Against the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act


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Please select the top 3 reasons you are opposed to The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act.   Then finish your letter order with your identifying information.   These items are required to set up your personal letterhead and verify your correct Congressional rep.

I AM AGAINST THE VOTER CONFIDENCE AND INCREASED ACCESSIBILITY ACT BECAUSE:
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IT GOES TOO FAR

1. It places unreasonable, unclear and under-funded demands on the States. A paper trail is unnecessary. There’s no evidence that counting paper ballots by hand would result in fewer errors than electronic counts. In fact, in other mathematic applications, humans compute less accurately and take more time than machines, which is why digital data management has become so pervasive in every sector of our society. It’s time the election industry caught up.

2. Even a billion dollars isn’t enough. States have already invested billions in automating new equipment and software. This bill would mandate significant additional expenditures. Although $1 billion of funding for States is included, estimates have placed the real cost as high as $4 billion. Furthermore, this bill would raise the minimum contribution States have to make to even qualify for federal funds.

3. Accommodations for ESL voters and those with disabilities are extreme. The idea that every polling place must have a system in place for every possible disability is ludicrous and cost-prohibitive. And how many languages do we have to support for those who are not native English speakers? These are issues best left to the States.

4. Audits add yet another burden. The mandates regarding the percentage of audits performed and their whereabouts adds another layer of complication. And yet states are expected to identify, vet, implement and budget these auditing procedures during the same timeframe we’re being asked to re-engineer the voting systems themselves. The $100 million allocated to help States will hardly cover the development of the process, much less its implementation. And again, States are left holding the bag.

IT DOESN’T GO FAR ENOUGH

5. DREs should be banned altogether. DRE failure rates are simply too high. The average hard drive is 1,000 times more reliable than today’s voting machines. Moreover, 100% of today’s voters are using potentially flawed machines that have not been verified by the Election Assistance Commission but rather, “approved” by other agencies. It’s appalling that we show such little regard for the integrity of our voting systems.

6. Electronic systems can’t be secured. 87% of ALL organizations experience security breaches in their IT systems – and almost half of those come from inside the organization. There is simply no way to prevent inside and outside intrusions, which is why a permanent durable paper ballot must be mandated.

7. IT transparency and testing are insufficient. First and foremost, we need more transparency in source codes. Currently manufacturers are hiding valuable and viable information about errors and failures under the auspices of “trade secrets.” While this bill provides for some disclosure, it only includes a select group of people and they must sign non-disclosure agreements. In addition, commercial, off-the-shelf software components are exempt from testing, even though such programs could contain bugs or errors. We can have no such secrets between election officials and voters.

IT’S JUST BAD

8. The need for public observation must be incorporated. In its current form, H.R. 811/S. 559 relies too much on technology experts to insure the integrity of results. A truly open democracy depends on ordinary people being able to observe and understand the security involved in the balloting process.

9. Error reporting standards should be mandated. Current law does not require errors in testing to be reported to the Election Assistance Commission nor for the EAC to share administrative errors with the public or even State election officials. Likewise, once a voting machine is certified, there is no mechanism for de-certifying it, regardless of any problems discovered later.

10. The recommended audit process is cumbersome and ineffective. While the need for audits is unquestionable, the methodology outlined in this bill could and should be much improved. For example, a system like that developed by Kathy Dopp would generate a 99% accuracy rate for half the cost.

11. The Election Assistance Commission is highly ineffectual. It has not been able to establish reasonable standards nor any method of reporting errors. Information is not disseminated, but kept secret. Given the fact that it has been unable to meet its charter, why would we consider giving this commission more responsibility? Rather, the EAC should be replaced by a more responsive organization consisting of more than 4 appointees.

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