Progressive Democrat Issue 36: NATIONAL ACTION: Voting Rights

This is an update on an action I wrote in April. In some ways little has changed so I will mostly just remind everyone what we are facing. But the fight for our voting rights is going on RIGHT NOW, state by state and, in some cases, county by county. We need to flood our local and state reps with our opinions on voting machines because right now they are only hearing from the vendors who sell the machines. And we know where THAT will lead. So STAND UP FOR YOUR VOTING RIGHTS! (or, really, sit down and start writing letters)

Part of this will focus on NY State, because that is where I have the most info, but it applies nationwide. The bottom line is that state and local legislators are deciding on our voting systems without considering cost, accuracy or transparency. The main thing they are considering are sales pitches from touch-screen manufacturers, which are mainly companies owned by right wing Republicans.

Bo Lipari of the New Yorkers for Verified Voting had a press conference in April announcing county by county cost comparisons for NY state of the electronic touch screen (DREs, aka Direct Recording Electronic), versus our preferred, paper ballot with precinct-based optical scanners.

Total acquisition costs for New York State:

    * DRE system: $230,473,000

    * Optical Scan: $114,423,640

Cost Savings of Precinct Based Optical Scan Voting System: $116,049,360

Touch screen and pushbutton style DREs have been found to be error prone, impossible to recount, and extraordinarily expensive. The NYVV cost estimate shows that the purchase cost of DREs exceeds the equivalent cost of precinct based optical scan systems by over 100 million dollars. Yet these are the very machines that the Republicans are trying to force on us.

Optical scan systems have been used successfully in elections around the United States for over 20 years. Currently used in nearly 30% of all the precincts in the US, the states of Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia have decided to use optical scanners to comply with the Help America Vote Act, which mandates new voting machines for New York. Of course optical scans can have problems too (e.g. Ohio), BUT at least they DO HAVE A PAPER TRAIL. With proper reform they can be reliable.

o "Optical scan voting systems are a reliable, mature, auditable and cost effective technology." said Bo Lipari, Director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting. "It's a mistake for NY to spend over 200 million dollars on untested, unauditable, problem prone DREs, when a proven system like optical scanners can be adopted for a fraction of the purchase and maintenance costs." said Lipari.

o "Precinct-based optical scan voting machines with the addition of accessible ballot marking devices will satisfy Help America Vote Act requirements to replace lever voting machines in New York State," said Aimee Allaud, Elections Specialist, New York State League of Women Voters. "The League supports optical scan systems because they meet our criteria of secure, accurate, recountable and accessible," said Ms. Allaud.

o "The Sierra Club members who vote for environmentally minded political candidates want to make sure that every vote is counted. That's why the Sierra Club supports paper ballot based optical scan voting systems - they're the most transparent, reliable, practical way to ensure that every vote counts." Said Sarah Kogel-Smucker, Legislative Associate from the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.

o The New York Times in an editorial said, "Albany should ignore lobbyists for high-priced voting machines and come out strongly for optical-scan machines".

For detailed information on Paper Ballot/Optical Scan voting systems please visit Where's the Paper.

Touch screen machines have an estimated life of 3-5 years, and have a recent history of problems and breakdowns. Last Nov 2, there were tens of thousands of reports of them breaking down, losing votes, causing undervotes, or overvotes, that threw elections into question, assigning votes to the wrong candidate, and causing a loss of voter confidence in the election.

Summary: the touch screen machines are more expensive, less reliable and more prone to errors than Paper Ballot/Optical Scan voting. This is the message we need to send to our state legislators. We DON'T WANT our votes left up to unreliable touch-screen machines that will cost our states more money but are less reliable. We WANT Paper Ballots that are reliable, verifiable and cheaper. The League of Women Voters of New York State, the statewide Sierra Club, New Yorkers for Verified Voting, and many other organizations have endorsed a paper ballot/optical scan system. It is much less vulnerable to software error and fraud than touch-screen voting machines and is much less expensive.

So, are you convinced? Your voting rights are being threatened by the right wing and it is up to you to contact your state and local legislators and tell them what YOU think. Also contact your local media to tell them what you think. Our rights to a fair and accurate vote are at stake.