Impatience and the demand for instant gratification will kill us as a country

PROTECTING ELECTIONS IN AN ELECTRONIC WORLD
http://www.federalelectionreform.com/pdf/Voting%20Systems%20Issue%20Brief.pdf
PROTECTING ELECTIONS
IN AN ELECTRONIC WORLD
Summary
All three of the most commonly purchased electronic voting systems have significant security and reliability vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state, and local elections. When the goal of an attack on voting systems is to change the outcome of a close statewide election, attacks that involve the insertion of corrupt software are the least difficult attacks. Voting machines that have wireless components are significantly more vulnerable to a wide array of attacks.
Few jurisdictions have implemented any of the key countermeasures that could make the least difficult attacks against voting systems much more difficult to execute.
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Of the 27 states that mandate voter-verified paper trails, only 13 require regular audits. Current federal guidelines for voting systems do not ban wireless components; only two states, New York and Minnesota, ban wireless components in voting machines. Only four states conduct parallel testing statewide. After evaluating more than 120 possible attacks on voting systems for more than a year, the Brennan Center’s Task Force on Voting System Security recommends: (1) automatic routine audits of paper records; (2) parallel testing of voting machines; (3) banning of wireless components on all voting machines; (4) transparent and random selection procedures for parallel testing and audits; (5) decentralized programming and voting system administration; and (6) implementation of effective procedures for addressing evidence of fraud or error.
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School Of Law
161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor • New York, NY 10013
212-998-6730 • www.brennancenter.org Last Updated September 2006

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/199/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=22334
Tell Congress: Pass Emergency Bill for Secure Elections in 2008

Now is your best chance to to help make the 2008 Presidential election verifiable. Please ask your members of Congress to co-sponsor the "Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008”, Representative Rush Holt's bill to provide emergency funding for paper ballots voting systems and random hand counted audits of the November elections.

The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act offers states or counties reimbursement for purchasing paper ballot systems in time for the November elections, and reimbursement for conducting random hand-counted audits of the November election results.

The bill would offer money only for the most reliable voting systems: those that use voter-marked paper ballots, with accessible ballot-marking devices to serve voters with disabilities. By offering crucial funding, Congress can empower state and county officials to do the right thing in time for November.

Rep. Holt's bill could not be more timely. As the Presidential primary season unfolds, 14 states will use paperless electronic system in their primaries, either as the statewide system, or as the system used in many counties.

It doesn't have to be this way in November. Urge your Representative to cosponsor the Confidence in Voting Act. Take action now: please send the letter below (or feel free to edit as you see fit). Thank you!