( – promoted by Clark)
By now we’ve all heard that Direct Record Touch Screen voting machines (DREs) have been found to have serious security problems. What people may be unaware of is that other states around the country are taking action against the use of these machines to ensure that by November 2008 every vote will count.
Two of these states are California and Florida. The California Secretary of State was so appalled by the speed with which the DREs in her state could be hacked when recently tested, she immediately decertified them for general use (allowing just one per polling place to be used only by the disabled). Florida decided to do the same after the ES&S DREs used in Sarasota inexplicably failed to record 18,000 votes in a 2006 Congressional race, and after an “undocumented backdoor” to these same DREs was discovered by a team of computer scientists from Florida State University.
Missourians for Honest Elections (MoHE), a non-partisan group advocating a paper-based voting system with sufficient audits, has been told that Secretary of State Robin Carnahan is well aware of the security problems associated with DREs. And yet as recently as September 2007 she RECERTIFIED the ES&S iVotronic DREs, the same machine involved in the 18,000 undervotes in Sarasota!
For nearly two years MoHE has lobbied our elected and appointed officials–both at the local and state levels–to take action on this issue, but with little success. Many officials say they are very concerned about the DREs but feel limited in what they can do. We realize now that the only way we’re going to get any real movement on this issue is through legal action.
Let’s not wait until thousands of votes are lost in Missouri. If any of you Show Me Progress readers know of a Missouri lawyer familiar with election law who might be willing to sit down with us to discuss the possibility of working with us (pro-bono) please contact me (see below). MoHE has done the research. We have the reports, documents and data to build a strong case to rid Missouri of the DREs. All we need is a lawyer!
–Cynthia Richards
(314)-727-6586
crichar@yahoo.com
Missourians for Honest Elections
Steering Committee Member
has worked doggedly for two years now on this issue. We owe all of them our thanks for persisting against the St. Louis County Board of Elections, which just as doggedly refuses to listen to reason.
If any of you know a lawyer who could help, pro bono, on this issue, please put him in touch with Cynthia. You’d be doing the voters of Missouri a huge favor.