To Those Concerned about the Safety of the United States:

Another questionable Federal election is certain to precipitate a national crisis, regardless of who is declared the winner. Yet, recent events have made the following scenario very likely.

There will be election "anomalies." We know this; there always are. Then there will be lawsuits. Then delays, recounts, and more lawsuits when recounts can't be done on electronic machines. Then, at some point, a winner will be announced, but the country is not likely to accept a winner announced after lawsuits, delays, and who-knows-what basis for the decision. Not after 2000.

This is not conspiracy theory. It's not a statement for or against electronic voting. It's a probability based on facts: the extreme polarization in our country, the legions of attorneys being amassed by both major parties, the rapidly growing skepticism about electronic voting, and the abundance of election lawsuits that have already been filed in recent months.

VotersUnite! in partnership with the National Ballot Integrity Project is asking for your active and unified support in an effort to avert this quickly approaching crisis.

There are less than two months until early voting begins for the General Election, even less time before absentee ballots start going out. Many people are working in many ways to ensure the reliability of the November election. These worthwhile pursuits must continue.

In addition, we must ALL unite in one thing — a call for hand counted paper ballots for Federal offices directed to all who care about the security of this nation: county leaders, state officials, Federal legislators, the courts, the media, the public.

We understand that these emergency measures are not a permanent solution to our election

system crisis. In fact, they are minimal, but they are the only way to assure us of an unquestionable outcome in November. Insisting on more may prevent us from achieving even this. Settling for less is too risky.

The plan is doable, and with little preparation.

	No pre-election changes are needed in any counties that use any type of paper ballot. In counties that use lever machines and DREs, the two or three Federal races (President, Representative, and possibly Senator) would be removed from the levers or DRE and placed on simple inexpensive paper ballots instead. This has been done before, successfully.
	Poll workers would stay an hour or so longer to hand count the two or three races at the precinct and post the results prominently. The many poll workers currently being organized will add to the security of this process, reducing the potential for precinct-level fraud.
	The manually-counted results would be the official counts and used for the official tally.
	If tabulation machines are used to count the ballots, this manual audit would also allow us to evaluate the accuracy of the vote-tabulating machines, giving us a scientific study rather than theory and speculation.

We believe these emergency measures are necessary to eliminate doubt, lawsuits, and the subsequent national crisis. Please unite with us immediately toward this goal.

Actions you can take immediately:

1) Contact Congress and urge the introduction and enactment of the Federal Paper Ballot Act of 2004.

2) Contact your county leaders and elections officials in support of hand counted paper ballots for federal offices.

Can we count on your support? Please respond ASAP.