WP: ("liberal") Groups Rally for Voting Receipts

[DeepModem Mom]

An attempt to "taint" this issue with the word "liberal"?


Groups Rally for Voting Receipts
Electronic Ballots May Pose Problems in Recount, Some Say
By Dan Keating
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 14, 2004; Page A10


Members of liberal groups rallied in 19 states yesterday to demand that new electronic voting terminals have paper receipts to ensure accurate election recounts in the November presidential race.

The rallies are part of a movement led in part by MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Democracy for America and other liberal groups that are aligned with the Democratic Party and who are fearful of another close election as in 2000, when Florida's disputed voting results were thrust into the courts to determine a winner.

The organizations have banded with nonpartisan grass-roots groups, such as the Verified Voting Foundation and TrueMajority.org, which are demanding changes in voting equipment that would avoid faulty methods and their remnants, such as hanging chads, that plagued the last presidential election. BUT THE LIBERAL ORGANIZATIONS MAY BE ADDING A POLITICAL CAST TO THE DEBATE OVER HOW TO CHANGE THE NATION'S VOTING EQUIPMENT.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination, now heads Democracy for America and said the groups would work to make electronic voting equipment with paper receipts an issue in the fall campaign....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48076-2004Jul13.html

[flordehinojos]

1. I refuse to register to read the WP's article Re: Count the Votes Rally

But I am thankful to DeepModemMom for posting the above; as an American I am also proud of each of those rallies and each and everyone of the activists who participated in them.

One of those rallies was held here in Ft. Lauderdale in front of the Government Center under sweltering heat but, as far as my scanning of the news yesterday afternoon and this morning can tell, only one newspaper had one paragraph about the rally in an article about our ousted supervisor of election's trial and posted only one picture about the rally.

The rest of the media seems to have held the rally in moot (or mute) status.

This is what that paragraph in the Sun-Sentinel said: "As part of a series of protests across Florida, at least 40 anti-touch-screen activists rallied outside the Governmental Center on Tuesday as Oliphant's trial" ... (snipped from the Sun-Sentinel).

I say: Hail to Democracy. Hail to the Activists.:toast:

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Returning your toast -- and welcome to DU, flordehinojos!

[flordehinojos]

3. Thank you for welcoming me to DU

:-)

[stickdog]

6. www.bugmenot.com

www.bugmenot.com

[jackofhearts]

4. fearful of another close election??

WRONG!! We are fearful of a fascist regime that will go to any lengths to maintain power including manipulating the software in these machines. We can handle a close election...the problem is the counting (and discounting) of the votes. The idea that our government would back any form of voting where the voter cannot be 100% sure that their vote was recorded accurately is really quite astonishing.

This should stopped completely and stopped now.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. You nailed it, jackofhearts -- welcome to DU!

[dusty64]

7. So only "liberals" give a shit

about the People's right to vote and have it be counted, so the flipside would accurately be that rightwingers do NOT. Thats about right.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. 42,000 sigs for paper trail delevered to Gov Pataki in Albany...pic

we must keep the pressure on...

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=266133&category=CAPITOL&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=7/14/2004


Ray Blanchard of Albany and Sondra Sprinkling of Delmar hold up enlarged petition letters during a voters' rally Tuesday on the steps of the Capitol. Taped end to end, enlarged examples of the letters sent to Pataki stretched from the Capitol's west steps to its State Street entranc

Activists delivered their own "paper trail" of nearly 42,000 signatures to Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday, demanding that the state buy only electronic voting machines that create verification records to prevent mistakes, miscounts and fraud.
Debbie Chess, 66, of Albany, summed up the group's sentiments with the hand-lettered cardboard sign hung around her neck: "No printout = No way to recount votes = No way to have an election."


Taped end to end, enlarged examples of the letters sent to Pataki stretched from the Capitol's west steps to its State Street entrance.

New York is poised to overhaul its voting system as mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, which helps finance modernization of elections. The act requires replacement of old lever voting machines with electronic versions.

But experts say electronic voting machines aren't foolproof. Some models can be easily hacked or can malfunction and miscount votes. Problems with electronic machines in states that already own them are well documented, leading some officials to temporarily ban their use.

Without a paper trail to let voters check to make sure their selections were correctly recorded, electronic machines aren't democratic, opponents say.

"Using a voting machine without a genuine paper trail is like asking New Yorkers to use a bank ATM that never allows you to count your cash or receive a receipt detailing your transaction," said Neal Rosenstein, government reform coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Both the Republican-controlled state Senate and the Democrat-dominated Assembly have passed legislation requiring machines with voter-verified paper trails. But the measures don't match up, and therefore can't be sent to Pataki for signing.

[Moderator]

9. ElswheresDaughter

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.

DU Moderator

[MallRat]

10. No. It's an attempt to taint the issue with the word "RECEIPTS!"

A "receipt" is not a voter-verified paper ballot. A receipt is meaningless if the Black Box is STILL COUNTING THE VOTES.

Bev Harris had a great post here about a month ago about this important distinction. Don't ask for a "paper trail." Don't ask for a "receipt."

DEMAND A VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOT!!!

(/high-horse)

-MR