Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org
There are many good provisions in the new election reform bill (HR 811 introduced by Congressman Rush Holt D-NJ), called the “Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007.” There is significant momentum in the U.S. House to pass the bill as written; and it is on a “fast-track.”
BUT, the bill allows the continued use of electronic “ballots” — invisible data on a computer — as the ballots of record. Democracy demands that voters can know the selections on their own ballots. This means all ballots must be cast on paper and only paper ““ no electronic ballots, which keep the ballot secret from the voter.
The members must hear from us – NOW – that the bill urgently needs an amendment to ban electronic ballots.
We are not seeking to “kill” the bill, but to gain support for an amendment banning electronic ballots and the use of Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines, which create them. We believe we have a chance!
Here’s what you can do: Go to VotersUnite.Org and take part in the action to ask Congress to support an amendment to ban DRE voting machines….
Legislature votes to combine process with city, state/county races LINK
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NAtional: Conyers, Emanuel, Holt, Becerra, Honda, Ellison Fight to End Vote Suppression…
“Direct the Attorney General… Require the Attorney General… Require the Attorney General… Require the Attorney General…”
Hey, somebody’s talking about Gonzales…
Query Re: Holt – Language from bill :
“The manufacturer shall meet standards established
by the Commission to prevent the existence or appearance
of any conflict of interest with respect to candidates for
public office and political parties, including standards…etc ” sounds like dangerous rhetoric. If McCarthyism is the outflow of the current team, we need Holt to be reconsulted. John, please correct if possible
That’s one of the big problems with “Holt II”… it establishes the EAC, supposedly only a temporary commission, as a permanent Executive branch arbitrator of election activity.
Both Feinstein and Holt are hell bent on seizing control of elections from the states… and handing it to the Executive branch.
You would think that they would have learned better by now.
Let us not forget the most damaging “vote” that took place at the beginning of the current fascist regime:
(Law Professor Lazarus, emphasis added).
Oh thank you Scalia, Thomas, O’Connor, Kennedy, and Rehnquist for giving us the fascist president.
Your infamy will be remembered by people all over the world long after your bastardization of the court on that fateful day.
You voted for fascism and called it liberty.
Off topic, but just have to tell you how impressed I am with the new colors. Didn’t realize how depressing the old colors were. This is very upbeat….love it.
Donna,
I love the colors too.
Regarding the suggested amendment to HR 811, by JGideon, to get abandon use of all DRE’s (which I agree would be great), wouldn’t mandating this, add a huge financial expense? There’s already been a lot of hoopla about the text-conversion machines being more costly than the 300 million alloted for them in HR 811.
Wouldn’t the abolishment of DRE’s, already in place, put the cost of implementing this bill and S559, threw the cieling?
Regarding States Rights, and voting.
States Rights was created so that the Southern states could continue their use of slaves, when the Northern states had decided against this.
States Rights has its history in maintaining slavery. So it seems important to remember this, when we get all hell-bent on maintaining this institution in our country.
When the government of Ireland tried to install DRE’s throughout that country, Irish citizen groups were able to fight this very effectively, in part because they could unite nationally. They won. Ireland still votes on paper only. Hand Counted Paper Ballots–counted at the precinct.
But one of the reasons the Irish citizenry could do this, was that they weren’t impeded by states rights. The entire country was on one system of voting. So there was united effort nationally there. (They also have the right to vote in their national constitution.)
The way it is here in the US, every state has a fight that is unique to that state.
For better or worse, HAVA actually set the stage for allowing Election/Voting activists to unite nationally, not just address issues in their own state.
… Jazz said…
“Wouldn’t the abolishment of DRE’s, already in place, put the cost of implementing this bill and S559, threw the ceiling?”
You mean more than the unexpected costs of DRE’s are already climbing through the ceiling.?
Optical scanners are far cheaper, and while they are just as hackable as DRE’s at least they leave a valid paper ballot behind… not a post-facto “paper trail”.
… Jazz said…
“Regarding States Rights, and voting.”
Well, I didn’t mention States Rights, and your history is woefully incorrect (that means “Wrong”)… but what’s truly disturbing is that once again the slavery issue has been raised in order to obfuscate and silence opposition to bad voting policy.
Y’see… the extremely stupid suggestion to abolish the secret ballot floated in the blogosphere recently was also couched in equally incorrect terms of it being a relic of slavery, purely in an attempt to use the emotional backlash from that assertion to shut down debate on the subject… even though the secret ballot would actually have given the freed slaves the opportunity to vote without their former owners looking over their shoulder… if they’d had the opportunity to vote.
And now, while you decry states rights, and while Bev Harris waxes elequent about local control over on black box, “Holt II” is being fast-tracked to give the current administration final authority over the election process… before 2008… good luck with that…