Progressive Democrat Issue 62: VIRGINIA FOCUS

Continued from last week:

Virginia has the chance to join 27 other states in restricting the ability to commit fraud on the election system. The General Assembly’s Senate Privileges and Elections Committee is set to hear Senate Bill 424 on Tuesday January 24th at 4:00pm. We have the support of at least 2 moderate Republicans on the committee, so we need all six Democrats to join in this critical battle and support SB424, in order to move it forward.

27 states have passed laws requiring that every voting machine produce a voter-verified paper ballot, mandatory auditing of the ballots to the machine count to make sure votes are not being switched by technical error or intentional fraud, and state inspection of the secret source code that is used to program the voting machines. It is absolutely critical that we get these reform measures in place to ensure that no vote-rigging can occur on a widespread scale here in VA.

The Democratic National Committee (Report material at end of email) has come out in complete support of this issue. They urge that paperless touchscreen machines (also known as DREs) be thrown out in favor of precinct based optical scan machines (PBOS) because of the incredible ease with which elections could be rigged. Our Democracy is too sacred to allow malicious forces to criminal alter our chosen representatives.

Please call upon the six democrats on the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee to support SB424 immediately. Even if they are not your personal representatives, as a committee they represent all of Virginia.

The six Democrats on the Senate Privileges and Elections committee:

*Include you name, address, and phone number when emailing

Senator R. Creigh Deeds
(804) 698-7525
district25@sov.state.va.us

Senator William Roscoe Reynolds
(804) 698-7520
district20@sov.state.va.us

Senator Phillip P. Puckett
(804) 698-7538
district38@sov.state.va.us

Senator Mary Margaret Whipple
(804) 698-7531
district31@sov.state.va.us

Senator Benjamin J. Lambert, III
(804) 698-7509
district09@sov.state.va.us

Senator Janet D. Howell
(804) 698-7532
district32@sov.state.va.us

For more info visit Verified Voting


The Voting Rights Institute of the Democratic National Committee issued a report on June 22, 2005 following more than five months of investigation into the voting in Ohio in November, 2004. They have very clear recommendations regarding voting systems that they urge Democrats across the county to push for.

Full report from DNC is available: http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/06/democracy_at_ri.php

Regarding DREs (Direct Record Electronics or touchscreens):

“The study findings and independent analysis indicate that the use of DRE (touchscreen) machines is highly problematic and the use of precinct-tabulated optical scan systems is vastly preferable.” (Section 2: Executive Summary, Section H, Page 9)

“Current DRE voting systems, in addition to being extremely expensive to procure and maintain, are vulnerable to fraud. Existing standards and practices for certification of voting systems are insufficient to provide security for existing DRE systems, and significant effort will be required to remedy these deficiencies in the future.” (Section 1: Letter of Introduction to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Page 2)

“Paper trail audits offer an improvement over current DRE systems that provide no paper trail but they do not guard against tampering, improper equipment calibration, and faulty aggregation of the votes cast.” (Section 1: Letter of Introduction to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Page 2)

Regarding precinct-based optical scan voting systems:

“Our team has analyzed the effectiveness of the various voting machines used in Ohio and has strong recommendations favoring precinct-count optical scan machines.” (Section 1: Letter of Introduction to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Page 2).

“Precinct based optical scan systems remain superior with respect to ensuring that everyone’s vote is counted.” (Section 2: Executive Summary, Section H, Page 9)

“Jurisdictions should be encouraged to use precinct-tabulated optical scan systems with a computer assisted device at each precinct, in preference to touchscreen (“direct recording equipment” or “DRE”) machines.” (Section 12, Recommendations for Future Action, Page 2, Number 11)

“Precinct-based optical scan systems are the most accurate voting systems available today. They are also reasonably priced and can satisfy HAVA requirements in a cost-effective manner with devices such as the ES&S AutoMark.” (Section 7: Electronic Voting: Accuracy, Accessibility, and Fraud, Page 7, Recommendation 1)