61 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 7 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
General News   

Texas Rep. Lon Burnam submits bill for Hand Counted Paper Ballots in Texas!

By Vickie Karp and Karen Renick  Posted by Joan Brunwasser (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   1 comment
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Joan Brunwasser
MEDIA ADVISORY Contacts: Karen Renick, 512/496-7408
March 10, 2007 Vickie Karp, 512/775-3737

Texas Rep. Lon Burnam submits bill
for Hand Counted Paper Ballots in Texas!

Who: Rep. Lon Burnam, District 90, Tarrant County (Fort Worth), Texas

What: Submission of HB 3894, The Texas Hand Counted Paper Ballot Bill of 2007

When: Friday, March 9, 2007

Where: State Capitol, Austin, Texas

Why: With the acknowledgement and validation from computer experts, government reports and university studies nationwide that electronic voting systems, including optical scan counters, are vulnerable to easy hacking and manipulation without detection, the need for drastic change in our voting systems has become evident. Well-intentioned legislators at both the federal and state levels have presented the costly "solution" of adding printers to electronic voting machines for a "voter verifiable paper audit trail".

Rep. Burnam, House District 90, recognizes that adding printers to fraudulent voting systems will simply mask further fraud, while giving the public a false sense of security that the problem has been solved. He also recognizes that the bill will help all counties throughout the state save tremendous amounts of taxpayer money by eliminating the budget-breaking costs of machine maintenance, storage and replacement, as well as, the costs of training, programming, yearly software license fees, support services, and transportation.

Rep. Burnam therefore filed the Texas Hand-Counted Paper Ballot Bill of 2007, H.B. 3894, to eliminate the use of any voting machine whatsoever in the state of Texas and to allow all Texas voters to cast their vote on a paper ballot that is hand counted by their fellow citizens at the precinct level. The bill allows the use of ballot-marking-only machines for the disabled to vote privately and independently for compliance with the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA). Non-electronic ballot-marking methods that also comply with HAVA, such as the Vote-PAD and the Equalivote, are also allowed under this bill.

"We know that most voters in Texas will welcome the news of Representative Burnam's bill, H.B. 3894, and will immediately contact their own representatives and senators in the Texas Legislature to tell them to vote for the passage of the Texas Hand-Counted Paper Ballot Bill of 2007," said Karen Renick, the Director of Vote Rescue, the non-partisan coalition of Texas voters who are for elections that are fair and 100% transparent with citizen access, involvement and oversight.

VoteRescue members from Austin and Fort Worth worked diligently to educate members of the Texas House Elections Committee about electronic voting fraud and the enormous costs now borne by all Texas counties to run their elections. Vote Rescue is currently conducting a comparative cost study of elections using either electronic voting systems, including optical scan counters, or hand-counted paper ballots. The Vote Rescue study will be completed before the end of March.

What does H.B. 3894, the Texas Hand-counted Paper Ballot Bill of 2007, do?
1. Repeals the use of any electronic "voting system" from the Texas State Election Code and leaves hand-counted paper ballots as the only voting method allowed by code in Texas.
2. Permits any interested citizen to observe the counting of Election Day and Early Voting ballots.
3. Makes the citizens of Texas the first to know the precinct results by instructing the precinct presiding judge to post them on the front door of the precinct's polling place.
4. Makes it a felony to remove, tear, deface or in any way alter the posted precinct results for 24 hours after they are publicly posted on the polling place door.
5. Permits a video recording device to record an unobstructed view of the ballots and ballot boxes from the time the polls open for voting until the final precinct totals are posted on the front door of the precinct's polling place. The video records are stored with the original paper ballots.
6. Reduces the maximum number of registered voters per precinct from 5,000 to 2,000.
7. Allows county election commissions to consider implementing alternate hand-counted paper ballot voting materials and methods to reduce counting times.
##
Rate It | View Ratings

Joan Brunwasser Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact EditorContact Editor
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Interview with Dr. Margaret Flowers, Arrested Tuesday at Senate Roundtable on Health Care

Renowned Stanford Psychologist Carol Dweck on "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success"

Howard Zinn on "The People Speak," the Supreme Court and Haiti

Snopes confirms danger of Straight Ticket Voting (STV)

Fed Up With Corporate Tax Dodgers? Check Out PayUpNow.org!

Literary Agent Shares Trade Secrets With New Writers

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend