Raw Story: Group Launches Divestment Campaign Against Voting Firms

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Group launches divestment campaign against voting firms over paper trails, ‘partisanship’

Filed under: General— site admin @ 12:47 am

‘Velvet Revolution’ launches voting firm divestment campaign

By Jesse Kanson-Benanav | RAW STORY Managing Editor

The Velvet Revolution has begun!

This time, however, it’s not in Ukraine, but right here in the United States.

Led by Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com, the Velvet Revolution (VelvetRevolution.us) is a coalition of 80 progressive groups who say they have united to bring accountability and transparency to American voting procedures. Targeting the nine leading vote machine manufacturers–Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems, Election Systems and Software, HartInterCivic, MicroVote, Danaher-Guardian, TriadGSI, UniLect, and Advanced Voting Solutions–the Velvet Revolution hopes to open vote-counting procedures in America to greater public scrutiny.

“These companies are behaving terribly,” Friedman said. “They are all Republican companies that insist on keeping their information private.”

Friedman and the Velvet Revolution coalition insist that because such corporations are contracted to serve a public function–to manage vote-counting systems–they should be accountable to the public in the same way government agencies are. The coalition takes issue with the fact that all nine companies refuse to release their software, saying it is proprietary, and will not issue paper ballots or receipts.

The voting machine companies disagree. (more at the link)

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=140



"NOT ONE LINE OF SOFTWARE BETWEEN A VOTER AND A VALID ELECTION: NOT ONE, EVER AGAIN"