News and Politics | October 23, 2008 | 13 comments

Dems sue PA, Demanding Paper Ballots

source: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6551

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pigmonkey
NAACP, Voting Rights Coalition Demand Paper Ballots If 'Majority' of Voting Machines Fail
Sec. of the Commonwealth Had Previously Decried Paper Only Necessary if ALL Voting Machines Break Down in a Precinct...
Finally! A lawsuit [PDF] has finally been filed today in federal District Court in Pennsylvania, against the Democratic Secretary of the Commonwealth, Pedro A. Cortes and the Commissioner of the state's Election Commission, Chet Harhut, over Cortes' recent decree that paper ballots only need be given out to voters in the event that every voting machine in a precinct breaks down.

That stunning decry was in opposition to PA's state law which allows election officials the discretion to give emergency paper ballots to voters if even a single machine breaks down in a precinct.

That neither Obama nor the DNC have said a word about this in the month or so since Cortes issued his decry has been maddening, and should be an outrage to voters of all parties in the Keystone State, sure to be another battleground state this November. The lawsuit was finally filed today by the state's NAACP in concert with the 866-MYVOTE1 Election Reform Network.

While the complaint should call for paper ballots to be made available to any voter who wishes one, or, at a minimum, to be given out if just one machine breaks down in a precinct, or even if the wait time in line is longer than 30 minutes, unfortunately, the suit calls very conservatively for emergency paper ballots to be given out if 50% or more of the voting machines in a precinct break down. But at least it's something, we guess, particularly in lieu of Obama and/or the DNC taking any action at all here, given they have the most to lose by the ridiculous action from state Democrats.

Pennsylvania uses unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) machines across most of the state, and saw machine failure after failure, as we documented in detail during their April primary this year. The failures resulted in untold numbers of disenfranchised voters, as noted in news reports, and logged by calls to the 866-MYVOTE1 hotline...


"Voters should not be forced to wait hours in line in order to exercise their fundamental right to vote," said John Bonifaz, legal director for VoterAction.org and co-counsel for the plaintiffs in a statement issued today. "While the use of electronic voting machines continues to pose a separate threat to the integrity of the vote-counting process, federal court intervention is necessary to ensure that voters will not be disenfranchised by long lines on Election Day in Pennsylvania, when these machines become inoperable."

In a declaration filed with the suit, J. Whyatt Mondesire, the president of the NAACP State Conference of Pennsylvania, notes: "One of the major impediments to members exercising their right to vote is the long lines frequently encountered on election day...Thousands of members have faced serious delays in voting when machines have broken down in the past and this problem will be much more severe this year when unprecedented numbers of voters will be coming to the polls."
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13 comments // Dems sue PA, Demanding Paper Ballots

  • uppityprogressive
    • 0
      uppityprogressive  

    • Relax trolls, you have this in the bag. There will be a last minute switch of the votes, no matter the momentum for Obama.

      McCain is already sure of it, he said "the polls are wrong, we will win, I guarantee it".

      How bad does it have to get??

      How will we respond??

    • 3 years ago
  • rainbowryan420
  • uppityprogressive
  • mo1y
    • 0
      mo1y  

    • sillyrabbit tricks are for Republicans.

      It's kind of strange for democrats to start talking about the voting process. This method of voting has been around for about three years.

      Is their method to the Democrat's strangeness?

      Do the Democrats want to delay the election?

      A delay in the election would give Obama a last chance to rally his stalled campaign. I'm sure it is not going to stall the election, but give us riots in November.

    • 3 years ago
  • edbr
    • 0
      edbr  
    • mo1y:

      just what makes you think obama's campaign is stalled?

      you're obviously not as well informed as you think.

      "It's kind of strange for democrats to start talking about the voting process. This method of voting has been around for about three years."

      if e-voting has been around for three years, isn't it clear that, by your logic, they never have been used for presidential elections? thus the concern now for this presidential election.

      you're so incredibly biased, you can't see the real logic of your flawed argument.

    • 3 years ago
  • Ragan
    • 0
      Ragan  

    • Im not sure the election commissioners want legal voting machines. In this day and age of computer technology, voting machine could have been made to also keep a hard copy of all voters. It seems that both parties want to fight and steal all elections. What has happened to the human characteristics of ethics, honor and integrity gone. These are the characteristics that seperate the domesticated human from feral animal. It appears that there is no honor among thieves and that all of mankind is still fighting the viscious animal instincts. Oh how I am anxiously awaiting election day and the deposition of Nancy Pelosi and all of her friends. I wonder if the Americans have learned anything over the past twenty years?

    • 3 years ago
  • WhichWayIsUp
    • 0
      WhichWayIsUp  

    • Paper ballots for everyone, they are already stealing the election, its easy peasy to place an intermediary between the voting machine and the server, capture the information, change it, send it on to server...
      Childs play, thats how alot of credit card fraud works.
      Just capture the message, change the fields around so it says vote is for Republicans.
      They are all ready doing it, ex GOP officials have talked about how easy it is ON FILM, they don't care if you know they are stealing it, they figure they stole it before and we did fuck all about it, so why not steal it again

      Paper ballots for everyone
      You would NEVER get Europeans to use a voting machine or anything other than a paper ballot.
      When America oversees elections in Africa and other 3rd world countries they insist 'The population has a right' to paper anonymous ballots.

      Its good enough for Congo but not good enough for Colorado?

    • 3 years ago
  • sillywabbit
    • 0
      sillywabbit  

    • WiseCracker,
      Everyone knows that the reason why Jimmy Carter seemed ineffectual during the Iranian hostage crisis is because Ronald Reagan made a deal with the Iranians to hold them, well-kept, until after the election. Reagan used this leverage to blow Jimmy Carter away in 1980. What was Olliver North doing again?

      MLK was reassuring minorities that the Dixicrats were dead - well mostly dead.

      Jimmy Carter didn't have the CIA on his side like Reagan's well-connected VP.

      Who is more respected in this world, Jimmy Carter or George Bush, Jr.?

      Jimmy Carter's work to ensure the openness and fairness of the democratic process abroad is unmatched.

      Was it not the Republicans who rebuffed his efforts in America recently (2000 - 2008) to have international oversite of our electoral process to ensure fairness?

      Does this country fear oversite in it's electoral process? Afterall, if we're doing it right and acting as a model, should we not study it and help other fledgling democracies?

      People voted for Carter for the same reason they will vote, en masse, for Obama. They are tired of fascism creeping in. Joe the Plumber, stop raping the American consumer.

    • 3 years ago
  • Marilynn_Murray
  • kennymotown
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