“As we have looked closely at all the issues concerning Election Day voting systems, we are still ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room,” declared California Congresswoman Susan Davis in a statement sent to The BRAD BLOG late this afternoon.
That 800 pound gorilla, Davis goes on to say, is “the question of whether and how Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Voting Machines should be used in federal elections.”
Her statement (posted in full at the end of this article) followed on the heels of our exclusive BRAD BLOG report earlier today detailing Davis’s attempt to restrict the use of DREs (often referred to as touch-screen voting machines) to no more than one per polling place on Election Day in federal elections.
Davis’s proposed amendment is stalled for the moment as the U.S. House Rules Committee debates whether Rep. Rush Holt’s (D-NJ) flawed and controversial Election Reform Bill (HR 811) will be sent to the floor of the House at all and, if so, whether or not amendments will be allowed with it. (See this morning’s report for more specifics and details.)
The amendment is similar to, though weaker than, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s recently imposed restrictions on DRE voting systems in the Golden State, which also require a manual hand-count of 100% of the so-called “paper trails” produced by the touch-screen machines.
“There is one controversial issue that seems to come up again and again in my discussions with voters, activists, and elections officials. It is an issue that has been dealt with in many states including my home state of California just recently with the Secretary of State’s Top-to-Bottom review,” Davis said, adding that “the wealth of data and opinions on this topic are so strong that I feel Congress would be remiss if we do not allow a debate on” the use of DREs in federal elections.
As a member of the House Administration Committee, which passed the bill some months ago along party lines, Davis could have brought such an amendment then. Indeed, we personally met with Davis earlier this year in her home district in San Diego — the site of more than a few controversial touch-screen elections — in hopes of conveying the dangers of such voting systems. While clearly concerned about the issue at the time, Davis was not yet prepared to call for either a ban or any sort of restriction on the machines that failed at hundreds, if not thousands, of precincts across the country during the 2006 election cycle.
But that was before Bowen’s landmark analysis, as carried out by computer scientists at the University of California, added fuel to the anti-DRE fire, finding severe and alarming vulnerabilities in every e-voting system they tested.
With the Bowen wind at the backs of California’s sizable and powerful Congressional contingent, things may well be changing, if Davis’s “attempt [to] spark debate on this issue” is any indication.
In concluding her statement, Davis expressed her hope that Congress might finally address the now-unavoidable question of DRE usage in the wake of what has become a virtual mountain of evidence against them.
“Our democracy is too important to ignore this issue any longer,” the Congresswoman concluded.
Rep. Susan Davis’s complete statement is posted in full below…
Representing the 53rd District in San Diego, California
PRESS RELEASE: September 5, 2007
Contact: Aaron Hunter 202-225-1686
WASHINGTON ““ Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-Calif) released the following statement on her effort to offer an amendment to Rep. Rush Holt’s bill (H.R. 811) to ban paperless voting.
“Electoral integrity is of the utmost importance to guaranteeing our democracy and I support many of the provisions of Rep. Rush Holt’s bill (H.R. 811) and respect the thought behind it.
“However, as we have looked closely at all the issues concerning Election Day voting systems, we are still ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Although Rep. Holt’s bill has looked at many tough issues, there is one controversial issue that seems to come up again and again in my discussions with voters, activists and elections officials. It is an issue that has been dealt with in many states including my home state of California just recently with the Secretary of State’s Top-to-Bottom review. The wealth of data and opinions on this topic are so strong that I feel Congress would be remiss if we do not allow a debate on the question of whether and how Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Voting Machines should be used in federal elections.
“In an attempt spark debate on this issue, I proposed an amendment to H.R. 811 allowing every polling place to have one DRE with a paper trail for those who want or need to use it””sort of a paper or plastic option. And of course, early voting could be done electronically because it makes the most sense when voters from any of thousands of precincts show up to vote in the same place and stocking all the different paper ballots can be a nightmare. What’s more, problems of the past such as long lines from broken machines or elections with no record like we saw in Florida’s 13th Congressional District could not happen. There would be fewer problems that lead to long lines and disenfranchisement, people with disabilities could vote privately, a true paper record would be available for recounts and costs would shrink.
