"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?

SOURCE: OpEdNews

September 1, 2007

By Rob Kall

This is the third or fourth time Moveon has run a bogus poll, setting up the answer by providing incomplete, biased information, this time on a bad bill it looks like they want to support. So they leave out key information, ask members to vote, and if they do, based on the info Moveon provides, it looks like moveon got member support. Shame on Move on.

Those who pay little attention to history are doomed to repeat it.

I call your attention to HAVA: What they really wanted to achieve was purchase of electronic voting systems. Out of political necessity, they stuck in a few checks and balances. The only thing that held to a hard and fast deadline was PURCHASE OF THE MACHINES. The new standards were developed AFTER the machines,
and many of the supposed checks and balances have yet to be enacted.

What is really desired of the Holt Bill is to centralize power under the EAC and destroy efforts by the public to examine the systems. Those are the two things that will take place immediately. All the other stuff will be delayed, never implemented, or will remain unfunded.

" The only way we the people will know if we have fair and impartial elections is paper ballots, hand counted inside the precincts before they are transported to the county clerk. Anything else will be a continuing illusion and a tragedy for this nation. Do Americans want fast-food style elections or honest ones? High-tech can be good, but we cannot allow it to steal the ballot box in favor of speed".

SOURCE: NewsWithViews.com - Merlin,OR,USA
According to several reports, California computer scientists at leading universities were successful at hacking into machines made by Diebold Election ...

by Jim Kouri, July 30, 2007

Scientists may have proven one of Americans' worst fears: that electronic voting machines can be easily manipulated.

According to several reports, California computer scientists at leading universities were successful at hacking into machines made by Diebold Election Systems, Hart Intercivic and Sequoia Voting Systems. Once they hacked into the systems they were able to change votes.

In stubborn defiance of key constituency groups in the Granite State, Congressman Paul Hodes continues to support controversial federal election reform that, if passed, would turn New Hampshire's voting system on its head.

Congress has been trying to sell HR811, aka the "Holt Bill", aka "The Voter Con Act", as a "paper trail" bill. The bill indeed started out that way many years ago, but its promise of providing paper trails to the nation's election systems has morphed into a con, designed by industry special interests, guaranteed to take the voter out of the voting and deliver control of America's elections to the Executive Branch.

The Voter Con Act would codify secret vote counting technology into federal law, forbidding anyone but those "qualified" by the White House to even look at the software counting America's votes, and only then if they sign nondisclosure agreements making it a federal crime to reveal what they see.

THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME TO FIX U.S. DEMOCRACY

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California and the chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, said she had already decided against seeking any major changes in voting equipment before 2010.

"My sense is there's no way to get this thing in place by the election of 2008," Ms. Feinstein said. "Without adequate time, we could cause real problems in the election."

---- NYT: Overhaul Plan for Vote System Will Be Delayed - Friday 20 July 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/washington/20vote.html

Dear Dianne,

The idea that the self-proclaimed "greatest democracy in the world" is unable to prepare to hold a "legitimate" election by November 2008 fifteen and a half months out from the day is one of the most appalling assertions I have had the misfortune to hear uttered by any politician period.

SOURCE: OpEdNews

By Nancy Tobi

Federal efforts at election reform have turned voting integrity advocates into one big collective Wonder Woman. As the Feds lob one complexity-laden bill after another, we hold our fists high, fearlessly deflecting each assault with our magic bracelets.

More computerized, paperless voting machines? Ping!

More federally certified secret vote counting technologies? Ping! Ping!

More vote counting control by the White House? Ping! Ping! Ping!

How about a little new expensive, privatized, opaque technology to further obscure the vote count? Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!

But we can't beat this thing through deflection. It's time to tighten up our Wonder Bra, grab a hold of our golden lasso of truth, and let loose a hearty reckoning of reality. Time to drop a big old nuclear bomb of American idealism and values, Constitutionalism, and historical democratic Republicanism on the Washington superfiends of legislative perversion.

The Electric Kool-Aid Voting Test
Posted By Rebecca Mercuri 19th July 2007 @ 09:52
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4823

(NOTE: Dr. Mercuri will be appearing on today's Peter B. Collins show, as Guest Hosted by Brad Friedman.

Anyone who has been anywhere in the blogosphere in the months since Rush Holt's HR 811 Election Reform bill (2) was introduced, knows that a schism (3) appears to have developed in the voting advocacy community. I say "appears" because it's not terribly clear to me at this point whether this schism existed all along and now the fires are being stoked by rogue insiders in order to fuel a "divide and conquer" effort that benefits voting system vendors who can rise like Phoenixes out of the ashes of the activists, or whether Congressman Holt's bill is a litmus test being used to decide who'll continue to get a seat at the table (to testify at hearings) and a chunk of the grant money and other set-asides for election "research" projects. Maybe both of these actions (and others) are in play.