Maryland GOP says NO DIEBOLD - DEMS for Diebold

Another case of republicans trying to get rid of Diebold.
HAS THE WHOLE WORLD GONE MAD?

In an effort to further protect Diebold, Maryland DEM state senator Paula Hollinger
comes up with another ploy to protect Diebold. Rather than helping pass the verified voting
bill that the House passed unanimously, Sen Hollinger decides to write a bill for mail in balloting in stead, knowing full well that it hasn't got a chance of a snow flake in he--.



ELECTIONS IN MARYLAND – BUT ONLY IF YOU ACT NOW!
“Voting Safeguards Spur Partisan Scrap”

“The Senate also voted down an attempt by Sen. Sandra B. Schrader, Howard County Republican, to require the state to use paper ballots for the 2006 elections, an issue that has drawn support of lawmakers from both parties. The House unanimously approved an identical bill to replace the state’s electronic touch-screen machines with optical scanners that record votes marked on paper ballots.

“The Senate rejected that amendment at the request of Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, Baltimore County Democrat, who said her committee is working on legislation that it plans to bring up for debate Senate dealing with the voting-machine issue.”


The Washington Times, March 30, 2006, Metropolitan Section, Page B-3.

What is Senator Hollinger’s Committee working on that trumps having voting machines that deliver an ACCURATE, voter verifiable count?
Senate Bill 712 is Senator Hollinger’s own creation which she gave the nice sounding title, “Voter Bill of Rights”. If truth in advertising were a Senate requirement, Senator Hollinger would, quite rightly, be on her way to jail! S.B. 712 should be named, “The Josef Stalin Memorial Voting Act.” (It was the Communist Dictator/Murderer of Millions who correctly noted, “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.”)

The Wednesday, March 29, 2006, edition of Gazette.Net, Maryland Community Newspapers On-Line reported:
“But the Senate is talking about a plan that would institute a statewide absentee ballot system that would do away with voting machines altogether — except for the handicapped.

“Registered voters would receive a ballot two weeks in advance and mail in ballot. House leaders believe the Senate plan, similar to Oregon’s voting system, is open to fraud.”

http://www.gazette.net/stories/032906/montsta180907_31950.shtml

Comments and questions:

Why is the Senate supporting an idea that is already opposed by House Leaders, and likely to not pass?
Why won't the Senate support House Bill 244 which would bring BACK the optic-scanners that had been used for more than 20 years by 19 of Maryland’s 23 counties? H.B. 244 was approved unanimously by the House on March 9th.
Are honest elections so despised/feared by Democrats in the Legislature, they will do anything to maintain their power – to include stealing OUR liberties?

The Gazette.Net reporter is incorrect as voting by mail would NOT eliminate the need for voting machines. The machines used to count mail-in ballots would be OPTIC SCANNERS – just as are used to count the absentee ballots.

With the mail-in voting being considered by the Legislature, would you feel comfortable knowing: With no one to see if an actual person was voting, what would prevent someone from registering their dogs, cats, hamsters, pot belly pigs via mail-in registration procedures already in place and then casting their vote by mail?
As long as you remembered to sign your mail-in ballot the same way you registered your “critters”, you would be home free! Maryland could possibly have the highest voter turn-out in the world! The number of voters casting their ballot by mail in Maryland could eclipse the entire population of China!

S.B.712 would also “allow eligible unregistered voters to register and then vote on Election Day.” Although this would not take effect until 2008, since S.B.712, is deemed an “Emergency Bill”, i.e., necessary to public health and safety, what would prevent the Legislature from deciding to implement this provision immediately since they have already declared this an Emergency?
The “E-Poll Books”, (the Electronic Poll Books) which the State Elections Administrator Linda Lamone has touted as being able to prevent multiple votes being cast by one individual going from polling place to polling place will NOT BE AVAILABLE for use in the 2006 elections. Ms. Lamone knows it. Senator Hollinger knows it. When this is “discovered” as they are now “discovering” the fatal flaws of the Diebold machines which were present and known when they were first used, will this be another, “Oops, we blew another $90 million of the taxpayer’s money?”

If you value your freedoms; if you value your democracy, if you value YOUR VOTE, it is imperative that you e-mail, call, fax, contact EVERY MEMBER of the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee TODAY. Also contact Senate President Mike Miller, Jr. – who, along with his cohort, Senator Paula Hollinger, is preventing H.B. 244 from being voted out of the Senate EHEA Committee!

