A good emergency bill to fund verifiable voting systems has been smacked down. From Rep. Rush Holt's media release:
"This bill would represent a real step forward in our effort to protect the accuracy, integrity and security of the November elections," Holt said. "The bill that the House leadership scheduled for a vote today is the same one that passed two weeks ago without the objection of a single Committee member. There is no reason why this should be a partisan issue but the Republicans evidently have chosen to make it so. The White House issued a statement opposing the bill and 176 of 203 Republicans voted that way."
More from Holt:
H.R. 5036, as reported to the floor by the committee, would authorize funding to reimburse states with paperless jurisdictions that convert to paper-based voting systems in 2008 or provide emergency paper ballots that would be counted as regular ballots in the event of machine failure. The reimbursements would cover the cost of equipment conversion (from paperless touch screen machines to paper-based systems, such as optical scanners or computers with printers) and the cost of developing procedures for conducting hand-counted audits using independent, random selection of at least 2 percent of the precincts for audits under public observation.
HR 5036 is a flawed document. It provides funding for unreliable reel-to-reel thermal paper printers for electronic voting machines, which no one thinks are an answer. But it also funds paper ballot systems, which use optical scanners, and hand counted audits. Oh yeah, and those unsexy emergency paper ballots that prevent voters from being disenfranchised by failing equipment. Not a super-fabulous bill, but worthy and essential to election security in 2008.
I am tired of this damn issue.
If are not worried about voting machines, start here for the most recent take, and then go here, and then here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
Click here to send a letter to Congress in support of HR 5036. The letter includes reference to the unreliability of reel-to-reel thermal paper printers and the superiority of paper ballots.
Please rec this diary. If awareness is not raised, the integrity of the 2008 elections will suffer.