Dean Touts NM Paper Ballot Victory

Terry Riley, Governor Dean, Paul Stokes and Barbara Wold at the Dean event yesterday.

DNC Chair Howard Dean, speaking at Plumbers and Pipefitters hall in Albuquerque yesterday, heavily praised our recent victory in passing a bill mandating the use of paper ballots in every county in New Mexico. He expressed gratitude for all the grassroots activists, election reform groups and legislators who worked so long and hard to get it done. And he had this to say about Governor Richardson's groundbreaking support for replacing the highly inaccurate and unreliable touch screen machines with paper ballots and optical scanners:

This state, thanks to Governor Richardson and a lot of people in this room, is now a leader in one of the most important areas in this country, which is not talked about enough -- and that is the end of corruption in electronic voting machines. To my knowledge, there is no other state that has done it. There is no other state that has said that what the Republicans are doing with these voting machines is wrong. And that it is a deep principle of democracy that every single vote counts.

I want to thank Governor Bill Richardson for taking national leadership on this issue. We need him as a spokesman of this issue. I understand that there may be some discussion of his interest in higher office, but I know that right now he is focused on being the next governor of the state of New Mexico and I hope that every one of you will get out and do everything you can for him, because this is something we need to get nationally. A state stood up to the right-wing Diebold fold!

People believe in democracy and New Mexico is a beacon for that. Thanks to what you all have done and to what Governor Richardson is going to do on March 2nd."

Governor Bill Richardson has indicated he will sign the paper ballot bill on March 2nd -- an important step on the way to assuring that every vote is counted, and counted accurately. 

Governor Dean also said we must push on and work on getting similar efforts going in every state in the union. New Mexico can be the model. When Dean says "YOU'VE Got the Power," he isn't kidding around .... I'll have more on Howard's visit later today.