Re: Only 48 hrs left! We Need Your Help!

Thanks, MIchelle. I had not seen the Election Center report. What a crock! "Election Officials continue to lead with voter service innovations." More like, election officials respond to more evidence of incompetence and corruption with another laundry list of things legislators and citizens need to do.

In effect, they say, "trust us because we adhere to these high principles." We have no reason to trust election officials and every reason to distrust them. Only an open system will do where there are institutionalized protocols to enable public monitoring of all aspects of election administration.

Anyway, we need to respond to this report -- and we will do so.

Alan Dechert

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: misheilta
  To: Alan Dechert
  Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 6:55 AM
  Subject: Re: Only 48 hrs left! We Need Your Help!

  Dear Alan,
  I am just another concern citizen, but I thought I would forward this piece I found in BradBlog.
  You probably already know about the info in this post, but thought I would send it just in case you had not
  It starts like this, "Something stinks to high heaven about these people and their new report. And not simply because they're based in Houston, TX, (though it certainly doesn't help their case) but the fact that they are directly funded by Voting Machine companies such as Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia immediately destroys any credibility they might have otherwise had when it comes to making decisions about our Electoral System in desperate need of reform.

  ElectionCenter.org claims to be a non-profit, non-partisan, professional organization of Elections Workers. Today, they have released a new report [large PDF] with recommendations on how to improve America's Electoral System."

  Keep fight the great fight

  Sincerely,
  Michelle Smith
  Cypress, Ca

  P.S. here is the link to the piece; http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001442.htm

  Alan Dechert <alan@openvotingconsortium.org> wrote:
    The Open Voting Consortium idea is very ambitious. It's huge, and, if
    successful, will bring huge benefits. We need your support now to bring us
    one step closer to getting there.

    Pledge week ends Tuesday, May 24 at 8:00pm Pacific. Contributions made
    before the deadline will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $3,700 ($7,400
    total)!

    I hear all the time, "Why don't you just go to so-and-so and convince him
    (or her)?" It's not that simple. I want to take a few minutes to share
    some recent correspondence. It seems to some that we're not sufficiently
    focused -- too spread out. The short answer is that we are very focused.
    Focused on building support to a point where we have the critical mass
    needed.

    A supporter wrote today, and I responded:

> I'm just worried that there are too many
> projects and not enough resources.
>
    Well, I'm worried about that too. Actually, I'm mainly worried about "not
    enough resources." We grow the organization by creating projects. We need
    more projects. I'm dreaming them up all the time.

    When I started promoting this idea 4.5 years ago, I was focused on selling
    the idea to a very few people. I came to realize over time that I had to
    sell it to a wide audience. This is probably the hardest thing for people
    to understand. Very few people are in a position to really understand that.
    This has the unfortunate byproduct of making the project look unfocused or
    disjointed. We're building our organization and building our list of
    supporters. We're very focused on that. As we grow, we become a force to
    be reckoned with. This is what it will take to succeed with open voting.

> Jo voter could see it if there was a massive education
> campaign. But that takes craploads of money.
>

    You're absolutely right about the need for a massive education campaign.
    That campaign is underway, and has been for some time now. It takes some
    money for sure -- probably not as much as you think.

    For example, I spoke last year on the Capitol steps in Salt Lake City, UT.
    Kathy Dopp organized the event on a shoestring -- a few hundred dollars. We
    had maybe 50 activists show up for it. The local TV stations covered it and
    it was on the evening news in UT. All the major UT newspapers were there,
    and wrote about it. An Associated Press article appeared about it the same
    afternoon:

    http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=106183

    My trip to UT cost OVC about a thousand bucks. The truth has wings already.
    It costs a lot more to make tanks fly.

    Please try to imagine what a successful OVC project would mean. It's about
    people taking back what rightly belongs to them.

    Among other news today, I have been invited to speak at Common Cause event
    in San Diego June 24-25.

    Please go now to http://openvoting.org and make a donation. You can use the
    PayPal button there
    (This is the address for PayPal: donation@openvotingconsortium.org )

    PayPal is the preferred method. PayPal now allows contributions to be made
    with a credit card even if you don't have a PayPal account.

    You may also use our Amazon account to contribute.
    http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T43MQSRHDPEDQ/102-0964310-0180917

    If by check, please send to:

    Open Voting Consortium
    9560 Windrose Lane
    Granite Bay, CA 95746

    Also, consider passing along this message to others (add your own comments).
    If you contribute $50 or more. we'll send you a free Votergate DVD (a GREAT
    and educational film).

    Thanks again for your support.

    Alan Dechert
    President, Open Voting Consortium
    http://openvoting.org
    alan@openvoting.org
    9560 Windrose Lane
    Granite Bay, CA 95746
    916-791-0456
    The Open Voting Consortium (OVC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to
    the development, maintenance, and delivery of open voting systems for use in
    public elections.

    The Open Voting Consortium Vision
    -----------------------------
    Our vision is a world in which voting systems are inexpensive, readily
    available, reliable, easy to use, accessible, universal, transparent,
    auditable, and produce verifiable election results.

    The Open Voting Consortium Mission:
    -------------------------
    Our mission is to develop, maintain, and deliver Open Voting Systems for use
    in public elections. We work toward an Open Voting System in which every
    Component is available to the general public under non-restrictive licensing
    terms or is in the public domain. For hardware components an Open Voting
    System relies entirely on COTS devices. We seek to establish
    institutionalized protocols that enable public monitoring of all aspects of
    election administration.

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Received on Thu Jun 30 23:17:04 2005