"Since (2000), voter confidence has continued to trend in the wrong direction," Martinez added, "and it's unlikely to fade any time soon." At the top of his list was the idea that every state perform a regular election audit to determine that the administration of elections is fair, impartial and consistent with voter intent. The results of these audits should be widely dispersed.

::::::::

EAC Commissioner Martinez Resigns & Advises Audits for all Elections
by Warren Stewart, VoteTrustUSA - April 10, 2006
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1168&itemid=26

Commissioner Met With Election Activists On Saturday

Commissioner Martinez' Letter of Resignation
http://www.electionline.org/portals/1/docs/martinez.resignation.april.10.2006.pd
f

The current vice chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Ray
Martinez submitted his resignation to President George W. Bush this
morning. Mr. Martinez' resignation will become effective June 30,
2006. He cited family considerations as his primary reason for
stepping down and lauded his colleagues at the EAC and the agency's
staff for their continued work on behalf of the nation.Martinez had
been recommended for nomination by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle
(D-SD) in 2003.

On April 8, Martinez had met with election integrity activists
participating in a VoteTrustUSA leadership workshop. The Commissioner
graciously and diplomatically fielded a barrage of questions from
leading election refom advocates from across the country for well over
and hour. The questions were challenging and well informed and
reflected the growing crisis facing our democracy.

The day before he spoke at the VoteTrustUSA workshop, Martinez had
presented a paper at a colloquium in Princeton, NJ. The paper
presented four solutions to what he called the"alarming erosion" of
American voter confidence following the last two presidential
elections.

As reported on NJ.com:

"One of the most alarming trends in our country is the continual
erosion of voter confidence in the accuracy of our tabulated results,"
Martinez said.

"The 2000 presidential election has adversely affected the opinion
of the average American on our electoral process. "Since then, voter
confidence has continued to trend in the wrong direction," Martinez
added, "and it's unlikely to fade any time soon." At the top of his
list was the idea that every state perform a regular election audit to
determine that the administration of elections is fair, impartial and
consistent with voter intent. The results of these audits should be
widely dispersed.

Read the full article here:
http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1168&itemid=26

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.