An alert arrived today from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
saying that action is needed right away to stop Diebold
from trying to cripple North Carolina's voting law.
If you have been following this, you'll remember that last
week, Diebold admitted that it could not comply
with the requirements of North Carolina's new electronic
voting law, the Public Confidence in Elections Act
(Senate Bill 223), passed unanimously by the General Assembly.
The law guarantees that the source code
to electronic voting equipment be made available for security review by state authorities.
So, we celebrated a victory as Diebold supposedly withdrew from North Carolina.
Now, voting machine lobbyists led by Diebold are calling for a
special session of the General Assembly in order to weaken or even
repeal the law. Diebold's lawyers have offered to assist "in
getting current Session Law revised, so that all vendors will be
able to comply with the State Election Law." Of course, that means
watering down the law so that Diebold can sell its machines,
despite its refusal to permit full access to all of the software
used in its machines.
Diebold's letter to North Carolina is
here.
Calls for a legislative "fix" are being made despite the fact that
all North Carolina counties can purchase state-certified voting
equipment whose manufacturer, ES&S, has already confirmed that it
can meet all the requirements of state law.
The pressure is on the Governor to decide before January.
If you are from NC, you need to tell him to stay the course
and protect North Carolina's elections now.
Send a letter or call
the Governor at
Governor Michael F. Easley
Office of the Governor
20301 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-0301
1-800-662-7952 (valid in North Carolina only),
(919)733-4240, or (919)733-5811.
Fax: (919)715-3175 or (919)733-2120