ALERT!  House Budget Subcommittee  will meet Tuesday June 2 and will likely vote on HB614  to delay implementation of the Voter Confidence Act from 2010 to 2012. See the editorial below for a good explanation as to why the delay is a terrible idea!

Contact members of the House Budget Sub-Committee today June 1 and ask them to change our unreliable and unsafe touch screen system and paper ballots in 2010.  Go to http://www.capitol.tn.gov/ for the list of committee members and email addresses.

Points to make:

1) Paper ballots are needed to keep our elections secure and fair!

2) They are less expensive than touch screen systems.

3) There is time and the federal government pays for the cost. Fair elections are important! Do not delay until 2012 and House Bill 0614!

Also, ask Senators to oppose SB 872!

                                              Knoxville News Sentinel Editorial

(http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/17/tennessee-voter-confidence-act-must-be-now/)

Guest Column: Tennessee voter confidence act must be implemented now

By Bernie Ellis and Margie Parsley

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Tennessee went from being one of the 12 worst states for election security

to one of the 18 most secure.

We should all be proud of that accomplishment. It took us three years of

study, hard work and perseverance to come to the conclusion that our

elections are too important to be left to unverifiable direct record electronic

machines (DREs) that are easy to hack and impossible to audit.

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations

recommended the move to paper ballots, as did the Legislature's Joint Committee on Voter Confidence. Many newspapers around the state supported this legislation. It was truly a nonpartisan effort, and all Tennesseans - regardless of political party - who want our votes to be counted as they are cast, cheered the success.

On June 5, 2008, more than a dozen Tennessee citizens who had worked hard to help save our democracy joined Gov. Phil Bredesen on the podium when he signed the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA). On that day, the governor said: "The right to vote is one of the cornerstones of our democracy, and every voter deserves the 100 percent assurance that his or her vote will be counted. I am proud that Tennessee is taking a big step forward in

improving voter confidence."

We were proud, too, and shared the governor's belief that the voter

confidence act had made our elections safer and more secure for all citizens. But that was then. This is now.

Over the past several weeks, our legislators have been given extremely

high cost estimates concerning the shift to paper ballots and routine audits

as an excuse for delaying TVCA implementation until 2012. Some of these

extra-cost estimates would be laughable if they were not so dangerous.

One county estimated it would cost them $70,000 extra to store paper

ballots that would not fill a single filing cabinet. Another county estimated it

would cost almost $40,000 extra to conduct the routine two-hour training

class for poll workers.

Several counties estimated it would cost $10,000-$20,000 extra to audit a

few hundred votes in a single precinct - costs that would average out to

more than $50 per ballot.

The truth is, voting with paper ballots/optical scan machines are 30-40

percent less expensive than voting on the unverifiable DREs. That is because

a single optical scan machine can do the work of more than 10 DREs,

reducing both the time it takes citizens to vote and reducing the unnecessary

expense of storing, transporting, programming, testing and retesting so many unneeded DREs.

Studies in North Carolina, Maryland and Florida have confirmed these

savings.

It is important that we implement the TVCA as intended before the 2010

elections. Tennessee took a big step forward last year in improving voter

confidence with the TVCA. There are no good arguments for delaying this vital law. Democracy delayed is democracy denied.

Ellis is an organizer for Gathering To Save Our Democracy. Parsley is the

state action chair of the League of Women Voters. For more information

about the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act please visit votesafetn.org. A version of this op-ed previously appeared in the (Nashville) Tennessean.

(http://www.scripps.com/) (http://www.scripps.com/)

© 2008 Knoxville News SJoanJoanentinel

5985 Fly Hollow Road, Santa Fe, TN 38482

www.votesafeTN.org

Call Bernie Ellis (931/682-2864) or Email: VoteSafeTN@comcast.net

www.opednews.com/articles/Alert-Stop-Unsafe-Touchsc-by-the-web-090601-477.html

Author's Bio: anonymously sourced from either the web or a forwarded email.