[ale] [OT] SB-500 Urgent Voter Action for Electronic Voting and VVPB

[aaron]

(please distribute the following widely)

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IMMEDIATE VOTER ACTION REQUEST:
Please Help Defend American
Democracy Against Election Fraud
=============================

GEORGIA SLOGO COMMITTEE MEETING
(State and Local Government Operations)
 
REGARDING: Senate Bill  SB-500,
Requiring Voter Verified Paper Ballot printouts
on all of Georgia's electronic voting systems.

Now scheduled for 3:00pm, THURSDAY, March 11, 2004
Legislative Office Building, Room 310
(across from the south side steps of the State Capital building)

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Please help the thousands of patriots in Georgia who are fighting to restore 
voter confidence in free, fair, open and transparent elections, founded in 
the simple expectation that the Vote of every American should receive at 
least the level of concern and accounting that any penny in their checking 
account gets.

There is currently a multi-partisan bill  before the Georgia General Assembly, 
SB-500, that would largely fulfill that expectation by requiring Voter 
Verifiable Paper Ballot printouts on every Diebold voting system used in the 
state for our November, 2004 elections.

SB-500 is presently pending approval of the  State and Local Government 
Operations committee [SLOGO].  This critical legislation MUST MOVE ON from 
committee during their THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 3:00pm meeting if it is to stand 
any real chance of being voted on and enacted by the Georgia General Assembly 
before the end of this session.

The election process decisions in the state of Georgia inevitably have a 
direct impact on every voter in our nation, so we  are asking that all 
concerned American citizens, both inside and outside of our state, please 
contact the Chairperson of the SLOGO committee, Renee Unterman, and demand 
that SB-500 be immediately approved.

We urgently need your action NOW!
You can direct your calls, faxes, emails and visits to any of
these published contact points:
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Senator Renee Unterman 
Assistant: Thelma Richardson

Capitol Phone:  (404) 463-1368
Fax Phone:  (404) 656-6579
Home Office: (770) 466-1507

E-Mail:  reneeu at bellsouth.net

Capitol Address: 313 - B Legislative Office Building Atlanta GA 30334
District Address: P.O. Box 1685 Loganville GA 30052
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Additional details about the SB-500 bill and other SLOGO
Committee contact information can be obtained at:

<http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/sum/sb500.htm>
<http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_org_detail.pl?Com=gasslgo>
======

Respondents to this urgent request can also take pride in knowing that they 
will be helping our state bring their electronic voting systems into 
compliance with the Help America Vote Act audit and paper trail requirements 
for the Georgia systems being funded with our national tax dollars:

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HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT 2002
October 29, 2002
[...]
TITLE III
UNIFORM AND NONDISCRIMINATORY
ELECTION TECHNOLOGY AND
ADMINISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
Subtitle A  Requirements SEC.301.VOTING SYSTEMS STANDARDS.
[...]
(2)AUDIT CAPACITY.
(A)IN GENERAL. The voting system shall produce a
record with an audit capacity for such system.
(B)MANUAL AUDIT CAPACITY.
  (i)The voting system shall produce a permanent paper
record with a manual audit capacity for such system. (ii)The voting
system shall provide the voter with an opportunity to change the
ballot or correct any error before the permanent paper record is
produced. (iii)The paper record produced under subparagraph
(A)shall be available as an official record for any recount conducted
with respect to any election in which the system is used.
===================

Sincerely,
Aaron Ruscetta
Decatur, Georgia

Concerned voter, Electronic media and IT professional,  
Member of the Electronic Frontiers of Georgia (efga.org),
Member of the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ale.org), and 
Contributing supporter of the Electronic Freedom Foundation (eff.org).

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This document was compiled and composed with the generous assistance
of members of the League Opposed to Virtual Elections, Count The Vote, the 
Georgia Green Party, Georgians Against Black Box Voting and the Voter 
Independence Project.
 
If you would like to learn more about this important issue and what you
can do to restore the integrity and transparency of elections in Georgia
and our nation, please link to:  
        http://www.voterchoice.org/auditableballots.php  
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