Protecting Election Integrity

Whereas, there are serious questions about the security of electronic voting machines and insecure and untested electronic voting equipment endangers the integrity of our democracy; and

Whereas, absentee voters record their votes on paper ballots and have a higher likelihood of casting their ballots; and 

Whereas, paper balloting provides a well-tried and well-accepted methodology which helps to secure victory with integrity for candidates;

Therefore be it Resolved that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee will commit to a concerted campaign to: (a) increase the public's use of paper balloting and permanent absentees in the 2006 election cycle and until such time as e-voting can be sufficiently secured to guarantee every vote is counted accurately, and (b) prepare county election officials for this increased level of paper balloting so that they will ensure timely availability and accurate processing of those ballots; and

Be it Further Resolved that the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee supports urgent efforts to force transparency in voting system software, construct national standards for electronic voting machine certification, create external, non-partisan certifying groups who publicly disclose testing results, develop reliable voter verified paper trail systems, adopt robust auditing procedures, and update recount procedures.

Adopted by SCCDCC Eboard, January 13, 2006