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Seven months out -- rescuing our vote in Tennessee

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Greetings from this side of the metaphorical fence. It is nice to be home and yet also to have the freedom to get up and move. There is much that needs to be done on so many levels and it's hard to decide where to begin. There are so many things I'd like to do to re-charge -- like spend two weeks up in the mountains of New Mexico. Or tour California in January. Or just cut firewood on the farm until winter really gets here. But I can't do that. Just yet.

Everywhere here in Tennessee, at this moment, there are few things more important for those of us who call Tennessee home than trying to rescue our franchise. For my friends and colleagues in other states, your own battles have brought you to many different places vis a vis your own voting process. But regardless of whether you live in Tennessee or anywhere else, I am spending a portion of this fifth day free to ask you to consider taking some action to help raise the volume for election integrity here.

Regardless of how much we are related or how on earth it is we came to be acquianted, I hope you can take a few minutes to read the "December Action Tasks" below that we have outlined to work on here to lobby our legislature and governor for voter-verified paper ballots. Some of you might just enjoy learning about the particulars of our local election integrity struggles. Others of you might take this chance to express your own feelings -- far and wide -- to our state's leaders through a few quick-and-easy emails. Those of you closest to this issue -- the many of you that I've had a chance to work alongside with for election integrity here in Tennessee and across the country -- I really do hope you will follow through with the tasks laid out in the following memo and help us create and sustain some momentum for change. If you can give election integrity in Tennessee your support for a half hour over the next few days, you can make a difference.

In any event, I hope your holidays are relaxed, peaceful, sweet and kind --- free. If you haven't sent me your mailing address so I can send you a print of a summer painting of my farmhouse, please do so -- I want as many of you folks to have that as possible. Til the urge strikes again, peace out. Bernie
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From: Bernie Ellis
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 5:00 PM
Subject: Rescuing our vote in Tennessee: December Action items

TO: Election Integrity Advocates:

I am sending this memo out to people who are asking me what they can do to help assure that the 2008 elections in Tennessee are fair and verifiable.We have 6-8 weeks to get something done in the Orange State. Let's keep cracking.

Bernie Ellis, Organizer
Gathering to Save Our Democracy
(in association with Common Cause of Tennessee)
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To Tennesseans interested in rescuing our vote before 2008 (and others who support Tennessee's efforts):

(Important: Please pass this email along to others NOW)

Most of you are familiar with the serious concerns and risks associated with paperless voting systems, like the direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines, and their propensity for malfunctioning. These paperless, non-verifiable voting machines were purchased in 2006 in many of our Tennessee counties with federal funds through the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). These machines have already malfunctioned in Tennessee elections and multiple reviews of the security procedures used in these machines (including one in-depth examination in Shelby County) have produced clear and convincing evidence that these voting systems lack even elemental audit and/or recount capability. The evidence has mounted in the past four years that paperless electronic voting is insufficient for the demands of free and fair elections.

Now that we have had several election cycles with this equipment, the vulnerabilities of these electronic voting machines are quite obvious and require a more secure alternative NOW. Thirty-five states have already acted to change their voting machines to require voter-verified paper ballots (without waiting for the Federal government to act). However, Tennessee is among the 15 states that has not made this a priority. We are also now considered to be one of the eight most insecure states for election integrity in the country as a result of the mistakes we made in spending our HAVA funds.

Senator Joe Haynes and Rep. Gary Moore (among other legislators) introduced a joint bill to accomplish our goals in the 2006 legislature and re-introduced it in 2007, only to have it sent to a Study Committee. The study committee is meeting on December 18th at 1:30 in LP Room 12. In addition, the very influential TN Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) meets on December 12th and will vote on whether or not to recommend the election reforms recommended in the TACIR staff report, "Trust but Verify", and included in the Haynes/Moore bills to the Study Committee before which these bills are being considered before being presented to the entire Tennessee legislature.

In the past month, more attention has been drawn to the threats on our election process by the release of the documentary film, "UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections", by Nashville film-maker David Earnhardt. If you've seen this film, you know just how important our efforts are at this moment. If you haven't seen the film, we strongly recommend that you do so. Additional public showings of the film are being organized throughout Tennessee now so if you'd like to know when and where the film is scheduled or you'd like to arrange a showing, please contact me ( tracevu@bellsouth.net ). You can obtain more information and review the trailer at www.uncountedthemovie.com .

DECEMBER ACTION TASKS FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY IN TENNESSEE:

Here are three things YOU CAN DO NOW to help us ramp up the discussion for voter-verified paper ballots and mandatory random audits and perhaps get the very important legislation passed in the 2008 Tennessee Legislative Session.

