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Action Alert: Demand a voter verified paper trail !
It has come to my attention that Voter Services, during pollworker training is teaching the Judges of Elections, Inspectors and clerks to actively encourage voting on the touch screen electronic voting machines. Apparently, they are telling the trainees that electronic voting will be here to stay in "three years" ( don't ask me where they get THAT figure) and so people better get used to it. They are telling the local election boards to be very "positive" about the touch screen machines. Note that it is in the interest of Voter Services to avoid recounts and contests which is exactly what touch screen systems do.
As you recall, there will only be one touch screen electronic voting machine per precinct. The results of the active encouragement of voters to use touch screens include:
1. People who use the electronic machines will not have evidence of their vote. There are no voter verified paper ballots with electronic machines.
2. In a close race, there will be absolutely no ability to conduct a recount nor a legally mandated audit.
3. Since there will not be enough machines per precinct, long lines could result at the single electronic machine if the local board of elections encourages voters to use those machines.
Other states are reporting numerous irregularities and problems with electronic voting systems AND optical scan machines. The tabulating software on the ESS touch screens and opscan has many problems.
Therefore it is imperative that voters use a paper ballot so that the evidence of their intent is preserved.
For those who are going to attend a training, please question the trainers on this issue and point out that having a record of the voters' intent is very important especially in close races. Also, if you can report your experience on this email list, it would be very helpful.
If you care about the right to vote, if you care that your vote is counted properly, it's time for action. NEWSFLASH:If you don't do it no one else will!
STEPS TO TAKE RIGHT NOW.
1. Write a letter to the Board of Elections, in which you state unequivocally that the local boards of elections should not be encouraging voters to avoid paper ballots.
CONTACT INFORMATION
The Honorable Ronald C. Nagle
2 North High Street,
PO Box 2748
West Chester, PA 19380-0991
Phone: (610) 344-6184
Fax: (610) 344-4480
Email addresses are NOT posted for the judges SO: send to
mdoran@chesco.org,
Maureen Doran, judicial secretary, ASK HER TO FORWARD IT TO JUDGE
NAGLE
Honorable Jacqueline Carroll Cody
2 North High Street,
PO Box 2748
West Chester, PA 19380-0991
Phone: 610-344-6604
Fax: 610-344-4472
JUDGE CODY WILL NOT ACCEPT EMAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hon. Donald A. Mancini
Chester County Commissioners
2 N. High Street, Box 2748
West Chester, PA 19380-0991
Phone: 610-344-6100
FAX: 610-344-5995
Email: dmancini@chesco.org
2. Write a letter , email or fax to Linda Cummings at Voter Services demanding that she immediately stop training pollworkers to encourage electronic voting. Instead, she should be focusing on training the local elections board to properly use the machines and to troubleshoot the numerous system failures and hardware failures that will inevitably result from the use of electronic voting machines.
Chester County
Department of Voter Services
601 Westtown Road, Suite 150
P.O. Box 2747
West Chester, PA 19380-0990
Linda Cummings, Director
Phone: 610-344-6410
Fax: 610-344-5682
Email: lcummings@chesco.org
3. Write a letter to the editor commenting that voter verified paper ballots with the opscan are better, thank the Board of Elections for recognizing that and encourage all voters to choose a paper ballot in May 16.
3. Start an information outreach program in YOUR neighborhood. Tell all of your friends and neighbors that if they want their vote to count as they intended they need to choose a PAPER BALLOT on May 16.
ON ELECTION DAY:
We need a presence at the polls to inform voters of the right to choose a paper ballot and the necessity of preserving voter intent.
We need signs and flyers to hand to voters.
LET"S GET ORGANIZED!
I am going to schedule a meeting for next TUESDAY APRIL 25 at 7:30. I will post the location.
ANYONE WHO IS DEDICATED TO PRESERVING THE RIGHT TO VOTE IN CHESTER COUNTY NEEDS TO ATTEND!
( I have not added the author's name to the above. I did not have her email addresss, and was unable to ask for permission to copy ---> If you are the author, and would like your name added please email:karen@ebs2democrat.com )
Featured Article:
The Republican Party's Agenda
by Ciro Jerry Pucci
April 16, 2006
The Republican party is the party of the rich, created by the rich, for the rich. Their main focus is to make the world safe for the rich. How do we know this? Let’s look at the facts.
The Republicans got us into the war in Iraq by having their president lie about the need to go to war. Why did they want to invade Iraq? To give the Iraqis their freedom? If they are so concerned about Iraqi freedom why are they not concerned about the tens of thousands of Sudanese being slaughtered by their own government? Is Iraqi freedom more dear to Republican hearts than Sudanese lives? No it’s not Iraqi freedom that they care about, it’s Iraqi oil reserves that they care about. The big oil companies fund the Republican party not because they care about abortion or gay marriage but because they want to control the vast oil reserves in Iraq and they have convinced these GOP leaders that what’s good for Big Oil is good for America.
Bush continues to argue that keeping our soldiers in Iraq is worth the price , i.e. , in American lives , American blood and American treasure.
