[CFVI News] URGENT! CFVI endorsement sought by NY Verified Voting Group..Please Vote!

[<meliom@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear CFVI Member:

Dear CFVI Members:

I am from New York (but live in Colorado now) and the State is considering changing it's voting system; the New Yorkers for Verified Voting 
organization below would like our endorsement for their system described below.

As per Bob McGrath, please consider this endorsement.

We will conduct a vote. You may have questions, but we would like to vote
on the measure as it is put to us by them. So, YEA or NAY is all that we need.

Reply to this Email with either a YEA or NAY, a short comment is ok. 

Thank you,

Michael Melio
Co-Chair Data and Technology Committee.


URGENT!

I'm forwarding this to you because you represent a voting integrity 
group.
Please read this immediately and act on it now. New York needs our help!!

Please pass this message along to others.

Ellen Theisen
www.VotersUnite.Org

----- Original Message -----
From: Bo Lipari
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 2:11 PM
Subject: Please endorse NYVV Statement on NY Voting Machines


Hi everyone,

Below is a statement New Yorkers for Verified Voting has prepared on 
New
York's choice of voting machines. It supports paper ballot/optical 
scan/ballot marking systems rather than DREs with voter verified paper 
ballots. I am requesting that your organizations give your endorsement to 
this statement. Also, please forward this to other organizations in your 
network and request their endorsement.

I apologize for the short notice, but I'd like to get as many groups 
signed
on as possible before next Wednesday, 2/16, when I'm due to present to the 
NYC HAVA coalition in Manhattan. Many activist organizations based in NYC 
currently support DREs+VVPB, and I'd like to demonstrate that there are 
many activist organizations in NYS who believe PB/OS to be the better 
solution.

Please let me know if there is anything in the statement that you do 
not
agree with. If your group will endorse it, please send me the official 
title of your organization. I'll then list it in the endorsement section. 
The statement and endorsement list will be posted on the nyvv.org website 
as well. My email address is bolipari@xxxxxxxxx

As many of you know, NY will make the decision about voting equipment 
very
soon now, perhaps within the next few weeks. We have an uphill battle to 
get NY to purchase paper ballot systems, but we are gaining traction. We 
only have a few more weeks before NY commits to buying touch screen 
machines. The time for us to act is now.

Thanks,
Bo Lipari,
New Yorkers for Verified Voting


Statement on a New Voting System for New York State

1) As New York State moves to replace our lever machines, we must 
choose a
reliable, auditable, secure, accessible and cost effective voting system.

The system that best satisfies these requirements is one based on paper
ballots, counted either by hand or precinct based optical scanners, 
augmented by ballot marking devices which provide accessible, private and 
independent voting for voters with disabilities.

2) Electronic touch screen voting machines (DREs) equipped with voter
verified paper ballots present problems with ergonomics, logistics, 
security, fraud, and mechanical fragility that make them an unacceptable 
voting technology.

·         Ergonomic problems are introduced by the voter verified paper 
ballots (VVPB) having a different layout than the touch screen ballot,
difficulty voters may have remembering selections to verify their ballots, 
and by the additional verification step required after making selections.

·         Logistics problems include difficulties in collecting and 
organizing the receipts, transporting them, and reading and reconciling
them with electronic tallies.

·         Security issues include the possibility that receipts can be 
systematically misprinted in a way that cannot be detected.

·         Mechanical problems include printer breakdowns and supplies 
running out. VVPB could add problems by being questioned in various 
ways or
though the development of computer programs that systematically defraud the 
VVPB.


3) Paper ballots counted either by hand or by precinct based optical
scanners are a proven, mature, reliable, and auditable technology.

A report by Cal Tech/MIT issued on March 30, 2001 entitled "Residual 
Votes
Attributable to Technology", found that manually counted paper ballots have 
the lowest average incidence of spoiled, uncounted, and unmarked ballots, 
followed closely by optically scanned ballots. Punch card methods and 
systems using DREs had significantly higher average rates of spoiled, 
uncounted and unmarked ballots than any of the other systems.


4) If counting of ballots is done by optical scanners, these safeguards 
are
needed:


·         All software used in electronic voting and ballot tabulation 
equipment must be freely available for public examination.

·         Wireless communication devices in voting and tabulating equipment 
must be banned. Such devices allow malicious individuals or 
organizations
to access and modify the software and tallies in the tabulating equipment.

·         Standards, procedures, and time-frames to guarantee voters and 
candidates the right to petition for and obtain manual recounts before
certification of the winner of an election must be specified.

·         Surprise random recounts of a statistically meaningful number of 
precincts to compare optical scanner results to paper ballot totals, 
not
just when vote counts are challenged.

·         A citizen's advisory committee, which shall include election 
officials, representatives of the disabled community, and independent
computer professionals with no ties to voting machine vendors, shall make 
recommendations for the choice of voting system for NYS.
More information about paper ballot/optical scan/ballot marking voting
systems can be found at:

http://www.nyvv.org/paperballotHome.htm

Thank you,

Michael David Melio
Westminster, CO
(303)530-5215

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