If you have received this email, it is because you or a friend of yours has already expressed serious concerns on this issue. Now here are three things you can do to help us gain serious momentum:

Action Task 1: Contact the members of TACIR. (They meet on December 12 so please contact them right away.) Tell them that you want them to endorse the TACIR staff report, "Trust But Verify". You also recommend to the legislature that we move rapidly away from paperless touch-screen voting in Tennessee and toward optical scan voting systems that start and end with a voter-completed paper ballot. You also endorse the need for mandatory random audits of those paper ballots to ensure that the opscan systems also count our votes completely and accurately. Here is a sample letter I just sent to the TACIR Commissioners:

Dear TACIR Commissioners,

I am writing to thank you, through your participation in TACIR, for your serious review and assessment of the threats, costs and other issues that paperless touch-screen voting has presented to maintaining the integrity of our elections here in Tennessee. You have heard much testimony and would doubtless hear more if there were time available for citizens to do so once again. However, the time for a decision is now upon us and we hope that TACIR will accomplish the following on December 12:

1) Accept and endorse the TACIR staff report, "Trust But Verify", as an excellent summary of the many compelling reasons why we must act to restore integrity to our voting process.

2) Act as the influential body that you are to recommend that the Tennessee legislature consider, debate and adopt (as soon as possible) legislation which will support and assist the orderly adoption of voting systems that use or produce voter-verified paper ballots in Tennessee, to be counted on more secure and verifiable voting equipment (specifically, optical scan or similar voting systems) than we have recently installed.

3) Recommend that the state of Tennessee assist counties in the transformation to more secure and verifiable voting systems as soon as possible by working to provide both state funds, redirected HAVA funds (of which we still have between $15-20 million) and other means to reduce the economic impact of these state-mandated efforts to restore integrity in our voting process might have on those county governments.

4) Encourage the Legislative Study Committee assigned to review the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (HB 1256, Moore; SB 1363, Haynes) on December 18 to recommend that this legislation go forward as quickly as possible and that it be considered, debated and adopted by the full Legislature when it re-convenes in January.

Once again, thank you for the time and attention you have given to the issue of election integrity -- and specifically more verifiable voting systems -- through your work on the TACIR Board. We sincerely hope that you will support some affirming action by TACIR at the December 12 meeting that will hasten needed election reform in our state.

Thank you for your public service. Here's hoping we can rescue our franchise and save our democracy here in Tennessee before it is too late.

Bernie Ellis
Gathering To Save Our Democracy

Here are all the available TACIR Commissioners' e-mails we have. You can "cut-and-paste" this list of email addresses into your email address spot and email all of them your message at one time. (It might be nice to "bcc" all of them so the e-mail seems more individually directed.)

senator.rosalind.kurita@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.james.kyle@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.mark.norris@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.jim.tracy@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.jason.mumpower@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.gary.odom@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.randy.rinks@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.larry.turner@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.randy.mcnally@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.craig.fitzhugh@legislature.state.tn.us, john.morgan@state.tn.us, tbragg@murfreesborotn.gov, mayor@germantown-tn.gov, tcounty1@bellsouth.net, paula.davis@state.tn.us, drew.kim@state.tn.us, Rose.naccarato@state.tn.us, jjmjohnson@charter.net

Action Task 2: Contact the members of the Legislative Study Committee who will review the Haynes/Moore bill entitled: "Tennessee Voter Confidence Act" on December 18. Ask them to support repairing our election process by requiring voter-verified paper ballots and mandatory random audits here in Tennessee as soon as possible, preferably 2008. Here's a sample letter I just sent:

Dear TN Voter Confidence Act Study Committee Members:

I am writing to thank you in advance for your serious review and assessment of the threats, costs and other issues that paperless touch-screen voting has presented to restoring the integrity of our elections here in Tennessee. We hope you will use the information you receive and review on December 18 to recommend immediate action to restore the integrity of our franchiase here in Tennessee. The time for a decision is now if we are to protect our votes before November, 2008. Please do the following things:

1) Accept and endorse the TACIR staff report, "Trust But Verify", as an excellent summary of the many compelling reasons why we must act to restore integrity to our voting process.

2) Recommend that the Tennessee legislature consider, debate and adopt (as soon as possible) legislation which will support and assist the orderly adoption of voting systems that use or produce voter-verified paper ballots to be counted on more secure and verifiable voting equipment (specifically, optical scan systems) than we have recently installed in most counties.

3) Recommend that the state of Tennessee assist counties in the transformation to more secure and verifiable voting systems as soon as possible by working now to provide both state funds, redirected HAVA funds (of which we still have between $15-20 million) and other means to reduce the economic impact of these state-mandated efforts to restore integrity in our voting process might have on those county governments.

