The mission of the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition is to restore public ownership and oversight of elections, and to ensure the fundamental right of every American citizen to vote and to have each vote counted as intended in a secure, transparent, impartial, and independently verified election process.
New Mexico Passes Verified Voting Bill Requiring Audits
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/27/2005 - 8:31pm.
http://www.oregonvrc.org/go/new_mexico
April 7th, 2005 / Verified Voting Foundation Media Release
For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 7, 2005
NM will be 14th State to Require Voter-Verified Paper Ballots
Santa Fe, NM - Governor Bill Richardson yesterday signed a bill making New Mexico the fourteenth state to require voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs) for its voting systems. As amended and passed, New Mexico Senate Bill 678 also requires audits to compare a portion of paper ballots with electronic vote tallies.
"New Mexico has swelled the ranks of states requiring voter-verified paper ballots across the country," said VerifiedVoting.org Executive Director Will Doherty. "Election administrators, policymakers, and the public recognize the need to prevent the malfunctions, errors, and failures of paperless e-voting machines that occurred repeatedly across the country during November 2004 and prior election cycles."
"We are pleased to have worked with Verified Voting New Mexico and organizers throughout the state to raise awareness about election system reliability and security," commented VerifiedVoting.org Nationwide Coordinator Pamela Smith. "Passage of a bill that requires voter-verified paper ballots and election audits will encourage public confidence in New Mexico's election results."
This is a victory for VerifiedVoting.org, its partners, and voters across the country who have successfully persuaded 14 state governments to require voter-verified paper ballots, with the Idaho bill awaiting the signature of the state's governor. VVPB legislation has been introduced but not yet passed in at least 22 more states, for a total of 36 states with passed or proposed VVPB requirements. Still other states among the "not yet introduced" category have traditionally used VVPB systems, and plan to continue to do so, finding ways to meet requirements of the Help America Vote Act without having to purchase unreliable paperless e-voting machines.
VerifiedVoting.org has championed verified voting issues in almost every state. In Ohio for example, the legislature responded to lobbying efforts by passing a bill, signed by the state's governor, which requires voter-verified paper ballots for all Ohio voting machines by the first federal election after January 1, 2006. Last summer, many Ohio counties were considering the expenditure of millions on paperless e-voting machines. After receiving extensive pressure from advocacy groups led by VerifiedVoting.org and the Ohio Citizen's Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE), 28 of 31 Ohio counties decided to postpone any purchase decisions until after the November 2004 election. Secretary of State (SoS) Kenneth Blackwell then required all Ohio counties to use precinct count optical scan voting technology, which was the option VerifiedVoting.org had recommended in a crucial letter sent to his administration.
The fourteen states with VVPB requirements are: Alaska, Arkansas (excepting existing e-voting counties), California, Idaho (pending governor's signature), Illinois, Maine, Missouri (by SoS), Nevada (by SoS), New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont.
The 22 additional states where legislators have introduced VVPB legislation are: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
Contact:
Will Doherty
Executive Director
VerifiedVoting.org
press@verifiedvoting.org
+1 415 487-2255 (office)
Pamela Smith
Nationwide Coordinator
VerifiedVoting.org
pam@verifiedvoting.org
For this release:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5697
New Mexico bill requiring voter-verified paper ballots and audits:
http://legis.state.nm.us/Sessions/05%20Regular/bills/senate/SB0678JUS.html
New Mexico Verified Voting:
http://www.vvnm.org/
Map showing landslide toward paper ballot requirements:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/
Details about voter-verified paper ballot requirements:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/legis/
Current alerts active in VerifiedVoting.org action center:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/alerts/
Paperless e-voting problems recorded during Election 2004:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?id=5331
PRESSLIST: Media professionals are invited to subscribe to the Verified Voting presslist at
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/presslist
About VerifiedVoting.org:
VerifiedVoting.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan lobbying organization championing reliable and publicly verifiable elections. Founded by Stanford University Computer Science Professor David Dill, the organization supports a requirement for voter-verified paper ballots for all voting technology, including electronic voting machines, to allow voters to inspect individual permanent records of their ballots and election officials to conduct meaningful recounts and audits. The organization's website is at
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/
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