In the year 2000, America saw disaster. This disaster came in the form of a "hanging chad" - when our voting rights got tossed out the window like yesterday's trash.
Yes, it was a sad time in this country's history - the choice came down to two candidates - George W. Bush and Al Gore. Was this really a choice for the country? It was Dumb vs. Dumber - and from that so-called "election", America got its first Supreme-Court-Appointed President - a man we've all come to know as "Dubya".
In most elections, the person with the most votes wins, but Florida changed all that in 2000. But with the next presidential election less than a year away, can we be sure that history won't repeat itself?
The question is: Will your vote count?
October 2002: Congress passed the HAVA - the Help America Vote Act. This act was supposed to solve the problem by getting rid of the punch card ballots. This act is getting most states to implement new touch-screen voting machines, which is definitely a step up from the punch-card ballots...........or is it?
Because of the rush to pass HAVA, a key element was left out: "voter verifiable paper receipt".
With touch-screen voting machines, there is no paper trail. So what if the machine does not record your vote accurately? What if the software has a bug? What if your vote doesn't count?
New Jersey Representative Rush Holt has this to say: "Imagine, it's Election Day 2004. You enter your polling place and go to cast your vote on a brand new touch screen voting machine. The screen says your vote has been counted. As you exit the voting booth, however, you begin to wonder. How do I know if the machine actually recorded my vote? The fact is, you don't."
These new machines would not be a problem if there was a "voter verifiable audit trail". With this audit trail, there would be a permanent record of the vote in which the voter could verify that the machine counted his or her vote correctly. Also, this would be a wise thing to have in the case of a recount. Without this paper trail, any "recount" would just be another print out of the wrong vote.
Contact your congressmen and tell them to support the Voter Confidence Bill HR2239.
Here are some facts from VerifiedVoting.org:
*Computer experts say today's voting machines are prone to errors and vulnerable to fraud.
*Even thorough testing can't reveal malicious programs that could subvert an election.
*Courts have ruled that secret software can be used to record and count our votes.
*Defective hardware and bugs in software could decide who wins an election.
*Many election officials don't realize the risks inherent in using electronic voting machines.
*Manual recounts will be impossible in districts that don't allow voters to inspect a paper record of their votes.
Take action. Let's not let the Supreme Court pick our president again. Let's make our vote count.
visit these sites for more info:
Verified Voting
Stop Bush in 2004
Bush Recall
Misleader
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