Analysis Finds E-Voting Machines Vulnerable
Andrea Stone, USA Today, Monday 26 June 2006 -- Most of the electronic voting machines widely adopted since the disputed 2000 presidential election "pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state and local elections," a report out Tuesday concludes.
  There are more than 120 security threats to the three most commonly purchased electronic voting systems, the study by the Brennan Center for Justice says. For what it calls the most comprehensive review of its kind, the New York City-based non-partisan think tank convened a task force of election officials, computer scientists and security experts to study e-voting vulnerabilities.
  The study, which took more than a year to complete, examined optical scanners and touch-screen machines with and without paper trails. Together, the three systems account for 80% of the voting machines that will be used in this November's election. (read full article here.)

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State:      In Pennsylvania, legislation was introduced in the House (HB 2000) and Senate (SB977). However, those bills are going nowhere. As explained by Senator Madigan, for instance, "the State has not even approved a machine which provides a permanent paper record"!!!(emphasis added). Because of that, the Senate bill "was withdrawn from Committee consideration and it was agreed that the Committee will conduct a public hearing on the bill in the early part of this year." (see March 13, 2006 letter). The 'early part' has come and gone, but nothing has been done. It is up to YOU to protect your vote.

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Sample Letters to Editors
      Very Secret Ballot John Kesich, Letter to Editor (Rocket Courier), April 5, 2006
      Count My Vote Laura Blain, Letter to Editor (Towanda Daily Review), March 3, 2006
      
Very Secret Ballot
John Kesich, Letter to Editor (Rocket Courier), April 5, 2006 -- EDITOR: The Diebold voting machines Tioga and Bradford counties are getting redefine the phrase secret ballot.
   The problem is that the voter is not allowed to verify the accuracy of the paper record of their vote.
   Instead we must blindly trust that the machine has been properly programmed to correctly record our votes.
   While HAVA effectively bans lever machines because they are not auditable, those charged with ensuring HAVA compliance are essentially letting the lever's electronic cousins produce ballot records on the honor system.
   If you don't think our votes should be counted in secret by private companies with terrible records of violating election laws you are not alone. Recent polls found that 89.6% of likely Pennsylvania voters and 95% of the Association for Computing Machinery (the world's largest organization of computer professionals) think electronic voting machines (DREs) should produce a voter-verified paper trail.
   So, why don't those responsible for certifying our election systems get it? Considering that Secretary Cortes chose to cherry pick one research paper which used dubious methodology to bolster his claim that DREs are highly accurate while ignoring the many papers and documented cases of problems, including a recent report from the GAO, the word agenda comes to mind.
   Politicians wax poetic about our sacred right to vote and how people died so that we could enjoy it. The question before us is, will we surrender it without a peep, let alone a fight? To get involved in the effort to safeguard our elections, visit votePA.org and blackboxvoting.org.
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Count My Vote
Laura H. Blain, Letter to Editor (Towanda Daily Review), March 3, 2006 -- EDITOR: Last week, the county commissioners approved the purchase of new voting machines. In response to my question about a verifiable paper trail to protect my vote, we were told that each station provides a paper printout. This is NOT reassuring.
  Have you ever had a computer glitch? There is no real assurance that the final printout will be accurate, and my vote or yours may be lost or miscounted. An electronic error on a computer will have a matching tally error on any printouts. With no other record, no paper ballots collected, there IS no verification possible.
  While I don't believe our commissioners can be faulted for purchasing shiny new voting machines so they don't loose HAVA funding, this is being pushed too far, too fast, without adequate safeguards to insure our votes are accurately counted. ""There's no county or city government that would have the in-house staff with the necessary expertise" to test such complicated machinery..." (Scrutiny Of Voting Machines Limited, by David Cho, Washington Post, October 12, 2003) A quick internet search of WINvote machines, this county's intended machine, documents verified failures. (http://www.votersunite.org/info/WINvoteinthenews.pdf) So why is no one complaining? Have we all given up on democracy? Do you not care about your vote?
  "Most of the voting systems being considered for purchase with HAVA funds rely on some form of electronic or computerized counting. Computers are wonderful for many things, but experience with these new voting systems so far shows that vote counting is not really one of them...Once a vote is lost from the electronic memory of a computer, it is gone forever - unless that vote has been protected by a Voter Verified Paper Ballot or a Voter Verified Paper Record. A VVPB or VVPR is basically a paper copy of the voter's choices, which he or she can see and approve before casting their final vote. Upon casting the vote, the paper goes into locked ballot box, where it is available for auditing or recount. In the event the audit or recount shows a discrepancy between the electronic tally and the paper, the voter-verified paper record must become the official record of the vote." (http//www.votepa.us/why.html)
  Please urge our state officials (Representative Tina Pickett, and Senator Roger Madigan) to support passing HB 2000 & SB 977; and at the federal level, tell U.S. Congressional Representative Don Sherwood to support HR 550 AS WRITTEN, to insure a voter verified paper record or voter verified paper ballot for every vote. I want to KNOW my vote is counted!

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