Citizens for Verifiable Voting

a Boulder County non-partisan organization concerned with preservation of our democracy, insists that Boulder County immediately stop its process of selecting and purchasing new electronic voting machines.

We demand that the county use only a transparent, honest, verifiable and accurate vote recording system, that protects and ensures the sanctity, privacy and integrity of every person's vote, the most important act of citizenship in a democracy.

We find that none of the systems under consideration by Boulder County can meet our requirements, none provide for a secure and verifiable paper trail with meaningful re-countability, and therefore none give us confidence in the results.

Furthermore, since technical guidelines for election systems have not yet been developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as required under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), it is premature, fiscally irresponsible, and imprudent for Boulder County to select any new voting system at this time.

We are very concerned with the vulnerability of all electronic systems for fraud, irretrievable data loss, and disenfranchisement in vote recording and counting. We do recognize that some elements of electronic devices may be needed to enable citizens with disabilities to generate verifiable paper ballots, in compliance with HAVA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Specifically, we call on Boulder County officials, our state and national elected officials and our fellow citizens to:

• Insist on the use paper ballots as the single, official record of the vote;

• Allow no secret or proprietary software in any voting recording or vote counting machines;

• Embrace accuracy as the most important priority in elections, not speed of completing the counts; and

• Support election reform laws at the local, state, and national level that encompass and resolve all of the above concerns.

Citizens for Verifiable Voting Public Meeting:
Wednesday, November 12th, 2003, 7 to 9pm
ECON 205 on the CU Boulder Campus

Email List: bcv-subscribe@booyaka.com

Web Site: http://bcv.booyaka.com/moin.cgi/FrontPage