Empty Chair

Empty Chair: I am not willing to give up having any control over our elections in 2008, to insist on a one-leap way to get to our "pie in the sky".

Harris - small  

Bev Harris: The Feinstein Bill won’t go into effect until 2010, and at some point the Holt Bill has to be reconciled with the Feinstein Bill. According to an e-mail from a Holt staffer, they are already looking at pushing their 2008 to 2010. I don’t think we have any control over whether that 2008 promise will hold at all.

Alan Dechert 

Alan Dechert - Keep in mind that HAVA [Help America Vote Act] was passed in 2002.  Many of its features were never realized (e.g., R&D money never appropriated).  New guidelines are still not in operation.  All the systems in use are under pre-HAVA certification process.  There is no basis to think the federal government will accomplish things in a few months that it has been fumbling for years. I've been listening to this for six years. "Yes, but we have an election next year and we have to focus on that."  

We need to have a plan that's off the treadmill. We need a longer-term vision.

Michael Waldman from the Brennan Center said at the Take Back America Conference that having no [Holt] bill would be worse than a flawed bill [being passed].

Paul Lehto

Paul Lehto: Okay, there was obviously no Holt bill in time for the November 2006 federal elections.  Just exactly how bad do they think the "no Holt bill" federal elections were in 2006? As I recall, the Democrats captured the majority in both Houses.

The Brennan Center is largely if not totally in denial that there was election fraud for 2006, and [Waldman is] speaking to Democrats. Given the Democratic gains in 2006 how in the world can "no bill" be such a frightening thing such that it is worse than a flawed bill?

Granted, somebody who believes that election fraud is real and happened in 2006 and 2004  can make an argument that "no bill" is worse than a flawed bill, no matter how difficult that argument may be.  But one is not free to completely contradict one's self and have that be accepted by everyone at face value.

If Michael Waldman said this, he is asserting a threat that they refuse to expressly acknowledge even exists, as a way to stampede support for the Holt bill. Meanwhile, back in the Senate, Feinstein's bill has some things that are so laughably improper that it is hard to imagine that they are anything but scarecrows designed to make HR 811 look good by comparison and create the appearance of compromise when they come out of the bill.

Empty Chair

Empty Chair - For those who think it's easy to get 'the right' legislation passed, consider: Millions of people - millions of people - have marched all over the world to end the Iraq war. It has helped not one whit. The Democrats, who control the House but are checkmated in the Senate, have wanted to pass some sort of time limit on the war after which we can bring the troops home. They failed. Why?

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http://www.blackboxvoting.org

Bev Harris is executive director of Black Box Voting, Inc. an advocacy group committed to restoring citizen oversight to elections.

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