[ale] OT Fwd: The Fate of Electronic Voting is Being Debated: Informed Testimony is Urgently Needed!

[aaron]

In case you were going to be bored in the next couple hours...

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Subject: The Fate of Electronic Voting is Being Debated:
              Informed Testimony is Urgently Needed! [ed]
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:47:32 -0000

Citizens have until 5:00 PM Tuesday, July 24th, to fax / email their 
testimony to the Senate Rules Committee on S1487, Senator Diane 
Feinstein's weak election reform bill, which threatens to eliminate 
the ban on paperless electronic voting contained in Rep Rush Holt's bill, 
HR 811.  Georgia election officials oppose HR 811 because it threatens their
Zero-Evidence system of paperless electronic vote fruad in Georgia;
Defenders of Democracy  supports HR 811 for the same reason.

Take These Actions NOW

1. Submit your public testimony to Senator Feinstein for the Wednesday, July
25th, Rules and Administration Committee Hearing on S 1487. Testimony MUST 
be received by Tuesday 5PM and it will be included in official record.

Send email to: sue_wright at rules.senate.gov
or fax to: Sue Wright 202 224 5400 

State BEFORE your comments that you are providing testimony or comments for 
submission into the record of S1487 hearings. Including your name,
organization, address, and other pertinent contact information, and be sure 
that it is submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

Please include this list of recommendations for amendments to S1487. 
Remember that the MOST CRUCIAL thing for 2008 will be the independent
audits - sufficient manual counts of voter verifiable paper ballot
records.  Items 6-14 will be crucial in providing secure, fair, and 
auditable elections procedures now completely unavailable in Georgia, 
though items one through six are necessary as well.  Email and fax 
these recommendations to the Rules Committee Members and to your own Senators: 
http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/S1487Amendments.pdf

2. Contact Senator Feinstein's office now regarding the shortage of credible
participants with the appropriate expertise in math and computers science
testifying in the hearing panels.
Senator Feinstein's number is 202/224-3841.

The above information is a short list of a detailed set of actions items
suggested
to amend the bill with meaningful standards.  The complete action list, 
together

with a list of Senators and their live contact links can be found at:

http://www.defendersofdemocracy.com/drupal/node/188

as well as below.  Contact information for key Senators, including Georgia's
Saxby 
Chambliss, who is on the rules committee, are included.
-------------------------------------------

Action Alert: Please Act Now to Save Our Democracy!


What is Happening in the US Senate?

Wednesday July 25th S1487 Senate Hearing -

Tuesday Deadline to Submit Testimony

The National Election Data Archive is sending out this first in a two-part
alert, to let people know that election reform is endangered in both the US
House and US Senate; and to ask everyone to make a small effort this week
and next week to achieve integrity in the 2008 election.

According to The New York Times, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of
California and the chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, said she has
decided against seeking any major changes in voting equipment before 2010.

"My sense is there's no way to get this thing in place by the election of
2008," Ms. Feinstein said. "Without adequate time, we could cause real
problems in the election."

On July 25th, 2007, at 10:00 AM, the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration will hold hearings on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity Act.

The Senate Rules Committee hearing scheduled for July 25 has a very
unbalanced list of participants. The list is heavily weighted with
unapologetic opponents of voter verified paper ballots.  They selected
Michael Shamos to give testimony while ignoring more respected experts in
computer science and mathematics. Shamos is noted for saying, "...I believe
I and the republic will survive if a president is elected who was not
entitled to the office."

The Senate hearings fail to include any recognized experts who support a
tangible record of the vote.  For the hearing to have any balance at all,
recognized electronic voting experts should be included.  Creditable voting
system experts who should be included in this panel:  Dr. David Dill of
Stanford, the founder of the Verified Voting Foundation and
VerifiedVoting.org, and Dr Barbara Simons, former President of the
Association for Computing Machinery, the world's largest association of
computing professionals.

Wednesday witnesses for Senate Hearing

The hearing will consist of 2 panels, with the following witnesses
testifying:

Panel 1:

The Honorable Deborah L. Markowitz, Vermont Secretary of State, Montpelier, VT
(Representing National Association of Secretaries of State)

Mr. George N. Gilbert, Director, Guilford County Board of Elections, 
Greensboro,
NC

Ms. Wendy Noren, Boone County Clerk, Columbia, MO
(Representing National Association of Counties)

Dr. Michael I. Shamos, Professor, School of Computer Science, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Mr. Ray Martinez, Policy Adviser, The Pew Center on the States, Former
Member, Election Assistance Commission, Austin, TX

Panel 2:

Ms. Mary Wilson, President, League of Women Voters, Washington, DC

Mr. Doug Lewis, Executive Director, The Election Center, Houston, TX

Ms. Tanya Clay House, Director of Public Policy, People for the American
Way, Washington, DC

Talking Points

According to the NY Times, Congress is considering postponing the
replacement of any existing flawed DRE equipment (even paperless DREs) until
2012 which means that no manual counts of Voter verifiable paper ballots can
be required to check machine counts until 2012.

