This time it’s personal. I live in the state of New York, and this year the State Board of Elections and electronic voting machine manufacturers have embarked upon a dangerous dallience. And it looks remarkably similar to the bait and switch tactics Diebold, et al, have employed in other states. Check out this editorial in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle dated January 4, 2006:
This summer, the Monroe County Board of Elections hosted a demonstration by voting machine vendors. Many community groups attended the demonstrations and found that none of the machines was accessible to people with disabilities, nor were the vendor representatives able to adequately answer questions about security.
More recently, concerns were heightened when the state Board of Elections released a draft of the voting machine certification guidelines that allows for the use of wireless networks, increasing susceptibility to hacking and tampering. The guidelines also allow voting machine companies to maintain a proprietary computer code for the voting machine programming. That’s like Detroit telling us that we can’t look under the hood of our car because of “trade secrets.”
By caving in to corporations’ demands to keep their voting machine computer code secret, the state Board of Elections is allowing for the possibility of conflicts of interest (a CEO of at least one voting machine company has contributed significantly to one of the political parties) as well as leaving local election boards in limbo if voter machine tampering is suspected.
The state Board of Elections is in this position because, rather than requiring voting machine companies to design machines in compliance with standards dictated by New York (as we do with auto emissions, for example), the state is basically “shopping” for what the corporations already have on the market.
The problem is that none of the available options is acceptable.
Several local groups, representing thousands of area voters, have come together as the Every Vote Counts Coalition. We maintain that to protect the integrity of New Yorkers’ votes, voting machines must be secure, accessible, reliable with mature technology, auditable and cost-effective. . . .
It isn’t too late for New Yorkers to demand that the state Board of Elections hold the voting machine corporations to the highest standards. HAVA has given U.S. citizens a unique opportunity to effect historical change in the voting process.
We urge New York state voters to get involved and ensure that their vote counts.
Same modus operandi. Same failure by State Government officials to abide by their own laws and regulations regarding electronic voting machines. Like a well oiled — well — machine, the electronic voting machine vendors and their lobbyists have staged a full court press in a rush to get New York counties to replace their old reliable manual lever voting machines (which allow little if any chance for tampering) with unverifiable, no paper trail, easy to hack touch screen and optiscan technologies.
What you can do on the flip side if you live in New York.
1. Go to this website and get educated: New Yorkers for Verified Voting.
2. Write or phone your local county officials. Go to this LINK to find contact information for your local county board of elections.
3. Contact your state legislators and let them know your demand that New York not approve any electronic voting machines without a verified paper trail and without disclosure of, and access to, the source code used by the machines in question. To contact your NY State Senator us this LINK, and to contact your NY Assembly Representative use this LINK.
4. Contact New York’s Congressional delegation (LINK) to let them know your views on unverifiable electronic voting technologies being considered for use in New York, and demand they take action.
Good Luck.