Urge them to PASS H.B. 244 NOW and kill S.B. 712! Your freedoms ARE hanging in the balance. You either want to live under a dictatorship or be free! Josef Stalin and Adolph Hitler knew it was more important to be able to manipulate how the votes were counted. H.B. 244, with its paper ballots marked by the voter and capable of being hand-counted is your insurance policy for honest, verifiable elections. H.B. 244 has been languishing in the Senate EHEA Committee since March 10th. You are PAYING these folks BIG BUCKS TO DO THEIR JOB! Tell them to get to work and PASS H.B. 244 and KILL S.B. 712, the Josef Stalin Memorial Voting Act — NOW!

You can contact them by logging on to the Maryland General Assembly web site, http://www.mlis.state.md.us. From there you can e-mail them directly by clicking on the “Contact” a Legislator link. To call their offices: Toll free Phone: #1-800-492-7122

The Members of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee are:

Senator Paula C. Hollinger, Chairman, D-11, Baltimore County; 410-841-3131

Senator Hollinger is poised to run for the Congressional Seat being vacated by Congressman Ben Cardin. As the instigator behind S.B. 712, it would appear that she is attempting to insure her victory in the 2006 elections by absolutely PREVENTING any possibility of a verifiable/honest election.

Senator Joan Carter Conway, Vice Chairman, D-43, Baltimore City, 410-841-3145

Senator Gwendolyn Britt, D-47, Prince Georges County, 301-858-3745

Senator Jim Brochin, D-42, Baltimore County; 410-841-3648

Senator Richard F. Colburn, R-37, Caroline, Dorchester, Talbot, Wicomico Counties;

410-841-3590

Senator Roy P. Dyson, D-29, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s Counties; 301-858-3673;

Senator Janet Greenip, R-33, Anne Arundel County, 410-841-3568

Senator Sharon M. Grosfeld, D-18, Montgomery County, 301-858-3137

Senator Andrew P. Harris, R-7, Baltimore and Harford Counties, 410-841-3706

Senator Allan H. Kittleman, R-9, Carroll and Howard Counties, 410-841-3671

Senator Paul G. Pinsky D-22, Prince Georges County, 301-858-3155

SENATOR THOMAS V. MIKE MILLER, JR. D-27, Prince Georges and Calvert Counties, 410-841-3700 or 301-858-3700.

All of the above are up for re-election in 2006. YOUR vote will be important to them. Make sure they understand that THEIR vote on this matter is important to you.

If you want YOUR vote to be counted as YOU cast it, pass this information on to everyone you know.

If you want to learn more and have your eyes opened wider regarding the effects of computers on the integrity of vote tabulation, go to IT Certification Specialist Chuck Herrin’s January 7, 2005 Power Point presentation to the North Carolina Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on E-Voting at: http://www.chuckherrin.com/GEMSDemo.pps. “The first part talks about what we do in business versus what we do in e-voting, and the second part rips apart Diebold’s vote tabulation software, showing it for the criminal piece or crap that it is.” Chuck Herrin.

As a Chief Election Judge working when the Diebold Touch Screen machines were first rolled-out in Maryland, I can tell you that the last part of Chuck Herrins’ quotation was often said to me by voters whose jobs were working with computers as they left the precinct, “these machines are a piece of crap!”

If you are interested, you can learn how to hack the vote by logging on to: http://www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm

the point is that the house passed a bill unanimously that would have put optical scanners
in the precincts instead of paperless Diebold touchscreens.

There were no tricky ID provisions or usual republican favored things.

The only reason for Senator Hollinger to block the bill is so she could
protect Diebold.

She knows that vote by mail is not something you can introduce at the last minute
out of the blue and win any kind of support for.

She is in effect killing any hopes of getting rid of Diebold.

She is the worst person in the world for this month!

There has to be one.
How long has she been a Dem? The current trend is for life-long rethugs to register as Dems so they can pull crap like this.

:shrug:

has a statewide system that is VERY CAREFULLY thought out with many checks and balances. It is NOT just an absentee balloting system, and as Wilms says you can't just introduce it at the last minute and get support for it and rightfully so, because without ALL the checks and balances taht the OR system has, it is in NO WAY similar to the ORegon system. Just because ballots are mailed in hardly makes it similar to the OR system. that just makes it a statewide absentee balloting system and that what OR has is far more than that.

And I thought we had it licked here, finally... I am now sick! I'll be sending your post to many I know in Maryland.

Thanks for this very important FYI!

maybe a deal's been made?

but it sounds like a similar bill was killed in the Senate, not the same one. If the house approved an identical bill, it should be sent to the Senate. A two-house conference committee should resolve any differences between the two bills. There should be plenty of chances left to fix this.

Keep the pressure on though. If it is just one Senator pushing this change, the bill will likely survive in form of the House version during resolution of the two bills differences in the two-house conference committee.