Pelosi, Reid: Verify the Vote! The time is now.

I am thrilled at our upcoming Democratic majority in both houses of congress. The fact that we are going to see some real Democratic legislation passed is exciting and it makes all of the many, many hours of work and toil totally worth it.

There is something that needs to be addressed immediately, it is a problem that eats away at the very core of our Democracy and American Values. We need some to be able to address the problem of voting machines and unverified voting.

I am astounded, in a bad way, that this is even something I have to write about

This is a NO BRAINER issue.
What issue am I talking about?

Specifically that we have machines that a voter will vote on that will not produce a verifiable handcountable receipt. And even in cases with equipment such as optical scanners, centralized tabulation with no paper backup is vulnrable to manipulation, hacking, and outright fraud.

Why is this even an issue?

Rush Holt's bill (HR 550 in the old congress) needs to be passed at the beginning of the new congress, while the memory of Jennings v. Buchanan is still fresh in the minds of the zeitgeist. As were all the people that had to wait in line for hours and hours for machines that could not produce a verifiable record that your vote was counted.

The time for action is NOW!
Let's take this off of the table, silence the "Eeyores" among us who wring their hands at every hour, saying "we cannot win, the fight is fixed."

Take it off of the table.

Do the right thing.

When this is framed correctly there is absolutely no argument against this.
period.

Over and over, we were told that there was nothing we could do, because we were not in the majority. Well we are now... time to put up, or shut up.

And as for those of us who think that this is a matter for the states, I disagree completely.
You are talking about fighting 50 battles on fields where some of the odds are stacked against us, some in our favor and some of them even, instead of 1 where the odds are most definitely in our favor.

It's been proven over and over again that this vitally important issue CANNOT be left up to the states... For every state that gets it right, there is one like Florida.

Besides, from a sheer political standpoint it's a base satisfier, it also happens to be non-partisan and the right thing to do.

If one were truly cynical they could even see it as a wedge issue, whereas it's something I would look to as showing that Democrats and Republicans can still agree about some things.

IF YOU ARE AGAINST VERIFIED VOTING YOU ARE AGAINST DEMOCRACY.
It is that simple.

Tie it in with other stuff, make voter intimidation illegal, make illegal purges of the voter roles a felony. Do it however you like, but verify that vote and do it with the quickness.

I call upon Moveon.org, TrueMajority, PFAW, Common Cause and all progressive leaning organizations to join me in this fight, as well as all of us in the blogosphere.

-C.

•  you with me??

  or what?!

  -C.

  by Neutron on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 12:27:23 PM PDT

•  so where are the action items

  IS THER AN ONLINE PETITION? are we sending emails? what's the plan? if we want to make this a big issue we have to organize around it.

  by Tanya on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 12:29:45 PM PDT

  •  I agree!

    but it doesn't seem like any action has been taken regarding putting it on the 100 hours agenda.

    And to be honest, I don't have the time to do all that research myself, nor do I want to reinvent the wheel.

    -C.

    by Neutron on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 12:32:49 PM PDT

  •  clerk.house.gov

    has pdf lists, here's the House.

    Incoming calls: Calls from the public may be made by dialing (202) 22 plus the five-digit number listed in this directory.

    by emmasnacker on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 03:20:43 PM PDT

•  This is why I joined the

  Congressional Committees Project. I want to monitor the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. These are the committees are entrusted with dealing with election issues. Consider joining as well.

  I support Holt's bill, but it's not quite a no-brainer. There are those who are opposed to it because they think it doesn't go far enough. Although it's drafted to serve as a floor for election integrity rather than a ceiling, these people think that passage of the bill will take away pressure for a more comprehensive approach. I'm not convinced by that argument, but it needs to be acknowledged.

  Also, it's important to distinguish between a paper TRAIL and a paper BALLOT OF RECORD. Paper TRAILS are better than nothing, but only serve a purpose if the trail is examined by the person casting the vote, if the trail is not eaten (for instance, by a paper jam), and if the trail actually matches the electronic vote.

  Paper BALLOTS OF RECORD may be produced with or without the aid of a voting machine, but the user examines it before submitting it, and the physical ballot is what is counted.

  Holt's bill demands a ballot of record, which is good.

  Even now, before the Congress switchover, a majority of the House has signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. So prospects do look good.

  For more background, please go to the Voting Rights page on the dKosopedia.

  by AlanF on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 03:48:27 PM PDT

  •  hi Alan, thanks for the feedback.

    Voter verifiable paper trail, with auditable secure central tabulation / GEMS

    We cannot forget about central tabulation.

    I'm aware of the argument that the Holt bill doesn't go far enough, and as i'm concerned, that's the fight that should go to the states.

    Meaning, let's stop the bleeding before we try to run the marathon.

    Anyway, you've done great work, and as a long time VV activist, it makes me glad you are keeping up on it.

    -C.

    by Neutron on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 04:28:13 PM PDT

    •  You're welcome.

      And I agree about stopping the bleeding.

      The only thing that confused me a bit was your use of the word "GEMS" together with the word "secure". For those who don't know, GEMS (Global Election Management Services), is the proprietary software that runs on Diebold servers and is notoriously insecure. It sounded like you were using "GEMS" as a generic word for "central tabulation software". One thing we don't want is for "Diebold" to be considered the "Kleenex" of voting machines. On the other hand, we do want to throw them away...

      by AlanF on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 06:49:25 PM PDT