“It is my hope that Congress will address this issue in the near future. Our democracy is too important to ignore this issue any longer.”
IMO, once again they are are on the right track but using the wrong engine to pull the train.
If she would also use the ‘maintainance costs will amount into the billions forever’ meme for these crappy machines…the cost factor alone should bring them down.
That would bring some more of the ‘fiscally conservaturds’ on board even if they don’t really know what’s going on with them.
If and when this ban happens I can see states like Georgia miraculously turning blue…I’ll bet it will too.
Shit, how often to we have to upgrade our hardware and operating software on our home computers to keep them safe and secure ?, so that means by every (other) election cycle we will have to practically replace every machine and that’s not even including the inherent defects from the original build.
Here is my take on this type of Food for thought.
Congresswoman Susan A. Davis‘s use of the phrase “in federal elections” is enlightened.
So many folks who rap on about such machine use, or the banning therof, do not specify which type of election is being talked about (local, county, state, or federal). It matters and it matters a bunch.
I don’t know Dredd, to me, this has always been about Federal elections…I could give a shit less how the Governor or dog catcher is elected in the individual state, thats up to them.
It didn’t even enter my mind that we were splitting the States rights hair.
Anyways, take the test…I was economic left -8.5, Social Libertarian -6.67
The Political Compass
Susan Davis (my representative) is starting to feel the heat from her constituents about her vote to give Bush the $120 billion. It’s no longer good enough for her to take the stance (wide or not) that “when the bullets start flying, I’ll be right behind you.”
When Rep. Davis went on the Stacy Taylor show on KLSD, she had ginned up the excuse that if Congress didn’t give the President the money, he’d “take it away from the troops.” It appeared to me that she had grasped at a straw based on the more thoughtful and principled stand of Tim Walz, who said he voted for the money for Iraq, because he believed that the President would take the money from the National Guard at home to fund the foreign operations. While I may not agree with the outcome, I can apppreciate Mr. Walz’s position, in that it comes from a person who served in the guard for many years. Susan Davis must have talked to Tim Walz, but left before she got all the details.
It is a shame (to me at least) that Rep. Davis is a largely ineffectual and weak representative for San Diego. If you check her record and her website, you’ll see she has strong positions on stuff that comes into the purview of Congress only by an expansive reading of the Commerce Clause, but remarkably few accomplishments regarding Congress’ express authority.
She has one major area of actual Congressional interest, as far as I can tell: Veterans’ affairs, and she’s been on that committee for years. Yet, even then, I have to ask “where have you been? The problems at the VA hospitals did not materialze overnight.” It’s especially troubling to me since her husband was an Air Force doctor.
Anyway, I’m just sayin. . .
Economic Left: -8.00
Social Libertarian: -6.00
Almost as radical as you are, Flo. 😛
I’m confused about the whole “one DRE per polling place” thing, and, also the use of central tabulation systems that have corruptible databases.
Why have any DRE’s?How are they used and who has access to them?
Does the Holt bill address the central tabulation process at all and the systems used for that?
Remember how in Ohio, 2004 there was that secret “lockdown” or lockout of the media in Warren County, OH and the election annoucements were held up while the final tabulation was performed behind closed doors (and Kerry’s lead vanished).
Obviously, this amendment is a postive step from where the Holt bill was last week (which was nowhere), but I just wanted to see if the ‘experts’ here at the BradBlog could comment on these other issues.
Derek
HAVA mandated them for use by the disabled, so to keep from breaking that law one is being left in each precinct. Thank goodness the disabled are not required to use them.
Dredd,
For the love of pete… Believe it or not, but Congress can not pass laws regarding local elections. They are passing laws here that apply to federal elections.
