Thread by @jennycohn1

Dear @KamalaHarris and @SenFeinstein:

It is critical that you pass Senator Ron Wyden’s PAVE Act, which requires that states give all voters the option to mark their ballots by HAND and that they conduct Risk Limiting Audits for federal races. Thread. 1/

Although the PAVE Act has a 2020 effective date, the hand marked ballot clause must be accelerated to 2018. This CAN be done bc even most paperless counties already have scanners (for absentees), which can be used to count paper ballots in the midterms. 2/ usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

Relying on Touchscreens is too risky bc voters will be unable to vote if there is a widespread failure and an insufficient number of paper backup ballots at the polls. 3/ votetrust.verifiedvoting.org/index.php?opti…

4/ Touchscreens also limit the number of people who can vote at once, causing long lines that disenfranchise voters. arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/pape…

5/ The paper trails and summary cards from touchscreens are too abbreviated to be successfully verified or audited. And new touchscreens like the ExpressVote use unverifiable barcodes that, per IT experts, constitute a potential attack vector for hackers. medium.com/@jennycohn1/pr…

6/ Here is another article compiling sources on the dangers of touchscreen voting machines. medium.com/@jennycohn1/to…

7/ Our nation cannot withstand more poll-defying election outcomes that cannot realistically be confirmed with manual recounts or manual audits. The time for #handmarkedpaperballots is now. Waiting until after the midterms is unacceptable.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Cohn, SF Bay Area

8/ If you are a voter and would like to send a similar message to your senators, feel free to cut and paste from mine. Please support #handmarkedpaperballots and the #PAVEAct. Thank you!