Dear County Executive Latimer,

Please veto the August 3^rd bond for the dangerous Dominion ICE voting machines.

Taking on this challenge will enhance your support among very active local advocates, and Indivisible groups, and garner you national visibility as a champion of election security and voting rights.

As you know, Westchester Board of Legislators, in a very tight vote, approved a 3.3 million dollar bond to purchase 280 Dominion ICE voting machines. These voting machines are being called a “disaster” by security experts, because they have the ability to change the paper ballot after the voter casts their vote. Auditing expert Philip Stark of UC Berkeley says, "No form of audit can confirm they functioned correctly."

The county does not need these voting machines. You have 1000 scanners available that are "still in decent shape," according to one of your election commissioners. You have 420 ballot-marking devices with some “growing software issues.” Some of them can likely still be used. You have already purchased 160 ICE machines. That's a total of 580 machines that can function as ballot-marking devices - for what will probably be 301 voting sites in November. (Commissioners say they plan to open approximately 284 polling locations and 17 Early Voting sites.)

If additional ballot-marking devices are needed now, the county can purchase ones that do not have the ICE machine's design flaw.* And better technology will come. We are working to get ballot-marking devices like the Hart Verity Touch Writer certified in New York. That is a type of ballot-marking device that security experts recommend and that disability advocates are very enthused about.

Westchester County's 250 million dollar fiscal crisis is an emergency that requires strong management. Already county officials are being asked to leave their jobs. The county's credit rating has been downgraded. Some residents are struggling to pay for food and shelter. They want their tax payer dollars spent especially carefully when facing such difficult times.

Voters have the right to have their votes counted accurately. Each time a county purchases bad voting machines it drives another nail into the coffin of voter confidence. An NBC poll found that 79% of respondents said they were “somewhat or very concerned that the country's voting system might be vulnerable to computer hackers.”

Furthermore, if these machines are purchased, it becomes even less likely we will be able to ban hybrid voting machines in New York, opening the floodgates to touchscreen hybrid voting across the state.

There were five "no" votes on the bond. It was so close. One more vote would have stopped it. Clearly legislators were conflicted. If you send the bond back to the Board of Legislators with a veto – one more will likely have the courage to vote no. Then the bond will be defeated. You will save Westchester taxpayers money and give voter confidence a tremendous boost!

I implore you, protect the county from this unnecessary and dangerous boondoggle that could sow distrust of our election results for years to come.

Be a hero.

You have until August 13^th to veto the bond.

Sincerely,

*According to their website, Dominion ImageCast precinct scanners come with an optional integrated ADA compliant configuration.