He tells our young people that “there is no higher calling than to volunteer to serve your country in time of war.”
Did you tell that to your offspring, Mr President?
This Republican president lied to the American people when he said that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and was ready to use them on his neighbors.
He lied again when he argued that Saddam Hussein bore some responsibility for the horrible events of 9/11.
This Republican president lied to the American people to make them believe that the people of Iraq were going to welcome our soldiers as liberators but and the reverse has occurred. Our soldiers are being killed there every day. Why? To beautify the bottom line for big oil.
What is the benefit of this war to Americans? The Republicans say that if we don’t fight the terrorists over there , we’ll have to fight them over here on our soil. That implies that we have them surrounded in Iraq and they can’t get out ,which is utter nonsense. They know the war was a mistake but they would rather that more of our soldiers lose their lives and limbs than that they admit that they were wrong to go to war.
The bottom line reason for the war is the bottom line for the fat cat oil companies who put these Republicans in control of our lives.
What about the wonderful tax cut for ALL Americans which the Republicans are so fond of advocating. Well, boys and girls, 40 percent of the tax cut money went to the rich. ie , to those in the top one percent earnings bracket. The Republicans say that this extra income will enable these rich to hire those in the low income brackets thereby stimulating economic growth… the old trickle down fairy tale which history has shown to be hogwash. It is a fact that money does trickle down but at a very slow rate when it’s fed into the economy at the top. However when money is put into the economy at the bottom in the form of jobs for those who have no jobs, the money doesn’t just trickle up, it flies up thru the economy; so those at the bottom , in the middle, and at the top of the income ladder all benefit. But do the Republicans want this “NO, they say it’s too socialist , which is close to being communistic, which is atheistic which is against God . ” However”, say our God - fearing Republican friends, “if the government gives the money to the rich, it’s not socialistic, it’s good old fashioned capitalism ( God loves us non-socialistic capitalists), which is what made America great.”
The Democrats’ response : “What gross self-serving garbage.”
The Republican party is there to protect and defend the bottom line for the rich people in America and to hell with the middle and lower classes.
“But wait”, say the Republicans, “we‘re for family values, we’re going to save America from sliding down the slope of sinful degradation, we’re going to protect the institution of marriage, and preserve the American family which is the very foundation of our society.”
Does this mean that
- they want to insure that no child in America goes hungry,
- that all families have decent shelter,
- that all families have guaranteed health care,
- that all our children are guaranteed an education as high as their ability to learn will take them,
- that our senior citizens need not worry about medicine or health costs,
- that the bread winners in our American families will not see their jobs exported?
Is this what they mean by being for family values? No. What they mean is that
- they’re not going to allow gays to marry or to enjoy the same rights as everyone;
- they’re not going to allow women the right to terminate a pregnancy;
- they’re going to be sure that their religious prayer is recited to all our children in school; and
- they are going to insure that the words from their holy book adorns our governmental buildings.
These family values look very similar to those of the Taliban in Afghanistan who are keen to impose their religious rules on everyone else.
The policy of this Republican administration in Afghanistan is to foster freedom of religion and to prevent the fundamentalist religious Muslims, i.e., the Taliban, from gaining control of that country. Admirable!
The Republican policy here at home is to pander to the religious right and appear as the saviours of Christian civilization and to make Christianity the defacto state religion of America.
Just like the Taliban , the Republicans appeal to the religious zeal of our citizens by pretending to do God’s work. This is demogoguery of the basest kind; there is no place for this sort of gutter politics in America. A person’s religion is his/her private affair. We should not fall prey to Republican party propaganda and allow them to use religion to divide us.
The law of the land, the constitution, clearly calls for the separation of church and state and this principle is one of the main pillars serving to keep us together as one people.
But why do the Repulicans use religion in this way? Because their only agenda is to benefit the rich and they certainly can’t say that out loud so they try to sell themselves to the American voter by using the religion card.
Playing the race card worked pretty well for them, so now they’ve added the religion card. Shame on them and shame on us if we let them get away with it.
Let’s get rid of the party that put up a presidential candidate who said that he was going to” return honesty and integrity to the White House “… an obvious reference to Bill Clintons lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Yes, Clinton lied to the American people about a private matter which was nobody’s business and as a result of that lie, no one died. However, as a result of George Bush’s lies 2300 Americans died, some 17,000 were wounded, 8000 of them seriously wounded, and 30,000 Iraqis died. The Republicans were very desirous of removing Clinton from office for his lies, but they’re silent when it comes to Bush’s lies.
In the senate campaign in Georgia a few years ago they scurrilously defamed the patriotism of then Senator Mcllelland, a democrat who lost both legs and an arm fighting in Vietnam. They denigrated the service of John Kerry who volunteered to fight in Vietnam by using the infamous Swift Boat Ads on television. ( Karl Rove, the Republican political strategist called those ads ” the gift that keeps on giving” because they served the Republican cause so well.) Of course George Bush and Dick Cheney, those brave stalwarts of freedom, dodged that war ( with Dick saying that he “had more important things to do than go and fight in Vietnam”).
Shame on us if we let them stay in power.
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