Tell Congress "NO" to HR2894 (the "Holt Bill"): Counting our votes should at least meet the standards used for open, secure, and accurate counting of our money!

BY Nancy Tobi and Paul Lehto, Juris Doctor

ACTION ALERT! We know it's time for action when congress wants to handle our ballots in ways we wouldn't handle our cash, even for a modest bank account. Tell your congressional reps you oppose HR 2894 (1), the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009" (aka "The Holt Bill"). Then call or email every member on the House Science and Technology Committee (2) and tell them the same thing. Contact information listed at bottom of article.

Today more than 90% of American votes are counted by private corporations using concealed vote counting technology. Many, if not all, of these private corporations are embroiled in controversies regarding the transparency, accuracy, and security of the election results delivered by their products. Some of these e-voting industrialists have been openly partisan.

It is a national security threat of the highest level to have our elections conducted by private corporate interests counting our votes in secret.

The only thing Congress and the media (in its supporting role) have to say about election reform is HR 2894 (the Holt Bill).

But the Holt Bill does not help eliminate this fundamental threat; it makes things much worse.

SOURCE: OpEdNews

July 18, 2009

The Cult of Holt and More from Nancy Tobi

By Joan Brunwasser

Part one of my interview with Nancy

Part two of my interview with Nancy

This is the final portion of my interview with voting rights activist, Nancy Tobi.

Initially, the Holt bill had more uniform support among the election integrity community. What happened, Nancy?

Unfortunately, since 2003, Mr. Holt and his suggested legislation have gone through a number of transformations. As a result he has damaged his position as "the Congressional election reform leader", and his legislation is no longer supportable.

SOURCE: OpEdNews

July 15, 2009

Nancy Tobi Spells Out Exactly Why Holt Bill is Bad News for Democracy, Exclusive Interview

By Joan Brunwasser

Welcome back, Nancy. In the first part of our interview, you laid out the basic conflict between Holt and those who oppose his legislation as being on two mutually exclusive paths. Can you give our readers specifics about how you and Congressman Holt part ways?

I told you that Holt's bill (HR 2894) is an expansion of the Help America Vote Act, which was a computerized voting bill.

So here are four areas where we differ on how to achieve meaningful election reform.

1. Holt calls for requiring paper records in voting systems, so the paperless touch screen voting machines HAVA paid for will need to be reconfigured to support printers and then to be phased out after the next presidential election and replaced with computerized optical scanning machines instead.

SOURCE: Black Box Voting Below are the editorials from Black Box Voting, Open Voting Consortium, VotersUnite.org, and Nancy Tobi of Election Defense Alliance and Democracy for New Hampshire opposing and rebutting the latest incarnation of Holt's perpetually flawed proposal for election reform, currently known as "The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2009 (HR 2894)"

STATEMENT OF BLACK BOX VOTING AGAINST HOLT BILL

We are in agreement that DRE voting machines need to be eliminated, but not at the expense of human rights. We don't need a "Holt Bill." What we do need:

PROTECT AND DEFEND PUBLIC ELECTION PRINCIPLES

(1) Protect and enforce right to know for every essential component of our public elections -- eliminate practices which allow government insiders to conduct key parts of elections in secret;

(2) Protect and enforce required checks and balances -- strengthen compliance, remedies and enforcement.

(3) Restore necessary mechanics for public elections: Require voter-marked paper ballots unless assistive device is required.

Tell NH Congressional reps Shea Porter and Hodes to NOT support the Holt "Voter Confidence" bill.

Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) is getting ready to introduce his 2009 electronic voting bill. Interested readers can review the 65-page proposal here. Holt has been trying for several years to pass one version or another of this bill.

The federal Voting Rights Act requires observable vote counting. Many state constitutions demand a public voting system with public vote counts. The Holt Bill mandates computerized voting systems, and enforces concealed vote counting.

Concealed vote counting violates our voting rights.

The Holt Bill extends the federally sponsored 2002 e-voting Ponzi scheme, when Congress, through the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), invested $4 billion taxpayer dollars into a fraudulent e-voting promise, causing the states to scoop up computerized voting machines and voting registration systems that turned out to be as fraud-friendly as the firm of Madoff Investment Securities.

SOURCE:Mark Nickolas' Blog

Did Gregg Conceal Donors Who Received Millions In TSA Contracts While He Served As Aprops Chair?

