Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PRESS RELEASE: Disabled CA Voters Invited to Test Vote-PAD, 7/19-20

Contact:
Ellen Theisen
ellen@vote-pad.us
360-437-9922

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vote-PAD, Inc. Invites People with Disabilities to
the California Certification Testing on July 19, 20


July 10, 2006. On July 19 and 20, the California Secretary of State’s office will examine the Vote-PAD, a non-computerized voting device, in an effort to provide counties with an innovative alternative to the controversial electronic voting systems currently certified for use in California. The device has been approved for use in Wisconsin in conjunction with hand counted paper ballots.

Vote-PAD, Inc. is a small company, formed in response to complaints from people with disabilities about the overstated accessibility of e-voting systems. The company's mission was to develop an assistive device that would remove barriers to exercising the right to vote and allow people with a wide range of disabilities to mark a paper ballot independently and privately.

From its inception, the Vote-PAD device was shaped through testing and input by people in the disabilities community. The company's website, www.vote-pad.us, includes testimonials from many who praise its accessibility. (http://www.vote-pad.us/testimonials.asp)

The Vote-PAD will be tested in conjunction with the Hart InterCivic Ballot Now system used in Yolo County, California and the Diebold AccuVote Optical Scanner used in Trinity County.

The California test plan is designed to show whether or not the Vote-PAD is accessible to people with disabilities while accurately representing the intent of the voter.

"We believe this thorough testing should become a standard for testing the accessibility of all voting systems designed for people with disabilities," Ellen Theisen, President of Vote-PAD, Inc., said.

The Counties, the State of California, and Vote-PAD, Inc. join in inviting you to be an official tester on July 19 or 20 in Sacramento if you have a disability that has made it difficult or impossible for you to vote in the past using standard voting equipment.

To schedule a time to test, call the California Elections Division at 916-657-2166 and/or email testCA@vote-pad.us. Allow about an hour to learn about the equipment and perform the scripted testing.

"A true test requires a lot of people with a wide range of disabilities," Theisen said. "Our goal is to have 200 testers over the two-day period."

The testing will be performed at the multipurpose room in the California Secretary of State's office building at 1500 11th Street in Sacramento.

Vote-PAD, Inc.'s invitation to testers is here: http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/Tester-Invitation.asp.

Their request for assistance in notifying potential testers is here: http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/CA-Invitation.asp.

This media release is available at: http://www.vote-pad.us/Media/CA-Cert.htm
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Posted by Dave Berman - 7:24 PM | Permalink
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As shown on
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We Do Not Consent, Volume 1 (left) and Volume 2 (right), feature essays from Dave Berman's previous blogs, GuvWurld and We Do Not Consent, respectively. Click the covers for FREE e-book versions (.pdf). As of April 2010, paperbacks are temporarily out of print. Click here for the author's bio.

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"If in the future we have vital elections, the "no basis for confidence" formulation that GuvWurld is popularizing will have been a historically important development. This is true because by implicitly insisting on verification and checks and balances instead of faith or trust in elections officials or machines as a basis for legitimacy, it encourages healthy transparent elections. It’s also rare that a political formulation approaches scientific certainty, but this formulation is backed up by scientific principles that teach that if you can’t repeat something (such as an election) and verify it by independent means, it doesn’t exist within the realm of what science will accept as established or proven truth."

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"Dave Berman has been candid and confrontational in challenging all of us to be "ruthlessly honest" in answering his question, "What would be better?" He encourages us to build consensus definitions of "better," and to match our words with actions every day, even if we do only "the least we can do." Cumulatively and collectively, our actions will bring truth to light."

— Nezzie Wade, Sociology Professor, Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods

"Dave Berman's work is quietly brilliant and powerfully utilitarian. His Voter Confidence Resolution provides a fine, flexible tool whereby any community can reclaim and affirm a right relation to its franchise as a community of voters."

— Elizabeth Ferrari, San Francisco, Green Party of California

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— Michael Collins covers the election fraud beat for "Scoop" Independent Media

"What's special about this book (and it fits because there's nothing more fundamental to Democracy than our vote) is the raising of consciousness. Someone recognizing they have no basis for trusting elections may well ask what else is being taken for granted."

— Eddie Ajamian, Los Angeles, CA

"I urge everyone to read "We Do Not Consent", and distribute it as widely as possible."

— B Robert Franza MD, author of We the People ... Have No Clothes: A Pamphlet for every American