OpEdNews » Reasons to Reject and Replace the Holt HR 811 Bill on Voting Integrity

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Tag(s): Voting Integrity; Voting Laws Federal HAVA; Voting Reform
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June 8, 2007 at 08:35:40

Reasons to Reject and Replace the Holt HR 811 Bill on Voting Integrity

by Rob Kall Page 1 of 1 page(s)

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There's no doubt that the concensus among the leaders of the Voting Integrity activist community is that the Holt bill is a lost cause. It has been weakened, diluted and poked full of so many holes that it is a bad bill. The word is that the wagons have been circled around the bill, probably by Holt's staff, and Rush Holt is not interested in fixing what so many say is broken.

There are some who say otherwise. One group consists of some computer experts-- many who have multi-million dollar grants to study the safety and efficacy of computer voting. Some are former presidents and founders of computer societies. These individuals have, what I believe to be insurmountable conflicts of interest. And perhaps I am being kind, since there are plenty of computer experts who are clear that computerized voting as it now exists, and as it is proposed to be done in the Holt bill, is dangerous to democracy and cannot be fixed with additions of printers.

There's another group-- a small one-- of voting integrity activists who believe that the best political strategy is to "settle" for the flawed, inadequate Holt bill as better than nothing. This approach is generally seen as a misjudgment which would allow some disturbing policies to become federal law. They think the thing to do is to let these dangerous policies become federalized and then to change them. Most of us who oppose the Holt bill see this as naive wishful thinking.

It is absolutely essential that a solid law regulating elections be put in place which applies to the 2008 presidential elections and preferably, the primaries too.

Draft legislative verbiage has already been written.

Now, I'm not one of the experts-- an activist, yes. But not an expert. I've started this article so that in the comments section, election integrity experts can, in one place, post their understanding of why the Holt Bill must be rejected, so it can be used as a single link for local activism.

I encourage the experts to post your reasons, and links to other articles that go into greater detail. But don't just post the links, Make sure to summarize the issues and reasons here.

The good news is, the word is getting out.

as an additional resource, here's something at OpEdNews-- "a tag cloud" that will soon be viewable as part of our multi-view directory system. Our article submission system removes the font differences that the cloud includes. To get a preview of what the cloud display and the new directory system will look like, though it's not yet finished and the whole directory has not been completely shifted over from the old table of contents, click here for a look: Directory

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Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.

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5 comments

Paul Lehto practiced law in Washington State for 12 years in business law and consumer fraud, including most recently several years in election law, and is now a clean elections advocate. His forthcoming book is tentatively titled DEFENDING DEMOCRACY.
Paul LehtoPaul Lehto practiced law in Washington State for 12 years in business law and consumer fraud, including most recently several years in election law, and is now a clean elections advocate. His forthcoming book is tentatively titled DEFENDING DEMOCRACY.

Links on Holt analysis (including clause by clause analysis)

http://tinyurl.com/2ylb69

by Paul Lehto (27 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 46 comments) on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 11:29:39 AM

Founder of the NC Coalition for Verified Voting.We passed a law to require VVPB on August 2005 after years of work. NC Coalition for Verified Voting is an all volunteer organization that does not solicit or accept donations.
ncvoterFounder of the NC Coalition for Verified Voting.We passed a law to require VVPB on August 2005 after years of work. NC Coalition for Verified Voting is an all volunteer organization that does not solicit or accept donations.

Mission Accomplished

There will be no federal legislation.

Instead of working together, activists divided and created a cacaphony of noise that made no sense and only served to irritate lawmakers.

This happened 4 times in Maryland, where every time they were about to pass a state law, someone slipped a banana peel in the way.

Instead of communicating to lawmakers in a way that could be understood and make change, the lawmakers were criticized, the bill couldn't be right no matter what for some, some actually wanted hand counted paper ballots even though more than our voting system would have to change, and some opposed any federal legislation.

The e-voting movement is now officially dead. Forget asking for anything, its not going to happen. You won't get a dream bill, or any bill at all.

Some of us will work on other ways to protect voter enfranchisement. My state has a verified voting bill, and we are in fairly good shape, so at least my state wasn't damaged by all of this infighting.

People can aim their guns at HR 811 or any other bill all they want, and they can talk about a "better bill" or "improvements", but the deed is done, and the damage is done, and like with Universal health care, it will be another 10-12 congressional years before something is done.

And those wanting hand counted paper ballots are even further away from that goal than ever.

by ncvoter (15 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 106 comments) on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 5:00:58 PM

Born in 1942 in NE Oklahoma, educated and raised in NE California, joined the Navy at 17 and was shipped to Yokosuka, Japan. There I was able to buy all the books that were banned in the USA. Married & divorced twice, AA degree in Lib. Arts. Now disabled w/ COPD, I live in the house that my mother left me and spend a lot of time on the computer and reading.
Chuck GarnerBorn in 1942 in NE Oklahoma, educated and raised in NE California, joined the Navy at 17 and was shipped to Yokosuka, Japan. There I was able to buy all the books that were banned in the USA. Married & divorced twice, AA degree in Lib. Arts. Now disabled w/ COPD, I live in the house that my mother left me and spend a lot of time on the computer and reading.

Now, now, I'm sure things are not that hopeless.

I will declare "Mission Accomplished", and I won't even need to do it from the flight deck of a carrier when the whole country gets wise to HAVA and the scourge of the Republican voting machines. They've just about killed Democracy in this country, but we know what we want and we're going to continue the fight to get back to honest elections. I wish you folks in North Carolina all the best, and don't be misled by Dems-in-name-only. A true Democrat would strive for the most open and honest elections attainable, and presumedly that would result in the most open and honest candidates.

by Chuck Garner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 118 comments) on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 10:42:18 PM

the "movement" has been discredited

The "E-voting movement" has been discredited by the National Enquirer style campaign launched by some very well known "activists".

These "activists" have enlisted the support of anti paper election officials to kill HR 811, one such by two separate fax campaigns to 2,299 election directors across the country.

The movement is now a big joke, it more resembles a circus with mostly clowns.

Any chance to improve HR 811 by a unified stance of support and a savy campaign to amend it are over.

If you can't smell the rotting carcus now, you soon will.

The way some extremely vocal activists have painted HR 811 as "the patriot act" and have smeared Rush Holt - ensures that no congressman in his/her right mind will have anything further to do with this movement.

Mission Accomplished.

by ncvoter (15 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 106 comments) on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 1:21:56 PM