Bonifaz: Count the Vote in CA-50

[Wilms]

Guest Editorial: Count the Vote in CA-50

By John Bonifaz, founder National Voting Rights Institute

August 01, 2006

I join the growing numbers of citizens across this country who are declaring "no confidence" in the machine tally results of the special election held on June 6, 2006, for the 50th Congressional District in California. I further join their call for a full hand-count of both the paper ballots and the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail in that election.

We face today a crisis in public confidence in the integrity of our elections. This crisis threatens the foundation of our democracy. Now more than ever, we must return to a basic truth: In order for voters to trust the outcome of our elections, they must be able to trust that their votes are properly counted.

It is clear that too many voters in California's 50th Congressional District do not trust that their votes have been properly counted in the June 6, 2006 special election.

In the wake of Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, we must stand up and prevent further erosion of the public's trust in our democracy. Following the November 2004 election, I went to Ohio and led the fight in the federal courts for a full recount of the presidential vote in that state - a recount that Ohio election officials resisted and ultimately refused to conduct in a manner consistent with the due process and equal protection guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.

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http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1594&Itemid=113