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Here's the Tennessee legislative platform, which we are drawing much support for now. What is the election reform platform in your state and what are you doing to support it?
Memorandum from Tennessee legislators to the State Election Commission
The responsibility of selecting and approving the voting equipment that will be purchased with federal funds from HAVA rests with the State Election Commission. Because the State Election Commission is appointed by the legislature, and our committee is charged with oversight of such issues, we submit the following recommendations for your consideration and action. Please see attachments for more complete information on the following seven issues.
1. The Commission should mandate that all voting equipment purchased after 9/1/05 will use or produce a voter-verified paper ballot, and that this paper ballot will be retained as the ballot of record by the county.
2. The Commission should mandate that all existing voting equipment that cannot use or produce a paper ballot be phased out of use in Tennessee by 11/1/06.
3. Voter-verified paper ballots are important for many reasons to help ensure the integrity of the election process. They allow for small-scale audits or assessments of the accuracy of electronic vote-counting equipment. The Commission and the Legislature should study, with county election officials and citizens groups, how to conduct small scale (e.g., 5% of votes in each county) mandatory random manual recounts after each election to insure the completeness and accuracy of voting systems used in Tennessee. A process for implementing mandatory random manual recounts with all elections should be in place by 11/06.
4. Control of the election process must remain in the hands of county election officials. The less complex the voting equipment used, the more control that county election officers and poll workers can retain. In counties where punch card voting machines have long been used, continued use should be supported where desired. This option is allowed in the HAVA regulations.
5. HAVA funds allocated for upgrading voting equipment in Tennessee should be judiciously spent. Optical scan systems are not only a paper ballot-based voting system to begin with, but they are also less costly and more efficient than direct record electronic (DRE) equipment and should be considered for widespread use wherever voting systems are upgraded or changed in Tennessee.
6. To meet HAVA requirements for disabled voters (persons visually or physically impaired) to vote privately and independently, counties that will need to purchase new equipment should be directed to choose either Automark ballot marking device or Accupoll e-voting machine, or to consider less-expensive options. At this time, no other e-voting equipment offered by major vendors fulfill HAVA standards for disabled-access voting, nor have they been federally qualified.
7. There is no place in Tennessee electronic voting equipment for the presence of any wireless access capability or any other means for electronically communicating with the voting equipment before, during or after the election process without detection. The Commission should mandate that all voting equipment sold in Tennessee after 9/1/05 should come without wireless capability installed. In addition, all current voting systems in Tennessee that contain a wireless access capability should have that capability disabled or removed from the voting machine before 5/06.
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