Lever Update: Dutchess County Considering Suit

Joel Tyner has asked for support. He wants us to write letters to the Dutchess County Legislators. The resolution has many "whereas" clauses, but here's the Resolved and a link to read the whole resolution.

Save NY's Lever Voting Machines: "RESOLVED, that the Dutchess County Legislature form a bipartisan committee to consider joining the lawsuit being developed by the Election Transparency Coalition of New York, and urging other counties to join the effort, as is now under consideration in Nassau County,"

Here's the Citizen Speak address where you can tailor and send a letter to the Dutchess County Legislators. Or, send your own letter to countylegislators@co.dutchess.ny.us

LWVUS Voting System Standards never were intended to apply to lever voting machines

Image via Wikipedia

At Kingston AAUW we've been concerned about being at odds with the League of Women Voters over their position in favor of optical scanners over lever machines. These are people we usually collaborate with. It's like a family feud.

This morning I came across this statement posted on the Internet by Teresa Alice Hommel on February 12th, 2009. She is commenting on the paper published by New Yorkers for Verified Voting and the League of Women Voters of New York State in opposition to lever machines.

Teresa worked to write and pass the LWV national position in 2004 and 2006. She states the following:

LWVUS Voting System Standards never were intended to apply to lever voting machines: "

However, the League’s standards that the paper quotes are an out-of-context portion of the League’s position--which I worked to write and get adopted--that was never intended to be applied to non-computerized voting technology.

MY [Teresa's] STATEMENT

As a member of the group that worked to wean the League of Women Voters of the United States away from paperless DREs, I attest that no one foresaw or intended that the 2006 position would be applied to non-electronic voting systems such as mechanical lever machines."

Her statement tracks the history of the LWV efforts to unify against DRE's by developing standards for "electronic" voting systems. Unfortunately, they left out the word "electronic."

I encourage you to read her statement directly.

Kingston Branch Loves NY Lever Machines!

Image by harold.lloyd (regicidal) via Flickr

Thank you, Kingston AAUW Branch, for your support on saving NY's lever machines, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Resolution Passed
The Ulster County Legislature passed the resolution on Wednesday, sooner than we thought. We haven't heard yet what happened in Columbia County. Greene County will vote next Tuesday.

Of course, it's not over yet. The NY State legislature must act. But, every county that passes the resolution increases the pressure for the state to reverse ERMA -- the NYS Election Reform and Modernization Act of 2005. And every person who who contacts their state legislator helps build momentum, too.

Results of the Branch Poll
The result of our branch poll: 90.5% in favor of advocating to keep our levers, 4.8% opposed, and 4.8% no opinion. With your support, then, the Kingston Branch will continue to work to keep our lever machines.

Save NY State's Lever System

The Kingston AAUW Public Policy Committee is working along with many others in NY State to keep our lever voting machines. NY is the only state that's withstood the push for electronic voting.

Dutchess County's legislature passed a resolution to keep levers in December. Columbia County will be voting on a resolution this week. It's time for Ulster County to act.

We've set up a Citizen Speak message -- it's like a local Two Minute Activist -- for people to let Ulster County Legislature's Chairman Donaldson and County Executive Hein know that we expect them to take action.

There's more info on the Unofficial Passions blog about why levers are better and links to sites with even more. We want to get the word out beyond the branch.

Here's the link to send your message.

Get your friends to send a message, too.