Mark Nickolas on Feb 4, 2009

This week, President Obama nominated Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) as his Commerce secretary. Many Democrats and some Republicans aren't thrilled by the pick. For Democrats, Gregg's record in the Senate shows a strong conservative philosophy that is destined to clash with labor and side with big business. For Republicans, they see yet another open Senate seat in what has become deep blue territory (Obama won NH by 10 points and Jeanne Shaheen (D) defeated incumbent Sen. John Sununu (R) by 6 points).

"Emergency" Bill Tries to Make Electronic Voting More Accurate, But Will It? By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet, Posted on April 3, 2008, Printed on April 3, 2008

SOURCE: Alternet.org

Efforts to improve the machinery that will count the 2008 presidential vote fell prey to a classic Washington compromise on Wednesday, when a House committee approved a bill giving money to both opponents and supporters of controversial paperless electronic voting systems.

The "Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008," or H.R. 5036, now goes to the House floor, where its goal is helping cities and counties create a "verifiable" paper trail and audits for individual votes cast for president and Congress.

John Kaminski of Maine Lawyers Guild has explored the legal basis for impeachment petitions submitted by a State Legislature.

Download a PDF file of his Memo to NH House of Representatives

SOURCE: New Yorkers for Verified Voting

League of Women Voters of New York State • New York Public Interest Research Group, NYPIRG • New Yorkers for Verified Voting

News Release

Civic Groups Blast Department of Justice Proposal to Gut Standards for New Voting Systems

A Federal Takeover for Selecting New Voting Systems Not in Best Interest of New York Voters

Groups say
A coalition of civic groups harshly criticized a proposal made by the Department of Justice today that calls for the federal courts to consider taking control from the state and to select new voting systems for New York for the September, 2008 primary elections. The groups said DOJ's position endangered numerous safeguards for new voting systems that were won in state law, such as mandating that the computer code from voting systems be held in escrow in case of suspected problems with machines.

SOURCE: National Journal

RULES OF THE GAME Voting Rights Controversy Another Mess For DOJ, By Eliza Newlin Carney, NationalJournal.com
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, Oct. 22, 2007

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey will have a very big mess to clean up at the Justice Department if he is confirmed, as expected, to be attorney general.

If confirmed as attorney general, Mukasey's first step should be to replace John Tanner.

Among the many problems Mukasey will have to fix is Justice's questionable handling of voting rights, which department officials have arguably set out to suppress rather than protect.

As American Civil Liberties Union leaders put it in a recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the department's Civil Rights Division has not only failed to advance civil liberties -- it "has even gone so far as to switch sides from defending the civil rights of minority plaintiffs to opposing them."

Do the right thing by calling, emailing, and faxing or mailing your Representatives with this simple message:

“I urge you to restore the use of paper ballots which are counted in public on election night in all Federal elections. I am very concerned about this serious issue, and I hope that you will take immediate action to protect democracy instead of undermining democracy. Please do not support the Holt bill, and instead, support Congressman Kucinich’s bill calling for hand counted paper ballots. Thank you.”

SOURCE: OpEdNews

September 19, 2007

How to Take Action on Holt and Fix Our Elections

By Mark Adams

I represented Clint Curtis, John Russell, and Frank Gonzalez in contesting their alleged losses in 2006 in Florida State court and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Our contest was instrumental in exerting the pressure to pass a paper ballots law in Florida which at least gives us something to count if someone can find an attorney who will file a lawsuit or a contest. However, these contests were dismissed WITHOUT any review of the evidence and contrary to the law as well as the rights of the candidates and voters to have the votes counted.

Laying to rest the mythological cornerstone of the Common Cause, Move-On, PFAW, True Majority-supported Holt Bill (HR811), the IT industry explains the fallacy of HR811's paper trail promise. No friends of hand count paper ballot system, the group recommends even more costly and insecure computerized solutions! Nonetheless, this report represents the broad consensus that can be found among disparate groups with differing philosophies against the Holt Bill paper trail proposal.
SOURCE: InfoWorld.com


Group says e-voting paper trail wouldn't improve security

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation says that paper trails will add cost but not security, though many analysts disagree with the assertion

By Grant Gross, IDG News Service

September 18, 2007

Requiring print-outs as a back-up to electronic voting machines would not improve security but would increase costs of U.S. voting systems, according to a report released Tuesday.

National Governors Association (NGA)
National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS)
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
Council of State Governments (CSG)
National Association of Counties (NACo)
National League of Cities (NLC)
U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM)
National Association of Towns and Townships (NATaT)
National Association of Election Officials (Election Center)
National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks (NACRC)
International Assn of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT)

September 18, 2007

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer:

The undersigned organizations representing state and local governments across the nation respectfully urge you to resist bringing H.R. 811, the “Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007”, to the House floor during the first session of the 110th Congress.

