Accessible Voting Under Assault

A small group of professors have charged that accessible voting machines can be easily hacked changing the results of an election. Computer experts and election officials strongly deny the charge. The professors have succeeded in delaying or preventing the purchase of accessible machines in Illinois, New Hampshire, 9 of California’s largest counties, and Baltimore county. The professors insist that each touch screen must be attached to a printer and that a “Voter Verified Paper Ballot” is printed on the spot and that the piece of paper is the ballot. There are no accessible voter verified paper ballot touch screens. A few paper/touch screen machines are on the drawing board. There are no accessible paper/touch screen machines that have been certified at the national or state level. It takes years to develop, certify, and deploy new voting systems.

Action:

Contact your Secretary of State and urge him/her to issue a public statement that the Secretary has confidence in touch screen voting. In addition, the National Association of Secretary’s of State Executive Board is drafting a policy statement. Your Secretary must tell the executive board that the existing machines combined with election procedures are accurate and a big improvement over what most of the country uses.

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