U Verified Voting update
Dear Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) supporters,
On April 25, we finally had a breakthrough in our push for greater reliability and transparency in our voting system! Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg ordered that Sequoia, the maker of most of the Electronic Voting Machines used in New Jersey, must allow independent inspections of these machines to proceed.
You may recall that CFPA has been advocating for a Voter Verified Paper Ballot (VVPB) to be used as part of all voting in New Jersey, due to questions surrounding these electronic voting machines.
Our efforts began in October 2004, when we authorized the Rutgers Constitional Litigation Clinic to file suit seeking to mandate use of VVPBs.
A key contention in the suit has been whether our independent computer experts would be allowed to inspect the Electronic Voting Machines that most New Jerseyans use to vote.
The Star Ledger reported that:
Voting rights advocates are finally getting a chance to have ex perts examine New Jersey's electronic voting machines under a ruling issued yesterday by a Superior Court judge . . . [Machine manufacturer] Sequoia Voting System tried [in vain] to persuade Judge Linda Feinberg to quash subpoenas issued in Bergen, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean and Union counties instructing officials to turn over voting machines that showed discrepancies in the February presidential primary. . . .
Irene Goldman, a leader of the Coalition for Peace Action, which has questioned the reliability of electronic machines, hailed the judge's ruling.
"Opening up the source codes is a landmark for our case and voter integrity," Goldman said.
. . . The voter's rights advocates are now pressing the state to equip all machines with paper ballots so voters may verify their votes. The state missed the Jan. 1, 2008, deadline, however. Both houses of the Legislature passed bills extending the deadline to Jan. 1, 2009, but Gov. Jon Cor zine has not yet signed it.
Penny Venetis, a Rutgers University law clinic professor representing the voters' advocates, said their experts want to test the machines at a specially equipped laboratory at Princeton University. She said Andrew Appel, a Princeton computer scientist, would conduct the evaluation and it could take several weeks.
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We are grateful that the Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic and their co-counsels have generously waived lawyer's fees over the last four years.
However, CFPA has had to pay over $15,000 in various expenses, such as rapidly producing court transcripts, expenses for expert witnesses, and various filing fees. While we have raised about $10,000 in designated gifts toward these expenses, we've had to borrow the remainder from our operating budget. We anticipate significantly more such expenses when CFPA's case goes to trial, tentatively in September.
Therefore, I encourage you to support this effort by making a special tax-deductible donation for as generous an amount as you can. You can click on the link below and use the third option (Contribution), or mail your donation to Peace Action Education Fund (PAEF) at the address below.
http://www.peacecoalition.org/about/contribute.html
The Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director
Peace Action Education Fund
40 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
(609) 924-5022 Phone
(609) 924-3052 Fax
http://www.peacecoalition.org
