Reply #24: Adviser Is Being Paid to Lobby the (NY) Legislature Against Paper Ballots [View All]

[Wilms]

This article is as confusing as Election Reform, but it's good to note the millions that are probably being spent undermining Paper Ballots.


Ferrer Adviser Is Being Paid to Lobby the Legislature Against Paper Ballots

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
New York Times
March 10, 2005

The chief political adviser for Fernando Ferrer accepted a $120,000-a-year contract last month to lobby state lawmakers to block passage of legislation in New York that would require voters to use paper ballots.

-snip-

Businesses, like the company Mr. Ramirez is representing, are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to push the State Legislature to allow for computer-based touch-screen voting machines. Other groups, like the League of Women Voters of New York State, have called for using optical scanners, which would require voters to first fill out a paper ballot, a system that would be less lucrative for the manufacturers of these products.

In his contract with VoteHere, Mr. Ramirez is called on to help persuade state lawmakers to push for legislation "requiring or permitting receipt-based verification," which would allow for voting machines that operate like a bank A.T.M., providing a receipt after a transaction.

Mr. Ferrer's spokesman, Chad Clanton, said yesterday that Mr. Ferrer wanted to see "paper backup on every vote cast on electronic voting machines," though he did not say whether that meant a ballot or a receipt.

-snip/more-

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4971

VoteHere Website:

http://www.votehere.net/default.htm


DU Discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x342009