The MOST CRUCIAL thing for 2008 is to require independent audits - manual
counts of voter verifiable paper ballot records.  Without 2008 deadlines for
replacing paperless DREs and requiring valid manual audits, New Mexico would
be the only state which conducts independent manual checks of unofficial
machine outcomes in 2008. A few other states, like California and North
Carolina, would conduct some publicly held hand counts to check the accuracy
of their machine vote counts. A few other states conduct election audits
after the outcomes are certified or conduct internal sham audits which do
not verify the accuracy of the unofficial tallies.

Moving all HR811's deadlines to 2012 would leave us wide-open to vote fraud
and miscount switching who wins office in 2008.  Software disclosure is
complex and takes many years to accomplish in any meaningful way and could
be properly addressed in federal legislation in 2009 and beyond if election
results in 2008 are accurate.

DRE voting machines:

1. are more expensive to use than opti-scan machines. Some the DRE
paper-printers come at a price tag of some $2000 apiece. DREs w/ printers
cost much more than paper ballot opscan systems. The costs for adding
cash-register receipts to current DRE voting systems exceeds the costs of
replacing DRE voting systems with opti-scan paper ballot voting systems
within 4 years.

2. do not provide accessibility for as many disabled voters as ballot
marking devices like the AutoMARK,

3. do not provide the ability to verify the accuracy of paper ballot records
for disabled voters

4. create longer lines

5. violate all voters' privacy by storing ballot records in sequential
order, the same order as voters enter each polling booth. It particularly
violates the privacy of voters with disabilities who must all vote on the
same DRE machine outfitted for voters with disabilities and have all their
ballots stored on the same DRE paper roll.

5. subject voters to Denial of Service attacks

6. make elections vulnerable to touch-screen calibration and touch-screen
delay problems which switch votes to the wrong candidates

7. can be used by hackers to subvert election audits

8. make elections vulnerable to electronic failures, power outages, and
hacking

9. have been shown in every independent audit so far to inaccurately record
votes

10. paper-roll ballot records fail to accurately record votes according to
recent tests in New Jersey, "Tests Find Flaws in Printer Performance, Could
Jeopardize Election Accuracy". "If a mechanical error or malfunction occurs
(such as a paper jam, running out of paper, paper torn in half, or paper
inserted improperly), the DRE displays an error message on the screen to the
voter, but no warning signals are sent to notify the election officials at
the polling place. The DRE does not suspend voting operations. The voter has
the opportunity to continue voting and cast the vote but the paper record is
not printed. The vote is, however, electronically recorded....
"print-and-disappear-from-view" feature. E-voting systems can print
erroneous paper records to match erroneous electronic records, despite every
effort of voters to ensure that it does not.  Here is how it works in
practice on New Jersey: When you are just about ready to cast your vote
after marking your choices on the electronic voting machine, the system
prints a voter-verifiable paper record -- so that you can review it, and
affirm that your choices were accurately recorded. If you felt it was
incorrect, you can "cancel" that record and go back to any of the contests
on the ballot using the electronic machine, and re-select. Ready again to
cast your ballot? Checking the paper record, you see it still doesn't
reflect what you want. You cancel a second time. Now you're on your last
try, so you mark your choices carefully. You're ready to cast, but the
voter-verified paper record prints -- and then quickly drops into the locked
receptacle, too quickly for you to have the opportunity to review it."
https://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6488

11. are susceptible to malicious undetectable subversion of elections in
ways even audits cannot detect, and

12. inaccurately record votes as shown in every independent election audit
so far

Just why do our election officials want us to pay for a computer for doing
what takes able-bodied voters 10 minutes perhaps once/year.

Not requiring paper ballots because some voters have disabilities that
prevent them from seeing and verifying paper ballots, would be like banning
fire hydrants because fire hydrants are not accessible for persons with
disabilities.

We need YOU to ACT NOW to ask that there are 2008 deadlines for replacing
paperless DRE voting machines and for requiring independent manual audits.

Talking Points

Elections must

1. be publicly verifiably accurate, and

2. allow all legally registered voters a convenient opportunity to vote

We need election reform that requires:

1. Pre-printed paper ballots and paper sign-in systems for all voters at
polling locations in case of electronic failures

2. Independent manual counts of voter-verified paper ballots sufficiently to
ensure correct machine counts of election outcomes

3. Public scrutiny of ballot security procedures

4. Public access to election records necessary to verify the integrity of
independent manual counts

It is JULY 2007. The November 2008 election is 16 months away.  It takes
from 6 months to one year to replace voting systems.  Almost every
jurisdiction already uses opti-scan paper ballots for mail-in absentee
ballot and overseas voting, so training requirements would be minimal.  (1)
there is enough time and (2) there is enough equipment.

