A new chance for honest elections - petition

[msgadget]

Just received this email:

For two years, TrueMajority members have been leading the fight for honest, accountable ballot technology in American elections. The "Computer Ate My Vote" campaign has generated hundreds of thousands of messages, letters to the editor, and news stories. Now, the tide is turning toward victory.

Twenty-seven states now require voter-verified paper trails to ensure an accurate recount if there is a question about the outcome of an election. In Congress, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced legislation (HR 550 — The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act) that has the bipartisan support of more than one-third of the House of Representatives and has been called the "gold standard" by good-government groups across the country.

To sign the petition to make sure your representatives support HR 550 and voter-verified paper ballots, click here: http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/supportHR550

Text of petition:

On September 19, 2005, the Commission on Federal Election Reform co-chaired by President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker issued its Final Report. The Report, among other things, called on Congress to enact legislation requiring both a voter verified paper ballot of every vote and routine random audits to check the accuracy of electronic voting.

Voting integrity activists who have been championing this cause for several years are pleased that the Commission confirmed the need for this critical security measure. However, the report also recommends that the status of the voter verified paper ballot should be determined by states rather than mandated as the ballot of record nationwide. This means that any individual state can decide to disregard the only record that the voter has confirmed in favor of the record inside the electronic machine and make the voter verified paper ballot a meaningless and expensive placebo. In addition, the report suggests that pre-election machine "audits" may also be acceptable. Such audits would constitute simply another pre-election machine test, and should not be confused with meaningful independent audits of actual election results.

Rep. Rush Holt's Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act (HR 550) will, however, mandate an effective and meaningful voter-verified paper record and independent audit requirements. It already has the bipartisan support of 1/3 of the House of Representatives, and has been endorsed by VoteTrustUSA and VerifiedVoting.org as the "gold standard" in verifiability legislation. Not only would it mandate a voter verified paper record for every vote cast, it would also:

(1) establish a mandatory uniform national standard that states that the voter verified paper ballot -- the only record verified by the voter rather than the voting machine -- is the vote of record in the case of any inconsistency with electronic records;

(2) provide Federal funding to pay for implementation of voter verified paper balloting;

(3) require a percentage of mandatory manual (by hand count) random audits of actual election results in every state, and in each county, for every Federal election;

(4) prohibit the use at any time of undisclosed software, wireless communication devices, and internet connections in voting machines;

(5) require full implementation by 2006; and

(6) protect the accessibility mandates of the Help America Vote Act.

The language in this bill was carefully written with input from computer scientists, disabilities organizations, and election reform advocates. It should be passed as written and in time to protect the 2006 elections.

There are many politically contentious election reform issues mentioned in the report but making sure that votes are counted accurately is not one of them. Elections are the foundation of a representative democracy, and representative democracy lives or dies based on the integrity of its elections. HR 550 will help restore voters' confidence and ensure the accuracy and integrity of America's elections.

We urge you to pass HR 550 as written immediately.

[Peace Patriot]

1. HR 550 is a very good bill that will help restore democracy in this

country, and, since Tom Delay won't be there to HACK IT to pieces (...ahem), maybe it could get through Congress in its present form. But there IS a danger that a Bushite Congress will amend it and make things worse, not better.

I have more faith in the big grass roots movement that has developed to tackle this Priority One problem in state/local jurisdictions where ordinary people and common sense still have some influence.

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Resources for American Revolution II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org--just announced--is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

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More resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

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Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

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"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[msgadget]

2. Grass roots all the way, baby

But I sign petitions like this anyway, just in case. Keep fighting the good fight! :patriot: