----- Original Message -----
From: "Ellen H. Brodsky" <ehbrod@...>
To: <electionreform@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 5:02 PM
Subject: [electionreform] ACLU APPLAUDS FLORIDA LEGISLATURE ON SCRAPPING
FLAWED VOTING MACHINES


> ACLU APPLAUDS FLORIDA LEGISLATURE ON SCRAPPING FLAWED VOTING
> MACHINES Disabled and Language-Minority Voters Must Not Be Left Behind
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
> Thursday, May 03, 2007
> CONTACT:
> Brandon Hensler, Director of Communications, 786-363-2700
> TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - In a 118-0 vote today in the Florida House of
> Representatives, a bill was passed requiring all Florida counties to have
> paper ballot voting technology in place before the 2008 Florida primaries
> and general election. The House vote comes shortly after the Florida
> Senate approved a similar measure.
> The ACLU of Florida applauded the Legislature for acting on Gov. Charlie
> Crist's commitment to change the State's voting system to a paper
> ballot-based technology. "The battle for fair elections in Florida now
> focuses on the 15 formerly DRE counties, which must act independently to
> ensure that disabled and language-minority voters will not be
> second-class citizens," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU
> of Florida.
> It is critical that all counties ensure access to paper ballots for
> disabled voters and not force them to vote on the Direct Recording
> Electronic (DRE) machines that have been plagued by unrecorded votes
> (undervotes) and provide no basis for a meaningful recount. Separately,
> but equally important, counties must also ensure accessibility to ballots
> for language-minorities by using software that has the capacity to
> support multiple languages.
> "This is an historic vote and drastically shifts the direction our entire
> country is heading with regard to voting technology," said Muslima Lewis,
> ACLU of Florida attorney and Voting Rights Project Director. "Now is not
> the time to kick up our feet and declare victory - counties must
> guarantee that paper ballots are going to be used for all voters, and
> that disabled and language-minority voters are not going to be left
> behind."
> After the botched 2000 elections in Florida, 15 counties implemented DRE
> technology without fully understanding the potential ramifications - such
> as the 18,300 undervotes in last November's 13th Congressional District
> race in Sarasota.
> "This is a chance for Florida to emerge as a leader on election technology
> and leave behind the tarnished reputation of being the nation's
> laughingstock," Simon continued.
> Whichever technology is chosen by the counties, voting machines must
> accommodate disabled voters and have software that has multi-language
> capacity, not only as required by the Voting Rights Act and state
> statutes, but to allow counties that voluntarily provide multi-language
> ballots to voters to continue that practice.
> The legislation enacted today does not require counties to provide paper
> ballot systems for disabled voters. Counties will have the option of
> providing disabled voters either DREs or a ballot marking device that
> produces a ballot and is then read by an optical scan reader. A
> paper-based system for all voters, including disabled voters, will be
> required by 2012.
> The U.S. Election Assistance Commission voted yesterday to allow the HAVA
> (Help America Vote Act) funds to be used in Florida in conjunction with
> state monies to fund the transition from DRE to optical scan equipment.
> View a video produced by the ACLU of Florida and the Florida Voters
> Coalition on DRE voting technology at:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArU6cBlNysY.
> About the ACLU of Florida
> The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida is freedom's
> watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to
> defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the
> Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information, visit
> our Web site at: www.aclufl.org.
> # # #
>
>
> To change your personal settings, or to unsubscribe, please click here.
> You will need a password to change your personal settings. If you don't
> know your password, you can have it e-mailed to you so that you can
> access your information.