Take These Actions NOW

1. Submit your public testimony to Senator Feinstein for the Wednesday, July
25 Rules and Administration Committee Hearing on S 1487 - MUST be received
by Tuesday 5PM and it will be included in official record -

fax  Sue Wright 202 224 5400 or send email to:
sue_wright at rules.senate.gov

stating before your comments this is for the record and including your name,
organization, address, and other pertinent contact information, and that it
should be submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

Indicate that you are providing testimony or comments for submission into
the record of S1487 hearings.

Please include this list of recommendations for amendments to S1487. These
are ordered from the most widely supported election reform measures
beginning on page one. So simply print and fax as many pages as you agree
with, to the Rules Committee Members and to your own Senators:
http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/S1487Amendments.pdf

and these arguments against some of S1487's current provisions:
http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/BallotIntegrityActAnalysis.pdf

2. Contact Senator Feinstein's office now regarding the shortage of credible
participants with the appropriate expertise in math and computers science
testifying in the hearing panels.
Senator Feinstein's number is 202/224-3841.

http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2007/072507hrg.htm

3. Attend the Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity
Act (Sen. Feinstein) if you can make it to Washington DC, 10 am EDT on
Wednesday, July 25th 2007. .    Travel to Washington DC to speak with your
Senators and with the Senators on the Rules Committee.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.
Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity Act of 2007
http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/2007/072507hrg.htm

http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/

"....Hearings are held in Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building (unless
otherwise noted), 1st Street and Constitution Avenues, North East,
Washington, DC 20510. Seating is available on a first come, first serve
basis. Eastern Time Zone listed. Times and location are subject to change.

Map of Russell Senate Office Building surrounding area
http://rules.senate.gov/exit.php?eurl=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1s
t+St+NE+%26+Constitution+Ave+NE,+Washington,+DC+20002&t=h&ll=38.891985,-77.00589
9&spn=0.011958,0.027122&t=h

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1st+St+NE+%26+Constitution+Ave+NE,+Washi
ngton,+DC+20002&t=h&ll=38.891985,-77.005899&spn=0.011958,0.027122&t=h

4. View Wednesday's Hearing Live "TODAY'S
http://rules.senate.gov/hearings/live.ram hearing. (available on July 25th
at approximately 9:50 a.m. ET) ...."

If you want any shield against election fraud that could put the wrong
persons in control of Congress and in the President's office in 2009, now is
the time to call your US Representative to support HR811 with 2008 deadlines
for replacing all paperless DREs and conducting independent checks of
election results;

5. Contact your Senators, the Bill Sponsors, and the Senate Rules committee
members and tell them what you want or tell them that you want these
amendments to S1487:

http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/S1487Amendments.pdf

Ask your US Senators now to require 2008 deadlines for replacing paperless
DREs and implementing independent valid manual election audits are preserved
in HR811 and that S1487 is amended to match HR811.

Call one of these free numbers and urge both your Senators to support
meaningful election reform:
1 (800) 828 - 0498  or
1 (800) 614 - 2803  or
1 (866) 338 - 1015  or
1 (877) 851 - 6437  for the Capitol Switchboard Operator Ask for your
senator, for ex., Senator Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama, or Diane
Feinstein, etc.  Ask to speak to or leave a message for your Senators'
legislative staffers who handle election reform legislation issues; and
please mail, email, or fax copies of "21 Suggested Amendments" to their
legislative staffers who handle election reform legislation, hopefully after
speaking with them.  Tell the office staff that you are a constituent of the
Congressperson - give them your name, address and phone number - then urge
them to work for meaningful election reform in 2008.

If you are not sure who your senators are, go to
http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

If you want to citizen control over U.S. elections and have honest, accurate
elections - ACT NOW. If you do not act soon, it could be too late for the
2008 federal election, and perhaps for restoring our democracy and control
of Congress in 2009 could revert to those who want to preserve paperless
un-audited elections where insiders have utter freedom to undetectably
tamper in the most states.

Please make this small effort to preserve our US democracy.

Thank you for this small effort on your part.  They need to hear from all of
us.  Please call and write today, then send this email to all the people you
know who care about democracy.  Thanks again.


