Holt Bill: Yes; Conyers Bill: No ?

[Moses]

1) The Holt does not have a companion bill in the Senate yet. I don't know if it will.

2) The Ensign bill, which dropped yesterday in the Senate and should have a number by tomorrow, will pretty definitely have a House companion.

2) The Conyers bill is the almost-companion bill to Dodd's bill in the
Senate, NOT to Clinton's. Unfortunately, like the Dodd bill it started
from, the Conyers bill does NOT have full voter-verified paper audit trail, and is not getting endorsements by VVPAT/VVPB groups. Conyers' staff tried to improve on Dodd's bill, but apparently not in this area. I personally am incredibly disappointed. But it wasn't going to pass anyway.

3) The Clinton-Boxer bill may very well have VVPAT/VVPB, it is under analysis. It does not have a companion in the House. Check the link below for analysis when it comes out.

You can get ongoing updates and excellent quick overviews and links from:

www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?list=type&type=13


Cheers, N.

[Moses]

I think we need to analyze these bills carefully. For example, I've
been told this year's Holt bill might not be the same as last year's.
We need to be sure any changes are really improvements.


S.K.

[Moses]

Ensign, who counts four Democrats and three Republicans as co-sponsors of the bill, noted that Nevada required a voter-verified paper trail during the 2004 presidential election. "Not only did our election go off without a hitch, but voters across Nevada left the polls with the knowledge that their vote would be counted and that their vote would be counted accurately," Ensign said in a statement. "Every American should have that same confidence."

A voter-verified paper trail would allow voters to review a printout of their ballots and correct any errors before leaving the voting booth. The printout would stay at the polling place for use in any recounts.

The goal of the new legislation is to correct some states' misinterpretations of the Help America Vote Act -- that printouts are necessary only after polls are closed, Ensign said. Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

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Source:  ComputerWorld - www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legislation/story/0,10801,99633,00.html
_______________________________________________

[Moses]

The following action alert on national legislation is from VerifiedVoting.org.

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 <br>We need your help TODAY, to lobby for federal legislation requiring voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs).

While you are reading this, many states, counties, and towns are rushing to buy unreliable, unverifiable paperless touchscreen voting machines. They are poised to spend more than a billion dollars of taxpayer funds on machines that cannot provide a reliable recount or an accurate audit. Unless you act now, tens of thousands of these paperless e-voting machines will be coming to precincts across the country within the next few months.

Voter-verified paper ballots make it possible for voters to verify their votes are recorded as intended and for election officials to conduct meaningful recounts and audits. VVPBs also make it possible to recover from e-voting machine malfunctions, such as those experienced last year in California, Georgia, North Carolina, and elsewhere, without having to re-run a costly election from scratch.

ONLY a law requiring VVPBs will halt the ongoing purchase of paperless e-voting machines nationwide.

Take action:

Urge your senators to co-sponsor of Senator Ensign's "Voting Integrity and Verification Act" (VIVA, S.330).

Please ACT NOW to be heard on this important issue, visit our Action Center today at democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/vevo/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=388

Thank you,

Will Doherty
Executive Director
VerifiedVoting.org

[Moses]

The following message about legislation on the House side of Congress is from VerifiedVoting.org.  This bill is identical to the Ensign Senate bill S. 330.  VerifiedVoting.org
supports this bill and Rep. Holt's bill H.R. 550.  To get a good overview of all of the national legislation, go to:
 <br>http://www.verifiedvoting.org/article.php?list=type&type=43
 <br>

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 <br>You have recently heard from us regarding a new federal bill in the Senate requiring voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs). We ask for your help again in passing the House version of this essential legislation (the companion bill to S. 330).

While you are reading this, many states, counties, and towns are rushing to buy unreliable, unverifiable paperless touchscreen voting machines. They are poised to spend more than a billion dollars of taxpayer funds on machines that cannot provide a reliable recount or an accurate audit. Unless you act now, tens of thousands of these paperless e-voting machines will be coming to precincts across the country within the next few months.

Voter-verified paper ballots make it possible for voters to verify their votes are recorded as intended and for election officials to conduct meaningful recounts and audits. VVPBs also make it possible to recover from e-voting machine malfunctions, such as those experienced last year in California, Georgia, North Carolina, and elsewhere, without having to re-run a costly election from scratch.

ONLY a law requiring VVPBs will halt the ongoing purchase of paperless e-voting machines nationwide.

Take action:

Urge your representative to co-sponsor Representative Gibbons' "Voting Integrity and Verification Act" (VIVA, H.R. 704).

Please ACT NOW to be heard on this important issue, visit our Action Center today at democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/vevo/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=395

Thank you,

Will Doherty
Executive Director
VerifiedVoting.org

[Moses]

February 22, 2005
EDITORIAL

Tackling Election Reform

After a second consecutive presidential election marred by significant flaws in the mechanics of voting, it's time for Congress to take a hard look at fixing the system. Two Senate bills aim to do that. A Republican-sponsored bill is narrowly tailored around making electronic voting more reliable. A more ambitious bill, sponsored by the Democrats, would take on a broad array of problems, from long lines at the polls to odious maneuvers aimed at keeping people from voting. Both bills would greatly improve the functioning of American democracy.

The Republican bill, introduced by Senator John Ensign of Nevada, would focus on the most critical weakness in the system by requiring that electronic voting machines produce voter-verifiable paper records of the votes cast. The paper records would take precedence when there were inconsistencies.

Mr. Ensign's bill does not go as far as another paper-trail bill that has been introduced in the House by Representative Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat. That bill is preferable because it includes other safeguards, like requiring an audit of some paper records as a spot-check for the electronic totals. Still, Mr. Ensign's bill would be a good step, and its Republican sponsorship and narrow focus could give it real momentum in this Congress.

The Democratic Senate bill, introduced last week by Senators Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry and Frank Lautenberg, is now the gold standard for election reform. It would require not only paper records, but recounts in 2 percent of all polling places or precincts, and restrictions on political activity by voting machine manufacturers.

The bill would also take on lines at the polls - which stretched up to 10 hours this year - by requiring standards for the minimum number of voting machines per precinct. It would limit the states' ability to throw out voter registration forms and provisional ballots on technicalities, and prevent them from using onerous identification requirements to turn away eligible voters. And it would strike a blow against vote suppression by outlawing the use of deception - like fliers giving the wrong date for a election - to keep people from voting.

Some important big-picture reforms would also be made by that Democratic Senate bill. It would make Election Day a holiday, freeing up people to vote and serve as poll workers, and it would require states to allow early voting. It would bar chief election officials, including secretaries of state, from engaging in partisan politics. And it would require states to restore the vote to felons who have paid their debts to society; many of them are now barred from voting.

Election reform should not be a partisan issue. No member of Congress should be satisfied with a system in which voters are forced to wait in line for hours or to vote on unreliable machines. Americans from across the political spectrum were moved to see Iraqi voters going to the polls last month. Congress should take that idealism and direct it toward making our own election system the best it can be.