Humboldt Democratic Party and Redwood ACLU Resolutions for Hand-Counts

Humboldt Democratic Party and Redwood ACLU Resolutions for Hand-Counts

Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:07 pm (PST)

Dave Berman and the Voter Confidence Committee have won two significant allies in the battle for transparent vote counting. In his essay, linked below, Berman further clarifies the concept of uncertainty inherent in computerized voting systems:

"The Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee (HCDCC) by a vote of 7-4 adopted a resolution calling on the County of Humboldt, CA to ditch Diebold by the June Primary Election and commence hand-counting paper ballots.

The resolution (see full text link below) also states that the HCDCC 'will commit some of its resources to educating the community about the benefits of this change, and to recruit registered voters to serve as pollworkers and/or voter counters.'
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If you really want to get to the core of what has plagued our elections most, beginning with the 2000 presidential election, the crux is that we don't all agree on the outcome. Why is that? More than any other reason, it is secret vote counting.
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Current elections require our blind trust, or faith, rather than providing us with a reason to believe the reported results, a rational "basis for confidence."
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Instead, inherent uncertainty is created, waters intentionally muddied to the point that we can't know for sure. This happens everywhere, not just with "elections." It is not an accident or unintended consequence.
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What we get is a rift in the perception of reality. Matters of fact become differences of opinions that can never be resolved, like paperless electronic voting and other secret vote counting systems that create unverifiable "elections," events that are not really elections but resemble them closely enough to fool most people."

Read the full Resolution adopted by the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee 2/13/08, at
the Humboldt Voter Confidence Committee website, http://www.voterconfidencecommittee.org.

Dave Berman's essay is online at
http://wedonotconsent.blogspot.com/2008/02/humboldt-dems-call-for-hand-counting.html

And check out this victory:

Redwood ACLU Calls For Hand-Counting Paper Ballots

Press Release:

At the regular monthly meeting of the Redwood Chapter, ACLU Board of Directors, local civil rights leaders adopted a comprehensive policy on local election reform after months of deliberation and consultation with other election reform advocates. The new policy includes replacing electronic systems with precinct-based hand-counting of paper ballots . . .