2008 Woodie Awards
Voter Confidence Should Count
Dave Berman
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: Letters to the Editor
- Page 1 of 1
Dear Lumberjack Editor:
All this talk about a no-confidence vote on President Richmond reminds me
that many HSU students may be unaware of another no confidence vote that
made news here a few years ago.
On July 20, 2005 the Arcata City Council adopted the Voter Confidence
Resolution (VCR). This is a statement outlining election conditions around
the country, primarily the fact that election results have become
unverifiable. From this, the VCR concludes that there is "no basis for
confidence" in the results reported. We are instead forced to "trust" the
government using secret vote counting machines that produce results we must
accept with blind faith.
Votes on a ballot are tangible and should be countable and recountable, indefinitely, reliably producing the same results over and over. Government legitimacy is derived, according to the Declaration of
Independence, from the Consent of the Governed. Elections that can't be
recounted and results that can't be questioned mean that our Consent is
being assumed and taken for granted, rather than sought and freely given.
The Voter Confidence Committee of Humboldt County is committed to improving
local election conditions to create transparency, security, and verifiable
accuracy as a basis for confidence in the results. We aim to do this by
persuading the County Supervisors and Registrar of Voters to get rid of our
secret electronic vote counting systems and instead use voters to hand-count paper ballots in the precincts on election night.
This is one of many recommendations in our "Report on Election Conditions in
Humboldt County," based on an intensive eight-month study of the situation.
Readers can find this report, as well as the VCR and many other materials related to our campaign for hand-counting in Humboldt, at
www.VoterConfidenceCommittee.org.
If you are registered to vote in Humboldt, please use the sign-up form on
our site to let us know you are willing to join in the counting. It is
important we show the skeptical local government there are in fact enough of
us to get the job done. We estimate it will only take about 1 percent of registered voters.
Dave Berman
Co-Founder, Voter Confidence Committee
All this talk about a no-confidence vote on President Richmond reminds me
that many HSU students may be unaware of another no confidence vote that
made news here a few years ago.
On July 20, 2005 the Arcata City Council adopted the Voter Confidence
Resolution (VCR). This is a statement outlining election conditions around
the country, primarily the fact that election results have become
unverifiable. From this, the VCR concludes that there is "no basis for
confidence" in the results reported. We are instead forced to "trust" the
government using secret vote counting machines that produce results we must
accept with blind faith.
Votes on a ballot are tangible and should be countable and recountable, indefinitely, reliably producing the same results over and over. Government legitimacy is derived, according to the Declaration of
Independence, from the Consent of the Governed. Elections that can't be
recounted and results that can't be questioned mean that our Consent is
being assumed and taken for granted, rather than sought and freely given.
The Voter Confidence Committee of Humboldt County is committed to improving
local election conditions to create transparency, security, and verifiable
accuracy as a basis for confidence in the results. We aim to do this by
persuading the County Supervisors and Registrar of Voters to get rid of our
secret electronic vote counting systems and instead use voters to hand-count paper ballots in the precincts on election night.
This is one of many recommendations in our "Report on Election Conditions in
Humboldt County," based on an intensive eight-month study of the situation.
Readers can find this report, as well as the VCR and many other materials related to our campaign for hand-counting in Humboldt, at
www.VoterConfidenceCommittee.org.
If you are registered to vote in Humboldt, please use the sign-up form on
our site to let us know you are willing to join in the counting. It is
important we show the skeptical local government there are in fact enough of
us to get the job done. We estimate it will only take about 1 percent of registered voters.
Dave Berman
Co-Founder, Voter Confidence Committee
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