Click On This Link To Send An Email To ALL Florida State Legislators

Please take a minute to send the automatic email below to ALL Florida Legislators demanding verified voting in Florida, which will be using paperless voting machines in all its counties in 2006 for some or all voters. After sending your email, please forward this Action Alert to your contacts around the nation. It is time for Florida legislators to know that the eyes of the nation and the world are upon them -- they must address Florida's flawed election laws for the good of the state and the country.

As we learned in 2000, Florida’s flawed election laws affect not only Florida voters but all U.S. citizens. Yet Florida officials continue to promote paperless touch-screen voting machines, ensuring that Florida voters will be denied verifiable, secure, and auditable elections. To make matters worse, Florida’s Division of Elections pushed through regressive election laws in 2005, including a prohibition against full manual recounts of paper ballots under any circumstances.

You can help! And it will only take one moment of your time. Several good election reform bills have been submitted to the Florida Legislature, which is currently in session. The Florida Fair Elections Coalition, Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, Broward Election Reform Coalition, Palm Beach Coalition for Election Reform, Voting Integrity Alliance of Tampa Bay, and VoteTrustUSA have launched a nationwide citizen action in support of election reform in Florida. Together, we can make a difference in Florida and the nation.

Click on the link below, follow the instructions on the each page and the following email will be automiatically sent to ALL Florida legislators demanding fair, transparent, verifiable, accessible, auditable and secure elections in Florida. You can edit the text of the email or send as written. You do NOT need to be a Florida resident.

Model Email to all Florida state Representatives and state Senators)

Dear _____________

With the 2006 elections quickly approaching, it is critical that the Florida legislature take action to ensure that Florida citizens and the nation have confidence in the integrity of Florida elections. Unfortunately, that is not currently the case. While the majority of states have passed legislation supporting verifiable, auditable elections, Florida has steadfastly moved in the opposite direction. The Florida Department of State has continued to promote touch-screen voting machines that do not provide a paper trail despite indisputable evidence that these machines have serious security vulnerabilities. To make matters worse, in 2005 the Florida Division of Elections pushed through several regressive election bills prohibiting the full manual recounts of paper ballots under any circumstances, allowing mass challenges of voters with no recourse other than to vote a provisional ballot, and mandating the breakdown of early voting results by precinct, a practice that will undoubtedly compromise many voters’ right to a secret ballot.

The recent test of voting equipment in Leon County conclusively proved that a single individual can alter election results without detection using a single memory card. Just last month, a team of highly respected computer scientists commissioned by the state of California confirmed these results. These computer scientists also found additional, even more serious security flaws in both the Diebold optical scanners and the Diebold touch-screen. A recent Technical Advisory issued by the Florida Division of Elections notes that these security vulnerabilities pertain to all voting systems in use in Florida, not just to Diebold. Unfortunately, this Technical Advisory only implements the short-term mitigation strategies for local elections as suggested in the California report. The report recommended that the entire Diebold system needs to be redesigned before use in any statewide election. The report further stated, “successful attacks can only be detected by examining the paper ballots.” California not only requires a paper trail, but it also mandates a manual audit of a percentage of the ballots in all elections.

I urge you to do the right thing for your state and for country. Support the verified voting bills that have been filed for this legislative session. These include:

• Senate Bill 2720, sponsored by Senator Ron Klein, and its companion House Bill 1401, sponsored by Representative Audrey Gibson
• Senate Bill 1910 (sponsored by Senator Rod Smith)
• Senate Bill 2732 (sponsored by Senator Gary Siplin).

The Republican Governor of Maryland and the Democratic Governor of New Mexico have both recently advocated verifiable voting systems in their states. Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich has initiated the replacement of the state’s paperless voting machines and was supported unanimously in the Maryland House of Delegates. Governor Ehrlich lamented the lack of voter confidence and his own personal lack of faith in the accuracy of these machines, as well as pointing out the huge costs to purchase and maintain them. A lengthy elections report issued by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) devotes 16 pages to reported security vulnerabilities and other problems with electronic voting systems plus recommendations for verifiable, auditable elections. The New Mexico Legislature has already approved a measure to establish a statewide paper ballot optical scan voting system. Florida deserves the same confidence in their elections.

Please take seriously this plea to assure all citizens that Florida’s elections are fair, transparent, accurate, verifiable, accessible and secure. Your state and the nation are depending on you.

Sincerely,