Resolution on Integrity of the Vote
WHEREAS, the GAO has reported that electronic voting machines can change ballots after they were cast, and
WHEREAS, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform has urged that "all voting machines be equipped with a voter-verified paper audit trail", and
WHEREAS, optical scanners using Diebold software have miscounted paper ballots (to the surprise of election officials who conducted the hack test recently in Florida),
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that all computer systems used in voting and vote counting in Washington should use open source software. No undisclosed software should be allowed to count votes in any election governed by Washington law, and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all computer systems used in voting in Washington elections must produce a paper copy of the ballot that is verifiable by the voter before it is cast and that will be countable by human eyes, and
THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that spot check audits be conducted on all voting machines in any county in any statewide election. These audits will compare the results obtained by machine counting with results obtained by counting the paper ballots with human eyes; and
THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED to encourage our Congress member Representative Rick Larsen to support HR 550 "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act".
(Date Passed 04/08/2006 by Whatcom County Democrats)
