Update on Voting in Iowa's 2006 Election

Dear Iowa Voter,
 
 Congratulations on making it through the season of campaign television
ads. We offer two important notes on yesterday's elections.
 
 First, in Iowa's State Senate District 5 will have a recount,
apparently because the paper ballot scanners did not register the name
of candidate Rich Olive in some instances. The counties in District 5,
Story and Wright, are “blended” counties that use both paper ballot
scanners and touchscreens, both from Diebold Election Systems.
 
 With optical scanning there are paper ballots to check for
problems registering votes. Not so with paperless DREs; once the voter
finishes their vote, you cannot know if the computer is recording it
accurately.
 
 Our second note: elections in Virginia and Iowa have something in
common. In both states a large percentage of voters cast their votes on
touchscreen machines that offer no record of a vote independent of the
computer records.
 
 It appears this evening that Virginia's U.S. Senate election may
be headed for a recount. For the majority of counties in Virginia, that
means printing out a digital record of the touchscreen machines' vote
results and hoping that computer recorded the votes correctly. Johns
Hopkins University computer expert Avi Rubin said it best: a meaningful
recount in Virginia is not possible.
 
 Whether or not a recount occurs in Virginia, the election was so
close that most citizens can agree that it is reasonable to consider
one. Control of the United States Senate hinges on the votes recorded
on these machines in Virginia. The Pottawattamie County election last
June already gave Iowa powerful reminder of the need for verifiable
elections. Iowa, along with the entire nation, just got another
reminder from the 2006 Virginia Senate election.
 
 Who wants to see a statewide Iowa election this close that can't
be truly recounted? When the Iowa General Assembly convenes in January,
it should act immediately to end the era of paperless voting. We will
be pushing for election integrity legislation in the coming months, and
we will keep you informed of this effort and how you can help.
 
 Best regards,
 Iowans for Voting Integrity
 iowansforvotingintegrity.org
 “Working For Voting Systems Worthy of the Public Trust”