Austin: "Computer Ate My Vote" Day of Actions

[NoPasaran]

TEXAS COALITION RALLIES FOR "COMPUTER ATE MY VOTE" DAY OF ACTION
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Tuesday July 13th, 11 am
WHERE: Speaker's Committee Room, 2nd floor, Room 2W.6, State Capitol Bldg. Austin, TX.


SPEAKERS:
* State Representative Eddie Rodriguez - District 51 - represents East & South Austin. Has sponsored bills on fair election law; staunch advocate for citizen's rights.
* Dr. Dan Wallach - Rice University computer Scientist, security engineer; and electronic voting expert. Has testified before election officials across the country.
* Bev Harris - author of Black Box Voting: Ballot tampering in the 21st Century. Bev's investigative journalism and documentation has been instrumental in policy changes on voting methodology in numerous states around the country.
* Madeleine Hervey - Common Cause TX, Chair, Electronic Voting Committee

A national coalition of groups including Common Cause, MoveOn.org, TrueMajority.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Democracy For America, Working Assets, and VerifiedVoting.org are co-sponsoring a nationwide "The Computer Ate My Vote" Day of Action. These groups are demanding that State officials take necessary actions, so that when citizens vote in the November 2004 election, they will be able to verify the accuracy of their vote from a paper ballot that can be kept for meaningful audits, re-counts, and dispute resolution.

Secretary of State Geoffrey Connor has assured the public that the testing and certification process on our voting equipment here in Texas is rigorous and exacting, and that our current voting systems are safe and secure. We disagree. All the logic and accuracy testing in the world is not enough, as has been proved over and over in other states across our nation, using similar or identical equipment. Today, as citizens we are petitioning Secretary Connor to give his pledge to the electorate that he will vigorously pursue a course of action that will ensure safe elections by providing a paper accounting, verified by the individual voter for each vote, that can be audited and recounted. Petitions, signed by over 6,000 Texans (out of 3 million signatures nationwide) will be displayed and presented to Secretary Connor. We will also be stipulating that the Secretary of State unlock the doors to the state's voting machine certification process this August, so that non-partisan, independent testing may be conducted, under public scrutiny, on electronic voting equipment now in use and being considered for future purchase.

Other citizen groups supporting this Day of Action include: Public Citizen, Drive Democracy,
Texas Safe Voting.org, Coalition For Visible Ballots, Campaigns For People, Blackboxvoting.org,
Austin Code Pink, The ACLU of TX, and EFF-Austin.


Also! *** Lecture / Booksigning by Bev Harris with Andy Stephenson ***
When: Tuesday, July 13th, 7:30 til 10 pm
Where: First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover - Howsen Hall (452-6168)
Donation: $10 minimum at the door; Bev's book will be available for sale

[GOPisEvil]

1. Do we know if the press conference will be streamed?

I can't make that, although I'll be there this evening!

[NoPasaran]

2. The Press Conference will be streamed

Fire up your Real Player and direct it to Livestream 8:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/media/weekly.php

[GOPisEvil]

3. Yay!

:bounce:

[GOPisEvil]

4. I'm streaming it now!

:bounce:

[NoPasaran]

5. The room was packed!

With even more people outside. I'm sure Sonia will post some pictures later.

[sonias]

6. Here's some pics

It was packed. Luckily NoPasaran and I made it into the room, but we heard later that there were more people outside the door than made it into the room. Lots of reporters and news crews. Very good concise speeches by all. Andy was quite passionate at one point too, saying he felt it was okay to demonize the vendors. No privatization of a an essential function to an open democracy. Yeah Andy!!

Andy is wearing his backbone award shirt, because he's got a spine and knows how to use it.

I have more but just wanted to put up a few. Code Pink was on the
steps of the entry to the Speaker's room. The crowd shot was even before it got really crowded.


Andy Stephenson

Bev Harris

Crowd shot

Code Pink

Sonia

[NoPasaran]

7. Nice pics!

Thanks for posting them.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Awesome! Great pictures!

I was listening via the web, until I had to leave at 11:30! I'll see you both tonight.