From: TrueMajority [mailto:alerts@action.truemajority.org]
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/electronicvotingmachines01apr04.shtml
April 1, 2004

TrueMajority's "Computer Ate My Vote" My Vote is Rocking!

Yellow "TrueMajority" shirts crowded the Marlyand Senate gallery last week. Read about the victory, below:

Here's a sampling of what they're saying about us:

Associated Press: “‘There’s such an easy, reasonable, inexpensive solution to this problem,’ said Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and president of TrueMajority.org, the advocacy group funding the ads. ‘Just have the machine print out a receipt, just like an ATM does.’” 3/19/04

Newsweek: “…touch-screen systems should include printers that generate ballots for verification. Six other states have jumped on the bandwagon, spurred in part by a campaign on the Internet called ‘The Computer Ate My Vote.’” 3/29/04

Washington Times: “…questions about the integrity of electronic voting have been generating significant concern, reflected in recent newspaper ads run by the advocacy group TrueMajority.org.” 3/22/04

TrueMajority members have sent tens of thousands of faxes and e-mails, bought full-page ads in major newspapers and shown up in person at press events by the hundreds.

State-by-state reports:

MARYLAND

- On March 18, TrueMajority ran a full-page ad in the Baltimore Sun calling on two specific legislators to move the voter-verified paper trail bill out of their committees. The next day, one of the lawmakers announced her conversion to the paper ballot cause and the bill passed out of her committee. An Associated Press story about the TrueMajority ad and the Maryland voting machine issue ran in papers all the way to Kansas City.

- Just this past weekend, more than 1,500 TrueMajority members in Maryland sent their names to the sponsor of the legislation, asking that they be read out on the Senate floor, and dozens of members came to the Senate one evening earlier this week to pressure the legislature in person. The bill passed unanimously the following day. On to the House!

FLORIDA

The Miami Herald covered the March 6 press conference TrueMajority members held in the state capital, and TrueMajority ran a full-page ad in the Palm Beach Post. Driving the point home, TrueMajority members hand- delivered copies of the ad to the legislators.

PENNSYLVANIA

After Pennsylvania TrueMajority members turned out for a press conference on March 10, the Philadelphia Weekly ran an in-depth news story on the issue and our campaign. A crowd of TrueMajority members marched straight to the Philadelphia Inquirer with a letter to the editor on computer voting signed by 50 people, which was also published that week.

CALIFORNIA

In California, a bipartisan team of lawmakers is calling for that state to require paper ballots for this November’s election , which is even sooner than the deadline already set by the California Secretary of State. California TrueMajority members soon will weigh in there.

OHIO

In Ohio, a committee of lawmakers is considering whether to reject the pending purchases of paperless voting machines. Each member of that body received e-mails from 2,147 TrueMajority constituents this week.

NATIONAL

The drumbeat of national media coverage continues. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post published editorials supporting a voter- verified paper trail. Vanity Fair featured a nine-page article on the voter- verified paper ballot movement, and Newsweek’s story was a big step forward.

Let’s be clear—as with all fights worth waging, there are powerful forces that don’t want the voter protections we’re after. Time is on their side, as they run out the clock to the November election. But this is an issue that many elected officials understand. The media is with us. And grassroots pressure has shown to be effective.

There’s a lot left to do, but all of us should be proud of what we’ve accomplished together so far.

I’m happy to be in this with you,

Ben Cohen
President, TrueMajority.org

PS: For more information about our campaign, check out www.truemajority.org/ComputerAteMyVote.
For more information about computer voting systems, check out www.verifiedvoting.org or www.calvoter.org/votingtechnology.html#resources.

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Forward courtesy of Slim Spurling (www.SlimSpurling.com)