Secure This Fall's Election

Dear Friends,

Kyle Lobner – former Fallon for Governor Communications Director now with Common Cause of Iowa – sent me an important e-mail message this morning.  In a legislative environment where “we the people” seem to lose more battles than we win, it’s encouraging to see real momentum on paper ballots.  Kyle and others are working hard on that, and also on random hand audits.  Following is Kyle’s appeal on hand audits, and one that I hope each of you will take a few minutes to act on.  Thanks!

Ed Fallon (writing on the eve of my 50^th birthday . . . see www.fallonforcongress.com for details on all the fun I’m planning to have tomorrow . . . come join me!)

{THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON AN APPEAL FROM COMMON CAUSE}

Iowa is close to victory in the fight for paper ballot systems, but we need your help on an equally important component of secure elections:  random hand audits of the computer vote tallies. Secretary of State Michael Mauro supports post-election audits, but it’s important to get it done now in advance of this fall’s general election.

Please contact Secretary of State Michael Mauro at (515) 281-5204 or sos@sos.state.ia.us and urge him to use the full power of his office to push for legislation to require hand-count audits in the upcoming 2008 general election.  You should also contact your state representative and senator (visit http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/).

Hand audits are done in over a dozen states, including California, Missouri and Connecticut. The principle is simple.  A sample of precincts is chosen at random after the election.  The paper ballots for that precinct are hand-counted and compared with the electronic vote tallies to assure accuracy.

Computer scientists who study voting systems view audits as essential to secure elections. In 2006, the Brennan Center's Task Force on Voting System Security wrote, “The value of paper ballots without the Automatic Routine Audits is highly questionable.”  The Task Force included founders of the field of computer security, and Howard Schmidt, former chief security officer of Microsoft. When a team that includes Microsoft's security officer says we need hand audits, we should listen.

Time is short, but there is still active discussion in the Iowa Legislature on this issue.  Please be sure to thank Mauro for his leadership on paper ballots.  He’s done great work on that issue.  But let him know that an election with inadequate checks and balances on the software counting our votes is not an option in 2008.  Remember Ohio in 2004, and Florida in 2000.  Thanks!

{Kyle Lobner with Common Cause of Iowa can be reached at (515) 402-7669 or klobner@commoncause.org.  Iowans for Voting Integrity is also helping lead the charge on these and related election reform issues.}