Here is the email address for Ion Sancho, the intrepid Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, Florida. I think that we should all be in touch to thank him for his courage in standing up to Jeb Bush, Florida's Secretary of State and the many electronic voting machine proponents arrayed against him.

::::::::

I was just sent the email address for Ion Sancho, the intrepid Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, Florida. It was suggested that we should acknowledge his courage in standing up to Jeb Bush, Florida's Secretary of State and the many electronic voting machine proponents arrayed against him. I heartily concur.

The authorized hack which Mr. Sancho arranged on December 13th, brought in Harri Hursti, the Finnish computer security expert to attack the memory card of the Diebold Accu-Vote OS 1.94w (optical scan). According to Diebold, this card was impervious to tampering. A mock election was held, asking one question only (and a most appropriate one, at that): "Can the votes on this Diebold system be hacked using the memory card?" With all of the board of elections watching, the vote count was radically and invisibly switched.

This clear-cut display sent shockwaves through the country, galvanizing voting activists as far away as California and Maryland, both states that share the Diebold machinery and software with Florida. The repercussions are still being felt.

You may recall that one of my plans for OpEdNews was a 'local heroes' corner to celebrate individuals making a difference in their communities. I can't think of a better candidate than Mr. Sancho to kick off this new feature of our webpage. I proudly nominate Mr. Sancho as OpEdNews' first official 'local hero'. I urge all citizens who treasure the integrity of your vote to write Mr. Sancho and thank him personally for his efforts on your behalf. The fight is far from over. That is at least partly due to the actions of Mr. Ion Sancho. Thank you, sir!

Perhaps Mr. Sancho's courage will help to create a tsunami of public outrage about how our elections have been threatened by the insecure, faulty, expensive and secretive electronic voting machines. The struggle to preserve free, fair and transparent elections has many forces lined up against it: the electronic voting machine corporations, their lobbyists, elected officials who ignore the will of the people and the sanctity of the vote, ignorance and apathy on the part of the public. We need every lover of democracy to join the fight. I'm personally inviting you to get involved. You couldn't possibly pick a more critical or timely issue. Our future depends on it.

Mr. Sancho's email address is: vote@leoncountyfl.gov

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors 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.