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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Edward Erikson, Press@FreeSpeechForPeople.org

"Electronic Voting Machines Could Become Major Disease Vector," Election Security Advocates Request Cleaning Guidelines For Machines

Following the publication of a Guide for Safe Voting During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Free Speech For People issued a letter to electronic voting machines vendors to request a video demonstration for how to properly clean the machines. 

WASHINGTON

Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan legal advocacy group, issued a letter today requesting electronic voting machine vendors provide a video demonstration of the electronic voting machine sanitization process.

Citing health concerns, long lines, and voting delays, the letter urged vendors to: 1) provide a timed, original, unedited video of the cleaning process; 2) make the video available to the public; 3) hire a neutral third party to assess the cost and effectiveness of sanitizing the machines; 4) provide information on whether instruments, such as gloves or styli, may be used to make selections on the touch screens of the voting machines.

"Voters should not have to choose between protecting their health and exercising their right to vote," Free Speech For People writes in the letter, "As you are manufacturers of voting machines that may be used in elections held during the pandemic, we strongly urge you to protect both the health and vote of voters, and to take all precautions to ensure that voting does not endanger the lives of voters who are required to use your machines."

Read the full letter here.

Read the Guide for Safe Voting During the COVID-19 Pandemic here.

Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan non-profit organization founded on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that works to defend our democracy and our Constitution.