The League of Women Voters last week rescinded its support for paperless e-voting machines. The decision was driven by grassroots support among the League’s members, overriding a previous policy that was, according to rumor, decreed originally by a single member of the League’s staff. (I can’t find this story on the public part of the League’s site, but it comes from a reliable source, so I’m pretty sure it’s true.)
Also, tomorrow, June 22, there will be a rally in Washington for supporters of voter-verifiable paper trails. The rally runs from 11:45 until 1:00, on Cannon Terrace, just south of the U.S. Capitol, between the Cannon and Longworth House Office Buildings. (Metro stop: Capitol South; enter at the corner of New Jersey and Independence) Speakers include Rep. Rush Holt and other members of Congress.
Great news! I happened to run into some folks from my town’s chapter of the league at a neighborhood event, and we discussed the LWV position. They were surprised (to put it mildly) that the LWV would support so flawed a “solution”. I followed up by sending one of them a variety of links to on-line sources of information about Diebold, etc., and sensed that this was something that the local chapter did not like too much. It seems they were not alone. Good riddance to a bad policy, I say.