As you'll remember, you signed a petition called the "Request by Voters" letter last January2006 with other groups and individuals working to improve Congressman Rush Holt's bill H.R. 811. Over 1,500 groups and individuals asked for reasonable amendments, studies and modifications. We sent it to Congress; they didn't listen.
We are asking you to take this next step and stand up once again against HR 811. Congress is trying to fast-track this dangerous bill to bring it to the floor for a vote as soon as the current recess is over.
Please take the one action step below, and then forward the Action Alert to your lists. Thank you. Secret vote counting is antithetical to democracy and is absolutely unacceptable.
Thank you. Instructions and links for what to do next are below the signatures.
We the Patriots - an alliance of voting rights leaders opposed to counting votes in secret.
- Black Box Voting - NH Fair Elections Committee - Tom Courbat - SAVE R VOTE, - Judy Alter - Protect California Ballots - Kat L'Estrange - Voting Rights Activist - We Do Not Concede - Abbe Waldman Delozier - Coordinators Council, Election Defense Alliance - Vickie Karp Coalition for Visible Ballots - Sally Castleman Election Defense Alliance - Bruce O'Dell Election Defense Alliance
Call Congress for Open, Public Debate on HR 811 No secret vote counting, full public accountability ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June 3, 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are contacting you because we do not want HR 811 to be fast-tracked. Our voting system is too important an issue not to allow time for public debate. We are alarmed that this bill leaves far too many unacceptable vulnerabilities in our election process. We urge you NOT to support HR 811.
We must do better than HR 811.
This bill federalizes secret vote counting and invites -- rather than prevents -- systemic corruption of our elections. We do not consent.
It is most unfortunate that Ms. Harris chooses to campaign against HR 811, which would improve our voting processes in many ways. The principal complaint that Ms Harris and her allies seem to have is that direct record electronic (DRE) voting machines were not banned. However, given the circumstances, they may have other motives that they haven't yet revealed.
No one in the election integrity community wants to retain DREs. That includes Holt, the sponsor of the legislation. But the reality is that Holt and his colleagues have decided that the voting machine vendors, together with election officials in jurisdictions that have been using DREs and may have recently paid a lot of money to buy them, have convinced many legislators to vote against a bill containing a ban on DREs. So, in lieu of a ban, Holt has put very stiff requirements on DREs that will discourage their purchase, and will also make them much more amenable to voter verification and auditing.
So Ms Harris and her allies choose to scuttle a bill that will require voter verifiable paper records and audits that will greatly improve the trustworthiness of our voting process. They want all or nothing.
We must not let that happen. We need the protections provided by Holt's HR 811. Please tell that to your Congress person.
by
Paul Stokes (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 11:03:25 PM
Hi, Stokes -- nope, you've got me confused with someone else
I am committed to democracy, and that means prohibiting the counting of votes in secret, prohibiting special interest funding of elections, and making sure The People are in a position so they can exercise their right of self governance.
My opinions are based on nearly five years of investigative reporting and field work, and it is my opinion based on the information I've uncovered and the direct inspections I've done in the field that the Holt Bill provisions do not solve the problems.
The core problems are counting votes in secret and ommission of basic Freedom of Information, and there are other very troubling flaws of comission in the bill. It's not even what's left out -- what's put in there is actively, overtly worse than what we had before. The secrecy provisions alone will destroy democracy.
If you can look for the provisions in the Holt Bill that give citizens their basic right to public vote counts and freedom of information, I think you'll find those things are missing in action.
And now, it looks like they are going to cave on the 2008 implementation of the bill as well, making moot the only argument I've seen for rushing to pass such a flawed bill.
The bill empowers four White House appointees to further remove elections from the control of the citizenry. The whole thing is darned dangerous, and has been crafted in secret by people who don't communicate with or represent a large portion of the voting rights community.
Regards,
Bev Harris
by
Bev Harris (73 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 21 comments)
on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 11:48:55 PM
