Common Cause fanning out for HR550 THIS WEEK

[annabanana]

Just received email looking for support:

"In less than a week, we will be hosting and training hundreds of citizen activists who are coming to Washington, DC, to lobby for HR 550, federal legislation which will require that all voting systems produce a voter-verified paper ballot that can be audited. They will be fanning out across Capitol Hill to meet with Members of Congress and their staff to demand that all citizens be able to vote on trustworthy voting systems.

Every day brings new stories of voting machine malfunctions and election officials' mishandling of their relationships with vendors and partisans. The recent March 2006 elections in Illinois were marred by extensive problems with voting machines, and in Texas they had these problems:

In Tarrant County, Texas, a computer programming error counted some votes multiple times and boosted the final tally in both party primaries by as much as 100,000 votes.1


In Tom Green County, Texas, election officials suspended a recount after workers found discrepancies between new counts and tallies turned in election night.

We can't afford to have electronic voting machines with no paper record to serve as a back up in these types of voting malfunction cases. Please help us press this Congress to change the situation.

Representative Rush Holt has pushed hard on his bill, HR 550, but he needs our help. As you know, in the 2004 presidential election, approximately 25% of U.S. voters cast their votes on electronic touch screen voting machines - without being able to verify that their votes were recorded accurately. We need to pass this bill now.

Help support election reform and your fellow citizen activists coming to Washington, DC, with a contribution of $100, $50, or whatever you can. Your help today will make it all the more worthwhile.

http://www.commoncause.org/SupportElectionReform

Thank you for all you do for Common Cause."

[MasonJar]

1. I donated and in a little while I will call my unresponsive rep. She

will never vote for it, being an a__ and a Pug. However, I will remind her of her up and coming election. There is no reason that anyone could use to oppose a paper trail. So it should become an election issue.

[Land Shark]

2. Common Cause's emails are, regrettably, suggesting that changes

can be made by 2006 election. This is unlikely to say the least, IMHO. Perhaps in a minority of jurisdictions, and only if passed prior to the end of May.