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.
10/05 Oregon Voter Rights Coalition Call to Action
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/24/2005 - 10:31pm
Continuation of Writing Campaign
Key Meeting of Clerks on Nov. 16 - 17
Key Meeting of Clerks on Nov. 16 - 17
Dear Election Reform Activists:
It’s time to remind your Oregon County Clerks that you’re STILL concerned about using computers with secret software to count votes in Oregon elections. The County Clerks are meeting November 16 – 17, 2005 in Eugene. Please write to them before this meeting.
The following suggested talking points are provided to make it easy for as many supporters as possible to help us with this email/letter writing campaign. If you have the time, please use your own words.
NOTE: If you did not attend the National Summit to Save Our Elections referenced in the talking points, please check out the following websites for media coverage of the conference:
o Scoop Independent News (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00003.htm)
o Ballot and Soul: Democracy needs a revolution every generation; By ROBERT C. KOEHLER; Tribune Media Services; October 6, 2005 (http://www.commonwonders.com/archives/col314.htm)
o The Brad Show (http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001885.htm)
o Pacifica Radio (http://kpftx.org/archive.htm#voter)
Thank you for your continued commitment to restoring democracy to elections in America!
Sincerely,
Betsy Salter
Oregon Voter Rights Coalition
Letter Idea
(Please use as a guide only)
(Please use as a guide only)
TO: Your Oregon County Clerk (http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/other.info/clerk.htm)
o I attended the National Summit to Save Our Elections in Portland, OR on September 30 – October 2, 2005 and the information presented by experts from across the country has strengthened my concern about the use of computers with proprietary software counting votes in Oregon elections.
o Furthermore, I have read the non-partisan Government Accountability Office report on Security Problems with Electronic Voting Systems that was released on October 21st and the press release announcing the bi-partisan Congressional reaction to the GAO report (www.reform.house.gov). These official federal documents further serve to highlight the need for Oregon election officials to take bold steps to ensure that the computers used to count our votes do so accurately.
o I do not believe current federal and state certification procedures or county logic and accuracy testing are sufficient to ensure that electronic election systems in Oregon are counting our votes accurately.
o The state of Oregon must adopt a method for testing whether the election results reported by computers are accurate BEFORE the results are certified by the State.
o I believe a process involving mandatory random sample hand recounts of paper ballots should be used to restore public confidence in our election system.
o Thank you for considering my concerns and for your efforts to conduct transparent and secure elections in Oregon.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Address
City, state zip code
Phone
Email
Cc: Your County Commissioners (see attached excel file)
Bill Bradbury, Secretary of State (oregon.sos@state.or.us)
John Lindback, Director of Elections (john.w.lindback@state.or.us)
Bcc: audit@oregonvrc.org
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| COUNTYCOMMISSIONERS.xls | 60.5 KB |
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