H.R. 811 is Rep. Rush Holt's well-intended but deeply flawed
bill that will do more harm to the cause for free and fair elections than it will help. A group I volunteer with, the Coalition for Voting Integrity, is sponsoring a call-in day today to wake up Congress to the fact that doing nothing right now is a better option than passing this bill, which will codify the use of touchscreen machines among other dangerous failings.
You know the drill: We need you and five of your friends and family to make a call or send a fax to your Congressperson, telling him/her to vote NO on H.R. 811 until crucial improvements are made.
Our minimum target number is 200 concerned citizens flooding every Congress member's phones and faxes today. We need your help to make this happen. The vote on H.R. 811 could come as soon as Tuesday.
Please let us know the results of your call by leaving a comment in this thread.
We need Voter-Marked Paper Ballots to ensure that our votes will be counted in 2008. H.R. 811, the voting bill presently before Congress, will not ensure that this happens and contains many provisions that are
harmful. For example:
HR 811 permits printers to be added to touchscreen machines. In Bucks County, where I live, alone that cost would reach nearly $2 million. Studies have shown that voters do not check and often cannot find mistakes on these
printouts so they are NOT a voter-verified paper record.
If these printers are added, another device must be purchased to permit the paper printout to be read to the visually
challenged, adding another expense to enable the continued use of the flawed touchscreen machines.
H.R. 811 should be rewritten to permit only paper ballots that are truly voter verified because the voter has marked
the ballot him/herself. These voter-marked paper ballots can be read by an optical scanner or hand counted and saved for meaningful audits and recounts.
H.R. 811 should mandate that this voter-marked paper ballot is in place for the 2008 elections. H.R. 811 now allows the continued use of some voting machines that do not have voter-marked paper ballots until 2010. H.R. 811 must fully fund this mandate to change to voter-marked paper ballots by 2008.
Call or fax your Congressperson: NO more wasted money. Vote NO on H.R. 811 until crucial improvements are made.
Find your Congressperson's contact info here.