Here are some notes and action items concerning the Diebold voting machine debacle in Maryland. Take action NOW!
Verified Voting Amendments are On the Agenda on the Senate Floor Today
- events there are in a constant state of flux, but the fight continues to have the Senate pass SB 713 with amended language identical to HB 244- this would insure the bills would avoid conference (where verified voting would likely be killed)
- call your state Senator and demand a profile in courage; tell them you want Op-Scans for 2006; tell them to back any amendment to SB 713 which adopts the identical language from HB 244, the Hixson-Bobo language
- Hollinger is apparently floating "junk amendments" which would choke up the process: one such amendment would set an impossible condition- doubling up on the amount of op-scans and Automarks (which would juice up the costs); this "junk amendment" will torpedo the process
- call your Senator at: 800-492-7122, and demand, in the name of Democracy, electoral integrity; call your Senator this morning as well, as time is of the essence
- find your Senator at:
http://mdelect.net/...
- when you call the Dems-especially recalcitrant ones- remind them of who owns the Diebold company, far right Republicans, who's recent CEO pledged to deliver Ohio for Bush in 2004 If it helps, perhaps a comment like "Remember Ohio!" or "Don't Let Maryland Become the Next Ohio" or even "Don't let Karl Rove Count the Votes" might be in order
Senator Hollinger made statements last week on the floor of the Senate mistakenly saying that the paper trail bills specify a specific vendor - ES&S. This is not the case as can be seen by reading the bills. Further, she and now many other Senators believe that ES&S has not delivered on a Pennsylvania contract though ES&S is saying that's not
the case.
Regardless, there are many many vendors of optical scan machines.Diebold, Sequoia, Hart-InterCivic are just three major manufacturers after ES&S - the largest vendor. Further, there are used op-scan machines from ES&S and other vendors which could be deployed in a timely manner.
It is unfortunate that incomplete information has held sway over the Senate - while the well-publicized SBE documents on TrueVoteMD's website about Diebold lost votes in Maryland due to memory card failures, Senator Mikulski writing how voters told her the US Senate race was missing from precincts in 2004, that thousands of unexplained error message and countless other examples of Diebold failures did not make it to the Senators mental maps.
Numerous TrueVoters are still working hard to find Democratic Senators willing to stand up for verifiable voting in 2006 or even in 2008. Republican Senators (plus Senators Ruben and Brochin) have demonstrated with action that they will stand for optical scan for 2006. ALL the Delegates of both parties have done so. The Governor has done so. And they certainly support it for 2008.
However, many Democratic Senators will not support a 'Republican' amendment/bill - regardless of the effect on Maryland voters or election integrity. Many TrueVoters have gathered signatures and petitions and made repeated trips to Annapolis in the last week in attempts to find one of the Democratic Senators - who are the majority 2 to 1 - to stand up for counting the vote accurately, so far without success.
TrueVoters with relationships with Democratic Senators, you and your Senator are needed now to either:
1. Take leadership to pass the bill with op-scan for 2006, or
2. For goodness sake, take leadership and pass the bill for op-scan for 2008.
The original HB244 and SB713 - before the Hixson-Bobo amendment for 2006 op-scan - had strong audit language and all the necessary requirements.
The session ends Monday. We need your Senators now.