Heed this message:

AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM MISSOURIANS FOR HONEST ELECTIONS

(www.mohonestelections.org):

Ask for a paper ballot when you vote in the Missouri presidential primary on February 5th! Please relay this message to as many Missouri voters as you can!

The ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machines used in St. Louis County have recently been decertified by the Colorado Secretary of State because of security vulnerabilities.

The Diebold Accuvote touch-screen machines used in the City of St. Louis and in Kansas City have recently been decertified by the California Secretary of State because of security vulnerabilities.

Should we be alarmed? Indeed we should!

A paper ballot will be available for voters to use throughout Missouri in the primary on February 5th. While most–if not all–of these will

be counted by optical scan machines, which also have security problems, the paper ballot they scan is a sturdy piece of paper that the voter has marked by hand. This ballot thus is a durable, accurate record of the voter’s intentions and can easily be counted by hand if needed in case of a recount.

Don’t forget: VOTE ON PAPER! And help us to spread the word!

Riverfront Times has an article on Judith Conoyer, co-founder with Phil Lindsey of Show Me the Vote, the petition drive for a constitutional amendment in Missouri requiring hand-counted paper ballots.  The writer lays out the problem with the machines, succinctly and clearly.

Conoyer, a 67-year-old St. Charles resident, co-founded Show Me The Vote in 2005, after becoming suspicious about the reliability of electronic voting machines during the 2004 presidential election. After traveling to Ohio to observe the well-publicized irregularities surrounding the touch-screen machines, Conoyer wondered whether Missouri’s election results were also inaccurate. In St. Charles County, for example, she discovered six precincts reported a voter turnout of more than 100 percent.

You go, Judy!  Phil, too!

….or more.  Any evening this week from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., you could help out in St. Charles, but you’ll be multitasking.

One hand is going to be holding a clipboard for collecting signatures in the petition drive to get an amendment on the ballot mandating hand-counted paper ballots in Missouri instead of computerized voting.

Another hand will be giving folks information about the special election in St. Charles next Tuesday for the state senate.  Republican Chuck Gross resigned from the senate.  Ed Applebaum, the Democrat, is facing a well funded Republican named Tom Dempsey.  Applebaum’s a good man and, by the by, could use your contribution.

The third hand will have voter registration cards.

No partisan rant will be required or even desired.  You’ll just be urging people to vote in an election where single digit turnout is expected, helping them register if need be, and asking for a petition signature.  That request for signatures will prove to be popular.  When several volunteers for Show Me the Vote went signature collecting recently at the St. Charles Festival of Little Hills, they got a seventy percent positive response from people they approached for signatures.  That’s as in 70% of the people were glad to sign.  A lot of Missourians would be happy to see the last of those computers at the voting precinct.

The reason you might need more than three hands, by the way, is that petition signers have to sign on a sheet for the county they reside in.  Just kidding about the hands.  You won’t need extras, of course.  Just put a sheet for each county on your clipboard.

Volunteering in St. Charles will enable you to kill three birds with one stone. 

If you’re interested in helping, call Judith Conoyer (636-946-8425).  And if you need a ride, call Pro-Vote.

( – promoted by hotflash)

Brad Friedman, of Brad Blog, has been the most tenacious blogger when it comes to exposing the evils of computerized voting. 

He’ll be interviewed on Don Marsh’s show on NPR (90.7) at 11:00 today.

Then Thursday he’ll speak at Eliot Chapel in Kirkwood (216 East Argonne).  At 6:30 there will be a screening of “Stealing America: Vote by Vote”, then at 7:30 Friedman will speak.