The following is a letter by Congressional candidates Chris Young and Kara Russo, both of whom lost out in the Sept. 11 primary elections. This letter was submitted to the Board of Elections on September 12, 2012:

To whom it may concern,

Our names are Christopher Young and Kara Russo and we were candidates in the September 11th, 2012 election. We are not requesting a recount. We are requesting another election without electronic voting machines. We are demanding that the electronic voting processes be removed from Rhode Island elections and all future elections.

Our arguments are that if you conceal essential election processes from the public, it is a human rights violation and the election ceases to be a public election. This transfers sovereignty over the government from the public to government insiders and is unconstitutional. The voter cannot see what actually happened to his or her vote inside the computer and is required to place "blind faith" in the technology. The results were and are open to manipulation.

The Rhode Island citizen has the constitutional right to see all phases of the voting process (in its entirety) happen before their very eyes. 'Delegated trust' can never be a replacement for trust that comes from (the possibility of) direct observation. Observers cannot be required to possess any kind of specialized technical knowledge.

Secondly, the company who services the Rhode Island election machines is an out of state vendor which makes subpoena powers and them responding to such subpoena difficult to enforce. This takes away Rhode Island’s control of elections - and places control with a vendor that is out of state. Please contact us for a hearing time and place.



Christopher Young

Kara Young