Paper Ballots are Best

By Sean Flaherty, IVI

Iowa legislators are taking steps to make paper ballots the statewide standard for our elections.  We need your help to keep the momentum going. A sample letter is at the end of this alert.

Touchscreen voting machines are now the primary method of voting in 18 counties and are in partial use in 60 counties. Senate Study Bill 1104 and House Study Bill 178 would gradually replace touchscreen voting machines with paper ballots for all voters. Voters with disabilities could use a touchscreen device to help mark a ballot, but the new touchscreen would not record or tabulate votes.

The current touchscreens, which do record and tabulate the votes, have been prone to vote-flipping, and are associated with the still-unexplained loss of 18,000 votes in a Florida election last year.

Before the new equipment is phased in, the vote-recording touchscreens would still be used and would have paper printers added that offer the voters a chance to check their votes.

We need to skip this interim step.  The paper printers use flimsy, thermal paper, have all the votes on a continuous paper roll, are prone to printer jams, and are at best cumbersome to recount by hand. What's more, new federal legislation could ban the flimsy paper printers.

Legislators are aware of these flaws, which is why SSB 1104 and HSB 178 phase out the vote-recording touchscreens altogether and would replace them with ballot-marking devices for voters with disabilities. Note: the amended text of these bills is not yet online at the General Assembly web site. Click here to see the amendment from which the legislators are now working.

Legislators in both parties would prefer to switch out the touchscreens now. The issue is cost. To replace the touchscreens with paper ballot systems now could cost as much as $8-10 million.  Adding the very inadequate paper trail printers would cost over $1 million.  So they are leaning toward the cheaper option for the short run, and slowly phasing in the real solution.  We believe that when the state has a budget surplus in the hundreds of millions of dollars, $8-10 million is a good value for reliable voting systems.

That's where you can help. Contact your legislator, members of the House and Senate State Government Committees, and Governor Culver. Tell them that  investing now in paper ballots is the wisest choice for Iowa.  Urge them to provide full funding to phase out touchscreen voting.

A sample letter and contact information for key legislators and the Governor are below.

Thank you for helping Iowa move toward verified voting!

Best regards,
Sean Flaherty
Co-Chair, Iowans for Voting Integrity
www.IowansForVotingIntegrity.org

Sample Letter for Legislators and the Governor:

Dear [Representative/Senator/Governor Culver]

It is time for Iowa to make voter-marked paper ballots the standard for our elections. Paper ballots are inherently verified by the voter, and in the event of a recount, offer the strongest evidence of the voter's intent.  Continuous vote reels and flimsy paper are not a solution to the problem of unverifiable, paperless voting machines.

Voting systems worthy of public confidence are always a wise investment for the state, but when Iowa enjoys the financial health it does today, spending a small portion of our budget surplus to purchase the best equipment is not a difficult choice. I urge you to support full funding to replace the current generation of direct-recording electronic voting machines with ballot-marking devices for voters with disabilities. Thank you for attending to the machinery of democracy.


Sincerely,


CONTACT INFORMATION

Governor Culver:

Phone:  515-281-5211
E-mail form: http://www.governor.iowa.gov/administration/contact/

Find Your Legislator:
http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/

Target Legislators:

Phone:

Senate Switchboard: (515) 281-3371
House Switchboard: (515) 281-3221

E-mail:

Senate President Jack Kibbie
john.kibbie@legis.state.ia.us

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal
michael.gronstal@legis.state.ia.us

Senate Minority Leader Mary Lundby
mary.lundby@legis.state.ia.us

House Speaker Pat Murphy
Pat.Murphy@legis.state.ia.us

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
Kevin.McCarthy@legis.state.ia.us

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants
Christopher.Rants@legis.state.ia.us

Senator Mike Connolly, Chair, Senate State Government Committee
mike.connolly@legis.state.ia.us

Senator Mark Zieman, Ranking Member, Senate State Government Committee
mark.zieman@legis.state.ia.us

Senator Jeff Danielson, Member, Senate State Government Committee
jeff.danielson@legis.state.ia.us

Representative Pam Jochum, Chair, House State Government Committee
Pam.Jochum@legis.state.ia.us

Representative Carmine Boal, Ranking Member, House State Government Committee.
Carmine.Boal@legis.state.ia.us