I am asking all citizens of Bucks County to read this carefully,
pass it on to everyone, and call the county commissioners immediately. I cannot
overstate how important this is. As some of you may know, huge amounts of
time, money, and effort by the Coalition for Voting Integrity and other very concerned persons have been invested to educate
the public, and local, state, and federal officials about the merits of requiring a voter-verifiable voting system to replace
our lever machines. We have found that, by an overwhelming majority, once the
public is aware that only the voter-verifiable paper ballot (VVPB) system can give us the ability to have recounts or audits
should an election irregularity occur, that is their choice, by far. No PA-certified
touchscreen voting system can do that.
In all categories, the PBOS (precinct-based optical scan system) handily beats
the touchscreen systems: the costs to purchase, operate, and maintain are far
less and it’s very dependable, easy to understand, use and operate. The
disadvantages of the touchscreen systems are so numerous, and have caused such huge problems all across the U.S.,
we are extremely alarmed and perplexed that they’re even being considered.
Now in reading Patricia M. Wandling’s (Acting director of the Commissioner’s
Office of Public Information) letter yesterday, I want to say several things. She
says that the commissioners have listened to all our points, read and absorbed all our information about the voting machine
systems. We would be greatly heartened to know that is true. Unfortunately, the
fact that the commissioners still continued to make misstatements of fact, publicly in newspapers and privately at commissioner
meetings and in phone calls, gave us the impression that they were not making an effort to see clearly the merits and
warts of all the systems, and that the preponderance of their information comes from biased machine vendors. When we corrected their statements with facts, our efforts seemed to be dismissed with eye rolling and
exasperation.
Ms. Wandling also states that the commissioners are looking at the “cost,
accuracy, delivery, and voter-friendliness” for the voting system they choose.
The most crucial factor in choosing a system—the integrity of our vote--is left out of that statement. Is it no wonder, as she points out herself, that we of the Coalition for Voting Integrity are questioning
that our county officials may not have “ensuring our votes’ integrity” as the number one priority? She just
proved our point, in her own letter!
We never intended to be adversarial about this issue. Making sure our votes are accurately counted and that recounts could be possible is the sole reason our
group came into existence. Ms. Wandling states that “Bucks
County has a long history of clean elections and will continue into the future
with that proud record.” We, and all voters, agree and truly want the same! And that is why we, as regular citizens with apparently no direct say in what is chosen,
are fighting so hard (with lawsuits, Congressional legislation, rallies, letters, whatever it takes) to make that happen.
We are convinced it would not be possible with touchscreen systems, which offer us bytes in computers that are run by private
corporations, with no accountability. Only a voter-verified system can keep our
faith in the election process, and give us a means to verify that they stay clean!
That is why we need to hold the commissioners accountable for their decision. We have heard their arguments for touchscreens and find them either unsupported by
facts (“Paper ballots are too expensive, are a hassle.”) or irrelevant (“Montgomery
County loves their touchscreens.”).
Numerous Bucks County municipalities
have now passed resolutions supporting VVPB’s, and state legislative bills have been introduced in support. Let’s not make a huge investment of money and resources in a system that won’t work. We need to know exactly what their true priorities are; ensuring the integrity of our vote should be the
most important one.
