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Ask your rep to sign the Kucinich letter to Pelosi putting the brakes on HR811

Representative Kucinich to Pelosi: "HR811 not ready for prime time"

Please contact your NH rep and ask them to sign Dennis's letter.

Speaker Pelosi:

We have been made aware of a growing concern with H.R. 811, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007.

Many constituencies important to the Democratic Caucus, including but not limited to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Counties, VotersUnite.Org, and Election Defense Alliance, have expressed frustration with our offices about the process and current legislative text of the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act.

These constituencies represent a broad range of interests that reflect many of the core values of our party. H.R. 811 now finds opposition from organizations focused on upholding the integrity of our elections and local and states governments. For these constituencies, H.R. 811 falls short of its intended goals to ensure votes are cast and counted as intended by the voters.

Below are representative examples of the negative feedback we are receiving.

VotersUnite.Org statement by founder Ellen Theisen

After more than three years of supporting election reform bills introduced by Representative Rush Holt, I am saddened to see the many severe flaws in the version of HR 811 as it was passed out of committee last month." June 11, 2007

National Association of Counties letter to Congress

County officials welcome federal lawmakers' interest in strengthening the integrity and accessibility of our most basic democratic institution. We look forward to working with you to address the myriad challenges facing county officials in this environment of unprecedented change in election technology rather than exacerbating these challenges by enacting legislation such as H.R. 811. March 14, 2007

Before this bill is scheduled for a vote before the House of Representatives we urge you to ensure the legislative process addresses these very valid concerns and a substitute is developed that has broad, vocal support.

Sincerely,

Member of Congress
By ntobi at 07/19/2007 - 07:13 | Action alerts | Federal Election Legislation | Holt Bill | login or register to post comments

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Letter from ETC to Congress Regarding HR 811

There have been claims made that HR 811 is a dream come true for the DRE companies. Well, they don't appear to think so. Following is their most recent comments on the bill:


http://gop.cha.house.gov/fl13/ETCJULY17LETTER.pdf
By Jazz at Thu, 07/19/2007 - 2:24pm | login or register to post comments

With enemies like these...

With enemies like these...


I’m on the emailing list of dozens of election-related web sites. I've gotten the above alert as well as the one from Brad Friedman of Brad’s Blog, requesting that folks not only ask their representatives to vote against HR 811, but shun People for the American Way for their support of the bill .

Then today Rob, (or someone) at OpEd news sent a little blurb announcing that HR 811 may have been dropped to its legislative knees, or perhaps brought to a screeching halt, and wasn’t this good news?

What I find amusing about all these notices (once I’ve stopped crying) is that these activists seem to be totally unaware of how beneficial their actions are to the very DRE companies they decry.

Frankly I wonder that any of the DRE companies (known as the collective ETC since 2003) even bother to keep lobbyists on retainer. E-voting activists are doing such a good job of helping curb legislation that might actually change laws and raise the standards, for all the mechanisms we vote by way of. Why would DRE companies ever need to lobby again?

It is easier to kill a bill than to get one passed. So, although, there are some bills that are a challenge to kill (like Voter ID bills now springing up all over the country like weeds)HR 811 was never a sure thing . The money and lobbying behind Electronic Voting is substantial—and clearly the efforts of those lobbyists are paying off.

And as those who attempt to Kill Bill (HR 811) do so, sadly they offer in its place, little more than words. There are no alternate bills of this nature, being considered in Congress that activists seem able to agree on. So basically the plan seems to be to kill HR 811 and any other bill like it and keep voting as we have been.

The most perplexing part to me in all this, is why anyone believes that HR 811 would be the final word on election reform. It is simply a starting place. Maybe a wobbly, unsteady starting place—but we do have to start somewhere. The window of opportunity that we have right now to do so, may close come 2008.

One day, rather than bickering and whining so much, maybe we as election activists can actually get something done. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I mean, with enemies like us, the DRE companies hardly need to have friends.
By Jazz at Thu, 07/19/2007 - 2:18pm | login or register to post comments