Statewide Ballot Initiative Aims to Make Voting Safe

Tangible Ballot Initiative Seeks Volunteers to Gather 500,000 Signatures by April 24

The Tangible Ballot Initiative, http://www.tangibleballot.org, seeks to change the legal definition of ballots in California to require a paper or otherwise tangible ballot, disallowing the screen of an electronic voting machine from being considered a ballot. The group seeks volunteers to finish gathering 500,000 valid signatures by April 24 to qualify for the November ballot.

"By posting downloadable petitions on the web, we have made it very easy for ordinary citizens to gather signatures," said Marin County civil litigation attorney Harry Lehmann, founder of the Tangible Ballot Initiative. "If everyone reading this downloaded a petition and got five valid signatures, we'd be at the goal line."

California election law currently classifies the touch screen of a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machine as an election ballot. The law allows votes to be cast directly, in pure electronic fashion, without a legally binding and tangible (physical) ballot to show who and what was voted for. As widely reported in recent newspaper articles and documentaries, this puts the integrity of votes in jeopardy because large-scale errors or fraud can occur without leaving a trace.

The Tangible Ballot Initiative would require election ballots to be tangible, meaning they will exist in physical form that can be hand-counted by people using their ordinary physical senses. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has largely taken care of the problem through administrative rule, but future secretaries of state can undo what she has done, thereby necessitating the law change.

"When you think of all the people who have given their lives to secure our basic right to vote, we owe it to them and our kids to make sure our votes are counted as cast," said Tom Courbat, a U. S. Army veteran, voting rights advocate, and member of the initiative planning team from Riverside County. "We're talking about preserving democracy itself."

Mr. Lehmann will be participating in an Internet radio program discussing the initiative on Tuesday, March 11th at 5 p.m. PDT
sreaming live from http://www.toginet.com.

Interested persons may phone in to the radio program by dialing 877-864-4869.