Around the U.S.

States

• Arkansas
• California
• Maryland
• Ohio
• New Jersey
• Washington

General Information

Many states and smaller jurisdictions are considering updating their voting equipment. It is important that they be properly informed about the hazards of voting systems that do not have a voter-verifiable audit trail.

We're going to attempt to track plans for upgrades around the U.S. and find ways to inform people in those areas of the hazards of paperless electronic voting.

How you can help

The most important thing you can do at this point is get definitive information about what is going on in your area. The best way to do this is to call your local officials (in California, these decisions are made at the county level, so the County Board of Supervisors or the Registrar of Voters will know).

• Is an upgrade being considered? What stage is the process in? From watching Santa Clara County, the steps seem to be something like
  1. Discussion of alternatives, presentations from vendors
  2. Development of an RFP (the requirements that a vendor must meet to be considered. Ideally, RFPs would include a requirement for a voter-verifiable audit trail. If they don't go that far, there can be multiple RFPs, one with the requirement and one not. Or there can be an option to provide a voter-verifiable audit trail.
  3. Recommendations to elected officials
  4. Contract negotiation
  5. Purchase
  6. Use

Obviously, the sooner we get involved in the process, the easier it is to affect it.

You can either maintain a web page with information about your locality (send me a URL and I will link to it), or send me information to put on this web server.

In the latter case, I would like people to email me this information in a form that I can easily put on the web page. Useful information would be:

• Exactly what's happening, when and where?
• What is the source of the information (ideally, someone official like the county registrar of voters or Secretary of State)?
• Links to more information: government information pages, newspaper articles, and advocacy pages.
• Contact information for decision makers and more information.