BCATO and Lower Southampton Back VVPBs

For Immediate Release

Bucks County Association of Township Officials and Lower Southampton Township back voter-verified paper ballots

Contact information:

Mary Ann Gould

votingintegrity@aol.com

(h) 215.357.5206

Doylestown, Feb. 24 - The Bucks County Association of Township Officials at its meeting on February 18th, passed a resolution supporting the immediate passage of Senate Bill 977 (Senator Conti, R., sponsor) and House Bill 2000 ( Representative Frankel, D., sponsor), which call for Voter-Verified Paper Records and mandatory random audits. The resolution also asks the Bucks County Commissioners to choose a voting system that is based on a Voter Verified Paper Ballot.

Due to the problems with electronic voting systems in the 2004, documented by the Government Accountability Office's Report , issued in September, 2005, many voters have lost confidence in electronic voting systems. The GAO report concluded that "while Federal efforts to improve the security and reliability of Electronic Voting Systems are under way, key activities need to be completed." And "[u]ntil these efforts are completed, there is a risk that many state and local jurisdictions will rely on voting systems that were not developed, acquired, tested, operated or managed in accordance with rigorous security and reliability standards - potentially affecting the reliability of future elections and voter confidence in the accuracy of the vote count."

In a related story, on Wednesday, February 22, Lower Southampton Township became the nineteenth municipality in Bucks County to adopt a resolution in support of the mandated use of voter-verified paper ballots in Pennsylvania. The Lower Southampton Township Council adopted Resolution 2006-5 unanimously after taking several weeks to consider the proposal made by township resident Connie Fewlass.

Supervisor Mark Hopkins said that he is "very well convinced that we need to have voting machines with verifiable and recordable paper ballots." Supervisor Connie Birrane also spoke in support of the resolution.

The passage of this resolution by the county-wide Bucks County Association of Township Officials and so many municipalities reflects the strong grassroots support for voter-verified paper ballots in all areas of the county. The resolution has also been endorsed by seven former Bucks County Commissioners from both the Republican and Democratic Parties showing the non-partisan support for this issue as well.