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Actions You Can Take

ACTION ALERT!
On Feb.16 , 2006 the California Senate Elections Committee held a hearing on voting system certification. Several key people failed to appear voluntarily, including the major voting system vendors. Also representatives from the testing labs Wyle and Ciber, who initially “qualify” voting systems nationally, declined to appear. Both the technical staff and other key personnel for the California Secretary of State's office also failed to appear.
On February 17Secretary of State Bruce McPherson granted a conditional certification of Diebold’s optical scan and touch screen voting systems. This despite a report from his own technical staff stating parts of the system were not in compliance with the law. The system for approving voting systems in California must be completely transparent, based upon clear regulations and standards, and must follow the law. In order for our representatives in Sacramento to make the needed changes to the election code they must have all the facts. That is why it is critical the Senate Elections Committee have subpoena power to obtain all the facts.
Please contact the following Senators who are on the California Senate Rules Committee. Their approval is needed for the Senate Elections Committee to compel testimony from critical participants in the approval process for the voting systems we use to register our votes.
Suggested request:
I am asking for Senator ________ support for subpoena power for the Senate Elections Committee to obtain sworn testimony from key participants in approving voting systems used in California. To date many key people have failed to voluntarily appear before the committee. It is critical that our legislators be able to develop all the facts before making the needed reforms in how we vote and our votes counted.

Senator Don Perata (Chair) (Dem)

(916) 651-4009

District office (510) 286-1333

Senator.Perata@sen.ca.gov

Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) (Rep)

(916) 651-4037

Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov

Senator Roy Ashburn (Rep)

(916) 651-4018

senator.ashburn@sen.ca.gov

Senator Gilbert Cedillo (Dem)

(916) 651-4022

Senator Debra Bowen (Dem)

EMAIL ONLY PLEASE:

Debra@debrabowen.com

I received the first request for action on this issue at:
http://www.BlackBoxVoting.org

If you have not been on their site lately, please visit them. They are the leaders in discovering and exposing the flaws in voting machine software and
they very much deserve our support.
Thank you,
Phil.
ps. Just in case you are interested. I attached a copy of my letter below.

Senator ___
California Senate Election Committee
Dear Senator ___
I urge you to take a courageous stand to issue subpoenas to key representatives and officials from Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and Hart Intercivic, as well as Wyle and Ciber Testing Labs and state voting system examiners who fail to appear for your hearings on this matter.

I also urge you to subpoena documents as needed, including the non-disclosure agreements signed between examiners and vendors, and all other documents needed to assess the integrity of the certification process.

Voters must be able to ensure that voting systems are secure from tampering.

As a blind voter (born and raised in California) I am concerned with the way voting is conducted. I recently tested voting machines and was alarmed that only one of the three machines I tested produced a ballot I could take out of the machine, hand to a assistant and have read back to me so I could verify that my vote was correctly recorded for counting.

I am fairly good with a computer. I created this fax and sent it to you without assistance. This does not mean that computers are the answer to the voting problems of the blind. If I can get to the polling place to vote with a computer someone who can see and therefore could also assist me in voting probably drove me there. I am not worried about someone knowing how I vote, but rather that nobody will know how I vote.

You must insist that voting be transparent.

Respectfully,

Philip Harlan

Senator Boxer Stands Up