Fellow Kossacks,
Thanks so much for your continued support of my campaign for California Secretary of State! I just wanted to stop by and give you a quick update on our campaign, with only 15 short days before November 7th.
This past Wednesday, I debated my Republican opponent, appointed Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, before the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board. (Thanks to ollieb who already posted a summary of the debate here!) Hat tip to the Chronicle: what they did was open up their editorial endorsement process for all to see. What a fantastic idea!
The editorial board debate gave me a great opportunity to highlight our differences and to demonstrate why I am the best qualified candidate to clean up our elections system. And yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle endorsed me as their choice to be California's next Secretary of State.
As I said in Wednesday's debate,
the only way to restore confidence in our country's voting systems is to open things up -- let citizens observe every part of the process, from the certification of systems to the audits after the election. The only thing about voting that should stay a secret is the way in which a voter casts his or her ballot.
Secretary of State McPherson has certified voting machines, including Diebold, that are insecure and unreliable, with a litany of proven and well-documented flaws -- and before the public had any opportunity to see the review he relied on. That review determined that a hack of a mock election conducted in Florida by Finnish programmer Harry Hursti worked, and it also found "more serious vulnerabilities ... that go well beyond what Mr. Hursti demonstrated, and yet require no more access to the voting system than he had. These vulnerabilities are consequences of bugs-16 in all." And this review was conducted by people who never had physical access to the voting system they were analyzing.
McPherson failed to address these issues before the Chronicle's editorial board. He reaffirmed his absolute faith in these flawed voting systems. What's more, he accused me of trying to prevent blind and disabled voters from exercising their right to vote independently by daring to question the integrity of error-plagued voting machines! As I said Wednesday, that was clearly not McPherson's finest moment in public service. Blind and disabled voters, just like all other voters, deserve to vote in manner than will accurately and securely record their votes.
But McPherson did say something about electronic voting machines that I agreed with: "The biggest difference of opinion I have with Debra is that she doesn't trust the systems, and I do." I couldn't have said it better myself! Our voting system isn't designed to run on trust. It's designed to run on proof and verification -- for the very same reason that we have a government of checks and balances. The whole structure of our democracy is intended to be so bulletproof that it can turn back corruption and the misuse of power, as well as mistakes and deliberate attempts to subvert the will of the people at the ballot box.
Unfortunately, Bruce McPherson hasn't followed the critical advice of President Ronald Reagan: trust but verify. Play, but cut the cards. Californians deserve that much from their Secretary of State and I can't wait to get to work
Earlier last week I released my new Voter Bill of Rights -- 10 simple but powerful principles that will guide me every day as California's next Secretary of State. If you share this commitment to repairing our election systems, I hope you'll stand with me and endorse my Voter Bill of Rights today.
ga3.org/campaign/voterbillofrights
What will I fight for? Take a look. Here are the 10 key principles that make up my Voter Bill of Rights:
- The Right to Register to Vote
- The Right to Vote
- The Right to Vote in a Tamper-Proof Election
- The Right to Vote on Paper
- The Right to Have Your Vote Counted Accurately
- The Right to Have Election Results Properly Audited
- The Right to an Open, Transparent, Public Process
- The Right to Elections Officials who Operate Free of Partisan Influence
- The Right to Know that Elected Officials are Free from the Influence of Campaign Contributions from Voting Machine Vendors
- The Right to Find Out How Money is being Raised and Spent in the Political Process
Some of these ideas may sound simple -- and they are! But, in light of the voting problems we've seen in California and across the country, we can't take a single one for granted.
I hope you'll click here to sign on to my Voter Bill of Rights today!
Finally, let me just say how grateful I am for all of the grassroots and netroots support I've received from across California and across the country. I'm honored by the trust that you have placed in me, and I'll do everything I can to repay that trust.
As you know, California is a big state. We're likely going to be outspent in this race, but we're running the kind of grassroots campaign that will turn our voters out. Anything you can do to contribute to my campaign in these last 15 days will be put to good use, I assure you.
Thanks again for all of your help and support!
-- Debra
www.debrabowen.com