Dems Sue For Paper Ballots In PA. - BradBlog

[WillyT]

Federal Lawsuit Finally Filed Against PA to Demand Emergency Paper Ballots for Voters
NAACP, Voting Rights Coalition Demand Paper Ballots If 'Majority' of Voting Machines Fail
Sec. of the Commonwealth Had Previously Decried Paper Only Necessary if ALL Voting Machines Break Down in a Precinct...
Blogged by Brad Friedman on 10/23/2008 2:47PM

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Finally! A lawsuit has finally been filed today in federal District Court in Pennsylvania, against the Democratic Secretary of the Commonwealth, Pedro A. Cortes and the Commissioner of the state's Election Commission, Chet Harhut, over Cortes' recent decree that paper ballots only need be given out to voters in the event that every voting machine in a precinct breaks down.

That stunning decry was in opposition to PA's state law which allows election officials the discretion to give emergency paper ballots to voters if even a single machine breaks down in a precinct.

That neither Obama nor the DNC have said a word about this in the month or so since Cortes issued his decry has been maddening, and should be an outrage to voters of all parties in the Keystone State, sure to be another battleground state this November. The lawsuit was finally filed today by the state's NAACP in concert with the 866-MYVOTE1 Election Reform Network.

While the complaint should call for paper ballots to be made available to any voter who wishes one, or, at a minimum, to be given out if just one machine breaks down in a precinct, or even if the wait time in line is longer than 30 minutes, unfortunately, the suit calls very conservatively for emergency paper ballots to be given out if 50% or more of the voting machines in a precinct break down. But at least it's something, we guess, particularly in lieu of Obama and/or the DNC taking any action at all here, given they have the most to lose by the ridiculous action from state Democrats.

Pennsylvania uses unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) machines across most of the state, and saw machine failure after failure, as we documented in detail during their April primary this year. The failures resulted in untold numbers of disenfranchised voters, as noted in news reports, and logged by calls to the 866-MYVOTE1 hotline...

"Voters should not be forced to wait hours in line in order to exercise their fundamental right to vote," said John Bonifaz, legal director for VoterAction.org and co-counsel for the plaintiffs in a statement issued today. "While the use of electronic voting machines continues to pose a separate threat to the integrity of the vote-counting process, federal court intervention is necessary to ensure that voters will not be disenfranchised by long lines on Election Day in Pennsylvania, when these machines become inoperable."

In a declaration filed with the suit, J. Whyatt Mondesire, the president of the NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania, notes: "One of the major impediments to members exercising their right to vote is the long lines frequently encountered on election day...Thousands of members have faced serious delays in voting when machines have broken down in the past and this problem will be much more severe this year when unprecedented numbers of voters will be coming to the polls."

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More: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6551

[msongs]

1. yep should be paper for ANYONE who wants one nt

[BzaDem]

2. Isn't the SOS supposed to be a Democrat?

[DLnyc]

3. First order of business when Obama and our new Congress take office:

outlaw all forms of vote counting except those that allow for physical verification. Period.

And if the fake vote numbers spit out by the machines in PA don't reflect the obvious overwhelming support that Obama continues to have there, the PA state government needs to send Obama electors to Washington, regardless of what the electronic spittle says.

And if the PA state government fails to do that, the entire country and the entire world need to declare a total boycott against the state until they rectify the situation by publicly burning all of their electronic vote-counterfeiting machines.

Just as we should have done against Florida in 2000 and 2004.

[abumbyanyothername]

4. Ohio 2004. That was the theft. nt

[DLnyc]

5. Yes, good point.

Actually, my feeling is both Ohio and Florida were stolen in 2004 (because I heard that the inside numbers had Florida, Ohio and Pennsyvania all going strong Kerry on election day).

Should have had a massive boycott on both Florida and Ohio. No tourism, no travel through, no going to their universities, no buying their farm or other products.

[mzmolly]

6. Glad to see this.

I hope that the ruling will come down in favor of voting integrity.