LIBERADIO(!)

While the rest of the country is moving away from the kind of voting machines we use in 93 out of 95 counties in Tennessee – 100% unverifiable and unauditable touch screen electronic voting machines – after tomorrow our state may be stuck with them for good.

Tomorrow, a regular Senate Session will be wedged into the day in which the Special Session on education will start. Wedged. Between Noon and 2pm. The regular session will have a sparse calendar [pdf] of only 5 bills.

The last item on tomorrow’s regular calendar is SB0872, a bill that would delay implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) until 2012.

Please take the time today to contact your State Senator and ask them to vote “no” against SB0872.

The TVCA – which would give Tennesseans fair and accurate elections in the form of verifiable and auditable paper ballots by the November 2010 election – was passed almost unanimously in the State House and State Senate in 2008. It was a bi-partisan effort and ceremoniously signed into law by a supportive Governor Bredesen.

If the delay bill is passed tomorrow, come November 2010 Tennessee voters will still be voting on machines that break easily, don’t tally votes correctly, vote for you, and count votes and issue vote totals using software we can’t see.

If the delay bill is passed tomorrow, come November 2010 Tennessee voters will have no way to do a meaningful recount.

If the delay bill is passed tomorrow, come November 2010 Tennessee voters will have no way to audit their voter to make sure they were counted correctly.

Again, please take the time today to contact your State Senator and ask them to vote “no” against SB0872.

When you call or email, please:

• Ask your Senator to vote against SB0872 – the bill that would delay implementation of the TVCA until 2012.
• Tell your Senator that fair and accurate elections are fundamental to our democracy and that all Tennesseans deserve fair and accurate elections.
• Remind your Senator that by replacing the 100% unverifiable paperless electronic touch-screen voting machines we use now with paper ballots, you would be giving us elections that could be monitored, recounted, and audited – in other words, fair and accurate.
• Tell your Senator that the new paper ballot system is cheaper, faster, and more secure than what we are using now and if their concern is saving money, the best thing we can do is implement the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.

More info is also available if you’d like to be prepared to argue against reasons for the delay.