4) The Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (HB 1256, Moore; SB 1363, Haynes) provides the opportunity for the legislature to go forward as quickly as possible. Please support a recommendation that the TN Voter Confidence Act be considered, debated and adopted by the full Legislature when it re-convenes in January.

Once again, thank you for the time and attention you have given to the issue of election integrity, and specifically more verifiable voting systems, and the additional time you will give this important issue in the near future. We sincerely hope that you will support some affirming action by the study committee at the December 18 meeting that will hasten needed election reform in our state.

Thank you for your public service. You can rescue our franchise. We can't afford another insecure election.

Bernie Ellis
Gathering To Save Our Democracy

Here are e-mail addresses for the members of the Legislative Study Committee, which is 'studying' the Haynes/Moore bill, "Tennessee Voter Confidence Act." Cut-and-paste them into the address box of an e-mail and write them about your thoughts and feelings on this issue all at once. (If you 'bcc" their address box, your e-mail might look more personal.)

rep.larry.turner@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.joe.mccord@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.gary.moore@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.john.litz@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.jimmy.eldrige@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.joe.mccord@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.larry.turner@legislature.state.tn.us, rep.susan.lynn@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.joe.haynes@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.roy.herron@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.mark.norris@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.tim.burchett@legislature.state.tn.us, senator.jamie.woodson@legislature.state.tn.us

Action Task 3: Contact other Tennessee officials NOW to ask them to pay attention to this issue and to act themselves, if necessary, to insure that these reforms are enacted. Here's a preliminary list of state officials that we should be contacting in some way. I hope each of you will e-mail your thoughts directly to some or all of these officials. In addition, you might want to mail copies of David Earnhardt's documentary film entitled "UNCOUNTED, The New Math of American Elections" (DVD available online at www.UncountedTheMovie.com) or the postcards recommending that it be watched, to these same offices. I think the post-cards in particular can generate attention to these issues within these state offices and we will be happy to provide them to you and your friends. (Email me at tracevu@bellsouth.net and let me know how many postcards you want and your mailing address. I'll send them right out to you.)

We are asking all of these officials to do the following:

1) To please give serious consideration to the number of threats which our elections face and to consider what they can do to restore election integrity in our state

2) To do whatever they can do in their official capacity to help us replace the current non-verifiable voting systems used in most Tennessee counties (touch-screen and push-button voting machines) with verifiable voting systems that incorporate paper ballots (for example, the optical scan voting systems)

3) To encourage others in positions of responsibility for our elections to expedite the changes necessary to make our elections more secure and verifiable before the November, 2008 elections or as soon as possible, by whatever means available.
Bottom line: It's not too late to restore election integrity in Tennessee, but we must act NOW.
We can't afford another insecure election in our state when the solution is achievable NOW.

Please consider e-mailing and/or writing these officials directly. If you would like some post-cards which use the UNCOUNTED poster as the front and allows you to write your own message on the back, get in touch with me and we'll get some of those cards to you. You can e-mail me ( tracevu@bellsouth.net ) or call 931/682-2864.

Governor Phil Bredesen phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
First Lady Andrea Conte andrea.conte@state.tn.us
Governor's Office voice: 615/741-2001:
TN State Capital fax: 615/532-9711
Nashville, TN 37243-0001

TN Attorney General
Robert E. Cooper, Jr.
P.O. Box 20207
Nashville, TN 37202-0207
voice: 615/741-3491

Department of Finance & Administration
Commissioner Dave Goetz
312 8th Ave., North, 16th Floor
Nashville, TN 37243
administration: J. Michael Morrow mike.morrow@state.tn.us
615/741-0300
pub.info.officer: Lola Potter lola.potter@state.tn.us
615/532-8560

Secretary of State
Riley Darnell riley.darnell@state.tn.us
312 8th Ave. North, 8th Floor voice: 615/741-2078
Nashville, TN 37243

State Election Coordinator and State Election Commissioners:
Brook Thompson brook.thompson@state.tn.us
312 8th Ave., North, 9th floor tennessee.elections@state.tn.us
Nashville, TN 37243 voice: 615/741-7956

Department of Economic and Community Development
Commissioner Matt Kisber matt.kisber@state.tn.us
Asst. Commissioner Paula Davis paula.davis@state.tn.us
312 8th Ave. North, 11th floor voice: 615/741-1888
Nashville, TN 37243 fax: 615/741-7306

Department of Veterans Affairs
Commissioner John Keys TN.veterans@state.tn.us
215 8th Ave. North voice: 615/741-6663
Nashville, TN 37243
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Thanks in advance for any time you take to help us raise the volume for safe elections in Tennessee.
Keep visiting www.votesafetn.org for more information on our activities.
Email us with your questions and suggestions to info@votesafetn.org or tracevu@bellsouth.net .

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