Kathy Dopp says "Support Clean Elections in 2008".
Dopp critiques the new and amended version of HR 811 and debunks myths. Dopp further advises that: "It is very important for all responsible Americans who love democracy to support HR811 and to call, email, and write your US Senators and ask them to pass S559 with the same amendments that have been made to HR811. founder of US Count Votes and National Election Data Archive.
Please forward this widely
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Support Clean Elections in 2008
I urge you to support the amended U.S. Representative Rush Holt's HR811 "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" and its Senate companion bill S559 and contact your Senators to support its passage. (http://senate.gov)
Here is more information (FAQs, a list of changes, and other info) on the newly revised HR811 that Representative Holt has provided on his web site:
http://www.holt.house.gov/HR_811.shtml
and here is the amended bill itself:
http://www.nass.org/Hill%20Documents/HR%20811%20ZL%20Substitute%20as%20reported%205_8_07.pdf
The amended HR811 is GOOD because it:
1. immediately replaces all paperless digital recording electronic
(DRE) voting systems with optical scan paper ballot systems (there is
insufficient time for any jurisdictions to purchase anything but
opscans by 2008), and
2. immediately requires, for the first time in history, nationwide
independent audits of all federal election outcomes, and
3. more than sufficiently funds the replacement of voting systems and
independent audit requirements, and
4. requires replacing all DRES with flimsy voter verifible paper rolls
which violate voter anonymity, by the 2010 election so that if local
election officials responsibly purchase economical, fully auditable
voting systems, or if vendors do not develop new DRE equipment which
print durable, separate, paper ballots by 2010, then that means ALL
jurisdictions will be using paper ballot optical scan voting systems
by 2010.
At the very worst, HR811 gets us through the 2008 election because it gives a large chance of ensuring that correctly elected people are sworn into office, perhaps for the first time in American history.
The House Admin. Committee's amendments to HR811 incorporate many of the good revisions that election activists suggested including:
1. changes the language for the official ballot of record in case of
disputes so that the electronic counts cannot be automatically used
whenever sufficient paper ballot records are unreadable; and
2. removes the loophole where audits could be avoided by requiring any
state mandated recounts to manually count at least as many ballots as
the audit would; and
