The "Let America Vote" Act ... and Letting America Know

In the wake of continued hassles and failures of technology at the polls -- including abandoned voting machines -- the Brad Blog is calling for "an emergency measure to require Emergency Paper Ballots be made available at the polls during this November's general election." He calls it the "Let America Vote Act."

At least in my state (Washington), a voter can request a paper ballot at the poll. But most of us Washingtonians vote (absentee) by mail. As do all Oregonians. Maybe the easiest thing to do is to take responsibility for your vote and put in that absentee ballot request (assuming your state will allow you to do so -- many still require that you pledge you'll be away and unable to vote in person).

Better yet, send this post -- or Brad's -- or Princeton's video (more about this, below) -- to your local media. This issue needs full sunshine, and few US media outlets are reporting these risks. Most Americans simply do not know the risks of voting with an electronic system.

What risks, you might ask? There's the little niggle this week of a Diebold machine being opened with a hotel mini-bar key. Then there's the ability to wreck havoc with a virus, because the machines are networked. And inserting it is a piece of cake. Check out the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy. Better yet, watch the nine-minute YouTube Video.

Despite the video clip documentation of how easy it is to hack these machines, Diebold continues to insist that they are safe.

See Why Smoke Was Coming out of My Ears and The Worst Machine Ever? as well as these few mainstream media mentions: Dallas Morning News, CBS 4 Denver, KXMA - ND, San Antonio Express

Other reading: eVoting Flawed: A GAO Review, Status of Electronic Voting - All States, California Mandates Verified Voting, Help America Vote Act.

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