The majority of states already require a voter-verified paper record of every voter’s vote. H.R. 811 would preempt those laws, requiring states to replace equipment they purchased to comply with the Help America Vote Act of 2002 – even if it already offers a voter-verified paper trail – with technology that does not exist yet. As a result, it imposes an unfunded federal mandate of unknown proportions. In addition, it contains unnecessary and overly broad requirements for many states to enact hasty changes to their voting laws in the 14 months remaining between now and the 2008 Presidential election.

SOURCE: Coalition for Voting Integrity


H.R.’ Microsoft 811’ Challenges Our Voting Rights and Democracy Itself!

“"So what I agreed to... I didn't do the negotiations but I understand what they were doing, so I shouldn't say I agreed to them... but I accept the outcome."” -Rep Rush Holt

“Unfortunately, the committee that made this change heard from Microsoft…

They heard that voice” Rep Rush Holt

We present a “debate” with Rep. Rush Holt on “Microsoft 811” using the words of Congressman Rush Holt (NJ) captured on video at a Town Meeting in his district in July 2007. . Since Mr. Holt and major supporters of ‘Microsoft 811’ refuse to debate, then we must use Mr. Holt’s own comments to reply and question.

Holt: “The confidence in the working of our elections has been shaken badly. There are literally millions of Americans who don't believe the results of recent elections…in certain elections.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Calls Bill “A Real Step Towards Draining the Swamp in Washington”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Hodes released the following statement today on the Honest Leadership, Open Government Act of 2007, which President Bush signed into law late Friday afternoon:

“The Honest Leadership, Open Government Act is a real step towards draining the swamp in Washington,” Congressman Hodes said. “Everyone remembers the lobbying and pay-to-play scandals that rocked Congress in recent years. It is past time that we limited the influence of lobbyists over legislators and started rebuilding the American peoples’ trust in their leaders. We are putting the Jack Abramoffs of the world out of business.”

This new law is the most sweeping lobbying and ethics reform in a generation and has been hailed by reform groups and newspapers as a “sea change” and “landmark reform” and “the most sweeping overhaul of congressional ethics rules since Watergate.”

“Last year, I said that I would do everything I could to put an end the culture of corruption in Washington,” Representative Hodes said. “This legislation delivers on that promise.”

Congress is poised to pass another phony bill. Like the "Patriot Act", designed to strip civil liberties from American patriots and other free citizens of the world, or the "Clear Skies Initiative", designed to allow corporations to pump more poisons into our heavens. The "Voter Confidence Act", or HR811, or the Holt Bill, is being brought to the House floor today.

Learn more about this dangerous legislation from its prime sponsor, Congressman Rush Holt himself. View these three short videos, taken from a town meeting with Congressman Holt's constituents in July 2007.

Is his bill good for the nation? You be the judge.

Microsoft811 (5 minutes)

By Mary Ann Gould

Holt: "It's no longer my bill."

In a town meeting in his New Jersey home district in July, Congressman Rush Holt made some disturbing statements which leave no doubt that H.R. 811 has become a bill that protects the interests of software corporations over the rights of citizens. In fact the Holt bill is NOT the Holt bill anymore! It has become 'Microsoft 811'!

Mr. Holt: "The bill has been changed since I introduced it. It's no longer my bill -- well, it's still my bill but it's been marked up in committee."

Further he added:

"Unfortunately, the committee that made this change heard from Microsoft. They heard that Voice. The point is Microsoft did lobby strongly. It wasn't just Microsoft. It was everybody who-"

Audience question: "Diebold?"

Holt: "No, it was software -- the software industry."

There is something seriously wrong when a U.S. Congressman can say that an election reform bill he introduced was significantly changed through the lobbying effort of Microsoft and the software industry....that their voices were heard!

Opinion: Michael Collins

© 2004-06 Rand Careaga/salamander.eps, With Permission

At a New Jersey town meeting this July, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) said of his bill, House Resolution 811, "It’s not my bill anymore."

Why shouldn't the world be safe for vendors? Microsoft in particular? After all, they pay the bills. Just let them have whatever they want and let the rest of us be thankful we’ve got jobs. This is the prevailing philosophy in Washington, DC, your capitol and the supposed heart of modern democracy.

House Resolution 811 ("The Holt Bill") is coming up for a vote this week, word has it. The questions are stark. What will our Congress be voting for? Whose interests are represented in the final mark up of this legislation?