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Why I Care About This Cause
This is a special (and sad)
birthday for me because it is the first birthday I will be spending
without my beloved mother (and best friend) Merle.
She died in August following a tragic accident at home. I miss
her very much, and I want to use my birthday to honor one of
her final wishes which is to keep VotePA going strong and working
for better elections.
Because of Merle, I learned
the importance of voting from a very early age when she made
a point of taking me to the polls with her when she went to vote.
Later, when I became an adult,
Merle invited me to join her as a pollworker. For years we did
everything we could to protect each person's right to a fair
and accurate vote by doing our best as a Judge or Inspector of
Elections every election day. After the polls closed and our
results were turned into the county, we would go home thinking
we had done our duty and that all was well.
But then came the historic
2004 election. I spent nearly the entire month of December in
Ohio as one of the regional coordinators for the recount of their
Presidential vote results. I will go to my grave knowing that
Ohio's 2004 election results may not have followed the will of
its voters. After arriving home I learned that we had problems
in Pennsylvania too. At least 10,000 of our precious votes were
lost to bad voting machines in several counties.
Since 2004's eye-opening experience
I have become keenly aware that our voting rights are increasingly
in danger. Our elections are at grave risk for voting problems,
disenfranchised voters, errors in the results, and even theft.
This is especially true with the advent of electronic voting
machines, especially the paperless models used in 17 states and
50 of our largest Pennsylvania counties.
In 2005 I helped to found VotePA
which today is the only statewide election integrity organization
in Pennsylvania specializing in voting machines and voting systems.
Our group fills an urgent need by educating individuals, other
groups, and officials all over the state about how important
it is to have accurate, accessible, auditable voting systems
and why we should protect every vote with a voter-marked, voter-verified
paper ballot.
We have had many successes
since 2005, but with 50 Pennsylvania counties still using those
unverifiable electronic voting machines (and very dangerous internet
voting schemes on the horizon) the problems facing our elections
have not gone away. This spring and summer, VotePA has been following
up on Venango County, where serious problems with the touchscreen
voting machines are resulting in a historic forensic audit of
their voting system. On July 4, Merle and I made one of our last
journeys together when we traveled to Franklin, PA to a Rally
for Voting Rights in Venango County. VotePA urgently needs
funds for additional work in Venango this fall, and for voter
education work all over the state as we approach the important
2012 election.
For all these reasons I am
making VotePA my birthday wish this year. I am asking you to
donate $25 whatever you can (less or more) to VotePA. I know
times are tough, so if you can't afford to donate right now (or
even if you do donate) you can also help by telling at least
two of your friends about VotePA
and asking them to join our mailing
list and "like" our
page on Facebook.
Please help me, and get involved
in the fight to protect our right to vote in fair and accurate
elections.
VotePA really needs our support, especially
this year. Again, I'm asking for $25 or whatever you can afford!
DONATE
THANK YOU SO MUCH.........
Marybeth
PS: I tried doing a "Birthday
Wish" through Causes on Facebook; it would have been one
of those fancy wishes with a donation thermometer, birthday cards,
and automatic thank you notes for you. Yes, there IS an
app for that, but unfortunately it wouldn't work for me! I'll
appreciate your simply using the links on this page. And if you
want to reach me I am on Facebook and at the email below. Thanks
again... MB
If you want to contact
Marybeth, she is at sunnykay1 at comcast dot net
If you want more
information about VotePA please go to
VotePA.us or find VotePA
on Facebook at facebook.com/VotePA
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