To the Editor:

In a recent article in the Intelligencer, Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey's new bill HR 5036 was described. This proposed bill would reimburse jurisdictions that switch from externally paperless electronic voting machines to paper ballot-based systems.

Of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, 54 of them — among them Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia — use paperless electronic machines (DREs). Voters are not able to verify that their votes have been counted as they intended. Nor is there a voter-verified paper record to use for recounts and audits of the electronic count. Pennsylvania, a swing state that could decide the election in November, needs to have a voter-marked paper ballot system in every county so that citizens can have confidence in election results.

Rep. Holt introduced this bill in response to the continually mounting evidence that electronic voting machines are unreliable, inaccurate and insecure. After extensive research, California, Ohio and Colorado recently decertified their electronic machines and are going to a voter-marked paper ballot system, joining New Mexico, Florida and other states so that voters will know that their votes have been counted accurately and have confidence in the election results. A Jan. 6 New York Times Magazine article and the problems recently in the South Carolina Republican primary, where 80 percent of the DREs in one county failed to function, show how real this problem is.

Citizens should contact their congressman and ask him or her to co-sponsor and work for the swift passage of HR 5036 so that counties can be reimbursed for the change. Citizens should also contact county commissioners and tell them that they need to act now and obtain one of the paper-based voting systems already certified for use in Pennsylvania. Counting every vote accurately is the cornerstone of our democratic system.

Sandy Schiff

New Britain Township

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/320-02092008-1485205.html