Article: Thank you, Ion Sancho, guardian of voting integrity

I was just sent the email address for Ion Sancho, the intrepid Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, Florida. It was suggested that we should acknowledge his courage in standing up to Jeb Bush, Florida's Secretary of State and the many electronic voting machine proponents arrayed against him. I heartily concur.

The authorized hack which Mr. Sancho arranged on December 13th, brought in Harri Hursti, the Finnish computer security expert to attack the memory card of the Diebold Accu-Vote OS 1.94w (optical scan). According to Diebold, this card was impervious to tampering. A mock election was held, asking one question only (and a most appropriate one, at that): "Can the votes on this Diebold system be hacked using the memory card?" With all of the board of elections watching, the vote count was radically and invisibly switched.

This clear-cut display sent shockwaves through the country, galvanizing voting activists as far away as California and Maryland, both states that share the Diebold machinery and software with Florida. The repercussions are still being felt.

You may recall that one of my plans for OpEdNews was a 'local heroes' corner to celebrate individuals making a difference in their communities. I can't think of a better candidate than Mr. Sancho to kick off this new feature of our webpage. I proudly nominate Mr. Sancho as OpEdNews' first official 'local hero'. I urge all citizens who treasure the integrity of your vote to write Mr. Sancho and thank him personally for his efforts on your behalf. The fight is far from over. That is at least partly due to the actions of Mr. Ion Sancho. Thank you, sir!

Perhaps Mr. Sancho's courage will help to create a tsunami of public outrage about how our elections have been threatened by the insecure, faulty, expensive and secretive electronic voting machines. The struggle to preserve free, fair and transparent elections has many forces lined up against it: the electronic voting machine corporations, their lobbyists, elected officials who ignore the will of the people and the sanctity of the vote, ignorance and apathy on the part of the public. We need every lover of democracy to join the fight. I'm personally inviting you to get involved. You couldn't possibly pick a more critical or timely issue. Our future depends on it.

Mr. Sancho's email address is: vote@leoncountyfl.gov