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Threat Posed by New Computerized Voting Machines
[PLEASE CLICK THE ABOVE LINK to send a fax to your Representative urging him or her to support voting machines with a paper trail.]

A Message from Martin Sheen
As a member of TrueMajority I am concerned about the threat posed by new computerized voting machines. We start with a principle so obvious it seems strange even to write it: For a democracy to work, the people must believe that balloting is conducted fairly and votes are counted accurately. Americans feel justifiable pride that our nation has created a system to ensure this, including provisions for recounts.

New computerized voting machines register votes on a memory chip and then digitally transmit the results via telephone modem to election headquarters. We can only hope that neither glitches nor tampering will change or erase any of our votes. We all know that computers sometimes crash and lose data. Power cords get pulled out of the wall. And what better trophy for a hacker--or over zealous campaign worker--than to skew the outcome of the actual election?

There is a simple solution to these problems. The California Secretary of State has ordered that these new computerized voting machines print out a paper copy of your vote for your approval before the vote is registered. These printouts would then be saved in case the machines malfunction or there is any question as to whether or not they have been tampered with. Without them we would just have to trust the companies that make the machines--companies like Diebold whose CEO, Walden W. O'Dell, recently wrote in a fundraising letter for the Republicans, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year."

To send a fax to your Representative urging him or her to support voting machines with a paper trail across the country fill out the form that is available through the above link.

posted by Lorenzo 8:05 PM