NY City Council Government
Operations Committee
Phyllis Andrews
My
name is Phyllis Andrews. I am a member of the Task Force on Election Integrity
of Community Church of New York. Thank you for holding this hearing on
Resolutions 131 and 228, so that the public can speak on the subject of our new
voting technology. I urge each of you to sponsor these resolutions and work for
their speedy passage.
A
weird thing happens when you mention electronic voting. Most people say, “Yeah!
The head of Diebold said he would deliver the state of Ohio to Bush.” Far too
many people say, “Yeah! You can’t trust it. Why bother voting at all?”
But
what do public officials say? Most of our upstate election commissioners say
they can’t wait to get them. In New York City most of our commissioners are
more cagey, and don’t say which way they are leaning. But Executive Director
Ravitz’ remarks tend to slant toward electronic voting, whether he is asserting
what the cost would be, or that the same amount of training would be required
for both technologies.
There
seems to be a big divide. On one side you have ordinary people who know about
the failures of electronic voting, and the many reasons against using it. On
the other side you have most of the county election commissioners in New York
State, who listen only to vendors, refuse to meet with activists who support
paper ballot/optical scan technology, and refuse to inform themselves by
reading the web sites that carry news on this issue: VoteTrustUSA.org,
VotersUnite.org, VerifiedVoting.org, WheresThePaper.org, and here in New York,
NYVV.org which is New Yorkers for Verified Voting.
According
to law, our county election commissioners have no obligation to listen to the
people. They only have to listen to their County Leader who designated them.
But these commissioners are the people who will choose our new election
equipment, and I believe there is a moral or patriotic obligation to listen to
all sides and to become informed before making decisions that affect the
foundation of our democracy and the legitimacy of our government.
It
seems like “the people” don’t have an effective voice at this time. But you are
our representatives, and your voice is louder than ours. You also have
budgetary oversight of the Board of Elections.
This
is why these two resolutions are so important. They are only resolutions, but
they speak for us. Without them we would have just about no voice at all.
Thank
you.