H.R. 811: Our Best Hope For Election Integrity By 2008
Few people would argue that one of the most pressing problems facing American democracy today is the questionable integrity of our elections. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (H.R. 811) to help repair our broken electoral system.
Unfortunately, as reported in the New York Times1, forces in the Congress are moving to gut the Holt bill's reforms and delay imperative voting reforms until 2012.
If passed in its current form without modifications, H.R. 811 will prevent the use of paperless electronic voting machines and will require audits to check the accuracy of the vote counts for federal elections. The bill includes security provisions that ban Internet connections for voting machines, as well as for systems that tabulate the votes on election night. It also makes the paper ballot the official record in audits and recounts, and requires election officials to post a notice explaining to voters the need to verify their vote.
This bill has over 200 bi-partisan co-sponsors, and represents our best hope for establishing a voter-verified paper record in time for the 2008 elections. However, the bill has been hung up in the House and is being modified to allow for the continued deployment of "tiny, cash-register-style printers" of the sort infamous for losing 10 percent of the ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio in 2006. This is a step in the wrong direction.
The version of H.R. 811 that was reported out of committee in May, would have immediately halted the further deployment of such substandard equipment, while still requiring full auditability and accessibility in 2008 in paperless jurisdictions, and requiring the already-papered jurisdictions (those using touch screens with printers) to upgrade their auditability and accessibililty by 2010.
Voting system reform cannot be delayed any longer. Tell your representative to demand that H.R. 811 be brought to the House floor -- as reported out of committee in May -- for a full vote and vote YES on this bill.
To contact your Congressperson got to :
https://actforchange.workingassets.com/
1Overhaul Plan for Vote System Will Be Delayed, New York Times July 20, 2007.