Vermont Town Says "NO" to Diebold Voting System

[garybeck]

Vermont Town Says "NO" To Diebold Voting Machines

October 13, 2008

In a small but stunning victory for accurate and secure vote counting, the town of Calais VT voted overwhelmingly 41-21 to defeat the use of Diebold optical scanners, much to the chagrin of Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, who is a strong advocate for the machines.

Vermont Director of Elections Kathy DeWolfe offered a presentation to the town, touting the benefits of the Diebold system. But in the end, the town paid attention to the increasing concerns about the security and reliability of the system and the trustworthiness of Diebold. Independent studies like the Brennan Report have found significant vulnerabilities with the system, and Diebold is being sued for fraud by the Ohio Secretary of State. As well, the former Director of Elections for Ohio recently admitted on camera that Diebold offered to make a significant campaign contribution if he chose to implement their system.

Vermonters for Voting Integrity (VVI) helped inform town residents about the subject by refuting some of the Secretary's claims that the system is secure and reliable. A few citizens wrote to the organization asking for information and were given documents outlining Vermont's lack of adherence to security recommendations and a listing of documented failures of the machines to operate properly.

Town resident Jim Hogue, a member of Vermonters for Voting Integrity, helped make sure his fellow citizens got all the facts. But VVI's Gary Beckwith expressed concern that other towns are not being presented with the whole story, as the Secretary of State continues to push for the machines, ignoring the questionable history and expert testimony. "Several other Secretaries of State are taking appropriate action, but our's continues to be sound like a salesperson for Diebold," Beckwith said.


Residents made the right choice to say "no" to the Diebold system, and Calais will continue to count their ballots by hand.

Vermonters for Voting Integrity is a non-partisan citizen group seeking to increase the security of the electronic voting system used throughout Vermont. For more information visit the website: VtVoters.Org

Link to article:
http://vtvoters.org/articles/081016.calais.shtml

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

[AndyTiedye]

1. Good For Them!

:kick:

[GuvWurld]

2. Congratulations Gary!

Excellent work!

:toast:

[garybeck]

3. Thanks !

Onward.

[diva77]

4. great work! I didn't realize a town could decide what type of voting system to use

In LA County, we're stuck with the Bd of Supervisors as the "deciders" based on recommendations by the County Registrar. Despite citizens having presented them with mountains of evidence time and time again including documents such as the Brennan Report, they continue to display an arrogant disregard for the truth, and give the Registrar anything he asks for, including millions upon millions in contracts with the vendors. At Bd meetings, they will walk away from their desks while citizens are delivering testimony, or nod off, or talk to people who are back behind the panel. Then they pretend that they're going to explore the matter further and next thing you know, oops, another multimillion dollar contract just got signed with a vendor for products we know to be failures as instruments for conducting elections with the greatest possible integrity. It's completely disheartening and demoralizing to feel so powerless here in LA County. It's great to hear of your breakthrough, however.

[garybeck]

7. In Vermont

the big towns are already using the Diebold opscans... it's only the more rural towns that are left and the Secretary of State is going after them now. In this particular town, anyone who showed up at the meeting could vote on the decision.

[Wilms]

5. Wow! n/t

[Fly by night]

6. Great work, Gary. Here's hoping other Vermont towns follow suit.

Hell, here's hoping all political subdivisions on this planet follow suit.

Vote free or Diebold -- that is the choice.

[garybeck]

8. I WOULD LIKE TO give a shout-out to VotersUnite.Org

the PDF referenced in the article, that lists the documented failures with Diebold opscans... I never could put that together without the info on VotersUnite.Org.

If you don't know this website, go check it out:

HTTP://VOTERSUNITE.ORG