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.”

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.

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.

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.

"Unfortunately there is a bill on the floor right now, and it is a 44 page bill – it is bloated up in its various versions to the point where parts of it seem to be self-contradictory—there’s no equipment available that can satisfy this (requirements) —and although the are claims that there is, many people will tell you that there’s not. And how are we supposed to implement these types of laws if the laws don’t really take into consideration the problems that actually exist with this equipment?"

Dr. Rebecca Mercuri has been referred to as "one of the leading international experts on electronic voting." A technology specialist, Rebecca defended her doctoral dissertation "Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks & Balances" at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania, just eleven days before the 2000 U.S. Presidential election.

Subsequently, her testimony and opinions were sought in Bush v. Gore and referenced in briefs presented to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2002 she was contacted by Janet Reno and her legal team to help solve the mystery of the thousands of votes that vanished from the new touch-screen machines being used in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Since then, Dr. Mercuri has provided formal testimony and comment to the House Science Committee, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Election Assistance Commission, the National Institute of Standards and Technologies, the U.K. Cabinet, and numerous U.S. state legislatures. Her advocacy work has directly influenced the wording of state, federal, and international election legislation as well as standards and best practices guidelines.

Dr. Mercuri had been a consultant to Congressman Rush Holt during the early days of the drafting of his election reform bill, now known as HR811. She is now an outspoken critic of the bill and the manner in which Congress is trying to push it through despite the broad controversy and range of individuals and organizations opposed to it.

In New Hampshire, the Fair Elections Committee opposes the bill. The NH Dept. of State opposes the bill. And the NH Association of City and Town Clerks opposes it.

Congressman Paul Hodes is a cosponsor of the bill. Congresswoman Shea Porter has not taken a public position.

Listen to the podcast. Read the transcript.

Added: June 18, 2007 From: jeanniedean DEC. 1, 2006: Why Audits don't determ... DEC. 1, 2006: Why Audits don't determine diddly-doo. For all those who think the HOLT 811 Bill and it's audit provisions will identify Election Rigging, and therefore alert the media (ha!) and the rest of us to the problems inherent in having our votes counted by secret, proprietary software--our video just might cause you to think twice. PART 1: Leonard Schmiege and Jeannie Dean filmed the whole 12 hour parallel test, assisting Lowell Finley and Dan McCrea of VOTER ACTION in an effort to get to the bottom of what happened to Sarasota County's 18, 412 missing votes that tipped the FL-13 Election for Vern Buchanan.

SOURCE: OpEdNews

July 13, 2007

Connecting the Dots? Rush Holt, HR 811, and Avante International

Holt and Avante -- Backyard Buddies

By Rebecca Mercuri

Consider this scenario: If Avante wins its patent lawsuit against the "big three" vendors, HR 811 could bring billions of dollars to Holt's home district. Here's how it could happen.

The latest version of HR 811, the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007 (1), amends HAVA's Section 257(a) by adding an additional billion dollars for municipalities "to modify or replace its voting systems" in accordance with Section 2 of Rush Holt's bill. Many election integrity advocates have (erroneously) looked to this bill as a mandate that will require voter-verified paper ballots (or "audit trails") to be added to all of the nation's Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting equipment.

SOURCE: OpEdNews By Nancy Tobi

Big ticket items unaccounted for in the HR811 technoelection bill

Executive Summary

HR811 is being sold to the American people as a "paper trail" bill. But 811 (aka the Holt Bill) is nothing more than an e-voting vendor's dream. This bill cements the use of high tech, low democracy, equipment in our voting systems, protects the "rights" of private corporate interests to "count" our votes using proprietary, trade secret software, so that only they and the White House know how or if our votes are being counted at all.

HR811 , of which NH Congressman Paul Hodes is a sponsor, also has several big ticket items that have not been adequately budgeted for in its $1BIL appropriation. The costs of this bill to NH property tax payers will be unacceptably high, taking money from our cities and towns that could be used for other, more important things, rather than to support an e-voting industry that has proven itself time and again to be corrupt, and which, in any reasonable analysis, has no place in the running of democratic elections.

These costs are defined in detail below, but the summary is found here.

Removal of Safe Harbor

Wikipedia defines safe harbor as

From Joan Brunwasser:

Action Alert!  Here's how you can just say "NO!" to HR 811 and why

The House of Representatives is poised to vote on NJ Rep. Holt's "election reform" bill (HR 811), perhaps as early as tomorrow,Thursday.  Organizations ordinarily aligned with the common good have pulled out all the stops to ram this legislation through.  Unless - and maybe even though -  we make a LOT of noise, this bill will become law and our elections will take more irrevocable steps away from democracy. 

If you doubt this, read Miller's expose below -complete with quotes from Holt and his legislative aide, Michelle Mulder-  as well as an action alert put out by VoteRescue.

Here's everything you need, in a nutshell:  information about HR 811 and contact info for your member of Congress:

Here's how you call (no time to write)  your Congressional Rep.:  Contacting the Congress