Voting Verification Endangered

Today i got this Email...
Dear Ms. Teresa Renberg:

Thank you for expressing your view on House Bill 2422 and Senate Bill 988, regarding voting equipment.

House Bill 2422 and Senate Bill 988 passed the House and Senate and now await the Governor's signature before they can become law.

I always appreciate hearing directly from the people of the 73rd District on issues of concern to them, and I thank you for your input on this matter. Please feel free to contact me with any of your future concerns.

Sincerely,
John M. O’Bannon III, M.D.
Delegate, 73rd District
Virginia House of Delegates

Many voting groups Opposed this legislation, DEMOCRACY IS IN DANGER!!!!
The passing of this legislation allows the purchase of wonderful paperless touchscreen voting machines such as the ones that were used to throw elections in the past... by you know who, you know where! Virginians should not take this sitting down.

Here is a previous article, there was tremedous oposition to this legislation! Conservatives and Liberals alike do not want Democracy compromised!
http://www.virginia-organizing.org/media_releases.php#29

Civic Organizations Urge Assembly Not to Reverse Progress on Verified Voting 2-2-09

A coalition of civic organizations is urging the Virginia General Assembly to stop legislation that would undo the state's move toward verifiable voting. House Bill 2422 and Senate Bill 988 would repeal a current law that forbids the future purchase of direct-recording electronic voting systems.

“Two years ago, the General Assembly passed a bill that would phase out unverifiable electronic voting,” said Alex Blakemore, a computer scientist and founder of Virginia Verified Voting. “All of our neighboring states are moving toward verifiable systems, and today we find Virginia talking about heading backwards. Passing these bills would be a huge mistake for election integrity, and embarrassing for the Commonwealth,” said Blakemore.

Most of Virginia's neighboring states, including North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee, have passed laws to require a voter-verifiable paper record.

Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Greyson is urging his state's counties to adopt paper ballot voting systems, and last year 34 Kentucky counties did just that.

Thirty nine states have by law, regulation, or purchasing choice, adopted paper-based voting systems.

The organizations opposing SB 988 and HB 2422 include the League of Women Voters of Virginia, the Libertarian Party of Virginia, the New Electoral Reform Alliance for Virginia, Virginia Verified Voting, Common Cause, Southern Coalition for Secured Voting and the Virginia Organizing Project.

The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee is expected to vote on SB 988 Tuesday afternoon (February 3); the House Campaign Finance subcommittee is expected to vote on HB 2422 Wednesday afternoon (February 4), with a final vote expected on Friday morning (February 6) in the House Privileges and Elections committee.

The nationwide trend toward paper is essential to the integrity of the election process, said Blakemore.

“Without a voter-verifiable paper record, there is no possibility of a meaningful recount, because there is no record independent of the software in the voting machine,” he said.

Long lines are another issue that is alleviated by paper ballot systems.

“In Fairfax County, we had paper ballot systems in every polling place, and we did not have the long lines that were reported in areas with only electronic systems,” said Jeremy Epstein, a computer scientist who served as a poll worker in the 2008 election. “With paper ballot optical scan systems, only one scanning machine is needed in the polling place, and more voters can vote at the same time than in a polling place with only electronic machines.”

Scientists from government laboratories, the private sector, and universities have warned that when voting systems provide no voter-verified paper record, there is no way to be verify that error or tampering has not occurred.

“If these bills pass, most Virginia voters will cast ballots on systems that cannot prove their accuracy,” said Epstein.



SCARY, what can we do now? I will mail the governor this article
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm

White Coats to Crowd the White House Monday

Physicians for a National Healthcare Program and other activists will demonstrate on Thursday, March 5th from noon to 1:00 pm at Lafayette Square in front of the White House
Let your representatives know you support them by supporting HR 676
This form lets you edit your message, delete the physician part if you are not of course!
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/PNHP/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11400

At Healthcare now you can see a lengthy list of Supporting Organizations.
http://www.healthcare-now.org/petition/endorse/

The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 47 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.
http://www.pnhp.org/

You can watch a video about healthcare around the World, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan on PBS frontline, (HR676 is like the one in Canada/Sweden use, its really wonderful and i want my family to have it in the US!)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

A NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT SINGLE-PAYER REFORM WOULD BE MAJOR STIMULUS FOR THE US ECONOMY and would provide:

** 2.6 Million New Jobs,
** $317 Billion in Business Revenue,
** $100 Billion in Wages, and
** $44 Billion New Tax Revenues

You can find out more about this study here: http://www.CalNurses.org/

The press release is here: http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2009/january/nurses-to-congress-expanding-medicare-could-reverse-job-losses-and-repair-our-broken-healthcare-system-and-safety-net.html

Family Values

Here are three articles lately that have caught my attention for the common thread that they are very likely to effect our children.

Supreme Court upholds gun-control law
The 7-2 decision strips the right of anyone convicted of a domestic violence crimes -- including a misdemeanor -- to own a firearm.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-supreme-court-guns25-2009feb25,0,3038861.story

Jailing Kids for Cash
The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer.

http://www.truthout.org/021909J

A 15-year old girl is beaten up, allegedly by a Washington State Sheriff's deputy right in a City Hall holding cell. The video of the event is suppressed until now.

It's difficult to believe, but the tape was locked up for three months since her arrest, until a judge ordered it be released to the public. And the girl who was in the video, accused of stealing a car, has never filed a formal complaint against Schene and is not talking with anyone about the incident.

Schene's attorney Ann Bremner says the tape - which has no audio - doesn't tell the whole story and severely impacts the deputy's right to a fair trial. But she admits Schene has also been involved in two shootings, including one fatal, during his eight years on the force. An inquest jury ruled Schene's fatal shooting of a man on Interstate 5 was justified. He's now on paid administrative leave.

The reason the tape actually surfaced is that another sheriff's department detective saw it and reported it to her superiors. The other deputy did not report the incident - and since he was in training, the department says he is not involved in the case.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268299#tab=comments&sc=&local=

Better quality of the video here on a Swedish newspaper:

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/utrikes/article4530680.ab