50 signatures reached
To: Bill Galvin, Massachusetts Secretary of State and Richard Neal, Congressman Massachusetts 1st District
we demand hand counted paper ballots in all elections
Electronic voting machines and optical scan vote counters can be hacked and the companies who make them keep the software that run them secret. We are effectively letting private companies count our votes in secret. Since these machines were introduced exit polls have often not agreed with "official" results. Hand counted paper ballots, like European democracies use, is the best way to ensure the integrity of our elections.
Why is this important?
I want electronic voting machines and optical scan vote counting machines to be replaced by hand counted paper ballots because both can be hacked. Since the introduction of electronic voting machines there have been many elections where the official winner did not win the exit polls. This discrepancy has always favored the Republican candidate and is called the "red shift". Germany uses hand counted paper ballots and the results are announced on election night based on exit polls, which have never been off by more than 1/2 a percent from the final count. We need to send this petition to the secretaries of state in all states and also to Congress so we can get uniform election rules and procedures in all states.