Introduction

Boulder County is transitioning to a new voting system. It is currently using leased equipment because the old DataVote punch card system has worn out.

In December 2003, Citizens for Verifiable Voting put out a PositionStatement outlining the need for voter-verifiable paper ballots, disclosure of voting software, support for the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, and stressing the importance of not buying a new system until systems are available that meet the standards mandated by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

We also got a Declaration for Quality Elections endorsed by four parties in Boulder: the Democrats, the Republicans, the Greens and the Libertarians.

This helped the Boulder County Elections Division see the many problems associated with Direct Record Electronic devices (DRE) and the need for voter-verifiable paper ballots. Without voter-verifiable paper ballots, bugs or security holes in the voting machines could corrupt our elections. Voters and county officials -- even if they discovered a problem -- would have no effective means to conduct a recount.

For more information about what's going on with Boulder County in particular, see BoulderCountySituation. Please also take a look at our Resources page for more background.

The right to vote is our most sacred and fundamental right as US citizens. We are dedicated to working with the county and other groups around the country to improve our election systems. We want see to it that citizens will come out to vote, confident that their actions will make a difference.

For a more detailed introduction to the many issues, take a look at the following articles, and at the rest of this site:

• Elections Must Be Verifiable (from the Daily Camera)
• Safeguarding the Vote (from Yes magazine)
• Hacking Democracy? (from Salon.com)
• A Better Ballot? (from the Christian Science Monitor)