Despite wide bipartisan support in the 109th Congress (with 222 bipartisan cosponsors) HR 550 was not brought to the House floor for a vote. NOW is the time to tell your Congressperson to act on HR 811 (as it is known in the 110th Congress. Thanks to comment by KJC MD.)
Back in February, Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) reintroduced House Resolution 550 with "chain of cusytody" and "random audits.
Please write and email your Congressman and Speaker Pelosi to hold hearings and get this bill enacted. Here's a link to find your Congressperson and act now!!!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2007
Contact: Matt Dennis
202-225-5801 (office)
Holt Reintroduces Voting Integrity Bill
Bill Would Require Voter-Verified Paper Ballot and Random Audits
Washington, D.C. --- Rep. Rush Holt today reintroduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, landmark legislation that would amend the Help America Vote Act to protect the verifiability and accessibility of elections.
"Until we require that voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot, the results of our elections will always be uncertain," said Rep. Holt. "All Americans deserve to be confident that their vote will be counted, and it is my hope that the 110th Congress will act soon to pass legislation that will ensure elections are fair, accessible, and auditable."
The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast, which would become the ballot of record in the event of any recount or audit. It would require routine random audits of paper ballots by hand count in a percentage of voting precincts in each Congressional District. It would also take steps to make elections more publicly transparent by allowing for the inspection of voting system software. It would require documenting a secure chain of custody for voting systems and prohibit conflicts of interest involving vendors. It would keep the election process accessible to voters with disabilities, and authorize federal funding to help states meet the requirements.
Holt first introduced legislation requiring that electronic voting machines produce a voter-verified paper ballot in the 108th Congress. In the 109th Congress, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 550) had the support of 222 bipartisan cosponsors, more than a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives. Despite this fact, it was not brought to the House floor for a vote.
Update: HR 550 (in the 109th Congress) is now HR 811 in the 110th--sorry folks.
Update: HR 811 needs to be refined. PDA, PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA, has it all here. The upshot: BAN DRE's.
Ask Congress to amend Holt Bill - HR 811
In 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the poll tax to be unconstitutional.
The purchase of electronic voting machines is like the poll tax, but it requires that voters pay to be disenfranchised, rather than paying to vote.
Election after election, thousands of reports show that Direct Record Electronic (DRE, touch screen) voting machines are disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters across the country. Voters are confused over how to use them. They stand in line for hours because the machines are broken down, or they leave because they don't have time to wait. Poll workers, even with careful training, don't know how to help when something goes wrong, and something often does.
When all seems to go well, there is still serious doubt whether their votes are counted correctly. The fact is, sometimes they haven't been counted at all.
Study after study shows that adding a voter-verified paper trail to DREs simply adds more bells and whistles to a fundamentally flawed technology, requiring taxpayers to pay even more for their own disenfranchisement.
It's time for Congress to stop States from violating the civil rights of American voters. It's time for Congress to put a stop to the use of disenfranchising DREs.
Email your Representative and insist that they amend Representative Holt's bill, HR 811, to ban DREs from use in the United States and to require real paper ballots, marked by the voter or by a non-tabulating ballot-marking device, in every federal election.