Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Re: Please Support Ion Sancho!

Thanks for your note about the Leon County Supervisor of Elections and
the voting machines controversy. I hope you had a chance to read my
previous quotes on this matter, as well as my letter to the Editor
published in the Tallahassee Democrat on March 12, 2006.

For the record, the Supervisor of Elections has my complete confidence
and support. I know Ion Sancho to be a patriot. His actions are a
model of courageous public service and I am behind him 100 percent.
Rest assured that I will oppose any attempt to meddle in the business of
our respected elections chief who has defended our liberty for the past
18 years.

Thank you for writing, and for standing up for democracy.

Sincerely,

Cliff Thaell
Commissioner At-Large
Leon County Board of County Commissioners
301 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32301

>>> Dan Stafford  03/12/06 10:14 AM >>>
Dear Florida and Leon County Officials:

I am writing to protest the disgraceful treatment of Ion Sancho, Leon
County Supervisor of Elections by certain state and local officials.

Mr. Sancho should be hailed as a national hero for having the courage
and vision to conduct the kind of testing of his voting systems that
should have been performed by state and federal certifiers.

These tests exposed severe security vulnerabilities in Leon County's
Diebold voting system, have since been duplicated and confirmed by
California computer scientists, who also found additional severe
flaws.

In return, the state has withdrawn Leon County's Help America Vote
Act
Funds, threatened Mr. Sancho with legal action, and refused to require

voting system vendors to do business with him. It is not too late to
make amends for this shameful treatment of a dedicated public servant.

I urge you to: - Support Mr. Sancho in his efforts to provide secure,
verifiable, accessible voting equipment to the citizens of his county.
-
Demand that voting machine vendors, who would not be doing business in

the state of Florida without state certification, be required to sell
voting systems to any and all Florida counties or lose their certified

status. - Return the $564,421 in Help America Vote Act funds to Leon
County. - Provide all Florida citizens with voting systems that provide

a voter-verified paper trail.

Our nation needs secure, accessible, auditable voting systems to ensure

that our democracy may not only thrive, but survive. Mr. Sancho's
heroic
actions are helping to accomplish that goal. Sincerely,

Sincerely,

Daniel A. Stafford

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