Verified Voting Wins a Round in New Jersey!

by Midwest Millian

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday, Dec. 15, 2008 Monday, Dec. 15, 2008 at 7:07:55pm PST

To the surprise and delight of New Jersey's tireless advocates for verifiable elections, today the state Senate voted down the bill that would have eliminated the legal requirement for voter-verified paper records.

Nick Lento of Blue Jersey has a video of the Senate debate, and a good analysis of where we go from here:

http://www.bluejersey.com/...

It's not all roses. The January 2009 deadline for voter-verified paper records stands, and there is talk of a mad rush to retrofit the state's existing machines with substandard printers that have failed testing and are now described as "Rube Goldberg printers" by stakeholders from different corners of the debate. See here for a rundown of why these full-face electronic voting machines are a bad voting system, even if the new printers work wonderfully.

But tonight, the Coalition for Peace Action New Jersey, the Constitutional Law Clinic at Rutgers, the New Jersey ACLU, fellow Kossack Nick Lento, and many others deserve thanks from every voter in the nation. This is a big win. Thank you, guys.