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Current Activism Please Support The New Emergency Holt Bill, HR 5036 February 2008 Compared to many other states, California is doing well. It is a sad state of affairs, but a large number of these United States do not require any form of paper trail or audit for their elections. What the machines says is what the citizens of many other states get. If we want elections in all states to at least have a paper trail and a 3% manual count for their Federal Elections, we do need to support HR 5036. HR 5036 needs to be passed quickly if it is to implemented by November 2008. Below is a quick look at HR 5036, Representative Rush Holt's emergency bill designed to solve the problems above. http://mysite.verizon.net/resq4lzq/cvi/id370.html TELL CONGRESS TO PASS HR 5036 - EMERGENCY BILL FOR SECURE ELECTIONS IN 2008 CALL - FAX - EMAIL – WRITE your Representatives Find Your Representative at: http://www2.sdcounty.ca.gov/rov/Eng/Edistrict_query.asp PLEASE SIGN THESE PETITIONS SUPPORTING HR 5036 Verified Voting Petition: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=22334 Move-On Petition Asking Congress To Implement Paper and Audits In November 2008: http://pol.moveon.org/paper2008/?r_by=-639921-DPMKLl&rc=mailto
OBSERVATIONS
OF PRE-ELECTION ACTIVITIES Members of Secure Accurate Elections have made a number of trips to the Registrar of Voters office to observe the Logic and Accuracy Testing as well as other processes involved in the preparation of holding an election. Secure Accurate Elections would like to sincerely thank San Diego County Registrar of Voters Deborah Seiler and Technical Coordinator Charlie Wallis for their time and patience. Both of these individuals guided us through the preparation process and patiently answered our numerous questions. It is our hope that the documentation that follows will aid all of us in San Diego County to better understand how our elections are conducted. JANUARY 8, 2008 - OBSERVATION NOTES Includes observations of Phase I Accuracy Testing of TSx machines, Election Night procedures at the Registrar of Voters office, question and answer section, observation of “precinct specific” memory cards being loaded into TSx machines and running of test ballots. Examples of documents used during accuracy testing, Phase I and II (pdf) Click here to see SAE's San Diego WATCH pages on pre-election and election observations
SAE ACTIVISM PROJECT - Fall - Winter 2007 SAE ASSISTS BBV IN CALIFORNIA COMPLIANCE PROJECT Secure Accurate Elections (SAE) is joining with Black Box Voting in BBV's California "Compliance Watch" Project. BBV describes this project as "Preventive Medicine." The "Compliance Project" uses public records strategies to gather documents related to compliance with California directives and laws. This will tell BBV, before the 2008 elections, which counties are obstructive, which counties comply with directives, and which counties show omissions or problems. SAE will be observing the 2008 Federal Elections in San Diego County. To date SAE has emailed and faxed two Public Record Requests (PRRs) to the County Registrar of Voters (ROV). State open records law, Cal. Govt Code Secs. 6250 to 6276.48, requires the ROV's Office to provide the requested documents. Important information will be gathered ahead of time so that any compliance problems and deficiencies can be pinpointed and corrected before the February 5, 2008 primary election. With the first PRR communication, SAE is requesting a copy of San Diego County's County Election Plan for the Nov. 6, 2006 election. The "County Election Plan" for the Nov. 2006 election will tell us where the weaknesses are. (The California Secretary of State requires all counties to file Election Observer, Physical Security, and Communication plans before each election.) SAE is calling for all three parts of the plan. Among the items requested in the second PRR, SAE is asking for the chain of custody log containing each voting machine and memory card seal number, access logs for the ROV's ballot storage facilities (both for blank ballots and voted ballots) and the access logs for any facilities where the ROVs Office stores voting machines. All of this information is for the period of time from Aug.1 through Nov. 20, 2006. As SAE gathers information on this project we will pass on the information to you through the SAE newsletter and website. PRR: Custody Audit Logs (downloadable PDF) PRR: County Election Plan (downloadable PDF) PRR: Secretary of State's Withdrawal of Approval (downloadable PDF)
CITIZEN ALERT - Let our voices be heard! CANDIDATES NEEDED FOR THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS There are three seats up for election in 2008 for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors: Greg Cox (District 1), Dianne Jacob (District 2) and Pam Slater-Price (District 3). They should not go unchallenged. Candidates have the window of February 11 through March 7 to file with the Registrar of voters. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OPEN A DIALOGUE ON ISSUES IMPORTANT TO US!!! Click here for more information!
CITIZEN ACTION ALERT 1 - ACT NOW! WE DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION OF VOTING SYSTEMS COMPANIES VoterAction is asking that you sign a petition to Congress. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2671/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12354 Our friends at VoterAction announced an action alert to ask the United State's Congress to take action to investigate "the increasing influence and control that private companies wage in the way we conduct our elections and to determine whether certain US voting systems companies have committed crimes under federal and state anti-fraud statutes which should be referred to the appropriate authorities for prosecution". For more information, see our petitions page.
