Action Alert
June 22, 2004
An Action Alert on Verifiable Voting from our friends at
Common
Cause:
Protect Our Votes! Rally June
22 for Paper Trails!
This afternoon Common Cause and other election reform
advocates are holding a rally in Washington, DC to support
voter-verified paper trails to provide a reliable method to
count and recount votes cast on computerized voting machines.
Common Cause President Chellie Pingree will speak at
the event and will be joined by representatives from our
partner organizations such as True Majority, Verified
Voting, and Rock the Vote.
While you might not be in DC tomorrow to join us, you can
still help!
Call your Representative in Congress and let him or
her know you support a voter-verified paper ballot so that we
can make sure every vote is counted as cast this November.
Tell them to support (HR 2239), the Voter
Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003,
and allow this bill to come up for a vote!
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to
speak to your Representative.
This important bill already has 141 co-sponsors, but it is
being held up in committee, so we need to keep the pressure
on. The decisions Congress makes in the next month could
determine what voting methods many Americans will use this
November and for years to come. Millions of Americans
should not have to vote on electronic terminals that are
vulnerable to hacking and malfunction. Click
here to visit the Common Cause statement on
voting machines.
In case you are in the DC area and would like to join us,
the information for the rally is below.
When: Tuesday, June 22, 11:45 to
1:00 p.m.
Where: Cannon Terrace, just south of
the U.S. Capitol, between the Cannon and Longworth House
Office Buildings (at the corner of New Jersey and Independence
Avenues) Metro Station: Capitol South, blue and orange
metro lines.
Easy Web Actions you can take to help
Protect Our Votes:
Both Moveon.org and former Presidential candidate
Howard Dean's organization, Democracy for America have
online petitions urging Congress and the states to require
that any electronic voting machine used in the November
election be required to produce a paper trail that allows
voters to verify their choices and officials to conduct
recounts.
To sign the petition(s) visit: http://www.moveon.org/protectourvotes/
and http://petition.democracyforamerica.com/page/p/verify
Upcoming events related to this issue:
WV-CAG has been working closely with WV Citizens for
HAVA (short for Help America Vote Act), a grassroots group
of concerned citizens founded by Charleston anesthesiologist
and CAG member Hedda Haning. Last week
Hedda spoke before the legislative interim committee that is
considering whether to require a voter verifiable paper ballot
on electronic voting machines used in West Virginia.
This Thursday, June 24 Hedda will be speaking to the Kanawha
County Commission. The Commission will meet at 5pm
at in the Commissioners Courtroom on the 1st Floor of the
Kanawha County Courthouse. Hedda is very
knowledgeable on this issue. Please come out if you want
to learn more and support our efforts to protect the vote here
in West Virginia.
Also....
On Monday, July 12 at 7pm at Cabell County
Downtown Library, the Huntington League of Women Voters
has scheduled a meeting for League members and the public on
the security of electronic voting. The League has invited Karen
Cole, Cabell County Clerk; Mike McCarthy of Marshall
University; and a representative of the Secretary of
State's office to speak at the meeting, and take questions
from the audience.
The Charleston League of Women Voters will be
holding a similar meeting on Tuesday, September 28 at
7pm at the Baptist Temple at the corner of
Morris and Quarrier Steets in Charleston.
Hedda will be speaking at this event.
We hope to have a page devoted to this issue up at our
website soon which will highlight actions you can take to help
protect the vote here in West Virginia. In the meantime
if you would like more information please e-mail julie@wvcag.org.
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