LETTERS TO COUNTY ELECTION OFFICIALS SUING BOWEN

San Bernadino, Kern, San Diego

Dear _______________,

I am a registered voter in your county who is very concerned about the problems with the electronic voting machines, the integrity of the election process, and the accuracy of the vote count.  I was thrilled that Debra Bowen was elected to the California Secretary of State's office because I knew that she understood the problems with these machines and would do everything in her power to protect our voting process.  I've applauded all that she's done so far in testing and de-certifying these machines and only conditionally re-certifying them if strict regulations were followed.

As I am sure you are aware, Secretary of State Bowen has won, along with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner of Ohio, the 2008 Profiles in Courage Award from the Kennedy Library. The reason was, “…her decision to limit the use of direct-recording electronic voting machines has been met with resistance by voting system vendors and many county elections officials.” Nevertheless, she stood firm and her decisions have had consequences across the country.

I was appalled to find out that you were suing the Secretary of State for doing her job. Have you finally given up wasting taxpayer money when judge after judge, at increasingly higher levels, keeps throwing out your suits for lack of merit. In this year of major deficits why are you spending time and money on this? What are you thinking?

The real enemy, that should be sued, is the voting system vendors who sold you shoddy, insecure equipment.

Please stop your resistance and cooperate with Debra Bowen on improving the election systems so that all votes are counted and counted as cast.