[VoteRescue] URGENT need for help at Commissioner's Court Tuesday 9am!

[Vickie Karp]

VoteRescuers, Do you have a few minutes on Tuesday morning? WE NEED YOUR
HELP this coming Tuesday at the Travis County Commissioner's Court -
and this time, something big is at stake! 

We have been continuing our dialogue at the Travis County Commissioner's
Court, both with the Commissioners themselves and with Judge Biscoe,
toward the goal of getting the Court to quit funding the machines.

We have been told that there is not much political will to change voting
systems before November because they have not experienced a "public
outcry" - they really have not heard citizens complaining about the
machines until we showed up at the Court back in May (with the help of a
lot of you!)

This coming Tuesday, August 26th, the Court will be voting on whether to
allot another $166,000 to Dana DeBeauvoir and the County Election office,
in part, to PURCHASE YET MORE NEW VOTING MACHINES for early voting,
because of the record turnout they expect in November.  The Commissioners
Court needs to hear from A BIG CROWD OF US on Tuesday during the public
comment section of their meeting, which occurs right after they go into
session at 9 a.m. Travis County Commissioner' Court - County Judge:
Samuel T. Biscoe
314 W. 11th St - (Courtroom is on the first floor, session begins 9 a.m.)

Austin, TX 78701
Phone: (512) 854-9555

YOU MUST BE A TRAVIS COUNTY RESIDENT to speak to this issue in the Court
- when you come into the Courtroom, you will find sign-in sheets on a
table at the right side of the room, and your address must be filled in. 
(Non-Travis County residents' remarks would probably not be considered). 

Though each person can speak up to 3 minutes, it is not necessary to take
up the entire time slot - you can just make a brief statement in
opposition to the use of the Hart electronic voting machines in Travis
County, and especially, as a taxpayer, to the idea that the Commissioners
are being asked to fund even more machines, when the touch-screen type of
machines, including the E-slates that we use here, are being decertified
in other parts of the country. 

Speak from the heart, keep it brief, and above all, be respectful and not
angry.  These Commissioners are really listening to us, and though we may
or may not succeed in eliminating machines by November, (though, you
never know, with the synergy of all of you VoteRescuers out there!!!) we
are making some headway with this group.  One of the Commissioners told
me today he would NOT support spending more money for new machines - now,
let's take the rest of them to the same place with the "public outcry"
we've been told they have not seen yet!  

So that we don't have repetitive, "canned" statements being repeated by
several people, we will just give you here some of the talking points, as
stated above:

* You are requesting that the Court refuse to fund the purchase of new
Hart machines for the County.
* You don't trust electronic voting machines because their use amounts to
"secret vote counting".
*  As a taxpayer, you do NOT want even more of your tax dollars being
spent on yet more of these machines because they've been demonstrated by
experts to be easy to hack without detection.
*  You support a return to hand-counted paper ballot elections, with
citizens counting the votes, videocameras on the ballot box, and totals
posted at the precinct level.
*  You are tired of having to trust corporate vendors who tell us that
these machines are properly counting our votes.  There is no proof of
that!
*  You understand that allegations from a fraud lawsuit against Hart by a
former programmer who worked for them say that the software was insecure
and could allow manipulation of vote totals, and that representatives
from the company lied to election officials about the machines in order
to make sales.  How do we know that Dana DeBeauvoir was not lied to by
someone at Hart in order to sell her machines for Travis County?
*  You understand that Dana has sent a list of questions about the
allegations of this lawsuit to the Secretary of State - but there has
been no response so far, and you are very concerned about being forced to
vote on these machines again for another presidential election. * If you
can, IT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL IF YOU WOULD VOLUNTEER TO COUNT PAPER
BALLOTS ON ELECTION DAY in Travis County, if we could get rid of the
machines before November and go back to hand-counted paper ballots.


We think that some combination of the above, plus any personalized
additional statement you want to add about how you feel about the
electronic voting machines, would be great!  It probably would be good
for several people to mention the taxpayer angle, because the
Commissioner's role in this is approving the funding (or not).    

Please remember to be respectful, and not adversarial.  An adversarial
attitude will only hurt our cause.

These Commissioners have relied upon Dana DeBeauvoir for their
information about the machines so far.  We are in the process of
re-educating them about the "other side of the story" that she chooses
not to consider:  All the documented evidence shows that the machines are
not safe with our votes. 

WE THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR TAKING A FEW MINUTES OUT OF YOUR TUESDAY
MORNING TO HELP THE CAUSE OF ELECTION INTEGRITY IN TRAVIS COUNTY!

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!  All Travis County residents who support
our position are invited to come stand with VoteRescue and Texans for
REAL Elections on Tuesday!

(Please e-mail to Karen Renick at karen at voterescue.org if you can attend
and make a statement.  She will be coordinating volunteer efforts for
this event.)

Thank you in advance for your help!!!

Vickie, Karen, and the whole VoteRescue Gang

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