Verified Voting Gains Momentum: Contact Your Senator!

Step 1: Find your senators here.

Step 2: Copy the following into the body of an email:

"Dear Senator,
I am a constituent who cares deeply about security and trust in
elections, and I urge you to cosponsor the Voter Confidence and
Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 (S.1980). As touchscreen voting
(e-voting) technology is adopted across America, it's absolutely vital
that these new systems meet basic standards of accountability and
openness. I am particularly concerned that many systems do not use
openly reviewed software and cannot provide a voter verifiable paper
audit trail. Unless a paper record is generated by publicly reviewed
software, verified by the voter and retained for potential recounts, I
believe that this technology is unacceptable for use in our elections.
The public should be allowed to review the software that runs these
machines in order to confirm that they act in the way that the
manufacturer claims. Right now, however, the leading technologies are
not only proprietary, they are covered by trade secret claims. This
kind of closed source, or 'black box,' software lacks sufficient
quality assurance. In fact, two recent analyses of one company's
software revealed gaping security holes that could be exploited by
anyone from a technically proficient insider to an average voter with a
few dollars worth of technology in his or her pocket. This underscores
how important open source software is for our elections. S.1980 would
require voting machines to use publicly reviewed software.
S.1980 would also mandate voter verifiable paper audit trails for all
e-voting machines, a prerequisite for accountability and accuracy. The
2000 presidential election was a painful lesson in the failings of
current voting technology, but at least there was a back-up system that
allowed a manual recount when evidence emerged that the regular voting
process was flawed. Without a paper audit trail, a compromised e-voting
system could not provide even the cold comfort of Florida's manual
recount. Luckily, adding this protection to the machines is not hard
and does not have to add a significant amount to the cost of each unit.
S.1980's House companion - H.R.2239 - already has 94 cosponsors. Major
newspapers like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times have endorsed
the principles that I've mentioned above. As a constituent, I strongly
urge you to cosponsor S.1980 and ensure that all new e-voting machines
provide a voter-verifiable paper audit trail and use publicly reviewed
software. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,

Step 3: Sign your name at the bottom

Step 4: Click 'Send'

I'd do it myself, but I'm from DC and don't have any Congressional representation.

Posted by flow Frazao on January 12, 2004 at 11:45 AM | Permalink