>
>
> --0-241179219-1178226139=:56363
> Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
> "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
> <html>
> <head>
> </head>
>
> <!-- Network content -->
>
>
> <body style="background-color: #ffffff;">
>
> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStartT|**|-~-->
> <div id="ygrp-mlmsg" style="width:655px; position:relative;">
> <div id="ygrp-msg" style="width: 490px; padding: 0 15px 0 0; float:left;
> z-index:1;">
> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEndT|**|-~-->
>
> <div id="ygrp-text">
> <p><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
> width="600"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="210"><font size="2"><a
> href="http://www.aclufl.org/"><img alt="ACLU of Florida"
> src="http://www.aclufl.org/_images/email_alerts/logo.gif" border="0"
> height="103" width="210"></a></font></td> <td width="390"><font
> size="2"><img alt="Legislative Action Alert"
> src="http://www.aclufl.org/_images/email_alerts/headers/6.gif"
> height="103" width="390"></font></td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"
> height="250" valign="top"> <div><!-- BEGIN news alert body --> <h1><font
> size="2"><em>ACLU APPLAUDS FLORIDA LEGISLATURE ON SCRAPPING FLAWED VOTING
> MACHINES </em></font></h1> <h1><font size="2"><em>Disabled and
> Language-Minority Voters Must Not Be Left Behind</em></font> </h1>
> <div><font size="2"><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:</strong> <br>Thursday,
> May 03, 2007 </font></div> <div><font size="2"><strong>CONTACT:
> <br></strong>Brandon Hensler, Director of
> Communications, 786-363-2700</font></div> <div><font
> size="2"><strong>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - </strong>In a 118-0 vote today in the
> Florida House of Representatives, a bill was passed requiring all Florida
> counties to have paper ballot voting technology in place before the 2008
> Florida primaries and general election. The House vote comes shortly
> after the Florida Senate approved a similar measure. </font></div>
> <div><font size="2">The ACLU of Florida applauded the Legislature for
> acting on Gov. Charlie Crist's commitment to change the State's voting
> system to a paper ballot-based technology. "The battle for fair elections
> in Florida now focuses on the 15 formerly DRE counties, which must act
> independently to ensure that disabled and language-minority voters will
> not be second-class citizens," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of
> the ACLU of Florida. </font></div> <div><font size="2">It is critical that
> all counties ensure access to paper ballots for disabled
> voters and not force them to vote on the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE)
> machines that have been plagued by unrecorded votes (undervotes) and
> provide no basis for a meaningful recount. Separately, but equally
> important, counties must also ensure accessibility to ballots for
> language-minorities by using software that has the capacity to support
> multiple languages. </font></div> <div><font size="2">"This is an historic
> vote and drastically shifts the direction our entire country is heading
> with regard to voting technology," said Muslima Lewis, ACLU of Florida
> attorney and Voting Rights Project Director. "Now is not the time to kick
> up our feet and declare victory - counties must guarantee that paper
> ballots are going to be used for all voters, and that disabled and
> language-minority voters are not going to be left behind." </font></div>
> <div><font size="2">After the botched 2000 elections in Florida, 15
> counties implemented DRE technology without fully
> understanding the potential ramifications - such as the 18,300 undervotes
> in last November's 13th Congressional District race in Sarasota.
> </font></div> <div><font size="2">"This is a chance for Florida to emerge
> as a leader on election technology and leave behind the tarnished
> reputation of being the nation's laughingstock," Simon continued.
> </font></div> <div><font size="2">Whichever technology is chosen by the
> counties, voting machines must accommodate disabled voters and have
> software that has multi-language capacity, not only as required by the
> Voting Rights Act and state statutes, but to allow counties that
> voluntarily provide multi-language ballots to voters to continue that
> practice. </font></div> <div><font size="2">The legislation enacted today
> does not require counties to provide paper ballot systems for disabled
> voters. Counties will have the option of providing disabled voters either
> DREs or a ballot marking device that produces a ballot and is then
> read by an optical scan reader. A paper-based system for all voters,
> including disabled voters, will be required by 2012. </font></div>
> <div><font size="2">The U.S. Election Assistance Commission voted
> yesterday to allow the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) funds to be used in
> Florida in conjunction with state monies to fund the transition from DRE
> to optical scan equipment. </font></div> <div><font size="2">View a video
> produced by the ACLU of Florida and the Florida Voters Coalition on DRE
> voting technology at: <a
>
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArU6cBlNysY">http://www.youtube.<wbr>com/wa\
tch?<wbr>v=ArU6cBlNysY</a>.
