[no subject]

>From the national Common Cause policy statement, March 2, 2004:

   -----
    "Common Cause believes that the ability to verify one's vote and have a
record of each vote as cast must be an integral part of voting equipment - it 
is important for the accuracy of vote counting and for Americans' long term 
trust in elections.
    We do not believe that current touch screen technology allows the voter to  
verify his or her vote in a meaningful manner. The voter must have faith that  
the internal software is correctly tallying the vote and there is currently 
no way to verify the vote independent of that software.
    We believe it is critical at this point to provide a voter-verifiable 
paper audit trail as one of the essential requirements of voting systems."
   -----

The hundreds of patriots who have been working to restore open, public and 
properly audited elections to the State of Georgia are ecstatic that Common 
Cause is joining our long standing efforts to have Voter Verified Paper 
Ballots [VVPB] and basic, common sense auditing practices integrated into all 
the electronic voting systems used in both our state and the rest of the 
nation. We are all standing by the simple expectation that the Vote of every 
American should receive at least the level of concern and accounting that any 
penny in their checking account gets.

As an outgrowth of our efforts, there is currently a multi-partisan bill 
before the Georgia General Assembly, SB-500, that would require Voter 
Verifiable Paper Ballot printouts on every Diebold system in the state for 
our November, 2004 elections. The bill is presently pending approval of the 
State and Local Government Operations committee [SLOGO].  Our coalition of 
VVPB advocates is highly certain the measure will pass as soon as the 
Chairperson calls for a vote. However, the legislation _must_ move on from 
committee by Tuesday, March 9th, if it is to stand any real chance of being 
voted on and enacted by the General Assembly before the end of this session.

In light of the above, and knowing that the election process decisions in the 
state of Georgia can have a direct impact on every voter in our nation, we 
are asking that all concerned American citizens, both inside and outside of 
our state, please contact the Chairperson of the SLOGO committee, Renee 
Unterman, and request that SB-500 be immediately approved.

We urgently need your action between now and March 9th!
You can direct your calls, faxes, emails and visits to any of
these published contact points:
=====
Senator Renee Unterman 
Assistant: Thelma Richardson

Capitol Phone:  (404) 463-1368
Fax Phone:  (404) 656-6579
Home Office: (770) 466-1507

E-Mail:  reneeu at bellsouth.net

Capitol Address: 313 - B Legislative Office Building Atlanta GA 30334
District Address: P.O. Box 1685 Loganville GA 30052
=====
Additional details about the SB-500 bill and other SLOGO
Committee contact information can be obtained at:

&lt;<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/sum/sb500.htm";>http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/sum/sb500.htm</a>&gt;
&lt;<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_org_detail.pl?Com=gasslgo";>http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_org_detail.pl?Com=gasslgo</a>&gt;
======

Respondents to this urgent request should also be aware of some of the 
political challenges we Georgian's are working feverishly to overcome...
 
In the days surrounding &quot;Super Tuesday&quot;, the Diebold corporation has been 
spending may  thousands of the dollars they received from our state coffers 
to run an aggressive ad campaign in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and on 
local Television and radio. This heavily financed blitz is doubtless intended 
to subvert public awareness, silence debate of the issues and mislead 
Georgians about the intentions of VVPB auditing advocates. (Why Diebold 
opposes the addition of printers is especially confusing, knowing that it 
could both simplify certification and bring them a considerable profit from 
additional equipment sales.)

The office of the Secretary of State, Cathy Cox, has failed to respond to 
numerous open records requests,  thereby denying public access to critical 
information and allowing the Diebold corporation to keep every aspect of their 
systems, software and certification processes locked behind closed doors and 
hidden from public scrutiny - even down to their taxpayer funded contract with 
the state.

Secretary Cox, whose glowing Diebold promotional quotes appear with her image 
on Diebold sales literature and beside the Georgia State Seal on Diebold's 
web pages,  has persistently assailed requests for standard public auditing 
of state elections by misrepresenting the Diebold technology, overstating the 
effectiveness of the certification process, and inflating the upgrade cost 
estimates of viable audit solutions. There is little doubt that the Secretary 
will now employ these disinformation tactics to frighten her large network of 
state poll workers into voicing opposition to SB-500 and VVPB implementation.

Without independent, tangible, public auditing of our computer election 
systems, the fog of potential fraud hangs over electronic voting like a 
stinging cloud of teargas. Please, PLEASE help the concerned citizens of 
Georgia clear the air by supporting Voter Verified Paper Ballot printouts for 
all of America's electronic election systems.

Sincerely,
Aaron Ruscetta
Decatur, Georgia

Concerned voter, Electronic media and IT professional,  
Member of the Electronic Frontiers of Georgia (efga.org),
Member of the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts (ale.org), and 
Contributing supporter of the Electronic Freedom Foundation (eff.org).

===========================================================
This document was compiled and composed with the generous assistance
of members of the League Opposed to Virtual Elections, Count The Vote, the 
Georgia Green Party, Georgians Against Black Box Voting and the Voter 
Independence Project.
 
If you would like to learn more about this important issue and what you
can do to restore the integrity and transparency of elections in Georgia
and our nation, please link to:  
        <a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.voterchoice.org/auditableballots.php";>http://www.voterchoice.org/auditableballots.php</a>  
===========================================================


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