Restore the Audit Requirements in HR5036 (Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008)

Your phone calls are needed NOW to members of the US House of Representatives. A substitute amendment to Rep Russ Holt's “Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008” (HR 5036) substantially gutted the bill's original auditing provisions and replaced them with provisions that do next to nothing to ensure the accuracy of unofficial election results. This substitute bill passed out of the House Committee on House Administration on April 2th.

Your call is needed because these important auditing requirements must be restored to the bill. Only with required audits can we be assured that reported election results match the voice of the voters.

Among the problems with the substitute amendment is that the original 3% audit requirement has been reduced to only 2%. The original 3% was regarded by many in the election integrity community as being too low. The amendment would take it lower still.

Another problem is that the amended bill allows those precincts to be audited to be chosen before the vote counting and release of results in all precincts. Knowing in advance of release of the vote counts allows for the easy manipulation of vote counting in all those precincts not to be audited.

The message must be "There cannot be valid election audits without a requirement for the public release of a report of all the machine-counted vote counts which might be selected for audit 'before' making the random selections of such vote counts to manually audit."

The message must be "restore the original audit requirements."

Note that the Alliance for Democracy does not oppose this bill. It has many fine qualities; however, the audit requirements must be returned to the strong requirements of the original bill in order to have audits which provide assurance that election counts are accurate.

For additional perspectives, see this article on Truthout.org

Read more...

The new Holt Bill: watch for an action alert

The new version of the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act", otherwise known as the Holt Bill, will be introduced by Rep. Rush Holt tomorrow, January 17. The new version, entitled "The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act", will be assigned to committee and can be put up for a House vote as soon as the committee mark-up of the bill is complete.

Look for an e-mail alert in the next few days--we'll be outlining our response to the bill and asking you to call your members of Congress to ensure that your vote is recorded and counted accurately.

Read more...

AfD Alert: Tell the House to Vote No on H.R. 811

The Alliance for Democracy
Alert--Tuesday, September 4, 2007

HR 811 comes to a House vote Wednesday, September 5--tell your Representative to vote NO!

This Wednesday the House of Representatives is expected to vote on H.R. 811.

The original purpose of the bill was to provide a paper trail for the 2008 election. However, the bill has been so rewritten that it is unrecognizable to the experts originally consulted.

Because it requires a computerized text conversion device in every polling place, H.R. 811 would effectively rule out handcounted paper ballots, or non-computerized voter assistive devices that are accessible, less costly, and that avoid computerized vote counting. These text conversion devices represent an under-funded mandate for states, and a windfall for the e-voting industry.

The bill also gives the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), composed of four White House appointees, responsibility for setting specifications for all voting equipment - DRE and paper ballots - in every state, as well as vote-counting and recount procedures. None of the states will be able to legislate their own security requirements if this bill passes, and progress on the state level barring the use of electronic voting machines will be undone.

Not surprisingly, H.R. 811 is opposed by the National Association of Counties, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Association of Secretaries of State.

For a more detailed description of the EAC's proposed powers, go to http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_nancy_to_070831_eac_for_dummies.htm
written by Nancy Tobi, who has been following the EAC since it was set up in 2002. For additional info and talking points, see "This Week's Actions" at Election Defense Alliance's website, www.electiondefensealliance.org

Please Call!
Take a few moments and phone or fax your Representative in Congress and tell them to vote against H.R. 811. If you don't know your Representative's number, call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

---

Read more...