(Senate State and Local Governmental Operation). When activists for a voter verified paper audit trail were trying to get it added to the Diebold Election System before the 2004 General Election, there was a Republican bill, SB500, that was sponsored by Tom Price (who has gone on to win a seat in the US House) that came before the committee session before last .
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/sum/sb500.htm. Activists had been trying to get Democrats to support a bill in the 2004-05 legislative session, since they controlled the House at the time and had the power to get something done. There were at least three Dems sitting on the SLOGO committee, Reid being one of them. None of them would take phone calls or talk to activists to discuss SB500 and they all refused to help get VVPAT passed.
The bill passed through that committee and passed in the Senate, because the Republicans voted for it, but was killed in the House Governmental Affairs Committee (where Alan Powell and other Democrats sat and ignored literally hundreds of phone calls, faxes and emails from Georgia voters begging them to support the bill.
The bill wasn't a good one, but it was a stopgap measure as the only hope to get some kind of paper trail before the 2004 election, so progressive activists were supporting it.
Cathy Cox, the SOS, led the fight to defeat SB500, and on several occasions I witnessed her giving the public and legislators misleading information in order to defeat it.
It is good for Democrats to stick together, but playing politics with our right to vote and have our vote counted is taking political games and one-upsmanship too far, especially because the Dems are harming themselves by protecting this seriously flawed voting system.
Tge issue has been a political football in Georgia with Cox (who bought the system) leading the Dems in opposition to fixing it (or even admitting it is fatally flawed) and Republicans supporting it to get even with Cox and the Dems but not really supporting it by actually fixing the system. After all, they passed up the opportunity to do so in the last legislative session, where they had the power since they now control the House and Senate, and where a number of bills were dropped, and one great piece of legislation, the Vote Count Protection Act (voterchoice.org) couldn't even get a sponsor.
Karla Drenner was going to introduce the VCPA, but withdrew support, probably because she got the word that the Dems were to support the Vince Fort Bill (SB222).
Sadly, SB222 was an almost exact revival of Price's SB500, only now it was sponsored by Dems (and favored by Cox) who opposed and killed it the year before. The bill still has all the flaws SB500 had, including the paper record not being the official ballot and the language about the "permanent paper record" being too ambiguous (much like the current HAVA language on a paper audit trail), so it isn't a bill that will fix the voting system, and now that the 2004 elections have come and gone, to have the Democrats revive that bill can only mean that they do not understand what is wrong with the system and what needs to be done to fix it.
When SB222 was dropped I could swear that it had language that would delay implementation until after EAC/HAVA recommendations had been made, but I see now online where that language was changed to "This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2005."
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/sum/sb222.htm. The other language looked something like the following, which was introduced as an amendment to SB 500 by Hooks in :
"Senators Hooks of the 14th, Tanksley of the 32nd, Harbison of the 15th, Clay of the 37th, Thomas of the 10th, Starr of the 44th and others offered the following amendment: . . .
"Nothing in this Act shall be effective until such time as the federal Election Assistance Commission develops and adopts new voting equipment standards to govern the design of a voter verifiable paper record of a ballot for direct recording electronic voting systems and its use by all voters, including voters with disabilities, and until such time as the United States Congress appropriates adequate funds to pay for the addition of such voter verifiable paper record enhancement to Georgia´s direct recording electronic voting systems."
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/versions/sb500_Floor_amend_1_AM_28__6.htmWe as Georgia voters must hold each and every Democrat in the Georgia legislature responsible when they oppose having an auditible, transparent, secure voting system, making sure that they know they must get on board to secure our voting system, and suspend the political games for this issue or we will not support them in any way shape or form.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(124 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
