Richard WarnickBan Paperless Voting
This is important. Our elected representatives need to get behind H.R. 811, the “Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2007.” This bill is sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), has 216 co-sponsors and stands an excellent chance of passing the House of Representatives.
H.R.811 (PDF)
Title: To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent paper ballot under title III of such Act, and for other purposes.
As we have seen, HAVA caused a headlong rush to purchase electronic voting systems without at the same time mandating meaningful security requirements for such systems. Utah fell victim to this, buying unreliable, easily hackable Diebold direct recording electronic (DRE) machines. Voters were forced to submit paper ballots by mail to avoid the risk of inaccurate or possibly fraudulent vote counting in a faith-based election. The system was so poorly designed that real recounts weren’t available in close races.
H.R. 811 will do the following:
1. Replace all paperless digital recording electronic (DRE) voting systems by 2008 with optical scan paper ballot systems (optical scan paper ballot systems are the only voting systems that currently meet H.R. 811’s requirements for durable paper ballots that do not violate voter privacy).
2. Require, for the first time in history, nationwide independent audits of all federal election outcomes beginning in 2008.
3. More than sufficiently fund the independent audits and replacement of voting systems.
4. Require replacement of all DREs using flimsy voter verifiable paper rolls which violate voter anonymity, by the 2010 election so that if local election officials responsibly purchase economical, fully auditable voting systems, or if vendors do not develop new DRE equipment which print durable, separate, paper ballots by 2010, then ALL jurisdictions will be using paper ballot optical scan voting systems by 2010.
Read a fact sheet (PDF) from Kathy Dopp.
More about H.R. 811 from Real History Blog.
UPDATE: Rep. Jim Matheson is a co-sponsor of H.R. 811. Credit where credit is due.
UPDATE: Brad Friedman of BradBlog wants the bill to be strengthened to ban all DRE machines in time for the 2008 election, not just the paperless ones.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I have to disagree. This is the last ditch effort of people who don’t really trust us to vote, (the entire congress), passing a bill to make us think we are having our votes counted. I’ve been following this issue more closely then any other for the last four years and I can’t understand why Americans have to have their one chance to affect change and participate in peaceful transition of government rely on a computer chip.
I’ve been counting on Rush Holt to bring democratic voting back to America for many years. This compromise is not going to help. Kathy Dopp has been the only one in Utah keeping the issue alive at all and I give me heartfelt thanks for that, but I’m tired of taking what I can get when it comes to voting.
I’m betting my hopes will once again be dashed because of the huge support the bill is garnering from all of the trusted organizations like Move On, PFAW, ect. These organizations have done absolutely nothing but try to keep the issue out of the conversation and I’m having big trouble with their coming in to save the day now.
There is only one place to go if you want to try and find the truth about election fraud and that place is The Brad Blog. Here is the latest post from the owner of that blog, Brad Friedman, considering this bill. I’ve been reading everything he has to say about this for a long time and find his opinion to be impeccable.
I would even go further then Brad, and say that we should scrap the entire system and go back to hand marked - hand counted ballots. This could be easily achieved by having a mandatory holiday on election day and requiring everybody to be involved in either counting or observing the election. There is more then enough time to implement this action. Brad doesn’t think this would be possible and I have to admit, he is THE expert on the matter. When he says, this bill could be made better, believe him.
If this bill passes, the people of Utah will still be unable to have a clue as to how their votes are being counted, just as they have been since the punch card system was introduced many years ago.
Nobody can give me a single reason why we should allow the corporations who have been selling us these pieces of crap they call voting machines another dime!
June 7th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
As for Beverly Harris:
She is above my level. I will state what I still believe to be the truth about her. I told the Utah State “Voting Equipment Selection Committee” at their first public meeting, (which they reluctantly held, because they didn’t want to cast any negative aspersions on our manifesto destiny?), that I didn’t know if they knew who she was, but they would.
Do you think they know who she is now?
Any responses?
June 7th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I’m ready!
June 8th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Larry, you’re ready and I’m proud to have this little ‘virtual’ association with you, but what about the million others who see themselves as powerless, and by so seeing, ARE? What about the senators, presidents, and appointees who won’t hear our calls or read our letters? Thier phones need to be ringing much more frequently.What about the media, which paints it as though all this wacky, corrupt policy was just Gods plan for our planet?
Our bretheren, who won’t do squat for the direction of our nation because they feel powerlesssince God put the right group in charge already, are NUTS! Insane! Everybody needs to get over the helplessness, write AND call thier representatives regularly, and find other sources of information regarding issuse of importance to us. The mainstream Media just isn’t reliable, fair or balanced despite what they claim.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Larry, thanks for the Brad Blog link. I agree that a total ban on DREs would be a good thing, however it might be hard to implement in time for the 2008 election. We’ll have to vote by mail again, which is easier anyway. If you sign up, the county clerk will automatically mail you a ballot for every election that you can fill out at your convenience.
June 8th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Caveat:
Of course our elected leaders always send us letters to convince us they are concerned about our opinions and then do everything they can to ignore us, but it still helps to bug them as much as possible. It’s frustrating though. They act like they’re living on another planet when the subject of corrupt voting machine vendors comes up. The policy in Washington seems to be, see no evil, hear no evil, when any corporation is challenged.
June 8th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Richard:
Brad Blog has an absolute plethora of astonishing stories about how strangely all of these machines, (and the people pimping them), act. Of course the banking machines are perfect at counting, and why shouldn’t they be, counting money and votes is the simplest thing a computer can do, but you’d think two year olds were programming these things that insure our democracy.
Brad’s blog is great because of his wonderful ability to explain things related to this issue and refute the trolls. The blog is just swarming with the most diabolical and, frankly, intelligent trolls on the internet and they can’t ever get anything over on Brad. I don’t know how he finds the time to do everything he does, and I’m sure he doesn’t make a living out of it. Over the last year or so he has had a few famous writers and politicians show up including Rush Holt. They usually get scared off by the posters who attack them for not doing anything for so long. It’s hard to hold back when you finally get to give somebody a piece of your mind on something like the ignorance revolving around this issue.