Be a Voters Hero! Phone from Home for Debra Bowen

Written by: Bev Huntsberger on Oct 20, 2006 2:51 PM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Pasadena

Here is a message from Debra Bowen (MY HERO! :) ... this is a great opportunity to do some phone banking from home at your convenience for a candidate we can be truly proud of! On election day, we can all celebrate the fact that will helped save our voting system! Please follow the link to the PHONE FROM HOME page on the Debra Bowen campaign site. The Vote You Save will be YOUR OWN!
- Bev
ps. You can also watch the debate from the campaign site...
www.debrabowen.com/...

Forwarded Message from Debra Bowen
- - -
On Wednesday, I debated my Republican opponent, appointed Secretary of State Bruce McPherson. The debate gave me a great opportunity to highlight our differences and to demonstrate why I am the best qualified candidate to clean up our elections system.

As I said in Wednesday's debate, the only way to restore confidence in our country's voting systems is to open things up -- let citizens observe every part of the process, from the certification of systems to the audits after the election. The only thing about voting that should stay a secret is the way in which a voter casts his or her ballot.

Secretary of State McPherson has certified voting machines, including Diebold, that are insecure and unreliable, with a litany of proven and well-documented flaws -- and before the public had any opportunity to see the review he relied on. That study determined that a hack of a mock election conducted in Florida by Finnish programmer Harry Hursti worked, and also found "another category of more serious vulnerabilities...that go well beyond what Mr. Hursti demonstrated, and yet require no more access to the voting system than he had. These vulnerabilities are consequences of bugs -- 16 in all."

When the security conditions McPherson imposed to safeguard the system against those bugs were violated, he took no action. When poll workers were instructed not to use paper back up ballots, he took no action. When a voting machine that was used all day in the June primary reported no votes cast at the close of the election, he took no action.

At the same time, McPherson implemented a new voter registration database that prevented nearly 26,000 new registrants in LA County from voting in the June primary. McPherson's regulations made it so difficult that only 263 out of those 26,000 voted even though they were legally entitled to do so.

Given an opportunity to acknowledge a single one of these failures in leadership during Wednesday's debate, McPherson refused to. In fact, he warmly embraced these flawed voting systems. What's more, he accused me of seeking to disenfranchise blind and disabled voters by daring to question the integrity of error-plagued voting machines! As I said Wednesday, that was clearly not McPherson's finest moment in public service. Blind and disabled voters, just like all other voters, deserve to vote in manner than will accurately and securely record their votes.

But McPherson did say something I agreed with: "The biggest difference of opinion I have with Debra is that she doesn't trust the systems, and I do." I couldn't have said it better myself! Our voting system isn't designed to run on trust. It's designed to run on proof and verification -- for the very same reason that we have a government of checks and balances.

Unfortunately, Bruce McPherson hasn't followed the critical advice of President Ronald Reagan: trust but verify. Play, but cut the cards. Californians deserve that much from their Secretary of State.

I was very pleased with the outcome of Wednesday's debate. If you have some time and want to watch more of the debate, you can do so here on the Bowen Blog.
www.debrabowen.com/...

Now with only 18 days left before Election Day -- and millions of absentee ballots already distributed to voters across California -- it's up to you and me to get our message out.

So please, sign up for our "Phone From Home" program to contact undecided voters near you. And contribute $100, $50, $25, or whatever you can afford to help power our campaign here in the homestretch.
www.debrabowen.com/...

Finally, let me just say how grateful I am for all of the grassroots support I've received from across California and across the country. I'm honored by the trust that you have placed in me, and I'll do everything I can to repay that trust.

On to victory!

Debra Bowen
California State Senator
www.debrabowen.com/...

P.S. Help me spread the word. Please forward this email to everyone you know!

Paid for by Debra Bowen for Secretary of State
578 Washington Blvd. #409, Marina del Rey, CA 90292
(c) 2006 Debra Bowen for Secretary of State, ID #1271345

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Location: Pasadena, CA 91106