
602-417-3011
email:
[email protected]
Steve Gallardo (D) Democrat, District 13
602-926-3392 phone
602-417-3013 fax
email:
[email protected]
Jonathan Paton (R), District 30
602-926-3235 phone
602-417-3030 fax
email:
[email protected]
Doug Quelland (R), District 10
602-926-4639 phone
602-417-3110 fax
email:
[email protected]
Steven B. Yarbrough (R), District 21
602-926-5863 phone
602-417-3121 fax
email:
[email protected]
Thank you for whatever you had time to do!
Joy
----------------------------------------------------------
SB 1557 and HB 2859 - Election Reform
Bipartisan Co-Sponsors of the SB 1557 & HB 2859 Election Reform:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
Summary
Manual Count for the Precincts
1. A manual count of ballots shall take place at 5 percent of the
precinct polls, selected at random by a non-computerized lottery method after the polls have closed.
2. The random selection will take place at the central counting center, and the election department shall immediately notify the precincts selected for the manual count.
3. Additional compensation for this duty shall be determined by the County board of Supervisors.
4. The hand count shall include tallies of all federal, state, and
legislative offices, and the offices of County Attorney and County Sheriff, and all propositions appearing on the ballot.
5. The hand count must match the numbers recorded on the tape totalsprinted by the optical scanner. If discrepancies appear in 10 percent or more of the audited precincts, a total hand recount of the entire county would be triggered. The manual count shall be the official tally. A third copy of the precinct ballot report shall be publicly posted at the poll.
Manual Count for Early Mail-In Ballots
6. A manual count of early mail-in ballots shall take place at the
central counting center. A special tally board shall perform a hand count of the 5 percent of randomly selected precincts, immediately after the early ballots, sorted by precinct, have been counted by the automatic tabulating equipment. The manual count shall be the official vote tally.
7. Consistent with the Sept. 2005 GAO Report on federal efforts to improve security and reliability of electronic voting systems, the following recommendations are implemented into law:
A. All electronic voting systems shall use open source code and shall not use any proprietary software code.
B. The Director in charge of elections shall appoint an independent team of computer security experts, not employed by the vendor, to perform a computer security test, concurrent with the logic and accuracy test. This additional test shall check for vulnerability to outside attack, malicious code, remote manipulation of the results, or other security failures of equipment. The County Board of Supervisors shall provide for compensation of the independent computer's security test team.
C. A "no-vote" option shall be printed on the ballot to avoid
unintended undervotes, if the voter does not want to vote on a particular office or issue.
D. A voter-verified paper receipt shall be printed by all touch-screen voting machines, to verify the voter's choice. The receipt shall be deposited in a translucent container at the polling place, and delivered to the central counting center after the polls have closed. The paper receipts shall be retained in the secure container for purposes of counting, in the event that a precinct is randomly selected for a manual count, or if a recount is triggered by statute, or if a manual recount is requested by a candidate.
8. A candidate may request a hand recount of paper ballots if the
result is within 5 percent of the leading candidate's tally.
9. If the number of requested voters for a precinct exceeds 1800
voters, the County Board of Supervisors shall divide the precinct into two portions. Each portion shall be served by a separate election board, and both portions shall vote in a single voting place.
----------------------------
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
The next election WILL BE STOLEN in Arizona, if you don't fight for fair voting machines and laws.
For up to date info on ARIZONA GO TO:
www.azfairelections.org/and
www.aceronline.org
and ask to join the email list at
[email protected]If we don't have a fair vote in Arizona, we will lose our democracy!
Sources of NATIONAL election fraud information:
http://www.blackboxvoting.orghttp://www.bradblog.com/default.htmwww.freepress.org/index2.php
www.VoteTrustUSA.org
www.VotersUnite.org
www.votecobb.org/recount/daily_update/
www.caseohio.org
a very good study of the issue is here
http://www.votersunite.org/mb2.pdf
BOOKS ON THIS ELECTION FRAUD IN THE US:
"Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Election &
Why Theyll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)"
by Mark Crispin Miller;
"Steal This Vote"
by Andrew Gumbel;
DVD "Invisible Ballots A Temptation for Electronic Vote Fraud"
available at www.invisibleballots.com
Last, but no least, listen to Air America Radio:
1010 AM Radio for current information.
Submitter: Joan Brunwasser
Submitters Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html
Submitters Bio:
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.
Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.
When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.
While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"
Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.