Whom to Contact

Contact the Co-sponsors

Boxer, Barbara D-CA,
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home

Brown, Sherrod, D-OH, http://brown.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Clinton, Hillary Rodham D-NY, http://clinton.senate.gov/contact/

Dodd, Christopher J. D-CT, http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3130

Inouye, Daniel K. D-HI, http://inouye.senate.gov/

Kennedy, Edward M. D-MA, http://kennedy.senate.gov/senator/contact.cfm

Leahy, Patrick J. D-VT, http://leahy.senate.gov/
senator_leahy at leahy.senate.gov

Menendez, Robert D-NJ, http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Obama, Barack D-IL, http://obama.senate.gov/contact/

Sanders, Bernard, I-VT, http://sanders.senate.gov/comments/

Contact the Senate Rules Committee Members
Committee members can make the recommended amendments while the S1487 is
being considered in committee

Robert C. Byrd, D-WV, http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html

Daniel K. Inouye, D-HI, 202-224-3934 or http://inouye.senate.gov/

Christopher J. Dodd, D-CT, http://dodd.senate.gov/

Charles E. Schumer, D-NY,
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/contact.html

Richard J. Durbin, D-IL, http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm

E. Benjamin Nelson, D-NE, http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Harry Reid, D-NV, http://reid.senate.gov/contact/

Patty Murray, D-WA, http://murray.senate.gov/contact/

Mark L. Pryor, D-AR, http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/

Ted Stevens, R-AK, http://stevens.senate.gov/public/

Mitch McConnell, R-KY, http://mcconnell.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Thad Cochran, R-MS, http://cochran.senate.gov/contact.htm

Trent Lott, R-MS, http://lott.senate.gov/public/

Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX, http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.html

C. Saxby Chambliss, R- GA, http://chambliss.senate.gov/public/index.cfm

Chuck Hagel, R-NE, http://hagel.senate.gov/

Lamar Alexander, R-TN, http://alexander.senate.gov/

More Information

Shamos Rebuttal by the Open Voting Consortium
http://electionarchive.net/docs_other/dopp/Shamos-rebuttal.pdf

The Ballot Integrity Act of 2007
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01487:

A reliable, verifiable vote in 2008, Governor Bill Richardson
http://thehill.com/op-eds/a-reliable-verifiable-vote-in-2008-2007-06-19.html

HR 811: Separating Truth from Fiction in E-voting Reform, Electronic
Frontier Foundation, June 13, 2007
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005308.php#005308

The Campaign for Secure Elections (HR811), Lawrence Norden, June 13, 2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-norden/the-campaign-for-secure-e_b_51986.
html


The "Ballot Integrity Act" Sponsor is Feinstein, Dianne, D-CA,
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home

S1487 Text
http://electionmathematics.org/em-legislation/FeinsteinDoddER-bill.pdf

National: Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1487, the Ballot Integrity Act
by David Kibrick
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6486

Costs Comparison for Maryland: The costs for adding cash-register receipts
to current DRE voting systems exceeds the costs of replacing DRE voting
systems with opti-scan paper ballot voting systems within 4 years.
http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/cost-DRE-vs-OpScan/CumulativeCo
stscolor11_27_05.pdf

http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/cost-DRE-vs-OpScan/

Letter to Congress asking for publicly verifiably accurate election outcomes
that is signed by over 200 citizens:
http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/Letter2Congress.pdf

Experts who can provide details and answer questions regarding
"Recommendations for Federal Legislation to Ensure the Integrity of our
Democracy"
http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/ExpertsList.pdf

Concept Proposal for Federal Election Reform
http://electionarchive.org/ucvInfo/US/EI-FedLegProposal-v2.pdf

Disability advocacy leaders co-signed this pro-paper statement on Voter 
Action.
http://www.voteraction.org/Accessible_AND_Secure_Voting.htm

How Long Does it Take to Change a Voting System? By Verified Voting
http://electionmathematics.org/em-voting-systems/VotingSystemChange.pdf
http://verifiedvoting.org/downloads/VotingSystemChange.pdf

Accessibility Isn't Only Hurdle in Voting System Overhaul
    By Christopher Drew     The New York Times Saturday 21 July 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_072107E.shtml

Overhaul Plan for Vote System Will Be Delayed
By Christopher Drew The New York Times,  Friday 20 July 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_072007M.shtml

Congress puts off fixing touch-screen voting, Salon.com blog by Farhad
Manjoo
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/07/21/voting_machines/index.html

ESI Audit Shows 10% of cash-register-receipt type ballot records compromised
"The Coming Paper-Trail Debacle?" by Dan Seligson, electionline.org August
18th, 2006
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6383

First U.S. Scientific Election Audit Reveals Voting System Flaws
But Questions Remain Unanswered - Critique of the "Collaborative Public Audit"
of Cuyahoga County Ohio's November 2006 Election. May 7, 2007 by Kathy Dopp
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/OH/CuyahogaElectionAudit.pdf

New Jersey: Tests find flaws in printer performance, could jeopardize
election accuracy
by Pamela Smith, Verified Voting Foundation,  July 22nd, 2007
https://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6488

------------------
Contact:
Kathy Dopp
Executive Director, National Election Data Archive
kathy at electionarchive.org
435.658.4657 (office)

EM



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