Who to call, fax, email, and send letters: (for sample letters you can cut-and-paste, go here) )

::::::::

Keep Electronic Voting out of NYC!
PASS Resolution 131 NOW!

Current situation:

Our old lever voting machines are banned as of 9/1/07. State law is forcing
NYC to buy either:

"DREs" (Direct Recording Electronic touchscreen or pushbutton computerized
voting machines), or
"PBOS" (Paper Ballots, Optical Scanners, and accessible ballot-marking
machines for voters with disabilities or minority languages).

Why we need Resolution 131 NOW!

Resolution 131 urges the NYC Board of Elections to buy PBOS, not DRE
computerized voting.

PBOS voting systems have been used for 20 years - they are time-tested,
reliable, cost less, and retain local public bipartisan control of
elections.

DREs have a history of failures during elections, cost overruns as high as
1000%, loss of votes cast in minority languages, and reporting more ballots
than voters. DREs require privatization of elections because DREs use secret
software -- our Board of Elections would have to turn over our elections to
vendors because vendors are the only ones who know how to service and
program their own equipment.

Who to call, fax, email, and send letters:
(for sample letters you can cut-and-paste,
http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ny.html#whattodonyc )

1. Speaker of the City Council Christine Quinn
Please co-sponsor Resolution 131 and
use the power of the Speaker's office to pass it ASAP.
Speaker Christine Quinn, Speaker's Office, City Hall, NY, NY 10007
Office (212) 788-7210, Fax (212) 788-7207
quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

2. Chair of the Governmental Operations Committee, Simcha Felder
Please co-sponsor Resolution 131, and
use the power of your committee to pass it ASAP!
Council Member Simcha Felder, 4424 16th Ave., Brooklyn NY 11204
Office (718) 853-2704, Fax (718) 853-3858
felder@council.nyc.ny.us

3. Lead Sponsor of Resolution 131 Charles Barron
Thank you for introducing Resolution 131.
Please act to get it passed ASAP!
Council Member Charles Barron, City Hall, New York NY 10007
Office (718) 649-9495, Fax (718) 649-3111
barron@council.nyc.ny.us

4. Your Own Council Member
Please co-sponsor Resolution 131,
and do everything in your power to get it passed ASAP!
Find your Council Member: www.lwvnyc.org/TRY_find.html

IN ALL CONTACTS, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, AND PHONE

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More info:
http://www.wheresthepaper.org/ny.html#whattodonyc
http://www.nyvv.org

Please forward this email to all your New York City contacts!
Thank you!
Sent by www.wheresthepaper.org , 3/5/06

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.