> </font></div> <div><font size="2"><strong>About the ACLU of Florida
> </strong><br>The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida is
> freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and
> communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed
> by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information,
> visit our Web
> site at: <a href="http://www.aclufl.org/">www.aclufl.org</a>.&nbsp;
> </font></div> <div><font
>
size="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp\
;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&\
nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nb\
sp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
> # # #</font></div><!-- END news alert body --></div></td></tr> <tr> <td
> colspan="2"><font size="2"><br></font> <div><font size="2"><img
> src="http://www.aclufl.org/_images/email_alerts/dashed_line.gif"
> height="11" width="570"></font> <div><font size="2"><em>To change your
> personal settings, or to unsubscribe, please <a
> href="http://www.aclufl.org/forms/update/">click here</a>. You will need a
> password to change your personal settings. If you don't know your
> password, you can have it e-mailed to you so that you can access your
> information.</em></font></div></div></td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><font
> size="2"><a href="http://www.aclufl.org/"><img alt="ACLU of Florida"
> src="http://www.aclufl.org/_images/email_alerts/footer.gif" border="0"
> height="26" width="600"></a></font></td></tr></tbody></table></p>
> </div>
>
> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
> <span width="1" style="color: white;"></span>
> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~-->
> </body>
> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
> <head>
> <style type="text/css">
> <!--
> #ygrp-mlmsg {font-size:13px; font-family:
> arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;*font-size:small;*font:x-small;}
> #ygrp-mlmsg table {font-size:inherit;font:100%;}
> #ygrp-mlmsg select, input, textarea {font:99%
> arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;}
> #ygrp-mlmsg pre, code {font:115% monospace;*font-size:100%;}
> #ygrp-mlmsg * {line-height:1.22em;}
> #ygrp-text{
> font-family: Georgia;
> }
> #ygrp-text p{
> margin: 0 0 1em 0;
> }
> #ygrp-tpmsgs{
> font-family: Arial;
> clear: both;
> }
> #ygrp-vitnav{
> padding-top: 10px;
> font-family: Verdana;
> font-size: 77%;
> margin: 0;
> }
> #ygrp-vitnav a{
> padding: 0 1px;
> }
> #ygrp-actbar{
> clear: both;
> margin: 25px 0;
> white-space:nowrap;
> color: #666;
> text-align: right;
> }
> #ygrp-actbar .left{
> float: left;
> white-space:nowrap;
> }
> .bld{font-weight:bold;}
> #ygrp-grft{
> font-family: Verdana;
> font-size: 77%;
> padding: 15px 0;
> }
> #ygrp-ft{
> font-family: verdana;
> font-size: 77%;
> border-top: 1px solid #666;
> padding: 5px 0;
> }
> #ygrp-mlmsg #logo{
> padding-bottom: 10px;
> }
>
> #ygrp-vital{
> background-color: #e0ecee;
> margin-bottom: 20px;
> padding: 2px 0 8px 8px;
> }
> #ygrp-vital #vithd{
> font-size: 77%;
> font-family: Verdana;
> font-weight: bold;
> color: #333;
> text-transform: uppercase;
> }
> #ygrp-vital ul{
> padding: 0;
> margin: 2px 0;
> }
> #ygrp-vital ul li{
> list-style-type: none;
> clear: both;
> border: 1px solid #e0ecee;
> }
> #ygrp-vital ul li .ct{
> font-weight: bold;
> color: #ff7900;
> float: right;
> width: 2em;
> text-align:right;
> padding-right: .5em;
> }
> #ygrp-vital ul li .cat{
> font-weight: bold;
> }
> #ygrp-vital a {
> text-decoration: none;
> }
>
> #ygrp-vital a:hover{
> text-decoration: underline;
> }
>
> #ygrp-sponsor #hd{
> color: #999;
> font-size: 77%;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor #ov{
> padding: 6px 13px;
> background-color: #e0ecee;
> margin-bottom: 20px;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor #ov ul{
> padding: 0 0 0 8px;
> margin: 0;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor #ov li{
> list-style-type: square;
> padding: 6px 0;
> font-size: 77%;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor #ov li a{
> text-decoration: none;
> font-size: 130%;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor #nc {
> background-color: #eee;
> margin-bottom: 20px;
> padding: 0 8px;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor .ad{
> padding: 8px 0;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor .ad #hd1{
> font-family: Arial;
> font-weight: bold;
> color: #628c2a;
> font-size: 100%;
> line-height: 122%;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor .ad a{
> text-decoration: none;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor .ad a:hover{
> text-decoration: underline;
> }
> #ygrp-sponsor .ad p{
> margin: 0;
> }
> o {font-size: 0; }
> .MsoNormal {
> margin: 0 0 0 0;
> }
> #ygrp-text tt{
> font-size: 120%;
> }
> blockquote{margin: 0 0 0 4px;}
> .replbq {margin:4}
> -->
> </style>
> </head>
> <!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlEnd|**|-~-->
> </html><!--End group email -->
>
>
> --0-241179219-1178226139=:56363--
>