Voters in Nine Counties Urged to "Get It On Paper"

Friday, October 28, 2005

MAIL BALLOT REQUEST DEADLINE IS TUESDAY, NOV. 1

Voters in Nine Counties Urged to "Get It On Paper"

Davis, CA -- With the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot fast approaching, the California Voter Foundation is urging voters in nine electronic voting counties to "Get it on paper."

That's because these nine counties - Alameda, Merced, Napa, Orange, Plumas, Riverside, Santa Clara, Shasta, and Tehama -- will be using paperless, electronic voting machines in polling places on November 8.

"Studies continue to find that electronic voting machines are prone to error," said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation (CVF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advancing paper backups and public auditing of computerized vote counts. A recently published U.S. Government Accountability Office report found numerous security problems with electronic voting systems, and recommended the use of voter-verified paper audit trails, as did the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform.

Citing security concerns and an inability to conduct meaningful audits of election results on the paperless systems, Alexander said voters in the nine e-voting counties should immediately request an absentee ballot from their county elections office.

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http://www.calvoter.org/news/releases/102805release.html