urgent - rid Montgomery Co. of punchcards

For those of you in Montgomery County, please let your County Council know 
(preferably by this Friday, 11/30) that you strongly urge them to get rid of 
punchcard voting and acquire new, modern electronic voting machines for the 
County, especially now that the State is willing to fund half the cost of the 
upgrade.  (We are focusing on Montgomery County now, but we will also be 
looking at Prince George's shortly, they haven't looked at the issue yet, to 
my knowledge).

For supporters of alternative voting methods like instant runoff voting and 
forms of proportional representation, this is a great opportunity to acquire 
voting machines that will be able to accomodate these voting methods.  In 
addtion to their other flaws, punchcards aren't able to handle ranked ballots.

You may reach your county councilmembers at the general phone number: 
240-777-7900; or at the generic e-mail address: county.council@co.mo.md.us. 

Below are the members of the county council:

Steve Silverman (at-large)
Blair G. Ewing (at-large)
Isiah Leggett (at-large)
Michael L. Subin (at-large)
Howard A. Denis (District 1)
Nancy Dacek (District 2)
Phil Andrews (District 3)
Marilyn J. Praisner (District 4)
Derick P. Berlage (District 5)

Below are talking points about the advantages of new, electronic voting 
equipment, and below that is a proposed statement in support of new 
electronic voting equipment, which might provide you with more information on 
the issue.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this issue.  See talking 
points below.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Eric Olson

Deputy Director
The Center for Voting and Democracy
6930 Carroll Ave.
Takoma Park, MD 20912
cvderic@aol.com
www.fairvote.org


Talking points: 
Electronic voting machines for Montgomery County

Background
The state legislature passed a bill last session authorizing a state match of 
50% for new, electronic voting machines in Montgomery, Prince George's, 
Allegany, and Dorchester Counties.

The Governor and the Secretary of State are ready to give this money to 
Montgomery County, they simply need support from the County Councilmembers 
and leadership by the December 12 meeting of the Public Works Board in order 
to allocate this money.

Why Change?

·   Montgomery County currently uses punchcard voting, which is an outmoded 
election method.  It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars simply to print 
ballots for state and federal election cycles - which is a cost that would be 
greatly reduced with an electronic system.

·   In large part, because of the punchcard voting, Montgomery County had 
2,862 "no votes" for president last year - this represents 28% of the people 
in the state who didn't vote for president.  Similarly, in the 2000 election, 
Montgomery County had 2,565 "overvotes" which invalidated their ballots; this 
represents 65% of the state's overvotes.  In population, Montgomery County 
represents only 18% of the state's population.

·   Electronic voting machines are a proven method of reducing voter error 
and greatly reducing the thousands of votes that are wasted in Montgomery 
County in elections here.

·   Electronic voting machines allow disabled voters to cast secret ballots 
on their own, which punchcards do not.

·   This is a forward-looking county, which should be using the best voting 
technology possible.

·   We do not want a mini-Florida situation to taint Montgomery County during 
the 2002 election, where there may be close races for Congress, County 
Executive, State Senate, State House of Delegates, etc.

·   Electronic voting machines are easy to use, even for those that don't 
have computers at home, they are similar to ATM machines and other things 
that surround us everyday. 

·   Montgomery County is a diverse jurisdiction and electronic voting 
machines are able to easily accommodate language minorities - voters may 
choose from up to 9 languages.  This will make many citizens more comfortable 
with the voting process.

·   There is a good chance that federal money will be available to 
jurisdictions like Montgomery in the near future to help reimburse the county 
for a significant portion of the cost of their purchase (on top of the state 
picking up 50% of the cost).

*********
Montgomery County has the opportunity to vastly improve its election system 
by taking advantage of a state grant to acquire electronic voting equipment 
and eliminate punchcards from the county forever.  We urge the Montgomery 
County Council to acquire new, electronic voting machines that will provide 
efficient, effective, and inclusive voting technology for its citizens.

While Montgomery County's Datavote election system is different from the 
punchcard system used in Florida, Montgomery's system nonetheless wastes 
thousands of votes, largely due to outmoded punchcard voting.

In the 2000 presidential election, there were 2,862 "no votes" for president 
in Montgomery County, which represents 28 percent of the "no votes" in the 
state.  Also in the 2000 election, 65 percent of the state's "overvotes" 
occurred in Montgomery County, despite the fact that Montgomery's population 
is only 18 percent of the state.

The best electronic voting machines are vastly superior to punchcards in 
minimizing voter error, in accommodating voters whose primary language may 
not be English, and in allowing disabled voters to cast a secret ballot on 
their own.  

Electronic voting machines will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in 
printing ballots each state and federal election cycle, and are flexible 
enough to upgrade with improvements in voting technology.  

Electronic voting machines are used in jurisdictions across the country with 
great success.  We support Montgomery County upgrading its voting equipment 
in time for the 2002 elections, particularly with a 50 percent state match 
and the probability that at least some federal money will be released to help 
offset the cost of local jurisdictions that are replacing punchcard systems 
with new, electronic voting machines.