We join a broad-based coalition, led by the Coalition for Peace Action, a regional organization based in Princeton, in opposing the bill. We urge the Legislature to, instead, take steps to implement an optical- scan voting system, as so many other states have done.
With optical-scan technology, voters mark ballots by hand -- in the manner of taking a standardized test -- and the ballots are then fed into a machine to be read.
Not only is the technology reliable, it's also cost-effective. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-Hopewell Township, in testimony at the hearing last week, reckoned that, "In purchase costs alone, converting to an optical scan system would likely cost no more than adding printer retrofits to New Jersey's existing touch screen machines, and probably less."
Holt, who has long been a leader on voting integrity issues in the House of Representatives, summed up the matter nicely when he said: "Voting must not be an act of faith, it must be an act of record, and independent audit records -- voter-verified paper ballots -- must be required."
"The national trend is clearly to move away from touch screen voting and towards more reliable, less troublesome optical scan voting systems," Holt testified. "There are only seven states left in the country that, on a statewide basis, use paperless voting systems."
New Jersey is still one of them.
With the gubernatorial election less than a year away, time is running out. This is a situation that was to have been taken care of years ago. But the deadlines have come and gone, and come and gone again, and New Jersey's citizens still cannot be certain that the votes they cast will be counted and counted correctly.
The timing of this bill makes it clear that the "fix" was in from the get go. This has been railroaded through at the last minute in the hopes that they could pull off another delay and that they could get away with it like they did last time.
I am under no illusion that the votes today will go against what is in the best interests of democracy, our budget, common sense and decency. (Though I would love to be surprised!!! :-)
Any legislator who is capable of voting for this ugly pig of a bill doesn't deserve to be re-elected.
No one who cares about the democratic process should be supporting this bill, it's that bad.
After just a few minutes of real listening and asking a few real questions, Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr was inspired to speak the truth. His intelligence and his instincts were/are right on. Yet, he voted to pass it in committee (out of deference to Quigley) but did say he would vote against it on the floor. We shall see.
Whatever her motivations were, Republican Senator Jennifer Beck actually voted (correctly!!!) against the bill in committee, let's see how she votes today.
If the bill passes without some serious amendments; there needs to be a drive to introduce corrective legislation asap.
Despite the "best" efforts of our legislative "leaders", this issue isn't going to just quietly go away and die.
