Before voting machines for 2004 are finalized, you have a choice. Presently, machines that have been manufactured and distributed by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia do not have a paper printout as a backup for you to verify your vote, nor for a recount.

Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., and 30 co-sponsors, have a bill, "The Voter Confidence Act" (stuck in committee), requiring voter-verifiable audit trail on all voting systems. It only takes machines in key places to change an election. Whether Republican, Democrat or whatever, make three calls now.

Ask for Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., at (800) 839-5276 to fast-track legislation requiring machines to give you an immediate printout to verify your vote and a supervised, secured box in which to leave it.

Without an accurate, verifiable, recountable vote, we can erase the word democracy. Three little calls from you can make a difference.

Patricia Hilton
1963 graduate