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It’s time to ensure every vote is counted

By Bernie Ellis | April 21, 2008 |

Now, more than perhaps ever before, your voice will mean something for Tennessee. If you speak up in the next week, your voice will be amplified by the growing call to our legislature to move the TN Voter Confidence Act forward now. At this moment, this call from voters across Tennessee and across the nation is strongly bipartisan, broad-based and basic in its request: Let our votes count in Tennessee in ’08. What follows shortly is an email action alert that is being sent to our core election integrity supporters here in Tennessee. Some of you are among that group, but many more of you are not. That is why I am writing to all of you myself, one last time.

Please take 30 minutes to voice your support to replace our non-verifiable touch-screen voting machines in Tennessee with paper ballot-based voting systems in time for the November election. To help you do that, I am sending you the latest call to action from Gathering To Save Our Democracy (www.votesafetn.org), and I am appending on that action call a few more steps you can take if you believe as strongly as I do that free, fair and verifiable elections matter in this country.

No matter your political persuasion, please email some or all of the Tennessee leaders whose email links are provided below. Tell them you support anything they can do to move the TN Voter Confidence Act (HB 1256; SB 1363) forward to immediate passage. (If you copy-and-paste the grouped email addresses into the address line of your message and
“blind-copy” all the recipients, you need only write one message to reach each entire group.)

Now I must finish planting the first tomatoes and preparing for a drive to Knoxville this afternoon. Tomorrow, when my Garden is enjoying a 70% chance of rain here in the holler, I will join a few of you again to watch and discuss “UNCOUNTED: The New Math of American Elections”, this time with the TN Federation of Democratic Women, U. Tennessee faculty and students and others.

If you live in Tennessee, your voice has to be heard NOW for free, fair and verifiable elections. If you live elsewhere, let TN’s leaders know that secure elections here matter where you live too.

Currently, the bill is in the House Budget Subcommittee, where the Chairman wants to keep it until the end of April, at least. There is no reason for the bill to remain in subcommittee waiting for the state budget to pass—all the money we need is already available—federal money. But time is short—we don’t want to wait that long to get the ball rolling. We need your help again!

What you can do right now: E-mail the House Budget Subcommittee members and ask them to act now, and pass the bill (H.B. 1256), so it will go to the full Finance Committee. If any of the members is your Representative, please mention that, and include your address.

House Budget Subcommittee members:

rep.harry.tindell@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.joe.armstrong@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.lois.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.craig.fitzhugh@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.mike.harrison@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.steve.mcdaniel@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.gary.odom@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.doug.overbey@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.randy.rinks@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.dennis.roach@legislature.state.tn.us,

rep.johnny.shaw@legislature.state.tn.us

Senators:

Senate Finance Committee members:

sen.randy.mcnally@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.douglas.henry@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.tim.burchett@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.diane.black@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.raymond.finney@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.joe.haynes@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.rosalind.kurita@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.jim.kyle@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.mark.norris@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.bo.watson@legislature.state.tn.us,

sen.john.wilder@legislature.state.tn.us

About Bernie Ellis

Bernard "Bernie" H. Ellis, Jr., MA, MPH, is the principal researcher and founder of Bernard Ellis and Associates, Inc. Mr. Ellis is a consultant epidemiologist specializing in epidemiological research strategies to assess public health program development, delivery and effectiveness. Mr. Ellis is also a political and e-voting activist. He has devoted much of his professional life to helping others.

Email: tracevu@bellsouth.net

Sections: Issues, Politics
Topics: Bernie Ellis, elections, Gathering to Save Our Democracy, paper trail, verifiable elections, Voting Machines

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