We know the new touch screen voting machines have huge potential for voter fraud. The CEO of Diebold, one of the most common voting machines, is a Republican who has promised to deliver his state for Bush this November. The machines have been demonstrated to be vulnerable to hacks that would allow votes to be changed. We all know computers are vulnerable to crashes that lose important data. Despite all this, most machines do not print out a receipt or otherwise produce a hard copy of the vote to be used in recounts.
This is a threat to our democracy. Elections could be influenced or even stolen if we do not do something. This problem is easily solved by requiring all electronic voting machines to print out a receipt of the vote, which the voter would then check over and verify and then turn into a polling place official for any needed recounts.
Congress is not willing to take up this issue. Bills from Rep. Holt (D-NJ) and Senators Graham (D-FL) and Boxer (D-CA) have not even had hearings. Therefore, we must take this fight to the each individual secretary of state. They generally have control over elections and can demand a verified paper trail.
California, Washington and Nevada have already done this. Now we need to convince the 47 other states to do the same. True Majority is getting ready to embark on a campaign to do exactly this, but they need your help.
From True Majority:
We believe other secretaries of state, who are not used to hearing from citizens, will follow suit under grassroots pressure. And as each state signs on to these higher standards, the pressure will build on those secretaries of state who refuse. No one will want to be the last chief state election officer to protect his or her constituents.
All the secretaries of state will be in Washington, DC, on February 17 at a meeting, so we'll kickoff the campaign then with a press conference calling on them to protect their constituents. We've hired two organizers who'll then move the campaign into the states, targeting a handful at a time for local news conferences, op-eds, letters to the editor and meetings with the election officers. As more and more states sign on and the pressure builds, we'll move the campaign around the country until everyone is covered.
To wage this campaign, we need $50,000 by Friday, February 13. Please help us create elections we can all be proud of.
Please consider throwing a few bucks their way. I just gave $10. We must have safe voting machines or else there will be those who will try to steal elections from us. We can't allow that to happen.
You can donate here. Please do so. All our work this year won't matter if our votes are changed this November.
If you're interested in becoming a member of True Majority, you can check out their website here.