It turns out that the “audits” are only going to take place on even years.
And for the last time, Congress often passed bills that were changed at the last minute and not in fact in THOMAS. Really, read up on the Patriot Act or any number of bills that had stuff snuck in at the last minute.
Cheers.
It would matter if any jurisdiction had the wherewithall to buy two different sets of elections equipment, but they don’t, so the fact that they could have two different sets of voting equpment is stopped by the fact that they can’t afford it. Practical considerations matter, Dredd.
We should call for Susan Davis’ amendment to include a federal buyout of electronic voting machines to take care for the “funding”.
Debra Bowen’s requirement for 1 DRE per polling place is just a HAVA band-aid to aid the disabled for accessibility reasons (of course none of these DREs meet the requirements). All DREs used in CA must have a minimum of 5 voters vote on them. What Ms.Davis forgets to mention is that there is 100% hand count of the VVPAT in CA. for precinct and early voting DREs.
I would say that this should be included in her amendment but there is no amendment that will protect the rights of the voter to have their vote counted as cast if it does not include a ban on all computerized voting systems, unless they are an open source paper ballot marking device used specifically for the disabled, period.
We the People need to return to a complete hand count of paper ballots, secure, cost effective and can even be environmentally friendly. We do not need computers to count our vote, we need people to count our vote.
If it is necessary because of time constraints then I would recommend an amendment to HR 811 that includes ALL the Bowen requirements in CA for elections but only with a sunset of Dec. 31st 2008. After this date legislation to ban all computerized voting equipment needs to be introduced with funding to move to an all Hand Counted Paper Ballot system for federal elections, in which, no Federal funds may be used for state and local elections using DRE.
It will be up to the citizens in each state and county to push for Hand Counted Paper Ballots at the precinct, this should not be a hard sell as someone else noted the cost of trying to use 2 systems.
We the People have an unalienable right to cast off the government if it does not SERVE the public and short of violent revolution, voting is our means of doing so. Our public SERVANTS do not have the right to make a private contract with proprietary rights to a corporation which ultimately takes away our right to cast off such government!!!!!!!
CB
And:
It is in my opinion that since these manufacturers mis-represented their product as to comply with the disabilities requirements of HAVA, these machines should be returned by each county and each county needs to demand or sue for a refund!
DerekLarsson asked:
Coupla of other folks answered to this, but Agent 99 got it a little bit wrong, so I wanted to clear it up. HAVA does *not* mandate any DREs at all. It mandates one disabled accessible voting device per polling place. No DREs are ever required.
Problem is that even though Bowen’s T2B Review found that Diebold and Sequoia’s DREs did not meet the federal accessibility mandates, the feds had cleared them, in general for that use, and she needed to allow officials to use something for next year’s elections. Given all of the other restrictions, and the 100% hand-count mandate for them that she issued, I think she was trying to strike a balance. For now.
Sort of. It limits various types of networking (though not all) that may be used on the systems. But it doesn’t address the general issue that you discussed next…
Nothing in the bill addresses the above. And frankly, that could still happen no matter what voting system is used if officials are willing to defy the law as they did in Warren in ’04. Even a hand-counted paper ballot system, at that point, could be gamed via such a lockdown (though it would certainly be more difficult, because it would be decentralized).
So no, Holt does nothing to avoid that sort of a thing, and doesn’t mandate decentralized counting.
Yikes! Listen to Brad. He’s right. My brain’s shorthand can cause trouble if I don’t watch it. Sorry.
Susan Davis is on the AIPAC payroll (same people hijacking this country).
On HR 811: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjFHNfKWkCs
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums...523/47394.html
KILL THIS BILL
Floridot,
Yo, do you mean
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
or
Patch Tuesday?
It will take IVORY SOAP to kill the fleas.
I dunno what I am referring to here. Some kind of advice I guess.