We have to get HR 2239 out of committe and on the floor

[DagmarK]

**apparently, petitions and letter writing and phone calls to reps isn't gonna get it done.

**Getting auditable paper trails in our machines is THE single most important activist work we will do. Cause without auditable paper trails, nothing else we do will matter come Nov 2004.



Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) introduced a bill, H.R. 2239, in May to amend HAVA to require computerized voting machines to provide voter-verified audit trails. So far, his bill has 26 sponsors and it's unlikely to get out of the Committee on House Administration.

"As the computer scientists at Johns Hopkins recently reported, these new machines are vulnerable to massive fraud," Holt said in a statement. "Unless Congress acts to pass legislation that would make sure that all computer voting machines have a paper record that voters can verify when they cast their ballots, voters and election officials will have no way of knowing whether the computers are counting votes properly."

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59874-2,00.html

[Vadem]

1. Well, I did one small part in the battle...

I received the usual fundraising letter from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; instead of sending a check, I printed out Cong. Rush Holt's bill, H.R.2239, along with some BVV information, and sent that back to them in their envelope, with a note telling them that when all the Dems in the House signed on as co-sponsor of the bill and also demanded voter-verified audit trails from the touch screens, then they should get back to me and I would be more than happy to donate. I plan to do the same for the Senate Campaign Committee letter when it arrives.

[MoonGod]

3. Good move... I did my bit today...

... in my speech class, gave a speech on BBV.

Unfortunately, it wasn't my best speech... just wasn't "on" today.

[Vadem]

2. Well, I did one small thing in the battle...

I received the usual fundraising letter from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; instead of sending a check, I printed out Cong. Rush Holt's bill, H.R.2239, along with some BVV information, and sent that back to them in their envelope, with a note telling them that when all the Dems in the House signed on as co-sponsor of the bill and also demanded voter-verified audit trails from the touch screens, then they should get back to me and I would be more than happy to donate. I plan to do the same for the Senate Campaign Committee letter when it arrives.

[Vadem]

4. Kick for the night crew for ideas on how to...

accomplish this.

:kick:

[Stephanie]

5. What's the process?

Why won't it get out of committee? 26 sponsors isn't enough?

[MoonGod]

6. Apparently not...

... but heck, DK's Dep't of Peace proposal has quite a few more sponsors than that, IIRC.

I think what it needs is massive publicity, which means instead of petititions, letters, and phone calls to reps... we need to be making petititions, letters, and phone calls to the media.

Write letters to the editor, etc. Find any excuse you can to mention this story.

And contact NOW w/Bill Moyers. He has made a point of "taking requests" in the past. If we get enough contacts into him about this, he'll feel compelled to check it out. Unfortunately, NOW is off the air for the next 2 weeks, but it's still worth contacting the show: http://www.pbs.org/now/feedback.html

Finally, as a side note, I went to visit my g/f's father at the retirement home where he lives earlier today... and when I sat down with him, I noticed that he had The Daily News (The San Fernando Valley's conservative rag) opened to a big story that covered most of a page... on the BBV issue.

So this *is* getting out there. An 86-yr-old man who barely has any idea what the internet even is was reading about it in the local paper.