CITIZEN ACTION ALERT 2 - ACT NOW! No more dirty tricks! Join the New York Times in opposing the right-wing theft of the White House in 2008 Sign Courage Campaign's petition to oppose the proposed California initiative, "Presidential Election Reform Act," regardless of where one lives in the United States. http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/NoPowerGrab
CITIZEN ACTION ALERT 3 - ACT NOW! Call or Fax the Leadership and Rules Committee, tell them to allow the Davis Amendment! Representative Susan Davis (D-California) has proposed an amendment to HR 811, restricting the use of DRE electronic voting machines. Click here to read the September 5, 2007 press release. Contact the members of the Rules Committee and the House Leadership, and ask them to allow the Davis amendment restricting the use of DREs. Better yet, let them and your own members know that DREs should be banned entirely in the Holt Bill (HR 811) before they even consider voting in favor of it. Such a ban should be added to HR 811 or any other such bill, as even the NY Times has now caught up with common sense, computer science, and mountains of reasons to call for such a ban themselves. Contact names/numbers for Leadership and Rules Committee members are posted at the end of the alert. Davis's office has let us know that both Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) have signed on as co-sponsors of her amendment, now being referred to as the Susan Davis-Hinchey-Lee amendment. While we don't support HR 811 as currently written, some of its biggest supporters have now endorsed the Davis-et al. amendment. Endorsers include MoveOn.org, Verified Voting, and VoteTrustUSA. Notably (and embarrassingly) absent in their endorsement is People for the American Way (PFAW), which prefers DREs to paper-based systems, and Common Cause, which seems to follow whatever PFAW wants to do, apparently. Finally, before the contact names and numbers, here's a terrific sample letter to email or fax to your members, as written by New York Election Integrity advocate Teresa Hommel of WheresThePaper.org... SAMPLE LETTER ---YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS--- September xx, 2007
Members of the House Rules Committee United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 By FAX: 202-225-1061
Dear Representatives: HR811 has been modified since most of its sponsors signed on. Activists are now calling the bill "Microsoft 811" because it is more favorable to vendors and software makers than to citizens. HR811 allows continued use of invisible electronic votes and voting counting. Under HR811 the paper trail would not be counted for election night tallies, but only for 3-10% "recounts" days later. But everyone knows that once a winner is announced, it is nearly impossible to correct any errors. Just look at the Christine Jennings race where 18,000 electronic votes "disappeared." VOTE YES --- Please work for the following amendments to HR811. 1. BAN DREs ("Direct Recording Electronic" voting machines that record and count votes) including in early voting! We do not wish to ban ballot marking devices with touchscreens that assist disabled voters to mark paper ballots that are the same or similar to ballots marked by hand by able voters. 2. All voters must have a voter-marked paper ballot for November, 2008, whether marked by hand by able voters or marked by "ballot marking devices" by disabled voters. (We agree with California Secy. of State Bowen's temporary measure to allow use of DREs with paper trails to be used as "ballot-printing devices" by disabled voters.) 3. No secret software! All software used in equipment for public elections to record, cast, store, handle, or count votes must be freely available to the public. 4. Election records available to the public. The public has a right to request, and promptly receive, any data from an election or audit. 5. Election Management systems must be "standalone" with no communications capability. 6. Audits to confirm the true winner of every federal election with 99% statistical certainty. 7. The Election Assistance Commission should not be given any additional power over American elections, which should remain a state matter. VOTE NO --- Please work AGAINST any amendment to postpone these requirements. Optical scan ballots and scanners have been easily implemented in 2 or 3 months in several jurisdictions. Sincerely yours, ---SIGNATURE--- ************************************************************************************************************************************ Here are Leadership and Rules Committee Member contacts House Leadership: NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) Phone: (202) 225-4965 Fax: (202) 225-4188 STENY HOYER (D-MD) Phone: (202) 225-4131 Fax: (202) 225-4300 U.S. House Committee on Rules: Main Number: 202-225-9091 Democrats: LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER (NY) - CHAIRWOMAN http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=84 Phone: (202) 225-3615 Fax: (202) 225-7822 JAMES P. McGOVERN (MA) http://mcgovern.house.gov/?sectionid=2§iontree=2 Phone: (202) 225-6101 Fax: (202) 225-5759 ALCEE L. HASTINGS (FL) http://www.alceehastings.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=30 Tel: (202) 225-1313 Fax: (202) 225-1171 DORIS O. MATSUI (CA) Phone: (202) 225-7163 Fax: (202) 225-0566 DENNIS CARDOZA, (CA) http://www.house.gov/cardoza/biography.shtml Phone: (202) 225-6131 Fax: 202-225-0819 800-356-6424 PETER WELCH, (VT) http://www.welch.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=61 Phone:(202) 225-4115 KATHY CASTOR (FL) Phone: (202)225-3376 Fax: (202)225-5652 MICHAEL ARCURI (NY) Phone: 202-225-3665 Fax: 202-225-1891 BETTY SUTTON (OH) Phone: (202) 225-3401 Fax: (202) 225-2266 Republicans: DAVID DREIER (CA) - Ranking Minority Member Office (202) 225-2305 Fax (202) 225-7018 LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (FL) Phone: (202) 225-4211 DOC HASTINGS (WA) Phone: (202) 225-5816 Fax: (202) 225-3251 PETE SESSIONS (TX) (202) 225-2231 (202) 225-5878 fax
On-going activism projects: Click here for Election Defense Alliance Action, Holt Bill (HR 811) Click here for Action, Do not confirm Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC! |
