Reply #3: MD: Support TrueVoteMD -- They Walk the Walk

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MD: Support TrueVoteMD
Maryland should be proud of TrueVoteMD. The organization is a watch dog and activist group that goes after outsourced election, i.e., those with voting machines.

Maryland Stands Alone.
Maryland Stands Alone

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http://truevotemd.org/content/view/318/2/.

Governor Ehrlich “Receptive to Paper Trails”, Carter-Baker Comes Out for Paper Trails, State of Georgia - Only Other Paperless Voting State Moves to Put in Place Voter Verified Paper Trail… Maryland Stands Alone.

Takoma Park, Maryland. Governor Robert L. Ehrlich went on record today as “receptive to paper trails", according to an Associated Press report. This coincided with The Atlanta Journal Constitution reporting a seismic shift in the elections world today. Lamone counterpart, Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox “announced her office is working to implement the so-called voter-verified paper audit trail.”

Yesterday Cox, who is running for governor and had been an ardent opponent of paper records, put out a press release saying: "I support paper receipts. We are pro-actively exploring options to modify and enhance Georgia's voting system to provide a voter-verified paper trail that gives voters even more confidence in our voting process."


On Monday, the prestigious Carter-Baker Commission joined a growing chorus urging a paper trail for electronic voting. Twenty-six states have passed laws requiring a paper record with electronic voting. New Hampshire has banned e-voting. When Georgia makes its transition Maryland will have the only statewide voting system in the United States without a paper record.

“There is a clear trend in the nation toward the conclusion that paper records are required with electronic voting. Computer scientists have expressed security concerns, the machines have malfunctioned, costs have skyrocketed – and it is time for Elections Administrator Lamone to rethink her position and take the common sense approach – voter verified paper records for e-voting,” said Schade. “Maryland needs a paper ballot record in time for the 2006 elections.”

For two years TrueVoteMD.org has been urging a paper record for e-voting. The group was founded when security evaluations by Johns Hopkins University showed votes could be changed on the machines. Two other major reports confirmed the security vulnerabilities. More recently machine failures have come to light in Maryland. The Montgomery County IT report found that up to 12% of their machines had problems in the 2004 election including machines freezing and crashing in the midst of votes, error messages on the machines, blank cards that record the votes and machines being unable to start. In Baltimore County there were such widespread problems that it took four days for the results to be reported and four months to be made official. Even today, there continue to be inconsistencies between the State and Baltimore County reports on the numbers of votes case – a discrepancy of 21,000 votes.

TrueVoteMD is a non-partisan organization working for transparent and verifiable elections in Maryland.

TrueVoteMD Urges Maryland to “rapidly put in place a paper record for independent recounts” The Carter-Baker Commission joined a growing chorus today urging a paper trail for electronic voting. Twenty-six states have passed laws requiring a paper record with electronic voting. New Hampshire has banned e-voting. Maryland is one of only two states that votes paperless.

“Not requiring a paper record for e-voting is becoming an indefensible position. Maryland needs to join the rest of the country and recognize that the only way to have transparent, independent vote counts is to provide a paper record that is verified by the voter,” said Linda Schade, Director of TrueVoteMD.org.

For three years TrueVoteMD.org has been urging a paper record for e-voting. The groups efforts began when security reviews by Johns Hopkins University showed votes could be changed on the machines. Since then two other reports have also found security vulnerabilities. More recently machine failures have come to light in Maryland. The Montgomery County IT report found that up to 12% of their machines had problems in the last election. Problems included machines freezing and crashing in the midst of votes, error messages on the machines, blank cards that record the votes and machines being unable to start. In Baltimore County there were such widespread problems that it took four days for the results to be reported and it was not until four months after the election that the Baltimore County reports were made official. Even today, there continue to be inconsistencies between the State and Baltimore County reports on the numbers of votes case – a discrepancy of 27,000 votes.

“With serious security and performance problems we cannot trust the Diebold machines to count the vote accurately. It is critical for the state to require a paper record for e-voting in time for the 2006 elections. The Gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races in particular are expected to be close and every legislative seat in the Maryland legislature. Voters need to be sure their votes are counted accurately and that cannot be done on the current Diebold machines,” said Schade.

TrueVoteMD is a non-partisan organization working for transparent and verifiable elections in Maryland.

ABOUT TrueVoteMD

TrueVoteMD.org is a volunteer, grass-roots organization of citizens across the State of Maryland who are deeply concerned about the integrity of the election process, in the state and nationally, due to the introduction of electronic voting equipment which fails to provide voters with a printed paper record of their votes.

Without this voter-verified printed ballot, there is no way to audit elections to ensure that votes are correctly recorded and counted, or to conduct a meaningful, independent recount. Through non-partisan public education, grassroots organizing, litigation, research and legislation, we are working to make Maryland's voting system accurate, verifiable, and fully transparent.

TrueVoteMD
7711 Garland Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-6150