What's up with our voting machines?

[Stinky The Clown]

I really worry about our BBV problems here. As I understand it, an auditable paper trail is being held up in committee by a DEMOCRAT. What's up with that.

I really fear we're an exceedingly vulnerable state that will be getting big help from the thugs in DC to put Steele in the Senate and keep Nazi Bob in Annapolis.

Let's face it, for a 'blue' state, we got pretty crappy numbers in '04.

[DaveinMD]

1. Kerry

won 56 percent of the vote to 43 for Bush. Those are pretty good numbers considering Kerry's campaign.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I think they've been better ... but more to the point

we have a repub gov ... a black Lt Gov who I think has a shot at taking Sarbannes' seat .... serious attention from the national repub machine ........ and pure BBV.

I'm worried.

[DaveinMD]

3. there was no turnout machine in MD

when Dems work the vote this year, more voters will turn out. That's good for us. As long as Mfume isn't the nominee, Steele will be creamed. Cardin or Van Hollen would kill him. There will an African American on both Duncan's and O'Malley's ticket.

[ImADeanDem]

4. I'm very concerned about our voting machines!

This issue is very near and dear to my heart. I have the dubious distinction of being one of the "Howard County 21" -- 21 people in Howard County whose votes in the Primary were not counted because we asked for (and were given) Provisional Ballots in order to avoid the un-verifiable and un-auditable machines. I can't even describe what a horrible feeling it is to actually have written proof (a letter from the BOE) that my vote was not counted!

Anyway, the verified voting legislation was held up in committee in both the House of Delegates and the Senate this past session -- both committee chairs are Dems. In the House, it's Sheila Hixson -- and she's just generally hostile to the idea of verified voting, although I'm not really sure why. In the Senate, the committee chair is Paula Hollinger (who is expected to run for Cardin's seat in Congress). I can't say this with absolute certainty, because I wasn't there, but someone I know went to meet with her to try to lobby her to support the paper trail bill, and she reportedly said that she wouldn't support it because it had been introduced by a Republican (Senator Harris). To me, that is simply unconscionable. If it's good legislation, WHO CARES who introduced it?

If you're interested in working more on this issue, TrueVote Maryland is the local Verified Voting group, and they seem to be very on top of things and to do good work. www.truevotemd.org. I think we have our work cut out for us in Maryland next session -- even if we do manage to get something passed, it's pretty unlikely that a fix would be in place in time for the 2006 elections.