ACTION ALERT

Challenge the Election Commissioners' Association policy of excluding NYVV at the same time as they include vendors.

Background: Beginning on November 1, 2005, Wanda Warren Berry wrote three times on behalf of the Board of Directors of NYVV to Thomas Burke, President of the Election Commissioners’ Association of New York (ECANY), requesting that NYVV be granted some kind of venue at the winter conference of ECANY. We suggested Bo Lipari might speak or that we might participate in a panel discussion. We also asked to have a table there and said that we would be willing to pay the usual $100 fee for guest membership or for a table in the vendor arena. Having no answer, on January 3, 2006, Wanda telephoned Mr. Burke as well as William Fruci, the Secretary-Treasurer of the ECA. On the following Monday, Wanda received a letter from Mr. Burke, denying NYVV any place at the conference. There are links, below, to the text of that letter and the response Wanda wrote after conferring with other members of the Board of Directors. NYVV has received no further communication from the ECA.

Situation: NYVV requested the right to be represented at the Winter Conference of the Election Commissioners’ Association of New York, Cooperstown, January 17-20 and was denied an invitation.

Action: Send a letter, FAX, or e-mail to your county election commissioners asking them to insist that the Election Commissioners’ Association of New York change its policy so that New Yorkers for Verified Voting be present in some way at their future conferences. Consider copying your letter to members of the Executive Committee listed on their website www.ntsdata.com/nyseca.

Here is a sample letter that you may download to help you get started. It is in Rich Text Format, which should allow you to open and edit the file in any text processing program. The NYS Board of Elections web link, also provided in the sample letter heading, should provide you with the address and names for your county.

Our Correspondence with the New York State Election Commissioners' Association (ECA)

Text of the letter received January 9, 2006 from Thomas Burke, ECA President, on New York State Election Commissioners' Association letterhead, dated January 6 and addressed to Wanda Warren Berry, Director, New Yorkers for Verified Voting.

Our letter in response, addressed to Thomas J. Burke, President, Election Commissioners’ Association of New York State, c/o Greene County Board of Elections.

As a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens’ group dedicated to fair elections, it seems to us that NYVV should an have equal right to be represented at the ECA conferences alongside the vendors. It is disappointing that the ECA President seems to regard NYVV as having ulterior motives.

We urge you to visit the ECANY website (www.ntsdata.com/nyseca/) to notice that their by-laws mandate invitations of vendors to their conferences. THEN, TAKE ACTION! Write your commissioners!